by Susan Stoker
“But if—”
“No ifs, ands, or buts about it, sweetheart. But if it makes you feel better, yes, I promise I’ll tell you straight up if I don’t think things are working out between us, so we can both move on with no hard feelings.”
Kiera sighed in relief, then nodded.
They stared at each other for a long moment before she asked, “How’s your head?”
“Better.”
She brought her hand up to his face and mirrored his hand placement, brushing her thumb against his cheek. “So…now what?”
“A kiss to seal the deal?”
Her lips twitched. “To SEAL the deal?”
He grinned. “Yeah.”
“I’d like that.”
Cooper’s head moved toward hers and Kiera held her breath. If asked, she never would’ve guessed this was how the night would’ve ended, especially not after seeing Cooper standing in a corner, his shields up, rebuffing anyone who tried to come near him.
Kiera closed her eyes and the second their bodies made contact, she swore she saw stars. His lips brushed hers tentatively once, then with more confidence a second time. Kiera tightened her grip on his neck and pulled him into her, telling him without words how much she liked his touch.
When Cooper’s tongue swiped along her bottom lip, she gasped, giving him the opening he’d obviously been waiting for. He used his hold on her to tilt her head to a better angle and he wasted no time delving inside her mouth.
He used his tongue as well as she imagined he handled a weapon—with pinpoint accuracy and confidence. He knew what he was doing…and Kiera could only hang on for the ride. He alternated between forceful thrusts, which mimicked what she so desperately wanted him to do to her body at a later date, and easy, soft caresses.
After several moments, he pulled back and nuzzled her nose with his own. Kiera opened her eyes and blinked up at him, licking her lips, tasting him on them. “So…now what?” she repeated.
Cooper smiled. “Now what? We date. Get to know each other. Flirt at your workplace. Steal kisses. You’ll continue to teach me to sign and I’ll treat you like you’re the most important thing in my life.”
“I have a feeling you’re not going to have any issues picking up sign language, if the last couple of weeks have been any indication,” Kiera told him. She’d been impressed with how quickly he’d been able to learn the basics, and knew with more time spent on it, he’d quickly become proficient.
Cooper leaned forward, kissed her once more—a closed-mouth kiss that still made her knees weak—and stood. “I have a good teacher. Come on, I’ll walk you to your car.”
With a smile, Kiera stood and they walked hand in hand to the parking lot.
The next morning, Cooper walked through the building he used to call his home at the Navy base. He nodded at some of the SEALs who were hanging around. He’d gotten to know some of them a lot better since his injury. He’d been afraid after he was medically retired that he’d never again have the kind of camaraderie he’d come to rely on from his team, but the men, and sometimes their wives, had been there throughout his recovery. They’d brought food, come to visit, and encouraged him to work out with them in the mornings.
A man with salt and pepper hair and a neatly trimmed mustache and beard, a former SEAL himself, sat at a desk outside Patrick Hurt’s office and lifted his chin as Cooper came toward him.
“Hey, Coop. Lookin’ good.”
“Thanks, Cutter. How’re things?”
“Can’t complain,” Slade “Cutter” Cutsinger responded. “Hurt’s waiting for you.”
Cooper only heard every other word the man said, but understood enough to get the gist. Patrick had invited him to the base for a meeting this morning. In the past, Cooper might’ve been upset with the man for continuing to want to butt into his life, but this morning, after kissing Kiera the night before and learning that she was open to going out with him, he was hard-pressed to be annoyed about anything.
He pushed open the door to his former commander’s office and stopped in his tracks. He’d expected Patrick to be alone, but instead there was another man already sitting in one of the chairs in front of the large desk. Cooper didn’t recognize him, but immediately knew he was either currently a Special Forces operative, or used to be. It wasn’t something he could explain to someone who wasn’t in their small circle. It just was.
His blond hair and blue eyes might lure some people into thinking he was a pretty boy, but they’d be wrong. It wasn’t just the wicked-looking scar on his face that destroyed the frat boy image, it was the lethalness that seemed to ooze from his pores.
Without thought, Cooper reached up to his left ear and pressed on his hearing aid. He felt it shift inside his ear canal, and he sighed in relief when he heard Hurt’s chair squeal as the man stood.
“Thanks for coming, Coop,” Hurt said.
Cooper concentrated on the other man’s lips, and that, along with the amplification of his hearing aid, was able to help him understand him. It was a relief. He instinctively wanted to be on top of his game with the stranger.
“No problem. What’s up?”
“I’d like you to meet a friend of mine. Axel Svenson…better known as Swede.”
Cooper turned to the other man and held out his hand. “Good to meet you.”
“Same,” Swede answered with a small smile on his face as he shook his hand.
“How do you know Hurt? You can’t be any older than me…I know you didn’t work on a team with him.”
Swede chuckled. “Nope. Knew of him from some SEAL buddies. When I hurt my leg and retired, he introduced me to Tex.”
Cooper knew about Tex. Hurt had introduced the other man to him as well. A former SEAL, Tex had lost his leg, and now helped Hurt—and probably a lot of other top-secret teams—with missions. He was a computer genius, and even though Cooper didn’t know most of what the man did, he knew enough to know the SEALs and US government were lucky to have him on their side.
“I’ve met Tex,” Cooper told him.
Swede snorted. “Yeah, I bet you have. Hurt can’t not interfere, can he?”
Cooper grinned.
“I’m sitting right here, assholes,” Hurt grumbled good-naturedly.
“So you are,” Cooper said. “So, what’s up?” he asked again.
“Swede lives up in Montana with his wife, Allie. He’s currently working for a company called the Brotherhood Protectors. They provide bodyguard services to wealthy men and women in the area. Most of the employees are retired military men, SEALs and Delta Force operatives who were either injured on duty or who have had enough of the teams.”
Cooper eyed Swede a little more closely as Hurt continued. His initial reaction had been correct, it was nice to know he hadn’t lost all of his intuitiveness after being injured and away from the teams.
“I asked him to come down and spend a few days talking with you. I know you’ve met with the Navy psychologists, but there’s no one who knows what you’re going through better than someone who has been in your shoes.”
Swede interrupted Patrick at that point. “Look, I have no idea what you’re going through with your hearing. I have to deal with my leg giving me fits now and then, but it’s not the same as losing my hearing, sight, or something else. I’m not here to tell you how to deal with that. Hurt asked me to talk with you about my transition to civilian life.”
Cooper blinked. That so wasn’t what he’d thought the other man was going to say. He’d had lots of people tell him how he should deal with the loss of his hearing and what to do with the rest of his life. But no one understood what it was like to try to transition from constantly being on call for his country and flying off at a moment’s notice, to sitting around an apartment with no one needing him and no chance of getting that call.
His first inclination was to tell Swede to fuck off, that he was transitioning just fine, thank you very much, but then he thought about Kiera. He wanted to be worthy of her, and he was
afraid if he didn’t get his head screwed on straight and figure out what he wanted to do, he’d lose her. Maybe this former SEAL could help him.
“I can’t say that I’m thrilled with Hurt going behind my back, but I wouldn’t mind having a beer or two with you. But not at a bar. I can’t hear shit.”
Swede chuckled. “Not a problem.”
“Now, if we’re done bonding, I need to get going.”
“You get a job I don’t know about, Coop?” Hurt asked, leaning forward in his chair.
Cooper smirked. “No, Dad. I’m volunteering at the deaf school you guilted me into going to a few weeks ago.”
The look that spread across Hurt’s face could only be described as smug. “Let me guess…Ms. Hamilton’s classroom?”
“Fuck off,” Cooper said without heat.
“Ms. Hamilton?” Swede queried.
“She’s a teacher at the school. I thought it might do Coop some good to see how easily kids can adapt to a life without being able to hear.”
“And it wasn’t a bonus that Kiera was friends with Julie?” Cooper asked.
Hurt smiled, but then he got serious. “Kiera is a wonderful person. She works hard and is a good friend to Julie. But more than that…I like you, Coop. And if you got together with a friend of my wife’s, I’d see you more. And I’d like that too.”
Coop didn’t know exactly what to say to that. But it felt good. Damn good to know that his former commander was more than just a boss. He was a friend too.
“Now…get the hell out of my office so I can get some work done,” Hurt said, ending the touchy-feely conversation. “And say hello to Kiera for me.”
Cooper and Swede both stood. They gave chin lifts to Patrick and headed out of his office.
“Hey, Coop,” Cutter called out.
Cooper didn’t hear him and continued toward the door. Swede touched Cooper’s arm and gestured toward the administrative assistant with his head.
Fighting the urge to apologize for not hearing the summons, Cooper turned to the older man and raised his eyebrows in question.
“Wolf and the rest of his team have challenged you and Swede to a duel…so to speak. They think you guys are going soft now that you’re retired. Tonight. Eighteen hundred. On the beach.”
Cooper’s eyes gleamed. “You wanna join us, old man?” he asked.
Cutter smiled. “Fuck yeah.”
“See you later,” Cooper said
“Later,” Cutter responded.
As he and Swede were walking to their cars in the parking lot, the other man commented, “To be honest, I don’t know why Hurt asked me down here. You seem like you’re doing just fine.”
Cooper shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. But I’d love to hear your story. Please tell me you met your wife because you were hired to protect her.”
Swede smiled. “Yup. My first job with the Brotherhood. Her fiancé hired me.”
“No shit?” Cooper asked.
“No shit,” the other man confirmed.
“I can’t wait to hear this story.”
“And I’ll tell it to you…over a couple beers.”
“I’m looking forward to it.” And for once, Cooper wasn’t telling someone what he thought they wanted to hear. He meant it.
The two men pounded on each other’s backs and climbed into their respective cars.
As curious as Cooper was to hear Swede’s story, all thoughts of the other man and the upcoming competition on the beach fled. He was looking more forward to seeing Kiera again.
Chapter 4
Kiera smiled as Cooper knocked on the door to her classroom. She’d been informed by the principal that Cooper requested to volunteer with her class today. Even though he’d been at the school many times over the last couple months, he hadn’t ever been in her room. She’d tried not to be hurt by that, but couldn’t deny it had.
She’d just gotten her first graders settled down with their tablets when Cooper arrived. The students were watching videos of a book being read and signed at the same time. Getting the youngsters familiar with both the written word, a picture, and the sign for the word was imperative in their cognitive development. They typically learned slower than children who could hear, but she’d found that most were starved for knowledge and, once they got the hang of reading, were extremely quick to pick it up and correlate words with the correct signs.
She walked over to greet him and blushed as he stared at her lips as if he wanted to devour her right there in the doorway. “Hey.”
“Hey. Is this a bad time?”
Kiera shook her head. “Not at all. I just got them settled with books. How come you haven’t ever volunteered in my classroom before?”
“I’m not great with kids this young,” Cooper admitted as he followed her into the room. “The older ones I can impress with my background, but little ones aren’t as easily swayed.”
“You’ll be fine,” Kiera told him, his insecurity somehow making him all the more appealing to her. “Wait here while I get their attention,” she told Cooper, pointing to a spot at the front. When he nodded, she walked around the room, putting her hand on each child’s shoulder and signing something to them.
When she had everyone’s attention, she signed at the same time as she spoke. “Class, this is Cooper Nelson. He is here to read with you.”
A little girl threw up her hand in question.
“Yes, Becca?”
The little girl’s hands moved slowly, but she was obviously asking a question about Cooper as she gestured to him several times.
Kiera repeated her question for all the other children in the class. She found that sometimes the children had a hard time reading someone else’s signs and it was good practice for everyone to see the same signs done several times.
“Becca asked if Mr. Nelson knows sign language. She also asked if he was deaf. He knows some sign language, but he just started learning, like all of you. Cooper can hear a little out of his left ear, but wears a hearing aid like some of you do. He is completely deaf in his right ear.”
A little boy’s hand went up, and Kiera pointed at him and said while signing, “Yes, Billy?”
Billy’s hands moved as he asked his question.
Cooper put his hand on Kiera’s arm and asked, “Can I answer?”
She smiled up at him and nodded.
Cooper kneeled on the ground and turned his head to the kids and pointed to his hearing aid. Then he signed, slowly, and imprecisely, “I was standing too close to a…” He paused and looked up at Kiera and shrugged.
Her heart melted. He was trying so hard, and getting on the same level as the kids was something a lot of people didn’t realize made a huge difference. She quickly said and signed “explosion.” He smiled at her and turned back to the children, who had been watching the two adults with wide eyes.
“Explosion,” Cooper signed. “It made me lose my hearing.”
Six children immediately raised their hands with questions. Kiera chuckled.
They spent the next twenty minutes playing question and answer. Cooper painstakingly tried to answer each question and Kiera helped him with the correct sign when he didn’t know it, which was often.
Cooper answered questions about whether he had any scars, if he was married, if he had children, how old he was, what he did for a living and if the explosion had hurt. He’d answered them as honestly as he could and didn’t laugh at some of the silly questions the kids asked.
The awe and adoration was clear to see on most of the children’s faces. It wasn’t often they’d seen a man like Cooper—a strong, tall, masculine man—make the effort to talk to them in their language. His obvious lack of expertise made him seem more approachable to them, as did his constant laughing at his ineptitude.
Just when Kiera was about to tell the children to get back to work, a little boy sitting in the back of the classroom slowly raised his hand. She hid her surprise. Frankie was small for his age and wasn’t making much progress. He was very relu
ctant to sign and hadn’t made any friends in the class since he’d been there. He frequently resorted to pushing the kids in his class when he couldn’t understand them or when he wanted his way.
Kiera knew his attitude was a result of his tumultuous home life and starting in a new school and her heart hurt for him. Frankie’s father was excited about the chance for his son to be in the special school. They’d moved down to Riverton from Los Angeles for a fresh start after a contentious divorce. His ex-wife was a drug addict who was deemed unfit to have custody of their son. Until recently, she’d been allowed to have supervised visitations with Frankie, but after slipping away from the court-ordered supervisor and taking Frankie to the mall to a drug drop, she’d had all parental rights stripped from her.
Kiera understood that the little boy was probably having issues dealing with all the upheaval in his life, but it had been two months since he’d started school and he wasn’t getting any better. The fact that he’d engaged enough to raise his hand and ask a question was almost a miracle at this point.
She pointed at the skinny boy and signed, “Yes, Frankie?”
He mostly used the alphabet to spell out his question, but it was understandable, if not painful to wait for him to get through.
Kiera swallowed and flicked her eyes to Cooper before repeating the question for the rest of the class. “Frankie asked what his tough military friends thought of Cooper using his hands to speak in such a sissy way.”
A few of the kids gasped and whipped their heads around to gaze at Frankie with wide eyes. Kiera hadn’t realized that was what Frankie thought of sign language. It was as heartbreaking as it was shocking.
Bless Cooper, he didn’t even blink at the question. He got up and went over to where Frankie was sitting. When he got there, he sat on his butt and awkwardly crossed his legs. Then he proceeded to blow Kiera’s mind.