by Watts, Mia
“What the—?”
Cooper silenced her with a kiss. Her cheeks were touched with gossamer coolness of Texas autumn evening. Not noticeable to most, it was to someone whose existence revolved around heat and the lack of it.
Her fists bunched in his shirt just below his shoulders, and as he kissed her, holding his lips against hers, he could already feel the coolness leave her cheeks and her lips plump with warmth.
Fauna twisted her face away from his. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I would think it’s obvious,” he murmured. The kiss had helped, but ended too soon to completely resolve his problem.
“Bad timing,” she snapped.
“If I’d kissed you some other moment, it would have been all right?” he teased.
“No!”
Cooper nuzzled her neck, still hiding his face from her and trying to turn her on. “You smell incredible,” he said, nipping the delicate tendon at the side below her ear.
“You aren’t supposed to notice stuff like that.”
“I’m not?” He asked, flicking his tongue on the edge of her earlobe.
Fauna shivered. “No you aren’t.”
“Then why did you bother to put perfume on, if no one is supposed to notice it?” His lips closed over the soft offering and Fauna’s anxious whimper definitely heated his blood, if not hers.
Chapter Three
Fauna twisted her fingers into Cooper’s cotton sweatshirt. Soft and warm from his body, it felt more like a promise of a hug than clothing. His arms circled her, his firm thighs bracketed her bottom where he sat cross-legged on the grass. His body practically dwarfed hers and the fact that he was suckling her ear, his breath fluttering into the sensitive whorls and raising goose bumps all over her body, did nothing to make her want to keep pushing him away.
His thick hair brushed her jaw like a silken caress. Fauna’s eyes automatically closed to savor the feeling of Cooper’s delicious attention. Her body tightened and parts of her that she’d insisted remain dormant to his charms shivered to life every second she didn’t move away.
“Really bad timing,” she breathed. She’d said the words aloud more to hang onto the thoughts she knew were important, than to actually object.
Cooper scraped his teeth just behind her ear and Fauna lost all sense. Her fists pulled him in instead of pushing him back. She didn’t remember letting go of his shirt, but her fingers did sink into his thick, gorgeous hair to hold him against her as his lips, teeth, and tongue seduced her.
His lips seemed to inflame her flesh with ribbons of liquid heat, making the rest of her feel chilled from the difference. Fauna threw her head back allowing him to do whatever he wanted to her. The world shifted and suddenly, she was lying in the grass, Cooper over her.
His lips found hers again. Fauna slitted her eyes and deliriously thought she saw a red glow before she dismissed it in favor of closed eyes and absorbed sensations. Her breasts ached, nipples in hard cold points under two layers of clothing. She heard the snaps pop on her windbreaker and nearly cried with relief that her breasts would finally get some attention.
Cooper stopped abruptly. His breath quick and puffing in sharp bursts on her cheek. “Wrong place, wrong time,” he rasped. “Not like this.”
Confused and still dazed Fauna looked up at his dark silhouette. “Wh-what?”
“You’re right. You deserve a lot better than this.”
“What?” she asked her voice sounding squeaky. “No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do. I shouldn’t have come onto you like this.”
“You can’t just stop all the sudden.”
“So now you don’t want me to stop?” he asked, sounding confused.
“No. Wait…”
Fauna sat up. Cooper gave her some room. She licked her lips and tried to remember what had started the whole thing and why she suddenly didn’t want him to stop when stopping would be a good thing, right? It had to be a good thing. She shouldn’t be making out with a coworker. She especially shouldn’t be making out with a coworker who was on duty with her. And hadn’t it been she who’d first said it was a bad idea?
Why had she said it was a bad idea?
Crickets chirped around her and she remembered. “Oh, my God! I can’t believe you did that!”
“It’s not rocket science. I felt like kissing you. You seemed to be feeling it too.”
“Not until you stuck your tongue in my ear,” she accused.
“I didn’t stick my tongue in your ear.”
“You might as well have.”
Cooper sighed and stood. He held out his hand, but Fauna rejected the help and got to her feet quickly, dusting off her bottom. If she’d taken his hand, she might have pulled him on top of her again. Except that he’d never laid on her, only laid her down and hovered over her. And it pissed her off because she felt like he’d cheated her out of feeling his body pressing into hers. Which, technically, he had. And because it was trickery. She hadn’t wanted to kiss him until he’d made her want to kiss him. How was that fair?
She harrumphed at him. He smiled. She didn’t know how she knew he’d smiled, because it was too dark to see him well, but she did know. He shouldn’t know he had that kind of mind melting effect on her unless she wanted him to know. Thank God she was too annoyed with herself to disappear again. Not that it would matter, it being dark and all. But damn it! He clearly knew his effect on her, and the smile just proved it.
“If you insist, I’ll make a point of sticking my tongue in your ear next time,” he offered jovially.
“Ew. No. Don’t do me any favors. Like I’d want your tongue on me,” she muttered. Oh, hell, her whole body wanted his tongue on her, and she felt the flush of her body’s response to the thought.
“It didn’t feel like ‘ew’ when you moaned. I totally misread that. My bad.”
“Yes, well,” she asserted stubbornly. “Now you know.”
“Yep, now I know.” He nodded. “I know you hate being kissed, have zero attraction to me, and that when you’re holding my face to your neck, you’re actually trying to teach me a lesson.”
“That’s right.”
“Just out of curiosity, what meaning do I take from arching back and pointy nipples?” he asked innocently.
Fauna gasped, whirled away from him, and started back toward the car. There was no possible way he could have known that. It had been too dark and he hadn’t so much as grazed his fingers over her breasts. They still ached, her core still squeezed for his touch on her body. She’d been so ready for him. It wouldn’t have mattered if they’d been on a goddamn stage in front of her family and the world, she’d have let him take her on the spot.
So why hadn’t he?
Her pride stung almost as sharply as her neglected body. He was so confusing! Flirting one minute, blinking drolly at her the next, running from the building they’d been hired to secure, and nearly lighting her on fire with lust two seconds later.
Where had her head been? He made her act so out of the ordinary, it was scary. Her whole existence revolved around organization and control. The one area of control she didn’t have was in her faery ability to disappear. She hated its unpredictability which had everything to do with her aversion to all things faery.
Damn the faeries.
And what did she do? She went and got hot for the first guy to come along who made her act irrationally and who, himself, behaved irrationally. It was enough to make her pull her hair out.
She should just let it go. That would be the sane thing to do. But damnit, she couldn’t. And what the hell did he mean by ‘next time’? Did he think there’d be a next time she’d let him not put his tongue in her ear? What the hell?
Fauna slowed to a stop. Cooper stopped beside her, and she looked up at him with narrowed eyes.
“Next time?” she asked, continuing the thought aloud.
“Next time, what?”
“You said, next time. Do you actually think there will be a
next time for sucking on my ear?”
“Technically, your earlobe. While your ears are dainty, I’d never try to put a whole one in my mouth.”
Fauna waved her hand dismissively. “You know what I mean.”
“You seemed to be into it.” He shrugged. “It’s my only defense.”
“I bet you think we’ll get back to the bed and breakfast, and I’ll let you share my bed.”
Cooper cocked a hip and folded his arms across his chest. She loved when he did that.
No, I don’t, she argued with herself.
“If I share your bed, I’ll make sure you sleep really, really well,” he promised.
“Area rug,” she choked out. “You sleep on the area rug.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course, I’m sure.”
“Even if I promise not to lay a hand on you?” he asked.
Would he? Knowing him and his maddeningly unpredictable ways, he might just do that then she’d spend the night wishing he would touch her, only he wouldn’t. Or he would touch her and she’d spend all night wishing he’d never stop. Every one of her cells pleaded with her to let him sleep in her bed.
“Nothing good happens after midnight, buddy.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? It’s already after midnight.”
“Exactly. The human brain doesn’t think clearly when it’s tired. If you stayed in my bed, there would be a lot of regrets the next morning.”
“You said ‘if’. Sounds to me like it’s at least up for discussion.” His tone turned smug and she could hear the smile in his voice.
“It’s not.”
Cooper took a step closer. “Gonna ask again. Are you sure?”
He reached out and wrapped one of her curls around his finger. He crooked it and gently tugged. As though she were chained, she took a stumbling step toward him, catching herself against his chest. So warm, so soothing and comforting.
Fauna looked at him, horrified that he could manipulate her body’s longings with such ease. The nearby parking lot light had to illuminate her face. Could he see what wanting him did to her? How bad it was to be drawn to him against her will?
Her eyes pleaded with him.
“What is it, beautiful Fauna?” he murmured.
She shook her head almost as an afterthought, an extension of the doubts she had tumbling through her mind. “This…we…could be a really bad idea.”
“Every relationship is a risk,” he rationalized softly.
“I just met you. There’s no relationship.”
“Yeah, there is. There’s chemistry, admiration, respect, common experience at Harper Security. Those are more foundation blocks than most relationships start off with.”
“We work together,” she said, searching for another barrier to put up. A barrier she didn’t really feel anymore.
“You want to be with me as much as I want to be with you, Fauna. It’s why you got your back up over that kiss. It’s okay. If you want to take your time, then we’ll do that. As long as I know you aren’t permanently shutting me out, I can wait.”
“Bad timing.”
“You said that already,” he whispered, pulling her closer by the single curl.
She moved easily against him, sliding her arms around his neck. “There are things you don’t really know about me yet.”
“The faery thing? Your brother explained it to me. Besides, part of the fun in getting to know you, is getting to know you.” He smiled, his teeth gleaming dimly in the limited light. “There are things you don’t know about me, too. We all have quirks.”
“What kind of quirks?”
Cooper kissed the tip of her nose. “Guess you’ll have to give me a chance, so you can find out for yourself.”
“You still can’t sleep in the bed with me.”
“Why not?”
Fauna caught her bottom lip, then released it when she committed to the confession she figured he already knew anyway. “Because if you’re in bed with me, I’m not going to want to sleep.”
Cooper chuckled, rubbing his nose against hers. “Me either. You in person is infinitely better than the you in my dreams.”
Warmth swelled in her chest, and she briefly faded from view. “You dream about me?”
“Why wouldn’t I? You’re the perfect woman.”
“The perfect woman would recognize that making out with a subordinate coworker while on the job and just after finding an intruder on the project site, is a bad idea. She wouldn’t have gotten distracted.”
Cooper sighed. “He’s long gone.”
“And you aren’t the least bit worried about it,” she said. The spell seemed to break and Fauna reluctantly moved away from him. “Let’s get back to the room and figure out the next step. One thing’s for sure, we have to fall in line with Harper Standard Practice and work during the night hours.”
“Why do you do that?”
“Because there are people in the building all day long, and it’s less likely the lab will be broken into then. At night, when the lab is vulnerable and dark, intruders take the chance. But if we’re there, securing the premises and keeping an eye on things, there’s less of a chance the thief will be successful. We’ve been working night hours security setup for a while now,” she answered, falling comfortably into the role of boss.
“Not that. Why do you back away the minute things get personal.”
Fauna looked away, dug into her jacket pocket for the car keys. She pulled them out and headed to the car, expecting Cooper to follow her. “Letting personal things distract us from a professional requirement is never a good idea. I’ve already broken that rule once tonight.”
“And us?” he asked.
Fauna stopped. What would her twin do? She looked at Cooper’s handsome face, his gleaming brown eyes with reddish highlights which she could see even in the low light. She studied the tenseness of his shoulders and the slight cock of his head as he looked back at her. He was everything she wanted even if his unpredictability scared her. She wanted him. Her sister would have told her to go for it.
Fauna, though, hedged on caution. She couldn’t let pleasure disrupt business. She had never been the kind of woman who could have sex with someone and not get emotionally entangled. It’s why she’d stayed out of relationships for the past year and a half. She wanted to be more like her twin, Flora. Flora, if she were single, would sleep with whomever she wanted and not think twice about it.
While Fauna couldn’t rack up the man-points, she did really want this one. She just couldn’t let him be a distraction.
“Us,” she said, thoughtfully. She gathered her courage. “There won’t be an us while we’re on this job. We can entertain the idea after we’re done here. In the meantime, you can sleep in my bed. Whatever happens there, is purely extracurricular and not for any other purpose than to relieve tension. That’s the offer.”
Cooper’s brows rose with surprise. He nodded slowly, watchfully.
“You accept those terms?”
He nodded again. Not convincingly.
“You accept them and don’t associate any of what happens as a detriment to your position at Harper Security?”
“Yes,” he said finally, softly.
“Good.”
Her hands shook as she pushed the door unlock button on the key fob. She swallowed several times hoping that the next time she spoke it would sound lighthearted.
“It’s one thirty. Let’s get back to the bed and breakfast. We’ll figure out a plan of action on the lab, a time to go in and visit it to get the layout, and set up the lab for our stay tomorrow night. Then around two thirty, we’ll get in bed naked, have sex, and be asleep by two forty-five.”
She slammed the car door behind her. She turned on the ignition and waited, while Cooper shifted his weight from foot to foot outside the passenger side. A couple of minutes later, he opened his door and sank into the seat beside her.
* * * *
Cooper gripped the sink in the tiny cubby
-sized bathroom. He stared down his reflection, watching the muscle tick in his jaw and the red burning brightly in his eyes. His hands tightened on the porcelain until it grew hot to the touch. The faucet fixture began to hiss as hot porcelain heated metal components. If he didn’t let go now, the pipes would blow.
She might as well have put my cock in a vise, he thought. I’m not a light switch. I can’t just turn off and on at a whim. It’s two thirty. Time to get naked and have sex for fifteen minutes.
Who was she kidding? Fifteen minutes? Did she really expect him to hop on, move around a little, and finish up like some dead-fish no-thought bar score? Fuck that!
The sink hissing grew louder, sounding reminiscent of a pressure cooker. Ironic. That’s how he felt. She turned him on, made him hotter than he’d been for anyone in a long time, and cooled his ardor just as quickly by making him angry. It was a fucking paradox. He was hot, just not like that. He was pissed, for damn sure.
If she thought he’d have his fill in a mere fifteen minutes, she had another think coming.
Cooper released the sink edges, and snorted. It wasn’t control over the situation, she had. On the contrary, she’d just issued him a challenge he had no intention of backing down from.
“Fifteen minutes,” he scoffed to his reflection. “We’ll see if fifteen minutes is enough for her.”
Cooper washed his hands, using cool water to temper his hot skin. It boiled as it touched him and he kept the water running until his skin finally felt normal. When he opened the door to the bedroom, there was a lump under the covers. If he’d only had human eyes, she would have been invisible. With the eyes of an elemental, she glowed golden-orange in the darkness.
“We only have ten minutes now,” she said, sounding disappointed and put out. “Plus, I’ve gone invisible again. We might have to postpone this until tomorrow night.”
“Not a chance, hot stuff. I can work with darkness just as easily as light. You gave me the go-ahead. I’m going ahead.”
“Geez. So romantic.”
“You didn’t want romance, remember? Pure sex was your stipulation, not mine,” he said.
Cooper stripped as he walked to the side of the bed.
