Woman On the Run (43 page)
Julia got up to see what the girls and Cooper were doing. It took time to cross the huge room that served as her study. Cooper had refurbished the entire top floor of the house for her use and she had more floor space than the company she used to work for. It was a good thirty feet from her workstation to the door.
Julia had a work room, a library for her reference books, a room for her printer, a sitting room, and what Cooper called her “thinking room”—an airy, spacious corner room with a view of the front lawn so she could watch Cooper’s men trying to keep the girls out of mischief.
Julia ran a hand over her stomach. If this morning’s pregnancy test was anything to go by, there was going to be another Cooper girl come August. It was going to be a girl. She had no doubt about that. The Cooper curse had been shattered forever by the birth of Samantha and Dorothy. Fred had found a wife too, a lovely collie bitch, and they had produced a litter of mostly female pups. Even the horses had started foaling fillies. Cooper was up to his eyeballs in females now.
Julia opened the massive door to her study and hung her “The Book Doctor is IN!” sign on the fist-sized brass doorknob. Just in time. The front door slammed shut and she could hear Cooper’s deep voice and the treble babbling of the girls.
There was the pounding of boots and the clicking of dog nails on the hardwood stairs as Fred followed them up. Julia smiled fondly down at Cooper through the railing.
“Can we come up?” He had a two-year-old in each arm and he looked happy and frazzled—his usual expression since the birth of the twins.
“Sure.” Julia smiled down at her family. “Come on in. I’ve got some news for you.”
Cooper came up the last flight. “All done?” he asked. “How did it go?”
“The book?” Julia gave him a thumbs-up. “It’s going to be a winner. But that’s not—”
“Good.” Cooper grinned. “Alice danced around me all morning when I stopped by for a cup of coffee. She didn’t have the nerve to ask me what you thought of the novel. I finally put her out of her misery and said that you’d be finishing it soon.”
“I’ll deliver it to them personally. With my comments. All positive.” Julia raised her face for a kiss. Cooper bent, smiling, then grimaced as Samantha pulled sharply on his hair. Cooper’s once jet-black hair was quickly turning silver and the girls were responsible for every single white hair.
“Ouch! Sam, let go.” He tried to gently disentangle Samantha’s fingers from his hair. “Honey, let go.” He winced as Samantha pulled harder, gurgling gleefully. “Please, Sweetie. Let Poppa go.”
With a sharp sigh of disgust, Julia stood on tiptoe so she could meet Samantha’s eyes and said sternly, “Samantha! Stop. Pulling. Your. Father’s. Hair. NOW!” Turquoise eyes met black eyes and Samantha opened her chubby hand. She knew who was boss.
“How do you do that?” Cooper asked ruefully, rubbing at his scalp. “I can never get her to do what I say. Dot, either.”
Julia rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Honestly, Cooper. You’re bigger and stronger than the girls are. You’re a martial arts expert. You’re a former SEAL, for God’s sake. If you can’t convince them—use violence.”
Julia bit her lip at Cooper’s shocked expression. His sense of humor had gone straight down the toilet with the birth of the girls.
The girls were wriggling impatiently. Cooper bent and deposited the toddlers on the ground. Samantha and Dorothy stood miraculously still for a moment. They looked around, blinking, at the room that was normally off-limits, wondering what damage they could wreak.
Julia watched her two beautiful daughters, the love in her heart swelling until her chest ached. Sam and Dot kept her running too much for her to get weepy over the miracle of their existence but, for just a moment, as she watched them, Julia felt tears prick her eyes. Dot and Sam had her glossy red hair and Cooper’s black eyes. They were bright and absolutely fearless.
My daughters
, Julia thought, with an uncharacteristically sentimental pang.
Probably just hormones, she thought. From the new life growing in her. She leaned against Cooper and he absentmindedly put his arm around her as they watched the two toddlers go off in opposite directions.
Julia poked Cooper in the ribs.
“Ow,” he complained mildly. “What was that for?”
“I’ve got something to tell you, but first I want you to kiss me.”
“Is that all?” Cooper’s dark eyes gleamed. “Why didn’t you say so?”
Julia twined her arms around Cooper’s neck and gave herself up to the magic they could still create after four years of marriage.
Before they could get lost in the kiss, Cooper opened a wary, paternal eye. His other eye opened in horror and he broke away.
“Dorothy!” He lunged and snatched the scissors from Dorothy’s hand just in time. Fred was lying on his side, patiently allowing the little girl to cut the long yellow hairs on his belly. Dorothy was very close to ensuring that Fred would never sire another litter.
Cooper hunkered down. “Dot, honey, you mustn’t do that. Poor Fred, you were about to—”
Dot burst into noisy tears and Cooper assumed that panicked expression he always had when his girls cried. “Aw, honey,” he said helplessly. “Don’t cry, it’ll be all right—” He glanced up to see Julia laughing at him. “What?” he asked, aggrieved.
“It’s your own fault, Cooper.” Julia leaned against a bookcase. “If you and your men and Rafael and even Fred are going to roll over and play dead for the girls, of course they’re going to ride roughshod all over you. Sam and Dot are growing up to think that anything with a Y chromosome is their servant.”
But it was useless. Cooper had picked Dot up and was cooing at her, trying to get her to smile. Julia could almost see the little gears in Dot’s head whirring as she tried to figure out how to use the situation to her advantage.
“There you go, love.” Cooper put Dot back down again and gave her bottom a little pat.
“Coop?”
He looked up with a smile. “Yeah?”
“What I was trying to say was—”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Cooper interrupted excitedly. “Sandy put them on Southern Star. He says he can tell that Sam has the seat of a champion. Dot’s seat is going to take some working on—”
“Cooper.” Julia heaved a sigh. “The girls are two years old. It’s way too early for Sandy to know whether they have a good seat or not. Let’s get back to what I wanted to tell you—”
“It’s not too early.” Cooper frowned. “Pure Gold’s new filly will be ready for riding in about two and a half years and the girls should get acquainted with her as soon as possible. Why just the other day—”
“Cooper, I’m trying to tell you something here—”
“Bernie was telling me that that new girl he was dating over in Dead Horse, you know—the pretty one who trains horses for the Hughes’ spread? Well, he said she said—”
“Cooper—”
“—that she started training at two. Her father put her right up on a pony on her second birthday and she never looked back. Why I’ll bet our girls—”
“Cooper—”
“—are going to be State Champions. Hell, they could probably go to the Olympics, if they wanted. Let’s see, the earliest would probably be the Olympics of 2020 but if we start now, I’ll bet we could—” He stopped as Julia placed two fingers against his lips.
“Cooper,” she said lovingly. “Shut up.”
About the author:
Lisa Marie Rice is eternally 30 years old and will never age. She is tall and willowy and beautiful. Men drop at her feet like ripe pears. She has won every major book prize in the world. She is a black belt with advanced degrees in archeology, nuclear physics, and Tibetan literature. She is a concert pianist. Did I mention the Nobel?
Of course, Lisa Marie Rice is a virtual woman and exists only at the keyboard when writing erotic romance. She disappears when the monitor winks off.
Lisa Marie welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at P.O. Box 787, Hudson, Ohio 44236-0787.
Also by Lisa Marie Rice:
Christmas Angel
Midnight Man
Midnight Run
Port Of Paradise
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.