by Susanna Carr
“Oh, not again!” she said. He couldn’t have heard that correctly. What did she mean by again? “Get out.”
Wild lust slammed through his body with such force that his knees threatened to buckle. He drew in a breath and the floral scent pierced the fog in his brain. He knew from this moment on he would think of Serena like this when he saw a rose.
“Feeling stressed?” he asked, annoyed at the husky timbre in his voice as he closed the door behind him. “I guess you would. It’s not every day that you would try to threaten a billion-dollar corporation. So many things can go wrong. It could backfire on you.”
“Did you hear me?” She motioned wildly at the door. “Get out.”
Cooper responded silently by leaning against the door and crossing his arms. Let her think it was a power move and not because he needed support.
She slapped her hands against the water. The violent splash was loud and ineffective. “I will scream this place down.”
He watched the rose petals dance along the ripples, offering him another tantalizing peek of her body. This was a mistake. He should leave and yet he couldn’t move. “No one’s around. They think I’m here for a scandalous rendezvous.” It had been surprisingly easy to get the employees out of the way. Money helped, but everyone working at the hotel seemed to think he was carrying on a torrid affair with Serena. “Anyway, I’m simply having a conversation with you.”
She glared at him. “You weren’t invited here.”
He shrugged. As if that had ever stopped him before. He wasn’t one to wait for a chair at the table. “If you want me to leave, you will have to remove me from the room yourself.”
“You think I won’t? You may be taller and stronger than me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t fight you.”
Cooper would never touch a woman in anger and part of him hoped Serena wasn’t aware of that. She would use it to her advantage. He also noticed she didn’t care about her nudity. This woman was not modest. She used her feminine charms to get her way. Her clothes emphasized her toned body and always offered a flash of cleavage or leg. He wanted to see if she would rise from the bath and press her wet, naked body against his as she wrestled for control.
Damn, he had to focus. He kept his eyes on her bare face. She was still stunning without makeup and her hair gathered in a messy topknot. More approachable, he decided. “We need to talk.”
“Here? Now?” She gestured at the water and his attention followed. His gaze caught on the drifting rose petals that revealed her generous hip. “While I’m taking a bath?”
“I don’t have a problem with it.” His voice sounded gruff and he willed his attention back to her golden eyes. “Do you?”
She leaned back and rested her arms against the edge of the sunken tub. “I will if you try to join me.”
“Are you sure?” He imagined shucking off his clothes as Serena watched him with barely contained hunger. The water would be warm and silky as he entered the bath. He would kneel between Serena’s legs as she stretched out her arms and invited him closer...
“I don’t like to share.” Serena’s declaration broke his reverie.
“I don’t doubt it,” he murmured.
Her sigh echoed in the small room. “What is so urgent that you had to track me down this early in the morning?”
“Let’s say I don’t give you the Harrington shares and you release the documents you supposedly have on my father.” He didn’t want to sell the shares. Cooper needed to find an alternative. The shares protected him from John Harrington, Jr., but selling them would protect his father. Either course of action would hurt the Brock empire. He couldn’t let that happen under his watch. He didn’t like that the need to be perfect and successful in the eyes of his parents was still ingrained in him. “What do you think will happen next?”
She gave a smile that reminded him of a cold-blooded reptile. It diminished the vibrant energy he associated with her. He didn’t think Serena had the capability of being vicious until this moment.
“Aaron Brock will get hit hard when the news breaks,” Serena predicted. “It will weaken him and he’ll be thrown into a feeding frenzy where everyone will want to tear a piece off him. The press, the legal system, his enemies.”
Cooper knew it would be open season on the Brock family.
“Then,” Serena continued as she relished the scenario, “when he doesn’t think there’s anything left, the people he had once trusted will scavenge his bones.”
He had no doubt that would happen. He’d seen how allies turned to enemies when they caught the scent of weakness. “Is that what happened to Felipe?”
Her smile vanished and she looked away. “It happened to all of us. Rumors and whispers have a way of creating roots,” she said in a low, faraway voice. “You can chop and hack at them but they never go away. At times, they seem to multiply.”
Cooper knew she was trapped in some unpleasant memories. He wasn’t going to ask for details. He didn’t want to care. She was trying to play on his emotions and his need to protect the vulnerable. He wasn’t going to fall for it. He had to focus on protecting the Brock empire. That was all that mattered. It was the only thing his parents wanted from him and he could not fail.
Serena cleared her throat and dipped her hand in the bathwater. She gathered a few of the crimson petals and crushed them in her fist. “Aaron will then lose all that he has accumulated throughout his lifetime.”
“No, he won’t.” His father knew how to protect his wealth. He wouldn’t let it all fall into the hands of his enemies.
“He will,” she said with certainty as she let the petals fall from her hand. “At first, he will sell the things he doesn’t think he truly needs. The things he tells himself that he can always buy back when the ordeal is over.”
“It will never get that far.” Cooper wouldn’t let his parents suffer like that.
She acted as if he hadn’t spoken. “And then he will start selling what is important and sentimental.” She absently rubbed one of her gold earrings. “He’ll sell part of his heritage. His soul. His hopes and dreams as he tries to survive day to day.”
Her voice trailed off and she fell into a troubled silence. “And then what?” he prompted.
“He’ll live his remaining days in ruins,” she declared as if she was the judge, jury and executioner.
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” he said in a harsh tone.
“It would be out of your hands.”
“If you release that information, hunting season will be declared on me, not my father.” He flattened his hands against his chest. “I’m the one in charge now and I’m the one responsible.”
“You inherited Aaron’s legacy,” she admitted, “but that doesn’t mean he will be absolved. His former colleagues and enemies will go after him.”
“Most of them are gone or retired.” The men were old, worn-out and wanted peace and quiet. Unlike his father. “And while I fight to save the Brock empire, my father will spend every waking moment going after you.”
There was a moment of panic that flashed through her eyes. He caught a glimpse of the frightened young woman whose life had crashed around her. Serena’s eyelashes fluttered and then it was as if the fear hadn’t existed. “Bring it on.”
Cooper exhaled sharply. She couldn’t be that brave. “You don’t mean it. You don’t want his wrath—or mine—coming down on you.”
Serena sat forward, curling her arms around her bent knees. A few petals rested on her golden-brown skin. “Cooper, do you believe in fighting for justice?”
He thought he did, but his definition of justice was different from hers. “What you’re doing isn’t justice. It’s vengeance.”
“It’s an eye for an eye. That’s justice in its purest form.”
“You want my father to live in ruins for th
e rest of his life. You’re not in ruins and neither are your parents,” he impatiently pointed out. “There is no point to this vengeance. You are wealthy and successful. But if you continue this path, that will change in an instant.”
Serena went still and he knew it was the calm before the storm. He saw the rage flare in her eyes a moment before she erupted from the water. “Just because I have money today, it’s okay to erase what Aaron Brock did to me and my family?”
Cooper swallowed hard as he stared at the goddess before him. She was a glorious sight as the rose petals clung to her golden skin. Rivulets of water tracked down her voluptuous curves. She was a vision of passion and power. Of strength and softness.
“Now that I’m successful,” she continued, her voice shaking with emotion as she vaulted out of the tub, “it’s okay that I didn’t complete my education because I needed a backbreaking job to help pay the bills?”
Cooper was speechless as he watched and listened. She moved with regal grace and potent rage. She was a spoiled princess but she was also a warrior.
She grabbed her white fluffy robe and put it on, stabbing her arms through the sleeves. “It’s all right that I worked in horrible conditions and lived in poverty because as an adult I can afford to stay at a luxury hotel?”
Had he said that? He guessed he did. The wound his father caused her was so old that it had scabbed over and left a scar. He thought there was no point in opening it up again. Now he wasn’t so sure. The scar would never disappear. It was part of her history. Her life.
“I’m telling you to quit while you’re ahead,” he said quietly.
“It’s too late!” she declared, wrapping the robe around her. The thick terry cloth clung to her damp naked body. “You asked your father about me. I’m already in his sight and he’s ready to pull the trigger.”
“I can stop that.” He couldn’t heal the past wounds but he could prevent anyone from getting hurt. Especially Serena.
She tied the sash at her waist with one savage tug. “How?” she said in a growl.
“By offering my protection.”
* * *
Protection? Her hands fell to her sides as she turned his words over in her mind. Why would Cooper Brock offer her anything? She was the enemy. The threat. “I don’t understand.”
“Give me the documents,” he said quietly, “and in exchange I will protect you if my father tries to retaliate.”
She gave a huff of disbelief. Just give away the documents? That file meant more to her than having evidence against the Brocks. It was a reminder that she was smarter and more powerful than when her life fell apart. At times, that file was her security blanket when the fear overwhelmed her.
Serena stared at him waiting for the punch line but Cooper looked very serious. “Aaron won’t come after me because I have proof. It’s my insurance.”
“It’s your ammunition,” Cooper corrected her. “He’s not going to sit quietly waiting for you to use it. Don’t you understand anything about the animal you’re trying to hunt?”
She didn’t understand his exasperation. She had studied Aaron and knew how dangerous he could be. There was always a risk when poking a sleeping giant. “Why do you want to protect me? What’s in it...? Oh.” She fell silent and then gave a bitter laugh. “My God, you will stop at nothing to get me into bed!”
She tossed her hands in the air as a dangerous cocktail of outrage and curiosity bubbled inside her. Becoming Cooper’s lover or mistress would put her in a very vulnerable position. And he knew that. He stepped away from the door. “Serena, you have started a war you can’t win.”
She pulled the lapels of her robe closer. “I’ve done the risk analysis. I studied the battleground. I’m in a very good position to win.”
To her surprise, he didn’t deny it. “But you aren’t invincible.”
“Neither are you. I know your weakness. It’s me,” she said with a gloating smile as she approached him. “And I will use it every chance I get. To distract you. Disarm you. Destroy you.”
His ferocious frown didn’t frighten her. “And I’m your weakness,” he declared.
She stopped walking. Her toes curled against the white tile as she fought the feeling of being exposed. “No, you’re not,” she said in a whisper.
“I can prove it.”
She didn’t like his confident tone or the gleam of anticipation in his silver eyes. Why did this man act as if he could trust her? She was almost envious of his ability to offer that level of faith in another person. “Why would you want to get close to me, cowboy? Aren’t you worried that I would stab you in the back?”
“No,” he said as a smile tugged the corner of his mouth. “Spoiled princesses don’t like to get their hands messy.”
“Spoiled?” He did not know her at all. Once she had been a spoiled rich girl. A princess in her parents’ glittery kingdom. Protected and sheltered. Then she became the peasant and had to fight her way back to the top through a cruel and indifferent world.
She maintained the persona because that was all the protection she needed. If it meant she couldn’t risk showing her true self, she had to make that sacrifice. It was best if no one, especially her enemy, knew the real her. She had to ignore this need to explain herself, to make Cooper understand that this wasn’t a ploy to regain the lifestyle she had lost.
“And you’re the one who doesn’t want to get too close,” he continued. “You’re afraid to get into my bed because you know you would surrender to me.”
Her chin jutted out. She would surrender and it scared her. Cooper had qualities she admired in a man and hadn’t seen for a very long time. “No, that’s not it at all. I know why you invited me into your bed. Offered your so-called protection. It has nothing to do with sex.”
“Wanna bet?” he drawled.
“It’s all strategy,” Serena declared. “If I wind up in your bed and then use the information I have on Aaron, you can dismiss my claims as a disgruntled mistress. A jilted woman who was trying to cause trouble.”
He drew his head back. Her words caught him by surprise. Was that why he had made the offer? To discredit her?
“I may not have a fancy university degree like you, but I can work out your next move,” she warned him. “However, I don’t know why you’re trying to keep me so close. Are you following the ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’ technique?”
A muscle in his jaw bunched. “No, I’m trying to keep both of our worlds from imploding.”
“Don’t worry about me, cowboy. I know how to protect myself.” She strode to the door and opened it quickly, her heart pounding as she wondered if Cooper would stop her. When he didn’t move, she stopped at the threshold and looked at him. “But you, I don’t know if you could get your hands dirty just to survive.”
Cooper flinched and she saw the flash of vulnerability in his harsh features. Serena realized that he didn’t know, either. If he had to act like his father, would he? She didn’t want to know the answer. She didn’t want to turn him into another Aaron Brock.
“Transfer the Harrington shares,” she said softly, almost gently, “and we won’t have to test that theory.”
CHAPTER SIX
COOPER WANDERED ALONG the dusty lane of the village, noticing it felt like a different world from the luxurious Harrington Hotel and exclusive beach. The whitewashed farmhouses he had passed on the way had been modest but boasted ornamental chimneys in various shapes. Instead of inhaling the salty tang of the sea, the scent of almond trees and orange blossoms perfumed the air.
He looked around the decrepit village square and spotted Serena talking animatedly to a potter hawking his wares. She stood out among the villagers in a designer blue dress that reminded him of the sky above his Texan ranch. Her glorious hair was pulled back in a heavy silver clasp and she wore impossibl
y high wedge sandals. Her uncommon beauty and regal stance drew his eye but it was her earthy laugh that pulled him to her.
He wasn’t surprised that she felt driven to leave The Harrington for a few hours, Cooper thought as he made his way to the potter’s stand. He knew his words had hit their marks. Serena was questioning her motivations. Uncertain about her chances. Suddenly the hunter was the prey. Did she realize that or did she still believe she was closing the trap on him?
Serena was blinded by her need for vengeance. She didn’t see that she was hunting an animal that was far more dangerous than she. She was hanging on to revenge when she could do anything else with her life. Unfortunately, she still had the power to destroy. He needed to neutralize her quickly.
He watched her pay for a pottery trinket and tuck it in her large handbag. Cooper decided to follow her as she walked along the dusty street. The white buildings were dingy with peeling paint. The blue doors and window frames were warped and dirty. Serena didn’t seem worried about the rough appearance of the village or how she had captured the attention of every man on the street. She shouldn’t be walking around by herself, yet the rich girl seemed comfortable in her surroundings.
In fact, she seemed to belong in this village even though she was a member of high society. A true socialite wouldn’t visit this dusty poor neighborhood and yet a scrappy street kid wouldn’t glide through a luxury hotel as if she owned it. Cooper wondered which persona was the real Serena Dominguez.
Serena stopped to peer into a storefront window and Cooper easily caught up with her. “Good afternoon, Serena.”
She gasped with surprise and whirled around. “Cooper?” Serena took a step back, her gaze raking over his black button-down shirt and faded jeans as if he was an apparition. As if she had just been thinking about him and he suddenly appeared. She blinked and then looked around wildly. “What are you doing here?”
“Sightseeing. Shopping.” He smiled when he noticed how she used his first name. He liked how it lingered on her tongue. This was progress. Small and incremental, but it was still a positive sign.
