by Mercer Scott
Then I turn back to my friends, determinedly avoiding any eye-contact with Ty and Deacon. “Cooper has a big dick. It’s actually a very beautiful one. And that’s not a word I take lightly, especially when it comes to dicks.”
Looking down at my lap, I feel a flush of embarrassment stings my cheeks. Then a horrible idea flashes occurs to me.
“And that was off the record! Off the record!” I shout down the table at Cassie.
Every single person at the table – except me – bursts out laughing. When they finally settle down, Cassie is shaking her head sadly. “That would have been a great headline, though, ‘Prodigal War Hero Son, Scion of New York’s Hamilton Dynasty Has a Big Dick, A Very Beautiful One Actually.” Cassie holds her hands in the air like she can picture the words in bold on the front page. “I mean, that’s too wordy. But there’s definitely something there.”
“I said off the record!” I announce again.
“I know, I know. To put all your minds at ease, everything between us is always off the record. Until you say it’s not. People are always so worried about what reporters are going to write about them, but most people are way too boring to give us journalists anything worth writing about. I do expect to be the first contact for any breaking news,” Cassie tells us, eyeing everyone at the table one-by-one.
“Deacon and I are the opposite of boring,” Lara says loudly.
Deacon smiles at her, picks up her hand and kisses it before holding it in his lap.
“That’s honestly not even close to the worst headline that’s been written about my family.” Cooper grins at Cassie.
Maybe Cooper never really talked about his family, but it’s not like I ever asked him about it either. I didn’t ask Cooper about much at all, since I was so determined not to get to know him. And not to like him. So much for that.
Warm fingers capture my hand under the table, and I look up to see Cooper staring back at me. His lips tug into a smile.
I may not have wanted to know about his family before, but I want to know now. It’s eating me up inside that there is anything about Cooper that I don’t know about. How can I know him so intimately and really not know him at all? But I can’t do whatever it is we started doing two nights ago without really knowing him. Who am I kidding? Whatever this is between us didn’t start two nights ago.
“So, did you guys get this grilling the first time you met these ladies?” Cooper asks, nodding first at Deacon, then at Ty.
“Not me. They knew I only had depraved intentions towards this one.” Ty leans back in his chair and wraps his arm around Veronica, pulling her tight against side.
“Depraved intentions were exactly what Veronica needed at the time.” Cassie grins when Veronica frowns at her.
“And you’re both welcome,” Bridget adds.
“Not me, either. I think they felt sorry for me. They must have known that I didn’t have any idea what I was getting myself into… and they were right.” Deacon stares down at Lara and then smiles slowly at her. Lara returns his smile with one of her own that’s ridiculously smug.
“What’s everyone planning on doing today?” Veronica asks, as the staff finally starts bringing in the food.
Maybe with food in front of them, my friends will be too distracted to embarrass me any more? I should have known better.
“Well, if you’re done doing Cooper for the moment, I thought we could go shopping in Lahaina?” Bridget says. “I need to get more of that magic eye cream while I’m here.”
“Ooh, me too!” Lara says. “I’m in.”
“Maybe I should finally try it? I’m going to be thirty next year.” Veronica says, frowning before purposefully relaxing her face.
“You’re beautiful. And you should know it by now. Or do I need to take you home and show you again how hot you are.” Ty starts to stand up, like he’s ready to go leave right now and take Veronica to bed. I have zero doubts that he is. I mean, he’s marrying one of my best friends, and as we’ve already established – we kiss and tell.
“I have a group meeting at the hospital. I could catch up with you later. You should spend time with your friends while they’re here. We can talk later.” Cooper leans towards me.
Before I can answer, Bridge answers for me. “She doesn’t need your permission.”
Cooper smiles at me, and then turns to Bridget. “Trust me, no one needs to be told that less than I do. I’ve never been able to convince this woman to do anything, much less tell her to do it.”
Cooper handled that well. My friends can be… protective. But I hate tension. I want everyone I care about to get along. And even if it kills me to admit it, Cooper Hamilton has worked his way into being someone that I care about.
We do need to talk. But I’m happy to put that off for as long as possible. Shopping in Lahaina for magical eye cream with my friends seems like the perfect distraction.
Chapter Seventeen
Cooper
I may have told Natalia to go shopping with her friends, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t regret it. Because it’s hours before I get to see her again. Hours when I don’t know what she’s thinking or how pissed off she is at me.
I didn’t mean to lie to her. I’m not even sure if I actually did lie to her. But I know that I consciously avoided telling her about my family.
“Cooper, did you have something to share with the group today?” Major Farrow is staring at me, and now so is everyone else in group.
The last thing I want to do is share, but worrying about Natalia is eating me up. Talking about it in group has to make that at least a little bit better, right? That’s supposed to be the whole point of this.
“Yeah, okay.” After agreeing to share, I don’t even know how to start since I never share in group. I can hear Marcus’ low chuckle next to me. Dick.
“Why don’t you tell us what’s bothering you?” Major Farrow suggests.
“Ummm, I’m not really sure how to explain it. The girl I’m dating kind of found out some stuff about my family. Stuff that I didn’t tell her. That I went out of my way not to tell her. And I think maybe she’s pissed about it.”
“That didn’t seem too hard, Cooper.”
“I guess not.”
“Why do you think you went out of your way not to tell this woman about your family?”
“Where do I even start?”
“Start wherever you like. This is your share. We’re all here to listen and help where we can.”
Two hours later, my head feels shrunk. I spoke more today in group therapy than I ever have in all the other sessions combined. And I’ve been to a lot of sessions.
But once I got started talking about Natalia, I couldn’t stop talking about her. I don’t know what Major Farrow thought I was going to get out of it, but I didn’t have any earth-shattering revelations. I didn’t tell Natalia about my family because I don’t like talking about it. I don’t like how people treat me differently when they find out about the money. And I’m not ready for anything to change between us.
I know why I avoided talking about it before. And I know that I need to talk about it now. I just hope that she’s willing to forgive me for not being completely honest with her. I finally got her to like me. Then I finally got her to date me. And now I’ve finally got her in my bed. I’m not willing to lose that yet.
Cooper: I’m done group. Are you ladies back from Lahaina?
Natalia: We just got back
Cooper: Can I pick you up so we can talk?
Cooper: How about I buy you an ice cream and we go for a walk on the beach?
Natalia: Sounds like you can buy me a whole lot more than ice cream…
Cooper: Yeah that’s what I want to talk about. I’m sorry… let me explain
Natalia: It had better be really good ice cream
Cooper: The best on the entire island, I promise
Cooper: Pick you up in twenty
I’m outside of her place in fifteen minutes or less. There’s no way that I
’m risking being late to meet her. Not when I’m already in the doghouse. I don’t want to rush her, so I wait in my Jeep for her to come out.
“Hey, did you all get your magic eye cream? Not that you need it.”
She nods at me and climbs into the Jeep.
She doesn’t say anything the entire drive back to my parents’ estate. Only the most beautiful beach in the world is going to do for a conversation like this. And I don’t say anything either. When we have this conversation, I want to be able to watch her face to know exactly what she’s thinking.
She’s still wearing the same pink sundress that I watched her put on this morning. The thought that I might not get to spend another night with her or watch her get dressed in the morning hits me like a punch in the gut.
She doesn’t make a move to get out when I pull off at the best ice cream stand on all of Maui, so I stand in line by myself. She thanks me when I hand her the enormous waffle cone, but then goes right back to ignoring me again.
When we finally get to my family’s beach, she doesn’t wait for me to come around and open her door. She walks on ahead down to the beach. She’s standing there staring out at the ocean when I walk up behind her.
“So, are we going to talk about this?” I ask when I can’t take the quiet any longer. “I’m the one who’s going to be doing the apologizing, but I need you to listen.”
She’s been almost completely silent for over half an hour. Natalia is never silent. She’s always talking about something or other. Usually, her friends or her cat. So, this is definitely not a good sign.
Natalia looks up at me, frowning. “Why didn’t you tell me about your family? Actually, I don’t even know what the deal is with your family. So, first tell me that. And then tell me why you didn’t tell me about it before now.”
“Do you even know what you’re mad about?”
“I honestly don’t even know if I am mad. But it feels really weird that my friend’s fiancé knows more about you than I do.”
I can’t help but smile. This woman always keeps me guessing. And I hope she keeps on keeping me guessing. Maybe finding out about my family’s money won’t change anything between us. That would be a first.
“What do you want to know?”
“What’s the big deal? Your family’s rich? Why is that some big secret?”
“It’s complicated…”
“I’m not interested in it’s complicated. That’s not an answer. You’re the one who said that you wanted to talk.” Her eyebrows snap together, and her brown eyes light up with fire. “And I believe you said there would be some apologizing happening.”
“I do. We are. I will. I just wasn’t finished answering yet,” I remind her. “I mean it when I say that it’s complicated. Everything with my family is complicated. I love my family, don’t get me wrong. I love my parents, and I love my brothers and sisters. But I’ve always felt like I didn’t belong. Trust me, I’m not the son my parents expected or wanted. I’m the oldest. I was supposed to take over the family business. But it just… wasn’t me. My brothers and sisters all work for my family’s company in some way. And that works for them, but it was never what I wanted. I wanted to serve my country. So, I joined up and never looked back. I haven’t regretted it – not once – not even after I got hurt.” Glancing down at my hip, I don’t have to try hard to picture the scarring leading down to the hip that’s now being held together MacGyver-style with pins and whatever else modern medical science could throw at it.
Natalia follows my glance, and then runs her hand down my side gently, feeling every inch of my scars. The way she looks at me – well, I wasn’t sure any woman was ever going to look at me that way again. She deserves the truth. All of it. Even if it makes her want to run away from me and the drama that goes along with being around a Hamilton.
“So, things are difficult because you joined the military and didn’t want to work for the family business? Those seem like normal problems. We all have the families we’re born into and the families we choose. Some people are lucky enough to have both. Some aren’t. Some blood families accept us as we are. Some don’t. I doubt there isn’t another person on this entire planet that doesn’t have some kind of family drama,” she says thoughtfully.
Only Natalia could sum up thirty years of feeling like I was either going to disappoint my parents or myself that simply.
“That’s probably true. But the money is what changes things. My great-great grandfather, Lyle Cooper Hamilton I, was an oil and coal baron in the eighteen-hundreds. And my family has taken those millions and multiplied them over and over again.”
“So, the secret of your traumatic childhood is that you grew up filthy rich?” Natalia’s frown turns into a smile. “Excuse me while I cry you a river!”
“I know, I know. Poor, little, rich kid. But I never asked for it, and I don’t like how it changes things when people find out.” I can’t stop studying her face, looking for the sign that this has changed something between us. The money always changes things. I can hate it all I want, but it always does. Every damn time.
“So, you’re worried that I’m after your money? I didn’t even know about the money until this morning. And you seem to be forgetting how this all happened.” Natalia waves her hand in a circle between us. “You ran into me. You kept showing up everywhere I was. You’re the one who kept hitting on me. I couldn’t even keep track of how many times I told you that I wasn’t interested.”
“Oh, you were interested alright.”
“I really wasn’t.”
“You were. But I mean, how could you not be?” I flex my bicep in front for her because I know that it’s going to make her laugh.
It works, and her pretty laugh echoes around the empty beach. “Wow, it’s truly amazing that it took me nearly two whole months to have sex with you. I mean, how could I resist that kind of pure, sexual magnetism?”
“I was wondering the same damn thing the whole time. You know I usually don’t have to try so hard.”
Natalia nods at me. “Probably because those women knew you were rich.”
I let out a sharp bark of laughter. “You didn’t know about the money, and you like me just fine.”
“Do I?”
“You do.”
“Hmmm, we’ll have to agree to disagree on that. Honestly, I think you just kept hanging around until I felt like having sex. And then you were… convenient.”
“Convenient, huh?”
Natalia nods up at me. “Exactly. Like candy in line at the grocery store. You don’t really want it. But it’s just there.”
“That’s not really how I remember it.”
“We’ve already established that your memory isn’t great, though. So, that doesn’t matter.”
“Are we good?” As much as I love joking with her, I need to know that we’re okay. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. But honestly, I never really talk about it. And most people l meet already know about my family.”
“Wait, were you named after your great-grandfather?” she interrupts, biting her lip thoughtfully. I have no idea why she’s zeroing in in my great-grandfather’s name, but I’m just glad that she’s talking to me again.
I nod.
“You said he was the first, so what does that make you?”
“Lyle Cooper Hamilton IV.”
She grins up at me. “Your name is Lyle?”
I nod again.
“I slept with a guy named Lyle?”
“You slept with a guy named Lyle Cooper Hamilton a bunch of times. And you liked it a whole lot.”
She bites that lip again in the way that makes my dick stand to attention. “I don’t know. I mean, I don’t really care about the money. But now that I know your is Lyle that kind of changes things for me.”
“Oh, it changes things, does it?” I reach out and grab her, tugging her into my arms. Then I hold onto her hand and steal a lick of her ice cream cone.
She nods. “Lyle just isn’t sexy.”
“But it isn’t really, is it?” She takes a lick of her ice cream and smiles up at me. “Cooper is more of a nickname. Your name is Lyle. I don’t know if I can kiss a guy named Lyle.”
“I guess we should probably test that.”
She nods.
I take another big lick of her ice cream and then drag my tongue over her lips. Her tongue darts out to lick at the cold sweetness, and then I rush in to catch her tongue between my lips. I savor it, tasting the sweet ice cream and the sweetness of her. After sucking on her tongue, I trace along it with my own. Then I need more. I need to be inside her. My tongue slides across both our lips and dives deep, needing everything she’s willing to offer me. I surge into her, desperate and needy. It was all too real that I might never taste her like this again. I’m not ready to give this up. I don’t know how any man could.
When I finally pull away from her, she’s smiling up at me. her lips are red from me kissing her so thoroughly.
“So, are we? Good?” I ask again.
“No more secrets?”
“I’m an open book.”
“Okay, then we’re good, I guess.”
“You’re just keeping me around for my money, aren’t you?”
She frowns up at me, her ice cream forgotten in her hand. “Why do you always make jokes?”
“I don’t.”
“Yes, you do. Tell me why.”
“I don’t know. What do they say? It’s a self-defense mechanism.”
“What did you need to protect yourself from?”
“No. Nope. We’re not doing this anymore. Like I said, I’m an open book. I’ll tell you whatever you want, but it’s a question for a question. Everything’s on the table. And you have to answer whatever I ask. Just like I’ll answer whatever you ask.”
Natalia swallows hard. She looks panicked, and I’m worried that I’m pushing too hard. Especially when I’m barely out of the doghouse.
“That sounds dangerous. What if we don’t like the answers?”
