7. Lachlan
7
LACHLAN
T HE WIND WHIPPED the tail ends of my trench coat around my ankles as I stood in the shadows at the bottom of the fire escape that zigzagged up the front side of Cooper’s apartment.
This wasn’t the first night I’d stood outside the old tenement building trying to convince myself not to climb the stairs to the top floor, where I knew Cooper would be sleeping. But usually my common sense would kick in and remind me of the miserable fate I would suffer if King found out what I was up to.
Something that was overridden tonight by the memory of blue eyes, pink cheeks, and a laugh that reminded me there was more in this world than the city I got lost in each night.
So instead of doing the smart thing, and getting the hell out of Dodge, I slipped deeper into the shadows, slid my mask in place, and flicked my hood up over my head.
Sure, I might be making dumb decisions lately, but at least I was cognizant enough to conceal my identity should anyone glance out their window.
I reached for the bottom rungs of the ladder and began to climb my way up the side of the old brick facade, my booted feet as silent and stealthy as the shadows I was slipping in and out of as I crept across the first landing and headed up the second, third, and fourth, and finally got to the fifth—Cooper’s floor.
I curled my fingers around the rail as I pulled myself up onto the landing, then immediately moved to the edge of the building, flattening my back to the cool brick as I glanced inside expecting to find him in bed?—
Fuck . I reared back.
Cooper was much closer than I’d anticipated, sitting by the exact window I was standing outside of, the faint glow of his computer screen illuminating where he’d fallen asleep at his desk.
Jesus Christ. What was it about this Boy Scout that had me making these reckless decisions? King was right—it wasn’t like me to be so careless, to act without a plan. It was sloppy, and when you were sloppy you ended up getting caught—like I almost was now.
I cursed under my breath, annoyed at my lack of discipline and control. Then again, that was nothing new.
I needed to cut this shit out. I needed to get Cooper out of my head and get back to my regularly programed life. But that was easier said than done when my sole focus was on those expressive eyes of his rather than the drug dealers I’d saved his ass from.
But I couldn’t deny it. In a matter of days Cooper had looked at me with fear, awe, desire, and humor—not that he knew the first two—and the idea that this would be the last time I saw him wasn’t sitting right with me.
Oh fucking well. It wasn’t like I could go knock on his door at this hour. Especially not dressed like this. And even if I could, what the hell did I think I would say?
So this was it. I just needed to cut the damn cord.
I shifted my feet and turned a fraction, wanting to get one last look at him before I disappeared. But when I looked inside the window expecting to find his eyes shut, they were open—and locked on me.
Cooper sucked in a breath and shoved his chair back from the desk, then sprang to his feet as shock rippled across every feature of his gorgeous face. He blinked several times as though trying to decide if I were real or not, then brought a hand to his chest—probably to make sure he wasn’t having a heart attack.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine what he was thinking, seeing me lurking outside his window in my full Libertine garb. After all, the last time we met he’d had a gun pointed at his head. I highly doubted he’d expected to look out his window and see the masked man from what was probably his worst nightmare.
I backed up, away from the window, fully intending to disappear over the rail and into the shadows, when Cooper held up his hand for me to… stop ?
My feet froze as I tried to decipher if that was what he truly meant, and when he started toward the fire escape, I knew it was time to decide—stay or go?
If I were to leave now, there was no harm, no foul. I could chalk it up to a final look at the one I’d saved. But as Cooper drew closer to the window, I knew I wasn’t going anywhere.
Something about him drew me. It had from the moment I saw him in that alley, to the small coffee shop, and now wasn’t any different.
Leave. Leave right fucking now.
The words repeated on a loop in my head as Cooper reached the window, his chest heaving with every breath he took, and flicked open the locks.
What the hell did he think he was doing? I could’ve been anyone. Hell, as far as he knew I was anyone, a stranger from a dark alley who could inflict serious damage. Yet he shoved the window up, allowing me entry, and any thought I had of leaving disappeared along with my conscience.
“It’s you…” Cooper’s voice was whisper quiet on the breeze as his eyes roamed from my boots, up over my coat, to where my mask concealed my face. “How did you find me?”
By stalking your every move.
Too much? Probably. Yet it was the most logical assumption.
The glassy-eyed expression shining from those stunning eyes, however, told me logic was nowhere to be found right now—it was like he was in a daze.
I moved to the open window and slipped inside, and Cooper took a step back.
“Who are you?”
Questions were to be expected, just as my silence was. Not that he would make that correlation in his state, but that was the way it would go, especially after our face-to-face meeting at the coffee shop. I couldn’t risk any kind of connection being made.
I ran my eyes over his white tank, grey hoodie and sweats, and the slippers warming his feet, and thought how cozy he looked. A total contrast to my black boots, leather pants, and tactical Henley, which were all covered by my trench coat.
The apartment was as small as I’d suspected, and with my standing at the center of it, the square footage seemed to shrink with every breath I took. That didn’t seem to worry Cooper, though. Whatever thoughts he’d had of me in that alley, whatever memory he had of that terrifying night, one thing was clear: I was not the source of his paranoia. I wasn’t the reason he’d been looking over his shoulder these past few days.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice more demanding this time as I took another step his way. “I’m not scared of you.”
I whipped my hand out and curled my fingers around the soft fabric of his tank, then lowered my face over his and growled, “Aren’t you?”
Cooper angled his chin up, searching for any clues, but my position, the hood, and mask obstructed all views of my face, and the shadows helped to hide my eyes.
“No.”
I couldn’t help but smile at his bravado as I walked him back, his breathing coming even faster now as his back hit the wall.
Pesky small apartments.
“You should be.”
“If you wanted to hurt me, you already would’ve.”
So logic was finally starting to reassert itself. Can’t have that.
“Says who?”
Quick as a flash, I hauled Cooper forward and he gasped. I spun him around and crowded him up against the flat surface, and this time I followed, aligning my body to his.
Fuck, this hadn’t been the plan tonight.
I’d wanted to see him again, yes. But nowhere in that scenario could I have imagined pinning him to the wall—or getting hard. There was no use denying it. Not with the way my cock was trying to bust through my zipper.
Cooper trembled against me, from fear or desire, I couldn’t be sure. But the response spurred something dark inside me, something savage.
“So trusting,” I said, my voice low, my face so close to his cheek that my hood brushed up against it. “Such a Boy Scout.”
“Scout…” He shifted against my hold, and when his ass grazed my hard dick, a soft moan escaped him.
Now that was definitely from desire.
“You called me that before.”
Yes, I had. But the fact he remembered was interesting. There’d been so much going on that night that part of me had wondered if he’d locked it all away, never to think of it again.But apparently not.
Had he dreamed about me? Was he dreaming right now?
I’d thought so when I first climbed in, but when he gripped my thigh, I could tell he was waking. His dream was becoming more lucid, the fire licking through his veins waking him up.
And that was my cue to leave.
I took a reluctant step away, and as I backed up to the window, Cooper turned. He didn’t follow me, didn’t make a move in my direction. Instead, he leaned back against the wall, his sweats barely able to contain his own erection, as he watched me through eyes dark with arousal.
This had gotten way out of hand. Not that my body was behaving itself either.
Knowing I needed to get out of there or risk doing something stupid, like crossing the room, stripping him naked, and revealing all my secrets, I turned toward the window and climbed out onto the fire escape.
“Wait.”
Don’t go back or you’ll never leave.
I turned my head to the side, but stayed right where I was.
“Will you”—he hesitated—“come back tomorrow?”
“I can’t.”
“Or you won’t?”
When I didn’t have an answer for that, he moved closer.
“I’ll leave the window open.”
So trusting. Too trusting. It made me want to turn around and show him why he shouldn’t be.
Instead, I disappeared back into the shadows.