The Rebel (The Millionaire Malones Book 3) (7 page)

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M
aggie slowly came
to life, limb by limb, breath by breath, one eye blinking open, then the other. It was hard to rouse from her sleep. She’d never been a morning person, although she’d been forced to be one since Evan was born. Once, in a fit of sleep-deprived
madness, she’d attempted to add up all the hours of sleep she’d lost since becoming a mom and finally gave up in sheer exhaustion. All she knew right now was that she was awake and, judging by the silence in the house, her son wasn’t.

And that was bliss.

Was it Saturday? Yeah, it was Saturday. And Saturday meant no school and no client work, just hanging out with Evan. The forecast was for a
clear, warm day so maybe they’d walk down to Del Mar to grab some lunch and then walk along the pier. But for now, sleep. Maggie yawned and indulged in the sleepy and luxuriously decadent feeling of having time to herself. She turned onto her back and splayed out her arms like a starfish.

Her right hand hit something hard.

Had Evan left a toy on her bed?

Had
she
left a toy in her bed? No, her
vibrator was safely tucked away in her walk-in robe.

Her heart began to pound when she realised what the hard thing was.

It was muscle and man.

Maggie turned her head to the right. It was a big, blond hulk of a man, still asleep.

And now she was wide awake. Shit shit shit.

She must have climbed into her bed by mistake in the middle of the night. Damn her middle of the night bladder.

She
checked again. Cooper was on his side and facing her, his slumberous eyes closed and his full mouth relaxed. She could hear his soft breathing and hoped he was still out to it enough that he wouldn’t wake when she got out of bed. She took one last look. Half uncovered, his broad chest was on full display and one muscled arm lay loose in the space between them. He really was a fantastic looking specimen.
If someone were designing a man from scratch, he would pretty much look like Cooper Malone. Tall, broad-shouldered, strong without being a muscle man. His sun-bleached hair, his tanned face and his strong jaw always reminded her of the way he’d looked the night they’d first met.

Stop it, she told herself.

If Cooper caught her out, his teasing would go on for years. Maggie slowly turned, trying
not to tug at the sheet covering them, inching across the mattress to the side, hoping her movements didn’t wake him. She was about to push herself up to sitting when her son appeared at her open bedroom door.

‘Wait, Evan, you—’ She held out a hand to stop him.

Too late. When Evan saw the sleeping form of Cooper next to her, her son transformed from half asleep to wide awake in a millisecond.

‘Cooper Cooper Cooper!’ Evan ran to the bed and drummed his palms on the mattress. And before Maggie could say another word, to shush him, or even to get out of bed herself, Evan had begun climbing over her to get in the middle between her and Cooper.

‘Whoa, wait a minute, matey.’

Damn it. Cooper was awake, but barely, judging by that gravelly early-morning rasp.

‘Hey, Cooper Cooper Cooper.
Can I get in there?’ Evan pointed to the gap. And then, in a flash, before her wiggle worm of a five-year-old son could manoeuvre his way into the space, Cooper’s strong arm reached for Maggie like a slingshot and he pulled her backwards. Her back slammed up against his chest. His arm was strong and tight around her, his forearm crushing her breasts underneath it, his shoulder curved in a protective
pose around hers, and her butt had become wedged in the curve where his thighs met his hips.

In the curve where his hard as a rock cock was pulsing against her.

Her eyes flashed wide open in shock and awareness and, damn it all, pure womanly desire.

She acted with warp-speed motherly instinct. ‘Evan,’ she managed to say in a calm voice, although she sure as hell didn’t know where it had come
from. ‘Why don’t you go to your room and get your dinosaur book and I’ll read that to you?’

‘Cool!’ Evan jumped off her bed with a superhero leap and ran to his room.

Maggie jerked herself out of Cooper’s grasp and leapt out of bed with a superhero leap all of her own. She stomped to the door and buttressed herself against it so Evan couldn’t get back in.

‘What the hell?’ she stammered. Her
breath was hard and fast and she wondered why the short distance from the bed to the door was enough to make her breathless.

Cooper had prised himself up on his elbows and was looking at her through squinting eyes. ‘What the hell yourself? I thought you were sleeping on the sofa bed?’

‘I was. I am. I got up in the night to go to the bathroom and I guess I was on autopilot and I forgot you were
here and I … I just got back in like I’ve done a million times.’

‘I guess you did.’ He really did look half asleep. His blond hair was mussed and sticking up and his eyes were still drowsily half-closed. The sheet had slipped down to his hips. She’d seen him in board shorts a million times. So he had muscles and a tan. Big deal. But it was what was under the loose sheet that caught her attention.
The tent pole happening right there. She tried not to look. Hell, she looked. People could camp under that thing.

‘Maggie?’ He looked at her across the room, his gaze direct. She blinked. The way he said her name, the sight of his cock …
stop it
. She couldn’t think like this. She lifted her gaze to meet his face and saw his lips were beginning to curl in a smile.

‘You could have warned me,’
she whispered fiercely.

He looked down at the tent. ‘You mean the dawn horn?’ He shrugged, grinning now. ‘I’m a man. It’s what happens. I know it’s been a long time for you, Maggie Mac but it’s basic biology.’

Cooper’s morning voice sounded rough and sexy. She didn’t want to hear it. ‘Oh, that’s hilarious.’

He raised an eyebrow at her. ‘Don’t take it personally.’

She chuckled. ‘You think I
think that’s for
me
?’

‘Do you?’

‘Not for a second,’ Maggie whispered.

‘Believe me, it’s not,’ Cooper said with a determined head shake.

‘Good,’ she said.

‘Good.’

‘I’m glad that’s clear.’

‘Me too. Clear as a bell.’ Cooper swiped a hand over his eyes. From across the room, his gaze dropped from her tight-lipped expression to her skimpy panties and the worn and loose camisole top. She glanced
down and realised it was gaping under her arms and God, oh God, her nipples had budded like headlights.

She met his eyes and flat out lied. ‘They’re not for you, if that’s what you’re thinking.’

‘Not for a second,’ he replied, his expression dark.

‘Look.’ She took a deep breath in the hope it would settle her jangling nerves. ‘You’ve got to get out of bed,’ Maggie gestured. ‘Evan’s coming back.’

Cooper didn’t move. ‘Even if I could move, I’m not going anywhere for a few minutes.’

‘You think this is a joke?’

He let out a frustrated sigh. ‘That biology thing I was talking about? It ain’t going anywhere with you standing there dressed like that.’

‘Mommy?’ Evan banged on her door. ‘I’ve got the dinosaur book.’

‘Coming, sweetie,’ Maggie answered, but it was a long moment before Maggie
moved. Her breath was fast and tight in her chest and the way Cooper was looking at her right now, it was the least friendly thing they’d ever shared.

She closed the door behind her with a loud bang.

*

Holy shit.

Cooper flopped back down on Maggie’s soft and girly pillows and covered his eyes with a forearm, trying not only to block
out the light but to erase the image of her standing there all-but naked. He’d seen her in a bikini a million times and that had been hard enough to bear, but this was different. He’d never been naked with a hard-on that could crack rocks when she was across the room barely dressed. Sleepy-eyed. Hair messy. Drowsy looking. And if he thought that seeing his friend dressed like that and looking like
that would see his erection deflating like a pricked balloon, he’d clearly been wrong.

You can’t think this way.

He blinked his eyes closed, trying to erase the memory of how it had felt to have her tight up against him. It was an exquisite pressure that had made him harder and it had felt so good that for a minute there he’d forgotten who she was. Grabbing her and pulling her that close had
been a purely defensive move, seeing her son was about to leap onto the bed in a single bound like a little Superman. He had no choice. And he’d liked it. Or at least his dick had, judging by the insistent throb he was still feeling right down into his balls.

He couldn’t feel that way about Maggie Mac. They were friends and he’d liked it that way for a good long time. What they had was uncomplicated
and easy. Sure, she was beautiful. Sure, he’d wanted her from the first time he’d seen her across that crowded Bali bar. But Vance had moved in first and changed everything. Cooper had been determined to be a father to Evan and a friend to Maggie, and he’d done that. It had half killed him to keep that distance, but he’d done it. He’d made a vow when Evan was still safely inside Maggie, and
he wouldn’t break it.

She’d created something real and solid here with Evan, something that he’d never had but had always wanted in his life. But it was impossible. His life was out on the waves and on the road. It was in a million places: planes, cabs and mini-buses and remote beaches and crowds and the media. And sometimes, not enough times, it was out in the water with the breeze on his back
and the sun in his eyes. He could be a visitor to their life, but he couldn’t be a part of it. And that realisation hurt.

Despite their history, her softness, the fit of her curves against him, the way her nipples had pebbled when she was guarding the door, that was a place they could never go.

*

Once Maggie had
read the dinosaur book
to Evan three times, he settled. She managed to convince him that Cooper needed to rest and that she would decide when Evan could go in and play with Cooper. She made her son some breakfast and then left him in his room, playing happily with his toy dinosaurs, while she took a shower.

Standing under the warm and soothing spray of the water, she finally had time to process what had just happened.
It wasn’t as if she was unfamiliar with Cooper’s body. She’d been up close and personal with Cooper Malone. Loads of times. They’d hugged over the years, in the way friends do, quick and tight, with collegiate pats on the back. He may have held her longer on a few occasions, on those days when everything about her single-parent life had come at her like a flood and overwhelmed her. The point was,
she knew he was strong, and it was no surprise he was tanned given all the time he spent out in the water. And anyway, she could see bodies like his every day down at the beach if she wanted. San Clemente’s surf beaches, The Trestles, were a haven for surfers from all over the area. And this was Southern California, for God’s sake. It was filled with beautiful people.

His body wasn’t a surprise
to her.

But the size and strength of his cock was.