AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Eleven
Aziza
Where the hell do you get off! I paced back and forth, fuming as I glared at the live stream of Coop looking oh-so smug as he waited for me to be delivered to him like a present.
Why did he have to be so fucking handsome when he had the upper hand?
Cocky bastard. I hope a shark does take a bite out of you.
He relished being stubborn. Getting him to budge on the ludicrous idea of my accompanying him to the dive site would be impossible unless I at least spoke to him.
But talking wasn’t what kept flashing through my mind when I looked at him.
How could I be turned on by such an annoying man? I shouldn’t be attracted to him at all. He’d blown me off. In spectacular fashion, no less. This was exactly why I hadn’t wanted to see him.
Dear Lord!How was I going to go through with…
Killing him, Zee. That’s what you’ll have to do…
I still hadn’t revealed my suspicions to Scott Hayes, Director of I&A. With most of Marco’s inner circle taken out, the cartel would have to rebuild in order to come at us. It gave me much-needed time to figure out if Coop truly had been responsible for the Alvarez hits.
If?
How could I still have doubts? When I’d found Coop he’d been holed up in some village with an Amazonian shaman nursing his wounds just a few miles downriver from where Alvarez’s hideout had been decimated. He’d insisted on bringing his own team, of sorts. Then proceeded to delay the job several days while harboring a potential fugitive. Granted all intel pointed to Nik and Thea’s connection being completely coincidental and she’d turned out to be on the side of good, but I’d run out of red flags to raise.
I headed down the corridor, eager to get this over with.
I found Coop pushed away from the conference table. He leaned back in his chair with his legs spread, looking like he was waiting for a lap dance. While his large body didn’t fill the room, his presence certainly dominated it.
Too bad. The war room was mine to rule.
In the same way I’d cue one of my stallions to charge into battle, I clenched my abs and drove my hips forward. With a straightened spine, I strode purposefully toward Coop as if my heart weren’t punching straight through my skin.
I tried to keep my view blurry by looking through him, not at him. And it worked well until a loud clank behind me signaled the vault door locking shut. I’d heard it latch hundreds of times, but this time the shock of the metal bolt sliding into place jolted through me. My stare sharpened, fastening onto his deep blue eyes. They didn’t hold the anger, or fear, as I was sure mine did. Instead they lured me in closer, making me thankful for the solid conference table between us.
He tilted his chin and quirked his upper lip. I prayed he wouldn’t smile. Those dimples of his stole my breath and made me stupid.
My heart jumped at the sudden loud rapping of his knuckles on the table.
“Knock. Knock.” The gravelly rumble of his voice, unobstructed by technology, strummed across my nerve endings. The vibrations fluttered in my stomach. My starved heart ached to leap into his hands.
Dear Lord!I was nowhere near prepared for this.
I eyed him with the same caution I’d give any wild carnivore. “Who’s there?”
“Vivi said I had to knock to get you to come. Did it work, Presh?”
I swallowed and flashed him an exasperated grimace, hoping my sensitivities to all things Michael Cooper wouldn’t show. I brushed off the innuendo in his question, trying to keep things professional when I felt anything but. “You did more than knock, but here I am.”
The fact my voice came out as clear as it did was a miracle.
“Here. You. Are,” he drawled. His eyes made a languid descent, dropping below my belt. I felt naked, despite wearing tan breeches and riding boots. “And yet you’re still so far away. Aren’t you going to come closer, Presh?”
I hadn’t actually decided whether to stand, sit, or run for my life. I could barely keep his wicked grin, or the endearment I loved so well, from rocking the walls I was fighting to keep up.
His voice lowered just enough for it to lose the toying quality that always clung to it. “Have a seat.”
Figuring sitting would be far less sexually charged than my other options, I moved forward. Fingers twitching, I took hold of my seat back, but Coop tsked me. “Eh eh eh. Not there.”
