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Fuck yes.
She was turning everything about me upside down.
But I wasn’t going there. Because I knew Rowan, and the moment I admitted anything, we would be neck-deep in that conversation, and there would be no way out.
It was best and easiest to avoid that topic altogether.
“Yeah, this project.” I took a long drink and signaled to the bartender that I needed a refill. “You heard what the architect said today about the soil. Do you know what’s going to happen if the shoreline erodes due to the weight of the hotel and it turns out that we can’t build here and this entire purchase is for nothing?”
“Then, we’ll just find another lot of land to buy.”
I stared at her as though she’d suddenly grown two heads. “I’m not surprised you say it like that. Because you don’t know the business and how long Walter has dreamed for a hotel on this lake. And how difficult it’ll be to unload a piece of land this size when we’ll have to disclose that the lot can’t hold a certain amount of weight, which means it’s going to take a particular buyer—basically a buyer who doesn’t fucking exist.”
She turned her body fully toward me. “I’m surprisedyousay things likethat. Because I’ve spent twenty-nine years of my life hearing my father speak nonstop about this business, and it’s monopolized every conversation I’ve ever had with him regardless of how old I was or how involved I was with the business. Every waking hour that I was with Dad after myparents got divorced was spent at the office. We didn’t go to the park, we went to the mailroom. We didn’t go to Disney, we went to the copy machine. I napped as a child on the couch in the break room. From my earliest memory, my entire life revolved around Cole International, it never revolved around us kids.” Her teeth stabbed the very bottom of her lower lip until she pulled it free. “Please, Cooper, take your assumptions elsewhere. I know hotels as well as I know clothes, and for you to even doubt that is insulting.”
I nodded—that was all I could do.
Because the fire inside that stunning woman had rendered me fucking speechless.
“Listen, you can dig me all you want for soil and erosion. Admittedly, what’s beneath the ground and what laps the shoreline are not my strong suits. But don’t question my work ethic or love for this company in any roundabout way. You won’t find anyone more loyal or dedicated than me.”
I wasn’t going to bring it up.
I fucking wasn’t.
But her last comment was the perfect introduction, and I just couldn’t stop myself.
“You call yourself loyal,” I started. “But what would Ridge and Rhett think about what happened between us?” I held my glass in the air, needing it closer to my lips than when it was sitting on the bar. “And Ray? What the hell would he say?” Before she could even think of replying, I added, “Put yourself in their shoes, Rowan. Consider the past our families have had and the current relationship between the seven of us. The Coles and Spades aren’t hanging on by a string, we fucking despise each other. Anything, even something minor, would implode our entire organization.” I paused, letting those pieces settle. “So, what would it do to your side if they knew I’d fucked their sister?”
“You say it like it was dirty.”
My eyes narrowed in on her lips. “What we did in this hotel and what I did to your body for three consecutive nights—it was fucking dirty.”
She glanced away, nursing her drink, looking as though she was deep in thought. “I’m the peacemaker. I’d make it right.”
“You’re saying they’d have a problem with it?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice was so quiet.
“Which means they’d have a problem with it.”
She moved her hair to her other shoulder, freeing up the space around her neck and collarbone, where her sweater had fallen to the side, teasing me with the softness of her skin.
The delicateness.
Both triggered such strong memories in my head.
“My brothers are extremely protective of me. Neither of them is a fan of your family, so I don’t think they’d be thrilled. But they also love me and want me to be happy, even while they’re being overprotective.” She stalled. “What I’m trying to say is that opinions can be changed, Cooper. Different ideas can be accepted, it just takes time.”
“You’re telling me their opinion wouldn’t stop you?”
Her brows rose. “No, it wouldn’t stop me.”
I was getting in deeper than I’d intended.
I needed to back up.
“Do you want to know why?” she asked.
