In the past seventy-two hours, I’d seen Cooper shirtless and gorgeously bed-headed. I’d kissed him and folded myself along the length of his warm body as he held me against his chest. I’d stood still while my heart thumped wildly and my blood sang in my veins as he traced a trail with his lips down to the place between my legs.
What did it say about me that I’d never wanted him more than I did right now, as he sat still and compliant while I ministered to the nasty cut on his forehead?
Probably more than I cared to find out. Maybe it was a good thing I couldn’t afford the years of therapy it would take to understand why I was practically shivering with need as I gently dabbed the trickle of blood away from his blue, blue eyes. Besides, finding out why I loved him like this - vulnerable and needing me - would ruin the magic of it. “What happened?” I wondered as he hissed in a sharp breath.
He closed his eyes. He had such black lashes they almost didn’t look real. “I found a stream,” he sighed.
I narrowed my eyes. “You did what?”
“For us.” He opened his eyes. “For you. To wade in.”
My racing heart suddenly stumbled, then thumped even harder. He had to be hearing it. His head was close - so close - to my chest. “You did?”
He nodded. “But there were all these branches in the way… I didn’t want you to get hurt…”
Shocked gratitude clogged my throat, sending me into a coughing fit. Cooper watched, amused, as I ran to the sink to gulp water from the tap.
“Easy now,” he chuckled.
I choked and then wiped my mouth with my good hand. Nagging was easier than saying how I really felt. “It’s raining like crazy out there, what were you thinking?”
“I was thinking about going wading with you.”
“So you went out in the rain with a hatchet?”
He was silent.
“Seriously?” I snatched up the cloth and wrung it out in the sink, then went over to him again. He hissed as I pressed it to his forehead. “Hold still.”
“You’re enjoying this,” he observed. “Stop using your left hand though.”
“Stop talking for one second of your life.”
He rolled his eyes. “Getting to yell at someone while also overdoing it when you should be resting? This is like catnip to you. Ow!”
“I told you to stop talking.”
He dutifully shut his mouth. I thought that would help. But his silent, watching eyes were worse. “This could get infected easily,” I babbled. “It needs to be covered.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?” I definitely wasn’t expecting that.
“If it’ll make you happy.” He finally lowered his eyes, but somehow it was worse. “I like it when you’re happy.“
“No you don’t.” Even as I said it, I knew I was a liar. He’d gone out into a drenching downpour just to make it possible for me to do something I’d vaguely wished for. My words felt like ash in my mouth, and I couldn’t swallow anymore.
Especially not when he said, “Yeah. I do.”
I was still dabbing, dabbing, even though the blood was all cleaned. When his fingers closed around my wrist, soft, but strong, it was with such a purpose, I nearly passed out. Such intention in the space of three fingers. I wondered how I had missed it until now. “Cooper...”
It was the only thing that made sense to say.
I let my hand drop, allowing him to catch it back up again, turning my palm down to brush his lips across the back of my hand. Soft. Chivalrous. Gentle. Cooper was gentle.
It was like I was holding two people in my head simultaneously. The Cooper I thought I knew. The one from back home, the one who’d treated me with nothing but contempt for years. And the Cooper I was discovering here at the cabin. The one who was sweet, thoughtful and such a good kisser. That was the Cooper I saw in front of me right now. The one who was gazing at me with full-hearted longing.
“Willa.“ He said my name the same way I’d said his. Startled. Like I had suddenly appeared in front of him, with no warning. “Willa I…“
Whatever he was about to say was swallowed when I kissed him. It was as intentional as the way he’d closed his fingers around my wrist. Into that kiss, I poured all of my gratitude to him. For saving my life. For taking care of me in his rough, inelegant way. For trying, trying over and over to show me he was really a good man.
I was learning he wasn’t the man I’d thought he was. And into the kiss, I poured all of my longing for the person he’d showed me he was. It was a kiss as a way of re-introducing myself. Starting over again.
I gasped and then moaned as his fingers slipped into my hair. He tightened his grip at the same time he deepened the kiss. His lips, his tongue, his taste, were all I could feel, all I was capable of understanding. The feeling of sliding, of falling, was so overwhelming that I gripped him tighter, certain I was about to go crashing to the ground.
But I didn’t because he’d caught me. In one motion, Cooper swept me up into his arms. “I’m taking you into the bedroom. Right now.” He looked me full in the eyes. “I have so many things I want to do to you, Willa. And once I start doing them, I don’t think I’m going to be able to stop. Tell me to put you down and I will. But if you don’t say something right now, I’m…”
I didn’t say anything. I just kissed him again.