Chapter 8
“ W here?” she managed, keenly aware that standing flush to him was not enough. Could never be enough to quell the ache deep at the apex of her thighs.
She felt his hand on her stomach, between them, then lower again.
Heard the snap of his shorts release, then his zipper.
Before she could say more, before she had the chance to push his shorts out of her way and touch him, he broke the contact between them and kneeled in front of her.
He bunched her short skirt up just below her navel, baring her to the stars above.
Zoe tensed in anticipation of his touch. Silently begged for it.
His tongue found the very spot that pulsed for him. She gasped his name, her knees nearly buckling. Without his firm grip of her backside, she would have slid to the sand in a puddle of need.
He teased her with his tongue, his touch tender and careful. Too careful.
“Cooper, you’re killing me.”
“Good,” he said, the word vibrating against her skin.
She dragged her fingers through his hair and tried to convey her need by pulling him closer.
She felt his wicked laughter teasing her flesh …
his hand urging her legs farther apart …
then his tongue flicking over the very heart of her, making her suck in her breath and nearly collapse.
He took his sweet time exploring her, driving her wild, never quite giving her as much as she needed. On purpose, of course.
“When did you … turn in to a tease?”
His response was an indecipherable growl.
When she thought she was going to die, he lowered her so she was straddling his legs, and he leaned back on his feet to keep her rear off the sand. She made a mental note to thank him for that consideration later. When she could think straight.
Before he could find a new way to torment her, she kissed him and worked his shorts down a few inches.
He groaned when she finally grasped him, and she grinned smugly as he met her gaze with heavy-lidded, lust-filled eyes.
Her intent to repay his teasing with some of her own lasted only until she could feel the solid tip of him at her entrance.
She slid him into her urgently, losing what little of her control remained, and closed her eyes at the ecstasy of him filling her once again.
Loving the coarse moans she drew from him.
“God, Zo.” She could hear the effort it took for him to form words as she moved her hips over him. “Missed this.... Missed you.”
At this very second, she didn’t know how she’d lived without this, but she bit down on the words. Lost herself in the building heat, in the slide of their sweat-covered bodies together, in the driving need for release.
Cooper knew her body well, knew how to play her, how to move, where to touch her to make her tingle and burn from her center right down to her toes. Judging by the earthy sounds he made and the words he breathed into her ear, she did the same for him.
Sensation took over all rational thought, and she gave herself over to him completely, until the pressure deep within burst in an explosion of exquisite pleasure.
His grip on her tightened. He threw his head back, squeezed his eyes shut, and Zoe watched him come as her own body still contracted and hummed in blessed euphoria.
Cooper’s eyes opened, and he smiled, catching his breath. “Still wow, that.”
“Times one hundred,” Zoe said.
His lips found hers again, and the kiss was full of so much tenderness it filled Zoe with a different kind of ache.
One she couldn’t think about right now. She willed herself to let go of the thoughts that threatened and to memorize every moment of his touch.
The feel of his thumb resting gently beneath her chin.
The roughness of his chin on her skin. His musky, masculine scent enveloping her like a familiar blanket.
He shifted so that he was lying on his back and Zoe was stretched on top of him, again protecting her from the sand, though her knees were starting to hurt as her blood returned to the rest of her body.
As reality gradually nudged at her, anxiety began to pulse through her. “We should get back. My mom is probably wondering why our walk is taking so long.”
“Your mom isn’t that naive,” Cooper said with a hint of a smug grin.
“Even more reason.” She was pretty open with her mom, open enough her mom was fully aware that Zoe should not be rolling around the sand with Cooper. It was disconcerting enough to admit it to herself.
Zoe stood and brushed sand off her body. Even though Cooper had shielded her from it as much as possible, it seemed to be everywhere, sticking to her moist skin in the humid night air.
“Where is my underwear?” she asked, glancing back at her shoes in the spot where they’d been when he’d disposed of it.
Cooper laughed, a low, gravelly, admittedly sexy, post-sex sound. “I think it’s pretty much out of commission. I’ll buy you more.”
Shaking her head, Zoe said, “I don’t need more. I just don’t want to leave it on the beach.”
“Taken care of.” He indicated his front pocket. “I’ll throw it away, unless you’d like it for a souvenir.”
“You’re twisted.” She grinned in spite of her growing need to put distance between herself and what she’d let happen.
“You always liked that about me,” Cooper said as he stood and put himself back together. “Among other things.” His smile faded as he studied her. “Come here, Zo Zo.”
He held out his hand for her to take. She looked down at it, doubts creeping in like a rogue spider taking over a shoe.
Cooper stepped toward her, and she didn’t have a chance at resisting.
She wrapped her arms around him, drinking in his reassurance, believing, for the moments their bodies were entwined again, that everything was okay.
“Don’t read too much into what just happened,” she said into his shoulder.
He was still for several seconds, and then he nodded. “It is what it is.” He dropped a kiss on her forehead and straightened. Sucked in a lungful of the thick air. “Ready?”
Shoving her misgivings away, Zoe nodded and took his hand, picked up her shoes, and they slowly made their way back to the real world.