Sessions Chapter 46

South Beach - West Harbor Place



Blade was late. The date had been casually arranged, whenever he finished at the studio, but whenever had a limit and he'd passed it by half an hour. Elise wandered from store to store and restlessly picked up and discarded sweaters, dolls, cheese graters, an 'as seen on tv' thing that steamed the wrinkles out of your clothes, a purple bed-in-a-bag, finally stopping to examine a tray of silver rings. She had done her Christmas shopping. She shouldn't be looking at rings and thinking about how they'd look on Cooper.

She shouldn't be doing a lot of things. She shouldn't be hunkering down with her laptop at 2 a.m. googling Cooper to find out what he was doing and who he was seeing. She shouldn't be waiting for another man who was late.

Sessions Chapter 42 - COOP AND GEMMA AT HOTEL too long break rayne v2

Oceanside - The Palms

By the time Gemma tracked Cooper down at the Palms she was prickly, hot, and irritable. They stonewalled her at Hitman. Cooper wasn't there and the girl in reception had refused her repeated inquiries as to his whereabouts. 

Sessions Chapter 35 - If Looks Could Kill

Sandy Point - The Rusty Pelican

Slim watched the two of them, Gemma sitting at the table with her slender legs crossed, her body language enigmatic. She idly toyed with the long strands of her jet black hair while Coop sat at the opposite side of the table glaring at her. He steadily tapped the toe of his heavy boot against the chair leg, aggravated and on edge.

Focusing on her, Slim got into it. "I'm going to cut to the chase. We aren't giving you a blank check. Name your terms. What's the price for you to keep your mouth shut?""

Sessions 28 - Closer

Millwood: North Lake Drive - 7:30 pm



Millwood was quiet, the road around the lake dark, fog dropping down from the mountains to shroud the homes around the lakefront. He knew the deep mountain lake as well as he knew his own road home - his parents lived on the eastern shore - but it looked unfamiliar.  Cooper spun out once and recovered only to wonder if he had already passed the turn, and when he finally pulled up and got off his bike he staggered. Where was he, whose house was this, what the hell was he doing here...then he remembered with a surge of anger.  He straightened and moved toward the front door, one long stride after another then stumbled over a stray flagstone.

No doubt the front door would be unlocked; no one locked their doors here. He reached for the handle and had to grab for it again.  He was seeing double. Once he was able to hold it the latch gave way easily; he shoved the door open and entered.



"Gemma!" Cooper's rough voice shouted as he quickly walked from room to room sidestepping the annoying interference of a cat as it wove in and out of his path as if to waylay him and looked for her. "Gemma where in hell are you damn it?" Cooper massaged the back of his neck, bruised and aching; he'd tear the place up if he had to. Turning he saw her slender legs as Gemma moved fluidly down the staircase.



"Cooper, this is a surprise, what are you doing here?"

She moved toward him, every step just like his dead wife, smooth and delicate, her voice had that same lilt. It only served to further incense him, then for a couple of seconds he tried to shake himself free, caught between a memory and the woman before him. What was the answer, what was he doing here? That moment passed. "I warned you to stay away from my family." The deep timbre of his voice was a barely contained threat as he moved toward her. "You wanted my attention, well now you've got it!" She seemed to shift, in one place and then another.  He reached out, more to find something to steady himself than to grab her.



Gemma's expression turned from surprise to alarm as she tentatively stepped backward. "Don't flatter yourself into thinking anything I do is for your attention. I came to you looking for an opportunity and you slammed the door in my face. I told you I would approach Wyatt. He was free to turn me down but he didn't. It's just business." She tried to move away from him slowly as she spoke.



Cooper blinked at her, incensed, angry, in turmoil over the range of emotions that shook him and almost confused. With his vision blurred she looked more like Julia than ever. The woman who was his light, his touchstone, had betrayed him, had chosen another man and that pain was infinitely worse than any physical pain McDermott could have dealt. He started to grab her roughly, realized he was easily bruising her pale arms and softened his grip only to stagger when he lost even that frail support. Cooper saw the growing alarm in her eyes as she tried to push him away and then hold him up at the same time.

"What is the matter with you! What happened to your neck! You can hardly stand up!  Quit grabbing at me!"

She was at the heart of everything that threatened to destroy what he had left of his family. The spectral form of his dead wife, Julia incarnate, and he had to exorcise her ghost once and for all. "Damn you! Why can't you stay dead?"




Gripping her hair roughly in his fist he lowered his head and crushed her mouth against his in a violent kiss. Gemma struggled at the ferocity of his passion, if it could even be called that, until he stopped the assault on her mouth briefly and ripped her top off.

Cooper could see her pulse beating wildly in the curve of her neck. His body roiled in pain, fury, and arousal. He remembered her.  He was going to take her. He was not going to be gentle. He was going to fuck her until they were both spent. And then he would walk away, forget them all.  Then once again, he staggered.

She suddenly and unexpectedly returned that kiss then closed her own hands around his arms. Even in the rush of his own arousal he leaned into her and she probably saved him from falling.

Lifting her easily Cooper carried down a short hallway, kicked open a door left ajar on what he saw was a bedroom and roughly laid her on the bed.  With silky grace she slid down her remaining clothing as he pulled his own shirt off and moved toward her. Her eyes provoked him, the damned bitch. He dragged her body toward him as he loosened his belt. When he spoke again his voice was hoarse, rough. "Why can't you just stay buried?"

She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him down toward her.  He could feel her warm breath against his mouth.  "Because I'm not Julia, Cooper, and you know it."

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NEXT CHAPTER: Sessions Chapter 29

Sessions 24 - Half Light

Fade black light, white light and stay
Stay half light
Half night and day


Hitman Studios: South Beach Crossing, Late Afternoon


It was late afternoon, scattered beams of sunlight filtered through the windows as Cooper made his way downstairs. There weren't many people left, a few staffers, a couple of studio musicians and him. Pushing open the door to the recording studio Coop picked up his Kramer wrapping his long fingers around its neck almost lovingly as he eased onto a stool. He was surrounded by mahogany and expensive rugs, sensual deep colors that Beth had chosen. Closing his eyes he breathed in the aroma of rich leather as he began to carefully pick at a particular melody with which he had been toying.

Sessions 23

Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you, baby, one more time again, now



Their encore had been a blur of music and lights along with the crowd screaming for more but Cooper's attention was definitely focused elsewhere. Whoever the woman was, she was the spitting image of Julia. He didn't discount the possibility that she could be a manufactured replica meant to derail him, it wouldn't be the first time he had been deceived with smoke and mirrors, but he shoved the idea aside. Julia was dead but this woman was a living, breathing mirror image of his long dead ex-wife and he was going to find out who she was.

He was quickly realizing the plans he had made with Elisa were going to need to be postponed. There was no way he was going to walk out of here without finding out who the hell this woman was and what she wanted. Grabbing his cell, he placed a call. "Hey baby, it's me..."

Sessions 22

The Crossing - Wildcat Stadium - Benefit for Performing Arts

Pacing between the stacks of equipment, Cooper watched Storm Warning as they moved into the last set. If they hadn't booked the benefit concert months ago and featured Storm Warning as the opening act Cooper would have found another band. The energy in their music was gone; they were doing nothing more than phoning it in and even that sucked. "Everything all right Coop?" Slim had walked up quietly behind him.