by Avery Flynn
Savannah looked ill and stood to pace a small square by the chair. With nothing to do with her hands, she wrung them over her flat belly and stared into space.
“Do you want me to continue?” he asked. He couldn’t tell if she needed time to process or not.
"Just trying to put everything together. The affair had happened before we were born."
“Conceived,” he clarified.
She nodded, biting her lip. “And years later, Daddy somehow used the affair to talk you into leaving me for good. Something to do with my mom? I don’t understand that part.”
“My mom got pregnant first. Then your mom, who didn’t think she could conceive at all, turned up pregnant too.”
Savannah froze and turned a light shade of green. “Oh my God, did Daddy tell you we were half-siblings or something?” she shrieked.
He chuckled. "No. Apparently, even he couldn't associate himself with the idea of turning us into flowers in the attic. He was quick to tell me he'd had a DNA test performed."
She sagged in relief. “Thank God.”
“So Helena turned up pregnant, and according to my dad, tried to say you were his. She wanted him to leave my mom for her.”
“Obviously he didn’t.”
Cooper shook his head. “He refused to leave her, but also refused to carry on the affair. Somehow William caught wind of everything, and the miracle baby—you—suddenly became undesirable.”
He paused to watch her scrub her face, blinking at rapid speed. How anyone ever dreaded her existence, he would never understand. Even now, face washed clean of makeup by the rain, hair in an ugly knot, she was stunning. She'd been beautiful as a child too. All he'd ever wanted was to be near her. That hadn't changed.
“The way it was explained,” Cooper continued, “the shock of the pregnancy compounded with my dad leaving her because of the pregnancy made her hate you from the beginning.”
Savannah spun on him, gaping. “Are you serious? Am I supposed to believe that, twenty-five years later, getting dumped by her consort is why my mother hates me?”
Cooper felt her throwing up walls against him and refused to let that happen, so he rose and stood on the other side of the coffee table. He could reach out and touch her if he needed to but didn't.
“Imagine for a second that you and I are married to other people.” He ignored the roll of her eyes. “We give into our passions and are in love, but then I leave you.”
He watched her cheeks begin turning a bright shade of pink. Her jaw clenched tight. She knew what that felt like, and so did he. It was the last thing he wanted to bring up but would drive his point home.
“Now imagine that our children grow up together, so close that they’re running in and out of our homes all the time, and falling in love.”
Her blue eyes lowered, and a lot of the steam left her tense shoulders. “It would be weird, but I don’t know.”
Cooper took a chance and reached out. Wrapped his hands behind her elbows and dragged his palms down until he had her hands. “Now imagine that your husband forced you to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Threatened to leave you without a cent. Did whatever he could to make you stay and be a mother to that child that broke us up. Scared you into believing that if you took one step out of line, you’d have nothing and no one. Imagine he trapped you in your misery.”
She looked up, tears rimming her eyes. “He did that to her?”
“Yeah.”
“Because of me?”
"Because of the affair." He wouldn't let her believe—as he had—for even a second that she was to blame for their parents' messed up lives. "Dad told me about the NDA after William left, but the way your dad put it to me, your mom resented you for your freedom. She was being forced to watch you fall in love with me. You were getting everything she'd wanted, and nothing stood in the way."
Savannah dropped his hands, eyes drying and narrow. “That’s why you left?”
How could he explain the state of mind he’d been in then? His dad was dying. He would have given up his entire career back then if given the excuse. “I honestly believed that without me around, your mom would finally lay off you. I knew how badly you wished for a relationship with her, and I didn’t want to be the reason you couldn’t have it.”
Shaking her head in disbelief, she said, “Your dad just let you believe it?”
Cooper felt his mouth draw into a thin line. "All I can think is that the cancer was eating him up to the point where even he bought into William's bullshit. He'd sounded so damn genuine. In the end, Dad talked me into it, and I trusted him." His voice broke. "He was my dad, Savannah. And I was so out of my mind with grief… You have to believe me. I didn't know what I was doing."
All barriers fell, and Savannah placed herself in his arms. He didn't know why she'd given over to him, but he wouldn't complain. She fit so perfectly to him. Tall enough to rest his chin on. Slight enough to wrap his arms completely around and then some.
“I’m still angry with you,” she whispered against his chest.
A smile cracked his lips. “I deserve it. I wish I’d gotten up the nerve to tell you sooner. But a part of me said it was too late and that you’d moved on. I was moving on too. Trying to, anyway. Then before I knew it, three years had gone by.”
Savannah eased away from him, eyes lowered. “And you’re only telling me now because you’re home with the Cup.”
He knuckled her chin up. “The Cup is why I’m here, but you’re the reason I’m breathing.” Cooper took a deep breath and cupped her head. Stared deeply into her beautiful eyes. “I’m so sorry I left you like that. No more excuses. Just me being a massive fool.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Is this you trying to charm your way into my good graces again?”
“No, but is it working?”
Her lips twitched, belying the response she gave him. “No.”
He laughed, feeling lighter than ever. Regardless of she said or didn’t say, Savannah was still in his arms. That alone spoke volumes. “You know, charm has gotten me out of a lot of trouble these past few years.”
“I’m sure it has.”
Savannah’s expression collapsed so abruptly it sent Cooper into shock mode. She blinked away more tears trying to escape and stared skyward. Heaved a calming breath, then blew it out in a rush. “I hate you, Cooper Banks.”
“Now try sounding a little more sincere. I might believe you.”
She met his smiling eyes. “I don’t know what to do about you.”
Cooper traced over her brows and temples, down her cheekbones, focusing his gaze on the simple project. “Well, you could start by letting me make it up to you. And maybe…eventually…forgiving me?”
Savannah’s first instinctive response was Yes. Now that she knew everything, and understood how vulnerable he was to persuasion back then, she couldn’t blame him. But that didn’t change the fact that he’d left. What would stop him from doing it again?
Frowning, she stepped out of his arms. She couldn’t think clearly with him touching her like that. “I forgive you,” she said, but she refused to look at him. Doing so would make this harder. “But I don’t trust you.”
She watched his bare feet retreat a step, and she finally dared to meet his eyes. Except he stared blindly at a corner, mouth turned down.
“What did you expect to happen?” she asked. “Did you think about anything beyond this week? You’re under contract in another state. I have a life here.”
A life that could be more mobile if she could survive on writing music as a career, but she wasn't there yet. For now, she and West were bound to their day jobs.
Cooper spun around, cupping the back of his neck, and sat on her sturdy coffee table. “I don’t know what I expected.” He looked up. “I know I love you. I know I want you back. I know that when I kiss you and hold you a heavy weight lifts.”
These were just the sort of declarations she needed to hear. Yet, they blinded her from reality. She could easily give in and
let him steal her away from Dove Harbor. He could afford to take care of her financially. But wouldn’t that work against all the progress she’d made for herself? Wouldn’t that be giving up?
Savannah sat beside him, knees turned into his thigh. She took his hand and laced their fingers. “If you’d said that three years ago, I’d have dropped everything for you.”
“But now?”
“Now… Now I’m a woman who knows how to live without you.”
Coop twisted toward her, placing her legs across his lap to aid the endeavor. He swept fingertips across her cheek. The moment his hazel eyes flicked up to hers she knew she'd made a mistake sitting so close to him. His mouth was right there; she felt his warm breath on her skin. His hands could easily reach every part of her body; one, in particular, was beginning to ache. One wrong move and his towel would open, and if that happened, she could kiss her will goodbye.
“Knowing how to live without me,” he began softly, “doesn’t mean you can.”
“Maybe not, but—”
He cut her off with a kiss. Not just any kiss. This one took her off her ass. Literally. He had her around the waist and under her knees, holding her so tight she was sure she could extricate herself. His insistence left a delicious burn from his beard shadow. It wasn’t the sort of kiss that a person could pause for love or money. This one was far more likely to start wars.
“I need you,” he said between nips to her lower lip.
“Why are we still talking?”
As far as she was concerned, she was only throwing in half a towel. Scratching an itch. Satisfying a curiosity. And after it was all said and done, she could honestly say she’d closed all doors to her past with Cooper Banks.
He chuckled against her mouth and immediately moved them toward her bedroom door. “Are you reading my thoughts, Savannah Jane?”
“More likely you’re reading mine.”
Her skin burned everywhere he touched. Once they neared her bed, his hands scorched up the back of her thighs, and his mouth blazed a trail along the curve of her neck.
Cooper hooked her knee up around the waist and rotated them around. He sat and helped guide her legs around him. No amount of material between them hid his current state. Feeling his incredible erection swept a torrent of need through her.
For the first time in two days, Savannah stopped resisting. She lowered her shoulder to help him move aside the spaghetti strap. Sighed as his tongue traced the curve leading to her collarbone. Arched forward as his hands eased under her camisole and up her bare back. And when he buried his face between her breasts, she threaded fingers into his hair and held him there.
There was nothing more poetic than this return. Already knowing each other, but with the confidence that can only come with maturity. Gone were the clumsy starts and stops. The nervous giggles. The hurried rush to reach the end of the game.
Cooper possessed and challenged Savannah with every move. Every look. He managed to get her clothes off without so much as a snag in their focus.
Back straddling his waist, protected by nothing but his towel and her lace panties, Savannah teased his shirt up, holding his gaze. Intentionally palming from waist to pectorals in a slow, sensual stroke that forced her swollen breasts against his hot, firm chest.
The next time his arms came around her waist, they were free of the shirt and relentless. She wasn't getting away from him anytime soon. Not that she wanted to. The throbbing ache between her thighs wouldn't be satisfied any other way.
But while she imagined what it would feel like with him buried inside her, he spun her to her back and plunged his tongue deep into her mouth instead. Gave her a taste of the pleasure to come.
The towel loosened and fell away of its own accord. His erection rocked and teased against her. So close, yet couldn't be further from the satisfying end she craved. She couldn't imagine him lasting much longer; he was rock hard.
“Drawer,” she managed on a rocky breath. “Condom.”
No sooner had she come got the request out than he was moving south toward her breasts. Suckling her tight nipples. Kissing the flat of her belly. And finally, working the edges of her panties away from her body. Once free, she heard the familiar sound of her bedside drawer opening.
Cooper stood to his full height giving her the entire package to admire. Her mouth watered while watching him roll on the condom. His thick erection turned her past lovers into inexperienced, below average boys by comparison. Every minute move made one muscle or another pulse in the moonlight. The time away let her appreciate, once again, his sculpted shoulders and chest. The slimness of his waist. The trail of dark hair bisecting six—no, eight—packs of solid muscle making up his stomach.
Hockey definitely did a body good.
Cooper bent toward Savannah and all but prowled up her body, shoulders bunching. Her knees caught on his waist and rode up until the head of his erection met her tender, throbbing center.
He paused for the first time. Eyes flicking as his gaze read her face. Mouth parted just enough to allow her a taste of his sweet, humid breath.
His serious expression broke under a warm, teasing smile. “I need to ask you a serious question first.”
“Cooper Banks, I might literally kill you.”
And she meant it. Waiting made her feel dangerous. She cupped his bare ass and squeezed, pulling just enough to break his concentration.
“Fuck,” he growled, then, “Forget it.”
Savannah started to giggle but broke off to gasp as he slid inside her to the hilt. An exquisite heat tore through her as his erection spread her tight walls. She couldn't breathe and wanted to scream as her body stretched to allow him room. Nothing ever felt as satisfying or as divine as this. With him.
Cooper slid away, leaving her cold and hollow, only to return seconds later. He was both gentle and desperate. The way he never took his eyes from hers made it that much better. He was there with her every step of the way. Connecting with more than their bodies. They held on to each other so furiously that one was bound to slip under the other’s skin before the night was over.
The build of Savannah's orgasm was both pleasant and disappointing. She wasn't ready for this to end. Feared it, in fact. It'd been too long since she'd felt so complete. But as the spine-tingling intensity of her orgasm grew, she thought of nothing else. She lost all the sense God gave her.
He must have known because he kept a steady pace, maintaining eye contact. A beatific smile building with every shift in her expression.
“Don’t hold back on me now,” he said, grinning.
If she hadn’t already been on the brink, she’d have smacked him. Instead, she exploded in a fire so fierce that white spots danced in her vision. A scream tore from her lungs, and her hands shot up to the bed post, holding tight to the one thing within reach that kept her grounded.
Cooper rode into her waves for what seemed like an eternity before reaching his own climax. His eyes shut for the first time, yet their connection didn't waver. He finished with his face buried in her neck, chest heaving against hers, their skin tacky with sweat.
They stayed like that for a long time, soaking in each other’s heat. Quietly rejoicing in the aftermath. That is until Savannah recalled Cooper’s earlier pause.
“What was it you wanted to ask?” she said, fingers combing through his hair.
Cooper rose just high enough to look at her with a deep groove between his pinched brows.
“Must have been important,” she added. “You were going to withhold sex for it.”
His eyes widened as he caught up. "Oh yeah," he said and pulled completely away from her, chuckling to himself. He propped himself up along her side, heating one half of her body while leaving the other side cold.
“Well?” she asked.
“It’s a serious question. Are you ready for it?”
She shot an elbow into his ribcage.
He cleared his throat and gave her the straightest face he could summon. “Do you
like me? Check yes”—he drew invisible boxes in the air above them—“or no.”
Just like that the man lying beside her turned into the young boy she loved across the aisle when they were kids. The boy whose mother parted his unruly hair with water every morning. Who didn't have the nerve to hold her hand until sixth grade, so he hooked their pinkies instead. Who always let her have the swings first.
“See?” Cooper whispered. “Serious question.”
Savannah peered into his eyes, feeling the beginning prickles of tears burn in hers. She rolled into his warmth and cupped his cheek.
“No.”
That had been the problem from the beginning. She didn’t like him.
She loved him.
7
Coop returned home via taxi to the serenade of chirping birds and endless sunshine. His mind spun from the events of the night before. The endless lovemaking. The touching and teasing and giggling. Sure, Savannah had said “no” when asked the question he’d considered charming, but she’d done it with a spark in her eye. She was probably protecting herself, which she’d completely failed at by letting him into her bed.
All part of his plan to break down the barriers until she trusted him again. Said plan had literally no other ideas in it at the moment, but he wasn’t above making it up as he went along.
The taxi pulled into the drive behind Josh’s truck, and his brother straightened up out of a flower bed, squinting in their direction. Cooper’s stomach flipped slightly; they hadn’t seen each other since the fight. They definitely needed to talk, and as he paid his fare, he anticipated more yelling. All things mood-killing.
Cooper strolled toward the porch in his rumpled suit, the jacket swinging from his fist.
Josh watched his brother approach, then seemed to come to some decision. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"
