by Susan Stoker
He used mostly finger spelling, as Frankie had, and not once did he look to Kiera for a sign. “My friends are jealous that I have my own secret language. Believe it or not, Frankie, my team had our own hand signals for stuff. This,” he made a movement with his hands that Kiera didn’t recognize, “meant danger. And this,” he did it again, making another sign that clearly wasn’t American Sign Language, “meant bad guy ahead. I don’t know who told you that sign language was sissy, but it absolutely isn’t. It’s cool. The coolest thing I’ve ever tried to learn. I can talk to you, your classmates, or Ms. Hamilton, and people who aren’t deaf can’t understand me. It’s like being an undercover spy right under people’s noses. I love knowing a secret language, even if I’m not very good at it yet.”
If Kiera hadn’t been watching Frankie carefully, she would’ve missed it, but his eyes got big and she could literally see the knowledge that a big, strong man like Cooper thought sign language was cool sinking into his psyche.
She’d tried for months to get Frankie to show an ounce of interest in anything she did or said, to no avail. But with one painstakingly finger-spelled answer, Cooper had somehow bonded with the young boy in a way she’d rarely seen before.
Swallowing hard so she wouldn’t burst into tears, Kiera waved her hand in the air to get the children’s attention. She sighed, “Now that we have all met Cooper, time to get back to your lessons.”
The kids all nodded and shuffled back to various places around the room with their tablets. There were beanbags strewn around the classroom, as well as small couches, and big fluffy rugs… more than enough choices for the children to settle in comfortably somewhere.
She looked over at Frankie and Cooper and caught the tail end of Cooper’s question to the little boy. “…me sit with you while you read?”
Frankie nodded his head and Kiera watched in awe as Cooper and her troublemaker student shifted so they were sitting facing each other, knees touching, with the tablet off to their right. Frankie reached out and turned it on, activating the story he’d been reading before the interruption.
Over the next thirty minutes, Kiera watched from the corner of her eye as Frankie and Cooper went through one story, then another, then finally a third. She’d never seen the little boy as interested and engrossed in a lesson as he was during that half hour. He and Cooper signed each word as the narrator of the book instructed. They smiled at each other often and at one point, Frankie even reached out and corrected one of Cooper’s signs.
It was time for lunch and Kiera corralled the children and got them lined up to head down to the lunchroom. There were several monitors who assisted the kids who needed it in getting their lunch trays and generally kept order in the large cafeteria. As they were waiting for a monitor to lead everyone down the hall, Kiera eavesdropped on the conversation between Frankie and Cooper.
“Will you come back?” Frankie finger spelled.
“Yes,” Cooper signed.
“When?”
Cooper paused for a long moment then finally signed, “If you want me to, I’ll be here every day.”
Kiera gasped. He couldn’t tell Frankie that. It would crush the little boy when he didn’t actually show up every day. Before she could rush over and do damage control, Frankie surprised her.
“Don’t say it if you don’t mean it,” the little boy spelled out.
Cooper placed one of his large hands on Frankie’s thin shoulder and spelled out with his other hand. “I don’t say things I don’t mean. Do you want to learn a secret sign me and my military friends use?” Cooper asked in a mixture of letters and signs.
Frankie eagerly signed, “Yes.”
“Okay, but it’s super-secret and it’s a man code. You can only greet other men this way. Okay?”
Frankie impatiently signed once again. “Yes.”
“Watch carefully,” Cooper signed, then lifted his chin in the way Kiera had seen him greet his friends in the past.
She used her hand to cover the smile on her face.
Frankie furrowed his little brow and tried to imitate Cooper.
“Pretty good, but instead of making it look like a nod, just lift your chin a little bit instead.” Cooper demonstrated again.
Frankie mirrored him and this time, amazingly, he did it. The chin lift he gave Cooper was a mini-version of the badass “hey” Cooper gave his friends.
“That’s it! You did it. Good job. Now remember…only manly men get that chin lift. It’s our secret hello and goodbye code.” He glanced over at Kiera and winked, then turned back to Frankie. “I’ll see you tomorrow Frankie, right?”
Frankie nodded and had a big smile on his face. The first time Kiera could remember the little boy ever doing so since he’d started school.
The line started to move, and Cooper stood up straight and looked down at Frankie. He gave him the chin lift and signed, “Goodbye.”
Frankie returned the chin lift and sign, then walked proudly out of the room behind his classmates.
Kiera shut the door behind her students and walked directly to Cooper.
“I—”
She didn’t let him get any other words out before standing on her tiptoes and putting both hands on either side of his face. She tugged his head toward hers and planted her lips on his. His arms immediately locked around her and he pulled her into him so they were touching from hips to chest.
He let her control the kiss for a moment, then took over. Devouring her mouth as if he hadn’t seen her in years instead of the night before. They finally broke apart, but Cooper didn’t let go of her. He kept her plastered to the front of his body as he asked, “What was that for?”
“You are a miracle worker,” Kiera told him.
He chuckled. “Don’t think Mother Theresa would agree with you on that one, sweetheart.”
Kiera shook her head. “Seriously. I’ve been trying to get Frankie to respond to me with a tenth of the enthusiasm he showed you today…with no luck. And you spent thirty minutes with him and he’s like a completely different child.”
“All he needed was some attention,” Cooper protested. “I didn’t do anything special.”
“No, that’s not it,” Kiera insisted.
“I know.” Cooper’s voice had dropped until it was barely audible, but Kiera didn’t interrupt him. “Someone’s been filling his head with shit about how a real man acts. I think seeing me, a former Special Forces operative using sign language, legitimized it somehow. All I had to do was show him that it’s okay to talk with my hands. That it doesn’t make him any less of a boy. I want ten minutes in a room with whoever has been filling his head with that shit. Probably his dad.”
“It’s not him,” Kiera told him, running her fingernails lightly down the back of Cooper’s neck where she’d rested her hands. “His dad loves him to pieces. He’s a single dad who is working his ass off to get his son what he needs to succeed.”
“Whoever it is should be shot,” Cooper murmured, then lowered his head to the space between Kiera’s neck and shoulder. He inhaled and nuzzled the skin there.
Kiera felt goosebumps move over her at the feel of his lips against her bare skin. She tugged lightly on his hair and he lifted his head to look at her.
“Are you really going to come every day like you told Frankie? You can’t lie to these kids, Cooper. If you tell them something, you have to follow through.”
“I wasn’t lying. I really would like to stop by every day…if that’s all right,” he finished uncertainly.
“It’s all right,” Kiera reassured him immediately. “But I’m afraid you’ll get bored.”
“Kiera, I spent almost eight years of my life getting shot at, blowing shit up, and putting my life on the line for my country. Spending time with kids, helping them learn, helping myself learn, sounds like heaven.”
Kiera swallowed hard. She didn’t know any men, not one, who would say something like Cooper just had. “Okay.”
“Okay.” Cooper smiled at her, then
pulled her hips harder into his own. She could feel his erection against her core and her inner muscles clenched. God. “You want to have dinner tonight?”
“Yes,” she answered immediately. She wanted as much of Cooper’s time as he’d give her. It didn’t matter that it was a school night. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t playing hard to get. If Cooper wanted to spend time with her, she would grab on to that with both hands.
He smiled down at her. “I have to do a thing with the SEALs on the beach at six, but maybe I can pick you up afterwards?”
“What thing?”
Cooper rolled his eyes. “Me and two other retired SEALs were challenged by an active-duty team.”
“Challenged how?” Kiera asked, tilting her head.
“Not to the death, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Cooper grinned. “You should’ve seen your face. Just to a friendly physical competition on the beach. Sit-ups, running with the Zodiac, swimming, that sort of thing.”
“Can I come watch?”
She saw some sort of emotion move through Cooper’s eyes, but couldn’t interpret it. She hurried to say, “If it’s not allowed, that’s okay, I just thought it might be fun to watch you in action.”
“You’d like that?” he questioned.
“Seeing you and a bunch of other SEALs, hopefully in nothing but short shorts, running around on the beach flexing and trying to prove who’s stronger and more badass? Hell yeah, I’d like that,” Kiera told him with a smile.
His hands moved to her waist and he started to tickle her. Kiera screeched and tried to wiggle out of his grasp. “Cooper, stop! I’m extremely ticklish!” She couldn’t stop giggling, and her hands pushing at his chest were ineffective to stop the intimate torture.
“You want to look at other men’s bodies, Kiera?”
She giggled some more and said, “No, just yours!”
“But you said you wanted to check out my friends’ asses.”
“No, I didn’t. I’ll only look at your ass…swear!”
“Promise?”
Kiera couldn’t stop giggling. Coopers fingers might’ve been tickling her, but she loved having his hands on her…and his playfulness. “I promise…please…”
“Please what?” Cooper asked, putting his arms back around her and yanking her into his rock-hard body once more.
Kiera looked up at him then and brought her arms up between them, signing as she said, “Please kiss me.”
Cooper glanced at the door, and while Kiera appreciated his awareness of where they were and the fact anyone could come inside the classroom at any time, at the moment, she didn’t care. She needed his lips on hers again.
Without a word, Cooper did as she asked. He kissed her as if his life depended on it. Slow and fast, deep and shallow. It wasn’t just a kiss, he learned what she liked, that she moaned deep in her throat when he sucked on her tongue and dug her nails into his chest when he nibbled on her bottom lip.
Five minutes later, Cooper pulled back and looked down at her. He placed a hand on her forehead and ran it gently over her blonde hair, smoothing it down as he went. “Do you really want to come tonight?”
Kiera nodded.
“I’ll pick you up at five-twenty?”
She nodded again.
“Means a lot to me, Kiera.”
“What does?”
“That you want to be involved in my world. Not just be with me because I have a good body, or because I’m good with the kids in your class.”
“Cooper, I wouldn’t care if you were a world-class chess player…I’d want to be there to support you because you enjoy doing it. And while I won’t deny that I can’t wait to see your body tonight, that’s not why I’m with you.”
“Why are you?” he asked.
Kiera could see the insecurity in the badass man in front of her and it made him that much more real to her. “I’ve never been as attracted to anyone as I am to you. You’re a good person. From the first time you walked into the school, I could tell that you were uncomfortable, but you didn’t let it stop you from jumping in with both feet. You aren’t afraid to admit that you don’t understand something, and so far, you haven’t been discouraged when learning a new language gets tough. You see me—not just the teacher, not just Julie’s friend, but me. I’m not afraid to be myself around you, and even though I’m scared to death you’re gonna take one look at my naked body and ask yourself what the hell you’re doing with an almost-forty-year-old woman…I can’t wait to make love with you.”
“Damn,” Cooper breathed.
“You asked,” Kiera said with a smile.
“That I did. And for the record, the feeling is definitely mutual. You don’t see only the SEAL when you look at me, at least I don’t think you do. You see me. So I get what you’re saying. And no worries, Kiera…” Cooper moved his hands until they were grasping the globes of her ass and pulled her into him until she was standing on her tiptoes. Their crotches were aligned, and Kiera could feel every inch of his hard cock against her. She shifted in his grasp and tried to get closer…to no avail.
“I’m going to love every inch of your body. Have no doubt.” He leaned down and took her mouth in one more hard, intimate kiss before pulling back and putting a couple inches of space between their bodies.
“Wear comfortable clothes tonight. Jeans, blouse, flip-flops…after we kick the SEALs’ asses, I’ll shower and we’ll go somewhere casual for dinner. Burgers all right?”
“Absolutely.”
As if he couldn’t help himself, Cooper leaned down and kissed Kiera once more then stepped away from her and dropped his hands. “See you tonight then.”
Kiera nodded, then gave him a chin lift.
His lips quirked, and he said, “Sorry hon, that’s reserved for us men.” Then he winked and was gone.
Kiera sat at her desk to eat lunch and thought about Cooper. She’d known the man a few weeks now, ever since he’d begun volunteering at the school, but somehow over the last twenty-four hours he’d become not just a man she’d like to get to know better, but one she didn’t think she could live without.
Smiling big, she finished her lunch and thought about what she was going to wear that night. Yeah, seeing Cooper and his friends rolling around the sand in minimal clothing certainly wasn’t a hardship. Not at all.
Chapter 5
Kiera sat on a sand dune that overlooked a section of beach on Coronado Island. Cooper had picked her up right at five-twenty…but they’d still been ten minutes late to the beach. He’d taken one look at her in her skinny jeans, flip-flops, navy blue scoop-neck shirt that had a picture of a military man aiming a rifle and lying in a puddle of water with the words, Stay Low, Go Fast. Kill First, Die Last. One Shot, One Kill. No Luck, All Skill, and her blonde hair flowing freely around her shoulders instead of confined back in the bun she usually wore at the school, and he’d backed her against the front door and proceeded to ravish her.
It had taken his phone vibrating in his pocket with a text from a man named Cutter, warning him not to be late, to break them apart. He’d closed his eyes, rested his forehead against hers and said in a low, controlled voice, “You’re gonna be the death of me.”
Kiera had simply responded, “But what a way to go.”
Now she was sitting on a giant pile of sand with four other women, watching as their men competed against each other down near the surf.
“I’ll never get tired of this,” Julie stated with a sigh.
One of the other women—she’d been introduced as Caroline—agreed. “Right? When Wolf told me he’d challenged a bunch of former SEALs to a physical battle, there was no way I wasn’t going to be here.”
“I’m just thankful Fiona could watch our kids on such short notice,” a Navy wife named Jessyka said.
“Anyone bring any popcorn?” the last woman in their group, who had been introduced as Cheyenne, asked.
Kiera had liked the other women immediately. They’d made her feel comfortable and not at al
l awkward, as she usually did when she met new people. Julie had mentioned all three of them at one point in past conversations, but this was the first time she was getting to spend any time with them.
“Who’s the new guy?” Caroline asked.
“Cooper told me his name is Swede,” Kiera told her and the others. “He’s a former SEAL who lives up in Montana. He’s down here visiting for some reason.”
“He’s hot,” Cheyenne observed.
Jessyka rolled her eyes. “You do remember that you’re a married woman, right?” she asked her friend.
“Of course. Faulkner won’t let me forget it, not that I would want to. But there’s nothing wrong with looking.”
Kiera agreed wholeheartedly. The spectacle below them was definitely drool-worthy. The men had stripped off their T-shirts and were currently wrestling with each other…she wasn’t sure exactly what they were doing, but didn’t really care either.
“I swear to God, every time I see Cutter, I send up a prayer that Benny will look just like him in a decade or so,” Jessyka murmured, resting her chin on her hand as she gazed down at the men. “He’s just so…manly looking.”
“Manly looking?” Julie laughed. “As if the other guys aren’t?”
“You know what I mean. He looks distinguished. His graying hair and beard, his broad shoulders…even the hint of gray in his chest hair is fucking hot.”
“Is he dating anyone?” Julie asked. “Patrick tells me all about how awesome he’s been since he’s started working as his admin assistant, but he doesn’t tell me about anyone’s love life.”
Caroline shrugged. “I don’t think so, but Wolf is the same way. They’ll gossip like girls with each other and in the office, but then he’ll tell me that it’s a man code thing and he can’t share details. Sometimes I wish our men weren’t so honorable.”
Everyone chuckled but Kiera inhaled sharply when a foot came shooting toward Cooper’s face.
“Relax,” Cheyenne soothed, resting her hand on Kiera’s arm. “Your man has this.”
And he did. As soon as the foot moved toward him, Cooper had grabbed hold and wrenched it upward, throwing one of the SEALs to the sand on his back. The men all laughed and continued to try to beat the crap out of each other. At least that’s what it looked like to her.