Chapter 7
CHAPTER
SEVEN
ELLERY
“I’m not sure how he’s going to feel about you coming,” I say to Bradley as we sit in the backseat of an Uber on our way to the location of Cooper’s endorsement deal.
“I haven’t scored an endorsement yet, so I figured if I knew how one worked, I’d be ahead of the game. Plus, I’m sure the captain of the team would love to help a newbie.”
He has a point. Cooper is always willing to help the guys on the team.
More than once, he’s cut our time short or we’ve been interrupted so he could help teammates find an apartment, take them to lunch to give them some advice, or for a million other reasons.
He takes the title of captain seriously.
Maybe I’m just not sure where Cooper stands on me dating Bradley. Lately he’s been weird about it.
We exit the Uber, and Bradley secures his hand around mine as we cross the street to the address that Cooper gave me. He should be done soon, and we’re going to lunch afterward.
I knock on the door, and a security guy opens it. After showing identification, we’re allowed in. Bradley fist bumps the security guard as though he knows him, introducing himself by telling the guard he’s the wide receiver for the Grizzlies.
Bradley is the opposite of Cooper, but at the same time, he’s been sweet to me. I’m just used to Cooper is all. I mean, we have an almost ten-year friendship of being glued to each other’s sides.
“Great, Cooper, pretend you’re throwing,” someone says in the photo shoot area.
When we reach it, sure enough, Cooper is dressed in joggers and a crisp T-shirt in front of a green screen pretending to throw a football, smiling at no one.
Those dimples that hooked me from the first time we met are prominent.
It’s unfair that he’s as good at football as he is good-looking.
The universe should have gifted one or the other.
His agent, Jagger, stands to the side. He’s dressed in a perfectly pressed suit that fits him like a glove. The man is attractive, and he knows it. Thankfully, he also loves his wife and kids. So much so that he doesn’t always attend these kinds of things.
I place my hand on Jagger’s shoulder, and he turns, his face lighting up in a genuine smile. “Elle!” He wraps his arms around me, pulling me into him.
“How is the family?” I ask when we separate.
Bradley steps next to me with a stack of cookies in his hand. Guess he found the craft services table.
“Great. I forced them here on vacation. My son is in agony without his game console.” He laughs as though he enjoys tormenting his son.
“Oh, we should’ve done dinner. I have Quinn’s latest on my e-reader, but it’s been crazy at work. Tell her I’ve converted the entire Mercy Hospital staff into her fans.”
He beams. “Oh, she’ll love that. I mean, it’s easy to write all those awesome romance stories when you have a real-life hero like me as your husband.” He puffs out his chest.
I laugh. “I’m sure she’d agree with you.”
He laughs even harder, and it interrupts the photo shoot. Everyone working on the set turns toward us.
“Sorry,” I whisper.
Jagger backs up, and I find Cooper staring at Bradley. Bradley’s too busy eating his cookies and looking around as though he’s a little kid at the North Pole.
When I first started dating Bradley, I wasn’t prepared for how much he loves fame. He never shies away from being recognized, and he practically announces who he is when we go places.
I guess whatever was working isn’t now that we’ve interrupted them, so the photographer calls a five-minute break, telling Cooper he needs to change into his next outfit. Cooper holds up his hand to tell them in a second and heads in our direction.
When I hug him, he barely hugs me back.
“I thought it was just you coming,” Cooper says, and I can tell from his tone that he’s not happy.
“Sorry, he said he hasn’t scored an endorsement deal yet and wanted to know what it was like.”
“Nice excuse,” he says so softly that I’m not sure he wanted me to hear him. Cooper greets Bradley and puts his hand out, but they end up having to bump elbows because Bradley’s hands are still full of food.
“Man, this is awesome.” Bradley doesn’t actually say hello or thank Cooper for not telling him to get out. “And you do how many of these?”
Jagger eyes me and nods toward Bradley as if asking “Who is this guy?” I’m not super surprised. I mean, Jagger represents top-tier athletes—for example, Cooper. Bradley is just coming up and hasn’t really made a name for himself yet.
“Jagger Kale?” Bradley’s mouth hangs open. Did he really just notice him?
“Hey, man. Bradley Powers, right?” Jagger says. I guess he does know him.
Bradley’s eyebrows shoot up. “You know me?”
“It’s my business to know you. Thanks for making our man look so good last game.” Jagger puts his hand on Cooper’s shoulder and squeezes.
“I make myself look good,” Cooper says. “Hey, want to come with me for a second?” he asks me.
Bradley and Jagger are now in a conversation about how Bradley can get one of these endorsement deals and Jagger is asking who his agent is, so I sneak off.
Once we’re in the hallway, Cooper takes my hand and leads me to his changing room. The door shuts, and he stands with his back against the door while I look around the space.
“What’s wrong with you?” I ask.
“Nothing. I just…” He shakes his head. “Nothing. So what does this mean for lunch? Another threesome like breakfast the other day after the flu shot drive?”
I sit in his makeup chair, spinning around as if I’m five years old. “I thought you liked him?”
He moves his hand up to run it through his hair but stops, knowing he can’t mess it up. “I do, it’s just… I never get you alone anymore.”
I try not to smile but fail miserably.
There’s a knock on the door. Cooper opens the door and a woman in her forties flies through. She’s got short red hair, black-rimmed glasses, and probably weighs not much more than a hundred pounds.
“Here’s the wardrobe for the next set of shots.” She hands him a small piece of clothing.
Cooper looks at it, then unfolds it to show a pair of boxer briefs. “What is this?”
“The new line. Didn’t they tell you when they booked you?” the woman asks before leaving.
“Jagger!” Cooper shouts.
Jagger joins us in the room, Bradley in tow. “What’s up?”
Cooper holds up the briefs. “Since when do I model underwear?”
“Since the people paying you are expanding their brand. We discussed this on the way here, and you said you were up for whatever.”
“Excuse me.” The little red-haired woman peeks her head in the door. She points at me. “Can I talk to you?”
“Sure.”
I walk out, everyone watching me and looking as confused as I feel. I’m assuming she’s just going to ask me to win Cooper over about the underwear.
“I’m sorry he’s being difficult. He’ll make up his mind and—”
“Have you ever modeled?” she asks, interrupting me.
I laugh. “Modeled? Um… no. Unless you count the candid picture in my university medical program brochure, and if you’d seen it, you’d know that I do not photograph well.”
“The model we had set up today to shoot with Cooper had to fly home to a sick relative unexpectedly this morning. And the clients are eager to get this new line of underwear out.”
My eyes widen. “I’m sorry, I am not going to model in my underwear.”
“You won’t be just standing there. There’s a robe for you to walk out on set in, and you’ll be under the covers beside Cooper. I thought since he wasn’t thrilled about it, maybe doing it with his girlfriend would make him more comfortable.”
I chuckle. “I’m not his girlfriend. Just a friend.”
“Best friend, and Jagger says I have no choice but to do this.” Cooper, who must have been eavesdropping, walks over to us. “Please, Elle.”
The red-haired woman smiles at me, probably thinking his magic dimples will do the trick.
“Do you have any idea what you’re asking of me?” I cross my arms.
“I’ll give you two a minute, but just in case, you’re all set up in that dressing room.” She points at the one next to Cooper’s.
I shake my head violently, but Cooper takes my hands. “I just want this over with, and if I have to do an underwear photo shoot, I’d rather it be with you.”
I ignore the way my tummy feels fuzzy when he says that.
“I want the Corvette,” I say, knowing he’d never give me the car he rebuilt with his dad. I don’t really want it, but I want him to understand how big a favor he’s asking.
“No fucking way. Ask for something else.”
I think long and hard. “A vacation then. Beach. Privacy.”
He nods. “Done.”
I knew he’d say yes.
“I better be getting paid for this,” I mumble and go into the dressing room, slamming the door like a true diva.
Someone knocks on the door after I’ve dressed. Thank goodness I shaved this morning. How horrendous would that have been?
I open the door a sliver.
“Ready?” Cooper has a robe on, and suddenly this all seems way too real.
“What am I doing? I am not a model,” I whisper to him.
He slithers through the opening, and I shut the door after him.
“I’m not a model either,” Cooper says.
“No, but you’re model-worthy. I work in the emergency room, where I’m fully clothed every day, most of the time in baggy scrubs. I do not have the body to be modeling underwear.”
He scowls at me. “Yeah, you do.”
“No.” I shake my head. Panic has me in its grip.
“Come on. I’ve seen you in a swimsuit. It’s practically the same thing.”
“I saw those briefs. They aren’t boxers like a swimsuit, they’re tight and clingy and they’re going to show parts of you I haven’t seen before.
” Unless you count the one or two times I’ve walked in on Cooper.
Even then, I never saw his full package.
I’ve imagined it, but… ugh… I need to clear my mind of this damn image.
There’s a knock on the door before the woman calls, “Ready?”
“Sure, now she sounds all sweet,” I grumble.
Cooper opens the door. “Let’s just get this over with and then you can start planning that vacation.”
I close my eyes. Beach, water, waves, sand, a good book. No alarms, bells, or patients being disorderly.
I open my eyes. It’s the same as a swimsuit. Cooper is right. “Okay, let’s go.”
“That’s my girl,” Cooper says.
I love it when he calls me his girl, but right now, it sounds more like a father saying it to his daughter than anything romantic.
We walk onto the set, and I see that Bradley has scored himself a chair. How did I forget about him being here? He’s got chips and a slice of pizza on a plate on his lap now.
My shin hits something soft, and I look down to see that I ran into a bed.
A bed that wasn’t here earlier. Panic erupts through me again.
They deal with Cooper first, and he undoes his robe as if he doesn’t have a care in the world.
And why would he? He’s like a bloody god.
I can’t even tell you the last time I lifted weights—unless helping a nurse get a three-hundred-pound man back into his bed counts.
I’ve seen Cooper almost naked before, but it’s been a while.
I soak up the image of his abs as they dip and crest along his stomach.
The little patch of hair from his belly button disappears down past the elastic waist of the black briefs, where his package looks all snug and perfect.
God, I turn my head and discreetly wipe my mouth in case I’m drooling.
“Now you. Take off the robe and slide in right under that white sheet next to Cooper,” the woman says.
Cooper is about to laugh. I can see it in his eyes. He knows how freaked out I am about this, but he also knows I’ll do it because I’d do just about anything for him.
He pulls the sheet back beside him. “Come on, sweetie.”
I roll my eyes and untie my robe. It drops to the floor, and I dive under the covers before anyone else gets a good view—I hope.
“We’ve shared a bed before,” Cooper says, as though that’s going to put me at ease.
“Not in our underwear and not with twenty sets of eyes on us.”
Once Cooper is in the position they want on top of the blanket, the photographer comes closer and snaps pictures while giving us directions.
I’m sitting up with the bra showing in one picture, and in another one, I have a bare leg out and just part of my underwear showing.
He gets Cooper to lie across the bed and rest his head on my stomach.
We pretend to read a book, my head on his shoulder, his ankles crossed.
His cologne smells good, and his skin is way softer than I would have imagined.
Jesus. What is this? I haven’t felt this kind of need for Cooper in a long time.
“Can we try something different now that you guys are more comfortable?” The photographer studies us as though he’s thinking.
“Of course,” we say in unison.
“Cooper, put your back against the headboard. Ellery, straddle him.”
“What?” My mouth drops open.
“It’ll probably be used for international print, but while I have you both, I’d like to take it and see how it turns out.”
“Beach,” Cooper whispers in my ear.
He sits back, and I lift one leg and straddle him. My tits are at his eye level, and he stares at them for a moment before licking his lips.
“Coop!” I whisper-shout.
He shrugs. “I’m a man, Elle.”
“I’m your best friend.”
He turns his head so he can speak directly in my ear and no one will hear. “You’re also a man’s wet dream. I mean, you’re spilling out of this damn thing. Your nipple is centimeters from my mouth, and your pussy is sitting on top of my dick. Prepare for a little surprise down there shortly.”
I blink rapidly, shocked by the words coming out of his mouth. He’s saying them so matter-of-factly that I’m not sure what to make of it. It’s not as if he’s coming on to me, but he doesn’t usually speak to me like this.
Moments later, sure enough, he’s hard underneath me. And from the look on his face, he’s not even ashamed of it.
Part of me likes that his body has this reaction to me, that I’m not so friend-zoned that I can’t arouse him, but still, we’re doing a photo shoot.
“It’s a natural reaction, Elle. I’m pretty sure you’re wet down there, and if you aren’t, just shoot me now.”
I press my lips together to keep from saying something stupid that I’ll regret.
Because I am wet, especially the harder he becomes.
And he’s right. It is a natural reaction, and it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that it’s him and me.
He would know since he’s done other shoots with female models.
Though the idea of him getting hard over them makes me frown.
“Maybe look a little happier to be in bed with him,” the photographer says, and I right my expression.
We finish the shoot, and I grab my robe and head right to my dressing room, thankful it’s over. Maybe those feelings for Cooper haven’t disappeared like I thought they did.