Cooper cleared his throat, still clutching Cici so closely she soaked in his strength, hoping her legs would hold her up if he released her.
“Hey, Jackson. Erica.” Pride resonated in the squaring of Cooper’s shoulders, and protectiveness and love turned his gaze soft and assessing as it landed on her. “Cici, this is my brother and business partner, Jackson, and his fiancée, Erica.”
Jackson opened his arms and pulled Cici into an embrace before she had time to think. He smelled musky and clean, and as he hugged her like they were old friends, she prayed he wouldn’t smell the scent of sex on her.
“I’m so glad you really exist,” Jackson said. “I was afraid he had a blow-up doll stuffed in his suitcase that he’d named Cici.”
Cici laughed nervously as Jackson released her and Erica immediately wrapped her in her long, lithe arms.
“Don’t mind Jackson. He’s just teasing. Cooper’s an amazing man, and he’s been dying to reconnect with you,” Erica said with a sweet smile.
There wasn’t much time for Cici to stew in her nervousness, as that little golden nugget made her spirits soar. Jackson and Erica were warm and friendly, and they weren’t looking at her like she’d just come down from an intense orgasm. Their smiles reached their eyes, and if she was reading them correctly, they were genuinely happy to see her and Cooper together.
Cooper wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her against him again, pressing his lips to her cheek. His closely trimmed beard tickled when he kissed her, making her insides twist with delight. She liked being there, pressed against him like she was his. His dark eyes were smiling, too, and that made her feel even more comfortable, despite what they’d just done. Their own dirty little secret.
“Hi. It’s nice to meet you both. Sorry I’ve monopolized Cooper’s time.”
“Get used to it,” Cooper said before kissing her again, “because hopefully she’ll be monopolizing a lot more of my time from now on.”
He looked deeply into her eyes, and she felt herself tipping over the edge toward that head-over-heels tumble that had consumed her so easily the last time. When he slid a hand up her back to the nape of her neck and whispered, “I love you so damn much it hurts,” down, down, down she fell.
They had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Cici loved listening to Jackson and Cooper tease each other, and Erica was smart and funny. She had a million stories about Jackson and Cooper as teenagers, and as the stories unfolded, one thread remained consistent. Cooper and his brothers were very close, doing almost everything together from the time they were kids, and at the end of every story, there was another story about their parents. While Cici loved hearing about how Cooper’s father taught him to do everything from fixing his car engine to scraping the side of their house and repainting it, she sensed how much both Cooper and Jackson missed him.
“Their mother actually caught us having sex when we were teenagers,” Erica confessed.
“In Logan’s bed,” Cooper added.
“What?” Jackson said with a laugh. “He and Heath had the only bedroom, and I wasn’t about to have this naked beauty in the loft where you could walk in anytime,” Jackson said as he pulled Erica closer.
“We lived in a two-bedroom house just outside of the city, in Rosedale. My mom still lives there. Jackson and I had bunk beds in the loft at the top of the stairs.” Cooper smiled. “Not a lot of privacy growing up.”
“I love that you guys are so close. But I’d have been mortified. What did your mom do?” Cici asked.
“She gave me a lecture about respecting and taking care of Laney,” Jackson said. “She wasn’t as mad about us having sex as she was worried about Laney, because of some other stuff she’d had going on in her life at the time.” He kissed Erica’s temple, and Erica pressed her hand to his cheek.
“You know she never told Dad,” Cooper added. “You’d have never heard the end of it if she had.”
Cici heard the longing in Cooper’s voice and tried to lighten the mood. “Did you ever get caught?”
Cooper laughed. “Not with my pants down. While Jackson was into Erica, I was busy winning photography contests.”
“He was a major suck-up,” Jackson teased.
“I was not. Dad and I were just really close. I liked traveling with him to the award shows and hanging out with him. Besides”—Cooper’s voice turned solemn—“I’m glad I had that private time with him.”
Cici squeezed his hand, drawing his slightly brooding gaze to her. “I’m sure he was glad you did, too.”
He nodded and pressed his lips to hers. “Yeah, I know he was. We had a lot of good times. I think he’d’ve loved you, too, Celeste Fine.”
“I wish I had gotten to meet him.”
Cooper pulled her in closer.