“I saved you a plate.” She started for the counter but Nikki stopped her.
“I’ll get it,” she promised. Then she saw the other woman’s coat and purse. Curious, Nikki turned back to Sylvia. “Is everything all right?”
“Oh yes,” Sylvia said with a twinkle in her light brown eyes. She scooped up her jacket and purse and rounded the large kitchen table. “Cooper’s given me the day off, and I fully intend to take advantage of it.”
Confused, Nikki gazed toward the door, but she couldn’t see any sign of Cooper beyond the formal dining room.
“Marty ran off with his friends,” Nikki told her. “He won’t be back until dinner.”
Sylvia nodded, looking unconcerned. “His father will take him home, or he can bunk here with the boys. You and Cooper enjoy,” she said with enough innuendo to see through.
Before Nikki could begin to think of a good reply, Sylvia left. Her mouth suddenly dry, Nikki crossed to the sink and poured a glass of water. She let the cold, clean liquid slide down her throat as she struggled with what to do next.
She knew she’d find Cooper in his office; he usually took this time to go through paperwork and accounts after morning chores. Setting the empty glass silently on the counter, Nikki hesitated.
What she should do was run, sneak upstairs, pack those few things she needed, and get out. Her mind screamed, Disappear now! Disappear before Cooper had the chance to come to his senses. She could handle leaving him, or thought she could, but Nikki didn’t think she’d survive seeing the hate and fear in his eyes when he looked at her.
When he no longer believed her and thought her a raving lunatic.
But he’d said he’d help. He swore to her, and that promise had warmed a part of Nikki she’d thought long dead. Apparently her hope was not dead, just buried beneath too many years of hiding.
She licked her lips and took a step out of the kitchen. She wanted to trust him, more than anything, but she’d been on her own for so long. Nikki didn’t know how to trust. Not anymore.
Swallowing hard, she quietly left the kitchen. She didn’t want Cooper to hear her—he’d stop her, and Nikki didn’t want to be stopped. Couldn’t be. No, she knew what she had to do. She had to leave.
Everything in her wanted to stay. Wanted to feel Cooper’s arms around her, the calm reassurance in his tone as he told her he’d stand by her. Practically speaking, she knew that probably wouldn’t happen. It never had.
Why should she trust it now?
Her heart pounded, not from trying to sneak upstairs and pack without Cooper hearing her, but from leaving him. It hurt, bursting through her like needles pricking her skin. Nikki took a deep breath and choked back her emotions; she didn’t want to leave him, but better to do so now.
“Nikki.”
Cooper’s voice stopped her dead in her tracks. Outside his office, she took a moment to compose herself. She was used to leaving people, but she’d never allowed herself to love one before.
Hesitating, she knew if she didn’t answer him in the next beat, he’d come find her. Then there wouldn’t be enough time to gather her things. To make that quiet getaway she’d wanted. Nikki sucked in a deep breath. Now or never. She gathered every wall she’d ever built around her heart closer, despite a suddenly shaky foundation, and entered the room.
Cooper didn’t sit at the desk, but stood by the window that overlooked the driveway. Licking her lips, Nikki walked into the room and closed the door behind her. Whatever Sylvia had thought her free afternoon meant for Nikki and Cooper, Nikki knew differently.
Cooper turned and studied her, his eyes dark and intent as they searched her face. “I take it everything is good with the horses?”
“They’re fine,” she reassured him, though she was at a complete loss as to the direction of this conversation. “And they’ll be fine throughout the winter.”
“I’ve invited someone here,” Cooper said rather vaguely, “they should arrive soon.”
Her stomach swooped. That wasn’t what she expected. Body poised to run, she raised an eyebrow and she waited.
“Who?” she demanded, annoyed with his invitation. Had he not believed her? “A psychiatrist? A medical doctor with a bag full of drugs?”
Nikki knew her voice echoed heavily with cynicism and with a hint of anger at his presumption. But that damned spark of hope refused to die and continued to burn brightly. She wasn’t used to it.
“The woman I mentioned earlier,” he said calmly and rounded the desk to stand in front of her.
Oh, he was good. She’d have to go around him to leave the office. Clever Cooper. It made her feel a little trapped. But, oh, it also made her feel wanted. Like he wouldn’t let her go without a fight. Warmth spread through her, and that damned spark of hope flared brighter.
“Her name is Taima,” he continued in that same calm voice that made her believe him, “and she’s known as a seer.”
Tilting her head in disbelief, Nikki struggled to understand what his words meant. She hadn’t expected him to find a seer, to take his offer of help so seriously.
“What do you expect to happen, Cooper?” she demanded, harsher than she intended. “Do you think this woman will see me and suddenly know a cure?”
Emotion flashed in his eyes—determination but more. Fight. His dark eyes were alive with it. Jaw clenched he held her gaze. “No, I don’t. But it’s a place to start.”
Softening, she cupped his cheek and smiled gratefully at him. “I just don’t want you to get your hopes up. Cooper,” she added, dropping her hand.
Cooper caught her hand and squeezed. “Let’s see what she can do, what she has to say.”
“I truly believe I shouldn’t stay here,” she insisted. Even to her it sounded weak, torn between doing what she knew she needed to do and what she wanted to do.
“Then I’ll have to follow you,” he said with that lightning-quick, knee-weakening smile. There was an underlying hint of steel there. “I won’t let you go, Nikki. Not because of this.”
Speechless, Nikki stood there and fought to control herself. She’d run for so long, been on her own for so long, accepting help, and help from Cooper seemed strange. He took her hand, and his calloused fingers stroked hers.
A truck barreled up the drive, stopping with a screech of breaks. Nikki glanced at the window, curious as to the emergency; he gave her fingers one final squeeze before he ran to the front door and swung it open.
Sahale, one of Cooper’s closest friends and a ranch hand, jumped from the pickup and raced around to open the door for a woman.
“Sahale,” Cooper called and nodded in respectful greeting.
Nikki stood behind him and knew without being told that the woman with Sahale was the seer, Taima. She swallowed and watched the pair of them walk for the house. Instinct had her almost running away, but Nikki held her ground. Perhaps this woman really could help her.
Sahale escorted Taima into the house, but Nikki didn’t hear what Cooper said to his friend. Taima shrugged free of Sahale’s hold and entered the hallway, stopping several feet from Nikki to stare at her with undisguised curiosity.
Did Nikki detect a hint of hostility? Oh, yes, and fear as well.
She shivered but met the seer’s gaze with a steady knowing. After all, she’d lived with this monster inside her all her life. She knew what dwelled within her.
“What is it they call you?” Taima demanded.
“My name is Nikki Kent,” she answered evenly, despite the other woman’s brash words.
Taima circled Nikki, studying her from every angle as if she was a particularly curious painting. Nikki waited through her investigation, hating every second but understanding the importance. Sahale left and Cooper stood in the doorway of his office but didn’t interrupt.
“Have a seat.” Taima gestured to the couch and waited as Nikki reluctantly crossed the room and did so.
Taima didn’t sit but tilted her head first to one side then the other, as if one angle offered
a better view of Nikki. Or the demon. Finally, she raised her head and ordered Cooper to bring her a chair, directing him exactly where to place it.
Sitting directly across from Nikki, she continued to stare intently at her. The silence grew heavier until Nikki started to say something—anything, really—to break the silence. But Taima shot her a look and sliced her hand through the air. Nikki closed her mouth and swallowed against the dryness. She resisted looking over her shoulder to find Cooper, but knew he hadn’t deserted her.
“Do you understand this?” Taima asked, leaning forward in the chair.
“No,” Nikki said honestly, clearly. “I’ve never really understood it and I don’t want it.”
Taima sat back, folding her hands over her lap. “It’s part of you now. This will not be an easy task to separate you from it. But you are lucky it is not another.”
Curious, she frowned. “Another?”
Shaking her head, Taima stood and closed the distance between them. Cooper appeared at her side, still silent, but she appreciated his being there. Taima looked down at her and held the palm of her hand over her cheek.
Nikki’s cheek burned, a white-hot flash of intensity that didn’t hurt, though she could feel the heat of it. She knew something happened with the demon, could feel it stir at Taima’s touch, but strangely didn’t feel overpowered by it.
Whatever happened, she could see in Taima’s dark eyes that it scared her. She glanced at Cooper from the corner of her eye, but he simply watched. There was no disgust or recoil at whatever both of them saw in or on her.
Taima dropped her hand and slowly, deliberately backed away. She didn’t reclaim her seat but stopped just short of it. Looking at Cooper, she paused for a moment.
“I’m not certain what I can do,” Taima said quietly. She glanced between Cooper and Nikki then back at Cooper. “I must study this. I’ll return when and if I have further information.”
Taima stared so steadily at Cooper, a hard, piercing look. “Do you care enough for this one?”
Cooper closed the distance between him and the other woman. He didn’t glance at her, but kept his gaze on Taima. “I love her.”
The simple words hung thick in the air. Nikki wanted to refute them, but the words, the sentiment, wrapped around her like a comforting embrace. She shook it off, refusing to embrace the comfort or his words.
Taima nodded, and without another word she left.
Nikki blinked at the abrupt departure. She listened to the seer say something to Sahale, who had apparently waited by the truck, but couldn’t make out their words, not from this distance. Then the truck roared to life and they were gone.
She’d always felt alone, but with Cooper’s unexpected declaration, Nikki didn’t know if his words reassured or scared her. Silence settled over the office, but she found herself unable to move, to speak, to break the fragile hold she had over herself.
Nikki took a deep breath; it was quiet in the room, though her heart beat far too loudly for her. She knew the demon rose for Taima, could feel it stir though there’d been no sense of it trying to break free. No murderous rage, no bloodlust.
Swallowing, she finally moved, just enough to turn her head to find Cooper. Despite his standing next to her, that loneliness continued to envelope her. Taima had been the first spiritualist to not only feel the demon, and control it in some odd way Nikki didn’t understand, but also the first one who Nikki believed might be able to help.
With her abrupt departure, however, that hope was snuffed out.
“I don’t think she’s coming back,” Nikki admitted quietly. It sounded like a shout in the stuffy room.
“You don’t know that.” Cooper sat beside her and turned her so that she had no choice but to face him. His fingers brushed her cheek, another reassurance.
His voice was tender, but the roughness beneath that told her how worried he was, how afraid. Nikki swallowed and tried to reassure him but had trouble believing it herself. Instead, she allowed Cooper to take her hand and pull her to him. She rested her head on his chest and tried not to think.
“She was scared,” Nikki whispered, broken. “You could see it in the way she acted, the way she looked at me. She won’t be back, she won’t face this.” She tried to pull from his embrace, but Cooper’s hands tightened and kept her close. “Who would?” she asked bleakly.
“If she doesn’t,” Cooper said with that maddening calm assurance that both soothed her and annoyed her, “then we’ll find someone who will. I won’t give up.”
His lips were soft on hers, the kiss gentle. Nikki sighed and opened to him, letting the passion that always burned between them push aside her fears. She leaned closer and wound her arms around him, pulling him closer.
Holding her back just enough so she could see him he added, “I’ll never give up. I can’t.”
“You have to, Cooper,” she said, fear for his safety once more clouding her vision. “It’ll consume you otherwise. And I can’t let that happen.”
“It’s too late, Nikki,” Cooper told her softly with a faint smile. “I’m already consumed.”
Panicked, she pulled back, only to cup his face. She needed him to listen to her, her words, not some misguided, chivalrous attempt. “Don’t say that!”
“Why not?” he demanded, a hint of anger peeking through.
She took a deep breath and admitted what she’d tried to hide from him for weeks. “Because I love you, too,” she snapped. It took all her willpower to say the words. “And I’m not going to see this damage you in any way.”
Cooper looked stunned, but only for a heartbeat. Before he could argue, Nikki placed a finger over his lips.
“Let’s take this for what it should have been,” she continued. “A beautiful memory.”
He took her fingers, his face fierce as he watched her. His words were precise, his tone even, and she knew he meant every word. “It’ll never be a memory for me,” he said harshly. “So stop pretending it ever could. I don’t want you to go, and you don’t want to go. We’ll figure this out.” He kissed her fiercely, a fast press of his lips to hers. “Together.”
Annoyance, alarm, and that warm spark of hope all warred within her. He sounded so confident, as if even something such as a demon couldn’t possibly defy him. But only one emotion was worth the precious time they had together. She did love him. If she didn’t, leaving wouldn’t have been so hard, and she would have stuck with her original plan of leaving after the spring calving.
Nikki looked away from him, from the hot passion burning in his dark brown eyes, from the truth in his words. She wanted to believe him; he was so convincing. But while he might accept what happened here, she didn’t believe he truly understood it—and the danger behind it.
And that scared her.
“Together.” His lips pressed gently just behind her jaw. “Don’t you like the sound of that?”
Nikki liked the sound of together. She did, but the words caught in her throat, trapped behind fears and doubts. But when he kissed her this time, his mouth was hard and demanding and stole her breath.
Chapter Five
He could taste her fear and worry. Cooper was no fool and knew this woman. He knew she’d wanted to run, almost from that very first kiss. He knew she didn’t see herself as permanent anywhere; he thought she’d been scared of her past, or trying to hide from it.
Nikki had been alone for so long, and she had to have been scared about what lived inside her. And Cooper knew she’d closed herself off; it’d taken him too long to slip in just a bit. He wouldn’t lie to himself: what he saw of her demon unsettled him. But he didn’t care and he wasn’t afraid. Not of her.
He needed to help her. Needed to figure out how to make her understand that. He’d rather fight with her, fight whatever was inside her, than lose her.
Nikki pulled back and watched him. Cooper saw the shift in her gaze, knew in the instant before she stepped back that she wanted to. He held her close, his fingers tightening on her a
rms.
“Don’t leave.”
Her head tilted to the side, and Cooper saw the surprise in her clear blue gaze. She swallowed, licked her lips, but didn’t move.
“I love you,” he told her, with all the honesty and passion he could infuse in those words. He wanted there to be no mistake about his feelings for her.
Cooper felt the shift in her, the acceptance of his words. More than his words, the emotion behind them.
He slid his fingers up her arms and over her shoulders, and cupped her cheeks, giving her plenty of time to change her mind. She stayed where she was. Cooper pressed his lips to hers gently as he waited for her reaction.
Part of him thought she’d break away and run. The rest of him hoped she’d stay. He deepened the kiss, gliding his tongue over her lips, and heard her breath hitch. Break. Suddenly she kissed him back, her fingers digging hard into his arms, her body pressed hard to his.
When Nikki opened to him, he could feel her strength. Their need for each other simmered beneath the surface since they’d met. An undeniable pull between them.
He laid her on the floor before the cold fireplace, his lips on hers as he continued to taste her, his tongue sweeping over hers. Cooper didn’t want to let her go, afraid she’d run even as she kissed him back. Her fingers tangled in his hair, held him closer, her mouth frantic on his.
Cooper reined himself in, trying to control his need. He wanted to take his time, taste every inch of her, build up her orgasm until she forgot her fears and shattered only for him. She trembled against him and knew those fears still haunted her. Nothing he said seemed to make an impression, yet he knew she believed him. Believed he’d stay with her no matter what.
It hit Cooper hard, that realization, and he pulled back, gentled his kiss. Nikki moaned against his lips and arched beneath his hands as they unbuttoned her shirt. He’d been stupid not to realize until right now that that was part of her fear: he’d stay. He’d stay because he wanted her, because he loved her, and whatever demon possessed her would end up hurting him as well.
Cursed Love: A Wicked Demon Tale Page 4
