Happily Ever Afton (21 page)

Her glossy dark hair was longer than he remembered, Cooper noted, no longer in a pixie cut, but coiled in a chic chignon at the back of her head that anchored her grandmother’s ivory lace veil swept back off her face, apparently to be lowered demurely for the upcoming ceremony. She wore a single strand of cultured pearls around her long neck and tiny pearl earrings encrusted with diamonds were affixed to her delicately scrolled earlobes.

‘Oh, what gorgeous flowers, and they smell divine! They must be from Jason,’ she crooned in delight. ‘Come on in,’ she swung the door wide, ‘ – you can put them on that table by the window and just leave the card there too – my mother should have a tip for you when you leave.’

Afton issued the brief distracted instructions, lifting the train and sweeping over to a mirrored vanity table tucked in the opposite corner of the large room decorated in painstaking detail in the period fashion from when the mansion was built by one of Seattle’s first millionaires over a century ago. She sat down on the round cushioned stool of the vanity, carefully arranging the gown around her before lifting a hand to touch up her makeup palette consisting of dark mascara-coated lashes, a stroke of fawn-colored eye shadow and a pale pink lipstick outlining the fullness of lips bearing an enigmatic Mona Lisa smile.

‘You look beautiful, Afton.’

Her hand froze, huge hazel eyes flying to meet his in the mirror’s reflection.

‘But not at all how I pictured you on your wedding day.’

She swiveled jerkily around on the stool to face Cooper who stood still as a statue by the table near the window where he’d placed the flowers.

‘I pictured you in a white cotton peasant dress, barefoot, with no makeup or adornment other than a sprinkle of freckles across your nose, stars in your eyes and a crown of wild flowers and roses perched on your silken chestnut hair.’

Silence. ‘What…what are you doing here?’ she croaked.

‘Where else would I be but with you on your wedding day?’

‘Cooper, please,’ Afton choked out, ‘please leave…I can’t…I can’t deal with this – not today.’

‘I’m not leaving, Afton,’ Cooper moved closer. Reaching down he took her trembling hand in his, tugging her up from the stool to face him, ‘not until we talk.’

‘There’s…there’s nothing left to talk about…’

‘Oh yes, Afton. There is. There definitely is. Let’s start with, why are you doing
this
?’ He thrust up her hand now once again wearing the ring she’d purchased herself for her engagement to Jason.

‘Getting married?’ She snatched her hand away, her gaze darting away from his also, ‘people do it every day,’ she said with studied nonchalance.

‘People do. 
You
don’t,’ Cooper’s hand went beneath her chin forcing her to meet his glittering gaze, ‘you
don’t
love him, Afton!’

‘Jason and I…we…we have so much in common. We’re both ready to settle down, we both work for the paper, we love to travel…and… we…er…love jazz…’ she trailed off weakly, her eyes lowering seeming to realize herself how pitiful the reasons sounded when spoken aloud.

‘Those are qualifications for a pen pal!’ Cooper retorted in disgust. ‘They’re not what you should look for in your future husband!’

Afton shook free from his touch, rushing to the other side of the room in a rustle of silk taffeta, keeping the large bed between them.

‘My mother was already married and pregnant with me at my age – it’s time,
past
time for me to get married! And it’s also
my
business – not yours, Cooper! Not anymore – our deal ended – remember? You said you wouldn’t try to reach me again after your last event – said you would even put it in writing!’

‘I
lied
– but I’m through lying to you! Maybe if I had told you the truth from the very beginning
this
wouldn’t be happening now,’ he muttered. ‘But it’s not too late…’

He advanced towards her and she nervously tried to fend him off with words.

‘Yes it
is
! Cooper, please leave…I have to get ready – the…the ceremony’s starting in less than an hour…’ He kept advancing undeterred. ‘I mean it, I’ll…I’ll…call for my mother,’ she threw out feebly.

Cooper stopped in his tracks at her threat, seeming to accept defeat. He turned and walked over to the door and Afton felt a strange mingling of relief and regret as she stared at the broad back beneath the khaki jacket. She next heard the sound of the key being turned in the lock before Cooper turned back to face her, a strangely calm expression on his face. Taking the old-fashioned brass key from the door he had just locked them behind, he placed it deep into his front jeans pocket perilously near his zipper.

‘Give me that key, Cooper,’ Afton whispered tremulously as he again began his approach.

‘Come get it,’ Cooper said with a simmering smile on his face. He held his hands high in the air in a gesture of surrender until he reached her and one gentle knuckle stroked down the cheek she could feel hotly flushing. ‘I promise I won’t resist if you need to do a strip search,’ he said huskily.

‘Cooper,
why
are you doing this?’ Afton moaned, sinking down with her face in her hands onto the needlepoint quilt covering the brass bed in a tumble of white satin.

Cooper sank down next to her with a protest from the bedsprings, his hand resting at the tender exposed nape of her neck beneath the lace veil as her head bent low with the heavy weight of her tears. She felt his hand slowly stroke across her shaking shoulder blades causing her to begin to tremble beneath his touch.

‘Afton,’ his voice was a deep, gravelly rumble, ‘I’ve learned it takes four things to climb to the top of a seemingly insurmountable mountain. The first is stamina;’ Cooper said softly, ‘the second is mental fortitude and third is a
strong
willpower – and I’ve practiced all three of those things waiting for you.’

He stood up; the mattress springs on the old bed squeaking. ‘But the fourth most important thing you need, Afton, is patience – and I’m afraid I’m fresh out of that.’

Afton next heard the dull clink of a belt buckle, the metallic scratch of a zipper and her head flew up watching in stunned disbelief as he dropped his jeans to the floor and then shrugged the jacket from his shoulders, throwing it across the foot of the bed.

‘What,’ she swallowed clumsily, ‘what do you think you’re doing, Cooper?’

‘I’m going to make a new deal with you,’ his grey T-shirt rose over his head, tousling the shiny raven-black hair. ‘We’re going to make love – right here, right now, right
there
–’ he nodded down towards the bed, ‘and if you still want to marry Jason after, I’ll leave – and I’ll even send you both a nice wedding gift from your registry.’

His fierce gaze met hers, the achingly handsome face stonily determined and when she uttered no further protest, he continued calmly undressing until he stood naked before her. Afton’s heart beneath a thin layer of satin began pounding out of her chest, his
astounding
bronzed male beauty hers again to devour with her eyes. She could not find her voice to utter any more token objections because the truth was; she wanted this as desperately as he did!

Cooper joined her again on the bed lowering her back down on to the mattress with his body weight, ravenous mouth meeting hers in a kiss of such savage hunger she gasped in wonder, her lips parting for him instantly. His hands reached around and struggled with the precise row of silk-covered buttons at her back as he fought to get to her beneath her dress.

Cooper groaned his frustration against her lips. ‘You
had
to go with the one with all the buttons?’

Afton gave a muted laugh beneath his mouth, ‘I had already paid for it! And my mother loves it.’

‘And all the pretty pink flowers? Her too?’

‘Jason,’ she admitted on an intake of breath as he finally found a welcome opening in the gown, taking immediate possession of a full breast in his hand, his thumb flicking a tender bud into throbbing attention, ‘he thinks pink makes me look very girly and feminine.’

‘Just goes to prove the man is a complete fool,’ Cooper muttered hoarsely as her hands began moving over him in turn in an eager journey of rediscovery. ‘There is absolutely
nothing
girly about you,’ his mouth lowered, lips surrounding a nipple the same exquisite shade, he murmured, as the roses he’d delivered.

‘You are a beautiful wildflower,’ he softly kissed the slope of her breast, ‘gloriously untamed,’ next her arched neck, ‘filled with all the colors of the rainbow,’ followed by a shell-like earlobe. ‘A highly desirable
woman
–
my
woman, Afton!’ Cooper stated fiercely, his hard kiss also stamping his possession.

‘Yes, Cooper,’ Afton moaned her agreement, her fingers knotting in his ebony hair holding him close, for what else could she say,
it was the truth
!

Cooper levered himself away on a heavily muscled forearm, looking down into her face with a sensuous smile. ‘Hold on, Afton – I’m going in,’ and with that his head disappeared under a multitude of taffeta ruffles.

She began to tremble as she felt his hot mouth slide slowly up the pearl satin hose encasing her leg from dainty slender ankle to smooth creamy thigh before it stopped just short of its goal much to her frustration.

‘
Cooper!
’ she sent up a husky protest.

‘Wait a minute,’ came his muffled voice from beneath the silken layers of her wedding dress, ‘I think I found something!’ His black head reemerged from beneath the train of her gown with a blue satin garter clenched between his teeth.

‘You are
mad
, you goofball!’ Afton dissolved into laughter. Snatching the garter from his lips, she pinged it across the room where it knocked her and Jason’s engagement photo off the dresser with a clatter, glass cracking, the obvious omen dissolving her into further giggles that turned into tremulous gasps as Cooper disappeared again and his mouth finally found her.

His skilled tongue caused her to begin to whisper jumbled promises and heartfelt vows that she would do
anything
he asked if he just never stopped doing
exactly
what he was doing! But all too soon, she reached a peak of ecstasy higher than any mountain he had ever imagined climbing and when he threw the ruffled white gown up to her waist and thrust himself deeply inside quickly joining her on that rapturous soaring summit, her sharp cries of release brought a knocking to the bedroom door.

‘Afton, honey,’ her mother’s concerned voice could be heard on the other side, followed by the rattle of the locked door handle, ‘are you all right in there? I thought I heard you calling out for help?’

Cooper bit hard on his lip to hold back laughter collapsing next to her on the pillow, his hand rising and covering her mouth sealing in her last shuddering sighs of satisfaction. He lifted it when she nodded a moment later signifying she could speak, struggling up to her elbows on the tousled brass bed that had last seen this type of vigorous activity almost one hundred years previously.

‘I…I’m fine Mom, I…er…just got
poked
,’ she frowned at the wide grin Cooper flashed at the unintended double entendre, ‘with…with the pin I was using to hold my veil on,’ she added quickly, sounding just a little breathless still.

‘Oh, okay, sweetheart, but please be careful. You don’t want to mess up your hair or makeup now that the hairdresser has already left.’

It was a little too late for that warning, Afton thought staring in to the vanity mirror across from the bed at her hair styled to perfection earlier that morning by one of the top hairdressers in the city – now tumbling in shiny chestnut tendrils around her pleasure flushed face, her gown hopelessly rumpled, carefully applied makeup smeared beyond repair.

‘Oh and did that florist find you, dear?’ her mother trilled through the door. ‘He said he had a lovely gift to give you!’

Cooper’s head fell back against the pillows shuddering with silent laughter that stopped abruptly as Afton’s hand stroked along the length of his hard body.

‘Oh yes, he found me all right, Mom,’ she agreed softly before raising her voice slightly, ‘and it was indeed a
beautiful
gift he gave to me!’

Cooper took her hand in his and raised it to his lips brushing a soft kiss across her fingertips as their eyes met and held.

‘I can’t wait to see it! Well, I’ll be downstairs if you need me then, they’re still setting up the flowers in the ballroom and the caterers have arrived with the food for the reception,’ her mother added on a giddy high of happiness, Afton knew, thinking all her dreams for her daughter were about to be fulfilled.

‘There’s a car door slamming – I believe Jason may have just pulled up!’ Afton and Cooper listened with breaths held as her heels clacked over to the window at the end of the hallway.

‘And would you just look at that,’ her mother called out in some disgust, ‘someone has blocked the driveway completely with a red sports car! I swear some people are
so
inconsiderate! I’ll just go see if it belongs to one of the caterers.’

They heard her footsteps start hurriedly back down the hallway headed to the staircase.

Afton glared over at Cooper whose arms were crossed behind his head on the pillow. He lifted his shoulders in an insouciant shrug. ‘Sorry,’ he said, sounding not in the least repentant, ‘I didn’t pay any attention to where I parked – I just wanted to make sure I reached you before you said
‘I do’
.’

‘Well, you certainly did that,’ Afton grumbled, ‘so now what do
we
do? Jason is sure to be up here in minutes after he recognizes your car.’

‘Afton,’ Cooper pushed himself up on his forearm, leaning over to drop a quick kiss on her passion-bruised cherry red lips, ‘did you ever visit the Chillicutt mansion when you were young?’

She looked over at him puzzled, ‘I may have on a field trip in school – why do you want to know that?’

‘I came quite a few times with my grandmother,’ he ignored her question. ‘She used to tell me all about how she and my grandfather would come to grand parties here when they were first married. She loved to come back to the mansion – with me tagging along – to reminisce in a place with so many happy memories of the times she spent here with my grandfather.’