Page 59 of Claws and Feathers

“What?” Cooper grinned.

“Oh, myGod. Kate and James are making out on my living room floor right now.”

“What?” he repeated.

Abby giggled into her paint-smeared hand. “You have to come look.”

“Jesus. No. I’m dry-heaving at the thought.”

“You don’t think they make a cute couple?”

Cooper grimaced. “No.”

“You’re crazy,” Abby said, swinging her head back and forth. Her hair was falling out of her ponytail and framing her face. “I’m totally a James-Kate shipper.”

“What the hell is a ‘shipper’?” Cooper questioned with a frown.

“When you’re rooting for a relationship to happen. I thought everyone knew that.”

“Nope. I’m a guy, therefore, I don’t know that.”

Abby laughed again, her eyes crinkling with humor.Dammit, she was adorable.

Then, as she stepped forward, her foot caught on the bunched up plastic. She stumbled into his arms like a ridiculous scene in a romance movie. Cooper caught her, of course. That’s how those movie scenes played out, after all.

As she gazed up at him, her body leaning into his, warm and soft, Cooper wondered if this was the part where he was supposed to kiss her. It sure as hell felt like it.

“Sorry,” Abby said, straightening her stance with a sheepish smile.

Cooper’s arms were still encircled around her waist and the vodka was seriously messing with his voice of reason. She smelled like citrus and Sherwin Williams.

Their eyes locked.

Step. Away.

“You two are the greatest in the whole fucking world.” Kate ran into the bedroom, severing the moment. She had a giddy grin on her face. “Please have babies together. They would be so cute, and I’d rock the hell out of the aunt thing.”

Abby finally pulled away, smoothing out the front of her shirt.

“Shit. You were just about to kiss, weren’t you? I suck. I ruined everything. Carry on.” Kate exited the room as brazenly as she had entered.

An awkward silence settled in as their gaze darted anywhere but on each other.

“Music?” Abby rushed over to her cell phone sitting on the nightstand. She shuffled through her playlists.

The song ‘Closer’ by Nine Inch Nails came on and Cooper watched as she frantically tried to change it to something else. He chuckled as she blushed and turned her back to him. Abby settled on a Jimmy Eat World album, then set the phone back down and picked up her paint roller.

“Ready to finish?”

They had managed to finish painting the bedroom. It was rather impressive, considering the odds were against them. The Bloody Marys had taken their focusing skills down at least a dozen notches, while the tension swirling between them had made every glance, every shoulder bump, and every sensual song that popped up on her playlist feel like a sexual hurricane was on its way to swallow them up.

How long was this going to go on for? Cooper made it clear that nothing could happen between them. They couldn’tgo there. But it sure as hell seemed like he wanted togo there– it was in his eyes, and his lingering touches, and Lord, how many times was he going toalmostkiss her? Abby had a dull ache simmering in her nether regions. She had a feeling it was an ache only Cooper McAllister could quell.

Kate was getting ready to leave for her shift at The Crow Bar, so Abby and Cooper met her in the living room to say goodbye.

Kate lit up when she saw Abby approach. “So? Did you?”

Abby gawked at her. “Did we what?”

---