Geek Squad 02 - Operation Foxtrot Page 2

  “Hey, wha—”

  “Thanks for your help, Andrew. Take care.” He slapped the top of the taxi, and it took off, leaving Cooper behind.

  When I growled this time, it was all aimed in Cooper’s direction. I was pissed. I had pulled the man out of what could have easily been the end of his life, and he dumped me into a cab with no explanation?

  I don’t fucking think so.

  I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Hank. He was not only my cousin, but he was Cooper’s unit commander.

  “Hello?”

  Oh, the man sounded sleepy.

  “Hank?”

  “Andy?”

  I hated being called Andy.

  “Yeah.”

  “Is something wrong?” Hank asked.

  Define wrong.

  “No, I just needed you to give Cooper a message when you see him next.”

  “Uh, okay. What message?”

  “Tell him he’s an ass.”

  I probably could have come up with something really scathing to say if I hadn’t been so tired, but my brain was going on pure willpower at this point. It was close to shutting down.

  “Yeah, sure, I’ll tell him,” Hank said. “Are you sure nothing is wrong?”

  “No, I just…he pissed me off.”

  “Cooper is there?” Hank asked.

  I snorted, not one of my finer sounds. “Not anymore. He shoved me in a taxi and took off, and after I saved his ass, too.”

  Bastard.

  “Andy, I’m pretty sure Cooper’s on a mission right now.”

  “I know that.”

  Well, I did.

  “He’s still an ass.”

  Hank’s chuckle rumbled through the phone. “I’ll be sure and let him know.”

  “Thank you.”

  I slid my finger across the screen and hung up.

  My work was done.

  Chapter Two

  There should be a special place in hell for people who woke other people up. I groaned as I rolled out of bed and stumbled out of my bedroom. It took me a moment to figure out the pounding was coming from my front door and not the inside of my head.

  Why I had a hangover, I would never know.

  I disengaged the three heavy-duty bolt locks on my door and flung it open. “What?” I snapped.

  I was not happy.

  I rolled my eyes when Cooper raised one eyebrow. Besides the fact that I wanted to smack the guy for waking me up, I was still mad at him for dumping me without an explanation a few nights ago.

  I hadn’t had enough caffeine for this shit.

  There might not be enough caffeine in the world.

  I twirled around and headed for the kitchen. I left the door open knowing there was no point in shutting it. Cooper was Marine Force Recon after all. He’d probably just blow it up.

  The inventor of single-serve coffee machines was a god. They should be sainted at the very least. Just think of how many people they had saved from going postal by their almost instant cups of coffee bean ambrosia.

  I fixed it just the way I wanted it, adding a small bit of sugar and a crap ton of creamer. The first sip drew a shudder from me, the second a moan of satisfaction.

  I was in heaven

  “Andrew.”

  I held up my finger. If Cooper didn’t understand that meant silence, I’d throw something at him. Anything except my coffee. I gratefully drank down the rest of my coffee before preparing a second cup.

  Today called for a second cup.

  I heaved a sigh as I turned to face Cooper. The man was leaning back against the wall, his arms crossed over his very massive chest.

  I wanted to lick that chest.

  “What do you want?” I asked to distract myself.

  It didn’t work very well.

  It was a really great chest.

  “Oh, I can talk now?” Cooper asked.

  I held up my middle finger, flipping him off, before going back to drinking my ambrosia. If he wanted to fuck around with me today, he could go take a long walk off a short pier.

  I so wasn’t in the mood.

  “I need your help,” he said.

  My answer was instant. “No.”

  “You don’t even know what it is.”

  “I don’t care.”

  I didn’t, not really. I would have helped him regardless of what it was he needed if he hadn’t screwed around with me and shoved me in a cab.

  I really hated being treated as if I didn’t matter. I’d had enough of it growing up. I didn’t need it now that I was an adult.

  “God, you’re an ass.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “Me?”

  I was the ass?

  “After you helped Ian rescue Hank, I thought you were someone who could be depended on, but you’re just as flaky as I first thought you were.”

  My eyes narrowed. “Flaky?”

  I definitely hadn’t had enough coffee for this.

  “Fuck you, Cooper.”

  “No, fuck you.”

  “Get out of my house.” No one looked good enough to take that shit. “Get out!”

  When Cooper just stood there and sneered at me, I threw my coffee cup at him. My eyes rounded with horror as I realized what I had done, and that I was probably going to die in the next ten seconds.

  My skin prickled when Cooper growled. I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard a sound like that come out of someone’s mouth before and certainly not from a man looking at me the way Cooper was looking at me.

  This man wanted to consume me.

  Made sense. I wanted to be consumed.

  The lust burning in Cooper’s green eyes was almost blinding. His chest heaved with his heavy breathing. The man looked tense, as if he was ready to pounce.

  “Cooper?” I whispered as I took a step back. I wasn’t afraid. I would never be afraid of Cooper, but the man looked really intense. Cooper’s fists clenched. The corner of one lip curled up, but I didn’t know if it was a snarl or a sneer.

  I wasn’t sure it mattered.

  My eyes widened when Cooper pounced. I was quickly pressed against Cooper’s body, the man’s arms wrapping tightly around me. I groaned when Cooper nuzzled the side of my neck. I dropped my head fall back, exposing my vulnerable skin to the man’s questing lips. I felt the heady sensation of Cooper’s lips against my throat all the way to my soul.

  I tasted a hint of copper when Cooper’s lips smashed against mine. There was a hunger there that made me melt against him. The man’s kiss was hard and desperate, and I loved every second of it. I groaned again, giving myself freely to the passion I could feel in it, the need.

  A hot ache grew in my throat. I needed more than a kiss, as earth-moving as it was. I needed to feel Cooper’s body pressed against mine, to feel the man’s naked skin. I jerked Cooper’s shirt out of his cargo pants and pushed my hands up under the material, moving across the well-defined muscles of the man’s smooth chest.

  Cooper suddenly tore his mouth away from mine and looked at me. Our eyes locked as our breathing came in unison, hot and heavy.

  My breath stuttered in my chest when Cooper yanked my pajama bottoms down my legs, tossing them to the floor. I was lifted into the air then gently laid back on the counter. Nearly six and half feet of hungry male stood between my legs. Cooper moved a lot quick, pulling his shirt off and pushing his pants down his legs.

  I hissed when I was yanked back into Cooper’s arms, the large man looming over the top of me. The closeness of our bodies was like a drug to me, lulling me into a passionate euphoria that I was helpless to escape.

  I didn’t want to escape.

  When Cooper’s hands began to move over my skin, I bit my lip to stifle my outcry of delight. My heart seemed to rush to every spot Cooper touched. I didn’t know my body was so sensitive to Cooper’s caress until it happened, and then I could only beg for more.

  “Cooper, please.”

  Cooper glanced around, his gaze settling on a bottle of oil by the stove. He grabbed it and pour
ed some out on his fingers. Not the perfect lube, but it would do in a pinch.

  I groaned loudly and pushed up against the powerful body above mine when I felt Cooper’s thick slick fingers slide effortlessly into my ass. My senses leapt, and a delicious shudder heated my body.

  Cooper began thrusting his fingers in and out of my tight ring of muscles. At the same time, he leaned his head down and licked around my nipple, biting at the sensitive nub before moving on to the other one.

  All of my senses, every nerve in my body, fired up at the same time until I didn’t know where I ended and Cooper began. My heart hammered in my ears, only overshadowed by the heartbeat of the man hovering over the top of me.

  My entire body trembled when I felt the man’s cock replace his fingers. Cooper slowly slid into me, and time suddenly stopped. Then Cooper started moving. It didn’t matter to me how slowly the man moved, I felt every inch of his cock move in and out of me.

  Cooper made no attempt to hide the fact that he was watching me. He didn’t move away. He didn’t look away. He just stared down at me until the intensity in his eyes became stronger than the pull of desire in my body.

  A hot ache grew in my throat. My eyes watered with unshed tears. My heart beat frantically in my chest. I cried out, my head falling back as an orgasm suddenly flowed through me so intently that spots danced in front of my eyes.

  My body melted against Cooper’s, and my world was filled with the man as I shattered into a million glowing stars. I breathed in deep soul-drenching drafts of air as Cooper cried out above me, filling me with the burning sign of his release.

  I slowly moved my hands over Cooper’s back, his sides, rubbing up to wrap around the man’s neck. I held Cooper to me, our sweat-soaked bodies pressing together as our heartbeats slowed.

  I snuggled against Cooper, our legs entwined. I didn’t ever want to leave the haven I had found in Cooper’s arms. I sighed with pleasant exhaustion as Cooper’s lips moved over my skin, a small kiss placed against the pulse in my neck.

  I sighed when Cooper finally moved off of me. I could have easily laid there for a hundred years, snug in the man’s muscular arms.

  “This shouldn’t have happened.”

  What?

  I swallowed tightly before raising my eyes to Cooper. The man wouldn’t look me in the face. His eyes darted everywhere except at me.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked carefully, praying I had heard wrong.

  “This shouldn’t have happened, Andrew.” Cooper’s hand pushed through his short hair, up over his head, before clenching at the muscles at the back of his neck.

  There was no way to describe the anger that flashed through me, or the ache that shattered my heart. I wasn’t in love with Dennis Cooper, not by a long shot, but no one liked to be rejected right after they’d had sex.

  “You need to leave.” My voice was deadly serious.

  “Andrew—”

  “Now, Cooper.” I hopped off the counter and reached for my pajama bottoms. There was no sense putting them back one. One, I needed to shower something fierce. I needed to rid myself of all signs that I had just made the biggest mistake in my life.

  And two, Cooper had already gotten the goods. There was no point in hiding them now.

  “Be gone by the time I get back.” I stormed past Cooper, ignoring the hand he held out to me, and walked straight down the hallway to my bedroom. I didn’t slam the door.

  I wanted to.

  I just closed it behind me and walked to my bathroom. I tossed my pajama bottoms into the hamper and then climbed into the shower and began to scrub myself clean. No one but me knew my tears mingled with the water running down my body.

  No one needed to know.

  Men sucked.

  Yeah, yeah, I was a man, too. I got that. But I didn’t like games. I had never played them with someone else, and I didn’t like it when someone played them with me.

  And I had been played.

  I had given away a part of myself to a man who not only didn’t appreciate it, but he clearly didn’t want it. There was no coming back from that. There was no do-over. I couldn’t turn back the hands of time and smack myself upside the head when I even considered sleeping with Cooper.

  I had to live with what I had done, and Cooper’s rejection.

  And this was why men sucked.

  Cooper was gone by the time I got out of the shower and dressed. I wasn’t surprised, but I knew a small part of me had wished he’d stuck around.

  Yes, I was glutton for punishment.

  Sue me.

  The mess in the kitchen had been cleaned up. Except for the drying cup in the dish rack, there was no sign Cooper had ever even been there.

  Well, that, and the knot in my stomach.

  I sighed as I glanced around my empty apartment. This was depressing. I needed something to lift my spirits before I started for the ice cream.

  I didn’t need the extra calories.

  I walked back to my bedroom and grabbed one of my favorite cable-knit sweaters and my walking shoes. I quickly pulled both on and then grabbed my wallet, cell phone, and keys.

  A few minutes later, I was walking down the sidewalk. I had no clear destination in mind. I just knew I didn’t want to be in my apartment anymore, not by myself. I wandered down the street, stopping here and there at my favorite little shops. I picked up a few items I wanted and a few I needed.

  Nothing major.

  I wasn’t huge on shopping, but I loved to window shop. Having spent so much time alone growing up, I’d had to come up with different ways to amuse myself. Window shopping was one of them. I could daydream with the best of them.

  People didn’t get me, and I understood that. Growing up, I had been all knock knees and skinny limbs. It didn’t garner me a lot of friends.

  Hell, my own parents could barely stand me.

  It wasn’t until I was older that life changed for me. I was the beautiful butterfly who’d had a metamorphosis and come out of his cocoon. By the time I turned twenty-one, I had become unnaturally pretty. Apparently, wavy sandy brown hair, high cheekbones, long eyelashes, a straight Roman nose, and plush lips were all the rage.

  I also understood that it didn’t amount to a hill of beans if I didn’t have the brains to back it up. Looks were all well and good, but looks faded over time. If I didn’t use my brain for more than a hat holder, life would be over by the time I was thirty.

  People saw my looks and thought I was a piece of fluff. No one seemed to understand that there was a person underneath those plush lips and flawless skin. They just assumed I was dumb as the day was long.

  That created its own set of problems.

  I was nice to be seen in public with, the perfect arm candy, but I wasn’t permanent partner material. There were plenty of people out there who wanted to be my sugar daddy—Leonard Lake for instance—but no one wanted to keep me.

  Seemed as though Cooper was the same. He’d gotten to fuck the pretty boy, but then he didn’t need me anymore.

  My anger and hurt warred with each other. I didn’t know which one I felt more, but I did know I felt them both. I wanted to punch Cooper as much as I wanted to ask him why and beg him for another chance.

  I hated him, and yet, I didn’t.

  I only had myself to blame.

  I was stupid like that.

  Chapter Three

  If I never had to smile again, I’d be okay with it. I wasn’t sure my lips could continue to stretch in such a manner when it was the last thing I felt like doing.

  I wanted to be at home soaking my head in a vat of tequila.

  Paolo would shoot me.

  “Andrew, my sweet.”

  Oh good lord!

  “Leonard.” My ability to smile at this man was gone.

  “I’ve brought you a drink, my sweet.”

  “One, I am not your sweet anything. Two, I don’t need a drink.” I held up my bottle of water. “I already have something.”

  When wo
uld this man get a freaking clue?

  Leonard held out a martini glass. “I had the bartender make this especially for you.”

  “Then he can drink it.”

  A sliver of anger crossed Leonard’s face before he could hide it. “Andrew, enough of this. I have been patient, my sweet, but I am growing tired of these games.”

  “Then stop playing them.”

  Duh.

  This wasn’t rocket science.

  “What do I have to do to convince you to come home with me?”

  I stared at the man, my mouth hanging open. What part of my rejection wasn’t he getting? I had said no so many times, I was hearing it in my sleep.

  “Stop asking. It’s never going to happen.”

  Leonard’s eyes narrowed. “Do you know who I am?”

  Seriously?

  “Leonard Lake.”

  “I could make or break your career.”

  “Then do it, Leonard.” What the fuck did I care? I had enough money to last me ten lifetimes. I was only modeling now because I enjoyed it.

  Well, I didn’t so much enjoy modeling as I did visiting the different places I saw and the different people I met. There was something new with each photo shoot. That’s what I liked.

  I was not meant to sit behind a desk day in and day out.

  I started to walk away when Leonard grabbed my arm in a painful grip. I stared down at where his hand was wrapped around my arm and then slowly raised my eyes. “You have two seconds to remove your hand before I remove it for you.”

  My cousin was a Marine. He had taught me a thing or two, especially when it became apparent that I was a pretty boy and not a muscle-bound goon like him.

  Once Leonard pulled his hand back, I gave him my most scathing glare. “Touch me again and I’ll have you arrested for assault.”

  I was done being nice.

  “You don’t know who you’re messing with,” Leonard snapped.

  “Neither do you.”

  I walked away. I had nothing else to say to the man. All the money in the world couldn’t make me want to stay and “chat.” Leonard Lake was an ass, and I was tired of being his fixation.