Page 27 of Touch Me (Complete Collection)

“Okay.” He carted her up and pecked her sweetly on the lips.

“You should know though, that you make me very happy!” Jenny whispered fiercely in his ear.

He grabbed her waist and stood up. She gasped as her feet left the ground. He threw her over his shoulder and held the back of her knees, while she clasped wildly at his bare back. “What are you doing?” she laughed, screaming.

“I'm going to see if I can make you happier.”

Jenny squealed as he carried her to the bedroom, and threw her on the bed like a sack of flour.

**

“Do you really have to go?” She clung to his arm like a child.

He hugged her for the tenth time. “God, I’m going to miss you.”

“I'm going to miss you too. Can you try and wrap everything up quickly? So you can get back in a couple of days?”

“I will. Now go to work. I'm late for my flight.”

“I hate Australia,” she mumbled as he opened the front door.

He turned to smile. “It’s not Australia’s fault I have business there, sweetheart.”

She giggled and waved, and he was gone.

Jenny sighed, staring at the door, her heart sinking. A week wasn’t that long. But she knew what his empty apartment would be like without him – gloomy. The last time he had gone, they hadn’t even been together. They hadn’t been in love. “It’s going to be so much harder this time,” she whispered to the apartment, as she got ready for work.

**

Jenny sat in front of the TV, eating takeout Chinese. She was eternally grumpy, and bored. A few colleagues had planned a farewell party for the accounts executive, but she had no urge to go. She glanced at the clock. The days, the hours, everything… dragged without Cooper.

The doorbell rang, and she swiftly got up to peek through the peephole. Her lips curved into a smile as she saw Cooper’s brother, Dexter, and yanked the door open.

“Hi!” she cried, as he reached forward and wrapped his arms around her in a brotherly bear hug.

“Hi, Jen. Oh god, you’re so different!”

She chuckled. “So are you. It’s so good to see you! Come in!”

He made himself comfortable and she got him a beer from the fridge. “I've been asking Cooper for weeks about you.”

“Weeks?” He seemed confused.

“Yeah. Ever since I came here. And I heard you got married! Cooper is so vague, and honestly he is a little busy too.”

“Yes that he is. So busy, that he didn’t tell me you’ve been here for weeks.”

“He didn’t?”

He shook his head, staring at her. “Why wouldn’t he tell me?”

“I uh…I don’t know.” Her giddiness quickly evaporated, her brain flooded itself with negative thoughts – assumptions that would incriminate Cooper. “I've been here a couple of months now.”

A smile spread across his face. “Here? In his apartment?”

“Yeah.” She blushed.

“So you two are a thing now?” he asked with a conspiratorial smirk.

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