by Mercer Scott
“Cutthroat, V. I love it!”
Veronica narrows her eyes at Cooper. “Who was this date with? Are you still seeing her?”
Veronica is the one who is always blushing, but right now it’s my face that turns bright red. As much as I want to crawl under the table and pretend none of this is happening, I can’t resist staying right where I am to hear every word of Cooper’s answer.
Cooper narrows his eyes at Veronica, and at first, I don’t think he’s going to answer at all. “It was a first date that I went on under duress. And all she did was complain about the food and the service… at the place that I told her was my favorite restaurant on Maui. So, no, I’m not still seeing her.”
Veronica beams at him approvingly, and Cooper smiles back.
Despite Grant’s dislike of Cooper, he eventually brings us more food than we can possibly eat. And we try. We really, really try because everything is so delicious. Cooper was right about the fried shrimp. That batter is life-changing.
When we’re all climbing back out of the booth to leave, Cooper catches my arm. “When do you want to go out again?”
“What? I don’t.”
Cooper grins down at me. “You’ve really got to stop stroking my ego, Natalia. It’s going to get too big to fit through the door. I wasn’t asking you out on a date – unless you want me to?”
I’ve never shaken my head so hard in my entire life. “Nope. And no one’s stroking anything.”
Cooper grins even wider. “Yet. Look, we barely talked about the hospital project for the committee. We have to have something put together before the meeting next week.”
“Oh, right. Ummm…”
“Why don’t you just get Nat’s number, and then you two can figure out a time that works for both of you?” Like I’m watching an unstoppable disaster, I sit and listen as Veronica recites my number while Cooper types it into his phone. In a second, my phone is buzzing in my purse next to me.
“Perfect. See you soon, Natalia.”
What just happened? I was supposed to see Cooper once, for a single meeting to put together some ideas for the committee. But instead that meeting was co-opted by my friends into an afternoon hangout during which no official, committee business was discussed. And now I have to meet with Cooper again.
Chapter Seven
Cooper
“You want to get out of here?” We’ve been sitting at this damn table in these same uncomfortable metal chairs for hours. I’m getting restless, and my hip is killing me. If I don’t start moving around, I’m going to be paying for it for the next few days. But there’s nowhere to move in the cramped little office in the basement of the hospital. I tried to convince Natalia into going back to the Glass Balls again – or basically anywhere else on Maui – but she wasn’t having it.
“What? No? Why?” Natalia looks up from her laptop long enough to frown at me, and then turns right back to it.
I frown right back at her. “Is no the only thing you know how to say?”
She looks up from her screen, smiling sweetly at me. “No.”
That sweet smile is making me just about as uncomfortable as this hard, metal chair. Uncomfortable at the way warmth floods me when she looks at me like that. Uncomfortable that I want to keep doing whatever I can to make her keep smiling at me like that. I’ve never worked this hard to get a woman to like me in my whole, damn life. I’ve never had to work at it at all.
“So, when I suggest we take a break and get out of here, you’re going to say yes?”
“No.”
“How did I know she was going to say that?” Leaning back in my chair, I let out a deep breath, hoping I sound frustrated and not like I’m in pain. The look on her face tells me instantly that I didn’t succeed.
“What’s wrong? Is it your hip?” Natalia jumps up, going into full nurse-mode with her hands out in front of her, ready to poke and prod at my hip the way she did the first time we met. As often as I’ve thought about her hands on me in the last few days, this is definitely not how I enjoy picturing it. I don’t want her to take care of me, I want her to want me.
“I’m fine. Just bored. And tired of being cooped up in this place all day. I need to get out of here and stretch my legs. You coming or not?”
“Cooped up?” Natalia starts giggling.
“Why is that funny?” I shake my head at her. I’ve spent the last four hours trying to make her laugh and no dice.
“Cooped up. Your name is Cooper? It’s funny.” She shrugs and keeps right on laughing at me.
“That’s not funny at all. I say way funnier stuff than that all the time and you never laugh.”
“Maybe you’re not as funny as you think you are?” She turns and starts heading back to her laptop across the tiny room. “And you’re not fine. You shouldn’t sit for so long without stretching. Stand up and walk around a bit.”
“And where exactly am I supposed to walk?” I stand up and wave my arm around the little office. The walls feel like they’re closing in on me, just like they did when I was stuck in a hospital bed upstairs.
She’s sitting there being all studious, typing away, determinedly not looking at me. She’s so pretty I could stare at her all day. I have been staring at her for the last four hours. And I’m nowhere near being tired of staring at her yet.
“Come with me to the beach?”
She looks up and frowns at me. “I’m working.”
“You’ve been working for hours. Aren’t you supposed to be on vacation? Have you even seen any of Maui other than this hospital and your friends’ houses?”
There’s a long pause, and then she looks up at me with narrowed eyes. “It’s my vacation. And I can spend it however I like. Like everything else about me, how I spend my time is not really any of your business.”
I really didn’t want it to have to come to this. But apparently, it’s what needs to happen. There’s one last thing I can do that I know she won’t be able to resist.
“This office isn’t big enough for me to take more than two steps in any direction.”
“There’s a whole hallway right outside. Enjoy.”
“Look, my hip is really hurting. I need to go for a walk, and the softness of the sand really helps…” I give her my best puppy dog eyes. “Will you come with me? What if I fall or something?”
Natalia’s on her feet in a flash and poking at my hip again through my jeans. “I told you that you weren’t fine! You need to be more careful.”
Her small hands are gentle as she rubs and prods at me. And I can’t help but think about where exactly I would like those hands to be. A few inches to the right. And most definitely under my jeans. And my boxers. I swear I can feel my cock tug against my thigh at the thought of her hands on it. Stroking it. Damnit. I hope she didn’t see that. Taking a step away from her, I push her hands away.
“What I need is to stretch my legs. I’m going to the beach. Are you coming? I could fall into the ocean and drown or something…” I trail off, hoping the image of me drowning is enough to convince her to come with me.
Her eyes narrow at me, and there’s suspicion in those pretty chocolate brown eyes. “Didn’t you tell me that you were a Navy SEAL?”
I nod, not sure where she’s going with this.
“And isn’t swimming something that Navy SEALs are generally pretty good at?”
Crap. She’s right. The ocean is the one place where I still feel like myself. Why the hell did I tell her I needed her to save me from drowning?
“Well, something else could happen to me… and think about how guilty you’d feel if it did.”
Thankfully for me, she nods, even if she’s rolling her eyes. “Oh fine. I could use a break anyway. And maybe you’re just a little bit right that I haven’t really been enjoying Maui as much as I should. I mean, it is paradise, right?”
“Definitely.” I’m pretty sure that the only paradise I’m interested in is between her thighs, but I’ll take a walk on a beautiful Maui beach for now.
As long as she’s there with me.
“Okay, just give me a second to pack up.” Natalia lets out a huff of breath. She always seems so tense, and I have more than a few ideas about how to help her release some of that tension. But I doubt she’d take me up on any of them. Yet.
In a few minutes, we’re stepping out of the artificial fluorescent lighting of the hospital into the bright Maui sunlight. Natalia walks with me, until I veer for my Jeep. Then she’s immediately suspicious.
“Where are you going? The beach is over there.” Natalia frowns and points across the street towards the beach a couple of blocks away.
“We’re not going to that beach. Get in.” Opening the passenger door of my Jeep for her, I wait patiently for her to climb in. If I time this just right, she’ll be too busy putting on her seatbelt to notice the inevitable awkwardness of me climbing in beside her.
But she doesn’t appear to be convinced that climbing into my Jeep is what she should be doing. “Is this thing safe? Does it even work?”
“She is the safest ride on Maui. Just wait until you hear old Bertha purr. She works just fine,” I say with real pride in my voice.
“Bertha? You named this… thing?” Natalia eyes me up and down.
Glancing around, I try to see my old Jeep through Natalia’s eyes. Maybe there’s a bit of rust around the edges. And definitely some dirt. I’ve been meaning to take her through the car wash. But she’s fierce, with a heart of gold. I love this damn Jeep. This is the car I bought when I saved up enough money of my own the summer after I turned sixteen. Hard-working, reliable, with a bit of an edge. She just seemed like a Bertha. And maybe I earned that money interning for one of my family’s companies here on Maui. But I earned it. It was the first money that was all mine, and not my parents.
“Thing?” I turn and run my hand along the hood of my Jeep. “Don’t listen to her, Bertha. Natalia doesn’t mean it. She’s just used to being the prettiest girl in the room, and she’s jealous.”
“You think this decrepit, rust-covered beater is prettier than me?” Natalia sounds shocked, and I don’t think either one of us is sure if she’s going to laugh or bite my head off again.
I hold my hand up towards the hood, so Bertha can’t hear me. “I don’t think anyone is prettier than you, but I didn’t want to hurt Bertha’s feelings.”
Natalia shakes her head at me, and she’s fighting a smile. She loses and a big smile stretches across her pretty, pink lips. That smile is dangerous. “You think you’re so charming, don’t you? Does this crap actually work?”
“Never fails me.” Leaning back against the side of the Jeep, I know I’m going to come away with a healthy coating of dust and dirt on my t-shirt. Old Bertha and I really need to hit up a carwash.
“Please don’t say another word about your sexploits or I’m sure that you’ll make me lose all faith in womankind!” Natalia shakes her head at me, but at least she’s still smiling.
Overall, I’d say that’s a win. Natalia’s no ice queen, that’s clear as day every time she thinks I’m in pain. When she smiles at me, that’s the real Natalia. At some point, I’m going to convince her to drop down some of these ice walls, but for now I’m just happy that the ice is thawing. Drop by drop.
“Women only have good things to say about me. I don’t disappoint, but you don’t need to take my word for it. Let me know if you want references.”
“Please. Stop. Talking.” Natalia shoves the open door towards me and climbs effortlessly up into the high seat. Yeah, it’s not going to look quite like that when I do it.
Walking around the front of the Jeep as fast as I can, I keep my eye on her to make sure that she’s not looking at me. When she glances down to do up her seatbelt, I grab the driver’s side door, take a deep breath to prepare for the pain I know is coming, and swing myself up.
This damn hip. I’m only twenty-nine-years old, and it pisses me off that climbing into the same Jeep I’ve had since I was sixteen is now something I have to brace myself to do. Or it would, if I let myself get mad about any of it.
When Natalia finally looks up from her seatbelt, I’m still breathing heavier than normal. It doesn’t take that long to click a seatbelt. Despite my best intentions, I’m pretty confident that we both know what was happening with my hip. But that’s the thing about her. She knows what’s happening, and she doesn’t make a big deal about it. She’s not even all that nice to me, unless she thinks I’m really hurting. Ever since the explosion, my parents and everyone at the hospital have treated me like I was made of glass. I survived four active tours overseas. I survived four surgeries and six months of rehab. I’m not going to break.
“I thought we were going to the beach?” I can’t see her eyes behind her big, white sunglasses, but I have a feeling that she’s frowning at me.
“We are going to the beach. Since when are you in such a rush? You didn’t even want to go.” When I turn the key in the ignition, Bertha growls to life underneath us. I can’t wipe the smile off of my face at the sound of her purring like a tiger after all these years.
Natalia shakes her head at me, but she’s smiling, too. “Boys and their toys. Why are all men just overgrown children?”
“Hey – who said we are?”
“Every single woman on the planet?” Natalia smiles sweetly back at me. That smile again. That smile is going to be a problem.
“Yeah, yeah. Bertha is no toy. This is a man’s car.” Running my hand over the dash, I smile as she purrs.
“Stop. Please. The macho man thing is too much. The toys. The cars. The lying. The cheating.”
I can only glance over at her quickly because we’re just hitting the highway, but I have questions. Not for her. For the idiot that had a shot with her and screwed it up that bad. How could any man be so stupid to hurt her like that? And damned if I don’t want to make it better for her. Kiss it better.
After about fifteen minutes, I pull Bertha off the highway and onto some back roads on the way to the best beach on Maui.
“Ummm, where exactly are you taking me?” Natalia scans the mess of coconut and palm trees that we’re driving into.
Glancing over at her, I grin. “Best beach on Maui, I promise.”
“It better be.” She frowns at me, and I know that she means it. But salty or sweet, I’m pretty sure I’ll like any consequence she’s handing out.
The gravel road gets bumpy with dips and potholes as we inch closer to the beach.
Natalia grabs my arm to get my attention. Her fingers feel silky smooth against my skin. “Cooper, that says this is a private road. No trespassing. We should turn back.”
It is a private road. We’re on my family’s Maui estate. And we’re going to the private beach I spent my summers on as a teenager. It’s the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen and just about my favorite place in the entire world.
“Don’t worry, it’s fine. I’ll keep you safe.”
“I don’t need you to protect me. I can take care of myself.”
“No one said you couldn’t. I guess I’m just used to being on a team. SEALs always have each other’s backs. That’s the whole point. I’d be very happy to have your back…”
“Not happening.” But her lips curve into a smile. “My friends and I are like that, I guess. We’ve all been best friends for ten years. I love them like sisters. And if I end up getting arrested, you’re going to have to deal with them. Picture four angry Laras.” She smiles even bigger at me, while I can feel the blood drain out of my face.
“There are more of them?”
She nods at me menacingly. “And all of them are scary over-protective.”
“I guess it’s a good thing I’m not planning on either of us getting arrested today. If you get arrested, it’s because you did something that I had nothing to do with!”
“I actually have been arrested before.”
“Seriously? You don’t exactly seem the type. Did you break bad or something?”
Natalia laughs. “No
. My mom is a bit of a free spirit. Well, a lot of a free spirit actually. She used to take us to all kinds of protests. Civil rights. Animal rights. If something or someone needed more rights, then we were there. I’d been arrested three times by the time I was fourteen.”
“Your rap sheet must be a mile long.”
Natalia shrugs.
“I really can’t picture you getting into any kind of trouble, but I’d love to see those mugshots.”
She’s smiling, and then her face falls at my words. “If only that were true.”
She doesn’t say anything else, so I don’t push. I pull up the jeep to park next to a group of trees at the edge of the beach.
“We’re here.”
“And here is?”
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you. This beach is a well-kept secret. Just trust me.”
“I barely know you.”
“I’ve been trying to change that, but you don’t make it easy.”
Natalia shrugs and climbs out of the car. I do the same, wincing as I slide to the ground. At least getting out is easier than getting in.
Nodding towards the beach, I start heading down the path to the most beautiful place on earth.
“Holy crap!”
“Told you.”
Natalia glances around her, unsure of where to look. I get it. From the pristine white sand beach to the palm trees, to the coral reef in the distance, visible in the turquoise water, this place is perfection.
“I get why this place is private. Whoever owns it must want to keep it all for themselves. But I’m a bit sad that not everyone gets to see it.”
“Never thought of it that way.” I honestly never have. I’ve always felt too lucky that I get to come here whenever I want to think about other people missing out on it.
“How did you find out about it?”
I’ve never brought anyone here before, so I’ve never had to answer that question before. I’m also not used to people not knowing who I am. But I like that Natalia has no idea about my family. “Just stumbled onto it.”
