16. COOPER

16

COOPER

Long before I was ready for it to happen, I had arrived back at Skye's place.

I walked her to her door, where she didn't hesitate to open it up and step inside. "Do you want to come in for a minute so I can get your cupcakes for you to take home with you?"

More time? I'd take any additional second she'd allow me to have with her. "Oh, right. Yeah, I can come in."

I stepped inside and followed behind her toward the kitchen, my eyes quickly and easily drifting down to her ass on the way and recalling the way it looked in her bikini for the majority of the day today.

We made it to the kitchen, where Skye presented me with a container to carry the cupcakes home in. They were already packaged up and ready to go. "Don't you want to keep any here for you?"

She shook her head. "No. No, if I have them here, I'll eat those for breakfast instead of something that's better for me. Plus, I made them for you, so I want you to have them."

I tipped my head to the side and smiled at her. "Okay. But I don't think it's a problem to have a cupcake occasionally for breakfast."

"Not tomorrow."

"Why not?"

Staring at me with such disbelief in her expression, she asked, "Did you not see what I ate today? I've had enough baked goods to last me for the rest of the month."

I stepped forward, closing the distance between us. "Skye, sweetheart, you are breathtaking. You have a gorgeous body, and I struggled not to touch you more than I did today."

"You're being sweet."

"I'm being honest," I insisted, feeling a touch of tension course through me. I genuinely loved everything about the way Skye looked, so it irritated me to think she thought she was anything less than perfect.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"You can ask me anything," I answered.

She took a deep breath and exhaled before she said, "I understand if you have to work or already have plans, but I closed my store on Tuesday for the 4th of July holiday. I don't close the store frequently, but I do on certain holidays. If you're free at any point throughout the day, I'd love to spend some time together."

Maybe it was working.

Maybe everything I'd been doing was slowly breaking down the walls around her heart.

Maybe I had a chance.

"I'd love nothing more than to spend some time with you on Tuesday."

"Really? Do you have to work?" she questioned me.

"No."

Genuine joy radiated from the smile that formed on her face. "Do you already have plans?"

"My family typically heads to the lake house for a few days," I revealed.

Skye didn't attempt to hide her surprise. "There's a lake house, too?"

I offered a curt nod in return. "Yes. And what usually ends up happening for this holiday is that my grandparents will host everyone there for a few days. Some of us go the entire time, while others might only pop in for a day or two, depending on whatever else we have going on."

"Oh," she murmured, dropping her gaze from mine. "Okay. Well, that's okay then."

I placed my finger under her chin, tipped her head back, and said, "I want to spend time with you, Skye. Yes, my family has something planned, but I don't need to go there if you have something else you'd like to do."

"I like your family a lot, Cooper. I'd never want to stop you from spending time with them. We can just figure out another time that works for the both of us."

My eyes narrowed slightly. "And what do you plan to do all day long while I'm with my family?"

She shrugged. "I'll just hang out, enjoy the time off, and probably get myself lost in a book."

"How about I pick you up in the morning, and we spend the earlier part of the afternoon with my family? If you want some time that'll be just the two of us, I can make sure we get that there, or we can even come back here and do something together?"

"Cooper, I don't want to intrude or mess up the plans you have with them," she insisted.

I shook my head. "You wouldn't be. I don't know if you could tell, but my family likes you, and they like you being there with me. Or, if you really don't want to go, I'll just come here and spend the whole day with you."

Her eyes widened. "No. No, we can't do that. I'd be happy to go with you. Yeah, yeah, if you want to go there and spend the day with them, that would be nice."

Smiling at her, I reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Good. Then that's what we'll do."

Skye nodded slowly. "Okay."

This was it. This was the end of our night.

I needed to go, but I wanted to kiss her. Unfortunately, considering I had promised to give her time to think about what she wanted to have happen between us, I didn't want to go for more than she was prepared for.

In the time I took to decide how I wanted to leave, Skye spoke. "Thank you for such a wonderful day today, Cooper. I had such a great time with you and your family. I hope you enjoyed your birthday."

"I did," I assured her. "And I'm glad you enjoyed yourself."

"Me, too."

We stared at one another in silence for a few brief seconds. "I should probably go," I eventually declared.

"Okay," she murmured. "Don't forget your cupcakes."

I took the container from Skye and turned to walk back toward the front door. Once there, I stopped, turned, and moved to kiss her on the cheek. But just as I was about to touch my lips to the side of her face, she turned her head. My lips collided with hers, and I quickly pulled back.

"I'm sorry," I apologized. "I… I was going to kiss your cheek."

Skye lowered her chin demurely—or, that's what I had initially thought—when something darkened in her stare. "I know."

"What?"

She didn't immediately respond. She kept her eyes on mine, her chest rising and falling at a pace that matched the pounding of my heart in my chest. "I knew you were going to kiss my cheek."

"I'm sorry if I overstepped," I lamented once more.

Skye shook her head. "I don't need an apology, Cooper. I intended to have you kiss me on the mouth. I didn't realize I would catch you so off guard or that you might not like it."

Now it was my turn to stare at her in disbelief. She wanted me to kiss her and made the move so it'd happen, only for me to pull away, thinking I'd crossed a line she hadn't wanted me to cross.

There was a waist-high table located just inside the front door to Skye's house. Fully aware that I needed both of my hands to give her a proper first kiss, I set the cupcake container down, turned around, and wasted no time reaching for her.

I tugged Skye toward me, and once we were chest to chest, I framed her face with my hands. My eyes roamed over every inch, as she gripped the material of my shirt at my waist in her hands.

"Cooper," she whispered. "Please."

Denial wasn't an option. Neither was delaying.

Half a second later, I brushed my lips gently against hers. When I heard her whimper almost immediately, I lost control.

My mouth captured hers in a bruising kiss. One of my hands drove into her hair, gripping a fistful at the back of her skull and angling her head. My other hand slid down from her face and around her waist. Her hands flew to my chest, her fingertips pressing in firmly.

I ran my tongue along the seam of her lips, and Skye instantly parted them, granting me access to the warm, wet recesses of her mouth.

As my tongue explored, dueling against the velvety softness of hers, I felt waves of heat, pleasure, and gratitude consuming me. Skye had effortlessly pulled me to her like a magnet from the moment I stepped foot into her bookstore. I'd tried to ignore it, but she was too sweet.

And now that I'd had time with her and finally had gotten a taste of her, there wasn't a chance I was ever going to let her go.

Her body was soft, pressed tight against mine. Her lips were the same, supple and yielding. Like she knew what I wanted from the start, Skye allowed me to take what I needed from her while giving her everything I wanted her to have.

It was, by and large, the best kiss of my life.

When a moan tore up her throat, the sound shooting straight to my dick, I begrudgingly pulled my mouth from hers.

Her cheeks were flushed, her lips swollen. Her breaths were shallow, and fuck me, she looked eager for more.

Just as I was about to make that happen by going for another kiss, Skye spoke. "I was… I was hoping that if we had some time alone on Tuesday, we could talk."

Talk.

Right.

That was probably a wise idea, all things considered.

Maybe she'd taken the time she needed to decide what she wanted in her life and was ready to share that with me. Her actions tonight gave me reason to hope.

"We can do that," I assured her.

She smiled at me. "I like the way you kiss, Cooper."

I grinned. "Sweetheart, I love the way you kiss."

"Maybe after we talk, we can do more of that," she suggested, a sparkle in her eyes.

My grin grew. "Maybe. If that's what you want."

Skye bit her lip and dropped her gaze to the ground. I placed my finger beneath her chin once again and tipped her head back, so she had no choice but to look at me. "I'll call you tomorrow, Skye."

"Okay," she rasped.

Leaning forward, I pressed a chaste kiss to her lips. With my mouth right there, I said, "Sweet dreams."

A shiver ran down her spine.

My lips twitched. Then I kissed the tip of her nose and pulled back to give her one last look before I reached for the cupcakes. Once I had them in my hand, I said, "This was the best birthday of my life."

Skye sent a coy smile my way and murmured, "I'm glad."

After opening the door and stepping outside, I realized I needed more. I reached my hand into her hair once more and tugged her in my direction. She bent forward and allowed me to kiss her again.

And when I heard her moan for the second time, I tore my mouth from hers and said, "Goodnight, Skye."

"Goodnight, Cooper."

Knowing I wouldn't be able to leave if I kissed her again, I quickly turned and walked toward my truck.

And the whole way home, I didn't even turn on the radio. Then again, it wasn't like I needed that, when I kept hearing Skye's moan in my head as I drove.

"Alright, let's get to work."

My team, having all just been given the day's assignments, began to disperse. I folded up the piece of paper I had with a running list of projects we were working on and tucked it into my back pocket.

My phone buzzed in my opposite hand with a text message.

I glanced at it, noting that Skye had returned my earlier text.

SKYE

I don't mind taking care of it, but I won't complain if you want to do it instead.

I smiled at my phone, loving how she was always so agreeable. It gave me a reason to hope she might agree to give us a real shot.

Quickly, I tapped out a response.

I want to do it. So, consider breakfast covered for tomorrow.

SKYE

I can't wait!

Before I had the chance to send her another response, I lifted my gaze and noticed Marco walking in my direction. When he came to a stop in front of me, he declared, "I thought you would have been at the lake house today."

I shook my head. "I'm heading out tomorrow morning. Are you planning to come up at all?"

He shrugged. "I might. You know I'm always up for some fun. But I've got to take some time with my family tomorrow, too. So, we'll see what happens. I'll let you know if I'm going to head over."

"Cool."

"On another note, have you recovered?"

It was Monday morning, our first day back at work since the party my family threw for me for my birthday, and I had a feeling I knew exactly where Marco intended to lead this conversation.

"Recovered? From this weekend?" I countered.

"Yeah. I mean, a Westwood celebration is always a good time, but you know better than anyone just how exhausting they can be," he said. "Considering you were the guest of honor this weekend, I guess I'm just curious if I'm going to have to pick up the slack here at work today."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, right. You know that's not the case, so why don't you ask me what you really want to ask?"

Marco laughed and threw his hands up in surrender. "Alright, relax. I'm just wondering what's going on with you and Skye, because based on what I saw this weekend, it seems that you two are more than just friends."

"Nothing is official," I informed him.

When I said nothing else, Marco pressed, "And you're telling me you don't want it to be? I watched how you were with her, and I didn't get that vibe. Plus, I can only assume, based on the way you were grinning at your phone, that you were just texting her."

I shrugged. "I'm doing my best to exercise some patience with her, especially after what she's been through."

My best friend sent a look of approval my way. Of course, even if he liked how I was handling things, he still felt compelled to get on my case about it. "And how's that going for you?"

"I've never been more content to be so frustrated in my entire life," I admitted through my laughter. Shaking my head with disbelief, I explained, "I don't know what it is, but there's something about Skye that I can't just walk away from."

He gave me a nod of understanding. "I think it's become obvious to so many of us here that you're feeling something extraordinary when it comes to her. But I'd be lying if I said there wasn't some concern. What about her? Do you think she's going to get to a place that you want to see the two of you?"

I inhaled deeply and considered the answer to that question. Skye had been adamant from the start about not wanting to get into a relationship. The timid and reserved woman I first met had slowly opened up to me, and now we were at a place where she'd purposely turned her head to kiss me last night. Everything that had happened Saturday—and the day before at the charity event—gave me hope that things were changing for her. My hope was that the talk she intended to have tomorrow would reveal she'd had that change of heart. Until then, I could only assume things were headed in the right direction.

"I think the tides might be turning," I finally confessed.

"That's good, Coop. I'm glad to hear it. And if I'm honest, I'm hoping things go the way you want, because it's been nice to see this more relaxed side to you."

I huffed. "Yeah, I'm just trying to take a page out of your book and not take everything so seriously, I guess."

Marco laughed again. "Now that would be something to see. If that happened, I think your family might force you to marry that girl."

My best friend was the most laidback guy I knew, so I understood why he believed it would be an impossibility for me to reach that same level of relaxation he had. But hearing him mention me marrying Skye, something moved through me.

We weren't there yet. Hell, she hadn't officially confirmed she was interested in taking things between us to the next level. But given the conversation I'd had with Wyatt last week about his feelings for Rhea and the way things had been changing between Skye and me, I couldn't say I didn't like the idea of having something permanent with her.

For now, I just needed to give her the time she needed to be sure of me. Because I still believed there was a reason I wound up in her store a few weeks ago that went well beyond me needing to be inconvenienced by another job.

She could call it fate or fortune. I didn't care. I wasn't going to pretend it had happened for no reason.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," I advised.

He held his hands up in surrender. "Hey, I thought you'd like the idea of a lifelong commitment to a woman like Skye."

He wasn't wrong.

Fuck, he wasn't wrong.

A man like me, dealing with headaches and stress at work all the time, could find himself feeling rather lucky to come home to a woman like Skye, a woman who sought to make his life better, who took away the stress.

Because that's precisely what happened whenever I was with her. Skye made me enjoy my life outside of work. She made me appreciate that time even more than I already had.

I narrowed my eyes on Marco. "I think you want things to go there with her, because you think things will change here. Hate to break it to you, my friend, but that's not going to happen. Maybe I'm a little out of sorts right now, but no matter where things go from here, I think it's safe to say I'll still get irritable every now and again."

Marco shrugged. "It was worth a shot."

I laughed and shook my head. "Let's go. We've got work to get done."

He grinned at me. "And there's the guy we know and love."

Five minutes later, I had no choice but to put all the thoughts and excitement about what tomorrow would bring to the back of my mind, because as always, my workload was never ending and chaotic.