Lantern Lake by Lily Everett Read Free Book Online Page A

succulent bite of flesh between her teeth, light enough to sting the way he liked. The heartfelt growl from deep in his chest was cut off by a grunt of frustration, however.
    “What’s the matter?” she asked, heart hammering and wetness gathering at her aching center.
    “I guess I could get my revenge on your house by watching it burn to the ground,” Cooper said, taking her shoulders and turning her to face the smoking, blackened pancakes curling on the griddle. “But then we wouldn’t get to have breakfast.”

Chapter 5
    After breakfast was salvaged and they both found their missing articles of clothing, Cooper still didn’t leave. Instead, he asked for a tour of the property.
    Something was going on here. Something Vivian didn’t want him to know—which, of course, made him want to know more than ever. In the last ten years, she’d become more of a mystery, but her basic tells hadn’t changed.
    For instance, she always tugged on her left earlobe when she was skirting the truth. If she were wearing earrings, she’d play with them. If not, like this morning by the stove, talking about the state of disrepair of her summer cottage…tug, tug, tug.
    What was she hiding?
    They bundled up against the cold, and Cooper thanked his lucky stars he’d brought his duffel to the reception and left it squeezed into the Ferrari’s tight little trunk. He’d intended to fly away from the wedding in Miles’s helicopter, just to make a point about winning the bet, so he’d packed up what he brought to the island in preparation.
    Vivian plopped a knit hat on her head, complete with hilarious earflaps and a fluff ball on top. The way her eyes sparkled erased the years from her face. “Come on! You’ve got to see Lantern Lake, it’s absolutely glorious.”
    For Cooper’s money, he’d already gotten to see Vivian’s “private paradise” the night before, but he was always game for an exploration. “Lead the way.”
    Every breath fogged the air in front of them as they trooped out the door and down the porch stairs, Vivian carefully guiding him to skip the sagging second-to-top stair in case it wouldn’t hold his weight.
    Other than a few idle comments about how much the temperature had dropped overnight—or maybe it was the absence of a blazing beach bonfire—Cooper walked beside Vivian in comfortable silence. It wasn’t the emptiness of having nothing to say, but rather the fullness of not needing to say anything in order to enjoy one another’s company.
    Telling himself he hadn’t missed that at all, Cooper stared out over the quietly lovely vista of the secluded freshwater lake in the middle of a maritime pine glade. Frost tipped the cord grass and edged the cattails, bending their heavy heads down toward the water’s surface. Across the lake, maybe a hundred feet away, a wild horse lifted its shaggy head from its morning sip of lake water and scented the breeze.
    Grabbing Vivian’s hand, Cooper pointed wordlessly at the animal, who watched them without blinking for a second or two before slowly lowering its dark chestnut head to the water once more.
    “They’re all over the island,” Cooper murmured, gaze resting on the wild horse. “There must be five or six separate bands of horses.”
    “I love them.” Vivian’s low voice was surprisingly fierce and raw. Giving her a sidelong glance, he saw that moisture had welled along her bottom lashes, turning her eyes into sparkling amethysts. “They know how to be free.”
    It was an odd comment from someone who’d grown up a child of wealth and privilege. Vivian’s parents had given her every opportunity, every advantage, which gave her plenty of free time to spend on fun. For a kid like Cooper, who’d worked for everything he had, including working two jobs to be able to afford his textbooks and an off-campus apartment even on a full academic scholarship, Vivian had always seemed to have it easy.
    He hadn’t held it against her, back then. He’d