The Rebel (The Millionaire Malones Book 3) Read online

  Cooper laughed, the big hearty laugh that she knew, and it reached right inside her as it always did.

  ‘You know, Maggie, that was …’

  ‘Yeah,’ she said first and turned to him.

  He was looking at her, too. ‘Yeah.’

  In the space between their bodies, his fingers found hers and they gazed at each other, in wordless wonder about what had just happened.

  ‘Thanks, Cooper,’ Maggie finally said, not sure about the words but knowing the sentiment was right. She had so much to thank him for. Tonight, she didn’t feel like a born-again virgin anymore. Or a mom. Or a bedraggled thirty-something shell of a female. She felt like a woman.

  ‘Believe me when I say that the pleasure was all mine.’ He squeezed her fingers and smiled at her, so honest and true and so, so Cooper that it made her eyes water.

  ‘And, Maggie Mac,’ he turned so his body faced her and he draped an arm over her stomach. ‘That is the problem.’

  ‘No problem from where I am, in case you didn’t notice.’

  Cooper smoothed his hand up her stomach, cupped her breast with a gentle squeeze, and then circled a nipple with his index finger. She involuntarily arched her back. It hadn’t been so long since that first orgasm and, if he kept that up, she would be on the brink of another.

  ‘Oh, I noticed.’ Then his fingers walked a trail back down, past her belly button and then down into the curls of her hair. And lower.

  ‘But since it’s been six years, I think we need to increase your average, don’t you?’

  And Maggie let go, and as he slid his fingers into her wet folds, expertly finding her clitoris, she thought of nothing but the fireworks and Cooper and his lips on hers as she rocked and came.

  *

  At three a.m., like clockwork, Maggie woke and this time she left her bed—Cooper’s bed—and returned to the sofa bed in her office. After sex, they’d slipped under the covers and talked for a while, about nothing really, and drifted off to sleep. He’d crashed first and Maggie had watched him as he slept. One arm above his head, the curve of his muscles there round and strong, those golden hairs on his chest catching the light from the open window.

  And the next thing she knew she was wandering the hall in the dark and awake enough to go back to her bed, the one Evan would expect her to be in the next day. Monday. A day in which Evan would be at school and she would be alone with Cooper in the house.

  She tried to think about all the work she had to do the next morning. But all she could think about was Cooper and how he’d blown the lid off her born-again virginity not once but twice. And with a leg still recovering from surgery.

  Which led her to wonder what he’d be like at full strength. Fully fit.

  ‘Mommy!’

  Maggie blinked her eyes open. How could it be light already? Hadn’t she just gone to sleep?

  She didn’t need to see her clock radio to know it was six a.m. Goodbye Little Miss Firecracker. Hello Mom.

  ‘Hey, sweetie. Did you have a good sleep?’

  ‘Cooper’s still asleep. I checked. He’s in your bed. Why are you in this bed and he’s in your bed?’

  Despite being half asleep, Maggie knew the answer to give her son. ‘Because this is my bed while Cooper is staying with us, remember?’ Maggie reached for Evan’s hand and he scampered up on the bed and she drew him close in a cuddle.

  ‘But before I went to Grandma’s you were in your bed with Cooper.’

  ‘I know, right? Now, what about breakfast? Would you like some scrambled eggs?’

  Evan twisted his little head to look into her eyes. His expression was so earnest and little-boyish. God, she loved her little man.

  ‘Does Cooper like scrambled eggs, too? I’ll go ask him!’ And before she could stop him, Evan was racing into the hallway.

  Maggie got out of bed, tugged on some yoga pants and her Foo Fighters T-shirt, humming ‘Everlong’ to herself as she walked to the kitchen.

  It was Monday morning. Normal transmission had resumed.

  *

  The next two days were busy. Evan was in school, Maggie buried her head in her work during the day, and Cooper was feeling well enough to head out the front door for a short walk a couple of times a day. When he was home, he had visits from a physical therapist, or he was on the phone, and occasionally Maggie would lift her head from her screen full of spreadsheets and listen to his voice through the door as he hobbled up and down the hall.

  They hadn’t talked about the sex.

  Which didn’t mean she hadn’t been thinking a whole hell of a lot about the sex, but they’d been clear. It was clearly a one-time thing to break her drought. He’d offered nothing more and she’d asked for nothing else.

  It was unspoken, but they slipped back into being Cooper and Maggie, friends.

  And they had Evan to consider as well, which made it all the more important to be normal with each other. Maggie had her morning routine: taking Evan to school and then settling down to work in her study.

  But now she couldn’t concentrate.

  Cooper was just outside the door. The memory of his lips on hers, of his fingers making her come, of him inside her, was too strong to ignore. It had been two days of politeness but she’d spent every moment craving his touch, as if six years of wanting him had compressed into the past forty-eight hours.

  Maggie pushed back her chair quietly, tiptoed to the door and pressed her ear to it.

  *

  ‘So you’ve set a date for the wedding, you and Ava? That’s great news.’ Cooper hobbled up and down Maggie’s hall as he spoke to his brother Callum, all the way across the ocean he loved in Sydney. He was doing some physical therapy, working his knee, and he walked from the front door, past the closed door to her office, where he paused for a moment, before continuing to the kitchen and back. Over and over.

  ‘Well, almost. We need to know if you can make it back at the end of next month. We’re thinking of the twenty-ninth.’

  That was three weeks away. He had no clue what his knee would be like in three weeks.

  ‘I’ll see what I can do. You know I want to be there, Cal, but I’ll have to talk to Alfie about what’s on my schedule. I’ve been a bit out of the loop the past week since the surgery.’ Since I’ve been living here with Maggie—and since I’ve seen her naked and we’ve had sex—and my brain is a little fried. Cooper shook off the thought. ‘I’m seeing him in a couple days. Can I get back to you?’

  ‘Sure. But Coop? I’m not getting married without my twin brother as my best man. If that date doesn’t work, we’ll think of something else. But can you let me know pronto? I’ve got a bride here, you know what I’m saying? We’re trying to work around a couple of big landscaping jobs she’s got in her schedule.’

  ‘Sure, no problem.’ Cooper stopped outside of Maggie’s door. He wondered what she was doing in there, whether she was still buried in spreadsheets and accounts. She worked too damn hard. And knowing that she had to, that she had no-one else to rely on, cut him up. It always had. And if he went back to Sydney for Callum and Ava’s wedding, he would be leaving Maggie once again to shoulder all her burdens and responsibilities alone. But that was his life, right?

  This time, more than any other time, he realised that going home would mean leaving Maggie and Evan behind in California.

  And that made him wonder. Was Sydney really home to him anymore?

  Something shifted in Cooper’s chest and he put a palm there to quell it. He’d left them before, for months at a time. That’s the way the worldwide surfing circuit worked. It was summer somewhere, all year round, and his life had been planes, baggage carousels, hotels, beaches, waves and podiums. And there had been women. A few. More than a few. He was a grown man—a single man—not a monk. He’d been living that life for a long, long time and it was a good life. It was the best life.

  Or at least it had been.

  In the past few days, something had changed in him. He’d never lived with a woman; hi
s relationships had always been more casual than that. And he’d woken up at six a.m. more than a few times in his life. Catching the best waves meant being up at the crack of dawn, no matter where you were in the world. But he’d never been woken up at six o’clock by a little grommit all excited about scrambled eggs and going to school and watching old cartoons.

  And that night with with Maggie? That was a game changer.

  Cooper looked at her door again. He had the feeling that everything was about to be thrown into the air and rearranged, if it hadn’t already been.

  ‘Coop, you there?’

  ‘Yeah, I’m here.’ Cooper pressed his smart phone to his ear.

  ‘What’s up with you?’ Callum asked with the insight that only a twin understood.

  Cooper leaned against the wall in the hall to take the weight of his bad leg. ‘You know that woman I told you about?’

  Callum laughed. ‘Mary? Madeline? Monique?’

  ‘Maggie. It’s Maggie.’

  ‘Ah, Maggie. That’s right. ‘The friend’—and I say that with absolutely no cynicism whatsoever. The very reason you had to jump on a plane and leave your brothers just a couple of weeks ago.’

  Maggie’s door was closed. ‘Yeah, her.’

  ‘So what’s going on, mate?’

  Cooper gritted his teeth. ‘Things just got complicated.’

  *

  From inside her office, Maggie heard her name. And then the words, loud and clear:

  Things just got complicated.

  She hesitated and knew she should feel guilty about listening in to his conversation, but since he was talking about her, it was her business, right? And what did he mean, anyway, that things had gotten complicated? Was that complicated bad, complicated embarrassing, or complicated good? She didn’t have a minute more to mull it over because there was a pounding knock on the office door.

  ‘Maggie?’

  She waited a beat, so he thought she’d had to get up from her chair, and then opened the door. ‘What’s up?’

  Cooper still had his phone in his hand. He looked her up and down. There was nothing remotely sexy about the light linen pants and the loose white T-shirt she was wearing, but damn it if his eyes didn’t darken.

  ‘I’m sorry to interrupt you.’

  ‘No, it’s all right. You didn’t.’

  He looked over his shoulder at the front door. Was he plotting his escape? What was going on?

  ‘I need to get out of here,’ he announced.

  And her heart clenched in her chest.

  ‘Oh, okay. Look,’ She pulled herself together. ‘I know it’s been a little awkward between us—’

  ‘What?’

  ‘But I’m okay if you are. It was a one-time thing. And we’ve been through enough without letting this …’ she waved a hand back and forth between them, ‘… get in the way.’

  He held up a hand. ‘Whoa. Chill, Maggie. I meant that I need to get out of this house, not away from you. I’m going stir-crazy staring at these four walls. And although they’re nice walls and I appreciate you having me here, I need to get out of here. Let’s go somewhere.’

  ‘But, I’ve got things to finish …’ Maggie said, her forehead crumpling, her hand gripping the door knob.

  Cooper took a hobbling step towards her and reached for her hand. ‘C’mon, Maggie Mac. It can wait, can’t it? My problem is that I’m still not allowed to drive so I can’t escape without you. So either you drive or I may be forced to kidnap you.’

  She laughed. ‘I’d fight back and I’d win.’

  ‘Yeah, you would. C’mon. Let’s go for a drive. Take me to a place where I can see some waves. Even if I can’t get out there at least I’ll be able to smell the ocean and breathe the fresh air.’

  He was trying to make light of it, but she could hear the truth in his words. He was going stir crazy.

  ‘You’re missing the water, huh?’

  He tugged on her hand. ‘Like crazy.’

  She checked her watch. ‘Okay. We’ve got a couple of hours until Evan finishes school.’

  ‘Let’s go.’

  *

  They drove to the place known to locals as Top of the World, up in the hills behind San Clemente. Down below, most of the town was laid out before them, but what Cooper loved most was the big, big sky and the Pacific Ocean as far as the eye could see. It filled his tanks, that sky, and he’d been needing that sustenance.

  Once Maggie parked the car, Cooper got out and stood, and cursed repeatedly under his breath.

  ‘I heard that.’ Maggie had slipped out of her seat and was peering at him over the top of the car.

  ‘Give me a break. I’ve been holding them all in so Evan doesn’t hear anything he shouldn’t. It’s not that satisfying, let me assure you, to say gosh darnit or golly gee.’

  Maggie laughed at his compromises. ‘I appreciate that. Last thing I want is for him to pick up any bad habits from you. I know they’ll come soon enough. I mean, he is a boy and all, but the longer he remains under my thumb the better.’

  Not a bad place to be, he thought on a whim. Under Maggie Mac’s thumb.

  She turned her gaze to the distant ocean. ‘This good for you then?’

  Cooper felt the smile deep down and sucked in a lungful of that clear, salty air. ‘Yeah. Perfect.’

  Maggie walked to the front of the car and climbed up on the hood, put her flat palms behind her and lifted her face to the sun. She fluttered her eyes closed and her silky hair draped down her back. He walked to the front of the car and, using the strength in his arms, pushed himself backwards up next to her.

  This was just about as perfect as you could get. The blue as far as he could see. No-one around. The warm breeze at his back. Maggie next to him.

  ‘Do you miss it? The surfing?’ Maggie asked, turning to face him.

  There wasn’t an answer big enough, so he went with a simple, ‘Yeah.’

  ‘How long until you can get back out there?’

  ‘The doc will be able to tell me more on Wednesday. Not long, I hope.’ He didn’t want to say what his doctor had predicted: that it might be all over.

  If your rehab isn’t successful and, frankly, even if it is, you’ll be in no fit state to ride a skateboard much less a wave. And you’re not a kid anymore, you’re thirty-four. With the knees of someone twice your age.

  ‘Me, too.’

  They sat in companionable silence and savoured the sunshine and the breeze. He reached for her hand. It was warm from the sun, and soft. Her fingers looked small in his. ‘Hey, Maggie Mac?’

  ‘Yeah, Cooper Cooper Cooper?’ She smiled across at him and whoa. Something slam-dunked in his chest.

  ‘I wanted to say … you’ve done a great job with Evan, you know that? Being with you guys like I have been, seeing him, man … he’s a great kid.’

  ‘Thanks, Cooper.’ Maggie tucked her sunglasses on top of her head. ‘He idolises you, you know that.’

  Cooper felt a hard tug at his heart. ‘It’s hard for a kid to grow up without a father in his life. You want someone to be like, want someone to notice all the stuff you do.’

  ‘You didn’t have that?’

  Cooper shook his head. ‘We had lots of money when I was growing up, all the trappings of that kind of life, but my father checked out on us. He was too busy making money to care about his sons. He never came to see me surf, never even took us to the beach. But our mother was … man, she was incredible. She made up for him in a million different ways every day. You remind me of her. The way you are with Evan.’

  He was surprised to see Maggie’s eyes shining with unshed tears. When her bottom lip wobbled he wanted to kiss it.

  ‘I’ve seen you up close, this past week or so. You’re a great mom, Maggie. And I feel so …’ Cooper searched for the right word. ‘I feel like the luckiest man in the world that you let me be a part of Evan’s life. I don’t know if I’ll ever have the chance to settle down and have kids of my own, that whole thing. Not with my
career. But it feels like I’ve got the next best thing.’

  Maggie didn’t say a word. Cooper couldn’t bring himself to say what he wanted to say next: if I can’t have you, Maggie Mac, being friends is the next best thing.

  She squeezed his hand and they sat together in silence, the breeze in their faces and the sun on their skin.

  ‘You know,’ he said finally. ‘I’ve been in and out of the States for what, ten years? And you know what I’ve never done?’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘I’ve never had a milkshake.’

  Maggie laughed. ‘A milkshake?’

  ‘C’mon, isn’t that what you Yanks do on a date?’

  ‘This is a date? I thought this was a jailbreak.’

  Cooper chuckled. ‘If you find a malt shop, I’ll buy you a chocolate shake. Will that make it a date?’

  Maggie laughed so hard she doubled over. ‘Oh, my Aussie friend. You’ve been watching too many Happy Days reruns.’

  Cooper laughed along with her. ‘Or The Peach Pit? Wasn’t that a place?’

  Maggie slid off the hood, shaking her head at him. ‘Get in the car.’

  Chapter Eleven

  ‡

  ‘So tell me—what did the Doc say?’

  Cooper’s manager crossed one leg over the other and regarded his client over the top of his designer sunglasses. They were sitting at an outside table at one of San Clemente’s downtown restaurants on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. Alfie was drinking a beer. Cooper was sipping on water. Not that he didn’t feel like a drink. After the news he’d had that morning, a straight whiskey would barely have touched the sides. The umbrella over the table kept the warm sun off Cooper’s face, but he was still sweating. How could he even begin to process what his doctor had told him that morning? She’d stared at him over the rims of her glasses and her words were direct and clear: It’s worse than I thought. Don’t you dare go anywhere near a surfboard for twelve months, Cooper. Or your career will be over.

  She’d warned him before, but he hadn’t really listened. He was unbreakable, right? He was a world champion, Australian surfer with a hard head and a strong body that had survived all kinds of injuries over the years. He’d always imagined he would go out on his own terms, at a time of his choosing, maybe after he’d hit number one on the pro tour again. Going out on a high, yeah, that was a way better alternative than being forced out of the water by an injury. People would pity him if he ended his career that way, and that was the last goddamn thing in the world he wanted.