The Rebel (The Millionaire Malones Book 3) (11 page)

Cooper stopped the drum beat and leaned in, looked her directly in the
eyes. ‘Let me set you straight there, Maggie Mac. Not rusty at all.’ He raised an eyebrow and grinned and damn it, something shot to her sex. ‘Even though it was you, it was fucking hot.’

Oh God. Had Cooper just said that kissing her was
fucking hot
?

‘Well, that’s a relief. No-one wants to be bad at kissing, right?’ Maggie managed to say, clenching her thighs together to stop the throbbing.
‘Look, I’m pretty sure I know what happened.’

‘You do, huh?’

‘Here’s what I know.’ She lifted her fingers and began counting off. ‘One: we’re friends. Have always been friends.’

‘True,’ Cooper agreed.

‘Two: I’ve never thought of you that way.’ She could feel her nose growing as the words came out of her mouth.

‘Way to crush a bloke’s ego, Maggie Mac.’

‘Well, it’s true. Maybe that’s why we’re
friends instead of …’

Lovers. She wanted to say the word but it caught in her throat.

She waved a hand to bat the thought away. ‘Instead of anything else. And we’re good at this.’ She reached for him and rested her hand on his. ‘This friendship. It’s important to me.’

See?, she wanted to say. Friends can do this reassuring stuff and it doesn’t have to mean anything more.

God, his skin felt
good.

‘We are good at this,’ Cooper agreed, his voice husky and deep.

She lifted her hand and continued with her countdown. ‘So on to number three: the six-years thing. I may have done an uncharacteristic thing and accidentally exploded because it’s been so long since I’ve had any lip-on-lip male contact.’

‘You exploded?’

‘Yes. Like a firecracker.’

‘You weren’t quite at the explosion stage
when we stopped,’ Cooper pointed out. ‘Believe me, I would have noticed.’

‘Yeah, well. One minute more and I would have been.’

She saw the flare in his eyes.

‘And that would
not
have been a good idea,’ Maggie added.

‘Right.’

‘I mean the kiss was good, don’t get me wrong. I agree with you that it was hot, but I think it was just the six-years thing.’

Cooper shifted in his seat. ‘So, is there
a number four?’

‘Yes,’ she cleared her throat. ‘A very important number four. You’re a man.’

‘Why thanks for noticing.’

‘And even though we’re friends, and have been since day one, you are, objectively, damn fine.’ She let herself look down at his bare chest. Had she ever noticed that smattering of golden hair right there between his pecs?

‘Ego feeling less bruised right about now.’

‘And
here’s number five.’

‘Lucky number five.’

‘Last night, in the dark, the reason I nearly exploded is that I kind of pretended you were someone else.’

Please, please, please believe me.

‘Ego crashing and burning now, Maggie. Who exactly were you thinking about?’

Maggie shrugged. ‘It depends. I have a rotating roster of Clooney, Hemsworth and Bond, James Bond.’ She tried to laugh at her joke,
anything to hide what she was really feeling.

‘So let me get this straight. While you were kissing me last night, you were thinking of those guys?’ His voice had lost its humour.

‘Only one. I do believe last night it was Hemsworth. Thor, more particularly.’

‘At least he’s Australian,’ Cooper muttered through tight lips.

‘Those guys have kept me company a lot of long, lonely nights.’

‘You
mean you make yourself …?’ Cooper cleared his throat.

‘I said I hadn’t had sex with a man for six years. I didn’t say I’d gone all that time without an orgasm.’

Cooper ran a hand through his hair. ‘Stop. Right there.’ He pulled in a sharp breath and looked down, squinting his eyes.

‘What?’

‘I think I have something to prove.’ He pressed his palms on the table and struggled to his feet. Then
he reached out to her. Blinking, confused, Maggie put her hand in his and Cooper tugged her to her feet. Her chair fell backwards on the floor with a clatter and she turned to look at where the noise had come from. Then Cooper’s arm was around her waist and he’d pulled her in tight. It almost knocked the wind out of her. She looked up at his face, normally so familiar to her, and saw someone new.
He looked different: his jaw clenched, his eyes narrowed.

And then he kissed her. Fast, hard, not soft and slow like the night before. This felt pent-up and purposeful, passionate and scorching.

And it lit Maggie up like a penny rocket.

Her arms slipped around his waist and she pushed herself against him. Their lips warred with each other and their tongues flicked and caressed. One of his hands
found the back of her head and cradled her close to him, and she gave in to his heat, his desire and felt those damn firecrackers going off in pinpricks all over her body. And just at the point where she was about to forget her own name, it was over. He tore his lips from hers and looked down at her. His chest heaved but his grip was still tight.

‘Tell me, Maggie Mac. Who are you thinking about
now?’

Maggie couldn’t speak.

He slowly let her go and hobbled out of the room.

Which is when she heard the front door open.

‘Cooper Cooper Cooper!’

‡

M
aggie rubbed at
her eyes before whipping into action. She quickly went to the sink, yanked on the cold tap and splashed her face with water. There were running footsteps, which she knew to be Evan’s, and they muffled as he turned off into the carpeted living
room. She felt a pang. Evan would usually have run to her with that kind of childish excitement.

‘Hello, darling.’ Serena came into the kitchen and Maggie turned, pushed her hands backward to grip on to the edge of the sink.

‘Hi, Mom. How was he?’

Serena frowned. ‘A little unsettled, actually. That’s why we’re here a little earlier than I planned. He was fine last night, but this morning when
I suggested the Farmer’s Market he wasn’t his usual excited self.’ Serena cocked her head to the hallway. ‘I think he wanted to come home as soon as possible to hang out with you know who.’

They both heard shrieks of boyish laughter from the living room and Serena studied her daughter’s face. ‘You all right?’

Maggie faked a smile, but then frowned, knowing her mother would see through the lie.
So she went for half a lie. ‘Just tired, that’s all. I try to sleep in when Evan’s not here but it never works. My body clock seems permanently set to six o’clock these days.’

And three o’clock. Which made her think about being in bed with Cooper, which made her think of the kiss they’d just shared right there where her mother was standing, regarding her curiously.

Change the subject, she scolded
herself. ‘So, what do you think’s up with Evan? Is he coming down with something?’

‘You have to ask? He missed Cooper, of course.’

Of course he had.

‘Maggie darling, I know he’s been a wonderful friend to you. But do you think it confuses Evan when Cooper is here?’

If only her mother knew that Evan wasn’t the only one who was confused.

‘He’s always loved Cooper, Mom, you know that.’

‘But
what happens when you meet someone else?’

‘In that case he’s perfectly safe, Mom. You know I don’t get the chance to meet anybody.’

Her mother looked at her with concern. ‘And why is that?’

‘Mom …’

‘You know I just want what’s best for you and Evan.’

‘I know you do.’ Maggie threw her arms around her mother and held on tight.

‘And I want you to be happy, Maggie. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.
You’ve been through so much on your own. I do hope that one day you’ll get to share your life with somebody.’

Maggie felt her heart tighten and ache in her chest. ‘Me too, Mom.’

Her mother was right. This was all getting too confusing. Maggie resolved to talk to Cooper.

This teasing had to stop. He couldn’t kiss her like that again. Ever.

Even if she wanted him to.

*

Once Serena had
left, Maggie thought it might be best for her and Evan to take a little break from Cooper. All that close proximity to him had done strange things to her hormones and her perspective, and she needed a little time out. Only problem was, she couldn’t find Evan. He didn’t come when she’d called him and she searched the backyard and the living room before finally finding him in his
room, under his bed. He was clutching his worn brown koala toy, the mysteriously but lovingly named Fizzy, and trying to be invisible.

She heard him before she saw him, his sweet little boy voice muffled and quiet. She slowly walked across his room and sat down on his bed. This was a new thing, the hiding under the mattress. And it had thrown her. Most of the time, Maggie thought she was a good
parent. She’d worked doubly hard to make up for the absence of a father in Evan’s life, which meant that most of the time she was running on empty as she tried to be everything to him. Her little man had always run to her if he was hurt, if he had a question, if he’d heard a new riddle he wanted to tell her to make her laugh. Now, she was feeling a little clueless.

Because Evan was hiding under
the bed. Hiding from her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted movement at the doorway. It was Cooper, his brow knitted with concern. He pointed to the bed, and she knew what he meant. He was wondering if she wanted him to come in.

She shook her head a little and he moved out of her line of sight, but he didn’t leave. She could see his shadow on the wall opposite.

Maggie linked her fingers
together and gripped on tight. How could she admit to her son—how could she admit to Cooper—that she didn’t have all the answers? That, like most people, she was making it all up as she went along, doing the best she knew how to do? She’d been running a sprint during the past five years, and sometimes the guilt and exhaustion of it was overwhelming. She tried hard not to cry. She could shed tears
later tonight when she was in bed. Right now, she had to be strong for Evan. And she couldn’t let Cooper know that she was confused about him.

‘I’m not coming out, Mommy.’ He was trying to be a tough little guy but she could hear the catch in his determined voice.

‘Okay,’ she said lightly.

Cooper’s head peaked around the doorway.

‘You can’t make me come out,’ Evan declared, louder this time.

‘It must be a pretty cool hiding place under there with all your toys.’

More rustling. When she glanced down, she could see the worn fur of Fizzy’s tummy.

‘I don’t want to go to the Farmer’s Market and get stupid vegetables. I want to stay here with Cooper. Why does he get to stay here and I don’t?’

Maggie could feel Cooper’s gaze but she couldn’t look up at him.

‘Sweetie, you know how Cooper’s
been staying here with us?’

‘Yeah.’

‘It’s because he’s got a hurt in his knee. And that hurt means that, at the moment, Cooper has to have lots of naps.’

‘Will Cooper stay here with us a long time?’

Cooper stepped into the room.

‘Well … when his knee is better he’ll have to go back to his house. And then he has to get on a plane and go to work.’

Evan sniffed. ‘You don’t get on a plane and
go to work.’

‘No, I don’t. Cooper is really, really lucky. He gets to work all over the world. In Australia, where there are kangaroos. In Hawaii, where there’s a volcano. In South Africa where there are lions. In Bali where there are elephants and monkeys. He has lots and lots of adventures.’

‘Why can’t I have adventures with Cooper?’

She heard an intake of breath and looked up. Cooper was
pushing a frustrated hand through his hair.

He stepped forward. ‘Hey, mate. Can I ask you a question?’

Silence from under the bed for a long moment. Then, ‘No.’

‘Jeez, that’s disappointing.’ Cooper negotiated a dozen small plastic dinosaurs and a scattering of stray building blocks. ‘You know when I was a kid, my brothers and I had a cubbyhouse in a big, big tree. It was so high up we needed
a ladder to get in.’