Chapter 7 #2
If they could get a room.
He parked his truck in the parking lot, and they got out, the sound of the ocean crashing below them a soundtrack to the walk into the lobby. It was a beautifully appointed building, with luxury details everywhere.
Owned by one of the wealthiest families in town, it was definitely the place for tourists looking for the most luxurious version of Wild Rose Point.
Cooper walked up to the front desk with an extraordinary amount of confidence. “Do you have a room available for the night?”
The girl behind the front desk – very young, clearly, in spite of the fact that she was dressed in a gray blazer and skirt, with makeup and hairstyle that were supposed to help her look a little bit older – tried to look at Cooper without blushing.
“Yes, sir, we do have a couple of rooms available. We have a king room with an ocean view and a steam shower. And then we have the deluxe suite, which has a library, a king bed, a jet tub, and an ocean view.”
“We’ll take the suite.”
He took his wallet out and gave the girl his credit card, and Eliana didn’t quite know what she was waiting for at that point. For the card to decline? For the room to suddenly be booked? For an earthquake to slide the entire hotel into the sea? None of those things happened.
And when he got the key, her heart began to beat even harder. Was this actually going to happen?
Not just her finally getting to have sex, but with Cooper?
She took a deep breath and followed him to the gilded elevator, which took them up to the fourth floor. Her hands were shaking as they walked down the hall.
They were alone there, and he turned to her, gripping her chin and kissing her hard.
She felt dizzy. He wrapped his arm around her waist, and kissed her and kissed her. Like they were the only two people in the world. Like there was nothing else. Like she was special. Like this was special.
And she was pretty sure that she was going to die.
Because nothing else had ever been half so wonderful. Half so amazing.
In the past, when she tried to do this, it was mainly just so she could get it over and done with.
But that wasn’t what this was. She was enjoying every moment of it.
Every sensation. The way that he touched her, the way that he tasted.
She could kiss him forever. She could kiss him forever and be happy about it.
Even if kissing wasn’t all she wanted. But it did something to calm her galloping pulse. Her racing thoughts.
Oh God. This was it. This was it.
“I want you,” he growled.
“I want you. I have I… for me, it’s always been you.”
The words choked her. And she almost didn’t want to say them. It was too much. Too emotional. Too everything.
Then he took her hand and led her all the way to the end of the hallway. They used the key card to open up the door, and the suite before them was glorious. Incredible.
When it was light outside, she knew that there would be a view, but right now, he was the only view that she needed. He closed the door behind them and flipped the deadbolt over.
She clutched her overnight bag, her heart pounding wildly.
She was a spontaneous girly. And in the past, when she had done these things, it had been spontaneous. No real anticipation.
But this was years’ worth of anticipation, unfolding before her, and he didn’t seem in any particular hurry to make it go faster.
He stood there, assessing her. Looking at her like he was appraising a piece of art that he was trying to understand.
They had always been opposites. She would’ve said that her older brother’s stoic best friend didn’t want her, but she’d been wrong. So, where the hell was her deep knowing where that was concerned? There had been none.
She hadn’t seen him coming.
Maybe because it had felt impossible, or she had needed it to be. Maybe her own feelings on the matter had gotten tangled up in it. Maybe they had made it so that she couldn’t see it clearly.
But whatever she had thought before, she’d been wrong. He did want her. That realization sent a scorching heat through her. Power. She didn’t feel afraid. Not right now. She looked into his eyes, those glorious, blue eyes, and she realized that if any man could power through that curse, it was him.
He was the man who could change the prophecy.
No. Don’t get in too deep. Don’t make it like that.
Maybe she didn’t need to, but she was having those feelings nonetheless.
And then, he moved toward her. He ripped her overnight bag out of her hand and pulled her up against his body.
It was like all his patience suddenly ran out.
Like there had been sand running in an hourglass that she couldn’t see, and the last grain had just dropped.
He kissed her with all the fierce passion that she had only ever read about, and never dared dream about.
He kissed her like she was a revelation. He kissed her like she mattered.
He kissed her like she wasn’t wrong or cursed or weird, even though she absolutely knew that he thought she was weird. But maybe it didn’t matter. Maybe he wanted her anyway. Or maybe it was part of why he wanted her.
He kissed her, and she felt lit up inside like a Christmas tree. Like everything was brighter. Hopeful. And she pushed away all her worries. All her fears.
He was right about one thing, she did believe in manifestation, so why did she focus on the most negative aspects of everything? There was no point in doing that.
Why did she focus on what she thought might go wrong? Maybe she just needed to think about what might go right.
Funnily enough, the animals hadn’t stopped them from doing this. They were the reason that they were together now. The reason they had kissed down at the bonfire.
Maybe they would’ve kissed at the horse trailer, and maybe this would’ve been the end result. But…
He hadn’t let anything stop this.
Her heart was beating out of control, her whole body desperate for whatever came next, and desperate to linger in the moment as long as possible.
Her breasts felt heavy, her nipples tight.
She was arching against him, grinding against the hard cock that she could feel pressing through the front of his jeans.
In some ways, it had been easier to kiss men she didn’t know very well.
Because they didn’t know everything about her.
Hadn’t known her when she was an awkward kid, hadn’t known what she thought about curses and magic, and the kinds of things that made Cooper roll his eyes, but didn’t make him run away.
He knew everything. He knew every aspect of who she was. Every facet of her, for better or worse, was something he knew about. And she was thinking about his cock.
Which was hot. Honestly, it was hotter. Because there was something sexy, she supposed, about the idea of sleeping with somebody she didn’t know all that well, she had tried it, after all, and had gotten a little thrill out of the attempt.
But knowing him, knowing that she was about to find something out about him that only a few people knew, along with all the things she already knew, that was somehow even sexier.
To discover what Cooper looked like naked. What he was like when he…
She shivered, and he broke the kiss, cradling her face as he looked into her eyes. “God, you’re so fucking hot.”
His words sent a thrill down her spine. He had never said anything like this to her before.
And she was… all for it. All for being treated like Eliana, the woman, not Eliana, his friend’s little sister.
Being held by him. Being desired by him.
Needed by him. Bringing him to this point. Where he could say this about her.
Where he looked like he was pushed all the way to the edge.
Because she was.
He stripped his shirt over his head, and her jaw dropped. His body was perfection. Sculpted muscles, golden hair sprinkled over his skin.
“Oh… Oh, good God,” she said. She couldn’t hold it back.
He tilted his head. “Commentary?”
“You’re so hot.”
He chuckled, and when he kissed her, she swallowed that laugh. She hadn’t thought that he might be amusing during sex. That he might laugh. That he might smile. But still, that intensity remained. All of that glorious fire in his blue eyes.
He kissed her down to the mattress, his hard body over the top of hers, and her heart was beating wildly, she realized she was still, sort of, waiting for an interruption.
For something to intervene. For something to prevent them from having this.
But nothing did. There was no thunderbolt.
Only a flash of lightning between her thighs when he stripped her shirt off, and unhooked her bra, leaving her breasts exposed to his gaze, to the chill of the air.
Then he cupped one with his large, rough hand, and she was sure she might die. She’d never gotten this far. She’d gotten her shirt off before, but never her bra. She’d never been touched this intimately by a man.
He moved his thumb over her nipple, and she shuddered.
At the same time, she kept her eyes on his. This was Cooper. Then she couldn’t turn away from that. Couldn’t turn away from this. From the electric need that arced through her every time he touched her, looked at her.
He lowered his head and kissed her neck, kissed his way down to her collarbone, down the plump part of her breast, all the way to her nipple, when he sucked it in deep.
She cried out, arching up off the mattress.
She gripped his shoulders, fingernails digging into his skin.
He kissed his way down her body, down to the black leggings that she was wearing, which he stripped away from her slowly, methodically.
Even as he did, his mouth hovered over that most intimate part of her for a moment, as he continued all the way down to her ankles, where he stripped the leggings and her underwear away entirely and threw them onto the floor.