She pressed her palm against my cheek. “Thank you for all of this. I kind of just barged into your entire life and you accepted that to try to tame my nightmares. I’m really not sure quite what to do now that the nightmares are starting to get better. I think I’m safe to go back to my condo tonight, Cooper. Between your warm body and my intensive therapy, my nightmares aren’t interrupting my sleep anymore. I feel fantastic now that I’m sleeping normally again.”

  Oh, hell no.

  I shook my head. “Not yet. You aren’t disrupting my life. I want you here. I think it’s too soon to make any changes that could bring those nightmares back in full force all over again, Torie.”

  She slipped her leg off my body and moved to my side. “What guy actually likes a woman who uses him like a heating pad?”

  Fucking hell.

  Torie Durand could use me any way she wanted and I’d be perfectly content.

  As long as she was happy.

  “Have you heard me objecting?” I asked as I tightened an arm around her.

  She wasn’t going anywhere until we worked this whole sleeping arrangement out.

  Torie turned until her front was plastered against my side. “No,” she admitted with a sigh. “But then, you’re a pretty extraordinary man.”

  I gritted my teeth as she ran a soft hand over my stomach. No doubt it was almost an unconscious, affectionate move for her, but it was fucking torture for me.

  Yet, I didn’t want her to stop touching me like that, either.

  Fuck! I definitely must like tormenting myself and I probably needed some kind of treatment for that sooner rather than later.

  “I’m extraordinary because I don’t mind having a beautiful woman in my bed?” I asked gruffly.

  She snorted. “It’s not like you take advantage of that fact, and it’s not like you haven’t seen most of my scars by now. But take my word for it, the areas you haven’t seen don’t look any better. My body’s not exactly a pretty sight.”

  She’d said that a hundred times, but there was nothing about her scars that made her any less attractive. Not to me. The only thing that really bothered me was how much pain she’d been put through to gain that many scars.

  “You’re gorgeous, and don’t think that I haven’t been tempted to take advantage,” I informed her roughly as I rolled her over on her back and stared down at her face. “Jesus, Torie! Do you really think that this has been easy for me?”

  I started to drown in her mesmerizing, amber-eyed gaze as she shook her head slowly, her eyes never leaving mine. “Probably not,” she said softly. “But you’re still here, and you still want me to be here with you. I find that extraordinary.”

  “Because I fucking want to help you,” I growled. “What’s going on in your head is more important than a pair of blue balls.”

  “Oh, Cooper,” she said with a soft sigh as she threaded her fingers into my hair. “Do you have any idea how few men there are like you out there?”

  “I doubt that,” I said, blowing off her compliment. “I’m sure there are plenty of blue-balled bastards out there.”

  I didn’t think I was an exception.

  Most guys would give a shit if they cared about their woman at all.

  I leaned down and kissed her, unable to go another second without some kind of connection to her.

  She responded with a tiny moan against my lips as she wrapped her arms around my neck.

  I lost track of just how long that embrace went on, but I was careful not to let it get too carnal.

  For now, just being close to Torie was going to have to be enough.

  “Cooper,” she said in a breathy, fuck-me voice as I finally released her lips.

  It nearly killed me.

  She wanted.

  I needed to satisfy.

  That’s just the kind of chemistry that constantly flowed from her to me every minute of the day, and it was pure hell not to immediately respond to any kind of signal from her.

  Problem was, Torie was also vulnerable right now, and my instinct to protect her was constantly at war with my need to sink my cock inside her.

  I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the battle, and kissed her soundly on the forehead. “Time to get up, beautiful. The day is waiting.”

  I rolled my ass out of bed before I could give in to my baser instincts to spend the entire day burning up the sheets with Torie instead.

  Torie

  “This was such an amazing day,” I told Cooper right after I’d devoured the last of my lobster ravioli.

  After we’d tackled the Eagle Park trail, Cooper and I had cleaned up at his place, and at his insistence, we’d just finished dinner at a local Italian restaurant in La Jolla.

  Although we’d fallen into a routine of eating at home some of the time, both of us still enjoyed our food and we grabbed takeout or ate at a restaurant whenever we felt like it.

  Those occurrences happened fairly often since Cooper seemed to love to take me out, especially on the weekends.

  “How was the lobster ravioli?” he asked as he nodded at my empty plate.

  “Fabulous,” I said with a sigh. “Anything with a carb count that high is naturally going to be my friend.”

  He chuckled. “I think you worked off the calories today.”

  I nodded as I smiled at him. “It feels fantastic to get back out on the trails again. I’ll work my way back up to the expert hikes, eventually.”

  At some point, I was bound to crave something more challenging, but for now, I was enjoying my intermediate jaunts with Cooper.

  Maybe it was my hiking partner that made these trips so special. In the past, most of my hiking was a solitary sport. It felt so different to actually share what I was discovering on my hikes with someone like Cooper.

  He lifted a brow as he sat back in his chair. “Just remember that you promised to take me with you if you decide to hijack my jet.”

  I laughed. “Now that I’m living back in San Diego, I could probably commandeer one of my brother’s jets. When they’re not in Europe, there’s usually one of them sitting at the airport.”

  “No need,” he answered. “Mine is always there unless we’re using it for a mission or I’m at a mining site, which rarely happens anymore since we have good executives who do a lot of the traveling for us these days.”

  I took a sip of my wine while I studied his face. “So, just like that? I can borrow your jet whenever I want it?”

  Dating or not, what billionaire offered a woman from a casual dating relationship free access to his private jet?

  He shrugged. “Why not? It’s not like I use it all the time.”

  “I am capable of getting a charter?” I reminded him.

  He shook his head adamantly. “Don’t. You never know how the maintenance has been on a charter jet. Mine is safer.”

  I nearly choked on my wine, but it wasn’t the first time that Cooper had said something outrageous when it came to my wellbeing.

  No matter how rational or matter-of-fact Cooper might be, his brain didn’t function quite that way when it came to the people he cared about.

  “I doubt I’m going to need that jet in the near future,” I answered wistfully. “I don’t think I’m quite ready to take on any international challenges right now.”

  It hadn’t been easy for me to admit that I needed more help than I’d thought was necessary to get over what had happened to me in the Amazon.

  In some ways, I’d been in denial because all I’d wanted was for those memories to go away so things could go back to normal for me.

  They didn’t.

  And they wouldn’t.

  Not until I’d worked through all of that trauma.

  Granted, I felt so much better since I’d started therapy with Dr. Romero and I’d started sleeping more normally at night.

  I felt more like myself again, but I wasn’t completely there yet.

  I wasn’t ready to go out and conquer the entire world, but maybe I could overcome one piece at a time.

  “You will be ready for that, Torie,” Cooper said in a husky tone. “Cut yourself some breaks. You nearly died in the Amazon. It took months to heal from your physical injuries before you could even begin to tackle the emotional ones. You’ll be out there traveling the world again before you know it.”

  His last sentence sounded slightly pained, like he wasn’t all that excited about the idea of me traveling the planet. “I’m not so sure that I’ll ever quite be the same woman I was before,” I mused. “I think traveling will always be part of my life, but I was already planning on slowing my travel down a year ago. After my father died, I started to understand just how short life could be. I didn’t want to live so far away from my brothers anymore. Not that they’ve bothered to make me an auntie yet, but I hope they will. If not, at least we’ll see each other more often unless they’re in Paris.”

  “So you were already planning your move back to San Diego?” Cooper asked.

  I nodded. “I was already thinking about it. San Diego is home for me. I liked living in New York, but I think I always knew I’d eventually find my way home.”

  “Not that I like the way that it happened,” Cooper said huskily. “But I’m glad you’re here. Chase and Wyatt mentioned you fairly often.”

  I nodded. “They talked about you and your brothers to me, too. I just never really understood how you’d all gotten so close. I guess I just assumed you’d met through business connections. My brothers were as forthcoming with me about Last Hope as you and your brothers have been with Riley.”

  Cooper shrugged. “It’s not that we didn’t trust Riley,” he explained. “There was just never any real reason for her to know. She worried herself to death when all of us were in special forces. We didn’t want to put her through that again.”

  “I guess I can understand that,” I murmured. “I worried about Chase and Wyatt, too. But aren’t you afraid that you’ll slip up someday? Last Hope is an important part of your lives. It’s the way that your brothers met Taylor and Harlow.”

  “Those two did share the information about their kidnapping with Riley, so it’s not like she doesn’t know about it,” Cooper explained. “My little sister just has no idea that Hudson and Jax were the men who actually rescued them.”

  I folded my arms over my chest. “Do you really think it’s fair that she’s the only one who’s in the dark about Last Hope? Just like Chase and Wyatt, you and your brothers mostly do the financing and strategic planning these days, so she won’t exactly have to fret much if you tell her now.”

  “We can’t tell her,” Cooper said adamantly.

  “Why not?” I challenged.

  Cooper drained his wine glass before he answered. “If you really must know, she’d probably kill all three of us for lying to her for so long. Years ago, when Last Hope was smaller, and we ran the missions ourselves, we used to tell Riley that we were treasure hunters, and that’s why we were out of the country so much. That was Jax’s idea, and he got pretty carried away with his stories about our supposed exploits around the world. Do you have any idea how pissed off she’d be that we’ve been making that shit up for years now?”

  I shot him a startled look before I finally started to laugh. “Oh, my God. None of you are willing to tell her because you know she probably won’t speak to you for weeks over it.”

  “Pretty much,” he said reluctantly. “Riley can hold a grudge for a long time when she feels like it.”

  I knew it was true, but I was having a hard time accepting the fact that three alpha male billionaires were actually terrified of their little sister’s reaction about them lying to her.

  “So what happens if she finds out years down the line?” I questioned. “You don’t think she’ll be even more hurt? Since every single one of you knows about Last Hope, the information is bound to slip someday.”

  “We try not to think about it, and we’re all damn careful.”

  “I honestly think you should just rip the Band-Aid off and tell her. She’d never tell anyone, and if my brothers had fallen in love and everyone knew about Last Hope except me, I think I’d feel a little…betrayed,” I said thoughtfully.

  “It’s a secret group—”

  “A secret private group,” I corrected. “It’s not like you’d be revealing military or government secrets. She’s your sister, Cooper.”

  He shot me a disgruntled look. “Taylor and Harlow have been saying the same thing. Both of them are afraid they’ll slip someday, and all three of them have gotten pretty close.”

  “Really close,” I agreed. “Do you have any idea how upset Taylor or Harlow will be if they mention Last Hope by accident to Riley? They’d be devastated if they were the ones to hurt her.”

  We’d spent an entire Sunday with Cooper’s family at a barbecue, and I’d had to watch every word I said because I didn’t want to spill the beans to Riley.

  “Fuck! You’re probably right,” he rasped. “I’ll talk to Hudson and Jax. Maybe it’s not fair to ask Taylor and Harlow to keep lying about it forever.”

  “For what it’s worth,” I said. “I wasn’t overly upset with Chase and Wyatt for never mentioning it, but things change when other people and friendships become involve and that lie keeps getting bigger.”

  He nodded. “You’re right. I guess my main concern was protecting Riley.”

  “I can hardly fault you for that,” I assured him. “I just thought I’d bring up a different perspective since I’ve been that little sister since the day I was born, too. We’re much tougher than you think. Riley might be hurt initially, but she knows not a single one of you would ever want to hurt her.”

  He shot me a dubious glance. “You have no idea how unforgiving she can be. I love my little sister but she can be an unrelenting, redheaded menace with the hottest temper you’ve ever seen.”

  “She loves all of you, too, and she’ll eventually get over it,” I reassured him.

  “Remember that you said that when she’s throwing a fit over it someday,” he said unhappily.

  I hid my smile behind my wineglass as I dropped the subject.

  I had no doubt that Cooper and his brothers would eventually do the right thing. They cared too much about their sister, Harlow, and Taylor to resolve the situation any other way.

  Cooper

  “She’s doing better,” I told my brothers the next day. “But something’s still not right. I don’t know what the hell to do.”

  The three of us needing to come into the office on a Sunday was rare, but I was suddenly glad that we were able to talk in the conference room after our business meeting was over.

  We’d decided to order up lunch since Harlow, Taylor, and Torie were at Jax’s place making some plans for Taylor’s wedding.

  Jax reached into one of the bags on the table and pulled out his burger. “Honestly, you’d never know that Torie was still struggling. She hides it really well. What do you think is going on?”

  I shook my head as I chewed and swallowed a bite of my cheeseburger. “I’m not sure. Something’s still not quite right, which probably isn’t surprising considering how much pleasure those assholes took in hurting her.”

  Torie was sleeping again.

  She smiled a lot more often.

  Her therapy with Dr. Romero was working to help her PTSD and her nightmares.

  She talked about nearly everything that had happened to her.

  But something was still…off.

  “Why didn’t you tell us she was staying with you?” Hudson asked. “And why didn’t you come to us when you found out she was struggling with trauma after her kidnapping?”

  I shrugged. My brothers weren’t stupid. Once they’d realized Torie was staying with me, they’d asked what was going on, so I’d told them about her nightmares. “I promised I wouldn’t tell her brothers about the bad dreams. I guess I never thought about the fact that both of you have been through all this before.”

  Jax lifted a brow. “So are you done telling us we’ve lost our minds?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. I get it. There is no reasoning with a man when he’s crazy about a woman. I’m there. That’s why I’m asking for your help. She’s hurting, and I fucking hate it. I don’t know what else I can do.”

  “Be there for her, Coop,” Hudson advised solemnly. “It’s a helpless goddamn feeling when there is really nothing you can do. We want to fix it, but we can’t. Not with all the money in the world. Just stay with her and don’t let her back away. And for fuck’s sake, don’t back away from her, either. I worried about pushing Taylor too soon because my emotions were running rampant over what had happened to her. Those efforts caused more problems than they helped. Torie is a strong woman. She’ll get through all of this. Just be there to support her.”

  “It really hasn’t been all that long,” Jax added. “And in Torie’s case, she had to heal some extreme bodily injuries before she could even start to think about getting her head straight.”

  “That’s what I told her,” I said roughly. “She’s seeing Dr. Romero, and I think that’s helping. Fuck! Maybe I’m just impatient because I hate hearing her criticize herself. She’s the most incredible woman I’ve ever met, but she’s still not happy with her progress. She almost never cuts herself a damn break.”

  “Then you be there to remind her that she needs to take it easy on herself,” Jax advised. “Harlow did the same thing. She was critical about every damn thing she did during and after the kidnapping. It took her a long time to realize that just escaping with her life was a fucking miracle.”

  Hudson tossed his burger wrapper into one of the empty bags and leaned back in his chair. “I take it you’re going to be in this relationship for the long haul?” he asked.

  “And then some,” I rasped. “I’m sorry for every stupid thing I ever said about romantic relationships. Not that I would trade the way I feel about Torie, but I wish I would have realized that losing my mind was going to be inevitable if I met the right woman. I didn’t get it. I didn’t understand what both of you were going through, and I’m sorry for that. Christ! It hurts like hell when she’s hurting. It’s like we feel the same fucking pain.”