Cooper (Wild Boys After Dark, #4)
Melissa Foster
Chapter One
BAY CITY, MARYLAND, was the last place Celeste “Cici” Fine wanted to be this weekend. She had a million things to do to get ready for her upcoming move to New York City—including finding a place to live. Her photography business had finally taken off, and after securing several lucrative contracts in and around New York City, she had to make the move from Peaceful Harbor to New York. She hated the idea of moving her daughter, Melody, to a big city, and away from her friends, aunt, and grandparents, but now was probably the easiest time to do so. At almost three and a half, Melody was a precocious child, and Cici had high hopes that she’d adapt well to her new surroundings. But moving was just the tip of the what-the-hell-am-I-doing iceberg she seemed to be traveling on. Being back in Bay City and moving to New York? That was a double whammy.
She set her suitcase on the bed and went about unpacking her belongings, trying not to think about the last time she’d been there. She placed her clothes in the fancy dresser and caught sight of the king-sized bed in the mirror. She looked at the beautiful linens, remembering the way it had felt to be tangled up in them with the man who had made her head spin over one incredible week—and, just as quickly, had shattered her heart into a million little pieces. She found herself falling back into the memories of how wonderful and safe it had felt to be in his arms, how every kiss, every caress, every whispered promise had made her love for him grow. She’d been so sure he was her forever love…
She brought her toiletries bag into the bathroom and slammed it on the counter. She looked around the marble bathroom, and the familiar longing she thought she’d buried long ago came back in waves. Damn it. She’d fallen for him like a picture came into focus—a little blurry at first and then hard and fast. Unstoppable.
Cooper Wild’s potent masculinity was all consuming. His possessive, protective nature had made her feel special and desirable in the best way. The man was the perfect mix of sexual beast and gentleman, and his heart…She sighed inwardly. His loving, open heart had completely enveloped her. And then the Bay City Film Festival they were photographing had ended, and they’d gone their separate ways with promises of forever. Promises she, like the naive twenty-two-year-old she’d been, had trusted in and believed.
She looked in the mirror and pushed her long black hair over her shoulders, remembering how much Cooper had loved running his fingers through it. How he’d tangle his hands in it and hold on tight as they ravaged each other. Her scalp tingled with the memory, sending her pulse into a frenzy. She rolled her eyes at her reflection. She’d never fully let go of the fantasy that someday, somehow, they’d find each other again. But that type of thinking could ruin her, and she refused to do that to herself again. It had taken her a long time to stop thinking about him every minute of the day—not to mention every time she looked into Melody’s blue eyes—and she couldn’t fall back into that soul-wrenching fantasy.
She forced herself to remember the painful weeks of unanswered phone calls and texts, as her belly had swelled with his child and she’d cried more tears than she’d ever thought possible. She hadn’t been back to Bay City since, but with the impending move, she couldn’t afford to pass up the film festival this year. She needed the income, and Cooper had become even more famous over the last few years and this event was probably beneath him at this point in his career. She had purposely not sought out information about him, but it was hard to miss his credit lines on some of the most prestigious photos appearing in all the prominent magazines and newspapers. At least all she had to wallow in were the memories. There was no chance of seeing him.
She startled when her cell phone rang and answered the call from her younger sister, Tegan, as she walked back into the bedroom area.
“Hi, Teg. Is Melody okay?” Melody was over the moon about staying with her aunt for the weekend.
“Oh, please, Cici. That girl has never had a bad day in her life. She’s amazing, and at the moment she’s helping me eat cookie dough.”
Cici smiled, picturing her daughter’s big blue eyes wide with joy as she ate the sugary treat with her doting aunt. “She must be in heaven.”
“She is, but how’s her mama holding up?” Tegan’s tone grew serious. Even though she was younger than Cici, she’d always been wildly protective of her and had become even more so after Melody was born.
When Cici had first told Tegan that she was pregnant and planned to keep the baby even though Cooper had walked away and was never going to come back, Tegan had wanted to track him down and tear him apart. But Cici had demanded that she not do any tracking down at all. She didn’t need a man to be a good mother, and she wasn’t about to spend time worrying over his life without her. Even though her heart hadn’t moved on, she was proud of herself for never turning into a stalker ex-girlfriend who needed to know everything he was doing. And once she’d learned to thicken the walls around herself, the only one who had ever been able to break through was her beautiful baby girl, and she’d done so from the very moment she was born.
Needless to say, Tegan knew how difficult it was for Cici to be here again, in the place where she’d fallen in love with Cooper Wild.
“I’m good,” Cici answered, because it was easier than saying that she missed him again already and be forced to listen to Tegan’s rant about how much of an * he was. Tegan was great at reminding Cici that she was worth more than being forgotten. “I’m going to settle in with a good book and eventually go down and get my equipment from the trunk. Then I plan to do my job for the next two days and get the hell out of here and come home.”