Page 73 of Deceptive Lies

July 14th

8:20 P.M.

There was no longer a body curled up at his side.

The realization was enough to snap Cooper from sleep to find the bed beside him was indeed empty.

Jerking upright, it took his brain a little longer to process things than it did for his panic to kick right on in. Taking in the motel room, and his brothers standing around the bed, his panic eased only marginally.

They might be out of the desert, but that didn't mean everything was magically fixed.

It had taken them hours to get Willow’s temperature down enough that Cole was satisfied she was improving. Along the way, there had been half a dozen times they’d come too close to needing to risk it all and take her to the hospital.

Once he was sure she was going to be okay he’d finally crawled into bed beside her and allowed himself to crash.

Had that been a mistake?

Had something happened while he was asleep?

While he knew his brothers would never lie to him, he also knew that if something had gone wrong, if Willow’s condition had suddenly taken a turn for the worse, they would try to cushion the blow and deliver it in the gentlest way possible.

“Relax, bro, before you have a coronary,” Cole told him before Cooper could open his mouth and demand to know what they’d done with Willow.

Even if she’d passed away, they should know that he didn't want her alone.

Not even for a second.

“She’s in the bathroom,” Connor explained.

“The bathroom?” he repeated, relief slowing his heartbeat to a more normal rate. “And you let her go alone?”

Jax chuckled. “Don’t think your girl wanted an audience while she peed, dude.”

There was no embarrassment that came with his brothers referring to Willow as his. While they had all agreed that their priority was finding the truth about what happened to their parents, they all still knew they were allowed to have their own lives outside of that.

So far Cade had been the only one to ever have a relationship serious enough that it turned into love. While they all had their suspicions that his daughter’s nanny’s quite obvious feelings for him weren't as nonreciprocal as Cade pretended they were, none of them had ever gone for it with a woman.

Well, he was going to go for it with Willow.

Not giving this thing with her a chance would be the biggest mistake of his life. He’d already gotten a taste of what it would be like to live without her when he’d thought she was going to die, and he didn't want a repeat.

“She can't be strong enough to be up and about on her own,” he rebuked his brothers as he climbed out of the bed. It wasn't rocket science. He’d told them, in great detail, what Willow had been through. Didn't they have a brain between them?

“I think that woman is strong enough to do anything,” Jake countered.

Before Cooper could agree with his stepbrother’s assertion, the bathroom door opened, and Willow limped out. With most of the dirt washed off her face, and a little color back in her cheeks, she looked a million times better than she had when he’d left her side to run toward the approaching vehicle.

Her eyes widened when she saw him standing there, and it felt like the rest of the world faded away as their gazes locked. He had no idea how long they stood there staring at one another, but the next thing he knew she was moving toward him and he was closing the gap between them, snatching her off her feet and into his arms.

Where she belonged.

“We’re alive,” she whispered, pressing her face against his neck.

“Thought I lost you,” he admitted, burying his face in her hair and breathing in her scent, letting it invade his nostrils and then his body, reassuring him that she was alive and as well as could be expected after what they’d been through.

“You didn't lose me, I'm right here.” The arms she had wrapped around his neck tightened and she lifted her face and shot him a brilliant smile before touching her lips to his.

Cooper was sure the kiss was supposed to be quick, chaste, but he immediately tangled a hand in her long, blonde locks and deepened it. His tongue sweeping inside her mouth, in a fiery kiss that under other circumstances would lead to a whole lot more.

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