Текст книги "Playing with Fire "

Автор книги: Kate Meader

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Текущая страница: 18 (всего у книги 20 страниц)

 CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The Drake, headquarters of the Cooper campaign, was a madhouse. City hall staffers, grasping hangers-on, sharp-clawed media, political wonks—you name it, everyone who wanted to either bask in Eli’s victory or wave him on to the gates of hell was here. His revelation had thrown the race wide open as the city grappled with what it meant for their vote. Was he a charlatan like his father or merely a good man trying to make the best of the bad hand dealt to him? Since the polls had shut an hour ago, the decision was balanced on a knife’s edge, too close to call.

No one who could help was answering Alex’s calls. Kinsey couldn’t get ahold of Madison, and Alex had tried to call Eli but he wasn’t picking up. Just hearing his voice on the message sent her stomach into a lurch. So cool, so dominant. So Eli.

After her shift at the bar, she had tangled up the sheets and lain awake all night thinking. Thinking was not something she did well. Snap decisions? She was a pro, but a clear analysis of what was good for her? Not her strong suit. A visit to Sean and Logan’s snowy graves in Roseland had helped some to unravel the knotted ball of thoughts. What Eli had done, the blow he had dealt to his campaign and his political future . . . she had to believe he did it for her. Coming clean was his way of showing her he had changed. That she had changed him.

He had taken a risk when the reward was unknowable. Possibly negligible. She needed to risk it all right back.

He was likely holed up with a team in a hotel room, ready to descend to pump his fist in victory or hang his head in defeat. Trying to look like she had every right to be here, she approached the elevators with a vague plan to get off at each floor above fifteen and drop-kick anyone standing sentry in a suit and dark glasses.

“Are you a guest at the hotel, miss?” A suit, likely CPD, halted her progress at the elevator bank.

“No, I’m . . .”—America’s Favorite Firefighter, the mayor’s savior, Eli Cooper’s woman—“I’m not.” Doubts furrowed soul-deep ruts in her mind. She was nothing. She had no right to be here, no reason to expect Eli would see her. Surely he would have answered her calls if he wanted her here? Come see her if that media room confession was his way of saying he truly loved her?

She gave what she hoped was a winning smile. “I need to see the mayor.”

Dark Suit twitched his nose. “Only people with clearance can see the mayor.” Pronounced da mayor.

“Have we got a problem here?”

Alex turned to the sultry voice to find Madison Maitland, looking less like the cool, sophisticated campaign manager and more like a woman on the edge. At least three hairs were out of place. Alex’s day had started off as a crapfest, and now it had just gotten ten times worse.

“I need to see Eli,” she said, trying to infuse Dempsey bravado into that statement.

Madison stared at her, her lips sealed, her perfectly plucked eyebrows veed in thought.

“Okay.”

Alex flinched. “What?”

Madison flicked a glance at Suit ’n’ Glasses. “She’s clear to go up.”

He opened his mouth to protest but shut it at whatever he saw on Madison’s face. The woman had the crush-your-balls look down.

They stepped into the elevator together. There was no Muzak, no talking, just staring at their fun-house mirror reflections in the brushed stainless steel. Anything to avoid the shit ton of awkward that was stinking up the space.

“How are the numbers?” Alex finally asked, because the elevator was making the slowest ascent ever.

“It’ll come down to the last precinct, the last vote.” Madison sounded strangely energized. The elevator reached the eighteenth floor. The doors fell open. Another security guard checked and nodded at Madison while coolly assessing Alex.

Madison walked into the corridor, with Alex following.

The elegant brunette stopped and faced her. “He made a deal with Cochrane last summer so you wouldn’t be sued. Kinsey’s handling of the video and that petition kept your job, but it was Eli who fixed it with Sam on the lawsuit. Let himself get pulled deeper into that fucker’s web. I knew Cochrane had something on Eli but he never told me what it was. What his father had done.” She chuckled mirthlessly. “You wouldn’t believe how impressed he was when he saw that video of you cutting up Cochrane’s car. He thought you were so brave.”

Alex snorted, her eyes filling with tears. “Not so brave when someone else has to clean up your mess.” Kinsey and Eli had done that for her, and she had spent months blaming other people for her crazy behavior. As if her loyalty to her family excused everything. And then she had castigated Eli for his loyalty to his own family.

Now this. He had thrown himself on his sword because he loved her more than he loved being king. And she loved him. So much. No trick, no manipulation. Her imperfect hero.

“That’s what we do for the people we love,” Madison said, a genuine smile now lighting up her sharp-boned face. “We make sacrifices, clean up messes, lie, cheat, steal to win them. He didn’t know it at the time, but the moment he met you, he was a goner.”

Alex’s heart threatened to bust out of her chest. How wrong to feel this much joy when Eli’s election chances were still teetering on the brink. But her heart had always been her biggest liability—and her largest asset. It got her into trouble and steered her to this man.

“I’ve cost him the election.”

Madison shrugged, put her hand on the doorknob to a room at the end of the corridor. “Possibly. But he’ll be the first person to say he won the true campaign anyway.”

Eli was glued to the TV in the hotel suite, waiting for the last few ward results to trickle in. What the hell were the counters doing down there? Eating fucking pizza instead of tallying the damn ballots, he’d lay odds.

It was much too close. But when you threw a wrench in the works like he had, then it was always going to be a Sisyphean task. For every voter who admired his honesty there were two who thought the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. For every woman who swooned at his romantic gestures there were three who hated that his heart belonged to another.

The local NBC news affiliate was busy detailing his demise with their typical glee. Last week, he’d been the most romantic man in America. This week, he was a conniving monster. Can’t win for losing.

“Quiet,” Kenneth called out to the chatty staffers, “the fifteenth ward is in.”

“Results from the fifteenth ward and it goes to . . . Caroline Jenkins. That places her at 49.2 percent of the vote against Mayor Cooper’s 48.8 with six wards left to report.”

Low curses blanketed the room, but then his team got back to work making calls and checking in with polling stations. Anything to avoid looking at him. More than once, he found a staffer, usually female, gazing at him with a mix of wonder and pity before dropping her eyes in embarrassment. Only a fool would shoot himself in the ass like he had, that look said.

“Eli,” he heard behind him. Madison.

“Any news from the forty-eighth?” he asked without turning.

“Howdy, Mr. Mayor.”

He shuttered his eyes against the possibility he might be imagining her presence. She had come to him at last. Slowly, he turned as if that could ensure she wouldn’t bolt, but Alexandra Dempsey was not a runner. She was the bravest person he knew.

“Sucks to be you right now,” she murmured.

He coughed out a laugh. Not at all. It was great to be him.

She was wearing jeans and those favorite boots of hers and that parka he had peeled off her at the Hawks—Red Wings game, then later that night when he made her come. Twice.

Get your mind out of the gutter, Cooper.

But he couldn’t. Thinking of the woman before him inevitably led to lust, as well as admiration, respect, fury, and love. Every part of her appealed to every part of him, and his heart howled to be completed by her touch.

“Let’s talk, Alexandra.”

He walked toward the bedroom of the suite and pushed through the door. She followed and shut the door behind her.

“Eli, what you did—”

“Do you mind if I speak first? I need to get it off my chest before you say something nice.” She was here, so that had to be a good sign, but he refused to take anything for granted.

She bit down on that fleshy pillow of her lower lip. “Seeing as I don’t do nice, that’s rather optimistic on your part, but okay.”

Still busting his balls. Perfect.

He inhaled what felt like the deepest breath of his life. “This is probably not news to you, but I’m a dick. I’m a complete asshole. I’m everything you’ve ever called me and probably a few things that hillbilly trucker mouth of yours hasn’t thought of yet. From the beginning, I’ve been trying to control everything. It’s how I’ve always powered through all the shit I’ve endured. Through every situation. Hell, I sabotaged a date because I didn’t want someone else to have you.”

She smiled, a ray of sun cracking the clouds. “It was a lousy date anyway.”

“I used an extremely underhanded method to force you to spend time with me.”

“Well, I probably would have shot you down.” Her brow furrowed. “Maybe instead of focusing on all your nefarious shenanigans, you should start selling me on awesome Eli.”

He scrubbed his mouth. “I’m only realizing now that winning the election was secondary, Alexandra. Winning you was always my evil plan. You were right to despise me, to call me out on my shit. You were right to do everything in your power to resist me because I wasn’t the man for you. I wasn’t worthy. Maybe you sensed that.”

She touched his lips with two cool fingers. “I’m going to stop you there. I have no right to demand you make yourself worthy to win me. To change for me.”

He took her hand, kissed her palm. Just being able to touch her like this made him wild with joy. “Honey, you do. You’ve every right to demand that you get the man you deserve and, hell, if I can’t change for you, then I can’t change. Before I met you, I was pretty numb. Since you’ve entered my life, I feel everything to the max. The food I eat with you is the best I’ve ever tasted. The orgasms I have with you are the best I’ve ever experienced. The breaths I take with you are the fullest I’ve ever drawn.”

The corner of her lush mouth quirked. “Food, orgasms, breathing. Very important.”

“They are! They’re all worth fighting for. We’re worth fighting for. You said I never saw you as an equal and you were right, but not the way you think. You’re a goddess and I’m not worthy to worship at your feet, but I’m happy to spend the rest of my life trying to be good enough for you.”

“Eli.” Uttering his name in a throaty whisper, she placed her palm on his chest. So soft, and yet she completely undid him. His heart leaped, reacting to his woman’s strength wrapped around it. The cage of her hand, the mistress of his soul.

“Oh, God, Eli, I said you could confide in me. That I would be there for you if you ever needed to talk, and the first time you opened your heart, I fucking blew it.”

“It was a lot to take in. I don’t blame you for how you reacted. Not a bit.”

She looked forlorn. “And then what you did in that press conference . . . I know I goaded you, but it was never meant to destroy your campaign, you moron!”

“Yet there would have been no other way to prove to you how much I love you.” He gathered her close. “You held up a mirror and showed me what I’d become. How I’d risked turning into him with every gray decision and every turn of the card. I needed to break his legacy, annihilate it, because I could no longer let it remain tied to mine. I’m my own man. Not Weston Cooper’s son, not Sam Cochrane’s puppet. But with that said, I’ll still happily admit to being a slave to another.”

Her smile was shy, not like his Alexandra at all. “Is this person difficult, mouthy, liable to say the wrong thing, and a general all-around pain in your ass?”

“Yep. And my heart belongs to her completely.”

She squeezed his hand. “And her heart belongs to you, too. Unfortunately for you and your political future, her mouth and family come with it.”

He grinned and pulled her into his arms. Never letting go.

“Many years ago at my parents’ funeral, Alexandra, your father told me to call on him if I ever needed anything. I never did make that call, but I knew he was there for me, and that if the occasion had arisen, he would have welcomed me with open arms.”

“He would have. He did.” Tears sparkled like glossy jewels on her lower lashes. “Eli, I think Sean’s spirit was with me the night of the fire, looking out for both of us. Making sure I’d be strong enough to save you. That we’d be strong enough to save each other.”

A connection forged in fire. Mutual life debts, mutual responsibility. “The universe is telling us something. Or someone up there thinks we should stop screwing around and make a go of this.”

She sniffed. “Thought you didn’t believe in the fairy tale.”

“Who needs the fairy tale when crazy, messy, sexy reality with the woman I adore is a million times better?”

“Eli, I love you so much.” The tears that had been threatening for the last five minutes finally spilled down her cheeks. “And now you’ve made me cry. Again. You—you prick!”

“Aw, honey, let me kiss it better.” He claimed her mouth, swallowing her laugh-sob, savoring her emotion. They stayed that way for a few blissful moments, until their pulse rates calmed to manageable levels.

“I know what’s going on here,” she whispered against his mouth, a breathy hitch in her voice.

“You do?”

She smiled through her tears. “All these years, you’ve been an honorary Dempsey under that sexy skin.”

“God, I can’t wait to tell Luke.”

Her husky laugh rocked his world. “If they love you a tenth as much as I do, then you should be in good shape.”

“I know. I’ve witnessed it and I’ve got so much to learn.”

He knew she would teach him, carry him the rest of the way. Just like that night in the hotel when she infused his body with air. With new and wondrous life. Eli Cooper was one lucky son of a bitch to have been rescued by Firefighter Alexandra Dempsey.

There was a tentative knock.

“Yes,” they both said together, then grinned inane smiles.

“Sorry to disturb,” Madison spoke through the door, “but the forty-eighth ward results are in and it looks like a couple more are about to call it.”

“Be right out.” He gathered his love close and lowered his lips to hers in a kiss that joined their souls and forged that fiery connection anew. Win or lose, he could handle anything, because he had the prize in his hands right now. This inimitable woman.

“You ready for whatever comes next?”

Her radiant smile was filled with love and desire. With hope for their future together, come what may. He still couldn’t believe his luck.

“Whatever happens, Eli Cooper, you’ll always be the tricky, complicated, sexy, devious bastard I love.” She stepped toward the door and held out her hand. I’m here, he heard in his head. I’m not leaving.

“Let’s go give ’em hell.”

 EPILOGUE

E TA 10 mins. Order a Glenlivet in 5.

Alex frowned at the text message from her date. Where had she heard that one before? So damn bossy, but then that was why she loved him.

It was probably foolish to expect that Eli’s first day on the job would end at a reasonable hour, but she still held out hope that he could get here for a celebratory dinner at Smith & Jones before she took to eating the napkins.

Losing the election to Caroline Jenkins—twice, if you included the recount after the vote was so close—had been a considerable blow. But nothing kept a man like Eli Cooper down. Within four months, he had put in place everything necessary to open a private law practice dedicated to the needs of returning veterans. His calling would always be service oriented. He was an honorary Dempsey, after all.

You’re already a round behind, she texted back.

My evil plan. Get you drunk and horny.

Warmth spread through her, and it wasn’t down to her second Macallan. A server arrived at the booth, their regular table at S & J, with a platter covered in one of those fancy silver domes. This place got more and more pretentious by the second.

“Compliments of the chef.” She whipped off the dome and walked away.

Alex stared. Blinked. Stared some more.

At a blue velvet ring box. Just sitting there, at the center of the platter, ostensibly minding its own business, but really demanding every shred of her attention. Furtively, she looked around to see if anyone else was watching, but the hipsters were too self-involved tonight. America’s Favorite Firefighter had finally become a footnote in the city’s history.

Beside the box lay a scroll of paper, like one of those ancient legal documents, tied with a pretty pink bow. Her secret favorite color, which matched exactly the new lingerie she had charged to her account that afternoon at En Cachette. Sexy unmentionables she could feel in a silky, sensuous slide against her skin.

Every girly girl instinct screamed, Go for the bling! but she elected to keep it classy. First time for everything. She untied the bow and unrolled the paper to reveal a letter in Eli’s sprawling, masculine hand.

Alexandra,

She shivered her pleasure. Even in print, his use of her full name curled her toes.

You can see the box, so you know what it means. But it also means so much more. You’ve put me through the wringer already and I like to think I’ve repaid you in kind. I hope you’re ready for a life of adventure with a guy who hasn’t always said it right but has always known what he wanted.

I told you once that I met someone. I also told you that this woman was a pain in my ass, sexy as hell, foul-mouth ed, absolutely gorgeous, and that I was obsessed with her. What I didn’t say then was that I had fallen in love with her, probably that first moment I saw her in this restaurant. Likely the moment she told me I was a patriarchal, woman-hating asshole. Definitely the moment she destroyed the four-hundred-thousand-dollar car of one of the city’s most prominent citizens. Because that was the moment she destroyed my heart and any hope I had of resisting her.

You know I don’t believe in fairy tales, but I believe in writing my own story. It wouldn’t be much of a yarn without you in it, chewing the scenery, providing cliff-hangers in every chapter, and ensuring that each precious day of our lives together is a page-turner. I want to travel with you to wild and untamed places, in the world and in my heart, scale jaw-dropping cliff faces, and descend into dark alleys where no doubt you’ll rescue me like you’ve done from the start.

So, my beautiful Alexandra, will you take my hand and be my love from here on out?

Eli Cooper, Esquire

P.S. Go Cubbies! (You now know everything about me.)

Hot tears filled her eyes and fell in fat drops onto Eli’s note. His proposal to love her despite the fact she was difficult, foul-mouthed, and a pain in his ass seized her heart with a cutting joy. And she still hadn’t seen the ring.

Instinctively, her hand moved toward it, but a big, dominant paw got there first. She raised her gaze to the face of the man she adored. My, he looked handsome in a charcoal gray suit with a blue-and-silver chevroned tie. She couldn’t wait to rip that tie off and let him use it as a blindfold or restraint or . . . hmm, one thing at a time. There was another kind of proposal on the table.

He slid into the booth and curled his strong arm around her shoulder. His assessing glance at her cleavage confirmed she’d made the right purchase that afternoon.

“Did you order my scotch?”

“I got distracted,” she said, laughing as she swiped at her tears. She wanted to kill him for getting her all worked up like this. “And you’re late.”

“Traffic from the bar to the table was a bitch.”

“You were here all along.”

He grazed his lips against her earlobe and nipped gently. “You know I like to watch.”

Heated pleasure bloomed across her chest and up her neck. They’d gotten a lot of use out of that floor-length mirror over the last few months.

“Weirdo, stalker, jagoff—”

“You planning to kiss my cock later with that mouth?” He stopped her litany of insults with a searing kiss that rearranged her gray matter. She would never get enough of him.

Cupping his lantern jaw, she broke the connection and inhaled a fortifying breath. “Tell me about your day.”

“Alexandra—”

“I need to know.” Guilt over her man’s incredible sacrifice still gnawed at her. She had to know he’d be happy with this new life. With the woman who’d upended all his plans.

Understanding dawned on his Hollywood-handsome face. “My client roster is full. I’ll be helping a lot of people who need it. Believe me when I say I have not one single regret, and that you are the hottest, scariest, and best thing to ever happen to me.” He picked up the scroll of paper. “Goddamn it, I’m a lawyer who just put my heart’s desire in writing. Now, say yes, honey, and make an honest man of me.”

Honest? Impossible.

“Is that an order, Mr. Cooper?”

“I think we know you’ve always been the one in charge, Firefighter Dempsey,” adding with a wolfish grin, “Outside the bedroom, anyway.”

She smiled through her threatening tears, pleased with that. Now that she had passed her one-year anniversary in CFD and was a full-fledged firefighter, she was planning her next career move: to become the first woman in Chicago to join squad, the unit that covered dive, collapse, and all manner of tricky rescues. She hadn’t told Eli yet, but she knew he’d have her back. On the mornings she came home from her shift at Engine 6, he hugged her so tight to his body he almost squeezed the life out of her. He might never fully come to terms with the dangers she faced in the job she loved, but he didn’t nag. Just gave her the support and respect she needed.

Alex Dempsey 2.0 could retreat back to her hidey-hole. Kick-ass Alexandra was here to stay.

“Go on. Show me this ring, then.”

He flipped up the lid to reveal a pink—of course—diamond ring set in a bed of clear jewels. She knew nothing about cuts or carats, but she knew enough to recognize the box as Tiffany and the size as planetary. Those investments must be doing very well indeed.

He plucked the ring from its velvet bed and slipped in onto her finger so fast her head spun.

“I haven’t said yes.”

“Just see how it looks,” he murmured.

The master manipulator struck again. And it did look wonderful on her hand, just as the man felt wonderful wrapped around her body, heart, and soul.

Dragging her blurred gaze away from the ring, she looked into those ice-blue eyes, softer now with his love for her, and came to two inevitable conclusions.

This man was incredibly blessed to have met her, and . . .

“Yes, Eli Cooper, I’ll marry you.” She kissed his smiling and oh-so-wicked mouth. “Consider yourself saved.”