Chapter 13 #3
I’d seen him naked before, of course, but watching him tug his sweater off, revealing his broad chest inch by inch for my benefit was different, too. I felt like one of the characters from Swan Lake or The Nutcracker or The Magic Flute, under a spell as I looked up at him.
“You’re gorgeous,” I breathed, chest tight. He was. Completely unlike what I was used to, and all the more appealing for it.
Cooper looked away, a flush rising from his collarbones to the tips of his ears as usual. He was unbearably adorable.
“Come here.” I reached out for him, unable to resist his shyness. We weren’t going anywhere fast tonight, but that was fine—I wasn’t in a hurry to get off. I just wanted to be with Cooper, for as long as I could have him.
He shuffled on his knees to lean over me again, letting me pull him down for another lingering kiss.
Then another, and another, the mattress creaking under us as he shifted his weight, let me have just a fraction of what I wanted as I nipped and sucked at his mouth, swiped my tongue over the inside of his lower lip, ran my fingers through his curls.
Cooper let me kiss him breathless, until we were both panting with it, without pushing for more. I wanted to tell him how new this all was for me, how I never got to make out with anyone other than just enough to get them hard, how…
… how different he was, and how much I liked it. How, if he let me, I’d just keep demanding more.
Luckily for both of us, I was only almost satisfied with kissing him.
His breath hitched as I slipped my hand into the back of his jeans, melting into a low, happy sound as I worked my fingers into his underwear, splaying my fingers over the swell of his ass.
He grunted as I gave it a firm squeeze, pulling him closer, dragging him down so we could grind together.
I smirked as our hips met, the hard line of his cock hot even through the fabric.
“That for me?” I teased, rolling my hips against him. “Because I want it.”
Cooper chuckled, pulling back to look at me. “Anything you want,” he promised, eyes soft and earnest.
How had no one put a ring on this man?
“I want you to open me up on your fingers,” I murmured, heat rushing to my cheeks. I never talked like this, but Cooper made me feel like I could. “And then I want you to fuck me. I want—” My voice broke, and I had to pause to swallow. “Slow. At first. I’ll probably get impatient after a while.”
Cooper laughed again, and the knot that had been tightening around my chest unraveled all at once. I was allowed to say this with him.
“Just let me know,” he said, voice low and rough and warm, the rumble of it trickling down to the pit of my stomach.
“Oh.” A smile I couldn’t have stopped if my life depended on it spread over my face. “I will.”
This time, when I pulled Cooper down for a kiss, the touch of his lips against mine arced in an electric line from my mouth to my cock.
I wrapped my legs around him, ignoring the twinge in my thigh, using my good leg to hook him closer so I could grind against him.
Slow. He’d agreed to slow, and I wanted to make the most of it.
We moved together for what might have been hours, his weight pressing me deliciously into the mattress, my hands roaming over his skin, touching everything I could.
The smile that had spread over my face stayed right where it was, even when it made kissing difficult when Cooper matched it with one of his own.
Eventually, I got my hands between us and pushed his jeans down, moaning happily as his hard cock sprung into my hands. He was just as gorgeous there as he was everywhere else, and he was big. I squirmed at the thought of how he was going to feel inside me, grinning harder.
“You like that, huh?” Cooper murmured, rubbing our noses together. He was so sweet. Better than ice cream, although the ice cream had been life-changing and even now I was wondering when I could go back for more.
Because Cooper was right. I could have ice cream, and almond milk, and this. I could indulge now.
“A lot,” I said, stroking him through his underwear a few times before shoving it down as well, getting my hands on hot, bare skin, velvet soft against my palms.
“Well,” Cooper said, voice tight and breathless. “All yours.”
I laughed, moving one hand to curl around the back of his neck and pull him in for a kiss, stroking him lazily with the other, palm open, just enough friction to be frustrating without any hope of being satisfying. When he came, I wanted it to be inside me.
“Show me,” I said when I’d had enough of his mouth for a minute. “Lube on the nightstand.”
Cooper glanced over, another shy smile spreading over his face. “You were planning this?”
“I don’t know how you could possibly think I wouldn’t want to take advantage of the sweetest, hottest man I’ve ever met apparently being into me.”
“Definitely into you,” Cooper murmured, eyes glinting as they roamed over my face, as though he was committing it to memory. “You have no idea.”
I swallowed. If I went down that conversational rabbit hole, I’d probably ruin the mood by bursting into tears. No one wanted me anymore. I was an ex-ballet dancer, which wasn’t anything at all.
Except that right now, I was with Cooper. And that was something.
“Show me,” I demanded again. “Do you know how much time I’ve spent fantasizing about your hands? I want your fingers inside me.”
Cooper’s shy smile widened a fraction as he eased away from me, treating me to a view of his cock, flushed dark and straining up towards his belly button, a bead of precome pearling at the end, sticking out of his…
“Dinosaur print?” I asked, raising a brow at his underwear.
Cooper looked down and shrugged. “Benji thought they were cool. He’s got matching ones.”
“Oh my God.” I laughed, a surge of warm, fuzzy affection rising up under my ribs. “You’re perfect. You’re perfect.”
Cooper blushed again, climbing off the bed to wriggle out of his jeans and novelty underwear, leaving them to pool on the floor. He must’ve kicked his boots off earlier, because that left him in just a pair of thick black socks that’d seen better days.
He was so real. I’d spent so much time around men who were plucked and polished and groomed and sculpted past the point of seeming like people, and I couldn’t get over how hot it was to look at a man who looked so like the men I’d first realized I was into when I was a teenager.
“Something up?” Cooper asked. I realized then that I’d been staring open-mouthed at him for a lot longer than I’d intended.
“Teenage Felix wouldn’t believe his luck if he could see what I’m seeing now.”
Cooper scoffed, his blush darkening. He plucked off his socks while I kicked my shoes off by the heels like I’d been told a thousand times not to, and grabbed the lube.
A pang of anticipation made my stomach clench. I hadn’t been excited like this about sex in… longer than I cared to think about.
As the mattress dipped under Cooper’s weight, I couldn’t help grinning up at him. What had I done to deserve this?
“So I’m guessing it’s been a while for you?” Cooper asked, voice low and gentle.
“Since…” I trailed off with a vague gesture, hoping Cooper would fill in the the accident blank.
He nodded. “Yeah, figured. So you’ll stop me if this is too much, right?”
“I will,” I promised. I wasn’t sure that was true, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make myself stop him, but I trusted that if I did ask him to stop, he would. And he wouldn’t complain about it or tell me to stop being a baby or… any of the other things I’d heard before.
Cooper made me feel safe in a way I hadn’t realized I could.
“Good,” he said, setting the lube down beside us.
I didn’t realize until he hitched up my sweater, rough fingers catching on sensitive skin, that I was still—except for my shoes—fully dressed. I’d been so caught up in getting him naked that I’d forgotten I had clothes I could take off, too.
“Can I?” Cooper asked, toying with the hem of my sweater.
I nodded eagerly, swallowing to wet my mouth, suddenly unable to speak.
Safe as he felt, there was something so overwhelming about Cooper.
Not his size, not really, but how comforting he was, like being draped in a huge, heavy blanket.
That complete, enveloping comfort made it so easy to relax that it was hard to do anything else.
Thankfully, he took my nod as all the permission he needed to push my sweater up until it caught under my armpits, dry fingertips leaving trails of goosebumps over my skin wherever he touched.
I forced myself to sit up just enough to let him peel the sweater off me, regretting even the heartbeat of lost contact.
This time, Cooper took the initiative to kiss me, the warmth of his body so much more intense now that we were almost skin-to-skin, close enough that the hair on his chest brushed against me. I ran my fingers through it, smiling into his mouth as the curls caught on them.
“You’re into that,” Cooper murmured, clearly surprised.
“Ballet dancers wax,” I said. “So this is very exciting for me.”
Cooper chuckled, pressing a kiss to my jaw, nuzzling my neck.
I arched under him as he worked his way down, licking my collarbone, pausing to suck on one nipple and circle the other with his thumb until I whimpered pathetically, hips rocking against nothing but air as he sent pulse after pulse of need south.
I’d never been treated like this before. Like there was some point in turning me on.
Cooper was amazing.
He made a pleased little sound as he reached the waistband of my jeans, kissing along the few sparse hairs of my treasure trail that led down into it. “I see this is working for you.”
He nodded to the obvious bulge in my jeans where my cock was hard, leaking, and trapped in them.