“And what about you?” he argued. “What about what you need?”

Her only answer was this pained expression he didn’t quite understand.

It was full of so much hurt he decided to drop it.

Silence fell between them, but the usual camaraderie he enjoyed so much between them was gone. As the moments passed, he was aware of everything about her. The heat of her body close to his, the quick rise and fall of her chest that told him she was just as affected by his closeness, the little tremble in her full bottom lip he didn’t think she was even aware of.

The previous night, he’d dreamed about her.

She was in his bar like the day they’d met. No one else around but them.

He’d fucked her on top of one of the tables.

Fast. Furious.

So hot.

Cooper had woken up only to jump into the shower. He’d closed his eyes and remembered the dream as he took care of himself.

It was empty, so fucking empty, in comparison to what reality could be.

His dick tightened in his jeans thinking about it, his gaze shooting to Jessica’s mouth. It was time to remind her what was possible between them.

Cooper grabbed her wrist and pushed her up against the side of Dahlia’s gift shop. The alley between it and George’s place was dark and silent except for their heavy breathing. He pinned her in, his hands braced on the wall at either side of her head.

Jessica stared up at him with those big, dark eyes. “Coop—”

He cut off her coming question with his mouth just like last time.

She tasted of the mint ice cream they’d had for dessert and something else. Something all Jess.

She whimpered against his kiss a second before he felt her tongue touch his and that was it.

He was lost.

His kiss turned hungry as a feeling of desperation came over him and he pressed his body down the length of hers. The lush feel of her mouth mingled with the weight of her breasts pressed to him was enough on its own to fire him up, but when she wrapped her arms around his neck and tightened her fingers in his hair to draw him closer, he was done for.

He gripped her ass in his hand, urging her closer, his dick straining against her belly. His hand slid down to the back of her thigh and he hiked one of her legs up against his hip so he could be where he needed to be, fitting snugly between her thighs.

Fuck, he wished she were wearing a skirt.

“Cooper.” She breathed out his name, breaking the kiss. Her head fell back and her eyes fluttered with the sensation of him rubbing against her, mimicking sex. Her cheeks were flushed as she moaned and dug her hands into his shoulders to hold on. She flexed her hips against his and he felt his nerve endings catch fire.

He needed to be inside her.

The soft skin of her throat called to him and, as she gyrated against him, he tasted her, pressing kisses down her neck and across her collarbones. He moved his other hand down her back as his mouth reached the rise of her breasts. He brushed his thumb over the thin shirt and bra that hid them from him and groaned as her nipple visibly pebbled through the material.

If they didn’t stop soon he was going to take her right there.

“Fuck.” He pulled away from her abruptly and she stumbled back against the wall, looking as dazed as he felt.

All he’d wanted was a taste of her.

Now he knew for certain that just a taste would never be enough with this woman. “Tell me,” he said, a little breathless, “tell me you’ve got this back in Wilmington, Doc.”

He watched the muscle in her jaw twitch as she clenched her teeth.

She couldn’t tell him.

He knew that. Because what they had between them didn’t come around very often.

“Doc?” he persisted, and he learned in that moment that Jessica Huntington was not only smart and sassy but stubborn as hell.

“I can’t do this”—she gestured between them—“not with you.”

And she walked away.

Gutting him.

He was just asking her to think about making room in her life for him. The fact that she wouldn’t even contemplate it for a second, when his blood was on fire with need for her and his mind was on her most hours of the day, was like a gaping wound.

Strangely, the pain fired his determination. Jessica Huntington was lying to herself. Cooper didn’t know why, but he was going to find out.

By then the doc would be in his bed.

Right where they both knew she belonged.

TWELVE

Jessica

“Are . . . are you okay, Jessica?”

I glanced up from staring at the unlit hearth in Emery’s bookstore to find Emery standing over me, staring down at me with concern in her eyes.

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly.

She looked away, seeming uncertain, and then she drew in a huge breath and turned back to me. “Do you want to talk about it?”

I smiled at her generous offer. “It’s about a man.”

Her eyes lit up with curiosity. “A love affair?”

“Maybe.”

Emery sat down across from me, looking more eager than I’d ever seen her. “Unrequited love?”

“Nope.” I shook my head. “I walked away from a man last night who wants to explore the chemistry between us.”

“Is he a not good man?”

“He appears to be a very good man.” Too good for me.

“So what’s the problem?”

“Well, there is the fact that I don’t live here and he does. But the biggest problem is that he doesn’t know me like I think he thinks he does. There is this possibility that he has built me up in his head as something I’m just not and if he ever found out who I really am”—my chest hurt at the thought—“I’d lose him.” I immediately braced myself. I hadn’t meant to say so much and I didn’t want to answer the inevitable questions.