Chapter 7 #3
Then he kissed her ankle, her calf, her knee, her inner thigh. He moved up her body and traced the tattoo on her hip. “When did you get this?”
“A few months ago.”
“You’re full of surprises.” Then he kissed her right there, trailing to her inner thigh.
“Cooper…”
But before she could protest or say anything at all, his mouth was on her. And then she had no desire to protest. Not in the least. Because it was like lightning. Like fire. His tongue over that most sensitive part of her was everything she had ever wanted and more.
She knew how to pleasure herself – when you were a twenty-seven-year-old virgin, you really had to have that on lock – but this was different. He was in charge. And he was doing things to her that went beyond her wildest imagination. Teasing her, tormenting her, that slick friction hot and perfect.
He pushed a finger inside of her, and she gasped as she arched her hips up off the bed.
Then he pushed in a second finger, and she flexed her hips forward, pushing them in deeper, her body greedy for more.
She wasn’t nervous. Well, she was nervous about the curse, but she wasn’t worried at all about the virginity lost part.
She was just ready. She was ready to have him inside of her.
Ready for all of that. She wasn’t afraid of pain, anyway; she had a vibrator, so penetration wasn’t uncharted territory.
She wasn’t afraid, she just wanted it to happen.
She was somehow naked, while he still had his jeans on, he reached into his back pocket and took out his wallet.
Opened it up and took out a condom. She shivered.
Then his hands went methodically to his belt and he undid it, along with his jeans.
He tore the condom open, right as he freed himself.
She bit her bottom lip, staring at that most masculine part of him.
Of course it was… proportionate. He was a big man, and that was a big.
..well. Some might even call it a redwood tree.
It certainly wasn’t hard to see.
She licked her lips as she watched him roll that protection over his hard length.
“I’ll go slow,” he said.
“You better not,” she responded. She sat up and wrapped her arm around his neck, pulled him down over the top of her, and parted her legs for him. “I want you. I need this. Please. Before anything happens.”
He nodded and kissed her, fusing his lips to hers as he pressed the blunt head of his erection against the slick entrance to her body. He entered her in one smooth thrust. It did hurt. He was a lot bigger than her vibrator. But it was good. It was so good.
She had Cooper Langdon inside of her. Over her, in her. And when he began to move, she saw stars.
She arched her hips up against his and let him claim her, over and over again.
Let him establish the rhythm that was taking them both to the heights.
She wasn’t a virgin anymore.
She opened her eyes and looked into his.
She had been utterly, completely charmed by the cowboy. He had bewitched her in ways that she hadn’t seen coming. And now, they were actually doing this.
Oh, it was so… It was too big. The emotion that was building in her chest. It was more than she wanted.
More than she was prepared for. She had wanted to lose her virginity, but she should’ve known that with him, it was always going to be more.
It was always going to be deeper. It was always, always going to be everything.
Because with the two of them, it was always going to be more than sex. It was why it was hot. It was why it was great.
Because he mattered.
But all that mattering scared her.
But then, she saw how certain he was, and she couldn’t be afraid. She couldn’t be.
He cupped her face, kissed her, and she let all of her worry float away on the tide of pleasure that was building inside of her. One stroke, two, and she shattered. She cried out his name, just as he trembled, thrusting into her one last time, growling as he found his own release.
She was breathing hard, clinging to him. They had gotten the hotel, so surely they would stay together the whole night?
“What are you panicking about?”
“Everything,” she said.
“Don’t,” he responded.
Okay. She wasn’t going to. Because he told her not to. She wished that she could access some of her intuition. But she had nothing.
“I think sex made me stupid.”
He shocked her by rolling onto his back and throwing his forearm over his eyes, laughing. “Excuse me?”
“Please, don’t pretend you’ve never turned a woman into an idiot with your dick before.”
“I can honestly say you’re the first person to comment on that.”
“Well. I don’t… I don’t know what to say.”
He rolled back over, above her now. “You don’t have to say anything.”
She reached up and touched his face. “But I want to. Because this is… momentous. Incredible. Unexpected. Amazing. I…” She blinked. “None of them were you.”
“What?”
“I think that’s the reason. I think it’s the reason that I could never… It was supposed to be you.”
He cleared his throat. Moved away and settled onto his side. “I’m sorry that I lied to you about that day at the ranch. I did want to kiss you. But… No, I don’t believe in curses, Eliana.”
“Maybe you should revise that, because I did draw The Lovers card. And here we are.”
He seemed to not quite know what to say to that.
So he let that settle for a second. “I might not believe in curses, but I have certainly lived like I do.” He sighed heavily, putting his hand on her hip, right over her tattoo.
It was such a casual, intimate gesture, and it made her shiver.
“Because it just feels pointless. It feels… My father was dead by thirty-five. He didn’t get to live his dream.
He left behind a family. I don’t suppose that’s a curse.
But it just shows the potential for a whole lot of awful shit.
And I’ve never wanted any of that. Never wanted to leave behind people who love me, never wanted to hurt anyone.
To be hurt. It just feels easier. Not just to accept loss, but to own it.
To let it change you. To let it protect you. ”
“I understand that. I know… I know you don’t want to hurt me. I know why you didn’t want to do this. It’s the same reason that I didn’t. Except I was worried I would hurt you. Or kill you.”
“Well, I’m not dead.”
She nodded. “No.”
She took a deep breath. “So what is this going to be? What even can it be?”
“So, you do believe in magic,” he said.
“I don’t know. Yes. Yes, I do.”
“So what do you believe about magic?”
“I believe that on the whole it’s good. Which I know is silly, because I believe in the curse.
But I believe that curse only came into being because something good was so badly used.
Because sex, desire, love got twisted up into something, and that woman was so hurt that she took that beautiful thing and turned it into something deadly.
My general belief about magic is that it’s in the little ordinary things all around us.
That it’s when you pause to look at the little synchronicities.
That it’s sunsets and hummingbirds. Flowers.
That it’s feeling the weight of crystals in your hand.
Savoring a kiss. I think magic is in living.
It’s in the everyday. I think magic is there for whoever wants to see it.
And it’s not something that only the few can experience. ”
“So generally speaking, you think magic is good.”
“Yes. I do. And I think, generally speaking, it’s there to guide us, to lift us up.
To make every day just a little bit more beautiful.
So maybe this is magic. Magic enough that it got around the curse that you’re worried about.
Magic enough that it was the thing that maybe both of us were waiting for.
So maybe we have this while it’s magic.”
“You don’t even believe in magic, so I think this is just dude sex logic.”
“Maybe. But am I totally wrong?”
“No. I don’t think you’re totally wrong. I think… Okay. Okay. Let’s do this as long as it’s magic.”
He held her face in his hands and leaned in to kiss her.
And she truly did feel like it was magic.
All the way down to her toes. It was certainly nothing like she’d ever experienced before.
It was everything brilliant and wonderful and bright.
And just for now, that was what she wanted.
Just for now, she didn’t want to think about curses or what darkness might be waiting around the corner.
Because for now, they did have something magical.
And she wanted to hold on to it for as long as possible.