CupidsChoice Read Free Page B

weren’t they? There was the same rush of the unknown, the choice to
either run into or away from what could either be a wild ride or a crushing
blow.
    Bree couldn’t move either way. She didn’t know how long
she’d been trembling in his lap before she realized she could no longer hear
the wind howling. The rain had been reduced to nothing more than a steady
patter against the small windows around the foundation of the house.
    “How are you doing?” he asked, smoothing her hair back from
her face.
    She loosened the grip she had on him. “I’m okay.”
    “Will you be all right if I go take a look around?”
    She really didn’t want him to let go of her yet, but he was
already moving her off his lap. She nodded and answered, “Yes, I’ll be fine.”
    “I won’t be gone more than a couple of minutes,” he assured
her, clicking on the light and walking away from her without another word.
    When he was gone, Bree pulled up the blanket covering her
brother’s bed and wrapped herself in it, freezing now that he wasn’t holding
her any longer. Her head started to ache and her body went limp as the
adrenaline subsided and she crashed. Hard.
    * * * * *
    “Dr. Bennett, wake up.”
    His body was shaking as he rocketed out of a sound sleep,
but Bree’s pleading wasn’t the kind of pleading he might have hoped for. He was
on her couch still wearing the clothes she’d lent him, not naked in her bed with
her coaxing him back to consciousness with her equally naked little body.
    “ Cooper ,” she insisted, and shook him so hard his
teeth clicked together. “ Please .”
    “I’m up.” He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender and
rolled onto his back. “Stop shaking me. I’m awake.”
    “You have to go,” she said, shoving a plastic grocery bag at
him as he sat upright.
    “Did you call me Dr. Bennett a second ago?” He set the bag
holding his clothes on the cushion beside him.
    “Yes. That’s your name.” She picked up the bag, put it back
on his lap and tugged on his hand. “Come on. Let’s go.”
    “Listen,” he grumbled, pulling free to rub his eyes, gritty
from sleeping in his contacts. “If you’re offended that I carried you upstairs
to bed last night—”
    “That’s not it,” she cut him off in a hurry. “My older
brothers are on the way over to cut down the branch that fell off my tree and
they can’t find you here.”
    He looked up at her. “Why not?”
    She looked unbelievably adorable with that wild hair of hers
twisted into a messy knot on top of her head. She’d changed out of the t-shirt
he’d put on her the night before and was wearing very skimpy jean shorts and a
tight red t-shirt.
    “You just can’t be here. Please,” she breathed the last word
desperately.
    He stared at her for a moment.
    “You want me to get in my car and drive before I’ve had
coffee?”
    “There’s a great coffee shop two blocks down. It has a drive
thru and everything. You have to kind of go around the back of the shopping
center, but it’s there. They make whatever kind of coffee you drink.” She got
close enough to set the bag, which had slid onto the seat again, onto his lap a
third time. “Come on,” she prompted, giving his arm another tug.
    “What’s going to happen if your brothers show up and find me
here?”
    She straightened and looked at him, wide-eyed. “What do you
mean happen?”
    “I mean that you’re an adult, aren’t you? Adults go out on
Saturday night, and occasionally their dates are still around on Sunday
morning. What’s the rush?” He looked around and found a large, artsy clock hanging
on the wall behind him. “It’s only nine in the morning.”
    “Of course I’m an adult, Cooper.” He’d clearly pushed a
button. She frowned and jammed her hands on her hips. “My brother RJ will be a
complete dick to you, and then Patrick will never let me hear the end of it. So
spare us both, won’t you?”
    He groaned. “Can I please have just a moment to wake up