Something stopped my fall. Something warm and solid, but upright and with some give. Not a patch of hard floor.
“Whoa,” a familiar voice said.
The thing that had stopped my fall turned out to be an equally familiar chest. Making this thesecondtime I’d crashed uncontrolled into Cooper.
His hands—warm and rough as I remembered them—curled around my bare arms. Holding me upright.
“Mmph,” I responded. Since I was already there, and my face was burning hot with embarrassment, I buried it in Cooper’s shoulder. It wasn’t as though I could make this worse.
Besides, I didn’t want him to see the tears stinging at my eyes.
My dancers don’t cry. Don’t you dare cry in my studio.
“Starting to think you’ve got a thing for running into me,” Cooper said. His voice was so warm, so gentle, just a hint of amusement that didn’t atallsound like it was at my expense, that I lost my battle and sobbed against his overalls.
“Whoa,” he repeated, tightening his grip on me. “You okay?”
I nodded without thinking. Ihadto be okay. Not okay wasn’t an option.
“Bullshit,” Cooper said. Which I deserved for obviously lying to him.
“‘m fine,” I mumbled into his shoulder. Taking a deep breath, I pulled back to look him in the eyes.
Not Piotr’s cold grey eyes. Warm brown, wide and concerned.
I bit my lip to stop myself from sobbing again. My cheeks felt like someone was holding a blowtorch to them.
Cooper wasn’t supposed to see me like this. He was supposed to see me being sexy and elegant and perfect and then he’d want me. Really,reallywant me, bad enough to beg, and that would make me feel beautiful and worthy again.
Maybe.
For an hour or so, at least. That was better than nothing.
“Again, bullshit,” he responded, brows drawing together. “How do I help?”
I swallowed. Help?
How…
“Umm.” I looked around, trying to figure out what might work, realizing belatedly that Cooper was probably here for a reason. Other than the obvious one, that the universe had it out for me and wanted to humiliate me in front of him.
“Should you sit?” Cooper asked, ducking his head to catch my gaze.
I nodded, unwilling to trust myself not to sob again if I tried to speak.
Cooper nodded back. “Lemme know if I hurt you.”
Then he lifted me clear off the ground into a bridal carry like I was a delicate princess and he was the handsome knight who’d come to rescue me. I grabbed two fistfuls of his overalls to keep my balance, but it was so obviously easy for him to pick me up that I probably didn’t need to.
As suddenly as he’d picked me up, Cooper set me down again on the studio bench, crouching in front of me.
I stared at him.
As a ballet dancer, I was used to doing lifts. But I was used to lifting women who were much smaller than me and also cooperating and doing at least some of the work.
I hadn’t been doing any of the work. I wasn’t as big as Cooper but I was five-eleven in bare feet, and I hadn’t had a chance to cooperate. He hadn’t needed me to.
Post-accident I’d lost a lot of muscle mass, but notthatmuch.
