Erica Lucke Dean - To Katie with Love (10 page)

Phil was in my office, sitting in my chair. Cooper stood behind me, and I turned to look at him. He wore the same confused look on his face as I imagined I did. The entire wordless conversation lasted less than fifteen seconds. Then I heard a familiar sound—the melodic timbre of a deep tenor singing—and everything fell into place.

Dean
. Apparently, because I wasn’t in my office when he arrived, Phil was dealing with him. I was certain Dean would never be satisfied with that arrangement. I would be expected to take over. That would be both good and bad. Good—because Dean was actually pretty fun to be around. And bad—because I was pretty sure Cooper had already formed an opinion about him, and it wasn’t a good one. Not that I could blame him.

Phil looked up and saw me. He hurried out of my office to meet me in the lobby. “Well, hello. You do still work here, don’t you? Did you forget Dean was coming in to see you?”

My eyes darted from Phil to my office, where Dean was rocking back in the chair across from mine. “He wasn’t supposed to come in. I told him I’d call him back… oh.” I groaned. “I forgot to call him back. I guess you want
me
to talk to him.”

Phil smirked. “Ya think?”

I was torn. Cooper still had a tight grip on my elbow, like a jealous boyfriend, but Phil was staring me down like… well, like my boss.

“I get this little thing between you two. I really do.” Phil waved a finger between us. “But I sort of need you to do some actual work for at least
part
of the day.”

I nodded, blowing out the breath I’d been holding.

Cooper slowly let go of my elbow. “Remind me again why getting you fired was a bad idea?” he whispered, planting a quick kiss on my temple.

I flashed him a smile. “Maybe you should try harder to convince me… next time.”

Cooper winked. “I’ll be back at the stroke of five.” Then he turned and walked out the door.

Phil rolled his eyes.

I watched Cooper drive out of the parking lot before stalking off toward my office. “I’m going,” I said over my shoulder.

“There’s my best girl,” Dean crooned as I dropped into my chair with a great big fake smile.

“Hi, Dean,” I said in my cheery voice. “What brings you in today?”

“I was hoping I could ask you a few stupid questions while we stumble around balancing my checkbook.”

My heart skipped as I recognized Cooper’s words from earlier.

A wide smile split Dean’s face. “Come on, Katie. That was funny.”

“That was a private conversation,” I muttered.

“You probably shouldn’t have private conversations and take phone calls at the same time.”

Touché
. I folded my arms in front of me.

Dean leaned across the desk. “Oh, don’t be mad. I’m only trying to look out for you.”

“Look out for me?”

“I’d hate to see you lose your heart to a
scoundrel
.”

I laughed. “Cooper’s hardly a scoundrel.”

“We never really know someone as well as we think, do we?”

THE ELEVEN O’CLOCK BEDTIME

S
ilvia called my name, and I looked at the clock.
The stroke of five
. Cooper had arrived.

I hurried to the door, careful not to fall in my dangerous boots, and opened it for Cooper. Atlanta should not be so cold in January. I had moved there to escape the cold… and my mother. Too bad I hadn’t actually been able to escape either.

“Wow,” I said as he swept me into an embrace. “It’s freezing out there.”

“The weatherman said to expect flurries, but I’ll keep you warm,” he whispered, laying his forehead against mine. “We could start a fire,” he added with a naughty grin, and I shivered, but not from the cold.

Silvia came around the corner, and he pulled his face away from mine.

“Are you taking your flowers home?” he asked her sweetly. He was probably messing with her stomach too.

She barked out a laugh. “No, I think I’ll keep them here so everyone can enjoy them.”

I looked sideways at Cooper. We both knew why she was leaving them—so everyone else would be reminded he sent them to
her.
And who could blame her? If Cooper had sent
me
flowers, I’d have left them for the world to see, too.

“Time to go,” I said. “We don’t want to be here when the snow hits.” Roughly translated…
I have better things to do
.

“Well, get going then,” Silvia snapped playfully.

I hoped she was still too caught up in her flowers to go back to paying attention to every look Cooper gave me. That hungry look was back in his eyes, and he was towing me toward the door.

Cooper waited for Silvia to flip the lock before he opened the door. A blast of arctic air blew in, sending a new wave of shivers through me.

He frowned. “Where’s your coat?”

I shrugged. “In Connecticut.”

He quickly slipped out of his leather coat and held it out for me to slide my arms into the warm sleeves. He smiled then, satisfied, and opened the door again. Silvia rolled her eyes, and I bit back a smile of my own. Leaving her to lock the doors behind us, I got into Cooper’s car, wrapping his coat around me and breathing in his cologne.

Cooper slid into the driver’s seat and pulled on his seatbelt. We were both very aware that Silvia had not yet moved from her spot behind the glass door, which gave her direct view of where he’d parked. I was sure she was sitting there waiting to catch a glimpse of some action.

“Hungry?” He raised one eyebrow, and I knew he wasn’t referring to food.

I suppressed a giggle. I was always ravenous around him. In fact, I was amazed we had been able to hold out so long in that department.

“Actually,” I looked up at him from under my eyelashes, “I need to do something.”

His eyes widened. “What?”

“I need to go to the mall.”

Cooper waited outside the dressing room while I tried on another ensemble. He seemed to be amused, which was good. I definitely didn’t want him to be bored. He took every opportunity to run his hands over the fabric of each outfit as I modeled them, and I suspected it was just an excuse to touch me. Not that I was complaining.

When I came out, he appeared to be staring at a rack of summer dresses a few yards away, but then I realized he was on the phone. I caught part of what was obviously a private conversation.

“No, I seriously don’t care about that anymore. I just can’t keep up this double life much longer. The illusion is getting thinner and thinner every day.” His free hand pushed into his hair, gripping it in a clenched fist. “So help me God, if you screw this up for me, it won’t be her I drain of every last drop of blood from. It’ll be you. In fact, I’ll kill you, dig you up, reanimate you, and then kill you again, just for the fun of it.”

I gasped, and he spun around to face me, his mouth falling open as he did a double take.

His eyes roamed over my body before locking onto mine as he stalked toward me, disconnecting his call without saying goodbye. “Wow.”

He tugged me into his arms and attacked my surprised lips with a mind-numbing, toe-curling kiss. Just as my lungs began to scream for oxygen, he released me and motioned for me to spin all the way around. I felt like a ballerina in a music box, twirling to music only we could hear.

“You have to get that. I didn’t mind the other things you picked out, but this is…
hot
.” He slid his hand across my shoulder, down my back, and up again, setting my skin on fire everywhere he touched.

His phone vibrated in his hand.

“Do you need to take that?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No, it’s just my assistant. She drives me a little crazy sometimes, but nothing is as important as spending time with you.”

With a deep breath, I processed his words. I’d overreacted. It was just his assistant. He wasn’t
really
threatening to kill someone. That was ridiculous to even imagine. I mean, how many times had I plotted Vicky’s demise?

He nodded toward my cleavage. “So will you wear that bra with this blouse?”

“Would that be bad?” I pulled my lip between my teeth. The lingerie I had picked out was a little…
delicate
. As in barely there.

“No,” he growled. “That would be good.”

The heat in his eyes made my knees a little weak. We seemed to be engaged in foreplay rather than shopping, which may have been why he’d agreed to come in the first place.

“Okay.” I tried desperately to steady myself. “I’m ready to go when you are.”

“Oh, Katie… I’ve been
ready
.” He leaned in and gave me a quick kiss. “Now go change before I do something in this department store that could get us both arrested.”

We sat in my driveway with the motor running for almost an hour, just talking and watching the snow flurries blowing in the dark sky.

“Would you like to come in?” My voice trembled.

He turned in his seat and took my face in his hands. “Katie, you’re shaking. What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing,” I lied.

“If you don’t tell me, I’ll assume it’s because you don’t want to be with me.”

My eyes went wide. “No, it’s not that. Definitely not that.”

“Then what?”

I looked away. “It’s silly.”

“You’re blushing.” He leaned his forehead against mine and closed his eyes. “Please tell me.”

I sighed. “I’m nervous.”

He opened his eyes. “Nervous?”

I took a deep breath. “You say you want to be with me tonight, and I want that too. I even bought all that lingerie, but I had no idea how I was going to put it on without you noticing. And you said it was an eleven o’clock bedtime for me, but I have no idea if I’m going to bed by myself or if you’re coming with me, and if you are, well, I don’t actually look that good when I wake up in the morning, so I’ll be mortified the next day, and what if I’ve forgotten how to…? Well, you know. It’s been a really long time.” The words flew from my lips in an incoherent blur.

He stroked my cheek. “Please don’t worry about that, Katie. I have no doubt it will be…
earth-shattering
when you’re ready. But when I said you had an eleven o’clock bedtime tonight, I really meant I was going to take you home in time for you to be in bed, quite alone, by eleven so you could get a good night’s rest. I have absolutely no intention of starting something I would have to interrupt for sleep.”

“But—”

He put a finger to my lips. “I want to be with you, more than anything. But when that finally happens, I don’t want to have to stop just because you have work in the morning.”

Before I knew what I was doing, I wound my arms around his neck and attacked him with a reckless kiss. He shuddered as my tongue touched his, and I moaned into his mouth. I pulled away, pressing my forehead against his with a nervous laugh.

Cooper took a lock of my hair and twirled it around his fingers. “Your hair looks pretty like this. I don’t think I ever said so.”

“Thank you.” I reached up, sank my fingers into his hair, and gave it a good shake. “I like yours like
this
, too. It’s very sexy.”

“So…” he said, still teasing my hair with his fingers, “what were you thinking when I walked into the bar Friday night?”

That question took me completely by surprise. “What?”

“What were you thinking?” He didn’t look at my face. Instead, he studied my hair, which I hoped was shining in the moonlight.

How was I supposed to answer that question? I knew the answer, of course, but could I tell him I nearly melted into a puddle up on that stage? “I was very… surprised.”
Understatement of the year
.

He glanced at my face. “How so?” His voice sounded so innocent, but I had a feeling he’d been saving that line of questioning for a while.

“Well…” I had to think fast. “I just thought you looked really good.” I was still holding back, and I was sure he knew.

He started playing with the hair at the base of my neck, which sent shivers down my spine. “Explain.” He kept his voice even, but he sounded determined to get an answer.

I let out an exasperated sigh and launched into the best explanation I could come up with without sliding under my seat in embarrassment. “I was used to seeing you so buttoned up.”

“Buttoned up?”

“Yes, buttoned up. So very appropriate to the point of being unapproachable, in a way. But Friday night, you walked in and looked relaxed in your own skin. Your hair wasn’t perfectly combed, and your face wasn’t perfectly shaved, and your clothes were a little rumpled.” I was remembering that night as I described it, and I could feel my heart speed up. “There was something a little dangerous about the way you looked. Like I was going to be in trouble.” And I was.

He smiled.

“What are you thinking right now?” I demanded.

“I was thinking your description could also apply to you that night.” He flashed his lopsided grin. “Except for the part about not shaving. You were stunning, but not in the reserved way I was accustomed to seeing you. The clothes were… well, they were ridiculous.” He laughed. “But the tentative way you carried yourself in them made
my
knees a little weak.”

“You liked me thinking I might fall on my ass?”

Cooper let out a throaty laugh. “No. But I told you yesterday, I
like
catching you when you trip. I want to be with someone who needs me like I need them.” He stopped to nuzzle his face into my hair. “I was already in love with you, of course, so it was quite a shock to me that I could fall for you harder than I already had.”

“I always thought you were gorgeous. Shallow, I know.” I coughed out a laugh. I wasn’t ready to confess that I was secretly so infatuated with him I had completely given up men altogether for the sort that I could find strictly in paperback. Hell, I’d given up
living
to wall myself into my fortress of fiction. That made me sound pathetic, and I wasn’t going to be that girl anymore. “But I didn’t expect you to be so…
sexy
.” I felt the heat move up my neck into my face. “I was hearing little voices all evening long urging me to kiss you.”

“I’m not surprised you were hearing voices. You were pretty drunk.”

We laughed. And then he kissed me. I wondered if I would ever really get used to him kissing me. I hoped it would always feel like new.

My cell phone rang.
If it’s not one thing, it’s my mother.
I didn’t want to answer it, but I knew her. If I didn’t, she would just keep calling. I had already used up my allotment of broken cell phone excuses for the year, so I gave Cooper an apologetic look and flipped open my phone.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Katie, I’m almost surprised you answered. Did you get a new phone?”

“Yes.” I hadn’t had a new phone in over a year.

“You are
not
going to believe what happened to me at the spa this afternoon. I went to get my—”

I knew it would be a long, drawn out story of waxing gone wrong or other assorted fashion faux pas. “Are you okay?” I interrupted, interjecting as much concern into my voice as I could muster. The simple fact that she was telling me the story told me she was okay.

“Oh, I’m fine, but you have to hear this. It’s quite frightening, really.”

“Mom, I’d love to hear your story, but I’m on a date.” I figured that little bit of information would stop her in her tracks. She would be delighted I was out with an actual man.

“Is that right?”

If I closed my eyes, I could see my mother’s red lips pursed as she smoothed her platinum hair behind her ears. A dead giveaway to head for an exit.

“Yes, he’s right here with me.” I looked over at Cooper and rolled my eyes.

My mother paused for a long time. “You know, if you didn’t want to hear my story, you could have just said so. You didn’t need to lie to me. Did you actually think I was going to believe you were on a date? I mean, really!” And she hung up.

I burst out laughing.

Cooper tilted his head to look at me. “What?”

“She didn’t believe me. She hung up.” I knew I would have to call her back and explain. Apparently, she believed I was a lost cause even while she was trying to convince me to try. Wouldn’t she be surprised when she realized I was telling the truth?

Cooper tapped his watch and made a face. As much as I hated to do it, I had to stop talking to him and go in. I didn’t know enough yet. I wanted to hear more about his childhood, or his favorite ice cream, or anything. I wondered for just a moment if he
wanted
me to go so he could do something more exciting. I had no idea what he did when he wasn’t with me, and that bothered me. I’m sure people would think I’d learned some of that over the past year he’d been my client, but those kinds of things just never seemed to come up.