Because You Love Me ; Journey to My Heart

by Terra Little

  Which was exactly what she was.

  But that part of her trip was over now, and her head was officially back in the game. Snatching up her purse and room key from the sitting-room coffee table, Olivia headed for the door with a new resolve. She and Shannon had agreed to meet in the hotel lobby at nine fifteen, and she didn’t intend to be late. From here on out she was committed to focusing on being there for Shannon. There was always a chance that she might run into Cooper at some point during the morning, but she was prepared for that possibility, too. She dug her Chanel sunglasses out of her tote, slipped them over her eyes and cleared her throat. There. Grateful that she’d had the foresight to request a late check-out when she made her reservation, she left her suite and went in search of the elevator.

  She spotted Shannon immediately. She was sitting alone in a chair in the hotel lobby, next to a window that looked out onto the street. Olivia didn’t notice until she was halfway across the lobby that Shannon was also in the middle of a very intense-looking conversation.

  Wait a second. Olivia slowed to a stop and stared. With herself?

  She hadn’t gotten close enough to hear any of what Shannon was saying, but fortunately she’d gotten pretty good at reading lips over the years. There’s nothing to worry about, Shannon was saying to the invisible person sitting next to her. After today, it’s all over. They don’t know... No one does.

  Advancing more cautiously this time, Olivia waved her arms and called out to Shannon while there was still enough distance between them to pretend that she hadn’t noticed her talking to herself. “Shannon! Good morning!”

  Shannon’s head whipped around and, while her eyes widened in alarm, Olivia exhaled with relief because the move revealed the cell phone in Shannon’s other hand. “Olivia, hi. Good morning. You’re early.”

  Olivia glanced at her watch as she approached. “Only by a few minutes. Did you eat breakfast already?”

  “No, I, uh...” She pointed to the cell phone pressed to the side of her face and flashed an apologetic smile. “I was just wrapping up a call.” Into the phone, she said, “I have to go. I’ll call you back.” She ended the call abruptly and tucked the phone inside of her purse.

  Olivia frowned. “That looked pretty serious. Is everything all right?”

  “Everything’s fine. That was just an ex-coworker from the bank, checking up on me.”

  She was lying, Olivia was sure of it, but after last night she wasn’t going to be the one to call her out on it. If Shannon wanted to keep secrets, that was her prerogative. God knew that Olivia was keeping enough secrets of her own.

  “Oh, okay. The car that they’re sending for us should be here any minute. Did you remember everything?”

  Shannon slung her purse strap over her shoulder and got to her feet. She was wearing a knee-length sundress, with a matching shrug and sensible flats. “I think so, yes, but if you’re hungry, we might have time to grab something to eat on the way.”

  “Right now, all I need is coffee,” Olivia said, waving away Shannon’s suggestion of food. She paused to inhale slowly. “Real coffee, because, if that’s supposed to be coffee that I smell in the air right now, it doesn’t even begin to qualify.”

  “So... Starbucks?”

  “There has to be one around here somewhere.”

  Chapter 10

  They both started when the heavy wooden door swung open and a brunette head popped out into the hallway. “Miss Bridgeway?”

  Shannon jumped to her feet and Olivia stood too, reaching for her hands and squeezing them reassuringly. “I’ll wait for you out here.” On the other side of Shannon, Sabine cut the text message that she’d been composing short, put away her cell phone and stood, as well.

  “This shouldn’t take long,” she advised Olivia. “As soon as we’re done here, you and I can discuss the myriad of ways in which you now owe me, friend.”

  “Pretty big, huh?”

  “Oh my God, so big,” Sabine said, winking saucily as she ushered Shannon through the doorway and followed behind. Settling in to wait, Olivia resumed her seat on the padded wooden bench across from the door and crossed her legs. A few seconds later, she glanced at her watch and reached for a section of the day’s newspaper that someone had been thoughtful enough to leave behind. She was perusing the editorials when her cell phone vibrated in her blazer pocket. Fighting a yawn, she set the paper aside and took it out.

  Meeting started yet?

  She smiled. Why was she smiling? Stop it, Olivia! She looked both ways down the corridor, saw that she was alone and reread Cooper’s text. She texted back.

  Yes, just now.

  What are you doing?

  Waiting. Their car had been late arriving to pick them up, so there hadn’t been time to find a Starbucks on the way there. As a result Olivia was suddenly struggling with a bout of mid-morning drowsiness, so she added to her previous text.

  Trying to stay awake.

  Have you had breakfast?

  No time and not really hungry. Would kill for coffee, though.

  A winking emoticon flashed across her screen first and then he responded.

  Got you covered. Meet me downstairs in the lobby in five minutes?

  Absolutely not. She wasn’t ready to see him again so soon.

  See you then.

  * * *

  She told herself that she’d only come because she was in a strange city, she didn’t know anyone else and she desperately needed coffee. But the moment that Cooper walked off the elevator, with his cell phone pressed to his ear and a wrinkle of concentration in his forehead, her nipples tightened with awareness and she flushed involuntarily. She forgot all about her craving for coffee as, from behind her dark lenses, she watched him look around the lobby for her and then change directions when he saw her standing near the exit doors. He continued his phone conversation as he strolled toward her but she was too busy appreciating his loose, long-limbed stride to even think about trying to read his lips.

  “Hi,” Olivia said when he was close enough to reach out and touch. She was tempted to do just that, but she managed to resist.

  “Hi, yourself,” he replied, glancing at his watch as he snapped his cell back into the clip on his belt. She noticed that there was a Glock holstered next to it today.

  “What are you doing here?” The third time they’d made love, she had instigated it, awakening him with a long, leisurely blow job. She flushed now, just thinking about it. “I thought you worked on the other side of town?”

  He pushed his hands in his trouser pockets and smiled down at her. “Believe it or not, I’ve answered that very question about ten times already this morning. Up until now I’ve basically pleaded the fifth, but the truth is, I’ve been hanging around here, hoping to see you again before you left. You look great, by the way.”

  “Thank you. So do you.” The longer she stared at him, the more she realized that truer words had never been spoken. Sans suspenders and a tie of any kind, the first few buttons of his pristine white dress shirt were unbuttoned and his cuffs were rolled back from his wrists, giving him a casual air that, together with his height, shouldn’t have meshed so well with his authoritative carriage but somehow did. Spectacularly.

  “Feel like taking a walk?”

  “Sure, but do we have time?”

  “I left word upstairs for someone to call me on my cell when the meeting wraps up, so we should be good. We won’t go far.”

  “Okay, then let’s go. I did mention that I needed coffee, didn’t I?” Olivia asked as she walked through the exit door that he held open for her and was immediately hit with a wall of warm, humid air. “On second thought, I think I’d better have iced coffee,” she said, pausing to shrug out of her blazer and drape it over her arm. It wasn’t even noon yet and the temperature outside was already approaching the triple digits. “Is it always so hot here in the
summertime?”

  “Please. Like Missouri’s so much better?” He took a hand from his pocket, waved it dismissively and then casually rested it on the small of her back. “I grew out of my childhood asthma thirty years ago. Haven’t had an attack in at least that long. Then I made the mistake of visiting Missouri in the middle of July—the hottest month of the year.”

  “You had an asthma attack while you were in St. Louis?” Why was she just now hearing about this?

  He chuckled at the concern on her face. “No, but I thought I was going to. Let’s cross here at the light. There’s a corner store just down the block.” They joined a group of people crossing the street at the stoplight and hurried across the busy intersection. Back on the sidewalk, their pace slowed to a leisurely stroll again and the group quickly passed them by. “So, have you always lived in Missouri?”

  “For the most part, yes. My father is originally from London, so I spent a lot of time there when I was growing up, too. But Missouri has always been home. What about you? Did you grow up here in Knoxville?”

  He shook his head. “I was born in Los Angeles. My mother was sixteen and an honor-roll student when she got pregnant with me. She was black and poor, my father was white and from a wealthy family, and it was the seventies...” He shrugged as they approached a sidewalk food cart outside the store and joined the short line. “So you can probably guess how it all went down. She worked her ass off during the day and took college courses here and there at night, until she earned a nursing scholarship to the University of Tennessee and we moved here. I was ten at the time and I hated it here.” It was their turn in line. He stepped up to the metal counter and looked at Olivia expectantly. “What would you like?”

  “Just an iced coffee, please,” Olivia said. “Black.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want something to eat?”

  “I’m sure.”

  Three minutes later, she was eyeing his hotdog greedily.

  “Stop staring at my hotdog, because I’m not sharing,” he warned as they settled at a tiny sidewalk table in front of the store and he passed her the coffee that she’d requested. “You should’ve gotten your own.”

  Thanks to her growling stomach, which hadn’t started making a fuss until after she’d set eyes on his mouthwatering hotdog, she was well aware of her mistake. She set her coffee down and scooted her chair closer to his. “You know, your mom sounds pretty great. It’s a shame she didn’t teach you to share with your friends.”

  Cooper snorted. A few seconds later he picked up his cholesterol-packed, Chicago-style hotdog and made a fourth of it disappear inside of his mouth. “Yeah, well, we’re not friends,” he said after he swallowed. “And don’t talk about my mama.” Besides his foot-long hotdog, he had also ordered a basket of cheese fries and a large Dr. Pepper. He turned his attention to the fries next, picking up one long, golden, cheese-soaked fry and biting into it dramatically. “Aw, damn, that’s good.”

  She caught herself watching the play of muscles in his squared jaw as he chewed, the coordinated bob of his Adam’s apple when he swallowed, and forced herself to look away.

  “You’re staring.”

  But obviously not soon enough.

  “Penny for your thoughts?”

  She picked up her coffee cup and sipped carefully. “It’s...nothing... It’s just...you surprise me, that’s all.”

  “Oh?” His thick, reddish-brown eyebrows shot up and his eyes swerved over to hers. “How so?”

  “You just do, that’s all. I can’t explain it.”

  He took another bite of his hotdog, studying her curiously as he chewed. “Try.”

  “I wasn’t expecting to be attracted to you,” she said after a few seconds of silent contemplation. “But you’ve got this Barack Obama kind of thing happening that turns me on.” She popped the top off her cup and reached for the sugar dispenser. “And it shouldn’t, because—”

  “Let me guess, he’s not your type, either.”

  Aware that her face was burning, she stirred her coffee. “Right.” She treated herself to a refreshing sip before daring to look at him again. “Sorry.”

  “No worries. Since we’re being honest, can I tell you a little secret?”

  “I’m all ears.” Well, if not all, then at least half ears, she conceded as he slid his hotdog and fries across the tabletop to her and then handed her the plastic fork that he hadn’t bothered with. She inhaled two cheese-soaked fries, sighed with contentment and then wiped her mouth with a paper napkin. Then she took a huge bite of the hotdog and blushed to the roots of her hair when she caught Cooper staring at her mouth as she chewed. “Stop that,” she whispered when she could talk again.

  “You’re a very beautiful woman, Olivia Carrington. It’s hard not to stare.”

  What could she say to that? She couldn’t think of anything just then, so she blushed even harder and looked away from him. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” A beat passed before he spoke again. “I lied before about you not being my type. Women like you are precisely my type. I seem to always go for exactly what I don’t need, where women are concerned.” He held up one huge hand and ticked off his points, one by one. “Beauty, drama, games and hidden agendas. When my last relationship ended over a year ago, I swore off women with trust funds and decided that, if and when I was ready to date again, I’d find myself a potential soccer mom.”

  The coffee that Olivia had been swallowing almost went down the wrong way. She coughed her throat clear and slowly sucked in a deep breath. “I’m sorry, a potential soccer mom? What does that even mean?”

  “I know, right?” Cooper drawled, rolling his eyes to the sunny sky. “But I’m forty and my mother wants grandchildren before she’s too old to enjoy them.”

  “You’re an only child? Her only hope for grandchildren?”

  His expression turned adorably sheepish. “I’m afraid so. Problem is, I haven’t quite made up my mind about whether or not she’ll ever actually get any grandchildren. What I do know is that, if I keep chasing self-absorbed, runway-model types—which clearly the hound in me is prone to do, or else we wouldn’t be sitting here together right now—chances are she won’t.”

  “Excuse me, but did you just insult me?”

  He winked at her. “Sorry.”

  “Go to hell, Harry Potter. You could always marry a runway-model type who’s ready to settle down and become a soccer mom.” He was certainly good-looking and successful enough to pull it off.

  “Do you want children, Miss Carrington?”

  That stopped her in her tracks. “Um...well...”

  “My point exactly. Here,” he said, taking pity on her and gently wiping her mouth with a paper napkin. “As far as what happened between us last night is concerned, it was good. Damn good. But it would never work between us, and the good thing is, we both know it. It was just one of those incredibly random and incredibly irresponsible things that happens every once in a great while. And to top it all off, it was also pretty damn incredible.”

  He caught the droll look that she shot him and chuckled. “Please, Miss Carrington. You aren’t that good of an actress. You enjoyed yourself. You know it. I know it. The people in the room next to yours know it. And so do most of the night staff at the hotel, thanks to the three-o’clock-noise-complaint call that the front desk received while you were sitting on my face. That was all you, Olivia. Enjoying yourself.”

  Even as she racked her brain, trying to think of a strong rebuttal, Olivia’s face burned. He was right. That particular time, she had come long and hard...and very, very loudly.

  But still.

  “I wasn’t alone, Agent Talbot. If my memory serves me right—and you know it does—you were every bit as loud as I was.” She thought about it for a second and then took another hefty bite of his hotdog. “Well, maybe not as loud,” she qualified after swal
lowing. “But still loud.”

  “There you go with that Agent Talbot shit again,” he griped and she cracked up.

  “Payback for calling me self-absorbed. Sorry.”

  “No, you’re not, but are you sorry about last night?”

  She didn’t even have to think about it. “Not at all. I mean, you’re right. What we did was very irresponsible, and now that I think about it, it was also probably against some vague rule in the FBI employee handbook. But we’re both adults and there was some chemistry between us, so we acted on it and it was...” She trailed off, unsure where she was going or how she planned to get there.

  “Amazing. Sort of like two ships passing in the night,” Cooper finished for her. “A couple of months from now, we probably won’t even remember each other’s names, let alone the fact that we weren’t each other’s types.”

  “Probably not,” she agreed and picked up her coffee again.

  They were walking back to the courthouse complex when she remembered something else that she’d meant to ask him earlier. “Where’s your mom right now? Does she still live in Knoxville, too?”

  “Yeah, she does.” He glanced at his watch. “This time of day, though, she’s probably on shift at the hospital.”

  “Does she enjoy being a nurse?”

  “I’m sure she did when she was a nurse. She’s a doctor now. She’s been the head of oncology over at Knoxville General for years. What about you? Any brothers or sisters?”

  “Actually—”

  His cell phone rang. “Excuse me,” he cut in, sliding it out of the clip on his belt and shifting away from the sun’s glare so that he could read the screen. “It’s the district attorney’s office. I’m guessing the meeting’s over.” Touching a button to the screen, he put the phone to his ear with one hand and held the other out to her. “Dr. Talbot.” He listened for a moment. “Great, thanks. We’ll be there in five.” He ended the call and looked down at her. “Come on. I know a shortcut.”