Page 164 of Collateral Damage
“Yes,” I reply immediately.
“I… don’t want to be alone right now.”
“I don’t want you to be alone right now, either.” I clear my throat. “And I’d very much like to be the one upstairs with you.”
She rolls her eyes. “I’m not talking about sex, Cooper. I’m talking about comfort. Friends?”
Friends. The word hollows my stomach and drops a big rock right in the middle.
“I’ll be whatever you want me to be.”
She directs me into her building’s parking garage and a vacant space set aside for her unit, then leads me upstairs.
I want to hold her, touch her, kiss her, make love to her—to tell her how much she means to me and then show her without words.
But she wants a friend right now.
We step inside, and she turns on me with a lost expression.
“Cooper, are we going to be okay?”
“I know I told you I’d be whatever you want me to be, but that was a lie. I only know how to be the man who’s desperately in love with you. That’s all I’ve ever been when it comes to you. Since we were kids, even then, I loved you.”
Her lips part, and her reply is featherlight. “I know.”
We stand there, silence stretching between us, and she looks me up and down like she’s still deciding what to do with me.
“Maybe… maybe we could take a bath?” she asks sweetly.
I smile at the idea of Sybil naked in the bathwater.
Friends don’t take baths together.
I follow her to the large clawfoot tub, thanking the interior-design gods for this win. A bathtub is hard to find in the city, let alone one that can fit two people.
She turns on the water, and with her back to me, slowly strips off her clothing. Her shirt goes first, tossed to the side, then come the jeans that cling to her perfect ass. She does her bra next, adding it onto the pile and shaking out her long hair as it flows down her pale body. When she bends and slips her panties down her long legs, I nearly lose it.
She peers over her shoulder at me, a playful twinkle in her eye, and I feel like I’ve won.
“I’m tired of being sad,” she says at last. “I want you naked.”
I’m wearing my heart on my sleeve with this next question, but I have to ask it. “Do you want more than my body? Do you want me?”
She smiles. “Yes, I want you.”
“As more than friends?”
“As friendsand more.”
Joy sweeps through me, and I waste no time removing my clothes. In one long stride, I go to her, wrapping my arms around her waist and letting her sway into me. Even with the damaged prosthetic, I hold her up. I don’t care if my weight distribution feels off, or that it sends nerve pain through the right knee. I’ll take all the pain for Sybil. Hell, I’ll take a bullet for this girl. Today proved that.
“I’m so sorry, Sybil. I messed up, and I almost lost you.”
“I almost lost you, too.” Her voice breaks, and my heart shatters, but she puts it right back together with her next confession. “I love you. I don’t ever want to be apart from you again. Love is more important than anything else, Cooper. And you’re the man I’m choosing to give my heart to.”
Heat flares low, and I clutch at her hips, bringing my mouth down on hers, kissing her like it’s our last kiss but secure in the knowledge that it’s not. She loves me. She doesn’t want to be apart from me. And loving me is more important than being angry.
She’s seen my shadows, my darkness, my pain and broken pieces—and she wants me, anyway.
