Reluctant Partners

Chapter Nine

When the group of hotel guests smelled smoke, they got very quiet.

Allie was too terrified to utter a word. This was the stuff her nightmares were made of and one reason she liked being close to the ocean.

They walked down one more flight, but the smoke got thicker and Allie stopped, refusing to go any farther.

“The smoke is probably coming from one of the lower floors,” Cooper said. “Smoke rises. We have to keep going down past it.”

What he said made sense, but Allie couldn’t get her feet to cooperate. She felt as immovable as a hundred-year-old tree.

“Then let’s go back up one story,” he suggested, “and down the hall to the other stairwell.”

She nodded, but she still couldn’t move, not until he put his arm around her and gave her a good nudge. She clung to his arm as they walked up past a group of people determined to head down despite the smoke.

When they entered the seventh floor it was clear of smoke. She breathed a small sigh of relief, though she wouldn’t truly relax until they were outside on the ground. They made their way down the hall to the opposite side of the hotel.

The second staircase was free from smoke, thank God. Allie ran as fast as she could down the steps, passing other, slower people in her quest.

“Jeez, Allie, you’re gonna break your neck,” Cooper called from behind her.

She didn’t respond, just kept going until they reached the first floor. There, a hotel employee herded everyone out an emergency exit.

As soon as she was outside, she gulped several long breaths of fresh air-well, as fresh as air in downtown Houston ever got. She realized she was hyperventilating and forced herself to slow her breathing before she passed out.

“Are you okay?” Cooper was there beside her, sliding a comforting arm around her shoulders. His arm felt nice there, secure and safe, and she did feel better.

She couldn’t talk, but she nodded.

The crowd of people who had evacuated the hotel milled around, dazed and shocked. One poor woman wore nothing but a sheet she’d wrapped around her body, and Allie was glad Cooper had made her get dressed, even if it had taken a few precious seconds to do so.

“Let’s get out of this crowd.” Cooper took her hand and led her across the street, where they found a place to sit on the edge of a planter.

Allie gazed up at the beautiful old hotel, searching for signs of smoke or flames, but the building appeared perfectly normal-except for all the fire trucks with their flashing lights cutting through the night. The firefighters seemed to be working calmly, not panicking, as if this were a routine job.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Cooper asked again.

“Yes, I’m fine.” She forced a smile. “Sorry about the meltdown.”

“That’s okay. Have you been in a fire before?”

“No. But I have a vivid imagination. And we were so high up, so far from the ground, and that stairwell didn’t have any windows…” She shivered.

Cooper rubbed circles on her back. “Come here.” He pulled her close to him, and amazingly she let him. It had been so long since she’d let anyone in. No one had comforted her like this since her father died.

Not that she and Johnny hadn’t been close. But she always felt like she needed to be strong around him. He’d had his reservations about hiring a woman, so she’d had to present a strong front. She’d never shown him her fears, her vulnerabilities.

It felt so good to lean against Cooper’s warm, strong body, to feel his arm around her. She tried not to think too hard about who he really was. Yes, they were involved in a legal battle, and the stakes were very high. But right now it was easy to forget all that. Maybe he was a slick, high-powered lawyer, but his work hadn’t beaten all the kindness and compassion out of him.

Or maybe she was just trying to rationalize the warm tingles coursing through her right now. All she knew was that she liked this closeness, and she didn’t want it to end.

“So why do you hate lawyers so much?” he asked out of the blue.

She should have known he had an angle. She answered him, anyway. “My uncle was a lawyer. My father died when I was sixteen, and Uncle Daniel was executor of his will. Let’s just say, by the time I turned eighteen there was nothing left.”

“Jeez. Where was your mother?”

“She died when I was ten.”

“Any brothers or sisters?”

“No. Daniel’s the only family I have left, and I haven’t seen him in ten…”

“…ten years,” he finished for her. “Isn’t that what you condemned me for?” His tone was merely curious, as if he truly wanted to understand her logic.

“My situation is different. My uncle wants nothing to do with me, and that suits me fine. He’s a thief and a liar.”

“Hmm.” Cooper was silent for a few moments. Then, “Would it surprise you to know that Johnny is the one who refused contact with me?”

“That’s not how he told the story.” Funny, but just days ago she would have jumped on Cooper accusing him of lying. Now, she felt more as if she’d misunderstood somehow, and she needed more information.

“Oh, I’ll admit my father and my other uncles cut off contact initially,” he said. “I don’t know the details of their feud, but it had something to do with Johnny’s drinking.

“Later, when I was grown, I tried to get back in touch with Johnny. I called the marina and left several messages for him. I wrote him five or six letters. He never returned the calls. I sent him a Christmas card every year, and at first he sent one back, but even that stopped.

“I know I should’ve come down here in person to see him, but I got busy with my life and I figured there would always be time. Johnny wasn’t an old man. At least, not in my memory.” His voice was thick at the end of his explanation, and Allie wanted to believe he was telling the truth.

But her uncle had told her a lot of pretty stories, too. Stories about how he was taking care of her inheritance, making it grow so she could go to college or buy a house when she turned eighteen.

She didn’t want more school or a house. All she wanted was the Ginnie, the one place where she could still feel close to her father. But her uncle had put the boat in dry dock against her wishes, insisting a derelict fishing boat was no place for a young girl.

She never saw the boat again.

The day she had sat in a lawyer’s office and learned there wasn’t enough left of her inheritance to buy a life jacket, much less a boat, she had silently sworn she would never trust anyone again, not unless they earned her trust.

So why did she so badly want to trust Cooper?

They sat on the edge of that planter for about an hour, until a man with a bullhorn announced that the fire had been put out, that it had been confined to only two guest rooms, and it was safe for most of the guests to return to their beds.

“We can check into a different hotel if you want,” Cooper said.

“No, I’m staying here. You’ll protect me, right?” It was a slightly flirtatious thing for her to say and the words felt alien and a little thrilling on her tongue.

“I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. I’ve tried to hate you, Allie, but I just can’t. You’re too darn cute.” He leaned in and kissed her quickly on the lips. It happened so fast, Allie thought she might have imagined it. But her lips tingled and her whole body thrummed with electricity as they walked across the street and back into the hotel, holding hands.

Allie didn’t want it to end. She had no desire to return to her lonely bed, luxurious though it might be, and go to sleep by herself. She wanted to stay up talking with Cooper, sharing bits and pieces of themselves. She wanted to know more about his memories of Johnny and why he had suddenly decided he wanted to chuck a lucrative legal career and become a professional fisherman.

They rode up the elevator in silence, and Allie wondered what he was thinking. Probably that she was a silly girl. “Cute,” he’d called her. Did that mean anything? Why couldn’t he think she was beautiful or sexy?

Probably because she wasn’t either of those things.

He used his key to open the door to their suite. Everything looked just as they’d left it. No telltale smoke lingered in the air.

“We have to get up in three hours,” Cooper said.

Allie paused in the living area. “Hardly seems worth going back to bed.”

“Do you want a drink?”

“Love one.” Did she sound too eager?

Cooper opened the minibar and took stock. “We have Scotch, gin, vodka, and wine. I’m afraid there’s no bourbon-I drank that earlier.”

That surprised her. “You did? When?” She didn’t remember him mixing a cocktail, and he’d headed into his bedroom at the same time she had escaped to hers.

“I couldn’t sleep. Too keyed up about the trade show, I guess. I thought a bourbon might relax me.”

Funny, she’d had trouble going to sleep, too. “You would think on these huge, soft beds, with all those pillows, we wouldn’t have any trouble sleeping.”

Oh, dear, maybe she shouldn’t have mentioned the big, soft beds, because now that was all she could think about. She’d never made love in a king-size bed before. Hell, she could hardly call the few liaisons she’d had in the past “making love.” “Frantic, unfulfilling couplings” was more accurate. Somehow she imagined sex with Cooper would be very different.

“So how about a Scotch and water?” he asked. “Or vodka tonic.”

Suddenly liquor didn’t sound tempting. She knew what she needed, and he was peering into the mini fridge, giving her an awesome view of his tight butt and muscular legs. A man like him shouldn’t be allowed to wear gym shorts.

He straightened and turned to look at her. “Allie?”

Her need must have shone right out of her eyes, because suddenly he had an answering hunger in his.

What would it hurt? If they spent one night together…or two…What difference would it make? Nothing they said or did tonight would change their legal dispute. A judge would decide the outcome, and he would have no knowledge of whether she and Cooper had slept together.

“Cooper…”

That was all she needed to say. He reached her in two long strides, and before she could even take a deep breath to prepare herself, she was in his arms and he was kissing the daylights out of her.

This kiss was definitely not in her imagination. His mouth was hot and insistent on hers, his hands were tangled in her hair while hers grasped at his T-shirt, clutching blindly, wanting more of him, more, more…

“Allie, oh, Allie,” he whispered against her mouth. “You’ve driven me completely, utterly insane, and if you don’t put a stop to this right now-”

He kissed her again, harder, more demanding, his tongue darting in and out of her mouth. He used one hand to cup her bottom and the other had found her breast, rubbing the nipple with his thumb.

It responded immediately, hardening to a pebble. Her insides turned molten, and she sagged against him, defeated. If he actually hoped she would stop this train, he would be disappointed.

Before she became so boneless that she sank to the floor, he scooped her up and carried her into his bedroom.

Cooper knew what he was about to do was probably the stupidest stunt of his entire life. But he’d lost control of his senses, and right now he hoped he never got them back. He wouldn’t, however, compound one stupidity with another.

He laid her on the rumpled bed. “Don’t move. Promise me you won’t move.”

“Where are you-”

He didn’t stay to listen. He dashed into his private bathroom and pawed through his shaving kit, praying he hadn’t been organized enough to clean this thing out in the past year or so.

Yes! He rushed back to the bedroom relieved to find Allie still sitting there, though she looked a bit bewildered.

When he kissed her again though, it was as if they’d never paused. She came alive in his arms like a wild thing.

Clothes went flying. Cooper couldn’t get naked fast enough. He wanted skin against skin. When he got it, it was better than anything he’d imagined. Peaches and cream, kissed golden by the sun. He ran his fingers along her faint tan lines and marveled at how brief her bikini must be.

He pushed her down gently onto the snowy-white sheets, then leaned back so he could admire the effect of seeing Allie tangled in his sheets. “You are the most beautiful-”

“No, don’t say it.” She closed her eyes, as if embarrassed. “‘Cute’ I can believe. Not beautiful. Don’t spoil this by lying.”

She had to be joking. Did she honestly not know how incredibly gorgeous she was?

He wasn’t going to argue with her about it now, though. There were better things to do than argue. Right now, he intended to focus on loving her thoroughly, in every way a man could love a woman without getting arrested.

He kissed her breasts one at a time, circling the nipples slowly with his tongue as she moaned and wiggled in semiprotest.

“Oh, my word!”

He chuckled softly as he moved to her other breast. Meanwhile, his hand explored the fertile territory of her flat belly, slowly moving down to the soft curls that protected her feminine secrets.

When he planted a trail of kisses down the center of her belly and teased her naval with his tongue, he thought she was going to come unglued.

“Cooper!” she objected.

“What?”

“I’m just-it’s just-”

“You don’t like it?” He’d never had complaints before. Then again, a lot of the women he’d dated might have had an agenda and wouldn’t have told him if his lovemaking wasn’t up to their standards.

“I’m overwhelmed, I’ve never done-oh, shoot, I’m going to spoil this.”

She wasn’t a virgin, was she? “You’ve never…”

“No, I mean, yes, I have, just not so, so…Can we stop to catch our breath?”

To tell the truth, Cooper had been moving at breakneck speed partly because he wanted her with an intensity he’d never experienced before, but also because he didn’t want to give Allie time to catch her breath.

He was afraid she’d change her mind.

But he didn’t want to take Allie if she was the slightest bit hesitant. He wanted no regrets. The very nature of their relationship meant they could have no future. No matter how the judge ruled, someone would be ticked off, and that pretty much ruled out anything long-term.

He scooted up next to her, slid an arm behind her and pulled her close. “You’re not spoiling anything. I got carried away because, Allie Bateman, you are beautiful. I thought so the first time I saw you, clutching your coffee cup like you were ready to clunk me over the head with it.”

That got a little chuckle out of her. “Like I could really hurt you.”

“We don’t have to do this,” he said, though it was painful to consider giving her up, sending her back to her own bed.

“Oh, no! I don’t want to stop, Lord no. I just want it to last.”

The relief he felt was overpowering. “Don’t worry, I’ll make it last.” He kissed her more gently this time. “And if it doesn’t, we’ll just do it again.”

“Really? You won’t roll over and start snoring?”

He laughed. “I don’t know what kind of men you’re used to, but as long as you’re in bed with me, there won’t be any snoring going on.”

But amusement fled as he set out to deliver on his promises. He kissed and stroked, taking it slow, letting Allie set the pace. He hardly touched her below the waist until she took his hand and dragged it downward.

She parted her legs readily, allowing him full access. She responded to the lightest of strokes with soft sighs and little gasps, her hands clutching at him wherever she could find purchase.

When he slid a finger inside her, she suddenly cried out and shuddered, and he realized what she meant about wanting it to last. He’d never seen anything as beautiful as Allie in the full throes of ecstasy.

He continued to stroke her until her shudders died down, then he pulled her into his arms and just held her.

“Now you see what I mean.”

“What, you think it’s a problem? Do you have any idea how it makes me feel, that I can turn you on so quickly? It makes me want to do it all again.”

And he did. He kissed and stroked and nibbled until she was writhing again, but this time he quickly sheathed himself and entered her before she climaxed. He moved inside her as slowly as he dared, drawing out their pleasure as long as possible.

“Not yet,” he whispered into her ear, going still, then bringing her up to the very brink and slowing again.

By the time he couldn’t hold himself back any longer she was almost in tears. And when she came the second time it was even more explosive than the first. Her body clenched around his as she cried out, and his own climax was so…vigorous that he thought he might black out. Every drop of blood that fed his brain had left to take care of more urgent matters.

His body suddenly relaxed, and he slumped on top of her, shifting a bit to the side so he wouldn’t crush her.

“Wow,” she said.

Now that was the kind of review he liked to hear. “Yeah,” he agreed. He’d known just from looking at her that making love with Allie Bateman would be spectacular, but he’d never imagined how much.

“I feel like a boat that’s just sailed through a hurricane with all the sails up.”

“That’s good, I hope.”

She laughed. “Oh, yeah.” Her face grew pensive. “I think we should do it again, just to prove it wasn’t a fluke.”

“Have mercy, woman.”

“You did promise.”

“Give me a few minutes, huh?” He’d created a monster. Fortunately, it was a species of monster he liked.

“Okay, but no snoring.”

He figured she’d probably fall right to sleep, but every time he looked at her, her pretty green eyes were wide open and studying him expectantly. Waiting for the snore.

Well, hell, he wasn’t about to fulfill that expectation.

She began rubbing his chest, almost experimentally, and he guided her hand down where it would do the most good.

“Oh,” she said. “Ohh.”

He gave her a wicked grin. “I don’t believe in false advertising. I said we’d do it all again, and we will.”