Page 226

Fuck.

It just blows me away.

He blows me away.

“Cooper,” I breathe, taking a step toward him.

“I…I can’t believe it. I’m RoughingTheModel.”

“Cooper,” I repeat.

“No wonder I felt a connection with you just through messages. It was you. You’re HotScore.”

“Cooper,” I plead, needing to get everything out in the open.

Finally, he looks at me, and I swear the air thickens around us.

I take a deep breath and finally rip the Band-Aid off, praying that I’m not about to bleed out. “I know.”

The second the words are out, his brows pinch.

“You…you know?”

“Yeah. I know. I…I figured it out a while ago.”

Disbelief continues to wash across his face.

“Right,” he says, lifting his hand and rubbing his rough jaw. “You knew. And you’ve known for a while,” he mutters to himself.

“Yeah,” I agree, although I don’t think he actually needs an answer.

Time seems to stop as he stands frozen in place, processing.

“I was going to tell you. I was. I just—” My words cut off as his expression hardens, his jaw ticking with anger.

Fuck.

“Cooper, please. I was scared that you’d back off to start with because you’d told me stuff.”

“And then what? Why didn’t you tell me after?”

“Because I was a pussy. What we’ve found has been so good. I didn’t…I didn’t want to ruin it.”

“But you’ve been lying to me,” he says quietly.

My heart slams against my ribs as fear floods through me.

The Cooper standing before me right now isn’t the man I’ve come to know. It’s the version of him that the rest of the world sees. Not the incredible one that hides behind that mask.

“I’m sorry, Cooper. I’m so fucking sorry.”

“I …” He rubs his jaw, deep in thought. “I trusted you.”

“You can still trust me,” I assure him, but the second I reach out to touch him, he jolts away as if he’s about to be burned.

Regret seeps into my bones.

“Cooper, please. It’s me. I’m sorry. I should have told you, but⁠—”