She’d mentioned an envelope on the bed. He entered the bedroom, flicking on the light switch as he passed it. Indeed, a manila envelope lay on top of the chocolate-brown duvet.
Cooper wiped his sweaty palms on his pants before picking up the package and pulling out a sheet of paper.
Bonjour Cooper,
Your friend Tabitha contacted me. I am aware of your unique situation, and rest assured, you have nothing to worry about. Your secret is safe with me
.
Cooper’s chest tightened.
Secret?
Tabitha had told someone else about his past. Yet, had she revealed her own confidential information, stuff she hadn’t even told her husband? He eyeballed the space, expecting the authorities to rush in, or the World Health Organization in hazmat suits.
When no one burst into the room, he returned his attention to the letter.
After all, I brought Tabitha’s parents together
.
Really? Carrie and Frey met through a dating service? Obviously his parents hadn’t, or they would have been mentioned instead. Maybe his dad would have stuck around if they had.
With your friend’s help, I have arranged a date for you this evening. She will arrive at your hotel room at seven. The rest is up to you.
Chaleureusement,
Madame Eve
Cooper tensed, heat flushing through his body. How could Tabitha set him up with a stranger? Not even a simple date, but a one-night stand. She could have, at least, told him before he drove to the hotel. But then he would never have traveled to Ottawa, never gone through with the arrangement to begin with. He stood, tossing the note and envelope back onto the bed.
On his way out of the bedroom, he unclipped his phone.
No way it’s going to happen. I’m heading back home
. One hundred dollars in fuel wasted. So much for trusting his friend. Never again would he travel anywhere at her request without knowing the reason before he set out.
He grabbed his duffle bag from the floor and reached for the door handle. His phone vibrated.
Have you looked at the photo? Do not leave until you do.
Dammit
. He hadn’t noticed a picture. What difference would seeing the woman make anyway? He refused to stick around for some blind date whether with a troll or a super model. He’d had enough blind dates in his lifetime, and they all ended the same way, with the woman departing when she noticed something “off” about him. He’d learned to never stick around long enough for them to think about it any further, often excusing himself to use the restaurant bathroom and leaving instead, paying the bill on the way out.
In order to placate Tabitha—she’d torment him if he didn’t look—Cooper picked up the envelope and fished inside.
Thick, filmy paper brushed along his fingertips. He pulled out the rectangular object to see the identity of the woman about to be stood up.
No, it couldn’t be
. Wavy red hair framed the woman’s ivory face. A smattering of freckles highlighted her cheekbones, drawing his attention to her radiant clover-colored eyes. Long ago, he’d imagined kissing her full lips, slipping his hands under her tight shirt to stroke her warm skin. While his former neighbor had grown up in the best of ways over the years, she still resembled the girl he’d fantasized about for most of his early teen years.
His phone vibrated again.
Well?
Fine, I’ll stay
. He couldn’t pass up an evening with Melinda. How had Madame Eve found her after all these years? There had never been anything between them when they’d lived next door to each other. Why was she all of a sudden his date? He’d only mentioned her once or twice to Tabitha. Had his friend remembered, and had Madame Eve tracked his old neighbor down?
Regardless, if they had nothing more than one night together, he planned to fulfill as many of his fantasies as possible.
Melinda smoothed down yet another strand of hair attempting to ruin her flattened style. Picking out her ensemble had been easy—a black-and-white print dress cinched under her boobs to show off her curves rather than her extra pounds. At least she hoped it did. Getting her hair to cooperate proved much more difficult, as if it had a mind of its own and objected to anything other than her natural waves.
Crap!
She didn’t have any more time to worry about it, her five-minutes-before-the-date alarm on her phone piercing her eardrums and making the device bounce around on the vanity.
She turned off the ear-splitting noise and bustled out of the bathroom, brushing away the creases in her dress where it had pressed against the sink. Sliding into her black-suede platform pumps—anything to give her more height—she grabbed her clutch then headed out the door.
Lauren had already left for dinner with the girls, prepared to tell them a story about Melinda getting food poisoning from the roadside restaurant she’d stopped at on the way to Ottawa. Anyone who knew her would believe the tale. She loved trying new places to eat wherever she went, from truck stops to black-tie restaurants she had to reserve a table at months in advance. Though some places she vowed never to visit again, at that moment, she wanted nothing more than to taste the man in room 316.
So long as Melinda avoided running into any readers and authors on her way there, she could keep her one-night stand a secret from the rest of the world. No need for the entire romance industry to learn she’d paid to be set up with her former neighbor.
When she reached the elevator, the doors opened right away, as if waiting for her. No delaying the reunion. She rode two floors down, fighting the nausea rolling through her stomach. Closing her eyes, she took a deep inhale, letting her worry out with the exhale. She opened her eyes again at the ding of the elevator.
On unsteady legs, she wandered through the hall in search of the room where she’d reunite with the man she remembered as a skinny teen who’d kept to himself. She’d longed for his attention, left the school each day at the same time as Cooper with the hope of walking home with him, only to be refused when his mother pulled up to the curb to pick him up. And the woman never offered her a ride. Many of her friends questioned her attraction to Cooper, believing him nothing more than a geek who never had any more than a few words or a brief wave for her. How would interacting with him after so many years be any different than their childhood? Would he be glad to see her or not even open the door when she knocked?
She reached room 318 and paused, her destination still a few feet away.
Is this really such a good idea?
He hadn’t given her much attention when she weighed several pounds less. She hadn’t minded as much then, believing there to be plenty of other good guys out there for her, but she since learned otherwise. This date was supposed to be with her ideal man. What if he rejected her like all the others before him?
Should she take the plunge, risk being late— her biggest pet peeve—or leave? Sure, she wouldn’t have to face rejection, but she’d never know if anything was possible with her longtime fantasy man.
She shuffled the last few feet before knocking on the door. She cringed at the burning sensation in her chest. No meeting had ever mattered more. If this didn’t work out, she would swear off dating forever, conclude she was destined to be alone.
The lock clicked open. She held her breath, anxious about Cooper’s reaction to seeing her again.
The door opened, and she saw him, a wide smile on his face and his eyes sparkling. “Wow, Melinda, you’re even more beautiful than when I lived next to you.”
Heat rushed to her cheeks. She bounced on her toes, unable to think of a thing to say. Instead, she waved like a teenage girl with a crush. Not so long ago she had been that girl.
Cooper gestured her inside. “Come in. Our dinner will be here soon, but we have a few minutes to catch up.”
She nodded, her cheeks aching from her perma-grin. “Okay.”
Gah!
Why couldn’t she think of anything else to say? One would think she’d never been in the company of a good-looking guy before. No, not good-looking, Cooper was gorgeous. Hardly a geek anymore. He still had thick blond hair, and his blue eyes seemed to reach into her soul. His faded black T-shirt stretched across a muscular chest and arms. His jeans rode low on his hips, yet didn’t seem to sag over his ass. How she wished for him to turn around for a better view of his rear. As she passed him, he kept his gaze on her, the color in his cheeks growing deeper. She paused, unsure where to go. The dining table? The sofa? The bedroom? She released a soft groan at the thought. Had he heard it? By the end of the night, she might have slept with the man of her dreams.
For real
. But she didn’t want to come off easy, planned to stretch out their time together as much as possible before they had sex. Being asked to leave by Cooper after their time together would break her heart.
Cooper locked the door then headed her way. Instead of passing her, he lingered at her side. “Melinda, I have to tell you something.” He cleared his throat and rubbed at the middle of his forehead. “You see, my friend set this whole thing up. When I found out, I wasn’t very happy and planned to leave.”
A sudden coldness hit her core. His warm greeting, the compliments, all an act. Not the first time. He didn’t want to be there. With her. “Fine.” She peered around Cooper toward the door. “I understand. I’ll go.”
“No.” He moved closer and brushed his fingers across her hands, sending a jolt of electricity up her arms. “I changed my mind when I saw your picture.”
She swayed on her feet. Cooper had stayed for her?
He closed in, and she backed up a step. “You see, I always wanted you, even after you moved away.”
He held her tight to the wall with his muscular frame, restricting her movement. When he gripped the cheeks of her ass, she jumped at the bold move. She recovered in a split second, but didn’t miss his brief chuckle.
She reached across his shoulders, clasping her hands behind his head. So much like the beginning of all her fantasies, with Cooper taking her the moment he saw her. She pinched the back of her hand to ensure she remained in reality.
Completely authentic
.
He touched his forehead to hers, his breathing ragged. “What do you want, Melinda?”
She melted at the sexy rumble of his voice. She’d never stopped wondering what happened to him after she’d moved away or imagining him instead of many men she’d been intimate with. Everyone else had acted as an appetizer, leaving her craving him as her main course, her dessert, and every single meal thereafter. “You,” she whispered.
Cupping the back of his head, she touched her lips to his. The feather-light contact quickly became more urgent as Cooper enticed her lips open and fucked her mouth with his tongue. He grabbed her ass, lifting her closer to him. Her heart thundered. She molded into him, letting his dominating energy take control.
He fisted the material of her dress covering her thigh, kissing along her jawline, behind her ear, and down her neck. If not for the support of his hard body and the wall, she would have been on the floor, ecstasy leaving her legs numb.
Bit by bit, he inched the side of her dress up until he’d exposed her entire leg. As he ran a hand across her bare bottom, she released a quiet moan. She hadn’t expected a greeting quite like this, but she refused to stop him.
Cooper shifted, his swollen cock pressing against her through his jeans. Heat radiated off him, his need mixing with her own.
With desperate movements, he lifted her leg around his waist and reached between her legs from behind, plucking the thin material of her thong away from her folds.
Her lust cranked higher. Melinda stood on her tiptoes to grant him better access. Mind whirling, she rocked her hips toward her fantasy come true.
Knock, knock, knock
. “Room service.”
“Fuck!” Cooper released her and slammed his fist against the wall.
Melinda whimpered, disappointment clawing away at her lust. Cold leached into her veins. Her dress slid back down her thighs and past her knees. So much for keeping her legs closed. With Cooper’s irresistible charm, she’d need a chastity belt for the rest of the evening.
Cooper threw his head back.
What have I done?
If not for the interruption, he would have fucked Melinda right there in the foyer, before he’d even learned where she lived, where she worked. Never had he moved that fast with a woman, even on the rare occasion a date invited him back to her place after dinner. Sure, Melinda hadn’t objected, but he hadn’t planned to start their date with sex, not when he’d hoped the night would lead to more time together. Perhaps a lifetime.
With a sigh, he gripped the dinner cart and wheeled it into the dining room where she waited for him. He stole a fleeting look at her then quickly turned away. She must think him barbaric, a caveman taking what he wanted.
“I’m very sorry, Melinda.” He gulped, awaiting her rejection. “I should never have come on so strong.” His mother had never talked to him about the opposite sex, probably assuming he would never have a girlfriend. Frey had given him some advice, but the respect his alien friend had shown the women in his life had influenced Cooper most. And he’d forgotten all of it the moment he’d seen Melinda again, letting his primal urges control him.
She shook her head. “Don’t you dare apologize for what happened. I admit, you caught me by surprise, but you made your intentions known and eased all my worries about this date.”
A wave of relief rushed through him, though he still remained hesitant, wouldn’t take her on the table—right away. He gulped. “It’s been a long time.”
A light flush danced across her cheeks. “It has. So, do you still live on Taunton Road?”
“No.” He set the dishes from the cart onto the table and lifted off their lids, hoping to keep his hands busy with dinner rather than touching Melinda. “I live in Lindsay now. I’m a heavy-diesel mechanic.”