The reluctance in his voice did something soft and wriggly to my insides. I hadn’t actually intended to kick him out, just to let him know that I got it, I knew he couldn’t stay forever.
But if he didn’t want to leave just yet…
“Well…” I said, toying with the hem of his t-shirt between us. “You can’t go home smelling of sex.”
Cooper’s fingers drew another slow circle on my hip.
“I can’t?”
The way his brow rose made my lips twitch, and I had to fight to stop from smiling to keep up the tease. I was starting to understand Cooper’s brows, which had a language all of their own.
“Definitely not,” I said, sliding my fingers under his shirt to brush over his bare skin. “The water pressure here is good, though.”
That was true, and about the one saving grace of the apartment. That, and the view.
The view of the bay through the kitchen window, but also the current one of Cooper’s face as understanding dawned over it.
“Is it?” he asked, voice warming, fingers moving again.
“You should find out for yourself,” I said, unable to stop the smile spreading over my face. So much for teasing him. “The taps are a little tricky, though.”
“Oh?”
I nodded, biting my lip in a final attempt at pretended seriousness.
Unfortunately, the way Cooper’s eyes lit up as he looked over my face made it impossible to keep up. I couldn’thelpsmiling at him.
“Gosh,” he said, curling his palm over the jut of my hipbone, stroking with his thumb instead now. “I might need someone to show me how they work. Got any ideas?”
“I’m no expert, but I’ve started to get the hang of it. Could show you the ropes.”
Cooper nodded, doing a much better job of pretending to be serious than I had. He must have had practice with Benji.
“I’d be so grateful if you did that,” he said, voice getting low and rough again. Despite the fact that I’d just happily come my brains out, my pulse sped up a beat. Or ten.
“How grateful?” I asked, gaze flicking to Cooper’s lips even as my own turned up at the corners.
Cooper leaned in, his late-night stubble grazing my cheek as he put his lips to my ear.
“Very.”
A shiver ran down my spine, warm arousal blooming again in the pit of my stomach.
I linked my fingers with the ones he had curled over my hip, taking his hand. “Then let’s show you these taps.”
10
COOPER
“Got back late last night,”Dad said, startling me so that I banged my shoulder on the raised hood of the little lime green Mazda I was working on this morning and dropped the wrench in my hand.
I knew I couldn’t have gotten back in unnoticed after being out so long, but the fact that no one had mentioned it at breakfast had lured me into a false sense of security that at least it wasn’t going to be a topic for discussion.
“Sorry for leaving you to put Benji to bed,” I said, rubbing at my shoulder and crouching down to grab the wrench from where it’d rolled a few inches under the car.
“We volunteered,” Dad responded. I didn’t have to look at him to hear the shrug in his voice. “Nice night?”
Heat prickled up the back of my neck, rising to the tips of my ears. When I was younger, I’d grown my hair out to hide the way they went bright red when I was embarrassed. These days, it was easier to keep it short, so my only hope was that it was too dark in the shop for Dad to see it.
