It must have beenthe adrenaline. Coop’s heart was pounding through their entire break-in and swim. He thought he would jump in the pool and get out a minute later.
But nope. The kid jumped in with him, stayed there, and was now kissing him.
Coop’s thoughts melted into a soup of noise, overpowered by the taste of Matty’s salty lips on his own. Matty had proven to be full of surprises tonight.
Coop was surprising himself, too, because he wasn’t pulling away. Feeling Matty’s wet skin against his own, their hard nipples flicking against each other, and his raging boner against Coop’s thigh was making his adrenaline pump out record levels. It also gave Coop a raging boner to match.
Coop held Matty close. He couldn’t believe this was the same Matty that was glued to his textbooks and library chair. Matty ran his fingers down Coop’s arm, his fingers tracing his tattoos. He shivered under the touch. But the soup of Coop’s mind quickly congealed into one thought.
This is a job.
The only reason Coop was in this pool with his lips on Matty was because he was paid by Kelvin. He had forgotten about the job. He wanted to pretend it didn’t exist. But money had been exchanged. This couldn’t be undone.
He was supposed to hang out with Matty to throw him off his game, not lead him on.I didn’t mean to. It just…happened.Coop didn’t expect that this nerd who nerds would totally win him over—and then some. There was so much more to him. Matty was full of challenges and insecurities and passion and daring and humor, and Coop wanted to discover more.
He wished he could give back every cent Kelvin had paid him. He hated that he needed it, but he couldn’t let his family down. This night had gone too far, way too far. No matter what Coop’s heart and dick were saying, he had to stick to the assignment. Nothing more.
Matty didn’t say anything when Coop pulled away. Coop’s touch, while light, was definitive.
“I like you, as a friend,” Coop said.
“Oh.”
“I think it’s the excitement, you know? The late night. The sneaking in. The swimming in our underpants. It clouded…” But Coop lost the energy to keep peddling his story. “I think we should just be friends.”
It was lies on top of more lies for Coop tonight. As much as Coop didn’t want to admit it, that was the foundation of their relationship.
“We should probably go, before we do get caught,” Coop said.
Matty left the pool and went behind a planter to get dressed. Coop wondered if he would’ve been this shy had they kept kissing. Coop remained for an extra second, as he was still coming down from this high.
This is a job. Don’t lose focus.
Coop slumped out of the water and put his dry clothes on over his wet underpants. It was like sitting in soggy cereal, and it seemed to fit the mood just right. He knocked on the opposite side of the planter to check if Matty was decent.
“Ready to go?”
“Yeah.” Matty was a stone wall again.
Coop was on his way to the fence, but Matty wasn’t following.
“What are you doing?” Coop asked.
“I’m going to go through the front door.”
“That’s risky.”
“I’ll just say I was visiting a friend.” Matty shot him a glare. “You can hop over the fence and go down the alley if you want. I’m not stopping you.”
And Coop wasn’t stopping Matty, who didn’t wait for an answer. He waltzed into the complex. Coop took a step to join him, but pivoted back to the fence and alley route. He told himself that it was best to give Matty space, not that he was a little scared of going through the front entrance himself.
* * *
Coop wokeup to an empty room. Was it the day or still morning? He tried to remember what happened last night, and it was actually pretty easy. Since he’d barely drunk, there was nothing fuzzy about his memory.
It was one of those spring days that announced in big letters they had turned a corner and summer would be here imminently. Hope was alive in spring. He breathed in the warm air and listened to a pair of birds chirping in a nearby sapling. He wondered if Matty was back at the library already.
Rafe returned wrapped in a towel and holding his basket of toiletries.
