Get a Clue

'It would have rejuvenated anyone.'

'Really? So why do I feel more frustrated now than before?'

Not wanting to face the answer to that, she shrugged and began to dry off.

But he waited her out, standing in the doorway when she would have breezed on out. 'Why did you cry at the end?'

Her gaze whipped up to his. 'I didn't.'

'You did.'

Embarrassed, she looked away. 'I don't know.'

'Is it because you're not used to feeling as much as you did?'

Hammer on the nail. 'It's just that…' Oh, the hell with it. 'I really liked it,' she admitted in a whisper.

'I know.' This was accompanied by a grin. 'I was there.'

She stared at his chest, trying to find the right words. 'I want to say something that's going to sound weird.' Lifting her head, she met his gaze. 'You're nice to me.'

'You're easy to be nice to.'

He always knew what to say

'I came here to clear my head.' Lifting a shoulder, he shot her a crooked smile. 'I thought maybe I'd meet a few snow bunnies, have a great time.'

'I can put on a ski hat if that would please you.'

'Only if that's all you put on.'

She snorted at that, and got a fleeting smile from him.

'I thought being here,' he said, 'that I'd feel better about walking away from my work. My life.'

Her flippancy vanished in the face of his quiet pain. 'Oh, Cooper.'

'I thought I'd go home with the answers in my head of what I want to do with myself.'

'Do you have them?' she asked. 'The answers?'

'Not a one that you'd want to hear.'

Her heart skipped a beat, and she went very still. 'What does that mean?'

He sighed, ran his hands through his wet hair. The muscles and tendons stood out in bold relief with his arms lifted, and her belly quivered. When she was around him, everything within her quivered.

She wanted him. Still. Again.

'Remember when we talked about love?' he asked. 'You said you didn't believe in it.'

'I remember,' she said tightly.

'Well, I do. I believe in it, Breanne. I want it.'

Oh, God.

'All the time I thought it was my job screwing with my head. And in some ways, it was.' He came close again. 'But 1 can move out of vice and not have to go under for months at a time. I can work regular shifts patrolling, or even going the detective route, and still have a life. I want a life, Breanne. And in that life, I want-'

'Don't,' she said, setting her fingers to his lips. 'Don't say it.'

'You.'

'Oh, my God.'

He just looked at her.

Her throat tightened, her eyes burned. And her heart, God, her heart. It took one big tumble. 'It's only been a day.'

Reaching up, he pulled her fingers from his mouth, keeping her hand in his. 'It's been three, and those were pretty accelerated, intense days.'

'But it takes years to get to know someone,' she said, sounding desperate.

'I'm game.'

She stared at him. He was game. 'I wrote 'no more men' in my journal. You saw it. It's in stone.'

'There's always Delete''

If only she could really erase some of her mistakes. 'It's my path.'

'Rewrite the path.' He smiled. 'That's the beauty of electronics.'

She swallowed hard. 'You sure seem to have a lot of answers.'

'You do, too.'

She rubbed her temples and wished that were true. 'I'm hungry. Starving.''

'No, you're scared and you have to think,' he said. But then he stepped back and finally began to dry off that mouthwatering body. 'It's okay. You go eat. You go do what you have to do.'

Yeah, she would. Like a chicken, she took her out and moved to the door. There she glanced back. 'Probably in the real world we'd have nothing in common.'

'Date me and find out.'

'Date?' After what they'd done, dating seemed so… tame. 'Men say they want to be with me,' she said softly. 'But they lie.'

'I don't. You know that by now.'

She shook her head. 'Cooper. I don't know what to do with you.'

A small smile touched his lips. 'Yeah, you do. You just haven't faced it yet.'

Keep him. That's what her heart wanted to do. Take this thing where it might go.

But her brain was saying- are you kidding? Run like hell.

Since she'd decided never to trust her heart again, she went with her brain, and ran like hell.

Chapter 26

If a man is talking in the woods, and there is no woman there to hear him, is he still wrong?

– Breanne Mooreland's Journal Entry

Breanne stepped out of the suite, then turned back and stared at the door. She let out a slow breath. Cooper turned her upside down and inside out, and when she was with him she didn't know whether she was coming or going.

Mostly coming, she admitted.

Her legs wobbled at the thought. They'd had some damn amazing sex. She'd never been with anyone who could take her right out of herself and then put her back, making her feel like a new woman, a better one. When she was with him, she didn't have self-doubts. She didn't wonder what he thought of her. She didn't do anything but be herself.

And he seemed to like that woman. A heady experience.

At the bottom of the stairs, Dante appeared right out of the woodwork, and still dizzy with thoughts of Cooper,