Hold Me Until Morning Read online

  He secured his bike and saw Jackson’s car was already parked down the street. Paris took off her helmet and fluffed up her bangs. As far as he was concerned she still looked exactly like Paris O’Connell, even with short black hair, but since he doubted either Jackson or Alex had ever watched the soap it wasn’t likely they’d have a clue who she was.

  He’d already called his gran and asked her to keep quiet about it. No way would she not recognize Paris. She loved Sunset Heights.

  “Wow.” Paris glanced along the street. “Everything seems so much smaller than when I was last here.”

  “That’s because you were a lot smaller then.”

  She gave him a smile that speared right through his chest. She appeared to have gotten over whatever had pissed her off earlier.

  “More than ten years. I can’t believe it.”

  He took her helmet from her. “You’ve never been back here at all?”

  “No. Mom wanted to cut all ties.” She looked over to where she used to live. There was a faraway look on her face, as though old memories haunted her. “It’s so weird. Now I’m back, it’s like I’ve never been away.”

  “Nothing much changes around here.” And that included his gran. She’d refused to move from this old house when he and his brothers had offered to find her a nice new apartment. Said she liked keeping close to her roots.

  “Well.” Paris took a deep breath. “Into the lion’s den then.”

  He laughed, and was just about to sling his arm around her shoulders when he remembered where they were. “She’s a kitten, remember?”

  The door opened and Jackson stood there. “Hey,” he said, before looking at Paris.

  “My older brother, Jackson.” Cooper felt a right idiot telling her that, but she looked as if she’d never seen Jackson before. Then again, she was an award-winning actor. “J, this is Pah, uh—” Fuck, he’d almost called her Paris. Before he could spit out the right name, she gave Jackson a painfully polite smile.

  “Hi. I’m Sofia.”

  “Good to meet you, Sofia.” Jackson glared at him as though he couldn’t believe Cooper had forgotten her name, before stepping back into the hall and gesturing for them to follow him. He put the helmets under the hall table and went into the front room. His gran was sitting in her usual chair, Alex was standing by the window, and Ella was perched on the arm of the sofa. He didn’t realize Ella would be there, although he should’ve. His gran looked on her as the granddaughter she’d never had.

  Ella raised her eyebrows at him. He ignored her. From the corner of his eye he saw Scarlett Ashford on the sofa. He’d met her briefly last week, just after his brother hadn’t been able to stop talking about her. It looked like they’d fixed their problems.

  “So, you’re Cooper’s girl.” His gran had a satisfied look on her face as she stared at Paris. It was bad enough his gran had said that at all, but what was worse was she knew who Paris really was. What the hell was she thinking?

  “That’s right,” Paris agreed. “Nice to meet you.”

  His gran beamed. She never beamed at anyone. He went hot and hoped his brothers didn’t notice their gran behaving like a total fangirl. He turned to Scarlett, who looked as if this was a perfectly normal afternoon for her.

  “Hi again,” he said. “Finally sorted my brother out, huh?”

  Scarlett’s smile widened. “You could say that.”

  Paris nudged him with her elbow. He shot her a desperate look and she just gave him an innocent smile. Innocent his ass.

  “This is Sofia,” he announced to the room in general.

  “Hi, Sofia,” Scarlett said. A frown flickered across her face. “Sorry, you just reminded me of someone.”

  “I get that a lot,” Paris said.

  “Coop, need a word.” Jackson turned and went into the kitchen. Relieved to get out of the heat Cooper followed him. He’d kill for a beer, but his gran refused to have booze in the house. Her gut rot tea would have to do.

  Jackson rounded on him. “What the fuck are you playing at?”

  He frowned. “Huh?”

  “Bringing some random girl to gran’s.”

  That pissed him off. “She’s not some random girl. We’ve known each other for years.” Not exactly the truth but not a lie either.

  Jackson scoffed. “You didn’t even know her name. Couldn’t you’ve taken her home or dropped her off wherever you picked her up last night before you came here?”

  “I didn’t pick her up last night. Mind your own business, J.”

  His brother’s eyes narrowed. “Is she anything to do with this emergency job you had to do this week?”

  Cooper couldn’t figure out whether admitting to that would be a good thing or not. “Just drop it, okay.”

  Jackson gave a disbelieving laugh. “I don’t believe it.”

  “Not asking you to, and before you start, wasn’t Scarlett your client at one point?”

  “At least I never forgot her name.”

  He doubted he’d ever forget Paris’s name either. “Is that it then?” He didn’t want to leave Paris alone in the other room for too long. Not that she’d seemed fazed. No one would guess she’d been nervous of meeting his gran again.

  “Guess so,” Jackson said. “You know Alex is going to be on your back about it. Pretty sure he only brought Ella along for you.”

  He exchanged a look with his brother. For some crazy reason Cooper could never understand, Alex always seemed to think he and Ella would be great together. The fact that Ella’d had a crush on Alex for as long as Cooper could remember appeared to have bypassed his oldest brother’s notice.

  “That’s never going to happen.” About to return to the front room he paused. “What’s this all about anyway? Gran said you had some news.”

  For a second he could’ve sworn his brother flinched in embarrassment, but he recovered instantly. “Until last night it was just going to be me and Scarlett here today. Gran wanted to meet her. Weird as fuck. She’s never wanted to meet anyone I’ve seen before.”

  “You never dated anyone before Scarlett.” In the middle of a mocking grin, he suddenly froze, as his brother’s words hit him. “When gran called last night she told me to bring along my girl. How the hell did she know I was with anyone?” Let alone anyone he’d actually want to bring with him.

  “How the hell do you have a girl in the first place when you can’t even remember her name?” Jackson shook his head, clearly giving him up as a lost cause. “And yes I have news.” With that, he marched out of the kitchen.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Paris sat on the sofa beside Scarlett, with Ella perched on the arm next to her. Alex stood in the corner of the room, a watchful look on his face. She’d never had much to do with him. He was six years older than her, and she doubted he’d even known of her existence when she used to live across the street.

  Ella was a different matter. Even though she was a couple of years older than Paris, they’d sometimes hung out together in a group, since Ella and Cooper had been great buddies. She’d had a girl crush on her when she was eight years old because Ella was cool and fearless and didn’t give a shit about upsetting anyone.

  It struck her that she really wanted to talk to Ella, and she couldn’t, because Cooper didn’t want anyone to know who she really was. And there it was. She felt mean and nasty for thinking that when he was only trying to look out for her—but a part of her couldn’t help thinking the secrecy was also because it suited him.

  Scott would be pissed if he found out what she and Cooper had been up to, and while she’d gotten to the point where she would happily tell Scott to go fuck himself, she wasn’t at all certain Cooper felt the same way.

  In fact, she was pretty sure he didn’t want to risk losing his oldest and best friend’s trust. She couldn’t blame him. The truth was she’d never had a good friend like that. The ones she thought she could trust had spilled her secrets to the tabloids. It wasn’t the only reason she’d become best friends with
Absolut, but it sure had been a factor.

  Cooper’s gran hadn’t stopped talking since he and Jackson had left the room. Mainly she was telling Scarlett how pleased she was Jackson had finally found someone. It was all very… She tried to find the right word, but could only come up with family-ish.

  Surreptitiously she crossed her ankles. She felt like the worst kind of intruder. At least his gran knew who she really was. That had to count for something.

  Cooper and his brother came back into the room. He gave her one of his sexy smiles, and she had a hard time not grinning back at him like an idiot. He leaned against the wall by the door and folded his arms.

  Jackson, on the other hand, came right over to Scarlett, squashed his big body next to her, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Paris shuffled into the corner of the sofa so Scarlett had room to breathe. Ella muffled a snort, as though she found it all highly amusing.

  “All right then, Jackson.” Cooper’s gran nodded at him. Excitement bubbled from her. Had she really once been terrified of this woman? Then again, so far she hadn’t yelled while brandishing a frying pan—or a toaster. “Share your news.”

  She leaned forward so she could see Jackson properly. He was either going to announce he and Scarlett were getting married or that she was pregnant.

  “Scarlett and me are engaged. We’re getting married at the end of October.”

  Paris smiled politely. She glanced up at Alex, who was in her line of vision, and for a second he looked sucker punched. She also saw Scarlett’s smile twitch. It was a shock to realize Scarlett might not be as confident as she appeared.

  She licked her lips. It was hardly her place to speak first, but seriously, someone had to say something. “Congratulations,” she said. “That’s fantastic.”

  “It’s bloody awesome,” Ella said. “Well done, J. Are you sure you know what you’re getting yourself into, Scarlett?”

  That seemed to break the shocked silence, and both Cooper and Alex joined in the conversation. While Cooper laughed and joked and seemed pretty happy about it, she didn’t know about Alex. He said the right things, but she got the impression he wasn’t entirely sure about Scarlett.

  Then again, Alex always had been hard to read.

  About an hour later she helped Ella and Scarlett clear away the tea things. She’d die for a coffee but hadn’t wanted to ask for one when it appeared everyone else was silently suffering through the fragrant tea Cooper’s gran poured from a massive china pot.

  The cake had been good, though.

  Jackson rolled up his sleeves to start washing up, and Cooper had disappeared into the hall so he could fix a picture hook that had come loose. Alex was being all dark and moody in the kitchen doorway.

  Did Ella still have a crush on the eldest Grayson brother? It sure didn’t look as though the two of them were together.

  “So how long have you and Cooper been seeing each other?” Ella glanced her way before tossing a tea towel at Alex, who caught it and shot her a half smile before joining his brother at the sink.

  “Just for a week.” She shrugged, not sure how much detail to give, but when Ella turned and gave her an odd look she gave a little wave of her hand and added, “It’s nothing serious.”

  “Fuck me. I knew it.” Ella’s comment had everyone turning their way. Ella leaned right into her space, and Paris backed up until she hit the stove. “Sofia my ass. You’ve practically trademarked that little flick of the hand. You’re Paris O’Connell.”

  Scarlett gasped. “Really? I thought I recognized you.”

  There was no point trying to deny it. Not that she wanted to, and although Scarlett obviously knew who she was, both Jackson and Alex were frowning at her as if they were trying to place who the hell Paris O’Connell was and why Ella was making such a big deal out of it.

  Cooper appeared at the door, hammer in hand. Ella rounded on him. “What’re you on, trying to fool us about Paris? Why didn’t you just tell me it was Scott’s sister you were babysitting this week?”

  Babysitting? Cooper had told Ella he was babysitting this week?

  “Uh.” He looked as though he’d just been grabbed by the balls, and not in a good way. She didn’t feel inclined to help him out, so she smiled at him sweetly instead.

  “This is Scott’s sister?” Jackson stared at her as though she’d suddenly grown a second head. “Little Paris O’Connell?” He glanced at Cooper. She thought she saw a silent message pass between them. What was that all about?

  “Also known as Lola de la Mare from Sunset Heights.” Cooper’s gran appeared next to Alex. “I only started watching that show because of you.”

  “Didn’t you go for the role in that new Milo Mallory movie?” Ella looked enthralled. “I love her books.”

  That was the part she’d had a couple of callbacks for. It was a Romeo/Juliet kind of story set in a motorcycle club, except without everyone dying at the end.

  “Yeah. It’d be a great role to land.” Well, she could hardly tell them her real plans. It was too complicated.

  Cooper slid the hammer onto the kitchen counter. Paris didn’t look pissed that her disguise had been rumbled. He should’ve known Ella would put the pieces together. He’d told her he was doing a favor for Scott but hadn’t gone into any details, and she’d jumped to the babysitting thing all by herself.

  He got the feeling Paris hadn’t been too impressed by that comment.

  “So Paris is your client this week?” Alex said, so only he could hear. Not hard, since Ella and his gran were bombarding Paris with questions.

  He didn’t answer right away. He’d never thought of her as his client, and he sure as hell didn’t now, but calling her that would certainly stop Alex asking any more probing questions that he wasn’t ready or able to answer.

  “Yeah.” Then he couldn’t stop himself. “But not officially. Scott didn’t want her off the grid without some protection around.” And fine protection he’d turned out to be.

  “She’s got trouble?” Alex folded his arms and leaned back against the doorframe. He looked completely relaxed, but Cooper wasn’t fooled. Paris might’ve lived like a Hollywood princess for the last ten years, but when it counted she was still one of them—the little girl who’d once lived across the street.

  And Alex always looked after his own. Christ, didn’t he know it.

  “Nothing I can’t handle. Just paparazzi, that’s all.”

  Paris was talking about some movie she was involved in where the rich girl slummed it so she could win her bad boy hero. He frowned. He thought she was starting college this fall.

  Maybe she just didn’t want to share her plans. His tense muscles relaxed. Why would she? She hadn’t even told her mom yet.

  She really was a great actor. She’d almost fooled him there for a minute.

  It was early evening when Jackson and Scarlett left, with Alex and Ella following soon after. Paris excused herself to use the bathroom and Cooper retrieved their helmets from the hall.

  His gran loomed beside him, all five foot three of her.

  “Are you and her serious?”

  “What?” His gran had never asked him about his sex life before. He guessed she wasn’t actually asking about his sex life now, either, but his guilty conscience went there anyway.

  Her lips twitched. “Cooper Grayson, don’t you try giving me that innocent look. I’ve seen you hanging about with plenty of girls over the years.”

  Fuck. What the hell? She had?

  “And I’ve never seen you look at any of them the way you look at her.”

  He took a step backward and nearly knocked over the hall table. “We’re just friends. She’s Scott’s little sister.”

  “Scott’s got nothing to do with it.” She followed him up the hall until his back was flat against the front door. “I heard something in your voice when I called you last night. You sure weren’t playing tiddlywinks with her.”

  Tiddlywinks? What the hell was that?

  “Why else
d’you think I told you to bring her along?” His gran flashed a triumphant smile. “’Course, I had no idea it was Lola. Now I just need to see your pigheaded big brother settled, and I’ll be done.”

  Paris came down the stairs. He’d never been so relieved to get away from his gran before. Once outside he sucked in great lungs full of air and turned to look at her.

  “You hungry?”

  She leaned in toward him as they made their way to his bike. “I’d commit murder for a coffee.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  They went to a local steakhouse, and Paris drank two coffees straight down before she leaned back in the booth and let out a long sigh. “That tea your gran served up was foul.”

  “You’re lucky you didn’t have to drink the stuff every Sunday afternoon.”

  She smiled and then ducked her head when the waitress brought over their order. Once they were alone again she picked up her fork and jabbed it in his direction. “I don’t think Alex was thrilled about Jackson’s news.”

  How would she know that? Alex hadn’t said much about it at all, as far as he could remember. “You think?”

  She looked at him. He itched to pull that damn wig off her head. “His body language, Cooper. Didn’t you notice?”

  Why would he notice something like that? “No.”

  “He’s very—” she paused and scrunched up her face in thought. She looked so cute. He let out a silent sigh and had to admit his gran was right about one thing.

  He’d never looked at another girl the way he looked at Paris.

  “Contained,” she said. “He doesn’t give much away, but he was pretty much floored by Jackson’s news.”

  Contained summed up Alex well—and then the familiar gnawing of guilt ate through his gut.

  Alex hadn’t always been so rigidly self-controlled.

  “What’s the matter?” The concern in her voice pulled him back to the present, and he shook his head.

  “Nothing.” He wasn’t going to talk about the past. It didn’t do any good or make any difference. He could only hope Paris didn’t remember anything about that night twelve years ago.