Sin (The Waite Family) (12 page)

“How long ago were you hurt?”

He glanced at her and saw that she was looking at his leg.
It was obviously less tone
d
than the other.
“
Just shy of six weeks.”
He lifted his shirt.
“This one caused the most damage.
I had to change my diet and my way of moving for this.”

The bullet had entered his small bowel.
Had his mother not shown up when she had he’d be eating and shitting in a bag permanently attached to him.
As it was, he’d lost a good portion of his gut along with a part of his liver.

She looked at him
,
not saying anything
,
and Coop thought he’d bothered her.
When she stood up and lifted her own shirt it took him several deep breaths before he could speak.

“They were more concerned with putting me back together than they were making it pretty.
I have one more
on my head, but my hair pretty much covers it.”

They were bullet holes, three…no
,
four of them.
They were pink, not as pink as his
,
but recent.
He
stepped forward and started to lay his hand on her when she stepped back.
He looked down at her face.

“I can’t…I can’t touch them yet.
I
can’t even look at them.
I get dressed in the dark and try my best to pretend they’re not there.”
Her voice was tight and low, full of emotion he couldn’t fathom.
“They told me I can have them fixed later, but…I don’t think I can
do
…”

“How?
When?”
He
’d heard she’d been hurt a few months ago, but he’d not known how or how badly
.

She lowered her shirt and turned her back to him.
“
Seventeen
months.
I have steel rods in both legs
. It
’s
why I run. If I don’t then I get stiff and can’t walk.
The service…Army.
I was there for ten…we can walk today.
I’m sort of sore because of the shoes I wore last night.
If you’re finished, we can start.”

She didn’t wait for him, but turned and walked away.
Coop moved after her and
,
once he was beside her, she slowed her pace and put a set of earphones in her ears.
Conversation over for now
,
he guessed.
But he wanted…no, he needed more information than this. Someone had tried to kill her and had nearly succeeded.
And Payton
Riley
Cooperider felt like a total ass.

People seemed to know her, but for the most part she just waved. When they came to a crosswalk or a
stop sign
she would stretch again. He did as well. He wasn’t so far gone in lust that he couldn’t recognize that she was slowing her pace for him, nor did he not notice the men who were out on their porches drinking their
coffee
when they went by
so early in the morning
.
He had been glaring at one particular man when
Sydney spoke.

“They don’t care.
All they see is a pair of tits and a firm ass.
Could be that he’s looking at you anyway.” She said it so seriously that he had to stop to stare at her. She actually believe
d
that men were only looking at her because of her boobs?

When she turned to look at him she smiled
and he just had to ask
.
“You don’t believe that
,
do you?
That men only think you’re beautiful because of how you’re shaped?
”

“What did you see the first time you saw me?
It was my tits
,
I bet.
You can’t lie to me. I’ve been hanging around men for too long to not know a thing or two about the way they think.”

Coop flushed.
It was
.
“
N
o
! Your black eye. I saw it first.”
She snorted.
“Okay
,
then
,
your boobs. You are such a tiny thing I guess I was amazed you could carry them around.
And
for the record, could you please stop calling them tits?
I’d think
,
as a woman
,
you’d find that word—
”

She cupped
her breasts
and lifted them up.
Christ, he nearly
tripped over his own tongue.
“They are just fatty tissue that just happen to have a very high
arousal
zone in them. Nothing
more.
Oh
,
and milk glands.”

“Sydney, you can’t…you shouldn’t do that to a man.
You could hurt me, us. You could hurt us.”

She snorted again.
“Men and sex.
Big deal. You know if you had an itch and scratched it, it would be okay. Other men would pound on their chests with you.
They would have a party in your honor.
If I had the same itch women would go out of their way to scorn me and treat me like I have some sort of mental health problems.
”

He knew he was going to regret asking. He knew it as soon as the question formed in his head, but he had to know. He needed to know.
“Do you have an itch,
Sydney
?
”

She stared at him for long moments then simply put her headphones back in and started walking back toward the way they had come.

“It doesn’t matter anymore. I won’t have sex with anyone again because of the scars. Men, like you were
,
will be appalled.”
She glanced back at him again. “I’m going to run back the rest of the way.
I’ll catch you later.”

He watched her take off.
She was nearly two blocks away before he moved to follow. He didn’t just feel like an ass now, he felt his heart crush under the weight of what he’d done.

~~~

It had been three days since she’d seen Mr. Cooper.
She’d done well to avoid him and now he was in the kitchen when she was about to go out.
She had a date with Taylor and Dane. They were going to have a
girl’s
night out.
Sin was dressed in her new dress her sister Grace Anne had sent her for her birthday. She was twenty-eight today.

“There’s mail for you.
I didn’t know which room you were in so I just hoped you
’d
see it here.
Where are you sleeping anyway?”

She let out a slow breath, glad he wasn’t going to bring up their conversation from the other day.
“
Basement
.
There are
a couple of rooms down there. I’m using one as a weight room and the other as a bedroom.
”
She picked up the first envelope and knew it was from her sister
Jazzy
.
“The weight equipment is Cain’s. He’s letting me use it.
If you want to use it
,
too, just wipe it down when you’re done.”

The card was bright and cheery and she had enclosed a gift certificate to her
favorite
lotion shop.
She picked up the second card.
It was from Quinn and Drew.
There was the usual happy birthday and a “we miss you very much” penned inside.

The third card was from her sister Lilliane.
There was a nice and very long note inside that said she missed her
,
but it was the last that made her smile.

“As identical twins I feel I must
tell you that you need to get laid. I can feel your needs all the way here.
If you don’t do the nasty with the first person you see
—
I don’t even care which sex at this point
—
I will be forced to do it for you.
I love you
,
baby sis.
Li
zzy”

She was still laughing when she looked up at him. “What?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you laugh before.
It’s very beautiful on you.
You should do it more often.”

Sin flushed
,
she could even feel her cheeks heat.
“
It’s
my birthday and my family sent me cards.
My sister
, Lillianne
,
or
Lizzy
,
is my twin and she said…she told me
something
personal and it made me laugh
,
that’s all.
I should go.”
She was gathering up her things to leave when he tapped her on the shoulder.

She turned to him slowly, afraid of what he might say to ruin her good mood.
Or better yet
,
how she would take whatever he
said to ruin her mood.
Instead
,
he cupped her face and brought it to his.

“Happy Birthday.”
The
kiss
,
like his words
,
was
soft and gentle. When he pulled back and looked at her she wasn’t sure what to say and was glad she didn’t because he pulled her back and kissed her again.
This
one
had more heat, more mouth
,
and a great deal more touching.

He pulled her body to his, flush against him.
She could feel ever
y
muscle, every contour
,
and every bit of his erection against her.
When he shifted his head and deepened the kiss Sin moaned and wrapped her free hand into his shirt.
She needed to hang onto something or fall.
When
he pulled away and took a step back she was as close to begging a man to take her as she’d ever been.
Need coiled not only in her belly
,
but in every cell of her, every po
re
, even her hair seemed to need him
But when he took another step back she reached behind her for the door knob and twisted it open.
She
was out the door and in her car before she could say something
incredibly
stupid like
,
“why did you stop
?
T
ake me
,
big boy.”
Sin was pulling into the restaurant parking lot when she realized she must have looked stupid anyway and laid her head on the steering wheel.