“Ten years. You went to become a famous photographer and I went to become…” I laughed at myself. The red velvet walls in the room with the dimmed sex lighting told him exactly what I’d become.

“You look beautiful.” He praised me. He hadn’t changed a bit; he was as charmingly sweet as he’d been when he delivered me my first kiss on the cheek at the age of seven. “Last time I saw you, you were falling in love with a guy that wasn’t me.” He smirked.

I nodded my head. “Derrick Stevens.”

“Ah! That’s the jerk’s name! How is Derrick Stevens doing nowadays? Fat? Unemployed? Gay?” He laughed in a joking manner.

I shook my head, resting my hands in my lap. “Dead.”

Cooper’s eyes widened in horror as Frank knocked on the door and opened it to inform us that our nice ‘lap dance’ was over. I looked to Frank and then over to Cooper. He was frozen with a distressed look. I sighed, knowing I couldn’t leave him like that. I didn’t know why, but something inside of me felt like he deserved my attention. Something wanted me to stay in the room. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was an urge that I didn’t want to walk away from. Even if my mind hoped to run for the hills, my body was content with its whereabouts.

I turned to the security guard and gave him my fakest grin and a wink. “We’re gonna need a little bit more time, Frank.”

Frank closed the strip club VIP door and my eyes stayed on Cooper. The poor guy looked as if he killed Derrick himself. I almost laughed, but knew it would be inappropriate. Only a girl who was emotionally damaged to the core would laugh at such a situation.

“I’m sorry, what’s funny?” Cooper’s eyes filled with concern. I arched an eyebrow and touched my fingertips to my mouth. It was curved into a grin where uncontrollable giggles were escaping. I shook myself and stopped laughing. Nothing was funny. It wasn’t long until the silence grew haunting and Cooper replaced the dead air with questions.

“When? What happened? Do you want to talk about it?”

Six months ago. A car accident. No, never.

I nudged him in the knee, needing a change in subject. “So what have you been up to?”

His lips parted as if he wanted to speak but they shut fast. He was handsome, but the twitch in his eyebrow showed me he was also in need of repair on the inside. An overwhelming need to know more washed over me. Could it be that someone was as messed up emotionally as me? Did he have a story, too? I wanted to know. No, I needed to know. I needed to not feel so alone for a moment in my life. My eyes pleaded for him to continue his thoughts. He cleared his throat and bit the tip of his thumb.

“I left my wife.”

I watched as his face deepened into a shade of red. It was a somewhat new hurt inside of him, I could tell. His beautiful eyes told a story of sorrows and regrets—something I understood. It was my turn to ask the questions. “When? What happened? Do you want to talk about it?”

Five months ago. Tom Reed. No, never.

I glanced down to my hand resting against his leg; it must have landed there when I tried to give him some comfort after hearing that he was going through a divorce. I moved it away fast, feeling as if I had somehow cheated on my nonexistent relationship.

Frank pounded on the door to the VIP room and reopened it. “Andrea. Times up! Seriously!” He was probably getting heat from Roger. I could tell because Frank would never raise his voice to anyone unless his boss was raising his voice to him. Cooper stood up, pulled out his wallet, and handed Frank a stack of bills. The guard looked down and counted the bills quickly with his eyes before slowly closing the door.

“So you moved to New York?” he asked me, reclaiming his seat. I nodded and explained how I needed to get away from the small town. He understood, remembering what a gossiping place I grew up in. There was a silence filling the room. For the longest time it felt as if we were staring at each other and a part of me was strangely all right with that idea.

“You wanna get out of here?” Cooper asked.

I laughed, nodding. He must have been able to see the need for escapism in my eyes. I sure as heck saw it in his. “Absolutely.”

MY HANDS SHOOK as I placed the key into the door and turned the knob. Cooper stood behind me, patiently waiting. I know he noticed, but he didn’t mention the small limp I had in my leg. It wasn’t as bad as before, but it was still something someone couldn’t miss. As we walked into the small, crammed apartment I welcomed him to my home.

“It’s nice.”

“It’s not.” I laughed. I walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge, “You want a drink? A beer?”

“No thanks. I’m not a big drinker nowadays.” I looked into the fridge and realized there weren’t any beers anyways. Ladasha must have taken the last one, which was fine—she was the one who bought them. Closing the refrigerator door, I looked down, realized I was still wearing my trench coat, and remembered that underneath it I was only sporting a leopard print bra and thong. Horrified, I turned, on a mission to go change. Before I could make my way to my bedroom, Cooper’s hand had somehow found mine.

My body tingled at his touch, and I cussed for allowing myself to feel anything of the sort. His southern accent was somewhat hidden from his life in New York, but I heard it creep out as he spoke to me. “I’m sorry about Derrick. My gosh, Andrea. I couldn’t imagine. I’m so sorry.”

I looked down at our hands and my heart picked up its speed. I couldn’t stop thinking about what was going to happen next. What was going to happen next?! He pulled me closer to him. So close I could feel his breath against my cheek…So close I could have sworn our lips were touching. I allowed my eyes to shut as he lifted my chin. With every exhale he took, I inhaled his breaths. Time kept moving, but we stood still. Allowing our breaths to be all that were heard, all that were felt.

“I’m broken, Cooper,” I whispered. If he were to let go of my hands, I was certain I would shatter into a million pieces. His touch was the only thing holding me together.

“Me too.” He inched my face closer to his, but he didn’t kiss me. No, his lips lingered around my face as I slightly parted my mouth more. When I lifted my eyes, they met with his. The intense green eyes I was losing myself in made a small sigh escape me. He studied every part of my face. He ran a finger across my upper lip and then traced the bottom. Over and over again. Starting from the left and slowly moving to the right. I placed my hands against his chest, not wanting to tumble from his simple gesture. Yes…It was simple, but powerful, that small touch.

He stroked my short hair behind my ears and kissed my forehead. Gentle and loving caresses to my face made me long for his taste, yet I knew he wouldn’t make the first move, out of mere respect. I pulled his lips closer to mine and nodded, granting him permission.

What was I doing? What was I feeling? All I knew was that whenever he touched me, I didn’t feel alone.

He sheltered my mouth with his, which was enough to make my body grow weak. Yet he was there to catch me. One of his hands traveled to my lower back, his fingers massaging me. As his tongue began to explore mine, a light moan escaped from my lips. All my life I had only kissed one man, but I knew I could secretly get used to kissing the handsome soul in front of me. And that thought alone terrified me.

He led me to the couch, thrusting his body on top of mine. His mouth began to travel down to my neck, kissing me with nice pecks and sucking me gently with each new location. My toes curled into the couch cushion and I couldn’t stop from arching my back as I longed for more. He placed his hand on my bare leg and began to travel under the trench coat up to my thigh. Everything inside of me heated up more and more at his touch. I lost all connections to the real world. It was just the two of us. Sampling each other. Discovering each other.

“Coop…” I whispered. With immediate care, his eyes shot to mine and he stopped his actions. A level of guilt filled his eyes, which made him even more attractive. I shook my head, pulled his face closer to mine, and murmured, “Bed.” His guilt vanished with the taste of my lips. He lifted me up and carried me down the hall as I wrapped my legs around him and rested upon his strong body.

I needed Cooper that night and I could tell he needed me just as much. It was our escape from reality. Time didn’t exist when I was with him that night. There were no yesterdays and no tomorrows. There was no thought involved, just passion. One kiss after another. One embrace made everything else seem meaningless just for a few moments. My mind was emptied. The feeling of overthinking every little detail of life vanished. The replaying of the accident wasn’t happening within my head during those moments. Yes, we both were in need of some space between our all too messed up realities. Real life was too tough to face, and right now Cooper was forgetting about his drama in the world and I was forgetting about Derrick.

Derrick.

My eyes slowly opened to find Cooper kissing my nose. We’d finished our escape from reality. Our bodies spread out on my bed, clothes scattered across the floor, and my eyes shifted away from the handsome man lying next to me. And I remembered.

Derrick. I felt dirty. The same dirtiness washed over Cooper’s face as we sat up in the bed. The night’s autumn breeze was chillier than most nights as it flew past my open window. I quickly stood to shut it. All the heat that had run through my body a few minutes ago was long gone, and I was freezing.

Bending down, I wrapped a sheet around my body and handed Cooper his shirt. I couldn’t even hold in my smile as I watched him stand from the bed. He had the most perfect butt I’d ever seen. I couldn’t find the strength to look away as he slid his boxers on—he was gorgeous. I was torn. My heart was crying out as the pains of my previous actions were now creeping into my mind, yet at the same time I wanted round two of Cooper Davidson.

“I can’t believe we just did that,” he stated as he continued to get dressed. I couldn’t believe it either.

I had a feeling Cooper wasn’t one to partake in random flings. And it wasn’t extremely random what we’d done— we knew each other after all. We’d grown up together. Well, kind of.

“I don’t know if you felt it…I mean it just felt like…” He paused and shook his head as he continued to button his long-sleeved shirt. My softened expression probably showed him I’d felt it too. It felt like an escape. A way out for a moment in time. But the moment passed, and time had a way of never standing still.

He looked at me in my sheet and studied my curves. I aggressively pulled the sheet tighter to my body and watched as his eyes shifted away from me. He clearly could tell how uncomfortable I was.

“Let me take you out to dinner,” he suggested.

“No.”

He turned to face me and delivered a smile which made every inch of my skin tingle once again. How did he do that? “Why not?”

“It's against the rules.”

“What rules?”

The rules I had already pretty much destroyed. The Pretty Woman rules. No personal information. That kind of went out of the window when I walked into the VIP room and saw him standing before me.

No kissing on the lips.

Crap.

And no second meet ups. I could hold up to that one. I felt pretty silly thinking about the rules, but Ladasha had taught me them, and it was my duty to follow through with at least one of the rules. And going out to dinner with gorgeous Cooper Davidson was not allowed.

“Come on, tell me. What rules?” He was interested as he raised one of his eyebrows. Everything he did was sexy. The sweat dripping down his forehead? Sexy. The way he bit the tip of his thumb? Sexy. The way he growled in my ear while nibbling it? Sweet mother of everything righteous…He could call me names, ignore my existence, tell me to piss off, and it would still make my body want him to claim me all over again. But, he would never do those things. He was too much of a southern gentleman.