Tanner blew on his knuckles and scraped them across his chest a few times. “It’s the ol’ Wolfe charm. Gets ’em every time. I promised them my full attention later tonight.” He leaned forward, staring into her eyes. Izzy stared back, wishing the man’s gaze did things to her like Cooper’s intense gaze did, but Tanner’s seductive look only made her laugh. The man was so transparent.
“What’s so funny?” Hurt flashed across his handsome features, gone as quickly as it came, revealing deeper emotions than she expected from him, or maybe it was just his bruised ego talking.
“You are, Tanner. You might as well quit before you start because this girl isn’t buying front row tickets to your performance. I’m here to work.”
He leaned back, crossed his arms over his broad chest, and grinned—a totally unexpected reaction. “Not buying it, huh?” His perfect, Greek-God sculpted face would sink a million women’s ships, but not Izzy’s. He couldn’t sink a rubber ducky in her bathtub.
“Not one penny.”
“Well, damn.” He shook his shaggy head of gold-streaked blond hair.
“Tanner, I’m here for business not pleasure. My parents were rock stars, made a ton of money, and lost a ton of money. I grew up with a who’s-who list of people going in and out of our house night and day. Know what? They’re just people. Money doesn’t impress me. Good looks don’t impress me. Fame doesn’t impress me. The only way you’ll impress me is with hard work and dedication to our cause.”
“Then you’ll go out with me?”
“No, but I’ll be your friend, one who only cares about who you are inside, not your outside image.”
Tanner sat silently for a long while, as if digesting her words. “I don’t have many real friends.”
“Well, now you have one more. Let’s get to work.”
“One more question.” He managed a small smile, all earlier cockiness had faded.
“What?”
“It’s Coop, isn’t it?”
“What is?” Izzy’s heart stalled in her chest. God, was she so transparent everyone and their posse could see her strong attraction to Cooper?
“You look at him like you can’t wait to see him naked.” He ran his hands through his unruly hair. “You sure you won’t ever want to see me like that?”
“Positive.”
“That won’t stop me from needling Black every chance I get. He has a thing for you, and it’s a great sport to watch his ass squirm.” He sighed, and as if accepting his fate, he opened up his iPad, tapped a few times on the screen, and showed her notes he’d made on ideas for the fundraiser.
She leaned forward, but her brain had fixated on seeing Cooper naked. She’d never seen him completely naked. Not once.
And she really wanted to see Cooper Black stark-assed naked.
Chapter 4—In a Bind
Cooper drove up the driveway to his secluded home in an exclusive area of Seattle overlooking Puget Sound and the Olympics. He’d leased the place at the end of August and moved in Labor Day weekend. The place was a little stark with minimal furniture and no pictures on the walls, but Cooper wasn’t much for stuff unless it improved his hockey game, such as his state-of-the-art media system. Not that he used it much. He’d rather watch film at the Sockeyes Hockey Athletic Center, or the SHAC as the team called their shiny new Sockeye headquarters near the Space Needle.
Ethan had hooked him up with the home’s owner looking to rent this place only minutes from Ethan’s hundred-year-old mansion.
The house suited Cooper; retro to the max, it’d missed all the remodeling done by most inhabitants, and retained that weird early sixties’ contemporary charm, with floor-to-ceiling windows, high, slanted ceilings, and one wall of cedar planking.
Most people would’ve bulldozed it and put up a McMansion. Not the owners. And not Cooper—if he owned it. He liked it just as it was, funky, old, and reminiscent of a simpler time.
The sun was setting in a late summer sky. Not a remarkable sunset, but Cooper appreciated it just the same. He’d get a beer and sit out on his patio, enjoy the evening, all the while wishing Izzy were here. What a lonely wuss he was. He tried to get her out of his mind, even dated a time or two, but none of the women he dated interested him.
Cooper frowned as his sharp eyes homed in on a lone figure sitting on his front porch. As he drove closer, the tall, lanky kid rose to his feet and stood on the top step to stare at Cooper.
Instead of pulling into his garage, Cooper parked in front of it and got out. He studied the kid for a moment, at first annoyed then curious. The kid wore a faded Raiders T-shirt and well-worn jeans. He’d guess him to be about fourteen or fifteen, a good looking kid, with unruly dark hair, long limbs, and big hands and feet, a lot like Cooper had been at that age.
The boy watched him approach, neither retreating, nor advancing. In fact, his blank expression struck Cooper as odd for a fan who’d cared enough to track him down at his new home.
As young boy, Cooper and his brother had stood outside in frigid weather to get their idol’s autograph, but the star hockey player pushed right past them, shoving Cooper’s little brother into a wall and making him cry. That night Cooper tore down all his posters of the guy and burned them in the fireplace. He’d never destroy a kid like that. Despite the fact that this teenager was trespassing, he’d give him an autograph and send him on his way with a strong suggestion that he respect Cooper’s privacy from this point on. Hopefully he’d get his point across without resorting to stronger tactics.
“Hey, buddy, you lost?” Cooper grinned. The kid didn’t. In fact, he didn’t blink. He stood statue still and said nothing. Not a damn thing, but the sweat beading on his forehead betrayed his nerves.
“I’m Cooper.” Cooper held out his hand.
The boy ignored it. “I’m Riley.”
Riley? Cooper’s maternal grandparents’ last name happened to be Riley. Cooper scratched his head and tried again. “Are you looking for someone?”
The kid blinked a few times. “You,” he answered simply.
Cooper nodded, “You’d like an autograph?”
“Not exactly.” Again that emotionless blank stare, only this time a muscle jerked in the kid’s jaw, giving him away.
“Then what exactly do you need?”
“I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
Cooper almost choked. He ran his hand through his too long hair and did a double take. Fuck, he did a triple take.