by T. M. Cromer
“The cages and pens are fortified plenty, Sheriff,” she stressed in an effort to remind herself his true reason for being there. It certainly wasn’t any misplaced affection for her. “I happen to have a very mischievous set of squirrels on the property who like to unlock gates.”
“Nothing a bullet won’t take care of,” he said with a smile.
Goddess preserve her! He was serious!
Overhead, Saul raised a ruckus and made his thoughts on Coop’s suggestion known. The colorful language directed Coop as to where he could shove his gun. The head of her squirrel mafia leaned over as he warmed to his rant and promptly toppled off the beam.
Having been through this a time or two, Summer’s reaction was second nature. She caught him mid-flight. With a kiss to the top of his head, she released him to scurry away. It wouldn’t do to use magic to return him to his perch. Cooper would believe he was losing his mind.
“I don’t think shooting my squirrels is an option, Sheriff.”
This time the term was derogatory, and he knew it—as she intended.
Mouth compressed into a thin line and eyes narrowed, he stalked forward.
When he was two feet away, she held up a hand. “I think that’s far enough.”
The subtle shift of his expression warned her of his intent.
As she retreated, he pursued until she was pressed to the wood of the stall.
“What’s the matter, Summer? Does my presence bother you?”
Hell, yes. “No,” she gulped out the lie. “No more than any other overly aggressive guy trying to bully me.”
His smirk disappeared and apology took its place. He backed a few steps. “Sorry. I thought…”
She knew what he thought. The same thing this whole freaking town thought; she was still crazy about him.
To hide the truth, she averted her face and moved to pass him.
His hand shot out and halted her in her tracks. Apparently her poker face sucked. That, along with her indrawn breath, must’ve provided a distinct clue to her true feelings.
His grip loosened. Like the morning downtown, his eyes traced the skin on her neck, finally coming to rest on her lips.
A riot of sensation shot straight through her nervous system, and her body went on high alert, eager and longing. Every cell chanted, “Oh, please! Oh, please! Oh, please!”
“Do you ever wonder about what would’ve happened had we met when we were older, Summer? Had I not been a stupid jock with a point to prove?”
Like a deer frozen in headlights, she stared up at him, glued in place. The oncoming wreck was going to smart. She had no doubt he toyed with her to prove another point, but she didn’t have the will to stop him.
The pads of his fingers caressed the back of her neck and urged her closer. His other hand nudged her chin and angled her head into position to receive his kiss. The kiss she’d dreamed of since she was a starry-eyed thirteen-year-old girl. The kiss that, when it happened, would rock her world.
His dark-blond head blocked out the light, or maybe she closed her eyes. His breath against her lips caused her lungs to seize. Both hands came around to cup her jaw and hold her head. The back and forth motion of his thumbs on her cheeks relaxed her enough to open for him.
Once his tongue swept inside, she registered the taste of coffee and mint. A heady combination.
One of them moaned—most probably her.
The kiss went on forever and yet ended too soon.
As he drew away, he nipped her lower lip. Her body surged forward without any instruction from her. She craved more, needed to taste him again. Feel his seductive touch against her skin. To ride him like—!
Only Saul’s scolding dragged her back to the real world.
Face flaming brighter than the sun, she stepped away.
“If I’d have known you kissed like that, I’d never have kissed Rosie that night.” He punctuated his words with a soft chuckle.
However, with that careless statement, he brought back all the old embarrassment and anger. Sure he meant to be complimentary and flirty, but it stabbed her straight in the heart all the same. If the Goddess were looking down upon her, she was probably shaking her head at Summer’s stupidity.
Coop was a player. He’d always be a player. Major league at that.
And Summer would be laughed out of the Minors.
“Yes, well, if you’d have had honest intentions instead of trying to make me look like a fool, you would’ve found out,” she snapped as she busied herself with… when the hell had she conjured up a bridle? Oh! The thought of riding him. Damned wonky magic.
She flung the bridle down and scooted it to the side with her foot.
“We were kids, Summer,” he said softly, stepping up behind her. His breath stirred the air around her. “I think we can both agree I was an idiot at the time.”
“At the time?”
He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I can do to prove to you I’m sincere.”
Why was she fighting so hard? She just wanted him to leave. Maybe if she acknowledged his apology, he would go.
With a heavy sigh, she faced him. “I accept your apology, Coop. For what it’s worth. Now, if you don’t mind…” She waved a hand at the wheelbarrow. “…I have work to do.”
“Want a hand?”
Her jaw dropped.
The man who would shut down her Sanctuary was now offering to help?
“You want to help me clean stalls? What’s the catch?”
“No catch.” He shrugged. “It’s my day off. I’ve got nothing better to do.”
Overhead, Saul sounded off again and caught Coop’s attention.
“What’s the deal with that squirrel? It’s acting like your chaperone or something.”
Her first real laugh in over a week escaped. If he only knew what Saul was saying, Coop would probably shoot her familiar for real.
“Saul is a bit opinionated.”
“Opinionated, huh?” Coop picked up a nearby pitch fork and glanced around. “This place must keep you busy from dawn until dusk. Two of us will cut the work in half.”
Even half a day in his company was half a day too much.
She made a grab for the fork, but he held it up and out of her reach. Short of climbing his six-foot body, she wasn’t getting that tool. Irritated at his high-handed insistence, she said, “Seriously, it’s fine. I’m used to it.”
“You don’t want me here. I get it. But it’s nothing more than an offer of help. Call it penance for past mistakes.” He smoothed the groove between her brows. In a low, deep voice, he urged, “Just say yes.”
“Saying yes to you scares me.”
She could’ve bitten off her tongue as soon as she said it.
His wicked grin sent her heart into overdrive.
If the Goddess was kind, the ground would open and swallow Summer. But she must’ve angered the deity in a previous incarnation, because nothing in life had ever been easy.
“Fine. Whatever. You’re going to do what you want anyway.” She pointed to the left row of stalls. “Those still need cleaning.”
Wheels on the gravel drive caught her attention. When Knox stepped from behind the door of his SUV, she sighed.
The man should’ve been a model. He was the perfect eye candy for lonely, sex-starved women everywhere.
His warm, wide smile encouraged her matching smile.
“Summer.”
“Hi, Knox.”
She started forward only to be impeded when Coop shoved the wheelbarrow in front of her.
“Where should I dump the manure?”
Before she could respond, Knox replied. “Behind the silo. There’s a compost pile.”
The men eyed each other, and challenge crackled in the air between them.
Coop turned his keen gaze to study her. What he was looking for, she couldn’t say.
Confused, her eyes darted from one man to the other. Why were they staring at her? “Knox has come over and helped out on
occasion.”
The tension in the moment was as thick as frosting on a cupcake.
She hadn’t been aware she’d stopped her head ping-ponging to stare at Coop until Knox spoke. “Summer, may I speak with you?”
The blush started somewhere around her toes and worked its way up her neck. “Uh, yeah, sure.”
She stopped long enough to grab three bottles of water from the cooler. She tossed one to Coop, before offering one to Knox and following him to his SUV.
“What’s up, Knox?”
His bright blue-gray eyes focused over her shoulder and the beginning of a smirk played about his mouth.
“Knox?”
He turned his gaze to her. “Sorry.” Clasping her hand in his, he closed the distance between them. “I was wondering if you would like to go to dinner one night this week.”
“With you?” Her question came out in an incredulous gush.
They both winced.
“You find me objectionable?”
“Hell, no!”
She sneezed. Within seconds, squeaking started from behind her.
Based on her emphatic exclamation, she suspected an entire colony was gathered there.
Sure enough, his attention was caught by the noise. “Don’t freak out, Summer, but you seem to have a rodent problem in your barn.”
He lifted her and set her on the hood of his vehicle as if she were a skittish princess who’d faint at the sight of a mouse.
“Do you have rat poison?”
“No!”
She hadn’t realized she’d screamed until Coop stormed from where he’d been hovering just inside the barn and Spring ran out of the house.
Coop looked as if he intended to tear Knox’s head from his shoulders.
“Back away from her, Knox.” The menace was unmistakable.
She grabbed onto Knox’s shirt when he would’ve backed up. “No. It’s not how it looks. He wasn’t forcing himself on me.”
Knox grinned and rested a hand on her hip.
She gulped.
The testosterone in the air was more than her sex-deprived body could handle. With an unconscious clenching of her fist, she balled up the material.
Coop’s anger cut her. He cast her one last irate glare before he pivoted and stormed into the barn. Her eyes were caught on the full curve of his ass encased in his jeans. Again, her hand spasmed where it clutched Knox’s shirt.
“So that’s how it is, huh?” he asked softly.
“How what is?”
She avoided his kind, knowing gaze by glancing at her sister.
Hurt flashed across Spring’s face but was gone in an instant. Without making her presence known to Knox, Spring retraced her steps back to the house.
“Summer?”
The deep, seductive baritone drew her back to the conversation at hand.
“The mice aren’t hurting anything.” Inane sure, but it was the best she could do.
“No mass extermination needed?” he teased.
“No. No mass extermination needed.”
“Okay, you softie. Back to the reason I’m here; how about dinner?”
She wanted to say yes. If only to prove to one of them she wasn’t a lost cause still pining for Cooper. But Summer couldn’t ignore what she’d witnessed on her sister’s face.
“It’s probably not a good idea.”
“Because of Cooper?”
“Because I come with more baggage than one guy should have to put up with in a lifetime.”
“Why don’t you let me worry about whether I’m willing or able to deal with baggage?” he suggested and dropped a kiss on her nose.
Nothing. Not even a small spark.
She sighed her disgust. Why did it have to be Coop who’d captured her heart? Here sat a perfectly nice guy, a stunning one to boot, and she experienced no attraction whatsoever.
“Your face says it all.”
“It’s not you, Knox. Believe me, it’s definitely not you.” She smoothed his shirt and patted his chest. “You’re every woman’s fantasy come to life; kind, considerate, hot as hell. But…”
“But you still want Coop.”
Alarmed by his perception, she frantically shook her head and cast a wild look toward the barn entrance.
“Don’t panic. He can’t hear us. He’s glaring at us from the paddock.” He leaned in to murmur, “Your secret is safe with me.”
Relief flooded through her, and she rested her head against his shoulder. “Thank you.”
“Word of advice?”
She raised her head.
“Play hard to get. Everything has come easy to Coop. And he needs to work to earn your affections this time around. Okay?”
“Boy, are you wrong about his interest,” she muttered. “Besides, I’m not sure I trust his motives in being here.”
His half-smile had her silently questioning what he knew.
“Just remember what I told you.” He helped her down from the hood of the SUV and tugged on her ponytail. “You’re worth the effort, Summer Thorne. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.”
7
“Do you and Knox have something going on?”
Summer glanced up from the stall she’d been cleaning. “Excuse me?”
“I’m pretty sure you haven’t lost your hearing in the last thirty minutes,” Cooper snapped. It had taken him that long to work up to the question after his cousin left.
She took her time answering, and the seconds drew out into what felt like days.
Dread churned inside him. What was she doing to him? In the matter of a week, his whole world had been turned upside down.
Seeing her pressed against his cousin nearly caused the top of his head to explode. His blood pressure, which he’d always maintained at a healthy level, had to be in the life-endangering zone.
“We’re friends.”
Her softly spoken response didn’t answer a damn thing. Friends slept together all the time. “As in friends with benefits?”
Shut the hell up, Coop!
“I can’t see where that would be your business.” She turned her back and continued to scoop.
He followed her into the stall and jerked the fork from her grasp. “It damn well is if you’re kissing me while sleeping with him.”
“You kissed me, Coop,” she retorted. “You. Kissed. Me. Not the other way around.”
“Well, you certainly weren’t fighting me off or telling me no. Hell, you’d still be lip locked with me if I hadn’t broken it off.”
Her outraged gasp and chalky-white face told him he’d gone too far.
“You’re something else, you know that? You…”
Whatever else she intended to say was lost as she looked beyond him. Eyes huge, she stilled.
He glanced over his shoulder.
The chimp. Murphy…Marty…no…Morty. That was it.
The rage on the beast’s face made last week’s near annihilation of the cruiser look like child’s play.
Coop pivoted to shield Summer. “Stay behind me, sweetheart.”
Her snort was derisive in nature. “Sweetheart, my ass,” she scoffed then sneezed.
Nails on wood, followed by squeaks started on the other side of the stall wall.
What the hell was that? Another ape?
Standing on hind legs, fur puffed out like an enraged cat, the chimp screamed and clanged his latest weapon—a freaking crowbar—against the metal bars of the open stall door. His other arm swung wildly in a circle, with a periodic pound of a fist on his chest.
“Cooper, he thinks you’re threatening me. Back into the corner behind me. Slowly.”
“Not a chance. He’s—”
The stubborn female darted under his arm to close the distance between her and the chimp.
Coop made a grab to pull her to safety.
She raised a hand and fisted it.
He halted his forward movement. Not because he wanted to, but because his will seemed to have taken a vacation from his body. He w
as literally a statue. Panic and a nightmarish sense of the unreal dominated his brain, and he struggled against the invisible bonds holding him in place.
He’d heard of paralyzed with fear, but this lent new meaning to the term.
Whatever force held him in check, also held Morty. The chimp seemed to be a tad bit more accepting of his locked status than Coop.
Summer stroked her fingers between the eyes of the chimp, whispering words foreign to Coop’s ears. Whatever she said, Morty understood and his face relaxed as his expressive brown eyes turned to liquid pools of love for Summer.
“That’s my sweet boy. That’s my Morty,” she crooned. “Will you give Mama the crowbar, sweet boy? That’s right, relax your fingers.”
And damned if the crazy ape didn’t do just that. Morty relinquished his hold on the weapon without batting an eye, as if hypnotized.
Hypnosis. When Coop got home, he intended to google if apes were susceptible to hypnosis.
“I’m going to release you, Morty. You have to promise Mama you won’t attack Cooper when I do. Mama will be very upset. Do you understand?”
The brown eyes shifted his way, and the soft light left Morty’s gaze. Nostrils flared and lips curled.
“Morty, Cooper isn’t the bad man.”
Did Coop detect a subtle shift in expression?
Morty gave him one last sneer, shifted his attention to Summer, and pursed his lips.
Summer rewarded the chimp and bent down to place her lips against his.
Lucky chimp.
Gradually, feeling came back to Coop’s body. Not unlike when blood flow returns to a limb. The pain and tingling caused him to shake his arms and legs. His voice took longer to return.
She scooped the chimp up and hugged him to her. “Sheriff, I’ll assume you can show yourself out. Spring or Winnie can help me return the animals to their stalls later tonight.” She cleared her throat. “Thanks for your help.”
“That animal needs to be put down, Summer,” he ground out.
Her grip tightened. “Don’t even think about it.”
Morty, sensing her upset, drew back his teeth and barked his displeasure at Coop.
As she strode away, a sly look passed over Morty’s face. The hand hugging her back lifted straight out, middle finger extended.