The Rebel (The Millionaire Malones Book 3) Page 6

  Maggie sighed with relief. ‘Oh, Mom, that sounds perfect.’

  ‘I’ll be round in an hour.’

  Maggie thanked her mother, ended the call and rubbed the tiredness from her eyes. Evan normally loved spending time with his grandma, and Serena made up for the fact that she was effectively his only grandparent by lavishing the little boy with attention and affection. But things had changed in his world in the past couple of days and now Maggie wasn’t sure how Evan would take the news, given Cooper’s presence. Dragging her son away from his new sleepover friend might be harder than she imagined, but Maggie found her resolve. She needed to go to bed early and get the best night’s sleep she’d ever had, including a rare Sunday sleep-in. Tonight, she could make things easy for her and Cooper by ordering in some take out.

  It sounded like a plan.

  She went to the living room and waited until the end of the cartoon they were watching, then perched herself on one of the sofa’s over-stuffed arms. The credits rolled and Evan tugged on Cooper’s hand.

  ‘Cooper Cooper Cooper. Can we watch another one?’

  Cooper looked up at Maggie with raised eyebrows.

  ‘Actually, Evan,’ she began with her mom voice. ‘Grandma’s invited you over for pizza night and a sleepover. It’s been ages since you’ve seen Muffin and he really needs a hug from you.’ Muffin was Serena’s ginger cat. It was bribery, Maggie knew it, but she was a mom with a plan and sometimes had to use every tool in her tool box.

  Evan’s face fell. ‘But I don’t want to go to Grandma’s. I want to stay here with Cooper.’ Maggie looked down at her son’s face. That pout right there was a gold medal winner.

  Cooper noticed it too, but wisely said nothing.

  ‘I know you do, Evan. Cooper is very cool.’ She tried not to notice the grin that split his face. ‘But Cooper needs to rest, too.’

  Evan crossed his little arms across his chest and pulled his lips together even tighter. His shoulders started to shake and Maggie’s heart wobbled just a little. Cooper looked up at her and could see her indecision.

  ‘That’s true, matey,’ Cooper added quietly as he put an arm on Evan’s shoulder. ‘I know I seem big and tough, but this knee is starting to hurt and I reckon I have to go to bed real early tonight. Like, maybe, five o’clock.’

  Evan sniffed. ‘Five o’clock?’

  ‘Yeah. It’s not fair, is it? I reckon you’ll have way more fun with Muffin than me. Because I’ll be asleep. Snoozing. Counting sheep. Dreaming.’

  ‘What will you dream about?’

  Maggie didn’t want to notice the quick glance in her direction and the dark look in Cooper’s eyes.

  ‘I won’t know that until I wake up, will I?’

  Evan wiped his cheeks. ‘Okay, I’ll go to Grandma’s.’ He hopped off the sofa and with his chin on his chest, dragged his feet to his room.

  Maggie watched him go with a heavy heart.

  ‘He’ll be okay,’ Cooper said quietly.

  ‘Of course he will,’ Maggie said with a sniff of her own.

  ‘Ah, c’mon, Maggie. How many sleepovers has he had at Serena’s? Loads.’

  ‘I know that,’ she murmured as she heaved a big sigh and wiped her eyes with the palms of her hands.

  ‘Shit, Maggie. Don’t cry.’

  ‘I’m not.’

  ‘If I could get up I’d hug you,’ Cooper said quietly.

  She tousled his hair as she walked past him to go help Evan pack. ‘If you did, I’d smack you.’

  *

  The house was strangely quiet without Evan. Serena had picked him up half an hour ago, and Maggie had slipped away into her office to finish her work for the day. While she was studying her spreadsheets, she heard lopsided footsteps in the hallway and the occasional curse word, which made her smile. Cooper was doing as he was told by his doctor and exercising his recovering knee. He was a professional athlete and she knew that his recovery would be methodically laid out for him. On the surface, Cooper may have appeared to be a laconic Aussie, but she knew he’d always been deadly serious about his career.

  He must have gone back to the sofa—or to his bed to lie down—because the cursing and the noises had stopped. Maggie closed up her documents and powered down her computer. She glanced over at the sofa bed and hoped she remembered to get back in it tonight after her middle-of-the-night bathroom break.

  Once was an accident. Twice would start to look like wish fulfilment.

  *

  An hour later, Maggie plonked two pizza boxes on the coffee table and returned from the kitchen with napkins, a wine glass and a bottle of white wine for herself. She set them next to Cooper’s bottle of water and flipped open the lids; the cheesy and delicious aroma made her stomach rumble.

  Without another word, Cooper dived in. He slammed two pieces of Pepperoni together like a sandwich and was munching away in satisfied silence. Maggie grabbed a piece of Hawaiian and devoured it. The creamy mozzarella, the tangy pineapple and the Canadian bacon all combined to hit her tastebuds with a delicious flavour explosion.

  ‘Mmmm,’ she murmured. ‘That is so good.’ She sat at one end of the sofa, Cooper at the other. He’d managed to get his leg up on the coffee table, propped up by pillows.

  Cooper smiled at her between bites. ‘You know the Italians wouldn’t dare put pineapple on their pizzas. It, like, breaks the Italian pizza code or something.’

  ‘Don’t care,’ Maggie mumbled through another bite. ‘Best. Pizza. Ever.’

  Cooper dived in for seconds but instead of grabbing another pepperoni, reached for one of Maggie’s.

  ‘Hey,’ she protested and when she went to slap his hand, he grabbed hers instead.

  Quick as a flash, she reached for his torso with her free hand and jabbed a finger in his armpit.

  ‘Ow,’ he moaned and laughed. ‘You’ve got fingernails.’

  ‘You bet I have. You go for my pizza again and I will forget all about that operation you’ve just had and go for a full frontal attack.’

  ‘Promises, promises,’ Cooper said with a hint of a laugh in that deep voice of his and in his gaze.

  The space between them seemed heavier all of a sudden. Thicker. Maggie averted her eyes and concentrated on her pizza. Her imagination was going crazy, but she couldn’t wish for things that weren’t there.

  They ate in silence until they were done. Maggie took the boxes out to the kitchen, wrapped what was left in plastic wrap for the next day, and returned to the sofa. She was surprised to find Cooper was up on his feet.

  ‘Where’re you going?’ she asked.

  He tensed and shifted his weight. ‘Time for my meds.’

  ‘Oh, right. I can get them for you. Where are they? On the dresser in my room? Er, I mean, your room?’

  ‘Sit down. I can get them. If I sit down anymore today I’m gonna go nuts. And,’ he said as he hobbled off, looking back at her over his shoulder, ‘I have to do something else I don’t think you can help me with.’

  Right. The bathroom. ‘Sure,’ she managed, feeling like an idiot. In his absence, Maggie refilled her wine glass and sipped it, hoping it would take her from nervous to relaxed. It was a treat to just sit and sip her wine. Pity it wasn’t giving her the wine buzz she was after. She checked her watch. It was seven-thirty on a Saturday night. If Evan were here, he’d be in bed, and she’d be alone on this sofa with the remote control in her hand watching the titles roll on a movie. But tonight wasn’t like every other Saturday night. Not by a long shot.

  She looked up when Cooper came slowly back into the room and jumped to her feet. ‘Here, let me help you sit down. The pillows. Let me fluff them.’

  He reached out to rest a hand on her shoulder for balance. ‘I don’t need your help to sit down, Maggie. I’ve been sitting on my butt for thirty-four whole years already.’ Cooper manoeuvred himself down, wincing as he did it, and then glanced at her. ‘What is up with you tonight?’

  ‘Me? What? Nothing. Nothing is up with me.’
>
  ‘You’ve been flighty as a bird since Evan left for your mom’s.’

  ‘Have not,’ she scoffed, looking away from him.

  ‘Have too.’

  ‘Those meds you’re on have got you hallucinating, Cooper.’

  He took a moment to settle comfortably and when he’d found a position that seemed to hurt a little less than all the other options, he propped an arm on the back of the sofa. His fingers grazed her shoulder.

  ‘I know why.’

  ‘You a mind reader now?’

  He tilted his head sideways, regarded her. ‘I know you better than you think. You’re still going over what happened this morning.’

  Maggie bit the inside of her lip. She’d tried not to think about the fact that Evan was gone, and it was just the two of them in her house. She’d tried real hard when she was looking at her spreadsheets that afternoon to concentrate on the numbers and not on the ridges of his abs.

  And she’d tried especially hard not to think about what she now knew was seemingly barely restrained in his shorts.

  Because all of that was a road to nowhere.

  She huffed. ‘I am not thinking about this morning.’

  ‘Oh, yeah, you are.’

  Maggie stared at Cooper, trying to figure out why he was teasing her this way. That look in his eyes? It didn’t feel like safe ground anymore. And if the ground was shifting beneath her feet, she wasn’t sure where she might fall.

  ‘What do you want me to say, Cooper? That I noticed?’

  His hand was on her shoulder. ‘I know you did. The thing is, I’m willing to admit it.’

  She looked up from her lap and her throw pillow. ‘Admit what, exactly, Cooper?’

  He took an edge of the pillow Maggie was hugging and tugged it but she held on tight. ‘I’m willing to admit that I noticed.’

  There was no point asking him what he’d noticed. Her nipples had betrayed her. Damn nipples.

  ‘Yeah, well.’ She reached for her glass and took a gulp of wine. ‘It’s biology, remember? You’re a man and I’m a woman and there are certain physical reactions that happen when you …’

  She gulped again. When you suddenly can’t stop thinking about someone. When you suddenly start wishing for what you can’t have.

  ‘When you what?’

  Maggie turned to glare at him. ‘You want me to say it? Okay, I’ll say it.’ She put her glass carefully down on the table but felt like slamming it. ‘When you haven’t had sex in six years. Six years. Did you hear that?’ Maggie flopped back against the sofa, defeated, and stared at the ceiling.

  ‘Fuck me, that’s a long time.’ Cooper paused, as if he was doing some complicated math in his head. ‘Wait a minute. Six years? That’s when Evan was born. You haven’t had sex since before Evan was born?’

  Maggie bristled at the disbelief in his tone. Like she’d forgotten to brush her teeth for six years or something. Well, screw him. ‘No!’

  ‘But you had a date a year ago. Evan stayed at my house when I’d just got back from Fiji.’

  Maggie stilled. ‘You remember that?’

  ‘Yeah. Of course I do.’

  ‘Well … those two things are not a coincidence, my Aussie friend,’ she huffed. ‘I’ve been a little busy since I became a mom. Too busy to hang out in bars looking for dates. Bars.’ She snorted. ‘What am I talking about? I haven’t been in a bar since …’

  Maggie stopped. Her mind flashed back to that night in Bali. The bar in Kuta. The distorted disco music. The cold beer in her hand. Cooper’s eyes on her. Vance’s hand at the small of her back.

  ‘For a damn long time. Who knows if that’s even where people hang out these days to meet men. How the heck would I know? Everyone’s probably meeting online.’ Her head fell onto the pillow in her lap. ‘It’s been so freaking long, I’ve probably closed over down there!’

  She waited to hear laughter from Cooper but there was none. And he was so close, and there was just the two of them and his fingers were right near her shoulder … she tossed the pillow on to the floor, stood and began to pace. She felt Cooper’s gaze on her as she walked up and down in front of him, between the coffee table and the television, like a demented catwalk model. She couldn’t reveal to him what she’d been thinking.

  ‘C’mon now. I don’t know if that’s physically possible,’ Cooper said, his voice sounding a little strangled. ‘The closing over, I mean. Earlobes close over if you don’t stick an earring in them every so often. I don’t think your pussy is like an earlobe, Maggie.’ He cleared his throat.

  She stopped and propped her hands on her hips. Glared at him. ‘Really? You’re talking about my pussy now?’

  He looked her up and down. Slowly. ‘Fair’s fair. You did see my dick.’

  Maggie bit her lip. Cooper looked her up and down again.

  Neither said a word.

  A moment later, Cooper’s dark look turned into a smile and then a deep rumble bubbled up from his chest. His palms were flat against his stomach and he was laughing so hard he was almost doubled over, his blond hair flopped over his forehead and his sparkling blue eyes were shining.

  There was nothing she could do but join him. And when they were laughed out, Maggie’s sides aching, she snatched up the remote control and started the movie, believing that she’d got away with it.

  *

  A couple of hours later, Maggie lay in bed listening to Cooper shower. They’d finished the movie, sharing a few laughs and groans at the cheesiness of the action blockbuster, and then decided to call it a night. She was listening out to make sure he didn’t need a hand with anything. Although he was putting on a brave face, he was still in pain, which meant everything took a little longer that it normally would have.

  He’d turned off the water and there was a silence before he started singing. His deep voice echoed in the small bathroom and the deep, satisfying sound of it bounced down the hallway to Maggie, tangled in her sheets on her sofa bed in the study.

  She smiled when she realised what it was.

  You broke my will, oh what a thrill …

  Maggie turned off her bedside lamp and exhaled, hoping sleep would come soon. He’d made it in and out of the shower twice, both times on his own and without falling flat on his face or getting somehow stuck, wet and naked and unable to get dressed. Thank God he hadn’t asked for her help to get his shorts on and off.

  Bad idea. Don’t think about him being wet and naked. Oh, how she wished the long slow slide into sleep would come, but she was wide awake when she heard a knock on the door.

  ‘Maggie?’

  ‘Come in.’

  Cooper opened the door and in the dim light from the hallway, she watched him hobble into her room. He came over to the sofa bed and lowered himself on it with a moan and a grimace.

  ‘You okay? Do you need a hand with something?’ Maggie propped herself on her elbows.

  As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she could see he was wearing a towel tied at his waist. She could smell soap and could sense that he was still damp in places she couldn’t see.

  ‘I wanted to say something,’ he started.

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘About your six-year drought.’

  She sighed. ‘What about it?’

  Cooper was close. Leaning down into her personal space kind of close.

  ‘I wanted to tell you something, since you came over all true confessions on me before.’

  Maggie waited. ‘I’m listening.’

  ‘Six months.’ She could tell Cooper was smiling because she could see his white teeth glowing in the dark.

  ‘Six months of what?’

  ‘Me. It’s been six months.’ He took a big breath and then exhaled. Toothpaste. Minty and clean. ‘Six long months since I’ve had sex.’

  ‘Six months?’ she asked in complete surprise. ‘No. I don’t believe that. I’ve seen the way women are with you. All those beach bunnies following you in a trail along the beach like baby ducks waddling after their mo
ther. Didn’t I read that you were dating some minor actress or something?’

  He chuckled. ‘Don’t believe everything you read, Maggie.’

  ‘Why are you telling me this? You trying to make me feel better or something?’

  ‘Well, yeah. Six months actually feels like six years when you’re a bloke, Maggie.’

  ‘What makes you think I haven’t missed it? Because I have. I so have.’ And if they continued to talk about sex for one more second, she might explode.

  ‘Listen, Maggie.’ He ran a hand over his chin. ‘I’m sure you have. And what I wanted to say was, while it may have been a long time between drinks for you, it’s not because you’re not an amazing woman, you know that?’

  She could sense he was trying to be nice but she wasn’t in the mood to take nice. She didn’t want any of that, oh but you’ve got a lovely face kind of reassurance that, no matter how well meant, always turned out to be completely patronising and cruel. ‘Oh, please.’

  ‘It’s true. It kills me to have you thinking that it’s all because of you.’

  ‘Oh.’ This was the strangest pep talk she’d ever had from Cooper. She usually got the “Toughen up, don’t be a princess” kind of teasing from him. Especially in front of Evan.

  ‘I’m not jerking your chain. You are incredible. Smart. Cute.’

  ‘You think I’m cute?’ That had never been the look she was going for.

  His voice sounded kind of strangled. ‘Okay, you’re gorgeous.’

  She huffed. ‘Gorgeous sounds so much better than cute.’

  ‘And, you know, the fact that you haven’t had a man in your life—’

  ‘Or in my bed, you mean.’

  ‘—for six years is about circumstance and timing. And the fact that this town must be filled with men who are completely blind. You’ll meet that guy one day. I know you will.’ He moved a little. ‘The way we left things before … I didn’t want you to think I was laughing at you. Because I wasn’t.’

  ‘Okay,’ Maggie said.