The Risks We Take Duet Box Set

17. Carys

CARYS

C ooper carries me up the stairs to my bedroom and, with more gentleness than he looks capable of, places me down on the bed. I reach over and grab my phone from the nightstand and turn on my new nighttime playlist.

He reaches behind his neck and drags his t-shirt over his head, and I momentarily stop thinking altogether and stare. His body is a work of art, cut like a marble statue, and my heart speeds up at the sight. He kicks off his sneakers and steps toward my open balcony doors.

“You sleep with these open?”

I tuck my knees up inside my shirt, resting my arms around them, and then tilt my head, fascinated by the movement of the muscles in his back. “Not usually. But Linc and Em aren’t exactly quiet.” I shrug. “The music helps, but the sound of the ocean works even better.”

When he turns and unbuttons the top button of his jeans, my brain explodes.

“Do you care if I take my jeans off?” He says it so casually that I have to bite down hard on my bottom lip to keep in the hysterical laughter threatening to bubble up and burst free.

“If you’re trying to seduce me, Cooper, you’re doing a freaking phenomenal job.”

His eyes go dark with lust, and a swarm of butterflies suddenly take flight in my stomach. “If I was trying to seduce you, Carys, you wouldn’t be talking right now.” He shucks his jeans and sits down on the bed with his back against the headboard before reaching for me. The chunky black watch he wears is a stark contrast to his tanned skin and looks sexy as hell on his wrist. I don’t think I’ve seen him without it since the first time I saw him at the bar.

I lean over the nightstand and switch off the light, bathing us in darkness. There isn’t even moonlight filtering in through the storm clouds gathering over the ocean. And as Coop holds me in his arms, a loud boom in the distance is followed by a bright bolt of lightning over the churning waves. The first fat drops of rain start to fall, playing a staccato beat against the wrought-iron railing of the balcony.

I tentatively trace my fingers over his chest, trying to shake my wracked nerves. The cocooning darkness of the night emboldens me.

“Do you ever get scared?” I whisper, wanting to know but terrified of his answer.

“Yeah,” he answers just as quietly. “Fear is healthy. It reminds you you’re alive.” He absently plays with my hair, running his hand through the length of it, then twirling a lock around his finger before tucking it behind my ear. “But then the adrenaline kicks in, and your body does what it’s trained to do. It’s when the adrenaline rush is over that your mind starts to wander. Starts to remember...”

His body is warm and relaxed, and I’m finding it hard to believe he’s here, next to me right now, but who knows where he’ll be tomorrow.

“Coop... what changed?” I can’t believe I’m asking, but I need to know. “Why now? What made you look at me now?” My words stay soft. Unsure.

Cooper presses his lips to the top of my head before answering, and I inhale his clean scent, memorizing it, so I can still smell it once he’s gone. “Do you really think I only just saw you, Carys?”

I tilt my head back and run my hand up his neck to the back of his head. If I ever want this to be more, I have to be honest. “I guess I do. This last week has been different. You’ve been different.”

With an almost imperceptible shake of his head, he agrees with me. “I guess I have, but so have you. When I met you, you were a freshman in high school. Your brother was my best friend, and I was about to turn eighteen. There was no way anything could have happened then, but I promise you, I saw you. I always saw you.” Coop crosses his legs at his ankles and gets comfortable.

“I saw how you would beam up at Murphy any time you two were in the same room. I paid attention to the way you’d talk about being a Broadway star one day and saw every single show you performed on Kroydon Prep’s stage once I moved to town. My favorite was Rent . You killed it, but I didn’t like when you had to die for a minute at the end.”

A cool breeze blows in through the doors, and goosebumps scatter over my bare skin.

Not as much a reaction to the cold as the realization that this man has always seen me.

“I watched you get quiet when there were too many people around. The way you prefer to be surrounded by people you know, people you feel safe with. I know the freckles across your nose and cheeks get darker in the summer and you hate the ocean at night. I’ve been watching you for a long time, baby. But our family situation is complicated. I haven’t figured out how we’re going to deal with all that yet. But seeing you last week... away from everyone else.” He trails the tips of his fingers along my throat, and I shiver as the heat building between us comes close to incinerating us both.

“You’re not that kid anymore, Carys. Neither of us is.”

I lay my face against his shoulder and hide my eyes. “I saw you too, you know?”

Laughter rumbles up his exquisite chest. “Yeah. You weren’t as good at hiding it as I was.”

“You asshole,” I laugh and try to yank away from him, but he tugs me back.

“Hey, now. Don’t be like that. I liked the way you looked at me.”

We lie in the quiet of the room, listening to the storm outside play its own tune as sleep slowly tugs at the two of us.

“Sing me something, Carys,” he whispers as the weather rages on.

Without overthinking it, I sing the old Lifehouse song we danced to years ago while I run my fingers over his chest. And by the time I sing the last words of the song, his breathing has evened out, and his strong, hard body has relaxed around me.

Everything but the grip he has on me.

That’s tighter now than it’s ever been.

On my body and on my heart.

W hen an alarm rings softly from Cooper’s phone hours later, I brace myself. He’s leaving, and I don’t know where he’s going or when he’s coming back. I don’t know how to do this, but I’m about to learn.

Baptism by fire and all that good stuff.

His blue eyes crack open and meet mine. “I’m sorry.” His voice is rough with sleep, and I want nothing more than for the two of us to lie back down and block out the rest of the world while we hide under the covers. But that can’t happen. “I didn’t mean to wake you.” He sinks back down into the mattress as if reading my mind, then pulls me closer.

I burrow deeper, needing to be as close to him as possible. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve been awake.”

Cooper’s hand slips under my nightshirt, skims over my lacy cheeky panties, and stops on my rib cage. He doesn’t move it any higher. Doesn’t so much as hint that he wants what I’m dying for. “Were you watching me sleep, beautiful? Sounds kinda creepy.”

“We’ve already established that we both like watching, Cooper Sinclair. Don’t tell me the big bad SEAL gets creeped out by little old me.”

“There are so many things I want to watch you do, baby.” He has a devious glint in his eyes as he lowers his mouth down to mine and slides his tongue along the seam of my lips, silently begging for entrance that I’d never refuse. Then he rolls me under him.

Nothing has ever felt as good as Cooper’s weight on my body.

His chest against mine.

The strength of his arms wrapped around me.

And when the sleep timer on his phone chimes again, reminding him it’s time to go, I want to cry that this moment is over too soon. Cooper rolls over and silences the alarm on the nightstand. “I’m sorry, Carys. As much as I wish I didn’t have to leave, the Navy doesn’t accept excuses.”

I skim the tip of my pointer finger over the lines of his muscled chest and down to his abs, stopping at the edge of his boxer shorts. “Promise you’re coming back?”

“Nothing in this world would stop me from coming back to you. Not now that I have you.” A predatory smile stretches across his face before he kisses me again.

Excitement and fear go to war with each other deep in my stomach. “I’ve wanted you for years. I’ve waited for you, Cooper Sinclair. Don’t you dare break that promise.”

“When I get back, we’ll figure everything out. I promise.” His eyes dance between mine. “Okay?”

“Yeah.” I refuse to let him see me cry. If I want this—want him—I’m going to have to get used to Cooper leaving. Even if I hate it with every fiber of my being. I know what he does for a living. What he’s always wanted to do. And I think I have a pretty good idea how much he loves it. So, instead of being weak and needy, I stand from the bed and hand him his shirt.

Once he’s dressed, he closes my balcony doors. “Don’t sleep with them open while I’m gone, okay?” He grips the back of my neck and draws me to him.

I reach up on the tips of my toes and press my lips against his. Sealing our promise. Soaking him in.

He kisses me reverently before he lets me go. “See ya soon, mini-Murphy.”

“Oh my God,” I laugh. “I haven’t heard that in years.”

Coop’s smile stretches. “I got you to laugh.”

“You did.” I touch my lips with my fingertips. “Be safe, Coop.”

He nods once, then walks through my bedroom door, closing it behind him.

He didn’t say goodbye.

We didn’t say goodbye.

Maybe that’s better.

I drop down onto my bed, and the first tear falls. Once the gates open, there’s no stopping the waterworks. After a few minutes, my bedroom door cracks open, and Emerson climbs into bed with me. Matching tear-tracks run down her cheeks.

“They’re going to be fine. Right?” Her last word gets caught on a sob.

“They’re going to be fine.” I’m not sure if I’m trying to convince us or willing it to be true.

But I refuse to accept that the universe would finally bring us together, only to take him from me now.