Chapter 25
Cooper
Once we get settledin at Trix’s parents’ house, her father summons us into his office and has us sit down.
“I didn’t want to continue the scene last night at Xander’s, but I’m as concerned as he is about whatever the two of you have going on with this stalker. I’ve already made arrangements to have a security team help you. I have a contact in Cincinnati. He used to work for me and then he moved back east. He already does some work at the Chaos stadium so he’ll be a perfect fit for you.”
“We’ve taken plenty of precautions,” Trix interjects, and I see her father’s brow raise in gentle disapproval.
“Then these will just be additional fail-safes. You can never be too cautious. Among other things, they want to install cameras around the property where you’re living. They’ll be ready to get that finished for you as soon as you arrive home. I’ve already sent them out to do an assessment, and they’ve noted there are a lot of blind spots on the property that make it vulnerable, so I think it’s important this work happens as soon as possible.”
I’m not entirely shocked that Senator Xavier is so boldly adamant about his plans, but I’m surprised at how swiftly he’s put them in motion. I’m already wondering what sort of assessment they’ve been doing at my house. But I don’t exactly disagree with his or Xander’s concerns, and I want to reassure them I have her safety in mind.
“Dad, I appreciate your concern, but I think it’s wildly inappropriate for you to be telling Cooper what to do with his property and—”
“It’s okay.” I place my hand on top of hers. I know she’s trying to stand up for me, but anything that helps is something I’m willing to try. “It’s extra security. Whatever it takes to keep you safe, I’m happy to do it.”
Trix’s mouth flatlines, and she sighs, resigning herself to the fact that the men in her life are stubborn when it comes to her well-being.
“This is beyond overprotective. You’re approaching intrusive,” she complains to her father.
“If you won’t move back to Seattle, then I have to know you’re safe where you are.”
“I know you care about me, but I think this is all going to feel so silly when this turns out to be nothing. Just some overzealous fan of Cooper’s, having some fun at our expense, and we’ll look ridiculous for acting like it was something serious.”
“I’d rather be safe than sorry.” Her father says it with the kind of finality that tells me he’s done discussing it, even if she does hate it. It makes it hard for me to agree with him. While I desperately want more precautions in place than Trix does, I also don’t want to undermine her boundaries, and this entire conversation feels light a tightrope walk between making sure her father knows I think she’s a priority and making her feel like I’ve got her back no matter the circumstances.
“Fine. If it makes you feel better, and Cooper doesn’t object,” she relents.
“Whatever keeps you safe.” I brush my thumb over the backs of her knuckles.
“Good. That’s settled. Now, the next bit of business is that if you’re dating my daughter, I think it’s important I get to know a little more about you. I’ve got some colleagues coming over tonight, and while Bea catches up with some old friends and her mother, I thought you could come to have a scotch and some cigars with me while I get to know you better.”
If I was a ref, I’d be throwing a defenseless receiver penalty because… Fuck. I did not expect to spend the night stuck with Senator Xavier, and this sounds like absolute torture on top of it.
“I don’t think Cooper has time for that.” Bea tries to run interference for me.
“Well, you’re only here for a couple of days, so he’ll need to make time.”
“Again—”
“It’s fine. I’d love to chat more. I’ve heard so many good things, and I’ve been hoping to get a chance to meet you, sir.”
“Then it’s settled. Glad we can get all of this out of the way and enjoy the rest of the evening.” Senator Xavier’s face lights with the smile that tells me he’s used to getting his way, so I start mentally preparing myself for the gauntlet I’m about to enter and reminding myself that Trix is one hundred percent worth it.
After going morethan seven rounds in the ring with Trix’s father and his political colleagues with their opinions on everything from sports to the current weather, I finally see Trix crossing the room like a guardian angel come to save me.
“Thank fuck,” I whisper quietly when she comes up and wraps an arm around me.
“I think you’ve proved you can hold your own. Ready for a little break? I can give you a tour of the house.”
“Anything that gets me out of here. Do I get to see your bedroom?” I smirk.
“That can be arranged. As long as you don’t judge too harshly.”
“Scouts honor.”
She grins and then takes my hand, leading me through a maze of hallways and staircases until she pushes open a large mahogany-colored door. I turn around in her room, and it’s everything I expected and then some. The photo wall of friends, the numerous ribbons and trophies she gathered over her childhood for being an overachiever, and the aesthetic that’s stuck somewhere between prep school princess and slightly rebellious fangirl.
When I see the football sitting on the shelf, I raise my brow and turn to her, picking it up out of its place and turning it over in my hand. Despite the fact it’s been sitting here for years, there’s not a speck of dust, and I’m going to guess that’s thanks to one of the maids I saw dodge through a back hallway earlier. Her parents keep everything in here like it once was in hopes their old daughter, the one from their imagination who didn’t date football players and spend all of her time on their careers, comes home and wants her old spot back again.
“Xander’s not the only Xavier hoping to go pro someday?” I muse.
“Ha. I wish I could have played. I have zero coordination with a ball. Can you imagine my dad’s face if I’d said I wanted to play too? It might have killed him.”
“I bet you have more coordination than you give yourself credit for.”
“Maybe.” She shrugs. “It’s not mine though.”
“Whose is it?” I’m wondering if it’s my brother’s or hers.
“Craig’s.”
“Uptight Craig from downstairs?” My grip tightens on the ball. I haven’t liked the way he’s been following her around all night. Although I suspect it was part of the plan, right along with the Senator holding me hostage.
She looks at something on her desk before she answers, shuffling some paper there like she’s trying to distract herself.
“Yep. Like my dad was saying, he grew out of the things he thought he liked as a kid.”
“Grew out of them or just wasn’t good enough for college or the pros?” I hold it up, and she studies the ball for a moment like she’s reliving a memory.
“He wasn’t bad in high school.” She nods to the ball in my hand. “That was a game-winner.”
“And he gave it to you?”
She gives a sheepish smile and shrugs. “I asked for it. He was going to give it to Emily. This girl who was all but his girlfriend already. But I said if he gave it to me, I’d put in a good word for him with my dad for a summer internship. The rest is history.”
“You liked him?”
Another shoulder rises and falls, and she shakes her head. “He was cute at the time. I liked him well enough.”
“Enough to cockblock Emily.”
“Emily deserved it. She made out with another guy she knew I liked just to prove she could have anyone I wanted.”
“But Craig liked you better?”
“Craig liked my last name better than hers.”
“Ah.” My heart sinks a little for her. I can only imagine with a father as powerful as hers, and a brother as popular, that she was often seen as a bartering chip to get closer to power.
“It’s the same now as it was then.” She sighs.
“I don’t think so. The way he was looking at you tonight…” I’m pretty sure she’s right—Craig has all the wrong intentions when it comes to her. But I also know when I’ve got competition, and he’s been doing everything he can to make it clear I won’t get her in the end.
“Is exactly the way he looked at me junior year when he told me I’d look pretty on my knees.” She gives me a tight-lipped smile.
“I hope you told him you look prettiest when he’s looking up at you from between your thighs.” I grin and toss her the ball.
She catches it, and her smile breaks. “No. I wasn’t that fast with the comebacks.”
“You do, you know.”
She shakes her head and turns the ball over, end over end, in her hands. “Don’t try to flatter me, Rawlings.”
I close the distance between us, coming up behind her, wrapping an arm around her waist, and pressing a kiss to the side of her throat. I can feel her tense at the contact at first and then relax when she feels my lips move over her skin. Her lips part, and then she rolls the lower one between her teeth.
“Not flattery. Just truth. The way you look when you’re like that, your legs spread for me while you gasp every time I run my tongue over your perfect little cunt…” I run my fingers down over her stomach. “The way your hips come up off the bed when I suck on your clit…” I slide them under her skirt and brush my knuckles over her through her panties. She takes in a breath, and her eyelashes flutter.
I slip one finger under the cotton, kissing my way down her neck, satisfied when I find her already wet for me. I slide another finger inside, feeling her shift forward, desperate for more, before I take it away again, and her brow furrows even though her eyes don’t open.
“You’ve been teasing me all night,” she says softly.
“You’ve been teasing me all night,” I answer. “In that skirt. With those looks you keep giving me across the room. You’re lucky I didn’t bend you over the chair in the den. Let Craig walk in on you coming hard on my cock.” I see her throat bob in response, and I feel my pulse quicken. “You like the thought of that? Of him watching you come?”
Her fingers tighten around the football that’s still in her hands, and I smirk.
“He could see how lucky I am. How good you sound when you’ve got my cock buried inside you. Gasping for air. Begging for more.” I tease her clit with my knuckles again, and she wets her lips in response.
“You’re evil.”
“More than you know.” Because in her fantasy, it might be Craig walking in, but in mine, it’s my brother watching her fall apart for me.
“I can’t take much more. I need…” Her eyes shift up to me. I’m not about to let Craig have a single moment of her. I’m already jealous of any man who’s had anything from her so far. But it gives me an idea all the same.
“You need what?” I just need her to ask for it first.
“You. Please, Coop.”
I walk us slowly toward her bed until her knees hit the edge of the mattress. I reach for the football, and her grip loosens, letting me take it from her.
“Spread your legs a little for me.” She does as I ask, and I slip the ball between them, turning the laces up as I press my hand to her lower back.
“Coop,” she chokes out my name as her cheeks heat, and she flashes me a look.
“Roll your hips for me.”
Her eyes search mine, and I raise my eyebrows slightly, glancing down at the ball between her legs. Her lashes flutter, and I lean forward, stroking my thumb over her cheek and down her jaw.
“You can do it for me, Trix. He’s down there thinking you’re his already. That he just has to make you see what a good little wife you’d make, standing next to him at all his political events. But he doesn’t know you’re up here in your old bedroom with me. Legs spread around the football you stole while you try to put yourself out of the misery I put you in. The way you let me tease you all night under the table and behind the door. Working over your little cunt until it’s dripping wet.”
Her eyes close, and she starts to move. Like she needs it so badly she can’t help herself. I lift her skirt up so I can see more of her—watch her while her hips and her thighs work, half-bent over the edge of the bed, so desperate to be fucked.
“Look at you. So fucking beautiful. Working that clit over those laces.” I have to palm myself through my pants, try to tell my cock to wait its turn. I want this. Need this so badly—to watch her so lost in how desperately she wants to be fucked that she’ll do anything for it. Anything for me.
“This is so wrong.” She gasps, the sound of a moan caught in her throat.
“Nah. It’s perfect. You’re perfect for me, Trix. So fucking sexy, I can barely take it. I love watching you like this.”
“I need more.” It’s a breathy whisper as she grinds down on the ball again.
I step behind her, sliding my hands up under the edges of the skirt I’ve hiked up around her hips and grab the band of her underwear. I tug gently, and she lifts her hips from the ball just enough that I can slip them off her, moving them slowly down her legs until she steps out, one at a time. She hovers over the ball, like doing what she’s been doing without that little scrap of fabric in between is too much. I grab a handful of her ass, squeezing as I lean down to whisper in her ear.
“He thinks you’re a good girl. Show me you’re not.”
“I want you to fuck me.”
“I will. I promise I will, Trix. But I want to see you take what you want. Feel the way the ribs of these laces brush over your clit. Hear how good it feels to use it.”
“I shouldn’t. It’s…”
“Hot as fuck. I’m so fucking hard I can’t stand it. Watching you like this is going to live in my head forever. Just a loop of the way your hips move and the soft little moans you make.” I grab her hair at the nape of her neck and gently tug her back before I bring my lips to her ear once more. Making a confession I’m sure I’ll be making a million times more. “I need it, Trix. I need you.”
It’s all it takes for her to move again, and I nip at her earlobe.
“That’s my girl. So fucking sexy taking what she wants. What she needs.” I glance down and watch as the ball starts to get slick from her wetness.
“Oh fuck… This is so… so wrong,” she mutters as she rocks her hips forward again.
I can’t take watching anymore. I need inside her. My own desperation demands to know that some of those moans are for me. I undo my pants and grab the condom in my pocket, tearing the foil and putting it on.
I step behind her, lining myself up as she rocks back and forth over the ball. She brushes over my cock on the next go, and the warmth of her cunt over me has me on edge. The moan she makes as she drags down me on her next move makes it too hard to hold out any further.
“You want me, Trix?”
“I need you. Please.” Another soft moan escapes as she grinds down again. “Please, Coop.”
I take her on the next round, sliding inside and watching as her hands grip the comforter on her childhood bed. Her moan cuts off into something more guttural, more feral, as she meets my next thrust with the cant of her hips.
“Oh fuck. That’s so good. You’re so fucking good, Coop,” she mutters the words as her grip tightens. I fuck her harder, my balls brushing over the edge of the football, before she bats it away a moment later. I grin at how fucked up it is before I run my hand over the curve of her ass, and she murmurs another curse as I take her deeper.
I want to tell her how good she is. How sweet she is. How I can give her every fucking thing she’s ever wanted. How she can be my good little wife if she wants to be. How I’d do anything for her. Get on my knees whenever she snaps her fingers. That I’m already hers.
That’s how fucked up I am over her—ready to spill every damn secret I have for a chance at what I want. But it’s not what she needs from me right now. Not what she wants to hear. Not how I can make her come hard like she’s been begging for me to do all night.
“Fuck me, Trix. You’re such a good slut for me. Taking my cock like this. Like you were made for it. While you rub this pretty little pussy all over that ball. Can barely control yourself.”
There are muted gasps and moans from her, and she grinds back against me with each movement of my hips. Her fingers wrap around the comforter, tangling and wrinkling the fabric under her hands as she feverishly works her way to her own desperate release.
“That’s right. Let yourself go. Like you can’t get enough.”
She falls apart a moment later, coming hard and taking me with her. She buries her moans in the bed, and I bite down hard on my tongue to keep from cursing my way through it loud enough for everyone in this house to hear. It’s so fucking perfect I can barely stand to pull away from her.
Her breathing slows, and she climbs up onto the bed, the ball falling to the floor at my feet. I clean myself up and take care of the condom, zipping up my pants on the walk back to the bed.
I pick up the ball, grabbing an old jersey hanging over a chair in the corner of the room and wipe it down before I toss the jersey in the hamper and return the ball to her shelf.
I sit on the bed next to her and pull her body next to mine. She curls into me, leaning on my shoulder as I kiss her forehead.
“That was… wow,” she whispers, and I can tell she’s still feeling raw and vulnerable. The way this house and everyone in it tonight affects her is hard not to notice. I’m happy to distract her from it all for a little while.
“Sexy as fuck. That one should have been on the list. Maybe we add it so we can cross it off.”
“Maybe.” She laughs softly, and I take her hand, intertwining her fingers with mine.
We fit together so well in so many ways. I just hope while we work our way through this list, indulging her fantasies, that she notices it too. That she feels some fraction of the things I’m feeling. Because I think I might need more than one summer with her.