Dangerous Attraction Romantic Suspense Boxed Set (143 page)

Cooper took in air quickly. His hands trembled. His old instinct of reaching for a beer came back and he took on some ice cubes, starting to crunch them down loudly.

“Sorry, Coop. Heard about your people. Real sorry for your loss, man.” Jones was trying to be a good guy, but Coop was too pained to look back at him.

The three of them were quiet, not looking at each other.

“Well, aren’t we a pathetic sack of bones? Kinda reminds us of the old Team guys trying to relive their glory days.” Kyle said, leaning first toward Cooper and then Malcolm.

“Yeah,” Coop whispered. “Look, man, I’m dog tired. Beat as all hell. I had a good swim before you guys showed up. Even went surfing early this morning. And I’m afraid I’m terrible company.”

Jones was staring into his beer. Coop knew he felt bad about bringing his family up, but the guy was just being nice.

“I can trust you to go home?” Kyle asked.

“I’m okay. Sorry I wasted your evening, Landmine.”

“Oh, hell, don’t be. Christy has designs on my body.”

Coop laughed and knew it was probably completely true.

“I shouldn’t be here, but just wanted to make sure you were taken care of, Coop.” He paused and then asked, “Daisy coming over?”

That got Jones’s attention. “Not anymore. Understand she has her sights on some chocolate,” Coop answered and nodded to Jones.

He’d never thought he’d be able to see a black man blush, but Jones sure as hell did.

“First you let her work on your arm, get you those nice little frog prints,” Kyle said as he whispered to Jones just loud enough so Cooper could hear. “She has the best hands. Let her pick out another tattoo for you and let her place it, too. She loves that. Then you let her work on your dick.”

Cooper almost spit out his soda.

“I’m not really into that stuff,” Jones replied.

Cooper and Kyle stared at the man.

“I’m not gay or anything. Hey, guys—I just kinda like to get to know a girl a little better, that’s all.”

Both Coop and Kyle commented in unison, “Why?”

They all laughed. Coop knew they could trash talk all they wanted to about women, but most Team guys respected them more than they would ever admit in public.

Coop said his goodbyes, thanked his LPO again for trying to babysit him. With Kyle’s new little one at home, this was a sacrifice, he knew. His Team leader rarely hung out at the SEAL bars anymore.

Coop headed back to the Babemobile. He locked up the scooter and then walked down the beach to sit by the surf.

He was grateful for Kyle, who cared about him as much as anyone could. Going outside the Teams, especially to a family who obviously didn’t want anything to do with the military, was a mistake, and he intended to tell Timmons so at the next opportunity. Everything he needed to get right in the head was in front of him, or behind him in his home on wheels. And his comfy bed would help.

He figured he’d work on the drone tomorrow, maybe shop for an infrared or thermal camera to mount on the UAV. He had a ‘40’s pinup decal of Lana Turner he was going to mark his new toy with.

He turned and headed back home.

A small figure stood outside the metal door, knocking. Bay was having a fit inside. At first Coop thought it was Daisy, back after having an uncharacteristic change of heart. But no, it was someone with auburn hair. Long auburn hair. Long legs. The shape of her ass as she stood on tiptoe while she knocked looked vaguely familiar.

He’d been trained to move without a sound, and he did so, until he got to within a foot of the woman. He smelled lavender, and vanilla. She wore a pinky ring on her right hand that glinted in the moonlight.

“Can I help you?” his voice was husky.

She immediately turned, eyes wide and fearful. She slammed her body up against the shell of his silver beast, trying to distance herself from him.

Libby Brownlee.

“Oh. My. God. You scared me to death.”

“Not quite. You look quite alive to me.” The anger he felt toward Libby and her family evaporated. “Why are you here?”

“I—I just came because—I—felt bad—I wanted to—to—apologize for my father. You don’t understand. He is a very fine man. He just—”

“He just blames the Navy for the loss of his brother.” Bay was barking. “I’ve got to let him out or he’ll shred the insides of my home.”

“No problem.”

She stepped aside and he unlocked the door, letting the dog, who had not been kenneled, practically topple Libby. Coop reprimanded him, but Libby was laughing.

“Who’s this?” she asked between giggles.

“This is Bay. I brought him back from…from my home. He’s just getting used to things out here.”

“Ah. Well, Bay,” she said as she knelt and rubbed Bay’s ears, putting her nose close to the dog’s, “How do you like our ocean and our great weather, huh?”

“C’mon, Bay. If you’re gonna just socialize, you’ve got to go back inside.”

The dog ran off a few yards down the parking lot, sniffed the ground around several cars parked in the darkening early evening. When the he returned, Coop put him in the trailer and locked it.

“So, you were talking about your father being a good guy and all—”

“Well, yes. But what I meant to say is that he is a fine, caring person—”

“Save it. Not interested in excuses. He send you?”

“Of course not. I just thought it was wrong. Wrong how he treated you. That’s all. I guess this was a mistake…”

Libby turned to go and Coop grabbed her arm. “Sorry.” He dropped his grip. “Stay for a bit. Then you can go.”

The two stood close enough that he could feel the heat from her body. She was a lethal, complicated, combination of spirit and emotion. Cooper liked girls who were easier to figure out. Though it wasn’t wise, he found himself
making nice.

“I’d invite you in, but that wouldn’t be appropriate. Besides, the housekeeper has the day off. And Bay has had his way with the decorating and all.” His little smile was returned. Her eyes softened. Even in the dim light he could see her full lips, painted a deep pink, pucker as she formed her careful words.

“No problem.” She searched his face. He wanted to step to her, see if she would shrink if he slipped his hand up under her cotton top. But he held firm.

“You cold?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Let me go get a blanket. We’ll sit outside and finish our talk, okay?”

“Fine.”

That word again. Why do women like to use it all the time?

Coop unlocked the door and in two strides grabbed the throw on his dinette couch without turning on the lights. He bid the dog stay curled on the dog bed inside the kennel. He didn’t want Libby to see the interior of his soul. After all, this wasn’t a date.

He walked down the beach toward the surf and she followed slightly behind. He placed the blanket around her shoulders, feeling the smooth texture of her neck and upper arm as he did so. She grabbed the blanket together at her chest and sat down in tandem with him.

She was looking out to sea, the last remnants of the now-purple sky turning grey. A few stars began to come out. She leaned back and scanned the blue twilight ceiling.

“I love how you can see the stars here. Not like where I live,” she said.

“You don’t live in San Diego?”

“No. I’m in San Jose. I was going to the University of Santa Clara.”

“Was?”

“I’m taking a semester off.”

Coop didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t gotten his college degree yet, though he had started. “Time off can be a good thing,” he said but didn’t mean it.

“I’m getting my Master’s in psychology. I’ve been going to school non-stop for seventeen years. I don’t know, I just needed a break. Probably a stupid idea, but the thought of plunging into another year of studies frightened me for some reason.”

“So you’ll live at home, then?”

“No. I can’t think there.”

Coop was going to let her tell him. He didn’t want to ask, but he was dying to know.

Better stop this or you’ll get your dick in a ringer.
Last thing he wanted to do was report back to Timmons that he’d not made contact with the brother, but fucked his daughter.

Shit. Cooper, you’re a fuckin’ asshole.

“I think best here. Everything seems right with the world when I’m in the water, or at the beach. Especially just after sunset.” Cooper chastised himself for being such a fucking romantic.

What the hell are you doing?

Libby turned her face to his. He watched as her pretty eyes fluttered over his features, ending with his mouth. Unless he had totally gone off his rocker, the lady was feeling something for him. Although excited, he wasn’t sure he should be.

“I’m sorry about your family,” she whispered over the sounds of the waves in the distance.

This unexpected painful reminder he was a damaged soul bothered him. He understood why she said it. Why do women always want to heal guys? He’d seen his share of relationship train wrecks in the SEAL community. He wasn’t sure he believed it was possible to do it successfully. But if he did, she might—

Damn. Stop this right now.

Cooper tore himself from her eyes and sifted sand between his bent knees. She was barely touching his thigh with her own. He hadn’t noticed that before. The warm glow tingled up his leg, sending his junk into alert status.

“My father had no right to treat you that way. I want to apologize for his behavior. That isn’t who we are. We’ve never met—” Libby stopped, her voice wavering. This was hard for her.

Her eyes searched his. It was so simple and happened so fast. He leaned in and placed his lips over hers to stop her from talking. He was going to back away, but she moved forward and increased the pressure. His tongue slipped along her lower lip until she parted them and he was in.

He touched her cheeks with the back of both hands, and then sent his fingers into her hair at the back of her head, pulling her into him. She did not resist, but melted into his chest. He kissed her neck and heard her moan. Her smell, her breath, the taste of her lips put him in a trance. He wanted her. It was so wrong, but he wanted her more than he’d wanted a woman in years.

Her hands smoothed over his shoulders and down his chest. Her fingers moved further and rubbed over his erection tenting the front of his cargo pants. She stroked him, barely touching his sensitive part through the fabric.

You want this? You want to do me right here?

Coop was surprised. He didn’t want to ask if she knew what she was doing. Hell, he didn’t know what he was doing. Before he could think further, she had moved a thigh over his legs and was straddling him. She reached for his cock, coaxing it outside, and moved her fingers up and down, squeezing him.

“I don’t have anything,” he whispered.

“I’m on the pill,” she whispered back and kissed him.

“But what about—”

“Shhh.”

Well okay, then.
Then he remembered he might have something in his shorts. “Wait,” he said as he reached down and thank God he had a shriveled foil packet in the lower pocket that had probably been through a couple of washings. But it was better than nothing.

She grabbed the packet from him.

Coop lay back, slipping a hand under her and felt her press into his palm. He unbuttoned her pants and peeled them off her hips as she raised her body. He pulled the blanket up over her bikini-clad butt as she sheathed him with fingers that sent his erection into outer space. His fingers massaged the cleft between her cheeks. Under the blanket he diverted her panties to the side and placed his throbbing cock there. She inhaled, raised her torso up and then came down on him to the hilt.

Like magic their two bodies moved in the moonlight. He couldn’t get enough. He stroked her wet insides, moving against lips that hugged him. He raised her body up and down on his shaft as she moaned her pleasure.

She leaned forward and covered his mouth with kisses. The woman was beyond hot. He arched his cock up and into her while she pressed her breasts against his chest. She raised her shirt, slipped her bra up over her mounds and pressed the delicious flesh against his pecs.

He needed the feel of her skin. He needed to see all of her. He needed to kiss all of her. He was not going to let her go until morning.

* * *

Libby couldn’t believe what they’d just done. On a public beach, in front of God-knew-anyone-who-happened-to-walk-by. Would she have noticed? Would he?

Where the heck is your pride, your common sense? You don’t even know this guy.

She’d never done this before, and recognized the risky behavior as a warning. But, in spite of her training, now she wanted more. He’d come into her, thrilling her insides with danger. She’d been sure she wouldn’t let a man touch her for months after her near-rape at the University. And now she came begging for it. Literally hanging all over him.

What were you thinking?
She counted the months; no, it had been a couple of years since she’d had any kind of sexual relationship. She had friends, but casual sex wasn’t part of her DNA. Somehow, she felt he might feel the same way.

Not smart. He could be an axe murderer for all you know. A little voice in her chest told her no.

They walked to the water’s edge without saying a word. She was trying to answer her own question:

What is this?

She was always careful. She didn’t just jump on some guy’s bones on the beach—someone she didn’t know, so why now? Had she needed sex so much she couldn’t help herself?

No, it wasn’t that. She’d always told herself she was good at reading people, but this was clearly over the line. Yet, she’d uncovered something there in his eyes she’d never seen before. There was pain, for sure. Loneliness, matching the hole she felt in her own chest, something that resonated.

But there was something else—an honor, a devotion to duty. Everything she had studied indicated she was drawn to him like a moth to the flame. This unwise attraction could prove dangerous. He was unlike any man she’d ever met, ever kissed, ever…

All her questions conveniently slipped away when he took her hand in his. She was still wrapped in the blanket. He was naked. He cocked his head and searched behind them, scanning the beach. Libby didn’t want to look.