“Pup—”
Her confession just tumbled out. “It was my fault for provoking you. I'd only wanted to—” She stopped, suddenly afraid of how silly it would sound. And manipulative. Maybe he really would get angry.
“Wanted to what?” He stroked her back, listening intently.
She swallowed. “You wouldn't tell me whether or not you still wanted to see me after the case was solved. I just...needed to know.”
He studied her. “So, you decided to make me jealous, so I'd show my feelings?”
She nodded.
He shook his head. “Oh, Maggie. What a couple of fools we are. If we'd been honest with each other from the beginning, we'd have had a whole lot less trouble, all around.”
She sighed. “You can say that again.”
He tipped her chin up. “Let's make a promise always to be honest with each other from now on.”
She smiled into his eyes. “Oh, Wolf, I promise I'll always be completely honest.” She kissed him and whispered tentatively, “I love you so much.”
He kissed her back, and hugged her close. “That's what I wanted to hear. Say it again for me. I'll never get tired of hearing it.”
Filled with happiness, she kissed him, and told him again and again.
Laughing, he rolled onto his back with her on top. “To think you were only using Dinny Paxton to make me jealous. And here I'd thought—” He grunted, running his hands over her arms. “Never mind what I thought.”
She froze. Oh, God. She'd just promised to always tell the truth. What would she do? “Listen,” she started slowly. “About Dinny—”
“Forget Paxton.”
Her body shuddered as Cooper gathered her in the warmth of his arms, his mouth seeking hers.
“Woman, get naked for me.”
When he was settled between her legs at last, she cradled him with flesh and soul, welcoming him home.
For a moment, they lay still, searching each other's eyes. Finding need and desire.
Finding love.
She opened herself fully to him, inviting him into her mind as she had her body.
As she watched his eyes grow dark as midnight, a swirl of smoky mist wafted through her consciousness. Then he was there in the smoke, sharing her thoughts, her love, the sensations of her flesh.
He smiled, and his mind opened for her, as well.
She stepped in, wrapping herself in the security of his love for her, in his longing, in his happiness. She knew he was hers alone, and her joy was complete.
Joined as one in body and mind, they began to move. The smoky sensations that assaulted her were more vivid than any she had ever imagined. Feeling Cooper's passion along with her own, sharing his actions and her own reactions, she was swept into a realm of incredible closeness.
“Can you feel my love?” he whispered, gazing down on her with infinite tenderness.
She smiled. “To the ends of the earth.”
He slipped his powerful cock in and out, in and out of her, watching her soul through her eyes. “Don't look away, baby. This feels too good.”
She raised her legs to his back and moved under him, with him, reveling in the erotic adventure of experiencing lovemaking from two sides. She felt her own body sheathing him, and him thrusting into her.
When her eyelids drifted shut, suddenly she was bereft of his awareness. She popped them open, saw his sultry smile, and knew a flood of returning sensation.
He slid his arms under her thighs and lifted them higher. “Don't close your eyes,” he ordered.
She gasped as he plunged deep into her. “I don't know if I can keep them open.”
Her body shuddered with the overwhelming heat of their union. As he took them deeper and faster, she moaned her ecstasy.
And knew, to the last cell in her body, that she had found home.
Barely Dangerous: Chapter One Hundred and Nineteen
Cooper felt Maggie melting beneath him, floating into that timeless space just before her body shattered in his arms.
He willed her to keep her eyes open, so he could be right there with her when she came apart under him. He longed to kiss her, but didn't want to break the contact.
Instead, he envisioned for them both that he was running his tongue over her lips, in her mouth. He showed her mind how he would caress her body with his lips until she cried out his name. He could feel her coming close to the edge of oblivion.
He was close, himself. Through her mind, he could feel his own heavy, throbbing cock as he thrust deep between her legs. She entered the vision he was painting, wetting her lips and showing him her tongue twining with his, even though their mouths weren’t touching.
He was crazy with need. But he held back, wanting her to come first. He hungered to share the pleasure of her release in the smoke of their joined minds and bodies.
As he felt her craving his.
He shot his fingers through her hair, grasping thick strands of it, his breath coming in gulps. He felt sensations he couldn't identify, pleasure in unknown places, hot emotions, and velvety desires. He cradled her jaw in his palm, touching her cheek.
“Come to me, pup. Let yourself go.”
He felt her last tether to reality dissolve as her aching twinges of orgasm started, shallow at first, sharp and rough around his rock-hard cock. He felt the sensual convulsions moving deeper and stronger, raging through her womb, racking him with her pleasure along with his own.
“Wolf!” she cried.
And he felt the first erotic tremor of his own climax coming hard and fast after hers. He grasped her face in his hand to keep her focused. And then the exquisite spasms of carnal pleasure took them both to a whole other plane. As he spilled the hot essence of life into her, she came again, and again.
The final torrid waves of their shared rapture passed, and he collapsed on top of her, groaning in ecstasy.
With his last iota of strength, he rolled onto his back, holding her close above him.
“Good fucking night. I think you've killed me.”
She let out a long, contented moan, and nestled into him. “Only because I love you.”
“And, oh, baby. What a way to go.”
Barely Dangerous: Chapter One Hundred and Twenty
The next morning, Coop awoke to a persistent throbbing. His leg throbbed, his ears throbbed. He looked down at Maggie snuggled at his side, and his heart throbbed. He felt her hand roam over his body and his—
Suddenly, he realized it wasn't his ears throbbing, at all, but someone banging on the back of the camper.
He sat up, hit his head on the roof, and now it throbbed, too.
“Damn it to hell.” He rubbed his head, and noticed a quilt. She must have gone up to the cab to fetch it after he passed out last night. He covered her, and leaned down to give her a kiss on the nose before he scooted to the open the back hatch.
Everything was going to be all right. He was sure of it.
Absolutely sure.
Right up to the moment he opened that hatch and saw Special Agent Dinny Paxton staring back at him.
Shit. Coop was instantly surly. Paxton was the last person on earth he wanted to see that morning.
“What the hell do you want?” he asked.
“Who is it?” Maggie asked sleepily.
Dinny leaned into the camper. “Sweetheart, it's me.”
“Din?” She sat up, drawing the quilt around her.
“Heard you had some trouble last night. You okay?”
Coop quickly pulled on the jeans they’d partially slit down one leg last night so he could fit them over his bandaged leg.
“She's fine,” he said testily. “You didn't answer my question.”
Paxton looked him in the eye. “I've come to take Maggie back to L.A..”
“Like hell. She's staying with me.”
A smug smile settled on the agent’s face as he studied Coop. “Better ask the lady about that.”
Coop scowled, but as soon as he turned and saw Maggie's g
uilty expression, he knew he'd been had. She had lied to him again.
Would he never learn?
With a last, deadly glare at her, he grabbed his shirt and threw himself out of the camper.
“Wolf!” she called after him. “Cooper, please!”
Fuck that.
He limped furiously down the path to his camp, cursing himself the whole way. He was so angry he couldn't see straight, and nearly fell several times as he flew down the steep trail on his wounded leg.
How could he let himself be fooled by that perfidious woman, time after time?
His temper hit white-hot when he burst into his camp. His belongings lay strewn on the ground, his tents collapsed—the aftermath of the previous day's encounter with Greasy and Raiders.
Swooping up his duffel bag, he started cramming his belongings into it, helter skelter. He would not spend another damn minute in this fucking place. Not one.
He'd finished with his clothes and was jamming pots, pans and camping equipment into a backpack when Maggie ran into the clearing, breathless.
“Wolf, please—”
He turned his back on her. “Go away, Maggie. You made your choice when you lied to me. I have nothing more to say to you.”
“Please listen—”
“After everything we said last night! You swore to be honest with me. And the whole time you were lying.”
“No! I didn't lie. Cooper, please, I love you—”
He whirled around to face her. “Then tell me why you're leaving me for that goddamn bastard.”
“It's not like that. There’s nothing between us. I swear to you.”
With all his might, Cooper hurled a set of metal dishes, complete with flatware, against a nearby tree, and stood sucking down breath after breath to calm himself. “Then what, exactly, is it?”
Maggie looked from him to the plates and back again, then took a hesitant step toward him. “I can't tell you.”
He bit off a curse and continued packing. “Fine. Have a nice life.”
She went over to him and put a hand on his arm. He shucked it off.
She sank down on a tree stump, and he could feel her eyes on him, following his every move. When he finally felt calm enough to look at her without thinking of murder, he turned.
There were tears in her eyes.
Damn it. He would not soften.
“It's you I love,” she said softly. “Only you. You've got to believe that.”
He swiped up the dishes. “You've got one hell of a way of showing it.”
She hung her head. “This wasn't supposed to happen for another couple of days. I thought—”
He stuffed the dishes in the backpack. “Were you planning on telling me you were leaving, or was I just going to wake up one morning and find you gone?”
She had the gall to look stung. “I've wanted to tell you all along. I've begged and begged Dinny, but he keeps saying no. Please trust me, Wolf. There's nothing personal between him and me. It's just...something I have to do.”
Fuck the flatware. He attacked his tents, breaking them down and collapsing the poles with a belligerent snap.
He wanted to believe her.
No, he fucking didn’t.
He was too angry and felt too vulnerable to trust in his own emotions. Or judgment. Stuffing the tents into their pouches, he dumped them next to his duffel bag and backpack. The entire contents of his camp sat packed and waiting for him to get the hell out of there.
So, what was he waiting for?
He fisted his hands on his hips, and faced the lake.
She walked over to him, and he felt her warm cheek on his back. Her arms stole around his waist.
“Please don't leave me like this,” she whispered. “I love you so much. I want more than anything to stay with you. To be with you.”
His willpower slipped a little at her words.
She took a deep breath against his back. “If I don't do this, I'll be putting your life in danger again. I won't do that, even if it means losing you.”
He clamped his jaw, staring out at the lake. “Is this about those men last night?”
He’d tried to ask her about them last night, because she’d kept insisting the assault was her fault. But one thing or another always interrupted the conversation before she could answer. He realized now, she’d probably been avoiding the subject on purpose. And by the time they’d gotten back to the lookout tower, his mind had been on other things.
“In a way,” she said, ever evasive.
He scrubbed his face, unwilling to let himself believe her. But even more unwilling to let her go.
He turned and put his hands reluctantly on her shoulders. “You say you're doing this for my sake?”
She nodded dismally. “Yes. And for our future.”
He let out a long breath. And realized he had nothing to lose. He’d be furious and miserable either way this went. Either she’d leave and never come back, and he’d be furious and miserable for the rest of his life; or she’d leave and he’d be furious and miserable until she eventually came back to him after she’d done whatever the hell she had to do, proving she was telling the truth. And then he could stop being furious and miserable, and they’d live happily ever after. Or...something like that.
“I don't understand anything,” he said bleakly. “But go ahead. Leave, and do what you've got to do.”
She looked up at him, tears brimming over her lashes. “You trust me?”
“Do I have a choice?” It was the best he could do. The jury was still out.
She laid a trembling hand against his cheek. “And I can come back to you when it's over?”
He gazed into her eyes, wanting like hell to believe her. Needing to believe her.
He slid his arms around her and hugged her close. “I'm counting on it, pup.”
Barely Dangerous: Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-One
Maggie paced back and forth in the living room of a four-room Hollywood Hills bungalow. She stared out the window. L.A. had never looked lovelier. The hot Santa Ana winds had blown the smog out of the million dollar view of the basin below and dried the California leaves to the closest they would ever come to fall colors. It would be T-shirt weather today—if she were allowed outside.
Which, she wasn’t. Not yet.
She thought back to that awful morning three months ago—the last time she'd seen Blue Wolf Cooper. He had looked so sad and forlorn sitting on the Indian watching her drive off, that she had nearly jumped out of the car, telling Dinny to forget the whole thing, she wouldn't testify.
But she had known if she didn't put Whitney behind bars at this trial, it would only be a matter of time until he came looking for her—to make sure she never could.
So, she had watched through the back window, tears streaming down her face, as the man she loved disappeared from view.
She resumed her pacing, fear flooding through her. The three month trial was about to go to the jury. What would the verdict be?
The trial had taken longer than anyone had thought, Whitney's lawyer employing every delaying tactic in the books. For every day that went by, she’d worried that Cooper would be more and more certain she'd forgotten about him.
And forgotten about her, in turn.
Maybe, after a while, he had even been grateful she’d disappeared from his life. Hadn’t he always said she made him go windigo?
Finally, today, closing statements in the trial would be presented in the courtroom. The evidence against Whitney had been damning. Maggie had testified about the hidden computer files she'd found detailing his years of derivatives fraud, and about the two men he had sent to kill her. Jane had corroborated the fraud evidence, testified about her phone being bugged by Whitney, and presented the evidence she’d gathered about his dead accountant. The FBI had grimly related the events surrounding the ambush and deaths of the two witnesses in Monrovia, and the other witness being killed a few weeks before the trial started.
Maggie prayed for a guil
ty verdict on multiple counts. But one way or another, she'd have her life back by the end of the week.
If Whitney was found guilty, she'd take off immediately for Sacramento. But if he was found innocent, she'd have to go into witness protection. Forever. And all her tears and reassurances to Cooper will have been for nothing. She could never ask him to give up his home and his family, his career, to change his identity, and go into hiding with her for the rest of their lives.
She wrapped her arms around her middle and held her breath to keep from crying. She didn't want to upset the policewoman who was staying with her at the bungalow. The grandmotherly woman was so sympathetic, every time Maggie broke down, she fixed her mint tea and fussed over her until Maggie felt doubly awful. After three months, she would have thought the woman would be immune to her bursting into tears at the drop of a hat, but she continued to be endlessly comforting.
Maggie placed her hands on her abdomen, closing her eyes. And smiled for the first time that morning. She hadn't told a soul about the baby. She wanted Cooper to be the first to know. But the policewoman had four kids, and three grandkids, so Maggie suspected she didn't need to be told. No doubt, being pregnant earned her extra points with the kind woman.
She wandered into the bathroom to get ready for court. The ordeal would be over soon. She'd done her bit for justice by testifying, and all she could do now was hope there was enough evidence to convict Whitney.
And let her get back to Cooper.
Barely Dangerous: Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Two
Cooper picked morosely at his frybread and stared sullenly into space. Around him at the dinner table, he sensed his mother, father, and grandfather exchange glances, shaking their heads.
He'd been at his parents’ home for over a week now, and had hardly spoken a word. He felt guilty subjecting them to his black mood, but couldn't help himself. He needed his family to help get him through this thing with Maggie, and he hoped they understood.
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