Page 29 of Her Greatest Adventure

A warm hand grips my elbow, steadying me as I stumble in my wedges.Why did I wear these shoes?My pinky toes hurt like a bitch.

“They’re going to be gone forever now,” Cooper replies, sounding just as drunk as I am but a lot less squeaky.

Shit, his voice isn’t squeaky at all. It’s deep and gentle but also surprisingly commanding at times. I wonder if he uses it in bed. Is he secretly bossy? The idea of it is hard to wrap my head around, considering the man blushes when he compliments me. I can’t imagine him speaking dirty commands.

A giggle slips out before I can stop it. Cooper asks, “What’s so funny?”

“I was imagining you in bed giving filthy commands.”

He’s the one stumbling this time, and with his fingers still wrapped around my arm, I move with him. Suddenly, we’re falling, falling, falling. Cold air strikes my arms as his jacket slips from my shoulder and tumbles to the ground seconds before we do.

“Cooper!”

“Fuck my life.” The wind steals his drunken curse.

The grass is so green. So long and thick and damp against my skin. Hard too.Hard?I blink until my vision clears, and my body hones in to the feeling of somebody beneath me. Arms are coiled tight around my waist, and a solid chest rises and falls rapidly in time with mine.

“Oh,” I blurt out. My fingers curl in the grass beside Cooper’s head as I hold myself up above him, my hips pressed to his hips, my legs tucked between his. “Hi.”

Mouth pulled in a tight line, he squeezes his eyes shut and releases my waist, arms falling to the yard we’ve stumbled onto. His back must be wet, and I half expect him to jolt up and set me aside, but he only blows out a long breath and carefully peeks up at me. Eyelashes fluttering, he slips his stare over my face from bottom to top.

“You okay?” he slurs.

“Maybe I should have given you the nickname Prince Charming instead,” I reply.

Confusion fills his stare. “Why?”

“You sacrificed yourself for me.”

“Dramatic. I just didn’t wanna hear you complain about grass stains on your clothes.”

I hiccup and sag against his body. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a position like this, but my mind is too loose to focus on that. Once my fingers uncurl from the grass, I move them over the length of his shoulders and bite the inside of my cheek at the solid feel of them.

“What are you doing?” he croaks.

“Feeling whether or not you’re husband material. What does it look like I’m doing?” The words sound ridiculous coming from my mouth, but alcohol has dissolved me of a single care.

My flirty joke turns serious when he says, “I’m not husband material.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know how to be like that for someone.” He says it like it’s obvious.

The smell of rain comes so suddenly I tip my head back and stare at the previously bright evening sky, finding it painted with endless dark clouds. I look back at Cooper and frown, my thumb slipping inside the open material of his shirt and stroking the tip of his collarbone.

“I don’t know how to be a wife to someone, but I don’t care. I want to try.”

He shakes his head. “You don’t need to be anybody’s wife yet.”

I tilt my head. “How is it that you think you know what I need?”

Tipping my chin, I watch as his fingers bite into the grass at his side, just like mine did moments prior, only for some ungodly reason, my drunken mind takes offense to the action.He would rather get dirt beneath his nails than touch me.

“It’s obvious that I don’t know, so why don’t you tell me, Adalyn?”

There’s that commanding tone again. This time, it drags a line of fire down my spine, and I arch in an attempt to get away from the burn.

It only brings me closer to the blaze in front of me.

---