The Space In Between (6 page)

MY HANDS SHOOK as I placed the key
into the door and turned the knob. Cooper stood behind me, patiently waiting. I
know he noticed, but he didn’t mention the small limp I had in my leg. It
wasn’t as bad as before, but it was still something someone couldn’t miss. As
we walked into the small, crammed apartment I welcomed him to my home.

“It’s nice.”

“It’s not.” I laughed. I walked to the kitchen and opened
the fridge, “You want a drink? A beer?”

“No thanks. I’m not a big drinker nowadays.” I looked into
the fridge and realized there weren’t any beers anyways. Ladasha must have
taken the last one, which was fine—she was the one who bought them. Closing the
refrigerator door, I looked down, realized I was still wearing my trench coat,
and remembered that underneath it I was only sporting a leopard print bra and
thong. Horrified, I turned, on a mission to go change. Before I could make my
way to my bedroom, Cooper’s hand had somehow found mine.

My body tingled at his touch, and I cussed for allowing
myself to feel anything of the sort. His southern accent was somewhat hidden
from his life in New York, but I heard it creep out as he spoke to me. “I’m
sorry about Derrick. My gosh, Andrea. I couldn’t imagine. I’m so sorry.”

I looked down at our hands and my heart picked up its speed.
I couldn’t stop thinking about what was going to happen next. What was going to
happen next?! He pulled me closer to him.
So close
I could feel his
breath against my cheek…
So close
I could have sworn our lips were
touching. I allowed my eyes to shut as he lifted my chin. With every exhale he
took, I inhaled his breaths. Time kept moving, but we stood still. Allowing our
breaths to be all that were heard, all that were felt.

“I’m broken, Cooper,” I whispered. If he were to let go of
my hands, I was certain I would shatter into a million pieces. His touch was
the only thing holding me together.

“Me too.” He inched my face closer to his, but he didn’t
kiss me. No, his lips lingered around my face as I slightly parted my mouth
more. When I lifted my eyes, they met with his. The intense green eyes I was
losing myself in made a small sigh escape me. He studied every part of my face.
He ran a finger across my upper lip and then traced the bottom. Over and over
again. Starting from the left and
slowly
moving to the right. I placed
my hands against his chest, not wanting to tumble from his simple gesture.
Yes…It was simple, but powerful, that small touch.

He stroked my short hair behind my ears and kissed my
forehead. Gentle and loving caresses to my face made me long for his taste, yet
I knew he wouldn’t make the first move, out of mere respect. I pulled his lips
closer to mine and nodded, granting him permission.

What was I doing? What was I
feeling
? All I knew was
that whenever he touched me, I didn’t feel alone.

He sheltered my mouth with his, which was enough to make my
body grow weak. Yet he was there to catch me. One of his hands traveled to my
lower back, his fingers massaging me. As his tongue began to explore mine, a
light moan escaped from my lips. All my life I had only kissed one man, but I
knew I could secretly get used to kissing the handsome soul in front of me. And
that thought alone terrified me.

He led me to the couch, thrusting his body on top of mine.
His mouth began to travel down to my neck, kissing me with nice pecks and
sucking me gently with each new location. My toes curled into the couch cushion
and I couldn’t stop from arching my back as I longed for more. He placed his hand
on my bare leg and began to travel under the trench coat up to my thigh.
Everything inside of me heated up more and more at his touch. I lost all
connections to the real world. It was just the two of us. Sampling each other.
Discovering each other.

“Coop…” I whispered. With immediate care, his eyes shot to
mine and he stopped his actions. A level of guilt filled his eyes, which made
him even more attractive. I shook my head, pulled his face closer to mine, and
murmured, “Bed.” His guilt vanished with the taste of my lips. He lifted me up
and carried me down the hall as I wrapped my legs around him and rested upon
his strong body.

I needed Cooper that night and I could tell he needed me
just as much. It was our escape from reality. Time didn’t exist when I was with
him that night. There were no yesterdays and no tomorrows. There was no thought
involved, just passion. One kiss after another. One embrace made everything
else seem meaningless just for a few moments. My mind was emptied. The feeling
of overthinking every little detail of life vanished. The replaying of the
accident wasn’t happening within my head during those moments. Yes, we both
were in need of some space between our all too messed up realities. Real life
was too tough to face, and right now Cooper was forgetting about his drama in
the world and I was forgetting about Derrick.

Derrick.

My eyes slowly opened to find Cooper kissing my nose. We’d
finished our escape from reality. Our bodies spread out on my bed, clothes
scattered across the floor, and my eyes shifted away from the handsome man
lying next to me. And I remembered.

Derrick.
I felt dirty. The same dirtiness washed over
Cooper’s face as we sat up in the bed. The night’s autumn breeze was chillier
than most nights as it flew past my open window. I quickly stood to shut it.
All the heat that had run through my body a few minutes ago was long gone, and
I was freezing.

Bending down, I wrapped a sheet around my body and handed
Cooper his shirt. I couldn’t even hold in my smile as I watched him stand from
the bed. He had the most perfect butt I’d ever seen. I couldn’t find the
strength to look away as he slid his boxers on—he was gorgeous. I was torn. My
heart was crying out as the pains of my previous actions were now creeping into
my mind, yet at the same time I wanted round two of Cooper Davidson.

“I can’t believe we just did that,” he stated as he
continued to get dressed. I couldn’t believe it either.

I had a feeling Cooper wasn’t one to partake in random
flings. And it wasn’t extremely random what we’d done— we
knew
each
other after all. We’d grown up together. Well, kind of.

“I don’t know if you felt it…I mean it just felt like…” He
paused and shook his head as he continued to button his long-sleeved shirt. My
softened expression probably showed him I’d felt it too. It felt like an
escape. A way out for a moment in time. But the moment passed, and time had a
way of never standing still.

He looked at me in my sheet and studied my curves. I
aggressively pulled the sheet tighter to my body and watched as his eyes
shifted away from me. He clearly could tell how uncomfortable I was.

“Let me take you out to dinner,” he suggested.

“No.”

He turned to face me and delivered a smile which made every
inch of my skin tingle once again. How did he do that? “Why not?”

“It's against the rules.”

“What rules?”

The rules I had already pretty much destroyed. The
Pretty
Woman
rules. No personal information. That kind of went out of the window
when I walked into the VIP room and saw him standing before me.

No kissing on the lips.

Crap.

And no second meet ups. I could hold up to that one. I felt
pretty silly thinking about the rules, but Ladasha had taught me them, and it
was my duty to follow through with at least one of the rules. And going out to
dinner with gorgeous Cooper Davidson was not allowed.

“Come on, tell me. What rules?” He was interested as he
raised one of his eyebrows. Everything he did was sexy. The sweat dripping down
his forehead? Sexy. The way he bit the tip of his thumb? Sexy. The way he
growled in my ear while nibbling it?
Sweet mother of everything righteous
…He
could call me names, ignore my existence, tell me to piss off, and it would
still make my body want him to claim me all over again. But, he would never do
those things. He was too much of a southern gentleman.

I blushed at the thoughts filling my head, and lowered my
voice to answer his question. “The
Pretty Woman
rules.”

He drifted over to me, sporting his perfectly perfect
dimples. “You do know how that movie ends, right?” Cooper turned away from me
and slipped into his pants. I couldn’t help but let a small grin slip from my
lips. I realized the expression of pleasure plastered on my face and shook it
off as Cooper kept talking. “I just…I don’t want to be one of those guys. I
want to take you out to—“

“YOU BITCH!” was heard from the living room. Ladasha was
home. “How the hell did you get Roger to let you get a damn promotion without
even staying the whole freakin’ night?! And how the hell did you get someone to
pay six hundred dollars for a damn lap dance?!” she hollered.

My eyes widened, looking to Cooper. “Six hundred dollars?!”
I paused. Well, he got what he paid for.

“I picked up a pizza on the way back, dude. Seriously
though. Teach me your…” Ladasha barged into my bedroom before I had a chance to
tell Cooper to somehow turn invisible. The piece of Brooklyn style pizza in my
roommate’s hand froze in mid-air as Ladasha saw me wrapped in a sheet. Her eyes
landed on Cooper and she finished her sentence. “…secrets…”

Her eyes bugged out when she realized there was a man
standing in my bedroom. “What did I miss?” she questioned as the cheese on her
slice of pizza slid to the floor.

“I should probably get going,” Cooper said, and I agreed
before he even finished his thought. We wedged our way past Ladasha, who was
fast to follow behind us. Cooper turned to me once we reached the front door,
smiling. “I would really like to see you again though, Andrea. I’ve never done
this before.” He paused and his cheeks turned rosy with embarrassment. “Well,
I’ve done this, just not like
this
. Ya know?”

He was cute, trying to find the right words. But I couldn’t
help but feel a knot in my stomach growing larger and larger. “Coop,” I
whispered, trying to make him understand. But his green eyes lit up at the sound
of my voice. He rested his hand on his chin and studied me.

“Andie,” he whispered back. I didn’t correct him. To tell
you the truth it sounded kind of nice. I opened the front door and allowed him
to kiss me on the forehead before he exited. “I’ll call you.”

“Don’t,” I begged.

He grinned and strolled down the hallway. I could still see
his dimples in my head as he walked away. I stepped into the hallway and looked
in his direction. “No really, Cooper. Don’t.”

Tossing his hand up in the air, he waved goodbye to me. I
sighed. That goodbye wave was sexy, too. And that would probably be a problem. I
stepped back into my apartment, closed the door, and slipped down to the
ground. Ladasha walked over and slid down to join me.

“Was there an extremely sexy man in our apartment?”

“Yep.”

“And you…had sexy time with him?” she questioned.

“Yep.”

A level of silence filled the room. We sat there, both a bit
stunned. Finally Ladasha found the ideal words to say. “Take that, Richard
Gere!” she hollered and stood up to do a victorious dance. It involved a lot of
awkward air humping and invisible ass slapping. I couldn’t help but chuckle at
my overreacting friend. As I glanced at her, my smile faded when I realized
what I’d done. Ladasha also figured out what I’d done and her smile evaporated.

“Andrea…” Her voice was soft, filled with concern; I shook
my head and stared forward.

I ‘d just had sex with Cooper Davidson.

Crap.

I WAS DIRTY. Turning on the shower,
I stepped inside as the water began to hit my skin in random spurts. Picking up
the soap, I started rubbing my ghost-white skin, scrubbing harder and harder,
trying to erase the past few hours from my memory.