Broken Heart (The Westwoods Book 2), page 16
“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.
17
SKYE
“You weren’t lying, were you?”
With a smile on my face, my eyes were on Cooper as I asked that question. His gaze had been focused on the road in front of him as he drove us to his family’s lake house, but the moment my question penetrated, he glanced over at me with confusion written all over his face.
“Lying about what?” he countered.
Cooper was paying attention to where he was driving again, but it was clear, based on the way his hand was gripping the steering wheel, just how concerned he was. The last thing I wanted to do was upset him by not immediately giving him a response, but I had to give myself a moment to let what I was feeling settle inside me. It was such a powerful force; I had no choice.
But it was good.
God, I was so close to saying it was the best thing I’d ever experienced. That alone made it impossible for me to not want to ignore any of the lingering fears I might have had and lean into it fully.
Being the woman that I was, I hadn’t expected I would have even brought this up, especially considering there was a small chance I could have gotten it all wrong. But there was something about Cooper, the way he was with me, and how he made me feel that led me to having the confidence to talk about it.
Finally, I eased Cooper’s concerns and clarified, “When you brought me home from the charity event on Friday evening, you stood with me outside my front door and told me you intended to do everything in your power to prove or convince me I can’t live without you.”
Those words had stuck with me for days now. When I woke up in the middle of the night, it was those words, mixed with so many of the sweet gestures and tender moments Cooper and I had together, replaying in my mind that kept me from finding sleep again.
He wanted to convince me I couldn’t live without him.
There was a part of me that believed he might have been a bit overzealous and self-assured when he’d made that statement. I mean, technically, I believed it was still entirely possible I could live without him. The problem came in when I considered what that would be like.
And that’s when I realized I didn’t want to live without him. Being able to do something and wanting to do it were two very different things. In the few short weeks since he’d come into my life, Cooper had made me happier than I’d been in so long. I had smiled more since meeting him than I had in the entire first six months of the year combined.
Cooper’s grip loosened on the steering wheel, and his shoulders visibly relaxed once he heard my response. Seeing that level of concern from him only solidified my belief that I didn’t have anything to worry about when it came to sharing what I was feeling.
“Can you honestly tell me you believed I was lying when I said that to you?” he questioned me.
“I don’t know if I would say that I thought you were intentionally trying to deceive me, but I certainly hadn’t expected to have such confidence in you attempting to accomplish that so quickly,” I explained.
His lips twitched. “Can I ask what, other than me telling you that I intended to do that, has made you believe I’m actually following through on that promise?”
Warmth moved through me as I considered all the ways to answer that question, and I realized just how fortunate I was to be in the position to be able to have a whole host of responses to give him.
I started with the easiest. Holding it up between us, I declared, “You brought me breakfast this morning.”
He glanced in my direction, his brow cocked with disbelief. “That’s all it takes?”
When his eyes were back on the road, I answered, “No. But if I’m sharing the most recent revelation, it’s that you decided to bring me breakfast on the morning when you’ve included me in the day’s festivities with your family.”
Cooper reached across the center console, placed his calloused hand on my forearm, and squeezed. “You know, it’s funny. Because I was under the impression you were trying to convince me that I couldn’t live without you.”
The shock and confusion I felt over his statement forced me to ignore just how much I liked the feeling of his hand on me. “What?”
He gave my arm another squeeze before returning his hand to the wheel. “While I understand that I invited you to come to my family’s lake house, it was you who asked if I had plans and wanted to spend time with you today. Considering I was ready to give up my plans with my family to make that happen, I figure you’ve already accomplished that feat.”
As Cooper spoke, I had started to lift the bagel sandwich he’d brought me to my mouth for a bite, but at that declaration, I stopped. Had he just confessed he didn’t think he could live without me? Surely, he was exaggerating.
“You’re joking,” I stated.
Cooper had pulled to a stop sign, so he looked over at me and deadpanned, “I’m not.”
Lowering my hand with my sandwich down to my lap, the nails on my other hand dug into my palm. It was a vain attempt to wake myself up. Clearly, the lack of sleep had caught up with me, delirium had set in, and this was all just a dream.
With the pain increasing in my palm, I had no choice but to face reality.
This was happening. It was real. And Cooper was telling the truth.
My throat was so parched, I wasn’t sure I would have been able to respond, even if I couldn’t have formulated a response.
Fortunately, Cooper seemed to have realized the effect he’d had on me and how difficult it was for me to know what to say, because he urged, “Breathe, Skye.”
The air left my lungs, my chest deflating while my spirits soared. Cooper’s admission might have left me feeling speechless, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t happy about it. I was happy about all of it. I think there was just a part of me that still didn’t believe it could really be this easy for me, that I could find someone like him and have it be the real deal.
Seemingly believing I needed additional instructions to continue functioning, Cooper added, “Don’t worry about what I said, sweetheart. Just finish your breakfast, and have a good day with me today.”
