by Ali Parker
COOPER
CASANOVA CLUB #8
ALI PARKER
BRIXBAXTER PUBLISHING
CONTENTS
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Description
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
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Copyright
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DESCRIPTION
My journey with the Casanova Club has been full of wonder and magic and, dare I say, heartbreak.
More heartbreak than I ever imagined I could endure.
But here I am, suitcases packed, chin held high, ready to march into July to meet my next Bachelor.
Cooper Diaz.
He’s disgustingly handsome. Abs for days. A smolder worthy of every billboard in New York City. And a devilish grin that promises one thing:
Mayhem.
Too bad he’s a complete jerk.
My first encounter with him at his beachside mansion in Nassau sends me reeling. I’ve dealt with my fair share of arrogant pretty boys, but Cooper puts them all to shame, and he’s a stark contrast to the gentlemen I’ve met prior to him on this journey.
It’s only a month.
I can survive a month without falling for his ‘charms’ and his it-must-be-painted-on six pack.
Right?
One thing is for certain.
I didn’t expect what I got from this bachelor. And I sure didn’t expect how our time together ended, either.
Introduction
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CHAPTER 1
PIPER
The clock on the stove rolled over to display the time in mint-green lighting.
10:15 a.m.
I had approximately one hour left before I had to head to the airport and catch my flight to Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, and meet the next bachelor on my whirlwind Casanova dating extravaganza.
Cooper Diaz.
Billionaire. Playboy. And one hell of a looker.
“Piper,” Janie said from where she stood over a sizzling pan, bubbling with pancakes. “Call your dad. You’re running out of time.”
I swallowed and looked down at my blank phone screen.
I wasn’t entirely sure why I had put off calling my father since I’d gotten home late the night before from Aaron’s. Certainly, I was a bit nervous to talk to him because I wasn’t sure where things stood with us. We’d fought last month about the restaurant and his surgery, but I’d been there when he went into recovery, and there hadn’t been any semblance of tension.
Of course, that could have been due to the fact that we were all on our best behavior. I, for one, hadn’t been keen on starting an argument with my very stubborn father minutes after he came out of heart surgery.
So now, there I was. Back in that infuriating place of being unsure.
Janie let out a dramatic sigh and turned from the pan to point her spatula. “Piper. Call him. Now.”
“I will.”
She arched an expectant eyebrow as her eyes flicked from my face to the phone in my hands.
I waved her off. “Just let me make sure I’m fully packed first.”
Janie’s glare burned into my back as I hurried down the hall to unzip my three suitcases for the third time that morning and compare the contents to the list I’d downloaded on my phone: A Complete Packing Guide for the Bahamas. I was feeling a little more frazzled this month, and if I was going to forget something important, it felt like now would be the time.
Because this was the bachelor I was most nervous about.
Cooper hadn’t given me warm tingly feelings when we’d met back at the Casanova Club in December. In fact, the only feelings he’d given me were the “stay very far away” sort of feelings. To go from spending a month with Aaron—sweet, wholesome, kind, generous Aaron—to being with Cooper was going to be a huge shock to my system.
So, I’d packed accordingly with plenty of books and ample distractions, in case I loathed him entirely.
My suitcase checked out against the list on my phone, just like it had the other three times I’d checked it this morning. Wishing I didn’t have to, I sat down on the edge of the bed and called my father’s cell. He’d be home, still recovering from surgery, and either Phillip or my mother would be there watching over him.
He didn’t answer.
I sighed and let my hand fall into my lap. It was getting harder and harder to lie to my folks.
Sure, the bright shiny light at the end of the path helped a little, but a lie was a lie, and the James family never lied. Especially to each other.
I was sure, when all was said and done and they saw why I was doing this, they would understand. The million dollars in their pockets would speak for itself. And if they needed more time to process, so be it. They could be angry at me while we paid off all the debts and saved the restaurant.
My phone rang.
I yelped and nearly jumped out of my skin, sending my phone clattering to the floor. Cursing under my breath, I went to my knees to pick it up and answer the call.
“Hi, Daddy.”
“Piper.” My father’s warm voice filled the line. He sounded a little tired but in high spirits. “Sorry I missed your call. Couldn’t get to the phone in time. You know how it is. I’m a little slow at the moment.”
“That’s all right. I knew you’d call back.” I shifted to rest my back against the side of the bed. I drew my knees up to my chest and rested my chin on them.
“How are you?” he asked.
How was I? Good Lord. What a loaded question.
“I’m good,” I said.
I wasn’t. I was anything but good.
My body and heart were exhausted and heavy. The thought of settling into another man’s house for the month of July made me want to hurl myself off my apartment balcony and just be done with it. I used to hang on to the memories of the men I cared for to bring me joy and relief, but they now only brought pain, and for some reason, the end of this process felt like it was getting farther away rather than closer.
I was shutting down.
“How are you, Daddy?”
“Oh, you know. I’m hanging in here. Your mother and brother are taking good care of me. They’re working very hard. I owe them a lot. Keeping the restaurant open while still tending to me.”
I grimaced. Poor Mom and Phillip. And I thought I was tired.
My father sighed. “We miss you.”
I gnawed at my bottom lip. “I miss you guys too. A lot.” I wish things could go back to normal.
“The year will be done soon,” he said. “You’ll be back sometime for summer break? Wait. Isn’t that now?”
“No. It’s a full-time program. I won’t be back until the end of the year.”
“Oh.” My father let out a short grunt of pain,
and I imagined him sitting in his chair in the living room, trying to get comfortable without putting too much strain on his healing chest. “Well that’s all right, Piper. I understand. How is school going, by the way? We haven’t had a chance to talk much about what’s going on with you.”
“School is… tiring.”
“Are you doing all right, sweetheart?”
I pulled the phone from my ear, covered the speaker with my palm, and let out a trembling breath. I willed my bottom lip to stop trembling. Now was not the time to lose my composure. When I lifted the phone back to my ear, my father was asking for me, assuming our call had been cut off.
“Sorry, Dad. I think I lost you for a second there. Yes, I’m doing all right. I just miss home. And you and Mom and Phillip. And I feel really bad abandoning all of you with the restaurant and your surgery and—”
“Piper, don’t talk like that. School is important. I know I’ve done a poor job of showing it lately, but… I’m proud of you. You’re making the hard choices and doing the right thing by you. And think of it this way. You’re more than halfway through. You’ll be back home before you know it.”
“Yeah. You’re right.”
“What’s it like there, anyway?”
I hesitated. “At school?”
“Yes. What is your campus like? Have you made more friends, other than that Aaron character?”
I smiled at my father saying Aaron’s name. It was a strange thing to have introduced one of the bachelors to my family, with them being none the wiser. It almost made the whole thing feel a little more real between Aaron and me.
I hoped he wasn’t in trouble with Jackson Lee for coming back home with me to see my father into surgery.
“I have other friends, yes,” I said.
“Girls?”
I laughed. “Dad!”
“What?”
“You don’t have to worry about me and Aaron. We’re just friends.”
“I wasn’t worried.”
“Uh huh,” I said.
My father put on a good show of pretending not to care about Aaron. We talked for a little while longer, and he told me all about how his recovery was going. Walking was easier. He still had some tenderness and pain, but his body was healing nicely. He joked about getting a zipper tattoo up his chest over the scar, and I decided to say goodbye when his mood was good.
“Have a good week, Piper. We’ll talk soon. All right?”
“All right.” I rolled to my knees before getting to my feet. “Love you, Daddy.”
“Love you too, sweetheart.”
With a tired sigh, I slid my phone into the back pocket of my jeans, zipped all my suitcases closed for the final time, and began toting them out into the living room. Janie was sitting at the island in the kitchen, devouring her pancakes, and she offered me some of the extras on the pan.
“Thanks, but I’m good.” My stomach was unsettled and had been all morning. The thought of putting food in my body made me want to hurl. I was simply too nervous.
“I get it. Did you at least pack some snacks for the flight?”
“No. But I’ll buy something when I’m through security.”
Janie nodded and twisted around on her stool. “Can we talk about Cooper, Piper?”
“What did you want to talk about?”
Janie shrugged. “I just wanted to give you a heads-up. He’s not like the other guys.”
“I know.”
“No, like, he’s really not like the other guys. He didn’t start this thing with good intentions. His end game probably has nothing to do with you or a proposal. So just keep your wits about you, okay?”
“I will. Don’t worry, Janie. I already don’t trust him. He’s—”
“A douche bag,” Janie finished for me.
I chuckled. That pretty much summed it up. “Maybe he’ll surprise me.”
“No. I’m serious, Piper. Don’t give him an inch. He’s a playboy with a reputation and a lot of money, which makes him powerful.”
“Janie, relax. I get it. And I hear you loud and clear. I’m going to try to spend my entire month on a beach chair, soaking up the sun and reading my books. Does that sound safe enough for you?”
Janie, my guardian angel, slash best friend, slash personal bodyguard, licked her lips. “If you’re in his line of sight, I don’t think you can use the word safe.”
CHAPTER 2
COOPER
Fuck love.
Fuck the idea that a man needed a woman to make him better. I sure as shit didn’t.
All I needed was this right here.
The ocean. The world at the tips of my fingers. The rolling water under my board, and a promise of excitement that could be hiding in the next wave.
Women had one role in my life, and I liked it that way.
And so did they. Because I was damn good with them. Well, their bodies anyway.
I turned in a slow circle, pointing my cherry-red surfboard away from the shore and toward the horizon, where the sun was high in the sky and beating down on me and my buddies as we waited to catch some good afternoon waves.
So far, there hadn’t been any action.
Davis, Mitch, and Luke followed suit, pointing their boards in the same direction as mine. The water was steady for miles.
Damn it.
Mitch lowered himself down to his elbows. “Too bad there isn’t a little more action for you, bro. You might not get as much time out here this month, what with your new lady friend moving in.”
“She’s not a lady friend,” I said sourly.
A “lady friend” was a woman whose body I had access to whenever I wanted. A woman who shared my bed, my shower, and wore minimal, to no clothing while she was lucky enough to stay at my place.
Piper James was something else.
I hadn’t found a label for her yet, but I was sure a nickname would come to me within the next couple days.
Mitch looked over his shoulder at me and arched a blond eyebrow. “Well, she’s a lady, isn’t she?”
“Sure, she has the appropriate parts,” I muttered.
Davis chuckled. “Coop is paranoid she’s gonna be a prude.”
The others laughed. Luke, who was sitting closest to me, leaned sideways to knuckle my shoulder. “If she is, that’s karma. I hope she keeps her legs closed all month.”
“What did I do to deserve that?” I asked.
The three of them snickered at my expense.
Bastards. All of them.
I sat up straighter and kept my eyes focused on the stretch of turquoise water before us, searching for the slightest hint of a wave while my three friends ran with their current focus of amusement.
“If she has any clue who you are, she’ll show up wearing a chastity belt,” Mitch said.
“Dude, if she has any clue, she won’t let him anywhere near her goods,” Luke said firmly.
Davis nodded his steadfast agreement. “If I was a chick, there’s no way in hell I’d sleep with you, Coop. No offense, but you’ve been around.”
“Damn straight, I have. And you know what that means? Experience. The ladies love me. There’s a reason they keep coming back for more. You all are just jealous. And petty.”
Davis slapped at the thin layer of water gliding over the top of his board, spraying it up into my face. I wiped it away with a laugh.
“Shouldn’t you head back up to the house?” Mitch asked.
“Nope, not until I catch at least one wave.”
Mitch frowned. “But she’s gonna show up any time now, isn’t she?”
“Your point?” I asked.
Mitch scratched at his chin. “No point.”
I smirked. “I’m sure all the other do-gooder Casanova boys put on a good show for her. I bet they pulled out all the stops and dazzled her with their fancy suits and charms. Fuck that. I have no intention of changing my lifestyle to accommodate her for a month. If she doesn’t like it, then guess what? There are eleven other dudes for her to choose from.�
�
“Why did you sign up for this thing, then?” Luke asked, cocking his head to the side.
I shrugged. “It was something I could win.”
“Of course.” Luke rolled his eyes.
It was the truth. When you had the sort of money I did and access to anything and everything you wanted, sometimes you needed to throw something new into the mix just for shits and giggles.
Piper was my shits and giggles.
However, she hadn’t been my first choice. Hell, she hadn’t even been my tenth or twentieth. I had a thing for blondes. Correction, I had a thing for blonde bombshells with big tits and tanned skin. Piper was pretty, sure, but she wasn’t my class of pretty.
That wasn’t her fault, but I sure as shit wasn’t going to dazzle her with the whole Cooper show. What a waste of my fucking time.
I was going to surf. And when I was good and ready, I’d head back up to the house. If she was there, fine. If not? Also fine.
