Chapter Ten
Allegra
The moment Cooper stumbled through my door, our relationship changed irrevocably.
His appearance was in disarray—shirt soaked with blood, face pale and dull with pain. The sight of him so broken stirred something deep within me, a mixture of concern and an emotion I wasn’t quite able to name.
“Oh my god, what happened?” I asked, my voice steadier than I felt as I helped him to the couch. His body was feverish against mine, his familiar scent mingling with the metallic tang of blood. Growing up in my father’s household, I was able to recognize the smell by the time I was six, and saw my first gunshot wound by eight. My mind flashed back, and unbiddenly, the memories of our butler stitching up my father came rushing back. The parallel startled me, and for a second, I was so frightened that I almost kicked Cooper out of my apartment right then and there. It was a good reminder that this wasn’t a person I wanted to be involved with in any personal capacity.
He groaned as he sank into the cushions. “Got shot.” His snarky attitude was back at the surface, and it was obvious to me it was because he was trying to hide how injured he really was. I knew him well enough now to know that it was his defense mechanism .
I knelt beside him, my hands already moving to assess his injuries. “You’re going to have to be more specific than that. Where exactly are you shot?” I felt my temper rise, angry at him for putting me in this situation, and, even though I didn’t want to admit it, angry at him for getting hurt like this.
“Shoulder,” he muttered, his eyes fluttering closed. “But…my head. Super dizzy.”
Slipping into professional mode, I gently probed his shoulder. The fabric of his shirt was sticky with blood, clinging to his skin. “I need to take a look at this wound. Can you remove your shirt and jacket?”
Cooper’s eyes opened, a flicker of his usual mischief in their depths, despite the pain he was in. “Trying to get me undressed already?”
I felt heat rise to my cheeks but kept my voice clinical. “Don’t flatter yourself, Mr. Moreau. This is purely medical.” As soon as there was blood involved, my formal demeanor returned.
He attempted to shrug off his jacket but winced, his face contorting in pain. Without thinking, I moved closer, my hands going to the collar of his jacket. “Here, let me help.”
As I eased the jacket off his shoulders, I became acutely aware of our proximity. Cooper’s breath touched my cheek, his expression aflame with a desire that made my heart thunder. The jacket fell away, and I turned my attention to his shirt buttons.
My fingers trembled slightly as I undid each button, revealing more of Cooper’s toned chest. I tried to maintain my distance, but it was impossible to ignore the warmth of his skin, the way his muscles tensed under my touch. My eye caught on his upper chest, and I finally got a full look at the tattoo I’d glimpsed before. A large outline of a cobra spanned his upper pectoral.
“Like I said, if you wanted to get me naked, Allegra, you could have just asked,” Cooper murmured, his voice low and husky.
I ignored the way my first name sounded on his tongue, and rolled my eyes, grateful for the moment of distraction. “I see your terrible arrogance is still intact, even when you’re bleeding all over my furniture.”
“I’ll buy you a new couch,” he groaned.
As I continued to peel back his shirt, the full extent of his injury became clear. A bullet wound marred his left shoulder, still oozing blood. “This—this is serious. You need a hospital.”
He shook his head firmly. “No hospitals. Too risky. You can handle this, right?”
I hesitated. Removing a bullet wasn’t exactly part of my physical therapy training, but I’d seen our butler do it for my father and his men more times than I could count. I had hoped that I would never see a gunshot wound again, let alone attend to one myself. But looking at Cooper’s warm eyes, slightly dull from the pain, I couldn’t turn him away. “I’ll do my best. But if things start to go bad, I’m calling an ambulance, no arguments.”
Cooper nodded, relief evident on his face. “Fair enough.”
I gathered my first aid kit and some towels, trying to steady my nerves. As I cleaned the area around the wound, Cooper jerked in pain, his hand instinctively grasping my arm. The touch sent a jolt through me, and we looked at each other. For a moment, the world seemed to fade away, leaving just the two of us .
“Sorry,” I mumbled. Shaking off the feeling, I focused on the task at hand. “The bullet’s still in there. I...I need to remove it.”
Cooper’s grip on my arm tightened. “Do it.”
I took a deep breath, sterilizing a pair of tweezers with some rubbing alcohol. “This is going to hurt. A lot.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve had worse,” Cooper said, his eyes never leaving mine. “I trust you.”
His last three words affected me more than I cared to admit. Pushing aside the flutter in my stomach, I began the delicate process of extracting the bullet. Cooper’s body tensed, a low groan escaping his lips. I worked as quickly and carefully as I could, hyper-aware of every sound he made, every twitch of his muscles. As the pain tripled, his powerful neck tensed, the muscles pulling tight like ropes beneath his skin. His jaw clenched, making the sides of his neck stand out sharply.
Finally, with a sickening pop, the bullet came free. I dropped it onto a towel, my hands shaking slightly. “It’s out, luckily it was all in one piece. But you’re going to need stitches. I’m going to have to improvise a bit.” I rummaged around the drawer in the end table, pulling out some embroidery thread from a cross-stitch project I’d abandoned long ago.
Cooper’s eyes were squeezed shut, his breathing ragged. “You’re full of surprises, Miss Prescott. Where’d you learn to play doctor?”
I began cleaning the wound, trying to ignore how intimate this felt. “My uncle. He was a doctor in a small Italian village. Taught me a few things.” The lie slid easily off my tongue. I didn’t want Cooper to know what kind of background I really came from.
I started stitching the wound, Cooper watching me intently. As I worked, I felt the weight of his attention—steady, burning, inescapable. Every time I glanced up, those dark eyes were fixed on my face, watching my every move with an almost predatory focus. His massive shoulder tensed under my fingers with each stitch, but he never flinched, never looked away. Just kept watching me with that unreadable expression, his jaw clenched tight, breathing measured and controlled. It was unnerving, the weight of his gaze—like being studied by something powerful and dangerous that was choosing, for the time being, to remain still. The silence between us was charged, filled with unspoken questions and a tension that had nothing to do with his injury.
Bianca finally came out of hiding and brushed up against Cooper’s legs. He absentmindedly patted her on the head, and she gave a chirpy meow.
“So,” I said, needing to break the silence, “are you going to tell me exactly what happened?”
Cooper sighed, wincing as I tied off a stitch. “It’s complicated. And probably better if you don’t know the details.”
I paused, meeting his gaze. “You show up at my door in the middle of the night, shot and bleeding. I think I deserve some kind of explanation.” I wasn’t sure why I was demanding the story from him, but part of me wondered if I was hoping that he wasn’t a player in the world I thought he was.
I wanted him to say that this was all some horrible misunderstanding and he had gotten caught in the crossfire .
Yeah, sure Allegra , I chided myself.
He paused, conflict etched in the lines of his face. “You’re right. But knowing could put you in danger. I shouldn’t have come here. I just...I didn’t know where else to go.”
My suspicions about his occupation, or at least the company he kept, were correct. But the soft vulnerability in his voice tugged at my heart. It was the same tone he’d used in the clinic when he confessed that he wanted to ride his motorcycle again.
“Hey,” I said softly, my hand resting on his uninjured shoulder. “I’m glad you came to me. Whatever’s going on, I know you’ll figure it out. You seem like a survivor to me.”
Cooper’s hand came up to cover mine, his touch sending warmth spreading through me. “Allegra, I...”
He leaned in, and for a heart-pounding moment, I thought he was going to kiss me. The world seemed to slow, every detail freezing in place with startling clarity: the slight catch in his breathing, the way his eyes darkened appreciatively as they dropped to my lips, the subtle woodsy scent of his cologne that made my head spin. I found myself leaning in too, drawn by some magnetic force I couldn’t resist.
Our faces were inches apart, his breath mingling with mine. The space between us felt electric, charged with everything unsaid. His hand moved to brush a strand of hair from my face, fingertips gliding along my cheek. My heart thundered so loudly I was sure he could hear it. We were balanced on a tightrope, in that exquisite moment of anticipation.
The shrill ring of my phone shattered the moment like glass. We both jumped, the spell broken. The real world came rushing back in a disorienting wave. I scrambled to my feet, my cheeks burning as I answered the call, painfully aware of how my hands trembled and my lips still tingled with the phantom sensation of a kiss that never happened.
Cooper cleared his throat and looked away, running a hand through his hair—a nervous gesture I’d come to know through our therapy sessions. The moment was gone, but the echo of it lingered in the air between us.
It was Joanna on the other end, asking about a patient file. I’d momentarily forgotten that she sometimes got caught up on billing at night. I answered her questions on autopilot, my mind still reeling from what had almost happened with Cooper. When I hung up, I turned back to find him attempting to stand up.
“Easy,” I said, moving to help him. “You’ve lost a lot of blood. You need to rest.”
He grimaced but allowed me to adjust the pillows behind him. “I can’t stay long. I’ve got to figure out who orchestrated this.”
“You’re not going anywhere tonight,” I said firmly. “You can barely stand, let alone defend yourself if you’re in some kind of trouble.”
Cooper’s attention snapped to his discarded jacket. “My gun. Where is it?”
I blinked, surprised. “Your what?”
“My gun,” he repeated, more urgently. “I need to know where it is.”
Hesitantly, I retrieved his jacket from the floor. Sure enough, I felt the weight of a handgun in the inner pocket. The cold metal made me shudder, and I carefully handed it to Cooper, eager to be rid of it. My father always carried a gun, and the sight of it stirred more hesitation within me. Reminders of the life I’d run from, from the world I’d rejected.
He checked it quickly, then tucked it beside him on the couch, hidden but within easy reach. The casual way he handled the weapon was a stark reminder that this handsome man was still deadly.
“Are we in danger?” I asked, unable to keep the tremor from my voice.
Cooper’s expression softened. “I don’t think so. But I’d rather be prepared, just in case. I’m so sorry, Allegra. I never meant to bring this to your door.”
I sank into the armchair across from him, suddenly exhausted. “Well, whether I like it or not, I’m now involved. So why don’t you tell me what’s really going on?”
Cooper hesitated, then nodded. “You’re right. You deserve to know.” He took a deep breath, wincing slightly. “I’m...not just a businessman. At least, not the kind of business you might think.”
I snorted. It had been a while since I thought that Cooper had a legitimate career.
He looked at me, his ashy blonde hair falling over one eye. “Right—you probably realized that already.”
As Cooper began to explain about his business ventures and recent expansion into arms dealing, I felt my fear gradually lessen rather than increase. It should have terrified me—a man involved in weapons trafficking showing up bleeding at my door. But there was something grimly familiar about it all. I’d grown up in this world, after all. I bit my lip, knowing that factions of my own father’s enterprises toyed with this area too, though his operations went far deeper into darkness than what Cooper was describing. Was there a chance they knew each other? Was Cooper the reason my father was at the gala?
The second the thoughts came, I pushed them away. I was sure that there was no way that Cooper would be anywhere remotely involved with my father’s business. While he was involved in illegal activities, I found it hard to believe that Cooper was a stone-cold killer like my father. Laurent Rousseau’s business involved shoving people in oil drums and killing anyone who got in his way. I couldn’t comprehend the idea of Cooper being that ruthless.
I found myself torn between annoyance that he’d chosen this kind of life, and a grudging admiration for his boldness.
“So the men who shot you,” I said slowly, “they could come looking for you?”
Cooper nodded grimly. “It’s possible. But I don’t think they know about you or this place. Still, we should be careful.”
I stood up, pacing the room as I tried to process everything. “This is...a lot to get involved with, Cooper. I don’t even know what to think.”
He watched me, his expression a mixture of guilt and something else—concern? Affection? “I understand if you want me to leave. I’ve put you in an impossible position.”
I stopped pacing, turning to face him. “No…you can’t leave. Especially in your condition. But Cooper, you have to promise me this is it. You need to promise you won’t bring any more trouble to my door.”
The relief on Cooper’s face was palpable. “I promise.” The left side of his face rose into a small grin .
“What?” I questioned, a little harsher than I’d meant to.
“You finally called me Cooper.”
I smiled back, realizing that at some point, I’d dropped the formality.
My stomach chose that moment to growl loudly, reminding me that in all the excitement, I hadn’t eaten since lunch. Cooper chuckled, then winced at the movement.
“Sounds like someone’s hungry,” he teased. “Got any food in this place?”
I glanced at the clock, surprised to see it was nearly eleven. “Not much. But I know a place that delivers late. How do you feel about pizza?”
Cooper grinned, a shadow of his usual charm returning. “Sounds perfect.”
As I called in the order, I couldn’t help but feel perplexed at the surreal turn my night had taken. Here I was, ordering pizza in the middle of the night with a wounded, gun-toting man on my couch—a man I was finding increasingly hard to keep out of my life.
While we waited for the food, I helped Cooper clean up a bit. He insisted on trying to wash the blood from his face, but his injured shoulder made it difficult. Without thinking, I took the towel from him.
“Here, let me,” I said softly, gently wiping the dried blood from his face.
Cooper’s eyes never left mine as I worked, the intensity of his gaze making my breath catch. When I’d finished, my hand lingered on his cheek, neither of us willing to break the connection.
“Allegra,” Cooper murmured, his voice tense and husky. He leaned in, and this time, I was sure he was going to kiss me. My heart raced, my eyes starting to close…
The buzzer rang, making us both jump. The pizza had arrived.
Flustered, I hurried to the door, grateful for the interruption even as part of me cursed its timing. When I returned with the pizza, Cooper had managed to sit up straighter, though he still looked pale.
We ate in companionable silence, the normalcy of sharing a meal a strange contrast to the events of the night. As I watched Cooper struggle one-handed with a particularly cheesy slice, I couldn’t help but laugh.
He looked up, a grin spreading across his face. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing,” I said, still chuckling. “It’s just...this whole situation. If someone had told me this morning that I’d be eating pizza in the middle of the night with a wounded arms dealer, I’d—” I trailed off, knowing exactly what I’d think. I would have thought that I’d somehow gotten involved in my father’s dealings. But I didn’t want to share that with Cooper.
Cooper’s grin faded slightly. “Having regrets?”
I met his gaze, surprised by the brittleness I saw there. “No,” I said softly. “No regrets.”
The tension between us shifted, becoming something warmer, more intimate. Cooper set down his pizza, his gaze never leaving my face. “Allegra, I...I need to tell you something.”
My heart pounded as he leaned in. This was it. No phone calls, no pizza deliveries to interrupt us. I found myself leaning in too, drawn by an irresistible force.
The world around us seemed to fade away, the dim light of my apartment casting a soft glow on Cooper’s features. I could see every detail of his face—the faint stubble on his jawline, the flecks of gold in his brown eyes, the small scar above his eyebrow I’d never noticed before. His scent covered me, a mixture of his cologne and the metallic spice of blood.
As he moved closer, I felt my breath catch in my throat. The air between us seemed to crackle with electricity, every nerve in my body aware of his proximity. My eyes flickered to his lips, and I unconsciously licked my own, my mouth suddenly dry.
Cooper’s hand came up to cup my cheek, his touch impossibly gentle for a man capable of such danger. The roughness of his palm against my skin sent shivers down my spine. I leaned into his touch, my eyes fluttering closed for a moment.
When I opened them again, Cooper was even closer. His smoldering look made my heart race, a mix of desire and something deeper, something that both thrilled and terrified me.
“Allegra,” he whispered, my name on his lips sounding like a prayer. “I’ve thought about this since nearly the moment I met you.”
I shook my head slightly, unable to form words. My hands moved of their own accord, one resting on his chest, feeling the strong, steady beat of his heart, the other tangling in the hair at the nape of his neck.
We were so close now, our noses brushing. The anticipation was almost unbearable, every cell in my body screaming for contact. I could feel the heat radiating from him, could sense the slight tremor in his hand as he held me.
Just as our lips were about to meet, a loud bang from the hallway made us both freeze. Cooper was on his feet in an instant, gun in hand, pushing me behind him protectively, despite his injury.
“Cooper, what—” I started, but he silenced me with a look.
We stood there, hearts racing, as footsteps approached my door. Then, a familiar voice called out.
“Allegra? You up? I saw your light on.”
I sagged with relief. “It’s just my neighbor, Mrs. Dupre. She’s probably checking on me.”
Cooper lowered the gun but didn’t relax completely. “Are you sure?”
I nodded, moving to the door. “Positive. She does this sometimes when she sees I’m up late. She has insomnia and roams the halls a lot.”
Opening the door, I greeted my elderly neighbor with what I hoped was a normal smile. “Mrs. Dupre, is everything alright?”
She peered at me with concern. “I heard noises, dear. Wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m fine,” I assured her. “Just...watching a movie. Sorry if I disturbed you. I’ll turn it off.”
Mrs. Dupre didn’t look entirely convinced, but she nodded. “Alright then. You take care, dear. And remember, my Jean-Luc would still love to take you to dinner sometime.”
I forced a laugh. “I’ll keep that in mind. Goodnight, Mrs. Dupre.”
Closing the door, I turned to find Cooper watching me with a mixture of amusement and something else—was that jealousy?
“Jean-Luc, huh?” he said, attempting a casual tone.
“Mrs. Dupre has been trying to set me up with her grandson for months. Not interested.”
Cooper’s smile returned, but only for a split second. “Well, we should probably both get some rest. It’s been a long night.”
The moment from earlier was gone, the spell broken. I nodded, suddenly feeling the weight of my own exhaustion. “You’re right. You…you can take my bed, I’ll take the couch since you’re injured—”
His eyes flashed. “Absolutely not. I’ll take the couch.”
For a split second I was going to argue, but the look on his face made me stop short. “I’ll get you some blankets and some pain killers.”
As I gathered bedding and medicine for Cooper, I couldn’t help but replay the events of the night in my mind. The almost-kisses, the tension, the danger...it was all so far removed from the normal life I’d tried so hard to build. And yet, I couldn’t deny the thrill of it all, or the way my heart raced every time Cooper looked at me.
Returning to the living room, I found Cooper settling onto the couch, his movements stiff and pained.He kept his jeans on but refused the oversized gym shirt I offered him. I helped him get comfortable, painfully aware of every point of contact between us.
“Thank you, Allegra,” Cooper said softly as I tucked a blanket around him. “For everything. I don’t know what I would have done without you tonight.”
I smiled, resisting the urge to brush a stray lock of hair from his forehead. “That’s what friends are for, right?”
Cooper caught my hand, his touch sending sparks through me. “Is that what we are? Are we friends?”
The question hung in the air between us, loaded with unspoken possibilities. I swallowed hard, my voice barely above a whisper. “I...I don’t know. I shouldn’t even be friends with you, but...”
For a long moment, we just looked at each other, the air thick with tension and unsaid words. Then, reluctantly, I pulled my hand away.
“Goodnight, Cooper,” I said, moving towards my bedroom. “Try to get some rest.”
“Goodnight, Allegra,” he replied, his voice following me down the hall.
As I closed my bedroom door to get changed for bed, I leaned against it, my heart pounding. What the hell was I getting myself into?