Page 73 of Cooper’s Passion

“All right. We won’t tell him yet. But just so you know, I will not spend the night without you in my arms.”

She leaned closer, her lips only an inch away from his. “Nor will I.”

“I’ll tell Wesley to give him the guestroom at the other end of the hallway, so he won’t hear us.”

He’d barely finished his sentence, when his mouth was on hers, and he was kissing her deeply, his tongue dancing with hers, their breaths mingling, while he thrust his groin against her, one hand on her ass to press her closer.

Within a second, Anita lost all coherent thought and didn’t even know where they were. Cooper’s kiss and touch were all-consuming, and if they’d had time, she wouldn’t have objected to him taking her in this storage room, her back pressed against a filing cabinet, while he thrust his cock into her. But they didn’t have the luxury of time.

Reluctantly, she freed her lips from his and pressed her forehead to his, breathing hard. “You’d better make those phone calls…”

Cooper breathed raggedly. “Yeah, I’d better.” He took her hand and pressed it over his fly, where his cock was already hard and big. “And later, I need you to take care of this for me.”

“Oh,” she murmured, squeezing him through the fabric. “That’ll be my pleasure.”

He slid his other hand between her thighs and rubbed over her pussy, making her gasp. “And it’ll be mine when I take care of you.”

* * *

The sun had already set,when they reached Scanguards’ headquarters in the Mission. Cooper had made phone calls to arrange for everybody necessary for the sting to assemble in one of the smaller conference rooms on the first floor, just opposite the H lounge. He’d also notified Wesley that Anita’s father would be staying with them until the killer was caught, and not to let it slip in front of Sheriff Diaz that Cooper and Anita were lovers. He would find out soon enough.

“This way,” Cooper said, ushering Anita and Sheriff Diaz into the conference room.

Inside, several vampires were waiting for them. Cooper was pleased to see Samson among them. As the founder and owner of Scanguards, Samson had many responsibilities, yet he was always ready to jump in where he was needed most. Cooper made the introductions.

“José, Anita, this is my boss, Samson Woodford. Scanguards is his company. Samson, these are Sheriff José Diaz and Anita Diaz from the Elko County Sheriff’s Department.”

As Samson shook hands with the guests, Cooper noticed Sheriff Diaz peruse Samson, before looking at the others assembled in the room. Was he wondering why everybody looked so young? Even Samson, who was well over 250 years old looked like he was in his early to mid-thirties.

“It’s a pleasure,” Samson said and turned to introduce the other vampires in the room. “Have you met Cooper’s parents yet? Yvette and Haven Montgomery.”

They greeted each other, before Cooper introduced Orlando, a massive vampire who could scare the shit out of anybody. Next to him stood Zane, the bald vampire who had a decidedly mean streak, even though he’d softened over the years, thanks to his mate, Portia. Amaury, Samson’s best friend and a director at Scanguards, was almost as big as Orlando, and nobody would guess that he was tightly wrapped around his mate Nina’s little finger, and that he was like a big soft teddy bear when in the company of Nina.

“Meet Orlando Carlisle, Zane Eisenberg, and Amaury LeSang. They’ll all be taking part in the sting.” Cooper motioned to the large table for everybody to sit down.

“Luther is joining us later,” Haven announced.

“Good,” Cooper said. “Then let’s start. We’ve got a lot to discuss to bring everybody on the same page. And we have to pick the right spot where to set the trap.”

“Yeah, about that,” Diaz interjected. “No offense, but San Francisco is a large city. How are you gonna figure out where he’s gonna show up?”

Cooper looked at Diaz, then at Anita, who sat next to him, close enough to touch. But he refrained from doing so. “We’ve been working with our IT team to run Janet’s photo and the suspect’s sketch through facial recognition. We’re cross-referencing this with sightings of white vans and—”

“There must be hundreds if not thousands of white vans,” Diaz interrupted.

It wasn’t difficult to guess that Diaz wasn’t keen on his daughter playing bait, and that he was trying to pick the plan apart so Anita wouldn’t be put in the path of the killer.

“José, you need to trust us,” Cooper said. “We know what we’re doing. We have decades of experience dealing with cases like this.”

“Decades?” Diaz shook his head. “If anybody has decades of experience, it’s me. Look at yourselves: you’re barely out of college.”

He gestured to the others in the room, breathing hard, clearly readying himself for coming up with more protests, when Anita put her hand on his forearm.

“Dad, please. Let them explain what they’re trying to do. This is not their first rodeo.”

“Well, it sure looks like it.”

Cooper exchanged a look with Samson.

Samson nodded. “Sheriff Diaz, let me assure you that Chief Donnelly would have never assigned us this case if he didn’t think we could handle it better than the SFPD. You’ve met Mike. He’s a very level-headed man, and he trusts us. I hope you can too.”

Before he could respond, there was a knock on the door, and it opened. Vanessa popped her head in.

“Sorry to disturb you, guys,” she said with a smile. “Anita, you wanna come with me? We need to get you ready.”

“Doing what?” Anita said with a surprised look on her face.

Cooper turned to her. “They’ll put a wire on you, and put you in the right outfit.”

“All right,” Anita said. “But won’t you need me here?”

“I’ll catch you up on the operation just as soon as we’ve decided on where and how to run this,” Cooper assured her, leaning in, ready to give her a kiss on the cheek, when he stopped himself in mid-movement. “Uhm, so, take your time with Vanessa.”

Anita rose. Her father put his hand on her forearm. “You can still change your mind.”

She shook her head and leaned down to him, kissing him on the cheek. “I have to do this, Dad.”

She pivoted, and followed Vanessa out of the room.