Stilettos & Scoundrels (27 page)

“Listen, Presley,”
Cooper said, grabbing my
arm none too gently as if to make a point, but not forcefully
enough to piss me
off. “You shouldn’t be sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

I
shrugged
off
his grip. This was not t
he circumstance under which I wanted him to be touching me, and I
sure as hell wasn’t going to let him te
ll me
what to do. “You’re not supposed to be investigating this either. Unless th
ings have changed recently,” I said, glaring at him, my
arms still feeling warm where he touched
me
. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. “Since you still are, then I guess I can too.
”

“Is that why you’re dressed like this?” he asked. “Is this supposed to be a disguise?”

“What’s wrong with the way I look?”

“You look ready to attend a luncheon to plan this year’s garden show
.
”
Cooper laughed while looking me
up and down. “Baby, not your best look.”

“Don’t ‘baby’ me! Like it
matters to you what I wear.” I
sai
d, secretly happy he noticed. I wished I
had said to hell with trying to dress to please the ladies of this town and had something more presentable (a.k.a. sexy) on be
sides khaki. But how was I to know I
would run into
Cooper
like this?

“I get paid to be observant. And I would always notice what you
’
r
e
wearing,” he said, huskily, looking
me
up and down. “
…
Or not wearing.”

I
shivered, feeling a heat that surge
d
th
rough my whole body and I quickly realized the khaki I
had on didn’t really matter.
Cooper
’s look was doing things to
me I
hadn
’t expected. This was not in my
plans, but…to hell with plans. Rick always told
me I
should be more spontaneous. Mayb
e I
sho
uld start taking his advice. I chuckled to myself because I
wasn’t sure this was what Rick had in mind.

“What’s so funny?”
Cooper
asked as he reached out
and traced the pearls around my throat with his finger. I
sharply inhaled as his touch felt electric. It
was
feather light and sensuous
, and I
didn
’t want it to stop. It made me
want to feel his touch even mor
e. As he drew his hand back, I
leaned
ever so slightly toward him. I couldn’t help it. I
looked at him, trying to decipher what he was thinking.

“Will you please leave this to the professionals?”
Cooper
said, breaking the connection like it was nothing.
I
looked at him, eyes narrowed, wondering if he did it on purpose or if he wasn’t feeling the connection
at all
.
No, that wasn’t possible; he had to feel it. He started it
. An
d he made that comment about my
outfit. Plus, who wouldn’t want
me
? In fact, he should feel lucky to be this close to
me
.
Maybe he was just afraid of where it might be headed. Yes
, I
nodded,
that definitely had to be it.

“
Dirt told me what happened,” I
said, annoyed as hell. Fear or no fear, who did he think he was?

Cooper looked at my
questioningly and then smiled.
He knew what he was doing to her and that she was trying to distract him. He knew the effect he had on her and was enjoying every minute of it.

“About what happened between you two?”
I
brought this up to get the focus off how much elec
tricity was flowing between us
right now. While it worked, the look of hurt on his face, althoug
h fleeting, made me almost wish I
hadn’t brought it up. There was definitely some unresolved business between those two.

He tensed up for a minute and then slowly relaxed as if to think carefully about what he was going to say next. “Why?”
Cooper asked. “What was Dirt thinking?”

“I asked him, well, actually, I badgered the hell out of him. I was curious why you two used to be such good friends and now can’t seem to be in the same room with each other.”

“It’s none of your business, Presley. It really doesn’t matter now anyway.”

“Why didn’t you ever try to convince him that you were innocent?”

Cooper looked at me
with surprise. “What do you mean?”

“C’mon, I don’t believe for a minute that you had anything to do with selling drugs. That’s not you. It’s not who you are
…o
r who you
were
. I guess I don’t really know who you are today, but I knew who you were back then, or at least I think I did. I don’t know who you were covering for or why
, but
the core of who a person is doesn’t change
.” I
shrugged
,
not even knowing if any of that made sense
.
“
B
ut, I figure you must have had a good reason or you wouldn’t have done what you did.”

“Too bad Dirt didn’t have the same faith in me. What makes you so sure?”

“I’m not sure
.
”
I
shrugged. “You should talk to him,
Cooper
. It’s not too late. Good friends are hard to come by.”

Cooper
r
eached to caress the back of my neck and drew me
clos
e to him, his lips touching mine
, softly
at first, then more deeply. I
started to melt and enjoy him for a minute and then was the on
e to break away. I needed to give my
self a break
from his intoxicating kiss. I couldn’t allow my
self to be sidetr
acked and, boy, he could get me
off track in a minute. Not to mention
that I
still wanted to ask why he was such a jerk after that night
,
but now was not the time. Plus, it was somewhat embarrassing
that I
even
still
cared.

“Before I forget, Betty did tell me something useful. She said that Mabel Winters’ daughter’s son, Victor, saw the Senator in Vegas arguing with some men. I already heard that maybe he had a gambling problem, so thi
s could be a real lead,” I
said, willing to give up some information to get things back to th
e matter at hand and to get my
mind off kissing
Cooper
. Not to mention to see if he said anything about being there with the Senator.
”But you already know all that.”

Cooper
’s eyes danced, showing
he didn’t think for a minute I stopped our
kiss because
I
didn’t want to forge
t this information. He pulled me
close and trie
d to kiss me
again.

“We can talk about that later, King.”

“No,” I
pushed him away and God it was hard.
I
wan
ted to kiss him, but he made me mad, trying to get me
off the subject
of the murder and assuming I wanted to continue our kiss. Though, who was I kidding? I
was more than a willing participant,
but he needed to learn that I did things on my
own te
rms, whether it was good for me
or not.
I
liked being in control, to the detriment of many relationships.

“Pres…”

“Don’t ‘Pres’ me,” I
said hotly. “Don’t think you can have your cake and eat it too. If you won’t work with me in this investigation, the
n you can’t kiss me either.” I
stepped back, arms crossed defiantly
,
wanting to add ‘so there!’, but fe
eling
that to be a little childish.

Cooper
groaned and looked a
t me as if I was
crazy. He leaned back against the car, running his hand through his hair. “Fine. I know he had an issue with gambling too, but I don’t have hard evidence
,
and until I do
,
there isn’t much I can do
about it
.”

I
was somewhat miffed
that
he
had
g
i
ve
n up so easily. My
ego demanded
that he not want to give up. I wanted him to want me, so then I
could turn him down. Was that too much to ask?
I
needed another muffin.

“Isn’t there a way to check it out? Don’t you have connections or something?”

“It’s not that easy. You don’t just call up the casinos and ask them if a certain Senator owed money. I do have a couple friends that work out there. Maybe they can do some nosing around.”

“Speaking of being nosey, how did you get into the securi
ty business, Koop?” I
knew this was a bit off topic, but
I
had been curious since becoming reacqua
inted with him. It’s not what I
would have expected him to do.

He looked at me
with surprise at this quick change in topic. A few seconds went by and h
e didn’t say anything. I
started to become distracted again by his lips and
by
remembering how
nice that kiss had been, so I
asked again.

“That’s not important, Presley. I will check on the casino angle, but only if you promise to stay out of this.”

I
looked at him. He looked back and
sighed, resigned to the fact I was going to do as I
pleased and
that
he wasn’t going to
be able to stop me
.

“Fine, but
at least
quit bugging the town ladies or you’ll regret it.”

“Why? What are you going to do about it?”

“I’m not the one you have to be worried about. Your mother is.” He tapped
me
on the nose and turned to leave.
Oh, crap! He was right.
If
he had already heard about my visit to the library, so had my
mother. He’s lucky, because if he hadn’t reminded
me about what I was sure to face when I got home, I
would have been livid about the tap on the nose thing.
Seriously, what the hell was that all about? How do you go from a passionate kiss to a tap on the nose?
What...did he think of me a
s a Cocker Spaniel?

“Oh
,
by the way,” he turned back around. “If a reporter named Lisa Simmons comes sniffing around you wanting information, do me a favor and don’t talk to her.”

“I saw her at La Casa the other night
,
but why?”

“Because the last thing I need, or the police
need
for that matter, if more
nosey females poking around.” I stuck out my
tongue at his back as he walked away.
Jerk! Shit.
I slapped my forehead. I
forgot to ask him if he was with the Senato
r in Vegas. At least it gave me
a good excuse to call him later.

“Dam
n
it all!”
I
muttered to
my
self as
I
took a corner too fast in
my
haste to get to Katy’s.
I
was already over an hour late,
and coffee sloshed out of the styrofoam cup of coffee I
picked up for Katy as a peace offering. Oh well. It just added to the other numerous coffee stains on
my
upholstery
that I
kept meaning to have cleaned. That’s one of the main reasons
I
had a black car –
I
didn’t want to spend time and money cleaning it all the time and black hid a lot. Maybe
I should try it with my
clothing.
My
soft pink shrug, paired with a white camisole and grey cargo pants, had some of the same c
offee on it that was also on my
upholstery. No
w I
would have to incur a dry cleaning bill
I couldn’t afford
because
the shrug was cashmere purchased on sale from Filene’s
B
asement
—not something I
could afford to buy again.
I
would just hope
the stain
came out.