Rebels and Roses (Winslow Heights #2)

Chapter 1

1

C ooper Winslow had always thought of himself as a man who could take a joke. He had an excellent sense of humor and was always ready to have a laugh at himself. He actively tried not to take life too seriously, cultivating a laid-back personality. One of his brothers had joked that Cooper didn’t care about anything at all.

This was far from the truth.

He cared about justice. He cared about having empathy for his fellow human beings. He cared about making sure children had food in their stomachs. What he didn’t care about was things like being first in line or whether someone was passing him on the road. They were all going to get there eventually, so why worry?

If he was stuck in traffic, he didn’t rant and rave, banging the steering wheel at the hand the universe had dealt him. He’d always simply assumed that the pesky “universe” didn’t want him getting where he was going until a bit later.

So it was with that attitude that he kept staring at the text on his phone.

He hadn’t been expecting it. At all.

If someone had bet him a million dollars this morning that Cooper would receive a text from his ex-wife Fiona, he would have taken that bet with confidence. He hadn’t heard from her in years. He hadn’t expected to either.

“You’ve sort of zoned out there. Are you okay? Do I need to get you some smelling salts or a fainting couch?”

Ah, Jane Taylor.

She was an intelligent, feisty woman who was also drop-dead gorgeous. She had a wicked sense of humor and a potty mouth that would make a sailor blush. Her absolute steadfastness about living life on her own terms and being who she was without apologies was one of the things he loved about her.

Not love-love. They didn’t have that sort of relationship. In fact, no one else knew they were seeing each other. He was her dirty little secret, and it was fine with him. He wasn’t looking for emotions or entanglements. He could just sit back and enjoy the hot, raunchy sex without needing to place some sort of label on what they were to each other.

He simply admired her ability to not bend to societal expectations. He had the same disdain for the world’s arbitrary rules about how he or others should act.

“A fainting couch?” he echoed. “We’re already in bed. I can’t fall much further. And I don’t have any smelling salts. It’s not the late eighteenth century, and this isn’t Pride and Prejudice. ”

“I think they still make them.”

“We’re not in one of your romance novels. If I get the urge to faint, I’ll just sit down and put my head between my knees.”

“I’d give anything to see that.”

“You’d just tell me to kiss my own ass.”

“I won’t deny it.” Jane rearranged the covers and slid a few inches away. He instantly missed the warmth of her satin-like skin. “Seriously, are you okay? You look like you’re in shock.”

“That’s because I am. I didn’t expect to get a text from my ex-wife.”

He held up the phone so she could read it for herself. He didn’t have any secrets.

Wait…that wasn’t true. He did have secrets. The fact that he was a best-selling mystery writer was a secret from his family and most of his friends. Oh, and sleeping with Jane was a secret, too. But other than that? None.

“She’s here in town? She wants you to meet her? What are you going to do?”

“Go see her, I guess.” With a groan, Cooper threw the covers aside and levered up from the bed. This wasn’t what he wanted to do. He wanted to stay here and eat pizza with Jane. Maybe make love to her again, but that’s not what would happen. “If Fiona flew all this way to see me, the shit must have really hit the fan. The last time I saw her, she said she hoped to never see my face again.”

“She probably didn’t mean it.”

“She meant it.”

He had no doubts whatsoever that Fiona hated him. She blamed him for their divorce. She blamed him for climate change and a list of other things, as well.

Hell, maybe she was right. He hadn’t been the greatest husband. But in his defense, he’d warned her. She’d pushed for the commitment, anyway, not believing him and assuming he didn’t know himself as well as she did.

Pure madness. He should have shut it down, but he’d thought he was in love. Now he knew it was simply intense lust that hadn’t been slaked as quickly as his past relationships.

“Does she have reason to?”

“What do you think?”

“That you were a total shit to be married to. Did you cheat on her?”

Cooper had no illusions about his youth. He’d been a complete horndog, enjoying the chase as much as the eventual capitulation. Somewhere along the way, he’d slowed down a bit and only slept with one woman at a time. And just the ones that he truly liked as people. Even then, he wasn’t what he would call…boyfriend material. He never stuck around long enough.

“I didn’t cheat on her,” he finally replied. “Believe it or not, I do have a sense of right and wrong. I just wasn’t the type of guy that made a good husband. I was always wanting to travel. I didn’t want to settle down.”

“She wanted to?”

Fiona had wanted the entire package, which had come as news to him after they’d been married a few years. A huge, fancy house, a car, two kids, a dog, and a white picket fence. Except that she came from a wealthy family, so the house - rather, mansion - had a big wrought iron gate. The car was a Bentley, and the two kids came with a live-in nanny. The dog was the type that she could put in her purse and use it as a fashion accessory. Cooper had put his foot firmly down about that. Dogs were sentient beings, not a necklace or a scarf that a person could place on a shelf when they didn’t match the day’s outfit.

“I assume I was just a moment of insanity for her. After a couple of years, she realized that what I’d told her was true. I wasn’t going to change.”

“Men never change for the better in marriage. Only for the worst.”

Jane had been married to a real loser of a guy. Cooper had a feeling that she didn’t trust her own instincts about men, and it was easier to simply make a sweeping statement about the entire male population. He didn’t mind what she’d said. She had her reasons to be bitter as hell. At some point, she’d fall in love with a guy and live happily ever after, forgetting the stuff she’d said in the past.

“Are you going then?” she asked, propping herself up on one elbow.

“As much as I’d like to laze around in bed with you and eat pizza, I think this is something that I have to do. Something must be wrong for Fiona to reach out to me.”

Cooper was already pulling on his pants from the heap of clothes that had been earlier tossed carelessly on the floor. He didn’t need to be dressed up to meet his ex, but he at least needed pants and a shirt on. Tate, his brother who owned the tavern, wanted him to wear shoes as well.

Jane also rose from the bed, retrieving her own clothes.

“What’s she like?”

Cooper should have expected this question. He didn’t talk about Fiona often - if ever - and pretty much everyone in his life asked this or something near it. They were curious as to the woman who had somehow dragged him into holy matrimony. To be fair, it had been her idea. He’d been on board, though, thinking they were going to be off on some grand adventure.

“Fiona?”

Rolling her eyes, Jane sighed loudly.

“Of course, Fiona. Who else would I be talking about? If you don’t want to talk about her, it’s fine. Don’t pretend and then play word games with me.”

Jane didn’t take any of his shit. Another thing he liked about her.

“I don’t mind talking about her. I just don’t know what to say. I haven’t seen her in a very long time.”

“If she’s your type, then she’s blonde and blue-eyed. Big boobs. Great body.”

“I’d like to think I’m more open-minded than that.”

Jane was the opposite, and he liked the way she looked just fine. Long dark hair, vivid green eyes, and a body that would turn most men’s heads. The sexy-as-hell body that she was currently covering with her discarded clothing.

Too bad he had to leave.

“I hit the nail on the head, right?”

“Okay, that’s how she looks. Or she did look. Like I said, I haven’t seen her in a long time. She might be completely different now. She might be married with a bunch of kids.”

“With a minivan and wearing yoga pants?” Jane taunted, sliding her feet into her sandals. “Maybe she makes her own artisan bread, too?”

“I seriously doubt that.”

When they were together, Cooper had done all the cooking. Fiona wouldn’t have been caught dead in a minivan, either.

“Are you mad?”

The words had slipped out. He hadn’t meant to say them out loud. It didn’t matter if she was angry or not. He had to go. She had left him plenty of times. It hadn’t been a big deal.

Another eye roll.

“No, do you think my delicate feelings are hurt, Coop? It’s fine. I need to lay off the pizza anyway. Plus, I have some things I need to do at home. Don’t get all weird on me. We don’t have any expectations of one another, and we both like it that way. It’s easier without all those messy feelings gumming up the works.”

Amen to that.

“I’m not getting weird. You just had a funny look on your face. Like maybe you were upset or mad.”

“Well, I’m not.”

“Good. We don’t want that.”

Slinging her purse over her shoulder, Jane hesitated at the doorway. She usually would sneak down the backstairs at the end of the hall so no one would see her. They’d both decided that Winslow Heights didn’t need to know they were sweating up the sheets together.

“Good luck,” Jane said. “I hope it’s not anything terrible.”

If Fiona was here, it probably wasn’t good news.

“I hope so, too.”

He almost said that he’d tell her about it later, but he stopped himself before the words tumbled out. While Jane was easy to talk to, and he knew he could trust her with a secret - he wasn’t sure he wanted to speak to anyone about Fiona.

“So…I guess I’ll see you around.”

“We’ll get together soon,” he replied. “Maybe tomorrow or the next night. If Zack isn’t here.”

It was summer vacation, and Jane only had one class - her last class before she graduated. He and Zack, however, were busy renovating the movie theater so his older brother was around when he wasn’t with his girlfriend Lucy.

“Sure,” she said, swinging open the door. “I have an exam coming up, too. I’ll need to spend an evening studying for it.”

Jane was working on her degree in finance and accounting. She was a straight A student, and she probably didn’t need to crack a book. She was naturally intelligent, and numbers seemed to come easily to her.

She turned and left, leaving him standing in the middle of his living room, phone in hand. He quickly tapped out a message before ducking into the bathroom to clean up a bit.

Give me ten minutes.

He had to admit that he was curious as hell as to why Fiona was here. The fact was, he’d thought he’d never see her again in his lifetime. She’d been more than adamant about that the last time they’d spoken.

This…was going to be interesting, if nothing else. It might also be a terrible idea. But how could he say no when she’d flown to his dinky little town to talk to him?

Jane didn’t care that Cooper’s ex was in town. It didn’t have anything to do with her anyway. They weren’t a couple. They didn’t have “feelings” for one another. They had sex.

Raunchy, sweaty, earth-shattering sex that ought to be illegal. She didn’t know the exact laws of other countries, but she had a feeling it actually was illegal in a few of them.

She hadn’t had a bunch of lovers in her life; in fact, only four before him, but Cooper was the best of the lackluster bunch by far. It wasn’t even a contest. He won hands down by a wide margin. The three guys before her ex-husband got a pass, however, because they’d been fairly young and inexperienced. She hadn’t really known what she was doing either, to be honest.

Her ex-husband Peter had supposedly been a “man of the world”, and frankly, he could have done a hell of a lot better. He hadn’t cared much about her pleasure, concentrating on his own.

Cooper, on the other hand, wasn’t satisfied unless she was clawing at the sheets and practically screaming his name. Not that she was a screamer. She wasn’t. If anything, she liked to keep quiet, but he was always trying to get her to let go and be more vocal.

Let go. Relax. If it isn’t a little dirty, honey, it isn’t fun.

She’d been a bundle of nerves their second time together. The first didn’t count because they’d gone at each other like wild animals, releasing all that pent-up sexual frustration that they’d been bottling for months. There hadn’t been any time to be awkward or worried until afterward when her panties had been down around her ankles, and her makeup all smudged with sweat. He’d fucked her against a wall in his apartment, both of them grunting as their damp flesh lewdly slapped together. It was the kind of sex you didn’t tell your mom about.

It was then that she’d realized what they’d done.

And she wasn’t a bit sorry about it. It was finally the time in her life to have some fun.

It was a short walk to her apartment, located on the edge of campus. The two-story brick building was modest and unassuming on a block of several other structures almost identical. Housing had sprung up around the campus after World War II, and now the streets near Winslow University were lined with unofficial student housing.

Personally, Jane liked living near the students. While it could get noisy at times, it was also constantly alive. Even now at almost midnight, there were still lights on in the windows and people outside. She’d never worried about her safety since she was never completely alone.

She flipped on the light and locked her front door behind her, picking up the mail that she’d earlier stacked on the foyer table. Junk, junk, and the electric bill. She paid it online, but they still sent her a paper statement every month.

She tossed her keys onto the kitchen table and headed straight for the refrigerator, grabbing a half-empty bottle of chardonnay. She didn’t drink often, but sometimes a glass before bed helped her unwind and relax. She should have been exhausted, but instead, her mind was working a hundred miles an hour wondering why Cooper’s ex-wife was suddenly in town.

Fiona.

Jane had never known anyone with that name. She had some inkling in the back of her mind that Fiona was from Britain, but she couldn’t say for sure why she thought that. Maybe it was something one of the Winslow siblings had said. Not Cooper, though. He didn’t talk about Fiona all that much.

Or at all.

He’d mentioned that he was divorced and that was it. Jane had asked him once if his ex knew that he was a successful author, and he’d said yes. She was there at the beginning, so she was aware. Other than that, they hadn’t talked much about their pasts. They’d lived almost exclusively in the present.

She quickly shed her clothes and jumped into the hot shower, letting the soapy water slide down her skin as the spray pounded on her sore shoulders. Erotic images filled her head as she replayed the events of the evening…

Cooper touching her here and there. His lips and tongue. Those all-too-talented fingers that could make her shudder and moan so easily. He seemed to have mapped out every single erogenous zone of her all too willing body. Bracing herself, her palms against the tile wall, she groaned as she stretched her spine. Too many late nights hunched over her laptop. Lucy was always saying that they both needed to make time for yoga class.

Note to self. Go to yoga class. You’re not twenty-two anymore.

After her shower, Jane pulled on fresh panties and an oversized t-shirt before padding into the kitchen to pour that glass of wine. Curling into the cushions of the sofa, she clicked through the channels on the television, finally settling on a cooking show where the cheerful lady demonstrated how to cut up a raw chicken.

Jane’s phone was right there on the end table where she’d placed it when she came home. She could pick it up and call Lucy. Yes, it was late. Far too late to be bothering a friend, but Jane had an overwhelming urge to talk to someone. It would be even better if it was someone she was close to, someone who understood her.

Except that Lucy didn’t know about Jane and Cooper. She’d kept their dalliance a secret, although she sometimes thought her friend was suspicious. This need had come and gone before. She’d ignored it then, and she was going to ignore it tonight.

Lucy would never be angry at Jane for calling so late, but that didn’t mean it was polite to do it. Her hand hovered over the cell phone, indecision in her mind. She wanted to tell someone she was seeing Cooper. She wanted to tell them that his ex-wife was now in town. She wanted…

What in the hell did she want?

She needed to remind herself that she didn’t care if Fiona was here. That she didn’t feel that way about Cooper. No hearts involved. Just bodies. It had all been so easy and carefree.

Until tonight.

Fiona, why are you in Winslow Heights? And what do you want from Cooper?

Jane had a feeling that sleep wouldn’t come easily.