Page 10 of The Rebel

A sly smile pulled at my lips. “Tell me more.”

“I’ve had to force myself not to touch you. You know, to not accidentally graze my hand across your arm”—his fingers landed on the outside of my bicep, stroking across the thickness of my sweater dress—“and for my knee not to drag over the side of your thigh every time you recrossed your legs.” He closed in the space between our knees. The softness of his pants touching the bareness of my skin felt like little bolts of electricity bursting right through me. “All I’ve thought about is putting my hands on you, using my fingers to make you scream.” He pulled his leg away, along with his hand, and sipped his drink. “Aside from being beyond beautiful, there’s more, Rowan.”

“More than just wanting to get me naked?”

He nipped his lip, the bottom one, the fatter of the two. The one that would be the perfect size to suck on. “Getting you naked has consumed me, yes, but it does go deeper than that.”

I couldn’t wait to hear this, so I stayed silent.

Waiting.

Anticipating.

He returned his drink to the bar top. “There’s something about your personality that I can’t get enough of.”

“You mean … conversation?”

“Answers. Knowledge. Small talk. Fuck, you could look around this room and tell me every detail you see—I wouldn’t care. I just want to hear more of your voice.”

A response that I hadn’t expected.

My brothers always said they didn’t care about getting to know any of the women they slept with. For them, it was only about how quickly they could strip off their clothes and hers.

Was Cooper different?

“Tell me what you want to know,” I whispered.

“Everything.”

I let out a small laugh, shifting in the narrow seat. “You need to be more specific than that.”

And I needed to be careful with my replies. There were things I just couldn’t say.

At least not yet.

We were facing each other, our sides pressed against the bar top, which he stretched his hand across, the hint of his fingers now teasing my back. “Why don’t you start with where you live?”

“LA, like you.”

His head tilted in a way that made his stare deepen. “What brought you to Alberta, then? It certainly wasn’t the weather if you and winter aren’t friends. Unless you came to ski?”

“I planned on doing some skiing today. That got canceled.”

“So, you’re here for pleasure?”

I laughed, this time much harder. “All you’ve done is talk about pleasure, so if that’s what you’re referring to, then, no, I didn’t come here forthatkind of pleasure. You’re just … an unexpected surprise.” I smiled. “Why are you here?”

“Business.”

I’d suspected as much. “Is that all you’re going to say about it? Business?”

He glanced around the bar before his eyes came back and locked with mine. “I don’t want to bore you with the logistics of my visit. I flew in this morning with all plans to fly out several hours later. That obviously didn’t work out.” His tongue swiped the corner of his mouth. “But it’s a cancellation I’m quite fond of at the moment.”

I grinned. “Next question.”

“What do you do for work?”

“I don’t want to bore you with the logistics.” I winked. “So, I’ll say I work for the family business. In a new role. I just joined only a few months ago. Which is funny because I told myself I’d never get sucked into the family politics, and yet, here I am, sucked into the family politics.”

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