Page 101 of Savage

I smirked and gestured out the window. “You done here?”

Cooper wrote a couple more notes into his phone and snapped some more pictures of our surroundings, and when he nodded, I gave the pilot the go-ahead to continue on.

We headed farther up the Hudson, giving Cooper the best possible view of the Statue of Liberty, and with the sun setting behind the famous landmark, it was the perfect time of day to see it.

“That’s amazing,” he said, taking a few more photos. “I hadn’t even gotten a chance to go see it yet.”

“It wasn’t the first thing you did when you arrived?”

“I mean, I was kind of preoccupied. I haven’t done all the fun, touristy stuff yet, but it’s on the list.”

Of course he hadn’t. I’d been right in thinking Cooper was so focused that he hadn’t allowed himself a chance to see all the good parts of the city that had raised me. There was a reason I’d chosen to make my home here after graduating, though it’d been more of a grow-to-love than an insta-love thing for me.

“Oh wow, that’s the 9/11 memorial, huh. What do they call the big tower?”

“One World Trade Center.”

He nodded, going quiet for a long moment, and then we came up to Midtown and his face lit up at seeing the Empire State Building up close.

“The city doesn’t look so big from up here,” he said after I pointed out a few other sites I thought he’d want to take photos of. “I mean, obviously it’s huge, but you don’t really get a sense of how damn big every block is until you’re down there. Oh shit, is that Yankee Stadium?”

I nodded, his enthusiasm so appealing. It’d been a long time since I’d looked at anything with such joy. Hell, I couldn’t evenrememberthe last time, but it felt as though I was living vicariously through Cooper’s eyes. Everything was exciting to him, a never-ending chorus of gasps and photos being taken.

He leaned in suddenly, holding his phone up, and pointed it at us so we both featured on the screen. “Smile,” he said, grinning broadly at the camera. I wasn’t an easy grinner, but his mood was rubbing off on me, and I could see the faint amusement on my face as he captured several photos in a row. Then kissed me quickly before looking back out. The helicopter was circling back in the direction of Central Park.

“This is by far the coolest thing I’ve done since I’ve been here,” Cooper said. “Thank you for this.”

His reaction only justified the decision I’d made on where we were going next. King wanted Cooper to stay at Libertine so he’d be safe, but more than that, he wanted me to keep an eye on him.

I reached over to tighten Cooper’s seatbelt before the helicopter began its descent to our destination.

And then I waited for the questioning to begin in three…two…

“Wait, this isn’t Libertine,” Cooper said, staring out at the building below.

“No, it’s not.”

“Where are we?”

We landed with a jolt, and as the pilot cut the engine, I unbuckled both our seatbelts. The door was pulled open, and I reached for Cooper’s hand and said, “Home.”

33

COOPER

“HOME” TURNED OUT to be an entire floor of a luxury building somewhere directly below Central Park. While that alone was impressive, I was more shocked over the fact that he’d brought me there.

While Lachlan turned on the lights, I stood in the middle of an enormous room with floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the sprawling park below. It was an incredible view, all covered in a frost of winter white, but I had a feeling come spring it would be to die for.

As Lachlan walked back in the room, I noticed his shoes were gone, and so was his jacket. He’d unbuttoned one of his sleeves and started rolling it up his arm, and it was such a picture of relaxation that I never saw of him at Libertine. This was obviously where he felt most comfortable, and the fact that I was here, in his private space, meant he trusted me enough and wanted me there.

My chest squeezed, and I took a mental picture, committing this moment to memory. When I first entered the Libertine penthouse, it hadn’t felt at all like the kind of place Lachlan would live in, but this place even smelled like him, like a sexy, rich wood that immediately made me feel at ease.

Even in a place that boasted a freakin’ helipad.

“Hungry?” he said, as he finished rolling up the second sleeve. There was something so effortlessly sexy about him here in his element, and even though I knew he was referring to food, this whole scene had my cock taking notice.

I nodded. “Starving.”

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