CHAPTER
TEN
HARLEY couldn’t believe she was sitting in a private jet. Talk about feeling like Cinderella. Yes, she was still just the hired help, but it was hard to remember that with Cooper. He treated her like an equal. In fact, he deferred to her opinion almost entirely when it came to Mary Jane and the household issues. She was falling into a comfortable pattern in his house of homeschooling, enrichment activities, cooking, and relaxing with Cooper in the evenings after Mary Jane went to her room to do whatever she did online. It was like they were together, and that was a dangerous thing to be lulled into feeling.
It was the strangest unnatural relationship ever, if you broke it down. They were platonic, employer/employee, yet they ate together, hung out, shared thoughts, and hit the grocery store together. She had no idea what to do about it, other than brazenly pretend there was nothing remotely odd about what they were doing.
Mary Jane was lying on the couch in the plane on her back, headphones in her ears, as they flew south. Cooper had been working, handling business calls and e-mails, while Harley had read a book. But now he seemed done, and he stood up and moved to the seat next to her. She was aware of his knee brushing against hers, and the fact that he was looking at her, reading over her arm.
She read the same sentence three times, totally distracted by Cooper. He smelled good, his cologne the same one he’d worn that night at the Biltmore. Her fingers ached to shift to his leg, to stroke him to arousal. She wanted to tilt her head and nibble on his ear, rub her lips over his beard shadow. It was a challenge not to change her breathing. She felt very aware of the rise and fall of her chest, the rush of air through her nostrils, the way his jeans rustled against hers. Her body was responding to his presence, clearly an imprint of their night together wreaking havoc on her pheromones.
It took every ounce of self-control she possessed to sit still and not ask him what the hell he wanted. He had every right to sit wherever he wanted on his own private jet.
Finally he spoke. “Are you actually reading? You haven’t turned the page in five minutes.”
Harley felt her cheeks flush. “I was daydreaming. What are you doing?”
“I’m bored.” He gave her a smile. “Play with me?”
Now there was a question that went straight to her no-nos. But obviously that wasn’t what he meant. He didn’t want to play with her. Though if she wasn’t mistaken, there was some good old-fashioned lust in his eyes as he showed her his iPad.
She had to be wrong. Cooper didn’t want to have sex with her.
Which was confirmed when she glanced down at his tablet. “Words with Friends? You want me to play Words with Friends with you?”
“Please?”
Like she could say no. “I’ve never done it before. I usually say no to game requests.”
“But you like me better than all of those other people, right?”
Yes. She did like him. At first, it had been purely a physical crush on a man she didn’t know. On his public image. Now the crush was on the real Cooper. The man who had been so tender in bed with her. Who cared about his kid sister. Who massaged her feet.
But she couldn’t let him know that. “You’re overselling this.”
Cooper laughed. “Should I mention how highly intelligent I think you are?”
“Please don’t embarrass both of us. I’ll play with you.”
“Awesome.” He pointed to where she could create her login. “So did you pack your sunscreen? And a bikini?”
Like she intended to ever let him see her in a bikini. “Yes, I did.”
“Is it teeny-weeny? A yellow bikini?”
Harley narrowed her eyes at him. What kind of a game was he playing? “Why?”
“I’m just making conversation.”
She could think of better uses for his tongue. “I look terrible in yellow.”
“I doubt it. But actually, I picture you in red.”
She found it hard to believe he was picturing her at all. “I don’t imagine you’ll have time to go to the beach with us.”
He shook his head. “No. Never bothered me much before, but I don’t know. It would be nice to be able to just do what I want, to relax a little.”
“Now I feel guilty that you’re paying me to go to the beach.” She meant it as a joke, but there was truth to it.
“You won’t feel so guilty when MJ complains about the sand for two hours straight. She clearly hates the beach, yet she loves the water. Why she doesn’t just go to the pool is beyond me.”
“When did you take her to the beach?”
“We were down there at my condo right after the season ended. Took nanny number one. She quit on the flight back. It was like she couldn’t even wait to get back to give her notice. She had to make sure she’d never be forced to go to my house ever again.”
For some random reason, Harley was jealous of the unknown nanny. Here she’d been feeling a little special going to Daytona with Cooper and Mary Jane, yet she wasn’t the first. “That’s tacky,” Harley said, not bothering to cover her disdain. “You don’t quit a nanny position in front of the child you’re in charge of.”
Cooper smiled. “So you’re not going to ditch out on me?”
Harley knew almost nothing could make her quit this job. It had only been a few weeks and she was already attached to Mary Jane. And Cooper. She was attached to Cooper. It was foolish. Dangerous.
“No. Not at all.”
“Are you going to wear my gear?”
“What? You mean, like a Cooper Brickman T-shirt?” Good God, he’d better be joking. She couldn’t imagine anything more grasping. “I confess, I don’t have one.”
He laughed and she was pretty sure that indicated he was joking. He didn’t really want her to wear his face on her breasts. But then he said, “Or a Cooper Brickman bikini.”
Harley snorted. She couldn’t prevent it from slipping out. “First of all, if those exist, I’m terrified. Second of all, you’d better be joking. I don’t even wear makeup. I’m definitely not going to wear something that attention-grabbing.”
“You don’t need makeup,” he said. “You’re very beautiful naturally.”
That voice. She knew that voice. It was the voice he’d used at the wedding right before she’d found herself naked with his tongue sliding over her clitoris. She swallowed hard, shifting her leg away from his, palms suddenly damp. He was flirting with her. There was no denying it. He was just flat-out flirting with her.
“I wasn’t fishing for a compliment.”
“I know. But I felt like giving one.” He squeezed her knee. “Just say thanks, Harley.”
“Thanks, Harley.”
He laughed again. “Smart-ass. I didn’t see that coming.”
“I’m a twin. I know how to dish it out and to take it.”
The minute the words were out of her mouth, she realized it was stupid to mention her sister. Instantly the smile disappeared.
“Guess I can see that.” His expression was shuttered as he glanced at her, then down at the tablet in his hand.
She knew he was thinking about Charity, but she had no idea what he was thinking. Not that it mattered. In fact, maybe it was a good thing that he thought he’d slept with Charity because it kept him from crossing that line with her, because Harley knew that if he crossed she’d be a goner. Now that she’d seen Cooper in his home, watched him studiously attempt to parent Mary Jane, witnessed his kindness and lack of pretentiousness, she knew it wouldn’t take much for her crush to free-fall into flat-out love.
Yet she still heard herself say, “Though Charity is more relentless than me when she dishes it out. I feel bad and give up, but she goes for the kill.”
And she threw her twin under the bus. No matter that it was true. She knew precisely why she was doing it—to dissuade Cooper from further pursuing her sister. Not that he had. He’d never shown the slightest interest in contacting Charity.
Which suddenly made her wonder if he hadn’t found the sex nearly as exciting as she had. His expression was impassive.
“I can see that.” Cooper reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear.
Harley felt her eyes widen and her body freeze.
Then suddenly Cooper’s head jerked. “Hey!” He turned in the opposite direction. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Harley leaned around him to peer at Mary Jane, who was sitting up now looking mulish. “It was an accident,” she said.
“Hitting me in the head with a travel pillow was an accident?”
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
Harley wasn’t buying it and neither was Cooper, obviously, but he just said, “Well, now the pillow is mine.” He picked it up off the floor where it had fallen and stuffed it behind his head.
“That’s rude,” Mary Jane said, drawing her legs up to her chest.
“So is hitting someone with a pillow.”
It was her natural instinct to soothe both their feelings, but Harley knew they needed to find their own dynamic together. It was hard to see them eye each other with irritation, though. Plus, she felt somehow it was her fault that Cooper’s attention to her was making Mary Jane jealous, which she didn’t want.
So Harley was about to say something when Mary Jane stood up and tried to yank the pillow back from Cooper. The look he gave her was so murderous she giggled. Then he grinned.
And suddenly he had his sister back on the couch and was tickling her.
“Quit!” she was shrieking. But even as she clawed and smacked at Cooper, she looked like she was enjoying herself, her blond hair sliding into her eyes. “Harley, help me!”
If she were a normal nanny who didn’t harbor a secret fascination with her employer, she would reprimand them lightly and break it up. But because she was a lustful Cinderella who really wanted to bang Prince Charming repeatedly until she could no longer walk, and then possibly marry him, she stood up with a stern look on her face.
“Now, Mary Jane . . .”
And when Cooper paused to glance at her in triumph that she was apparently on his side, she went straight for the abs. She knew what his body felt like and where he was sensitive. With unerring accuracy she wiggled her fingers across his flank and had him squawking in protest.
“Damn, no fair,” he roared, doubling over, trying to prevent her from tickling him.
“Yes!” Mary Jane yelled with glee. “Get him!”
So she did. She had him gasping for air and smacking at her for a full sixty seconds before he grabbed her wrists and managed to overpower her.
“Oh, you’re in trouble,” he told her, pulling her arms straight out from her sides so she felt like a scarecrow.
“Hey, let go.”
“I’m just protecting myself,” he told her.
Giggling herself, Harley took a step back, trying to pull her arms out of his grip. “I promise I won’t tickle you.”
“Like I believe you.”
She supposed he really didn’t have any reason to believe her. After all, she’d lied to him about something huge. She wondered what he would say if he ever found out the truth. It wouldn’t be pretty, she could guarantee that.
“I pinky-swear.”
“Your pinky is not up.”
“Because you’re holding my arms too tight.”
Cooper had moved in close to her. Too close. His expression was playful, yet intense. Harley took a step backward. She couldn’t let him look too deeply into her eyes or he would see that she was attracted to him. See that she wanted him in the most base and primal way possible.
Or maybe he already saw it. Because his eyes narrowed before he murmured, “Sorry,” and brought her arms down to her sides. “I guess I’ll have to trust you, Harley.”
It felt like he was asking her something else, or maybe that was just her own guilt. “I won’t tickle you.”
“But I will,” Mary Jane said.
Cooper was tugged backward by his sister and the moment passed.
Or maybe there had been no moment. Maybe it was just her imagination.
Then he winked at her, so Mary Jane couldn’t see.
Harley went back to her seat to read and convince herself that her panties weren’t damp with desire.
It didn’t work.
* * *
“CAN I ask what the hell you’re doing?” Ty McCordle said to Cooper as they stood next to the stairs that would lead them up onto the podium.
“What do you mean? I’m standing here waiting to be introduced, just like you.” Cooper was keyed up, more so than usual. He was distracted; he knew he was. By Mary Jane, by his previous season’s poor standing. By the nagging concern that maybe he’d lost the edge with his driving.
By Harley. He was very distracted by Harley. She was fifty feet away talking to his sister, her access pass clipped to her sundress. He’d never seen her wear a dress, not since the wedding, and to see it exposing the tops of her breasts and her clavicle made him want to suck her flesh there. She was wearing cowboy boots, which brought all manner of inappropriate visuals to mind. Harley against a wall, sundress up, boot wrapped around his leg. Harley naked except for the boots.
Worst of all, he figured even though he’d never see Harley naked, his visual was probably damn accurate because he’d seen her identical twin naked. Which was just messed up. Yet helpful in stirring a boner, nonetheless.
Yeah. He was distracted.
“Why do you have your nanny here?” Ty asked.
“Because she’s watching my sister. That’s what a nanny does.”
“Dude. Keep telling yourself that’s the only reason she’s here.” Shaking his head, Ty gave him a look of disbelief. “No one brings their nanny to driver’s intro. You’re playing house, bro, aren’t you?”
Maybe. What the fuck was it to Ty? “I wanted my sister here, but I don’t trust that kid without a keeper. So that’s why Harley’s here. No big deal. It’s not like I’m going to call her up on stage.” He’d never done that. Ever. Having a woman stand next to you at driver’s intro was like a promise ring. It meant an engagement was likely coming at some point. So he’d never done it and had never really thought twice about it, never been jealous of any of the other drivers.
Until now.
“I think you’re playing with fire.”
“I think you’re as bad as the girls with your gossip.” The announcer called his name then and Cooper gave Ty a grin. “See you on the track in my rearview mirror.”
Ty grinned. “You wish.”
Cooper put a smile on his face, jogged up the steps, and started waving. Unlike some of the guys, he enjoyed this part of the business. He loved the roar of the crowd, the interviews, the spotlight. Nothing gave him a greater sense of awe and appreciation than seeing fans wearing his number. It had been a great career, one that he was grateful every day for.
Yet today something was flat. Missing. Daytona was the big one, the race everyone knew, but Cooper just felt restless. He couldn’t help it. Looking out into the crowd, he searched for MJ and Harley. His gaze landed on them and MJ gave him an exaggerated thumbs-up, the little shit. But he was glad she was there.
Harley looked solemn.
But then she winked at him.
She fucking winked.
Right on.
Cooper grinned back, the day suddenly all right.
* * *
UNTIL he hit the track, that is. It was a hotter day than usual in Florida in February and the track was sticking, car running loose. Sweat was rolling down Cooper’s neck and forehead and he was watching the heat gauge carefully, instinct telling him the car was going to overheat.
“You’re going to have to pit,” his crew chief told him over his headset on lap ninety.
“No way,” was his response. “I don’t need tires for another twenty and you know there will be a caution.” It was a gamble, but the way the sun was rising in heat waves off the track, interfering with visibility, he knew someone would tap another car and there’d be a flag. Or there would be debris. There was always something and he was willing to take the risk.
“You pay me to be smarter than you,” Aaron told him. “I say pit.”
Cooper laughed. “I appreciate your advice, but no.” The field was running clean and he was sitting in sixth place. He wasn’t stopping now.
Which probably would have been a good call except for the 56 car floating up the track without warning and hitting the wall hard. Cooper was running so close to him there was no way to avoid the collision when the 56 spun out. He hit the back end of Monroe’s car hard and went into the zone, years of training and experience allowing him to shut out everything but the need to regain control of his car and the situation. He could hear Aaron’s voice guiding him to avoid further traffic and he obeyed easily, automatically, until within seconds he was stopped on the track, smoke rising from his engine.
“You alright?” Aaron asked.
“Fine. Car isn’t looking so good, though, is it? Everyone else out there okay?”
There was the crackle of the radio for a brief second while Aaron listened to the other drivers and crew chief chatter and Cooper worried about his fellow drivers, who were his competition, his co-workers, and his friends.
“All clear. Everyone is fine. Head down into the apron and out of there. You’re going to need to hit the garage from the looks of it.”
“No doubt.” A few minutes later, Cooper was climbing out of his car in the garage, ready to confer with his crew.
But before he could even gather his thoughts, Aaron was over his radio again. “Uh, Coop, bit of an issue of a personal nature.”
“If you have diarrhea I don’t want to hear about it. No time for the shits on race day.” Annoyed, Cooper pulled his helmet and gloves off and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
But then his engineer waved him over. “Jeff Sterling is coming down to talk to you.”
“Jeff? Why the fuck would Jeff want to talk to me? I have a car to get back on the track.”
What had started out as a promising race was turning into a total bumblefuck. In all his years of racing he’d never had a quote-unquote “personal issue” pop up in the middle of a race. Suddenly a horrible thought occurred to him. His mother. Had something happened to his mother?
Wouldn’t they wait until postrace to tell him if she had died or something of that nature?
He was about to go for his cell phone, race be damned, when Jeff entered the garage, wearing a suit and looking concerned. “Sterling, what is going on?” Cooper asked him, a pit in his gut.
“Harley McLain came to me. It seems Mary Jane is missing. She gave Harley the slip at the beach.”
Okay, that was better than his mother being dead. And not surprising. MJ was known for wanting to do her own thing. Cooper was able to swallow his heart again. But he was worried. This was not a weekend for MJ to be running around on her own. There were all sorts of fans, drunk and otherwise, in town for the race. There was no telling where his sister was either, and that made him nervous. There weren’t many places to go on the beach.
“Damn it.” Cooper rubbed his forehead. “Did y’all call the cops?”
“I just did. Harley is hysterical. She won’t leave the beach.”
Cooper glanced back at his car, which his crew was working on. They were barely into the season. If he could get his car back out there he needed to, just to preserve whatever points he could by finishing the race. But how could he drive knowing his sister was missing?
“Fuck.” He felt the sudden urge to throw his helmet all the way across the garage.
“I’ll go over there, Brickman, you don’t need to worry about it. I can handle it and we’ll find her. I promise you.”
“I know. But I can’t go back out there until I know she’s safe. How long will it take to get to the beach they’re at?”
“Twenty minutes.”
“Shit. Shit.” He raked his hand through his hair and unzipped the front of his jumpsuit.
There was nothing for it. He had to go.