Khaki’s first instinct was to deny everything, but it was too late for that. She glanced at Xander. His body was tense as if he expected a fight. He exchanged looks with her before turning back to Cooper.
“How long have you known?”
“That you two were attracted to each other?” Cooper asked drily. “Or that you were sleeping together?”
Xander’s eyes narrowed. “You knew something was going on between us before this morning?”
Cooper folded his arms across his chest. “Ever since your heart started beating like a crack addict running a marathon the second you set eyes on her that first day.”
Khaki did a double take. She looked at Xander. “That happened?”
Xander didn’t answer her. “There’s got to be more to it than that,” he said to Cooper.
Cooper leaned back against the counter separating the main room from the area with the gun safes and high-value cages. “First, there was your bizarre reaction to having Khaki on the squad. That wasn’t like you at all. Then there was the way you snapped at her every time she made a little mistake. And let’s not forget the way you shook your head any time you got too close to her, like you were trying to shake off her scent.”
“I didn’t do that,” Xander snapped.
Cooper lifted a brow. “Sure you didn’t. I could go on for an hour describing all the little stuff you two did to give yourselves away, but it didn’t really all come together for me until I saw the way you two interacted down in those tunnels the other day.”
“What do you mean?” Khaki asked.
Everything had changed that day, but she couldn’t see how he could have possibly picked up on that.
“The level of instinctive trust you two had in each other was obvious,” Cooper said. “I would have to be blind not to see it. And I’d have to be stupid to think that level of faith had magically materialized thanks to a few days of good training. You two were linked the second you met.”
“But that just meant we had a connection,” Xander pointed out. “How did you get from there to us sleeping together?”
Cooper smiled. “I picked up on the scents you two were putting off that night when we all went barhopping. I knew if you hadn’t slept together yet, you were seriously thinking about it. But it wasn’t until the guys and I stopped by Khaki’s place the other day. When I mentioned I smelled your scent in her apartment, she came up with a lame lie about you stopping by to drop off training material. Then she told us she was going to take a bath when I could clearly hear the shower running. It wasn’t hard to figure out that she was trying to hide your scent. That’s when I knew for sure.”
The muscle in Xander’s jaw flexed. “Who else have you told?”
“No one.” Cooper shrugged. “I figured if you two were willing to put your positions in the Pack at risk, it must be pretty serious between you.”
“It is,” she and Xander said at the same time.
“Then I’m not going to be the one to spill your secret,” Cooper said. “But you have to know this is going to come out at some point. The other guys in the squad aren’t stupid. If I figured it out, they will too. But it’s not us you have to be worried about; it’s Gage. And the thing that will piss him off more than you two having a relationship is the fact that you tried to hide it from him.”
“It isn’t like we have much of a choice,” Khaki pointed out, although she knew he was right. It had been worse than naive to think she and Xander could hide this forever. “We know we need to tell him. Just not yet.” The thought of walking into Sergeant Dixon’s office and admitting she and Xander were sleeping together terrified her. “Maybe in a couple weeks, after he sees how well Xander and I are able to make this work.”
Cooper shook his head. “A couple weeks? You know how crazy that is, right? I figured it out in a few days.”
When he said it like that, Khaki realized just how impossible this was going to be. She loved what she’d found here in Dallas—both Xander and the Pack. The thought that she could lose both made her heart beat so fast her chest hurt.
She was so wrapped up in her sudden panic attack she didn’t realize Xander had taken her hand until he spoke. “Hey. It’s going to be okay.”
Khaki tried to nod but couldn’t manage it.
“Xander’s right, so no freaking out,” Cooper told her. “I said this was crazy, but I didn’t say it was impossible. We do crazy every day. It shouldn’t be that hard to figure out a way to keep this secret until you want to tell Gage. I’ll do everything I can to help you guys and run interference when I can.”
She blinked. “You will? Why would you stick your neck out like this for us, especially knowing how it’s likely to turn out? Sergeant Dixon will be as pissed off at you as he is with us.”
“You’re a member of the Pack. It’s what any of us would do,” he said, then grinned. “You may not realize it, but I’m a diehard romantic at heart, and you two make a hell of a cute couple.”
Xander snorted. “Bullshit. You just like breaking rules whenever you get a chance and making life hard on Gage.”
Cooper shrugged. “Maybe. I have to admit the thought of seeing him lose his mind when he finds out we were able to keep this from him does provide a certain level of motivation.”
Khaki didn’t care why Cooper was offering his help. She was glad to have an ally they could trust.
