The Girl Next Door (Shadow Agents #6)(29)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Gabrielle leaned down. There were two drawers on the side of the desk. Neither showed signs of having a lock.

“What are you doing?”

Cooper’s voice came from right behind her. She jumped, spun around then tried to suck in a deep gulp of air. “Cooper, you just scared five years of my life away!”

She hadn’t even heard him approach. He’d snuck up on her the same way he had at Lockwood’s apartment.

His eyes were narrowed as they raked her face. “You left me.”

“I couldn’t sleep.” Thanks to that little scare, her heart raced in her chest. “I thought I’d get up and—”

“You were going into my desk.”

What was up with his accusing tone? Talk about going from sensual to suspicion in sixty seconds flat. Her hands tightened on the robe. “No, I wasn’t. I wouldn’t do that to you.” The accusation was an insult. “Look, just because I’m a reporter, it doesn’t mean I snoop on my friends—”

His eyelids flickered. “Is that what we are?” His head tilted. “Because I thought we were lovers now.”

He wore a pair of jeans that hung low on his hips. A line of stubble lined his jaw. He looked rough, tough and sexy.

Gabrielle wet her too-dry lips. “I think we can be both.” She found herself leaning toward him, so she snapped her shoulders back. “But we need to be clear. You said I can trust you, and I want you to trust me, too.”

He glanced away from her.

What was that about?

Gabrielle took a bracing breath and plowed on. “I want to know you. Who you were before you came to D.C. Who you are now.” Because she didn’t want her lover to be a stranger to her.

Thunder rumbled again. She flinched.

His brows pulled low. “Why does the storm scare you? I thought nothing scared you.”

Gabrielle laughed at that. “You’re so wrong. I’m just usually better at hiding my fear.” His shoulders seemed so wide. He was strong and solid standing there, and he made her feel like she didn’t need to fear.

He made her feel safe so perhaps that was why her words just kept flowing. “I found him during a storm like this one.”

“Him?”

“My father. He was waiting for me at home. I was out late, at a football game with some friends. I came home sure he was going to get all over me for breaking curfew…” Gabrielle glanced toward the window. “But when I went in, our house was dead silent. Silent and so dark. My dad always left the light on for me. He’d sit in his chair and he’d watch TV until I came home.” Her gaze drifted back to him.

Cooper didn’t touch her. He just watched her as lightning lit up the room once more.

If she wanted to know about his past, it only seemed fair that she should reveal hers to him.

“He wasn’t in his chair. He was on the floor lying on his back. I ran to him, I begged him to talk to me, but he was gone.”

Her father’s eyes had been so empty. As empty as Van McAdams’s. The life had been completely gone from his stare. She’d never forget the sight of his empty gaze.

“What happened to him?”

“He was shot. One bullet, right in the heart.” Her own heart hurt every time she remembered that night.

“I’m sorry.” His arms reached for her. Cooper pulled her against his chest. At his touch, tears welled in her eyes. It had been over eight years, but she still missed her father.

He’d been her constant. Her hero.

Her mother had cut out on them when Gabrielle had just been a toddler. Run away with a married man and never looked back.

“The police said it was a robbery gone wrong. Some cash and electronics were taken, but…” She squeezed her eyes shut and pulled in a steadying breath when the thunder rolled once more. “But they never found the person who killed him. The trail went cold, and he was forgotten.” Gabrielle forced herself to pull back so that she could gaze up into Cooper’s eyes.

“That’s why you do it,” he said softly.

“That’s why,” she agreed. She’d never been able to give her father justice, and that knowledge ate away at her. “I give the other families what I can’t get.”

He shook his head. “You’re not what I thought…”

His words made her stiffen. They were too similar to the killer’s. “You’re exactly what—who—I thought you were,” she fired back fiercely. “You’ve had my back. You’ve risked your life. You—”

He kissed her.

You’re one hell of a kisser. Because she’d thought he would be, from the first glimpse that she’d had of him. She’d almost dropped her chocolate chip cookies because she’d taken one look and gotten lost in his blue gaze.

His lips were firm and warm, and the things that man could do with his tongue…

Cooper eased away from her. “I’d risk my life for you in an instant. Know that. I’ll protect you with every bit of power I have.”

She believed him.

“Sometimes, I think all our pasts can do is hurt us.” His words were a rumble. His right hand curled under her jaw. “It’s the future that I like to think about. What can be.”

But a past couldn’t be forgotten, or completely buried, no matter how much you might wish it to be so.

Why wasn’t Cooper telling her about himself?

She felt as if she’d just laid her soul bare for him.

Goose bumps rose on her skin. She backed away from him, hunching her shoulders a bit. When lightning flashed again, Gabrielle didn’t flinch, and she was rather proud of that fact.

But she was also curious. About Cooper. Always—him. “What scares you?” Gabrielle whispered.

He didn’t move. No, he did. A small movement. He tensed. “What makes you think anything does?”

Her lips lifted in a wan smile. “Everyone fears something. Even you, tough guy.” Even the man who jumped into fires.

His eyes were on her, burning bright. “Maybe you scare me.”

His response surprised her. “Why?”

A phone rang then, vibrating from its position on the couch. Cooper’s lips thinned, but then he said, “Because I don’t want you hurt.”

Her lips parted in surprise, but he had already reached for the phone. He answered it, even as his eyes stayed on her. “Marshall.” His eyelids flickered a bit. “Yes, she’s here.”

The call was about her?

He turned away from Gabrielle, showing her his broad back. “We’re not coming out in the storm. Why? Because she doesn’t like damn storms, that’s why.”