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Siena had left that meeting with a new job as her sister’s official teacher and a cheap tote—one of those made of recycled soda bottles, this one with the NEA logo on it—full of booklets, pamphlets, and a few actual books on homeschooling.
Then, after a quick text exchange with Geneva to make sure everything was okay, she headed to the casino for a full shift at the Andante. Having no other choice, she’d changed into her uniform at work, but no one had seen her do it, thankfully—nor had anyone been around when she’d changed back into street clothes.
At home, all had been well. Geneva’s assignments were done, and her chores as well. She’d fixed herself toast and jam for breakfast, a banana and some wafer cookies for a snack, and a ham sandwich and some baby carrots for lunch, and tidied up after. Now, she was painting her little gaming figures. She still planned to help Mrs. Jones with the D&D club.
Siena’s relief at discovering that the day had gone well, and that her sister was already much calmer and more content, had had the ironic effect of making her feel almostpanicky. Like all the stress she’d been trying to hold off so she could do the things she needed to do had crashed on top of her head all at once. Now she was exhausted and shaky and—why was she standing on Cooper’s doorstep again?
The door was swinging open; Siena pulled her thoughts back to the present and remembered why she was here.
And then her brain promptly emptied again when it opened enough to reveal Cooper. He’d obviously just had a shower; he stood there in nothing but a pair of faded Levi’s, the button fly only half closed. His almost-black hair was wet, and a black towel was hooked over his neck.
She sucked in a breath, and with it the scents of soap and shampoo. Shit, she could even feel the humid warmth of his skin.
“Hey. Hi,” he said with a smile.
It just wasn’t fair that he looked like that. Why did he have to look like that?
It had been a lot easier when she didn’t like him. Then, she could admire his body and add a big, fat BUT to it: yeah, he was hot as hell, BUT he was a massive party-boy asshole, so really, with the five-point personality deduction, he was only a five.
Now, however, she knew he wasn’t a massive asshole but a decent guy who’d saved her ass a few different ways, including literally saving her ass. It was still possible he was a party boy; she hadn’t seen enough evidence either way on that point, but he was definitely not an asshole.
Now he was hot as hell without a personality deduction, so he was a fucking ten. Maybe a nine, if he was a party boy, but still.
He was dangerously hot, was the point. So much so that her brain kept trying to forget that her body didn’t do sex anymore. Even now, actually wanting him, she couldn’t say she was physically turned on by him. She’d always needed nipple play to really get into sex, and without nipples or the promise of that feeling, barely even the memory of it, her body stood before Cooper in all his glory and was just ... there.
Her head, however, was all in—five senses and her whole brain, all working in concert to really appreciate that beautiful burnished bronze skin, the firm contours of his muscles, the quality of his ink, the wide set of his shoulders and the narrow fit of his hips. The way the only hair on his torso was a perfect happy trail, a thin band of black leading down from his navel into his jeans, widening to a delta of delight as it disappeared behind his partly open fly. God, she missed sex.
Stop, stop, stop,she told herself.
“You okay?” Cooper asked, and she realized she had yet to speak, was standing here eye-fucking him. Rude.
She blinked. “Yeah, sorry. A lot on my mind.”
“Everything good with Geneva? I told her she could come over if she needed anything. I hope that’s okay.”
Geneva hadn’t said anything about it. How much did he know? “You did?”
“Yeah. When I got home, she came out and asked me to open a jar for her. She told me you pulled her out of school.”
Rifling through her mental files, Siena tried to remember how much she’d told him about Geneva’s stuff. She wasn’t totally sure, but at least he knew about the shit with Jayce, Henry, and Luis, so ... “Yeah. There was a lot of stuff going on, and she was really unhappy. I just couldn’t force her anymore.”
He nodded. “I get it. When I’m home and you’re at work, I can check in with her. If you want. Not to meddle, just ... to be a grownup if she needs one, I guess.”
“Thank you. I really did misjudge you.”
His grin broke wide. “That’s what I keep saying. Hey,” he took a step back. “You need something? You want to come in?”
A bloody battle rose up in Siena’s chest. So many competing impulses, so many questions and desires she could hardly name them all. But their commanders were her need of a friend and her growing affection for this man, and on the other side, the salty old general of her suspicion and need to keep danger at bay.
“I ... don’t know. I came over to see if we could talk about setting up some training, if you’re still willing to do that, but ... you just had a shower and I obviously interrupted you getting dressed.”
Probably to go out for the evening. On a date. With a woman who had all her parts.
“Everything’s covered that would get me arrested if I showed it in pubic. I’m good. And I’ve got some time. We can talk now—hell, if you want, we can train a little, like an intro or whatever. You’re dressed for it.” He gestured vaguely at her yoga pants and t-shirt, which was basically her at-home uniform.
“You just had a shower,” she said again as she called a truce in her chest and stepped into Cooper’s house.
He closed the door and turned to her, still smiling. That grin had its own magnetic field. “And if you get me sweaty, I can take another one.”
