Free Lantern Lake by Lily Everett Page B

moment. Because the moment was wonderful, heat and tightness and the kind of pleasure that turned a man inside out…but in the back of his mind, the past lurked like a cancer, sending our tendrils of black poison.
    He still had questions, things he wanted to know but hesitated to bring up because he didn’t want to cause Vivian any more pain than she’d already suffered. Now wasn’t the time, anyway. They’d made enough progress for one day.
    Cooper forced the questions down, focusing on the sweet taste and eager response of the woman in his bed. They had time. He’d make sure of it.

Chapter 8
    Vivian scraped one last curl of flaking paint off the porch railing and blew out a breath. She paused for a minute to wipe her forehead and smooth her flyaway hairs back into the hasty knot she’d twisted it into after the long—shared, delicious, knee-weakening—shower that morning.
    Since she’d stopped, it was a perfect time to check her messages. Vivian pulled her phone from the pocket of her sleeveless down vest to see if either the bank or the title company had returned her emails. There was a notification from her bank, and she clicked it quickly only to frown at the news that it would take several days for Cooper’s check to clear. And there was still no news on the status of all the ownership paperwork.
    “What’s the matter?” Cooper called from the yard, where he was working on scraping and sanding down the front door, which they’d taken off its hinges and rested on a pair of sawhorses in preparation for repainting the cabin’s trim a bright, happy red.
    Vivian slipped the phone back into her pocket. “It’s kind of crazy that I could deposit a tiny check for not much money and have it all available immediately—but when it’s a lot of money that I really need, it’s going to take another week.”
    “Whatever you need the money for, I can cover it,” Cooper said.
    Vivian went still. She didn’t want to offend Cooper, and she could tell it meant something to him that he’d pulled himself up by his bootstraps into the financial stratosphere, and that he could afford to buy her anything she wanted. But at the same time, she didn’t want to set a precedent she wouldn’t be able to live with.
    “That’s sweet of you,” she told him sincerely. “I truly appreciate the thought. But it’s important to me to be independent.”
    Cooper frowned. “You always shared whatever you had with all your friends at school—buying rounds of drinks, picking up the tab for lunch. What’s the big deal about me helping you out now?”
    “I don’t want to owe you anything.” Vivian’s fingers cramped, and she realized she was clutching the metal-handled scraper too tightly. Uncurling her fist, she set it gently down on the railing.
    “I’m not going to collect on you,” Cooper protested, starting to get frustrated. Worse than the irritation, though, was the hurt Vivian could see lurking in his hazel eyes. “What do you think, I’m going to take it out of your hide? If you insist on it being a loan, that’s fine—I know you’re good for it, since I already cut you a check.”
    “That’s different! I’m earning that money by renovating and selling you the cabin, which you will then own free and clear. It’s straightforward, simple, clean. I can live with that.”
    Something flashed across Cooper’s face too quickly for her to read it, and when he opened his mouth, she held up a hand. She was determined to get this out on the table between them. Any future they might have depended on being up front about this.
    “What I can’t live with,” Vivian said, “is another man thinking he owns me because I don’t have the means to make my own way in the world.”
    Cooper’s mouth shut with a snap, the muscle behind his jaw ticking for a second before he rounded the sawhorses and stalked across the yard toward her. When he was close enough to touch her, he leaned his arms on the railing she’d been