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“Hardly,” she said as she rubbed her cheek against his chest.
The sound of his heartbeat was soothing and rhythmic. There was something strong and comforting in listening. She could feel herself drifting back off to sleep as his breathing deepened and slowed.
When she next opened her eyes, she was still curled up in Coop’s arms with her head on his chest. The slow, regular beating of his heart and breathing told her that he too slept—seemingly at peace with the world. The fire was dying and as she thought to move from her comfortable spot to stoke it, his arms tightened around her. He opened one eye, smiled at her and then closed it again, drifting back off to sleep.
The fireflies in her belly took flight. She knew many people described that feeling as butterflies, but Anabella thought butterflies too delicate. Fireflies seemed stronger and warmer, and that was the way he made her feel: stronger, warmer and aroused. She most definitely felt aroused when she was with Coop.
She wondered again how it could be that someone as gorgeous as Coop had fallen for her. She wasn’t putting herself down, but the next swimsuit model she wasn’t, although Anabella thought he’d look great in a tiny speedo, but feared certain parts might not fit.
Anabella managed to get turned around so that instead of lying her back to his front, they were facing one another. The movement seemed to be just enough to disturb his slumber and like a great dragon waking from a thousand-year sleep, he opened both eyes to stare deeply into hers as a small smile played around his lips.
“Good morning, gorgeous,” he said softly, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly.
“Do I ever make you nervous?” she asked as the question popped into her mind.
“Nervous? No. Angry, aroused and amused—most definitely. The only worry or fear I have is that as someone got around our security measures out at the lake they will do so again, and I won’t have time to get you out.”
She leaned up and kissed him. “Funny. I don’t worry about that at all.”
Anabella could see the toll this was taking on him. Perhaps combining lover and client wasn’t the best idea, but that decision had already been made, and there seemed no way to take it back.
CHAPTER17
COOPER
The delicate nibbling on his lips was a delicious way to start the day. Lazily he began to caress her in return as his body came online and he kissed her back. He knew there were a lot of tasks ahead if he was going to get them through this and on to the rest of their lives, but at the moment, none of that mattered. All that mattered was her—Anabella. She had become everything to him, and he vowed to keep her safe no matter the cost.
Anabella pulled back without warning, breaking not only the connection between their lips and tongues, but their bodies, as well. The look on her face was perplexed, annoyed and frightened.
“What is it, baby?”
“Somebody tried to kill me…”
“That’s not exactly a new experience at the moment.”
She pulled further away. “It’s not funny. And I see a big difference between someone taking a shot at me and someone blowing up an entire cottage. Since we didn’t use the same SUV we used to get to the cottage, can I assume they blew up the SUV, as well?”
“No. We think they probably had an incendiary device rigged to the SUV, but when the cottage exploded, it took the SUV with it.”
“How can you be so blasé about it?”
“Because we’re still alive. Nobody got hurt.”
“But they could have been.”
“But they weren’t,” he persisted. “We’re safe here.”
“I might point out you said the same thing back at the cottage, and that didn’t work out so well.”
“It did. We’re still alive.”
“But someone is still trying to kill me, and I’m having to live in a house full of men—most of whom I don’t know and with a man who is into an alternative lifestyle and with whom I’ve started some steamy affair.” She managed to get up off the sofa. “When does my life get back to normal?”
“Do you really want normal?”
“Yes. I fucking do want normal. I’m not built for this clandestine life on the run. I want to go back to my loft. I want to go back to my things. I want to walk down to my coffee shop and have something sweet and gooey and completely unhealthy.”
Coop rolled up off the couch, groaning as he did so. Sometimes it took the part that had been broken or badly wounded a bit more to get moving than the rest of his body.
