Page 7 of Temptation and Tyranny

As Cooper continued to take in the scene before him, his expression transformed into something lethal. His features hardened to stone, jaw clenched like a steel trap. He coiled with the quiet menace of a cobra preparing to strike.

“This is between me and my girlfriend,” Tomas spat out, trying to pull me along the alley, farther away from where Cooper stood.

“Funny, it doesn’t look like she has any desire to be your girlfriend, do you, Miss Prescott?”

I didn’t know Cooper even knew my last name, but apparently, he’d done his homework at some point.

“You know him?” Tomas hissed, practically spitting against the side of my face. I flinched, both scared and embarrassed. I didn’t know why I was ashamed of Cooper seeing me like this, but I was.

“She does,” Cooper said, answering swiftly and with an extreme amount of confidence. For once, I was glad he was arrogant and cocky. “If you don’t let her go right this second, I’ll be forced to intervene. Would you like that?” Cooper cracked his knuckles and then made a move as if to cross the street.

Tomas instantly released me, turned, and ran back down the alleyway. He tripped and fell, picked himself up, and then continued running until I could no longer hear his feet hitting the concrete.

Cooper broke the silence, letting out a low chuckle. He looked over at me, then opened his car door, pulling out his black cane. I walked over to him, and he leaned heavily on it.

“I’m glad he didn’t ask me to prove it,” he said, the corner of his mouth lifting in amusement. “I doubted he would have waited for me to grab this damn thing.” He gestured towards the cane, and his joking tone dropped quickly.

I was still trembling from head to toe. Fear gripped at my chest; for a moment, I had really thought I was going to end up dead in an alleyway, my body mixed in among the trash. A rogue tear made its way down my cheek, and Cooper looked at me, slightly horrified.

“I’m sorry,” I said, wiping my nose on my arm inelegantly. “I was really scared.”

His voice softened to a tone I’d never heard before. “Shhhh, don’t cry.” He looked at me awkwardly, like he’d never seen a woman cry and had no clue how to handle it.

But that just made me cry harder.

Without saying a word, Cooper chucked his cane in the backseat, and then opened the passenger door for me.

“Get in,” he said, his tone authoritative. I glanced to my left and saw Gregor appear with a security guard from the back door of the club, and I realized I had no desire to recount the story to anyone else or even speak to Gregor again. What kind of man leaves a woman in a situation like that?

I quickly slid into the car, and Cooper laughed quietly. “Good choice.”

I watched as he hobbled around the car, using his hand and the car’s body to support him as he made it to the driver’s side. He got in and shut the door.

He looked up the alley and saw Gregor.

“Was that your date for the evening?”

I said nothing, partly because it wasn’t his business and partly because I was embarrassed about my choice in men lately.

“Figures,” he muttered underneath his breath.

“What does that mean?” I asked, my teeth chattering slightly despite the warm air.

“Some women just don’t know how to pick ‘em.” He fired up the engine, turning up the heat on my side. The car practically purred, and I looked around, taking in my surroundings for the first time.

Cooper drove an incredibly expensive car. I wasn’t a car buff, but I could recognize luxury when I saw it…and this car was loaded with it. The inside still contained that new car smell, lightly mixed in with male’s cologne; the scent was practically intoxicating.

“Where to, Miss Prescott?” he asked, pulling away from the curb with a roar of the engine.

“I live a couple of blocks away. You don’t need to drive me.”

Instead of focusing on the road, he looked at me. I instantly flushed, realizing how much my skirt had inched up and how much my top had slid down. I quickly adjusted my dress, and Cooper snapped his focus back to the road, his head turning just a beat too late.

“If you live a couple of blocks away, that asshole could be stalking your apartment or waiting outside. I’m assuming he knows where you live?”

I nodded, another wave of panic hitting me. “I don’t think he’d do anything while he’s sober, but drunk…”

“I get it,” Cooper said. “What’s your address?”

---