The One Real Thing (Hart's Boardwalk) (35 page)

Standing outside was an abstract version of Cooper.

My breath caught.

Hands trembling, I unlocked the door and pulled it open to find Cooper glowering down at me. Joy rushed through me at the sight of him.

I opened my mouth to ask him what he was doing there, but the words were silenced as he pressed his mouth down on mine without missing a beat, wrapped an arm around my waist, and pushed us both inside. Shocked, I grabbed on to his shoulders for balance.

And then, like always, the taste of his drugging kisses overpowered me and I was kissing him back before I could stop myself.

I suddenly found my feet off the ground as Cooper lifted me onto the sideboard in Vaughn’s hallway. He pressed himself between my legs and I wrapped them around his hips, arching into him and his hard, desperate kisses.

He broke the kiss, pulling back only to grab the hem of my nightdress in his hands and start tugging it upward.

“Wait,” I said, out of breath. “What are you doing? Why are you here? I thought you were fishing.”

His fingers tightened in the fabric, and there was something dangerous in his eyes as he said, his voice gruff, “All I could think about was the fact that when we last fucked I didn’t know it was going to be the last time. So I came back.”

A shot of pain lanced across my chest. “To punish me?”

He gave a sharp shake of his head. “To give us one last time, Doc.” He began to yank on my shirt again. “You know you want it.”

I did.

As stupid as I knew it was, as much as I knew it would only hurt even more in the end, I lifted my arms so he could take off my nightdress. My bra was quick to follow.

I shivered, my nipples turning to hard pebbles, drawing Cooper’s attention. He cupped my breasts and I arched my back on a sigh as he kneaded them, his touch sending sparks down my belly and between my legs.

“Now I get to remember you like this,” he said.

I saw the anger, the ice and the accusation, in his eyes and closed mine against it.

All I wanted was to feel how good it was between us. I didn’t want reality to intrude.

“Open your eyes, Jessica,” he growled.

They immediately snapped open for him.

His were narrowed on me. “Don’t you fucking shut me out for this. Not for this.”

“Not for this,” I promised softly.

Cooper wrapped his fingers up in a handful of my hair and pulled gently, arching my neck and back to lift my breasts closer to his mouth. He bent his head and closed his hot mouth around my right nipple.

I whimpered as my lower belly rippled with pleasure. He sucked hard, sending a sharp streak of desire to my core, and then he licked the swollen nipple before moving on to the other.

Needing to feel him against me, I began tugging on Cooper’s jacket. He stepped back from me and hurriedly removed it. He whipped his T-shirt off over his head, throwing it by my nightdress on the floor. As soon as he stepped toward me I grabbed on to him, yanking him back to me, our kisses growing frantic with need. With one hand I caressed his strong back, with the other his hard chest before sliding it down over his abs. At the feel of his abs rippling under my touch, arousal throbbed in my breasts and between my legs.

Cooper pulled back from my kisses, sliding his hand along my inner thigh. “Will I find you wet? Do I still have that from you, Jess?”

I looked directly into his hurt, hungry eyes and whispered, “Always.”

Pain flared in his gaze and suddenly he was kissing and biting at my mouth, his fingers bruising as he gripped my thighs in his hands. All I could do was hold on for the ride.

As he pressed hot kisses against my jaw and my neck, his tongue flicking against my skin as he did so, I rubbed my thumbs over his nipples, scored my nails lightly down his stomach, and panted with excitement when his fingers curled in the fabric of my panties. I stopped touching him only to brace my hands on the sideboard at either side of my hips so I could lift my bottom to allow Cooper to pull them off.

Once they were gone he gripped the backs of my knees in his hands and wrapped my legs around him so his jeans-covered erection pushed between the folds of my sex, brushing my clit in a way that made me lose my mind. I tried to press harder against his erection, my fingers digging into the muscles of his back.

Cooper groaned against my mouth and I was vaguely aware of the sound of him yanking his zipper down. And then he pulled me to the edge of the sideboard. I immediately put my hands at either side of my hips to brace myself.

I recognized the harsh passion on Cooper’s face and I knew—

I cried out as he slammed inside me.

“You’ve always been mine, Jess,” Cooper said, his voice guttural with desire and emotion. “Remember that.”

Tears pricked the corners of my eyes, but I wouldn’t stop this for anything. He was right. Always his. And I’d always want him. I arched into his deep strokes, the orgasm building in me, my arousal only increasing at the way he was watching me as he thrust inside me.

His grip on my legs became almost biting as his thrusts came faster. “Come for me, Jess. Come hard on me, beautiful.”

And just like that the tension he’d built in me cracked. I tensed, frozen for a second, and then it all shattered apart. My cries filled the room as I shuddered against him. He continued to pump into me, my inner muscles squeezing around him, until finally he stiffened. Cooper was staring deep into my eyes as he gritted his teeth. “Jess.” His hips jerked against me, and I felt his release inside me.

I was holding on to his forearms as the heat slowly died and the lust gave way to reality.

We stared at each other for what seemed like forever, until finally Cooper pulled out of me and away from me.

I watched, frozen, as he zipped his jeans up and bent to pick up his clothes. Without looking at me he pulled on his T-shirt and shrugged into his jacket.

The tears that had pricked my eyes earlier began to cloud my vision as he strode to the door and yanked it open. But before he moved to leave he stopped, his back still to me, and said, voice hoarse, “One last time will never be enough. For either of us.”

And then he left me.

Sometime around three o’clock I eventually cried myself to sleep.

The next day I had no choice but to make the grocery run I’d been dreading, since I was out of essentials like toilet paper and food. I put a ball cap on to hide my face, hoping to disappear among the tourists after parking on the west end of Main Street. Inside the
grocery store I kept my head down as I walked through the aisles, hoping and praying with each step that I wasn’t going to bump into anyone I knew. Like Cooper Lawson.

The cashier, Annie, recognized me because I’d been in the store a lot with Cooper over the past few weeks, and anyone with Cooper seemed to become famous in Hartwell.

“Thought you left.” She had her eyebrows raised at me.

“Soon,” I muttered, hurrying to pay for my stuff.

I was practically fleeing for my car, my heart pounding as I loaded the last shopping bag into my trunk. Hurrying, I pushed the cart back under the awning outside the store and as I turned to head back to my car I smacked straight into Catriona Lawson.

“Cat.” I’m pretty sure I went a pale, ghostly color at the sight of her.

Those blue eyes, just like Cooper’s, narrowed on me. “You had the better idea when you were hiding out at Tremaine’s place.”

“I needed food,” I said dumbly, looking away.

“Oh, my God, look at you,” she snapped, drawing my startled gaze back to her. “You’ve lost weight, you look like shit, and you’re acting like a victim. Lots to be proud of there, Jessica, considering you’re the one that broke my brother’s heart.” She gestured behind her.

Panic had me looking over her shoulder, my gaze zeroing in on Cooper. He was parked a few spots up from me, leaning against his truck, talking to Sadie Thomas. Sadie was leaning into him, laughing up into his face. He wasn’t pushing her away like the last time.

My heart twisted in my chest as though the bitch had shoved her fist in there and squeezed.

Cooper stared down at Sadie, expressionless. He was so handsome. I remembered the anguish in his eyes, the anguish he couldn’t hide behind his desire the previous night. I should have pushed him away, instead of giving in to what we both wanted. I’d only hurt and confused him more.

“What?” Cat brought my gaze back to her. “You don’t want him but you don’t want anyone else to have him?”

“It’s not like that,” I muttered, moving to go around her.

Cat blocked my path. “I started to trust you. That you weren’t going to hurt him. You know, I don’t even think Dana was the one who hurt him last time. That marriage was ending. Nah. It was Jack who hurt my brother.”

I had to agree. I was also confused about where she was going with this.

“But you . . .” She laughed bitterly. “Oh, you’ve shredded him.”

Pull out my heart, why don’t you, and stomp on it.

I didn’t need to hear this!

“It’s for his own good,” I said, my voice stern in the hopes his sister would get out of my face. “Believe me.”

She shook her head, looking so disappointed in me I could add it to the ever-growing list of things to self-flagellate about. “How dare you decide that for him.”

“Cat—”

“No.” She shoved a hand up between us to shut me up. “He told me you’re hiding something, something you’re obviously ashamed of. But you know what you should really be ashamed of? How much of a coward you are right now. And how little you’ve actually gotten to know my brother . . . because if you knew him, you’d have a lot more faith in him than you do.”

“No, he would never understand.” I shook my head, wrapping my arms around myself.

Cat huffed and glanced over her shoulder at Sadie and Cooper. Sadie was touching his arm now, tilting her head in her flirty way, giving him her come-hither eyes. “As far as she’s concerned, he’s fair game.”

I got a sudden unwelcome image of him kissing her . . . touching her . . . and it felt like poison sliding down my throat.

“Not now, but at some point”—she turned back around to give
me a hard look—“he will be fair game. Have you really thought about that?”

I squeezed my eyes closed. “Cat.”

“Jesus, Jessica, look at how much pain you’re in. Will Cooper knowing the truth about you be any worse than how you already feel?”

My eyes flew open at that, her words reverberating around and around my head.

Will Cooper knowing the truth about you be any worse than how you already feel?

Will Cooper knowing the truth about you be any worse than how you already feel?

WILL COOPER KNOWING THE TRUTH ABOUT YOU BE ANY WORSE THAN HOW YOU ALREADY FEEL?

I flinched away from her, needing space, needing to think. “I have to go.”

This time she didn’t stop me, but as I moved to my car my eyes were drawn to Cooper, despite not wanting to see another woman flirting with him.

As I opened my car door, he seemed to sense me, his head jerking in my direction, those blue, blue eyes focusing in on me.

His whole body tensed.

And then he pushed away from his truck as if he were going to come to me.

Will Cooper knowing the truth about you be any worse than how you already feel?

I didn’t know!

I didn’t know, but I couldn’t figure that out in the ten seconds it would take him to get to me. Fumbling with my car door, I practically threw myself in, started the car, and reversed back so fast my wheels spun.

Before he’d even made it to me I was out of there, the blood whooshing in my ears at the galloping of my heart.

For once Cooper liked the bar better empty.

He cleaned down the bar top, wishing like hell he could afford to just shut the place down for a few days. Of course Ollie could keep running it for him if he decided to take off again, but he knew he couldn’t run from his life.

Or the pain.

Being with Jessica the other night . . . that was like having a stinging cut for days and then suddenly someone slathering cool balm over it.

His head was all fucked up about her.

Part of him felt betrayed by her, angry, furious, resentful. That part wanted her to get the hell out of his town and never come back. But unfortunately there was this bigger part of him that felt like if he could only find out what the hell it was she was hiding, then maybe they could work this shit out. That part of him was responsible for the fear he felt, and Cooper hadn’t felt fear since his mom got diagnosed with cancer.

He feared Jessica packing up from Tremaine’s and leaving Hartwell for good.

When the rumors hit that Jessica and Vaughn were having an affair, he didn’t even entertain it, which was surprising, considering Dana. But he didn’t believe that of Jess. What she was hiding wasn’t an affair. No. He was worried it was much darker than that.

In fact, he was worried that if he did find out, Jessica’s fears
would be proven right; that in the end the truth would be too much for him to handle.

Yet the idea of not wanting to be with Jessica for any reason seemed absurd to him. He couldn’t seem to stay away. And so he’d taken what he’d wanted from her . . . and like he’d told her, it wasn’t enough. If anything, the taste of her only made her leaving him burn harder. Yet, he knew he wasn’t above making that mistake again. In fact, he was itching to find her and repeat the other night.

His head was all fucked up.

The knock on his bar door was like a shot of adrenaline through him. The knock reminded him of all the times these past few months that Jessica had come to him before the bar opened.

He braced himself for finding her on the other side of his door.

The disappointment he felt was mixed with a whole lot of anger at the sight of Ian Devlin on his doorstep.

“You do not want to be here right now, believe me,” Cooper warned.

His warning went unheeded as Devlin pushed past him, striding into the bar like he owned the fucking place.

“Bad mood, Cooper?” Devlin shot him a smirk over his shoulder before he perused the bar with his greedy eyes.

Cooper kept the door open. This asshole was leaving. Now. “Worst ever. Which means I’m not in the mood to deal with your shit.”

“You heard about Beckwith selling to some rising star chef from Boston?” Devlin sneered.

He had to admit this part of their conversation lifted his spirits a little. “Didn’t know who he sold it to. Just knew it wasn’t you.”

“And you loved that, didn’t you?”

“Not going to lie, it didn’t suck.”

Devlin narrowed his eyes. “I’m not the one that screwed your wife, son.”

Dick.

Cooper kept his expression blank, not willing to give him a reaction.

“And now another woman has messed with you. I heard the good doctor is shacked up with Vaughn Tremaine.” His eyes glittered with malice as he ran his fingers along the top of Cooper’s bar. “Admittedly that makes more sense. A woman of Jessica Huntington’s caliber . . . Anyone who was smart enough to recognize what she is would know a small-town bartender wouldn’t keep her happy for long.”

Do not rip his fucking face off.

Do not.

I’m going to rip his fucking face off.

Cooper found himself leaning toward him and stopped just in time, reining in his anger, forcing his features clean of reaction, because that would be what the prick wanted.

“I met her, you know.” Devlin sauntered over to him. “Interesting woman. And very attractive. Although she’s no Dana Kellerman.” He smirked. “I always thought you were a lucky son of a bitch to have caught that woman’s eye. But . . .” He sighed. “Maybe it’s the bar, Cooper. Have you ever considered that? All those long hours. It doesn’t really give you much time to look after your women the way they obviously need. Otherwise they wouldn’t keep leaving you.” He gave him a small smile that Cooper guessed was supposed to look fatherly. And it did. If fathers ate their offspring. “I will make you a very generous offer on the bar. It will be enough to start fresh, do something that isn’t killing your time the way the bar does.”

Jesus Christ.

Cooper crossed his arms over his chest, studying him. “Is it stupidity?”

Devlin frowned. “What?”

“You and your fucking persistence. Is it stupidity or just sheer arrogance? I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that I am not selling my bar. I’m telling you now”—Cooper lowered his voice in warning—“I’ve just about reached the end of my tether with this shit.”

Devlin gave another heavy sigh as he walked casually over to
him, stopping mere inches away. “I came here to give you one last chance to accept my offer.”

“And what exactly does that mean? Are you threatening me like you’ve threatened all the other people whose places you’ve stolen out from under them?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. And this is just a friendly warning.”

What the hell was he up to?

Uneasiness settled over Cooper, but he didn’t let it show. “You come after me, Devlin, you’ll have the biggest fight of your fucking life on your hands.”

“Somehow I doubt it.” Devlin leaned in to say quietly, “What you haven’t seemed to grasp is that money makes the world go around. And I have it, Cooper. You don’t.”

It took everything within him to keep his fists at his sides as every nerve ending he possessed screamed at him to deck the bastard. Instead he stood locked in place, fighting for control, watching Ian Devlin swagger out of his bar with a smug smile on his face.

He was still standing staring out the door when Tremaine appeared in it.

Eyebrows raised as he strode inside, he said, “Was that Ian Devlin I just saw?”

Cooper nodded tightly.

Tremaine’s cold eyes narrowed. “What did he want?”

Finally, Cooper managed to unlock his muscles enough to walk back behind the bar. He touched the bar top, worrying now about his future with it.

“Lawson?”

He looked up at his neighbor. “What the hell is Jessica doing at your place?” he blurted out.

Tremaine sighed as he slipped onto a stool at the bar. “Don’t tell me you believe those ridiculous rumors?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Good.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“The doctor said she had some business with Beckwith before she could leave. She doesn’t have much money so I offered her my place to stay until she’s ready to leave. I spend most of my time in a suite at the hotel, so it wasn’t a big deal.”

“I still don’t get why.”

Tremaine shrugged. “It gave her time.”

“Time for what?” Cooper scrutinized him. Cooper had realized a while back that Tremaine wasn’t just the cool businessman he portrayed himself as to everyone else, but it shocked the hell out of him that Tremaine may actually be trying to play Cupid here. “To come back to me?”

His neighbor didn’t give him the truth one way or the other. Instead he said, “What did Devlin want?”

The fury returned. “It was a warning. He gave me one last chance to accept an offer on the bar.”

“One last chance? What does that mean?”

“He’s coming after me.”

Tremaine studied him, surprise lighting his eyes. “You’re worried.”

“He’s got the kind of money I don’t. I’ll fight him, with everything I have. But that sneaky bastard is underhanded, and if he greases the right palms—”

“Cooper.”

He stilled at the quiet way Tremaine said his name.

He gave Cooper a dark smile. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve got more money than
ten
Ian Devlins. And I like my boardwalk the way it fucking is.”

A slither of reassurance moved through Cooper. “
Your
boardwalk?”

Tremaine smirked. “Better the devil you know, Lawson. Better the devil you know.”