My One and Only(36)

“Why didn’t you just bring me home in your truck?”

“Because I assumed you have to be at the hospital tomorrow and would need your car.”

Hot he may be, but this selfless streak was getting old. Did the man ever put himself first? Ever?

“Nice,” she said, slapping him on the chest. “Now what? You can’t stay here all night.” There was no way she could sleep knowing he was right there, under the same roof, available to make all of her lewd dreams come true. “You need to call a cab.”

Cooper snorted. “We aren’t in Memphis, Hal. There are no cabs in Ardent Springs.” He crossed the room to drag a glass out of the cupboard. “You need water.”

As he bent to retrieve a bottle from the bottom of the fridge, Haleigh couldn’t decide which was more frustrating—his unflinching gallantry or that perfect ass.

“You should call Spencer to come and get you.”

“Relax, Hal,” he said, filling the glass as if Haleigh was too special to drink from a plastic bottle. “It’s not like we’ve never slept in the same house before. I can behave if you can.”

Wearing the sexiest grin she’d ever seen, Cooper slid the glass across the island, and all Haleigh could think about was all the things she’d like to do to him right there in the kitchen.

Instead of rum and Coke, she’d gotten rum and horny.

“I’m not the least bit worried about either of us behaving.” Lies. All lies. “But people will talk.”

“Uh-huh. Because me sleeping at my sister’s house while two other females and a newborn are here would be extremely scandalous.” Snagging his own bottle from the fridge, he added, “Besides. My truck isn’t even outside, so no one would know I was here anyway.”

I know! Haleigh’s brain screamed. Closing her eyes, mostly to avoid watching Cooper wrap his lips around the mouth of the bottle, she berated herself to get a grip. The alcohol was wearing off, thank cheezits, and that meant sanity should return any second. Until it did, she’d have to rely on her shoddy self-control to get them through this.

Opening one eye, she found Cooper watching her. “Still here,” he said with a wave.

“Still hot,” she muttered. At his raised brow, she corrected, “High! Or drunk really. That’s what I meant. I’m still drunk. That’s why I’m acting like an idiot right now. And why I need to go to bed before I embarrass myself further. Not that much could top the puking incident. Did I thank you for holding my hair back?”

Blessed be, the babbling phase had begun. Haleigh had been sober for so long, she’d forgotten about this part.

“You didn’t, but you’re welcome,” he said. “And there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Everybody needs to let off steam now and then. It’s good to let your hair down.” He leaned farther across the island until his dimple was close enough to lick. “To do something you wouldn’t normally do.”

“I can’t argue with that,” she said, lost in the spell of his voice and his lips and if she leaned just a little closer . . .

“But you don’t want to get too crazy,” Cooper said, backing away and leaving Haleigh in a blinking fog of lust. “Nobody wants to do something they’ll regret the next day.”

Haleigh had been wrong. Cooper was not a good guy. He was evil. Pure evil. And if she didn’t know better, she’d swear that he knew exactly what he was doing to her. A highly sobering thought.

“You’re right.” Raising her glass in his direction, Haleigh put on her most innocent smile and headed for the hallway. “Thanks for looking out for me, Cooper. Without you around, there’s no telling what I might have done tonight.”

Fighting the urge to see his response to that loaded statement, Haleigh kept her eyes forward and her feet moving. The buzz had dropped to little more than a hum in her ears, but the rest of her body was still vibrating with the need to hold Cooper to his earlier promise of letting her see him in his underwear.

This was a sleepover, after all. And getting him naked would be a lot easier if he was already in his unmentionables.

Haleigh slammed the door on that thought. Literally. And then paid the ultimate price as Emma’s wail echoed through the house.



How did anyone sleep with a baby in the house? No wonder new parents were freaking zombies. And this definitely explained Carrie’s recent mood swings. At least they’d been able to tag out and hand the pissed off little thing to the next person. Well, everyone but Haleigh, who never bothered to come back out of her room.

Cooper had been tempted more than once to carry Emma in there and leave her on the bed next to Haleigh’s ear. Would have served her right. And not just for waking up the baby.