I came around the end of the counter and spun her on the stool so I could move between her legs. “Someone didn’t let me get much sleep last night.”
“Pretty sure you were the one waking me.” She laced her fingers together behind my neck.
I lowered my mouth to hers for a light kiss. “I can’t get enough.”
“So, maybe we should go to bed and see what else we can come up with?”
“If you insist.” I lifted her off the stool and up over my shoulder.
“Cooper, wait. I’m too heavy.”
“You do realize I used to drag eighty-pound packs through the desert.”
“I am not eighty pounds.”
“Let me finish.” I slapped her ass. “And I had to be able to carry a two-hundred-pound soldier.”
“If you’re saying my ass is as big as a soldier’s, you’re a dead man.”
“Your ass is perfect.” I headed up the stairs to my bedroom suite and set her down on my bed. “Now strip.”
She flicked off the ballet shoes she was forever wearing and sat cross-legged. She had on one of those flowing sundresses from the box o’plenty. “Excuse you? This is not the seduction scene I signed up for.”
“I want to hold you and prefer you naked.”
“So bossy. You could have just—hey!”
I drew her to her feet and whisked the dress over her head. A second later, her bra and panties sailed into the club chair I had in the corner. I shucked my own clothing and pulled her into bed, curling around her back.
“Much better.”
“You are a maniac.” But she cuddled into me and tugged my arm around her middle. “But maybe I’m a little tired.”
She’d pulled her hair into a loose tail, and I took full advantage of her neck. Before I could get to her shoulder, she was already asleep.
I closed my own eyes. It was a hell of a thing, holding my world in my arms.
Fifteen
Green grass stretched as far as I could see, so soft and ticklish under my feet as I walked. “C’mon, honey. See that rainbow over there? That’s where we’re headed.”
The little girl beside me hurried ahead on chubby legs. She had red hair just like me, long downy ringlets of it. A circlet of flowers crowned her head. “Rainbow?”
“Yeah. All those pretty colors. See it in the sky? They come out after the rain.” I squeezed her small, warm fingers in mine. “You just have to look for them. Don’t stop looking.”
She smiled up at me trustingly. Her blue eyes were a mirror of my own, back when I’d been innocent and believed in fairy tales. “I see it.”
The distant chime of bells made me shiver and burrow deeper under the covers. It was chilly in here with the A/C vent pumping directly overhead. Usually, I kept my room at a nice sixty-eight. Even in the summer, I tended to like it warmer, especially when I slept.
Except this wasn’t my room. Not my stack of pillows, although the one under my head was nice and firm. The comforter was thin, and the sheets were tangled around me. Neither were as snuggly as mine.
Because men are always hot.
I was with a man.
Which was about as usual in my life as…not at all.
My eyes flew open. The shadowy light of twilight cast shadows over the room, and it was silent except for the low sound of Cooper’s breathing beside me.
I peeked over my shoulder. He was sprawled with his arms over his head and his body taking most of the space. I was cocooned and in the fetal position.
Stressed? Needing comfort? Who me?
I really had to pee. And stretch. I rubbed a vague ache in my lower back. I wouldn’t be surprised if I had aches in other places too. Ones that hadn’t any activity in a long while but were now getting a thorough workout.
Surreptitiously, I took another look at Cooper. As dark as it was in here, I could just make out the long planes and indents of his torso. All those lean muscles were deliciously on display. The sheets were tangled around his waist. Hiding what I already wanted to see again. And touch and lick and ride…
I couldn’t help smiling as I hugged the comforter to my chest.
Sex fiend.
But he didn’t mind. Not one bit. And wasn’t that lucky for me? We definitely should have been doing this sooner. If my various neuroses courtesy of my ex would have allowed that to happen.
Maybe we were right on time.
Discounting fires and destruction and poisoned drinks and everything else that made me want to pull the pillow over my head and hide.
The bells started again, and I braced, realizing my phone going off was what had jolted me out of my dream with the little girl. The noise was going to wake Cooper.
Shit.
I fumbled for my cell on the nightstand and swiped to answer it as I rolled out of bed as quietly as possible. I was naked. Barefoot. I couldn’t grab the comforter without disturbing Cooper. It was amazing he hadn’t awakened yet.
In the darkness, I felt around on the floor and found his shirt and my panties. I yanked them on in a hurry. On me, his shirts doubled as dresses, but thank God this wasn’t a video call.
“Hello,” I whispered as I padded down the dimly lit hall. The person had probably already hung up. There had been no name on the caller ID, so it was probably just a spam call, anyway.
“Teagan? Is that you?”
My knees went liquid, and I stumbled into the wall at my side. I still wasn’t used to Cooper’s place, and only a few lights farther down the hall had come on automatically with dusk. Cole was somewhere in the apartment doing who-knows-what, but his light was too far away.
Except the lack of light wasn’t why I’d nearly fallen.
It was her. Priscilla Jones. I knew it in an instant and had to lean against the wall to keep
