Savage (Park Avenue Kings #1)

37. Lachlan

37

LACHLAN

C OOPER STUMBLED OUT of my bedroom close to noon the next day, eyes barely open and wearing my track pants low on his hips. He’d been up all night finishing his story so he could send it to the media of his choice—courtesy of Shep’s connections—and then he had a million and one questions for me.

Couldn’t blame him. I’d left him in the SUV after a surprise reveal, and I could still see his shocked look in my mind.

That’d been risky. It could’ve gone badly, could’ve ended with my coming back to an empty car.

Thank fuck he’d still been there. If he hadn’t, I wasn’t sure that I could’ve stopped myself from going after him anyway.

“Why…do I feel…like I have…a hangover.” Cooper groaned and sank into the couch beside me, resting his head on my lap.

“You had a big night.”

He yawned. “Long night.”

I couldn’t resist touching him and ran my hand along his bare back and into his mess of hair.

“Mmm, that feels good.”

Was this what contentment felt like? It was strange, how unfamiliar but right it felt. Like we did this every day, Cooper breaking a story, me rising with the dawn to get a start on the day. Then coming together in these quiet moments where all I wanted to do was be close to him. Touch him. Kiss him.

I leaned down, planting a kiss on his temple, and that inner voice inside practically roared, Mine. Cooper Patterson was mine, and not even the revelation that I was the psycho from the night in the alley had done anything to dissuade him from that fact.

My phone vibrated on the arm of the couch. Alessio.

“Yeah?” I answered.

“Rumor has it you should turn on the news.”

“Which station?”

“Any of them.” He hung up, and Cooper rolled onto his back, looking up at me.

“You don’t have to leave, do you?”

“ We aren’t going anywhere,” I said, flipping on the TV and scrolling through the channels until the first news station came up.

“Breaking news at the top of the hour, authorities have taken down a massive drug-smuggling ring in the shipping district?—”

Cooper shot up off my lap, eyes going wide.

“It appears an anonymous source tipped off the FBI to a warehouse late last night, where hundreds of pounds of the drug Rapture were found being prepared for distribution. More than two dozen fatalities across the U.S. can be traced back to the drug, with many more hospitalized from its effects. Authorities confirm fifteen men were arrested in connection with the sting, including rumored drug boss Mick Shaughnessy, who reportedly sustained nonfatal injuries.”

“Thanks, King,” I muttered, wishing I’d been able to do more than injure the fucking guy.Even if I understood the why of it all.

“The story was first reported by Cooper Patterson via New York News Now?—”

“Oh my fucking God,” Cooper shrieked, jumping to his feet, suddenly very awake. He fisted his hands on top of his head as he watched the rest of the story play out, his mouth wide open.

I watched him, his excitement palpable, as he whirled around to face me. “Holy shit, Lachlan. Did you see that?”

“I did.”

“They said my name on the fucking news. New York News Now is printing my story. What the…”

It was impossible not to match the massive grin on his face as he turned back to the TV, where a video of the warehouse showed the FBI on scene, leading Mick away in handcuffs. I had to admit, my smile grew even wider when I spotted his bandaged hand and thigh.

“I can’t believe they picked up my story.”

“Why not? You’re a talented journalist who?—”

“Hang on a second.” Cooper glanced back at me, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. “How would you know I’m a talented journalist?”

Busted. But what could I say? When Alessio brought me your information the night I saved you, I became your number one stalker fan?

It was true, and now Cooper knew it. But saying it out loud made me feel slightly unhinged.

“You looked me up, didn’t you?”

That was one way to put it. The more accurate way of putting it would be: I’d become a man obsessed.

“I was…intrigued by you.”

“Oh yeah?” Cooper turned his full attention on me then, a slow sensual smile curving his kiss-swollen lips.

“Yeah.” I sat forward on the couch and reached for his hand, tugging him between my legs. “I’d been sent to do surveillance on a bunch of dangerous drug dealers when out of nowhere saving a sweet, wide-eyed journalist became my mission instead.”

Cooper speared his hands through my hair and tilted my face up to his. “Wide-eyed, huh?”

“As a Boy Scout.”

He chuckled. “I still can’t believe that was you. I mean, I can because I’ve seen the way you move, but it didn’t click until you were literally right there in front of me wearing the mask that…”

“You’d invited me into your apartment and bed.”

“Shh.” Cooper pushed a finger against my lips that I quickly nipped at. “Don’t remind me.”

“Why? You didn’t enjoy it?”

“I’m pretty sure you know I enjoyed it, but…it’s embarrassing how desperate I acted. The way I all but begged you for it.”

That made me laugh, and I fell back into the couch. “Have you forgotten where you found me the night you begged me to come back? I’d been following you. I made up an excuse to talk to you at the coffee shop. Hell, I was outside your window on your fucking fire escape because I wanted one more look at you. You want to talk desperate?”

Cooper ran his eyes down over me, the heat swirling in them making it obvious I had no reason to feel embarrassed, and neither did he. There’d been a connection between us from the second we met.

His wrong place, wrong time moment turned out to be the exact opposite since it had brought him to me, and now that I had him, I was never going to let him go.

“Speaking of my masked vigilante lover…”

I growled. “I fucking love that nickname.”

Cooper smirked, pulled his hand free, and walked over to his backpack on the floor. He picked it up and brought it to the couch.

“I believe I have something that belongs to him.” He unzipped the bag and rustled around in it, then pulled out my missing leather glove—the one I’d left behind in his apartment the first night. “Lose something?”

He tossed it to me, a smirk on his lips, and I caught it and ran my fingers over it. “I was wondering if you found it.”

“ Found it?” Cooper dropped his bag to the floor and climbed on my lap, straddling my thighs. “Not only did I find it, I slept with it, had coffee with it, worked on my story with it and”—he leaned in to whisper—“got myself off with it.”

“Fuuuck. ” My head fell back on the couch. “Are you trying to kill me?”

“Definitely not. Especially now that I found you.” He kissed his way up to my ear. “I spent hours searching for you online. Wondering who the man in the alley was that night… Who the man was in my bed… In me. Were you ever going to tell me?”

“I did one better than that. I showed you.”

Cooper rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“I don’t know,” I said, running my hands down his hips to grip his ass. “You seemed pretty infatuated with this Lachlan guy. How could he compete?”

“Infatuated, huh? Is that what you think I am?” He raised a brow, daring me to answer.

I held his chin between my fingers, bringing his mouth toward mine. “It’s what I know you are. But you’re missing the point.”

“No, I’m not,” Cooper said, leaning in for a kiss. “I think, deep down, I knew. I had to. I don’t just go falling for men left and right, you know.”

“No?” I murmured, caught up in the heady look he was giving me.

“The only two guys I’d looked twice at in forever and they happen to be the same man. I think that’s a pretty clear indication I have a type.” He wound his arms around my neck and whispered over my lips, “And it’s you.”

But before his mouth crashed down on mine, he leaned back suddenly and reached for the glove, then grabbed my hand and slipped it on me.

As I flexed and smirked at him, he winked.

“Now it’s you.”

I shook my head, not sure he was really ready for all that entailed, but I wasn’t going to talk him out of it. Instead, I shut him up with a kiss, one I hadn’t been sure I’d ever get again after he found out what I’d been keeping from him.

But Cooper continued to amaze. I couldn’t get enough of his endless curiosity or his insatiable desire for me. He was fucking crazy for that, but then, that made two of us.

I licked my way into his mouth and clenched the back of his neck with my gloved hand, and his soft moan reminded me of just how much Cooper got off to being dominated. It made me hard, made me want to throw him down on the couch and?—

He ripped his mouth away, breathless, but there was an anxious look in his eyes.

“This isn’t…” he started, only to sit back on his heels. “I mean, we’re not… I’m not…”

“Cooper, this is the only time I’ll tell you this, but spit it out.”

That brought a faint smile to his lips, but it disappeared just as quickly.

“This isn’t over, right? Like, I don’t just go home and never see you again?”

“Why would you say that?”

“I just mean because the whole reason you brought me to Libertine was that I was in danger, but now Mick and his guys have been taken care of, so…” He didn’t meet my eyes as he said, “I just…go home?”

I reached for his face, forcing him to look me in the eyes.

“Scout. What do you think?”