Instead, his lips touched hers, and she was immediately lost to the maelstrom of emotions and feelings that only this man could seem to evoke. As always, the world turned blurry as she lost herself in his kiss.

  The scent of him curled around her, teasing her nostrils with its citrus notes. The feel of his warm and inviting arms lured her closer until they were pressed together on her tiny couch. She pressed a kiss to his stubbly jaw, her tongue picking up on the slight tang of salt on his skin. Her senses were overwhelmed, and her world had narrowed to just the two of them. The rest of humanity simply melted into the background, ceasing to exist in any real way.

  Tom, Fiona, and everyone else would have to wait. This moment was the only thing that mattered, and it was just Cooper and Jane. The world could go up in flames, and they’d never notice.

  Their clothes seemed to dissolve into thin air as they made their way into the bedroom, falling back on the mattress. Jane couldn’t seem to get enough of him, her hands touching here and there, trying to draw even the most subtle of reactions.

  He was the same, pressing kisses to her neck and shoulders, especially that one spot that made her throw back her head and almost scream his name. His far too-talented fingers had winnowed their way between her legs and were doing naughty things that had white-hot flames licking at her flesh. He was taking his damn time, however, and she didn’t have the patience for it. Not tonight.

  Pushing at his shoulder, she pressed him down onto his back and then threw her leg over his hips. Bracing herself with her palms on his chest, she slowly lowered herself down until he was into the hilt. Hissing with pleasure, she didn’t move for a long moment, allowing herself the utter ecstasy of being so supremely filled.

  When they finally moved together, his thick length rubbed all the sensitive spots inside of her with every delicious stroke. It was good…so good. They were familiar enough with each other to know what pleased the other. No guessing or fumbling. It should have lessened the pleasure and excitement, but in fact, it did the opposite. It was hot to be with a man that cared enough to remember what she liked, what sent her into orbit.

  If it wasn’t good for Jane, then it wasn’t good for Cooper. He’d made it clear that if she wasn’t satisfied, then they’d done it wrong. It was a heady combination to have a lover and a friend in the same person.

  When her climax slammed into her, she stiffened as the heated pleasure zipped through her veins and all the way to her curled toes. Cooper went over right after, his own head thrown back, showing off the muscled cords of his neck. She couldn’t resist the urge to lean down and press a kiss to his damp skin.

  Less than graceful, she tucked herself into his side as the world stopped spinning and the fireworks quieted down. Her gaze was caught by the lazy ceiling fan - going around and around - that was quickly drying the sweat from their bodies.

  Her eyelids were heavy, and she could feel herself slowly sliding into sleep. Cooper must have already been there because he was softly snoring in her ear. She cuddled closer, reveling in the feeling of not sleeping alone for once. She didn’t need a man to make her feel safe or happy.

  But she wasn’t about to kick him out of bed tonight. Maybe not tomorrow night either.

  9

  “Can I ask what was going on last night?”

  It was the next morning at the bookstore, Jane and Lucy were getting the store ready for opening. It was just the two of them, and Jane had felt the weight of her best friend’s gaze the entire time they were working.

  “Last night? What do you mean?”

  Jane would simply play dumb. She’d act like she didn’t have a clue as to what Lucy was referring to.

  Sure, that will work.

  Except that they were like sisters and could practically read each other’s mind. Lucy had been watching Jane and Cooper during dinner. No one else had a clue, but Lucy? She wasn’t dumb, and she was damn observant. She wasn’t going to be fobbed off easily.

  “Last night,” Lucy repeated. “There was something in the air, something going on. I don’t suppose you want to tell me what it is? And no, I’m not talking about Fiona and Tom.”

  “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

  Lucy’s lips turned down, shaking her head. She didn’t look angry at all. Just sad and disappointed. Jane’s heart hurt simply looking at her friend.

  “Okay, I’m not going to push. I’m here if you need to talk.”

  Lucy turned and walked into the backroom, leaving Jane standing in the coffee shop area feeling like shit. She’d been keeping this huge secret. She wanted to tell someone. She needed to tell someone.

  She and Lucy told each other everything. Until now.

  This was big, too. This wasn’t some namby-pamby secret she was holding on to here. Lucy was going to be shocked.

  Jane’s own emotions had been swirling when it came to Cooper even before Fiona had hit town. She knew good and well he wasn’t the man for the long haul. She’d be crazy to try and get any sort of commitment out of him.

  She’d thought she didn’t want one anyway. She was content with the status quo. But in the last week or so, she wasn’t sure. She liked Cooper. She liked spending time with him. He was good company - funny and intelligent. He didn’t pull any of that man crap that she couldn’t stand. He was nice to be around. There might not be a future, but there was right now.

  See? This is why I need to talk to someone. I’m confused as hell.

  She made her mind up in the next minute, striding into the backroom where Lucy was opening boxes of new books.

  “I’m sleeping with Cooper. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you before.”

  There. She’d said it. There was no going back now. That’s why she’d simply jumped off the ledge. No second guessing how wise this move was. It was done.

  Lucy almost dropped the box she was carrying, but she carefully placed it on the desk before replying. Her eyes were wide, but it was clear she was trying not to scream or act surprised.

  “Well, that’s…news. I didn’t expect that. Like, at all. Cooper, huh? I had no clue. Just how long has this been going on? A few days? Weeks?”

  “Months,” Jane said, her voice soft. “Lucy, I’m so sorry. He and I agreed we’d keep it quiet. We didn’t want anyone to talk about us. We kept it from you and Zack. I know it was a shitty thing to do.”

  Mea culpa. She’d kept a huge secret from her best friend, and she didn’t feel happy about it.

  “We knew you and Zack wouldn’t have told anyone, but we just thought it would be easier if no one else knew. Frankly, I don’t think either one of us believed we would still be doing this all this time later. I sure didn’t. It’s surprising to me, too. Did I say I was sorry? Because I really am. I’m so sorry that I didn’t tell you. I’ve wanted to. I really have.”

  It all came tumbling out, words she could no longer hold back. She’d been dying to tell Lucy for so long, and now she had. It felt good to tell the truth, but awful that she’d kept such a secret from her best friend.

  “I think you could be good together,” Lucy finally replied. “I think that you make a nice couple, actually.”

  Wait…what?

  “Aren’t you mad at me?”

  “Yes, but I’ll get over it,” Lucy sighed. “I see why you didn’t tell me at first. You didn’t think it would last. Then it did. But you were stuck because you hadn’t said anything before.”

  “Exactly. Cooper and I agreed that we wouldn’t say anything. Neither of us wanted the town gossips talking about us.”

  “I can’t blame you there. They love to talk about Cooper and all his conquests. In fact, they’ve been noticing that he’s been alone lately. But he hasn’t been at all. He’s been with you. How did you do it, by the way? How did you keep it a secret for so long?”

  It hadn’t been easy.

  “We mostly met at his place. I’d sneak up the back stairs. When he came to my place, he’d come after dark. We pretended not to like each other, too.”

  “That didn’t work,” Lucy laughed. “I could see that you two had a friendship. A strange one, but it worked for you both. I could tell that Cooper respected you.”

  “I respect him.”

  There was more. Lucy didn’t know he was S.S. Cooper. But that wasn’t her secret to tell. That was Cooper’s. As much as she wanted to tell Lucy, she wasn’t going to. She’d talk to Cooper about revealing his identity to his family and friends. Now that Jane knew, there wasn’t much reason to keep it all under wraps.

  “You need to be careful. You could get hurt. Cooper isn’t known for staying with one woman for too long.”

  Lucy’s warning was the exact same one Jane had been telling herself for months.

  “I know. We’re casual. We’re not seeing anyone else, but we’re not looking to make a big commitment or anything. We’re not looking to fall in love. We’re keeping our hearts out of this.”

  Lucy gave Jane a shrewd look.

  “My friend, you are one of the biggest romantics I’ve ever met in my life. If not the biggest. Did you truly agree to keep emotion out of your relationship? That’s a recipe for disaster.”

  “It’s fine,” Jane replied dismissively. “It’s all good. We don’t have a future. I’m living in the moment.”

  “Living in the moment? It’s just sex? I hope it’s good sex.”

  Unbelievably amazing. Incredible. Fireworks and all that stuff.

  “It is.”

  What an understatement. The things Cooper did to her ought to be illegal. Or at the very least, come with a warning label.

  “With his reputation, I’m thinking it’s better than good.” Lucy held up her hands. “But I don’t need the details. Spare me those. I think I’ll just assume your non-stop good mood is from him.”

  “He does piss me off from time to time.”

  “Then you must be in a real relationship. If you weren’t, then there wouldn’t be any reason to be mad.”

  “Dating Cooper would be…difficult,” Jane admitted. “He’s a complex man.”

  “And you’re a complex woman. A woman he’s been with for several months. That might be a record for Cooper, if you don’t count his marriage to Fiona. Maybe you’re different than the other women he’s gone out with. Maybe he feels something for you.”

  “I’m not going to think that way. I don’t want to set myself up for failure, especially as it’s clear that Fiona wants him back. At least that’s how it looked to me last night.”

  “Maybe,” Lucy replied, tapping her chin. “She was acting strangely.”

  “She was drunk.”

  “That, too.”

  “There will always be women running after Cooper. I don’t want to be one of a crowd.”

  “If he only wants you, then there is no crowd,” Lucy pointed out. “He didn’t look like he wanted a trip down memory lane with Fiona last night. If anything, it looked like he’d rather be anywhere else than with her and her brother. Seriously, you two would make a nice couple. You mesh well.”

  “You don’t think he’s anything like Peter?”

  “Absolutely not,” Lucy said with a visible shudder. “Cooper has far too much integrity to be that kind of asshole. He’s a good man. Kind of lost as to what he wants to be when he grows up, but his heart is real. He’s a good person. We need more like that.”

  Cooper knew exactly what he was, but Lucy didn’t know that. And she still thought Jane should be with him.

  “It has to be something that he wants. I’m not going to chase him.”

  “Then you do like him. You do want more than a secret fling.”

  “I’m open to it,” Jane admitted. “That’s probably just the romantic in me. But I’m not looking to reform a bad boy, Lucy. Been there, done that.”

  “You’re scared to put yourself out there,” Lucy said. “You don’t want to get your heart broken.”

  “Of course, I don’t. No one wants that.”

  “Sometimes you have to take a chance. I took one with Zack. It worked out.”

  “Just because it worked out for you, doesn’t mean it will for me. Cooper isn’t Zack.”

  The brothers had many things in common, but Zack had come into town looking for a home and permanence. For all Jane knew, Cooper would simply grab his backpack and go off on more travels at a moment’s notice. She’d just wake up one day, and he’d be gone. It wasn’t his fault; it was just who he was. A man who didn’t like staying in one place too long. She was shocked he’d been in Winslow Heights this long.

  “I have the distinct feeling that Cooper isn’t the man he was. Look at how he acted last night. He didn’t want to be there. He’s moved on. Fiona hasn’t.”

  There were too many questions and very few answers.

  Did Cooper want more than a casual roll in the hay with Jane? And if he did, was she willing to take that sort of chance with him?

  And more importantly, what was Fiona doing in Winslow Heights? Jane didn’t buy that the woman had come after her phone. Her handbag alone was worth about several dozen phones. She wouldn’t hop an airplane chasing after it. It didn’t make sense.

  Just why was Fiona here? Did she want Cooper back?

  And what was Jane willing to do if that was the case?

  10

  There was a banging sound in Cooper’s head that wouldn’t go away. Persistent as fuck. By the time he was awake enough to register where it was coming from, there was yelling to go along with it.

  Someone was pounding on his door. Fiona was that someone. She was currently yelling his name and probably waking up people two blocks away. She’d always had a set of lungs on her.

  Throwing off the covers, he tugged on a pair of blue jeans and pulled a t-shirt over his head as she stomped to the door, yelling back that he was coming and to quiet down. Not his proudest moment, but he wasn’t a happy camper.

  When he’d dropped Fiona off at the Winslow Heights Inn last night, he’d told her that she needed to get on a plane today and go back home. Tom, too. They didn’t have any reason to be here, and it was time to go.

  She’d been crawling all over him, but he’d let her know in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t looking for any sort of reconciliation or even a one-night stand. He’d also told her that her drunken antics might be funny and cute at twenty-two, but now at thirty-two it simply looked pathetic.

  She’d come at him then, enraged that he’d called her out. She’d tried to scratch his eyes out like a cat, but he’d managed to push her away without much damage. The night clerk at the desk had eyed him up and down, resting on the deep scratch on his cheek that had been dripping blood. Cooper had ignored the questions in the man’s eyes, simply pulling out his credit card and paid for one night at the inn for Fiona.

  One fucking night.

  “Shut the fuck up,” Cooper barked when he opened the door. “It’s not even eight in the morning, and people are asleep. What in the hell are you doing here?”

  Fiona brushed past him, tossing her handbag down on the couch.

  “Tom is gone. He’s not answering his phone. Or my phone. Either of them.”

  “He’s probably sleeping it off. He was just as drunk as you,” Cooper replied, walking over to the closed bedroom door of the guest room.

  “Did you hear him come home?”

  “No, and this is not his home. His home is in Denver. And yours is in Miami. Just in case you forgot.”

  “Damn, you haven’t changed a bit. You always were grouchy in the morning.”

  He hadn’t been. He was a morning person, and Fiona knew that. She’d been the one who liked sleeping until noon.

  He opened the guestroom door to find that the bed was a mess, but Tom wasn’t there. His suitcase was still sitting in the corner, half unpacked.

  “Is he here?” Fiona demanded, trying to push her way into the room. “Where is he?”

  “If I had to guess, he spent the night with that girl he was with at dinner.”

  “But he’s not answering my calls or texts.”

  “Maybe he’s busy. Maybe he’s asleep. It’s early still.”

  “He should have come back here.”

  Cooper was exhausted. He hadn’t slept well last night, and this was the cherry on the goddamn shit sundae. Fiona was itching for a fight. He could see it in her eyes, but she was going to have to argue with herself. He was too fucking tired.

  “Tell Tom that. He’s not here. He’ll contact you eventually. He’s a grown man. Now, can I drive you to the airport?”

  “I’m not leaving without my brother. How crazy do you think I am?”

  “Do you really want me to answer that?”

  “I want coffee. How about you make me some?”

  He opened his mouth to remind her there was a coffee shop in the bookstore a few blocks down, but then closed it immediately. He didn’t want Jane and Fiona in the same room if at all possible. Last night had been bad enough.

  In his tiny kitchen, he slammed the cabinet doors a bit but made a pot of coffee despite his general sour mood. He needed to stop acting like this. Fiona was getting off on it, and as long as he acted like her presence was bothering him, she’d stick around.

  Just to fuck with him. She was finding his discomfort entertaining as hell.

  He poured two cups and handed her one.

  “Why are you so mad at me, baby? You’re like a bear with a sore paw.”

  Sinking down onto his couch cushion, he propped his bare feet on the coffee table.

  “How about you answer a question first? Why are you here? And don’t tell me it’s because you came to get your phone. That’s bullshit, and we both know it. Tell the truth. You still know what that is, right? The truth?”

  Fiona’s gaze settled on him as she sipped at her steaming coffee. For a moment, he thought she was going to tell him to fuck himself, but then she sighed and plopped into a chair.

  “Fine, I didn’t come here for my phone.”

  “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

  “I came to see you. I’ve missed you, baby. Haven’t you missed me?”