Damaged and the Beast (Damaged #1)

Cooper frowned as he took my hand into his. “You need to work less, not more.”


“I need the money for new clothes. Someone said I look like trailer trash. Maybe they were full of shit, but I feel insecure now and want to buy new clothes.”

“Who said that?” he asked in a hard low voice.

“It was a girl so you can’t hit her.”

“What girl? I’ll send Bailey after her.” When I smiled softly at him, he rolled his eyes. “I’ll push her into the pool for you.”

“No, it’s fine,” I said, choosing not to mention the lump. “She was protecting you, but I want to make sure I look like everyone else.”

“You look gorgeous just being you.”

“I’m not like you, Coop. I don’t want to be different. Average is my goal.”

“You aren’t average. You’re special because you’re the only girl who’s ever made my heart hurt. You’re mine and I’ll buy you new clothes so you don’t have to work this weekend.” When I started to protest, he shushed me. “If you don’t want to shop with me, I’ll give you cash and you can go with Skye.”

“I don’t want you for your money. I’m not using you.”

“I know,” he said, giving me a nod, “but I don’t care if you use me. I want you so much I don’t care why you want me.”

“That’s crap,” I whispered. “You care. As much as your money seems like an easy way out for me, I won’t use you. Not only because you matter to me and I want you to know my feelings are real. I also want to survive as a grownup on my own.”

“A grownup?”

“Don’t make fun. I have dreams and they involve hard work.”

“Work hard during the week then blow off the weekends. The fair is awesome and my family will be there and I want you to go. I want to share that with you because you work hard here and at school and you look tired. You look like you need to relax and working all weekend while everyone else plays isn’t relaxing.”

“I already told Arnie I’d work so the other girls could have time off.”

“I’ll talk to him.”

Sighing, I scooted down in the booth and pulled away my hand. “You can’t control everything. It’s like you’re a finished product and I’m a brand new idea. You’re making all the decisions about who I can be and what I can do, but I can’t make any decisions about who you are.”

“Well, for one thing, I’m not eighteen. For another, you have control over how I feel and that’s still power. Finally, maybe you grew up with a boot on the back of your neck so you need all of this independence to feel like you’ve accomplished shit, but you need to get over that. I take care of the people I love. My money can make your life easier and that makes my life easier. I’m not molding you and I don’t think you need molding anyway. The only difference between us is that I know I’m a finished product and you think you still need to change. You don’t and working this weekend so you can buy new clothes you don’t need won’t make you better. It won’t make you stronger or smarter. It’ll wear you down and give you a false sense of accomplishment. In the long run, your grades will suffer and you’ll hate your job and school and, God forbid, me.”

“I’ve dreamed of this life for a long time and I want it to be like my dream.”

“Dream bigger, baby.”

“You mean dream of you.”

“A dream with me in it, yes, but I know you want to be a teacher. I see on your face what that means to you. I’m not saying give up everything for me and be my bitch. I’m saying live your dream along with being my bitch.”

“Fuck you,” I hissed, grinning.

Cooper shared my smile. “I have to protect you. I have to feel like I’m doing right by you because my heart hurts when you aren’t happy. The last day sucked worse than any time in my life. I just couldn’t give two shits about anything because I’d lost you.”

“I don’t know. I still feel like I should work this weekend.”

Cooper sighed for nearly a minute then shook his head. “Healthy relationships are about compromise. Don’t work this weekend and go to the fair with me and I’ll buy you new clothes. See, compromise?”

“You get everything you want. How is that compromise?”

“I’m buying you new clothes that I don’t think you need,” he said, grinning. “I’m wasting money on your delusion. You’re welcome.”

Laughing, I finished my soda then stood up. “I’ll think about it.”

“And say yes when I take you home later.”

Two hours later, I did say yes, only because I was tired as hell. Schoolwork was piling up quickly and I needed time to study. As we reached the parking lot, Cooper was humming with happiness when I slid on behind him. Literally humming like a happy child who received good news from Santa. He was humming the whole drive to my apartment. After a private shower even though I knew Cooper wanted to join me, I returned to my bedroom to find him exploring my dresser drawers.

“What are you doing?” I asked as casually as I could muster.