Page 36 of After All This Time (A Time For Love #2)

Liam

T he pan sizzles, as breakfast slowly gets ready. But the pan could as well be in another dimension for all the attention I’m paying to it.

When the color of the bacon veers closer to burnt than crispy, I curse under my breath and pull it off the fire.

I can’t stop thinking about last night.

Cooper pinned by my hands as I took him apart, his unrestrained sounds still echoing in my ears.

The way he bucked and writhed against my mouth, unable to keep still, out of his mind with pleasure.

His soft words afterwards.

My throat tightens at the thought of his whispered confession.

Why is he terrified of me?

He must know that I would never do anything to cause him harm. All I want is him. To see his blue eyes crinkling from smiling too much, and his beaming grins lighting up everything around him.

But then, why—

“I’m so sorry, Li.”

Cooper’s voice pulls me back to the present.

I turn around to face him, my heart pounding in my ears.

His hair is sticking up and his eyes are looking down at his phone with a horrified expression.

“For what?”

“For what I’m about to tell you.”

“Okay…”

He inhales deeply and meets my eyes with a deeply apologetic look on his face.

“We’re both invited to my sisters’ birthday in a few days.”

My eyebrows shoot up, just as a wave of relief rushes through me.

That was definitely not what I thought he was going to say.

In fact, the relief is so great that I can’t help but chuckle at the way he frowns at me.

“It’s not funny, Liam. Do you not remember what Ginny and Lizzie are like? God, it’s going to be a bloodbath,” he whines.

I’m still chuckling as I get close enough to tilt his chin to look into his beautiful, cerulean eyes. “Why is it going to be a bloodbath?”

I watch as his lips part in a shaky inhale.

He’s clearly thinking about something but just as I think he’s going to tell me, he shakes his head.

“It’s nothing. I’m probably exaggerating. It’s just that they haven’t seen you in a while and you’ll be smack-dab in the middle of that twin-interrogation.”

My fingers comb through his disheveled hair and his eyes close briefly as he sighs.

“It will be fine, baby,” I mutter against his lips, brushing the lightest of kisses.

“Promise?” he asks in a small voice, melting under my touch.

“I promise. Now, come and let me feed you.” I tug on his hand and he bites his lip to smother his grin.

“Food?” he asks, smiling impishly and my blood heats.

I swat his ass and he yelps before he cracks up.

“Yes, food, you brat,” I answer as I prepare our plates. “For now.”

And that’s when I learn that it’s damn difficult to eat when you have a splitting grin on your face.

***

A few days later, I’m surrounded by the whole West family.

“You should have told your dad to join us, Liam. It would have been nice to see him again!” Cooper’s mom, Myriam, beams at me, carrying a platter piled with food.

We made the 1-hour drive to Cooper’s childhood home, where his parents still live, and I swear, everything looks exactly the same.

The grass is neatly cut, the remaining trees taller now since we were little still swishing in the faint breeze, and Cooper’s family still as wonderful as I remember it.

The weather was nice enough to host a barbecue in their big yard, so here we are.

“I’m sure he would have loved to see you, too,” I smile warmly at her. “Though I’m pretty sure he told me he would be busy with a certain someone,” I wiggle my eyebrows at her.

She laughs whole-heartedly. “Is he now?”

“Oh, yes. He’s on his way to earning his badge of romance novel connoisseur with all the book club meetings he has been joining.”

“Well, it’s good to hear that. It’s been too long.”

“Yeah.” Wistfulness pinches my chest at the thought of my mom. “Too long.”

I busy myself helping to carry several more platters outside, the smell of the sizzling meat nothing short of divine. Connor, Cooper’s dad, waves at me, with a bottle of beer in his hand. Brian, Ginny’s husband, up-nods me with a smile.

“All good, son?” Connor’s gruff voice reaches me.

“All good, sir. You need any help?”

“Nah, we’re just about ready here. Better to go check on the kids, make sure they’re not squabbling over something.”

He’s frowning but his eyes are full of amusement and warmth, still calling them kids in their 30s.

Sure enough, I hear the siblings bickering just a few feet away.

“You look different. Doesn’t he look different, Liz?”

“I’m exactly the same!” Cooper exclaims, and I try to throw a surreptitious look at them.

Ginny is eyeing Cooper like a hawk while Lizzy seems to be scanning him from head to toe.

Meanwhile, Cooper looks like a fucking painting in the afternoon light of the setting sun.

I shake my head, trying to focus on what they’re saying, completely aware of my shameless overhearing.

“Yeah, G must be onto something. There’s something weird about you. You’re smiling too much, your eyes are too glassy, and are you… blushing for fuck’s sake?”

“Wh- what? No, of course not, why would I be blushing? It’s the sun, nothing more. And since when is it a crime to smile?”

“Hm,” they both say in tandem, rubbing their jaws in an almost identical manner.

“I don’t buy it,” Ginny states.

“Yeah, me neither,” Lizzie nods along.

Cooper groans, and his gaze clashes with mine, shooting me the most imploring call for help I’ve ever seen.

Barely stopping myself from barking out a laughter, I head over to rescue him.

Or dig my own grave.

Both sisters smile at me like sharks as they see me approach.

Yep. Escape it is.

“Hey, Coop? Why don’t we go see if your mom needs any help in the kitchen?”

“That’s a great idea, Li, we absolutely should. See you in a bit!” he shouts over his shoulder at the girls, while he drags me by my arm inside the house.

“What was that all about?” I chuckle when we’re out of earshot.

He sighs heavily.

“I swear, they have some freaky sixth sense. They know there’s something I’m not telling them. Plus, it doesn’t help that every time I’m trying to have a conversation, I get all distracted.” His eyes widen when he realizes what he’s said.

“Oh? Why are you distracted again, Coop?” I corner him against the wall in the hallway, taking care to hear if anyone approaches.

My arms bracket his head and I nuzzle his temple, peppering kisses down his cheekbone, his jaw, his throat.

“Were you thinking about this morning when you woke up with your dick in my mouth? How you fucked my face fast and hard until you shot your cum down my throat?” My voice is just a hoarse whisper.

“And then swallowed my cock and sucked me dry, moaning around me?”

“Oh God, you’re going to pay for this.” His pupils are fucking blown, and I love seeing him like this.

“Can’t wait,” I grin darkly. My eyes catch on the open door of his childhood bedroom, and fire floods my veins at everything I could do to him behind that locked door.

In the room where we spent so much time as teenagers goofing around, playing video-games, doing sleep-overs.

Where I kept my feelings hidden from him.

“Don’t even think about it,” he tells me, but I hear how tempted he is in his deep voice, and I see the reckless glint in his mischievous eyes.

“Boys, dinner is ready!” Connor’s voice booms from the garden, and with just one look at each other, we snicker like teenagers who have been sneaking around to make out.

Which, to be honest, it’s exactly what we were about to do.

We re-join everyone in the yard and settle down to eat.

But not before I make sure that Cooper’s chair is right next to mine.

Dinner is divine. It’s been years since I’ve tasted Myriam’s delicious food or the product of Connor’s barbecue skills.

When we were kids, I would spend as much time at the West household as I would in my own house. I’ve always loved my small 2-person family of me and my dad, but being also part of this big and loud family has always filled me with a sense of contentment very few things in my life have achieved.

And it has all been thanks to the man sitting next to me, chewing on his burger happily while stealing glances at me with eyes that sparkle.

“So, Dad, when are you guys leaving for your cruise?” Cooper asks, before he stabs at his salad.

Myriam snorts. “You mean, if I can actually tear him away from his chores here.”

“Need I remind you that it was I who booked the damn thing in the first place?”

“You should remind yourself, honey.”

Connor coughs and we all laugh.

“Never mind that,” he mumbles. “What about you, Liam? How are things going with you? Are you settling in nicely?”

I hear Cooper choke on his fries next to me, and I barely manage to bite back a grin.

“Yes, everything has been great so far. The planning for the new practice is moving along as smoothly as I could hope for and,” I pause, turning to look at Cooper next to me, and falling right into his open, clear eyes. “And I’m settling in perfectly, thanks to Cooper.”

The private smile he gives me is enough to melt me from the inside out.

I’m sure that the conversation moves on, but that intimate smile holds me captive throughout the whole night.

And even when it’s time to sing “Happy Birthday” for these two wonderful women who are so different, yet so alike, I’m never far away from Coop, the need to feel like I could reach out and touch him at all times something that has taken permanent residence inside my chest.

It’s much later when it’s almost time for us to go, and everyone seems to be somewhere else that my heart squeezes at the serene look on Cooper’s face that speaks of happiness.

His head tilts towards me, his content smile never faltering and it’s impossible not to brush my lips against his, to softly capture the sigh that escapes him and let it feed my hungry soul. His cheeks are adorably flushed when we pull apart and he’s never looked more breathtaking.

“I’m going to check on my folks to see if they need anything else before we go home, okay?”

Home.

Fuck. When did his apartment start feeling like home?

No. It’s not the apartment.

It’s him. It’s always been him.

“Sure, go ahead.”

I watch as he disappears inside, too focused on his retreating back to notice the crinkle of steps on grass.

My eyes widen when I see Lizzy stepping out from the shadows and stopping at a few feet from me, her arms crossed in front of her pink shirt, her long, black braid over one of her shoulders, her blue eyes piercing in the dim light of the yard.

It’s that look that tells me she has been there for a while and I have no idea what she makes of what she just saw between her brother and me.

“Liz, I—”

She shakes her head, cutting off whatever I was about to say.

Her gaze drops briefly to the ground in front of her, before sighing deeply.

“Be sure this time, Liam.”

Her words are a slap in the face, and I swear, the blow almost makes me take a step back.

“What?”

“You heard me, and you know what I’m talking about.

” Her voice is steady and her expression unflinching but there is an underlying softness that makes my chest squeeze.

“I will not interfere, and it’s Cooper’s story to tell, but I will tell you this.

I will not stand by and watch you walk out on him again if you’re not sure this time, and I sure as fuck won’t let you or anyone else dim his light, you got me?

” She points one finger to my face. “Don’t break him again. ”

She turns on her heel and I’m left staring after her, her parting sentence echoing in my head, making my ears ring.

Don’t break him again.

Is that what I did?

Did I break my best friend because I kept my distance?

Because I thought it would be better this way?

Because I was scared to face him?

My mind travels back to the first time we saw each other again weeks and weeks ago when I returned.

He’d been a bit reserved at first, sure. But he’d looked fine.

Hadn’t he?

Except.

Except he’s always put on a brave face whenever he’s felt down, whenever things hurt him, because he has a bleeding heart but he doesn’t want to burden others.

Oh, God. Did I fail to see this?

What have I done?

These thoughts are suffocating me, making me sick.

“Hey,” Cooper’s low voice washes over me, temporarily silencing the screaming guilt in my head.

His brows frown.

“What’s wrong?”

Everything.

I clear my throat. “It’s nothing. Let’s go home.”

And we start walking towards the car, acutely aware of his intense gaze at the side of my face.