by Margaret Kay
“When you offered to hook me up with someone, I wouldn’t have guessed it would be you,” she said, rolling onto her side so that her head angled over his.
“It shouldn’t be,” he replied, fingering one of her soft ringlets.
“Yes, what about that no fraternization clause?”
“Precedence was already set when Jackson got together with Angel while she was in our custody. No reprimand occurred then, so no reprimand will take place for this, I’m sure,” Cooper said, hoping that would be the case. “As a matter of fact, Shepherd gave the bride away at their wedding and paid for their honeymoon in Aruba.”
“That was generous,” Madison said.
Cooper chuckled. “He has a real soft-spot for Angel.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“Shepherd and Angel went through hell together when the shit hit the fan.”
“The mission report is sealed.”
“Yeah,” Cooper said. “For Angel’s privacy.”
“I won’t ask.”
“It’s Angel’s story to tell, not mine. You’ve gotten pretty close with her. I’m surprised she hasn’t told you.”
“I haven’t asked her anything about her history with the team or her past. It’s apparent she and Jackson really love each other. Her face actually lights up when she sees him or speaks about him. That’s all that matters.”
“I can’t say if I’m built for what they have, but I’m loyal. That is one thing I can guarantee you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Madison, I’ve been attracted to you in every way imaginable since I met you. I did everything I could to prevent myself from acting on those feelings, but now that I have, I won’t be with anyone else.”
“So, your massage therapist?”
“Fired,” he said. “You can have that job if you want it.”
“And the male massage therapist you wanted to introduce me to?”
Cooper growled. “That job is filled, by me.”
Madison giggled. “Filled quite nicely, I’d say. But, Cooper, we didn’t use a condom.”
Cooper kissed her again. “We’re both clean, monthly tests with Doc. And I know you can’t get pregnant. Doc verified he administered the birth control shot.” Doubt played over her features. “Madison, I haven’t been with anyone in forever without a condom. What we have is different, is special. I don’t want it between us. I want this to be different from every other time over the last, I don’t even know how many years.”
“What about the no fraternization clause?” She mumbled.
“We already broke it.”
“So, you want this to be a continuing thing?” She asked.
For a second Cooper thought that meant she didn’t want to have an ongoing relationship, but then that beautiful smile of hers assured him that she did too. He rolled her to her back and settled his legs between hers. “You better believe it, Blondie.” And then he made love to her again, several times throughout the evening and again in the morning when they woke.
Uniform
Cooper reported to Shepherd’s office first thing the next morning. He stood at attention before Shepherd’s desk, something he had not done in private in more years than he could remember. “Shepherd, I am here to report a breech in protocol.”
“What kind of breech?” Shepherd’s hard stare probed Cooper’s eyes.
“Fraternization,” Cooper reported.
“No, don’t tell me,” Shepherd moaned.
“Yes, sir,” Cooper barked in military fashion.
“Fuck,” Shepherd growled. He ran his hand through his hair. “Ops reported your tracker at Miller’s house all night, last night.”
Cooper nodded.
“I wouldn’t have asked.”
“I know. And I wouldn’t keep something like this from you.”
“I know,” Shepherd said followed by a few, well-chosen curses. “How does this play out Cooper?”
“I immediately need to be replaced as her SO.”
“Tell me something I don’t already fucking know,” Shepherd barked. “Was that a onetime thing?”
“I don’t believe so.” A smile spread over his face. “Or I guess I should say, I hope not.”
Shepherd slammed his fist against his desk and then he scrubbed his hand down his face. “I told you not to fuck this up.”
“Yes, sir,” Cooper said.
Shepherd’s hand flew out, a finger pointed to the guest chair in front of his desk. After Cooper sat, he spoke in short, clipped words. “You told me you didn’t trust anyone else to work that closely with her. How in the fuck did this happen?”
Cooper shook his head. “It wasn’t intentional. I did everything I could to avoid sleeping with her.”
Shepherd let out an exasperated sigh. “John, you’re the last person I would ever expect would break any reg. You know damn well why this no fraternization policy is in place.”
Cooper nodded. “Sometimes you just can’t help how you feel and can only keep yourself from acting on it for so long. Shep, I’m sorry. If you want me to resign I will.”
“No, I don’t want you to fucking resign!”
“Do you want Madison to resign?” Cooper hoped that wasn’t the case.
Shepherd stared hard at him. He massaged the bridge of his nose. “No, I don’t want Miller to resign either. She’s good and she fits on this team well.”
Cooper ran his hand over his face. “Shep, I finally understand why Jackson got together with Angel. I didn’t up till last night. I thought he was being reckless and selfish. Shit! I thought he was being a fucking idiot. But I get it now.”
“That makes one of us,” Shepherd grumbled. “Can you keep it from interfering?”
Cooper nodded his head yes. “I can, even if we’re operating on the same case. At work, no one will have even an inkling.”
Shepherd nodded. “Keep it that way. I do expect no one but the four of us to know.”
Cooper’s eyes showed his confusion. Four? Finally, it dawned on him. “Lassiter?”
“Yeah, get an appointment with him today. And get Miller in here ASAP. Tell her to just knock and enter.”
Cooper rose and headed for the door. He had just been dismissed.
“And John, don’t you ever stand at attention before me when we are alone again.”
Cooper smiled at the still closed door in front of him. “Yes, sir.” He heard Shepherd’s scoff at his formal address, his desired reaction. He knew everything between him and Shepherd would be fine.
Madison took a deep breath and knocked on Shepherd’s door, opened it and entered as Cooper had told her to. She crossed the room as confidently as she could muster. Cooper guaranteed her she wouldn’t be fired, but she wasn’t so sure. She felt like she was fifteen again, standing before the vice-principle after getting in trouble for kissing in the hallway at school. Had she learned nothing in the past seventeen years?
“Miller, I am now your SO and I’m sure you know why.”
Madison came to attention. “Yes, sir.”
Shepherd grabbed his head between fingers that pinched his temples. “Sit.”
Madison poised herself on the edge of the guest chair in front of Shepherd’s desk staring at him, sure he was mad enough that paralysis or not he would jump up and start screaming at her at any moment. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t!” He blew out a frustrated breath and then his dark eyes bore into hers. “Are you sorry you slept with him?”
Madison knew she’d answer honestly, but that didn’t stop the few seconds of indecision before her lips formed the answer. “No sir, I’m not.”
“Then don’t apologize.”
He stared at her in silence for several unnerving seconds. She rolled around in her head what she should say, but wasn’t sure what she could say, so she said nothing. She disobeyed a rule she had agreed to follow. Period. She was in the wrong and she very well could lose her job because of it. Her stomach rolled, and she felt li
ke she was going to throw up.
“Cooper said it would not be a onetime thing. Are you on the same page?”
A smile spread over Madison’s lips. “Yes sir. I’m on the same page.”
He again stared at her with expectancy.
“If you want me to resign,” she began, but he interrupted her midsentence.
“I don’t want you to resign.” His voice was gruff. “Can you have this relationship and keep it separate, do your job and not let it interfere?”
Madison’s heart was beating so fast. “Yes sir, I can.”
“Stop calling me sir. John Cooper is like a brother to me, an equal. When he stood before me this morning to confess this sin he stood at attention, like a damn subordinate. That pissed me off.”
Madison was not sure where he was going with this or why he was sharing this with her. She was even more nervous now. Was Cooper losing his job? “I don’t understand.”
“Miller, Madison,” his voice softened, “John has always followed every single rule. It’s in his character. There is no gray where the rules are concerned for John Cooper. He broke this one, which he didn’t do lightly. You better have the same feelings for him that he does you. Do you understand the gravity of this?”
For the first time Madison understood this was more for Cooper than she realized. “I respect his incredibly strong moral compass. I would never have been a party to compromising his integrity without the same feelings.”
Shepherd laughed aloud. “Jesus Christ! You speak about it in almost operational terms.”
“I’m trying to be professional in dealing with this,” she said after several awkward moments.
“Professional went out the window when the two of you disobeyed the no fraternization clause you agreed to.”
She nodded nervously, that dread rising even higher. “What do you want me to do?”
Shepherd laughed sarcastically. “I have no fucking idea. We can’t change it happened, can’t change that an ongoing relationship will result.”
The seconds dragged into minutes as he stared an unreadable expression at her. She wanted to apologize again, wanted to say something, anything, but words didn’t come.
“Don’t fuck this up,” he finally said. “Angel and Jackson were the exception, I fully expect you and Cooper to be as well. Show me this can be done, a relationship that works while serving on the team together. And know from the start that if it ends and you can’t work together, you’ll be leaving the team.”
She nodded, silently rolling his words around in her head. Had they really just been given permission to continue their relationship?
“As of now, I am the only one who knows about this and as far as I’m concerned there is no one besides Lassiter who needs to know.”
“Lassiter?”
“Oh, yeah. You are both to make appointments with him today,” Shepherd ordered, and there was no doubt that it was a direct order.
“Yes, sir,” she replied without thinking.
His finger raised in between them, a silent warning to nip the ‘sir’ talk. “Do your damn job and keep it separate and we won’t have to have any further conversations about it. You got me?”
“I do, thank you.”
He pointed to the door dismissively.
Madison rose and stepped towards it. “As my SO, is there anything you want me to do differently?”
“No, carry on as you have in all ways. I’ll send meeting invites to your calendar when appropriate.”
Madison rushed through the empty hallway and went straight to Cooper’s office. The door was open, which she closed behind herself as she entered. Cooper came to her and took her into his arms, holding her securely.
“That was awful,” she whispered.
“He didn’t fire you, did he?”
“No, and I’m not sure, but I think he just gave us permission to continue our relationship,” Madison whispered.
“That’s exactly what he did, just as long as no one but Lassiter knows.”
“Why Lassiter?” She questioned.
She heard Cooper’s sexy chuckle and pulled herself away from him to gaze into his eyes.
“Of course, he wants us each to talk with Lassiter. This changes everything for us, how we interact, how we’ll react. Besides, Lassiter already knows that I have been fighting my attraction to you.”
“What?” She was mortified.
Cooper chuckled again. “He called me out on it after the Inverness Academy Op, the bastard.” He shook his head. “He knows me too well.”
“Oh, God,” Madison moaned.
“Hey, no second thoughts, darlin’,” Cooper said with that cocky smile of his. “No regrets, just us, together. You got me? As far as I’m concerned, we approach this as if we’ve done nothing wrong.”
“But we have. And we both know it.”
He lightly caressed over her cheek with the back of his hand. His other hand firmly ran over her back. Then he pulled her close and kissed her, one of those passionate kisses that left them both breathless when their lips separated.
“How could anything that feels like that be wrong? It may be against the no fraternization regs, but it can’t be wrong when you feel that much from just a kiss.”
Madison smiled and softly caressed over his face and jaw with her fingertips. She slid both hands up his face and stroked ever so gently over his temples and up his head, spearing his short hair. Her fingers trailed over his forehead and back down to his jaw.
Cooper groaned out his pleasure from her touch. Somehow, she managed to ease his tension even better than Elidia, his massage therapist fuck-buddy did. He opened his eyes. “You remembered,” he said softly. He placed a kiss on the tip of her nose. “More later. Stay at my place tonight?”
“Yes,” she replied without thinking about it. She stepped back. “I better go check in at the Ops Center.”
He nodded. “Remember, don’t answer the decoy line on your phone. If Diaz calls, we want him to leave a message.”
She nodded and then left.
The end of the day couldn’t come fast enough. Madison was very disappointed Diaz had not called to redeem that free massage. She was so sure he would. Maybe he was more cautious than that. The tracker she had planted on him still showed his location at the motel he’d been trailed to. He hadn’t even left to go get something to eat. He had food delivered for all his meals since he holed up in that room. What was he waiting for?
At eighteen-hundred hours Madison got a text from Cooper. “Are you ready to leave for the night?”
She texted back that she was.
His address was messaged next. “Pull into the parking garage, ninth floor. There is a spare parking spot marked with my unit number. I’ll meet you there.”
“I’ll be five minutes behind you,” she messaged.
Cooper was just getting out of his car with a pizza box in his hand when Madison pulled into the spot beside his car marked with his unit number, nine-twelve.
“Yum,” she said as she got out of her own car.
He wasn’t sure if her yum was directed at the pizza or at him. “Yum yourself.” He eyed her in a way that conveyed his approval, and with the smile that curved his lips there was no doubt the yum was how he felt about her.
She laughed as she got her bags out of her car and followed him through the door into the residence hallway. His unit was around a few corners. The hallway was well lit and decorated nicely. This was a new building in this trendy area of Arlington Heights’ downtown. It was walking distance to the train station. Many who commuted into Chicago, or just enjoyed convenient transportation into the city for shows, lived in this area.
His unit was near a stairwell. Right where she would choose to live too. He punched his code into the lock and motioned her in first. She stepped in, not sure what to expect, but found a beige and black formal living room with a large floor to ceiling window that overlooked the city. To the right was a glass dining table with a small kitchen behind it. T
o the left was the opening to a hallway.
Cooper sat the pizza box on the table. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back into his hard chest, nuzzling her cheek with his stubbled jaw.
“The view from up here is beautiful,” she said, pressing her body more firmly against his. The lights of the city were a spectacle to see.
“The view in here is pretty good too,” he whispered, and then pressed kisses to her cheek, her jaw, and then down her neck.