Chapter Sixteen
COOPER
The bottle of migraine meds in hand, she headed for the kitchen. I stopped her and pointed her in the direction of the couch.
“I ordered breakfast. Coffee. You don't have to eat it until you’re ready. Do you want juice to wash down those pills?”
“Please,” she said in a near whisper, sinking into the couch. Even recovering from that bump on the head she hadn't been this weak. Loopy from the pain pills, but not like this. Her skin looked paper-thin, her voice hollow.
I got the juice and sat beside her on the couch, propping my feet on the coffee table. When she set down the empty glass, I pulled her into me. She let out a sigh, tension leaking from her body as she relaxed.
Pressing the balls of my thumbs to her temples, I rubbed. “Better or worse?”
With a throaty groan, the first sound she'd made that sounded like her, she said, “Better.”
“Just close your eyes. Go to sleep if you want. Food will be here soon.”
She curled into me, burrowing her head into my chest, her arm thrown around my waist. I settled a blanket over us, combing my fingers through her wet hair, watching as she fell asleep, the knot in my gut loosening as the line between her brows smoothed away. The migraine pills must be working.
Was it this bad every month? If it was, she’d be taking the day off from now on.
She'd argue, but I wouldn't listen. Alice was tough. She was a smartass who gave as good as she got. It didn't take much to imagine her in this kind of pain, hiding it so no one would know, going home alone to an empty apartment with no one to take care of her.
Even when she'd been married her husband had been gone most of the time, an airline pilot who made no effort to arrange his schedule so he could be with the wife he barely noticed. Since her divorce, there'd been no one.
Now she had me, and I would do everything in my power to keep Alice from ever feeling pain again.
She slept hard, not waking until I eased out from under her to answer the door for our food delivery. Blinking up at me, her blue eyes adorably misted with sleep, I saw the dark circles had faded some, her skin less pale and drawn.
“How's your head?” I asked, handing her a croissant breakfast sandwich loaded with bacon, eggs, and melting cheese. She took the sandwich eagerly, taking a bite, letting out a moan that had my cock stirring. She waited to speak until she’d swallowed. “Better. Not gone, but better.
“Cramps?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her flush. I knew she didn't want me to ask, but I did it anyway, partly because I wanted to know how she was feeling, but mostly because it was hard to fluster Alice. I loved the pink in her cheeks when she was embarrassed and annoyed at the same time.
With a huff, she said, “Those are better, too. They were early. Took me by surprise. I guess I should be glad. Early is better than late, right?”
I laughed. “I won't argue that. Where periods are concerned, early is better than late.”
Just like that my brain threw me a twist.
What if late was better? What if we wanted her to be late? Slow down, Coop, I told myself. One thing at a time.
A shrug of her shoulder. “I wasn't expecting it, and then the champagne and the headache… Normally I'm on top of this stuff, but somebody's been distracting me lately.” She shot a smirk in my direction and took another bite of the breakfast sandwich.
I'd take Alice any way she came, but it was better to see her getting her spirit back. We finished our late breakfast. I cleared the trash away while Alice pulled up a movie on the TV, and we settled into the couch the way we'd been before, Alice curled into me, my fingers sifting through her hair.
As the opening music of the movie filled the room, Alice looked up at me, ignoring the screen. “So, everybody knows about us now?”
“Yes. Everybody knows.”
“And this is a thing. A serious thing. Like, we’re together?” She wrinkled her nose up at me. “I feel too old to say boyfriend.”
I knew what she meant. We weren’t in high school. The words boyfriend and girlfriend were too light. Insubstantial. Transient.
I told her the truth. “What you are is mine. And I'm yours. That's all anybody needs to know. All you need to know.”
She said nothing to this, just stared at me so hard I imagined I could see the wheels turning behind her eyes. “You know if this doesn't work out I can't stay at the company. You know that, right?”
“I know. And since I don't think we can run the place without you, that should tell you how serious I am.”
“Yeah,” she said, “I guess it does.”
I thought about making the offer I had last night, to let things go back to how they’d been before.
I was almost positive she wouldn't take me up on it.
I still couldn't make myself say the words.
She’d had her chance to walk. I wouldn’t give her another.
Alice must have agreed because that was the end of the conversation.
She snuggled into me, her hand on my leg, her head on my chest, and we watched the movie.
Later, we ordered dinner, Alice falling asleep in my arms as I watched a game on TV.
If I could have erased her pain and added sex, it would have been the perfect day. As it was, it was pretty damn close.
The next week unfolded like a dream. Sunday we spent curled up on the couch, watching movies and talking. For once I didn’t so much as open my laptop. Nothing in the office was more interesting than having Alice all to myself.
After nine years working together, you’d think we would have run out of things to say. Not a chance.
My mother called repeatedly. I sent every call to voicemail. She’d knocked on the door early Sunday morning. Alice and I pretended we didn’t hear it. Whatever she had to say about that scene in the ballroom, I didn't want to hear it.
It was none of her business, and that was how it would stay.
I managed to behave myself in the office. Mostly. Word about my carrying Alice away from the party had spread to the few employees who’d missed it. Everyone was watching to see what would happen next.
I wasn’t going to push my luck. Once everyone realized there'd be no fireworks in the front office, they lost interest. Thursday morning, I woke before my alarm, pulled from a dream of fucking Alice to the reality of her hot, wet mouth on my cock.
When she climbed on top of me naked, her eyes sparkling and her breasts swaying, it felt like my birthday and Christmas all rolled up into one. My hands closed over her hips. As she stroked her wet heat over me, I managed to gasp, “It's over?”
She gave me a wicked grin. “It's over. And I missed this.” Her hand closed around my cock, guiding me inside her as she sank down and rocked me inside.
I filled my hands with her breasts, teasing her nipples, thrusting up into her, my eyes absorbing everything. The arch of her back. Her teeth sinking into her lip. The flush of her skin.
The sound of her crying out my name as she came on my cock was enough to shove me over the edge.
Alice collapsed on top of me, breathing hard, her mouth against my neck, and I thought my life couldn't possibly get any better.
That should have been the sign right there.
Just when I thought my life was perfect, I should have known everything was about to go straight to hell.