Chapter 32 #2
Cooper sighs, leaning his head back. “It’s really nice tonight. When this is over, do you want to go outside for a bit?”
I lean on his leg and sit up to kiss his cheek. “Okay.”
He places his hand on mine resting on his thigh, and we keep trading places, watching each other instead of the screen.
As the movie ends, a charge builds in the air. The credits roll and I flip the TV off.
Cooper stands and holds his hand out to me. “Outside?”
I take his hand, and he opens the door for me to go first.
The porch light goes out, and I find the plug for the bug light to ward off mosquitoes or lure them to their death.
He steps around me, dropping onto the porch swing, making it creak with his weight.
I take a deep breath, trying to ease the hungry ache while I look out over the hills and mountains in the distance. The moon lights the edges of the jagged peaks, making them look otherworldly.
“Come here,” Cooper calls.
I turn around, closing the distance between us, and he grabs my belt loops, tugging me forward, forcing me to straddle his thighs.
The porch swing bounces a little with the movement as it sways back and forth. It’s long enough that someone could recline across it. I don’t have to be in his lap, but I’m glad I am.
“Can you imagine being able to do this whenever we want?” he asks, head tilted back to see me as he slows the swing with his heel.
I stare into his arresting green eyes, glittering in the neon bug light.
“I think about it all the time, and it feels right,” he breathes, as if we’re telling each other secrets in the dark. Yet there’s no one around to hear us.
“I think about that too,” I whisper almost surprised that I admitted it.
He tugs my hips to his so I can feel the way he thinks about me.
I roll my hips and his eyes close and jaw drops open on a silent groan as singing heat rips through my veins.
I want him. I need him.
He lets out a rough breath, slipping his hands under my tank top at the small of my back.
The swing moves again, and I grab the back to balance us.
His hands tighten on my body as I lean forward to kiss him. “I’m falling for you,” he says, brushing my lips.
I inhale sharply, still just a breath from his mouth.
Speechless, I’m speechless.
He chuckles and cups his hands around my face, holding me in place. “My stubborn, stubborn woman,” he says, and presses his lips to mine, over and over again, gentle and comforting, like home.
My hands unfreeze from the swing and clasp the back of his neck, needing to touch him, hold on to him.
His palms drop to my hips, keeping me exactly where he wants me.
I fist the back of his shirt and he squeezes my ass.
Every time he leaves, or hangs up, I find myself missing his voice, his lips, his body against mine. That’s not a typical, casual emotion.
It’s exhilarating and terrifying at the same time because I know what false hope feels like. Though he’s slowly but surely chipping away at my walls, they aren’t in ruins, and my old habits of self-preservation won’t go down without a fight. But I have to try, knowing I might lose.
With all the confidence I’ve never had, I kiss him eagerly, surprising myself. His warm hands drag from my behind to my chest, and I arch my back, pushing further into his hold.
“I want you, stubborn,” he breathes against my mouth.
We swing gently back and forth. The air goes still, and the crickets fall silent. Blood rushes in my ears, and I take a ragged breath.
“I want you too, but…” I stop myself to look him in the eye.
He sweeps his lips against mine, and I shiver, and his grip tightens on my sides. “We don’t have to do anything you’re not ready for.”
I swallow and purse my lips to touch his. “But we can still act our age,” I whisper.
Cooper laughs and grabs my mouth again. Hands, breath, heat melt my bones.
Gripping each side of his shirt, I rip it open. The snap buttons give way easily, and I find a tank top underneath. “This is getting in the way,” I grumble.
He chuckles as he kisses my cheek, jaw, moving to my neck. I tilt my head back, giving him more access, as he shifts, pulling off his shirt to toss it on the deck.
The swing moves side to side, and I squeeze my thighs around his, holding on before he stops the swing and gently pushes his toe against the wood, swinging us back and forth. He slips his hands under my tank top and whips it off, throwing it to join his shirt.
“Is this okay?” he asks.
“Yes,” I rasp.
He slides his hand from my waist to my throat, gently holding me there as his fingers find my pulse, resting there for a moment as he guides me to his mouth again.
He nips my chin and moves his lips across my chest, drawing delicate fingertips over my collarbone, between my breasts, down to my waistband.
He flips the button of my shorts and drags a finger across the edge of the fabric.
I shudder, and he looks up at me from under his lashes, asking, and I nod as he slips his hands beneath my shorts, pressing his palm against me, and I writhe.
With his other hand between my shoulder blades, holding me steady, he leans forward, dropping his mouth to my chest, gently biting my nipple through the fabric.
I whimper gripping the back of his neck, holding him there. The swing shifts and moves, but I hardly notice while Cooper holds me.
He spreads his thighs, forcing my legs wider, giving him better access. My lips part on a sigh and my eyes fall closed as he rhythmically moves his fingers.
“Coop,” I whine, trembling in his arms, on the edge of begging him to never stop as my body chases his hand with a mind of its own.
He groans into my chest, the heat of his breath sends goosebumps across my skin, while his calloused, nimble fingers circle, pinch, and flick.
The pressure builds in my stomach, and I bite my lower lip, feeling the wave rise over me, but before he can push me over the edge, his hand slips from my shorts, and I whimper from the loss.
Cooper shifts around, clasping the back of my neck and hip, laying me down across the swing, adjusting himself on top of me, tangling our legs together.
“You okay?” he asks.
I nod, lifting my head to kiss him again. He meets me half-way dipping his tongue into my mouth as he thrusts his fingers between my legs, and I break our kiss, moaning into the night sky.
Cooper buries his nose in my neck, muttering something to himself.
One hand on his neck and the other gripping the edge of the swing, he rips the orgasm from me faster than I anticipated, and a cry crawls up my throat, but he captures it, swallowing it whole as he steals my breath.
I rip my mouth away enough to heave in air, and he stays there, mouth open as we pant into each other.
My body quakes beneath his as he slows his fingers until I come back to Earth.
“What a sight you are,” he murmurs.
Ever so gently he slips his hand from between my thighs and drops his head on my shoulder, sliding his arms around my ribs, tucking me into his chest, and we lay there breathing each other in. Nothing about my desire for Cooper has waned — it’s grown stronger.
He sits up to look at me, and I shift my thigh against his zipper, making him grunt.
I lift up brushing my nose over his and reach for his jeans.
“Don’t worry about me. That was for you,” he says.
“It’s my turn. I want to make you feel good too,” I whisper.
He shudders and looks at me with heavy-lidded eyes.
“You already do, stubborn. What I had the pleasure of seeing was more than enough because I got to give it to you,” he rasps.
Cooper grabs my hand before I undo his belt buckle and presses a kiss to my palm.
“If you flip that buckle, I won’t only make a fool of myself, but I’d consume every inch of you, Mae.”
“But I want—”
He sets my hand on his bare chest and says, “This relationship is not tit-for-tat. It’s not a, you give, I take. This is a ‘I give as much as possible because I want you to have all of it.’”
Jaw dropped, and melting all over again, my mouth moves before I can close it. “How are you not married yet?”
Cooper’s body shakes, jolting the swing as he laughs, and I watch his Adam’s apple bob up and down.
Then he meets my eyes and tenderly takes my chin in his hands. “Because I’ve been waiting.”
Oh. My. Goodness.
“Oh,” I rasp.
He smiles and kisses me again.
“We have time, stubborn.”
I nod, but in the back of my head all I can ask myself is, do we?
***
My phone rings loudly, startling me awake, and I reach for it, wincing at the bright screen.
“Coop? What’s wrong?” I ask him quickly.
“Mae? Baby, I need you to come to the ranch. I need your help. We had a huge issue, and cattle are everywhere, and I don’t want to wake up Naomi. Can you please come here?”
I throw the covers off my legs and grab a sweatshirt, my purse, and keys. “I’m on my way.”
“Thank you,” he says.
“Of course, see you soon.”
We hang up and I run out of the house, barely locking the door behind me.
When I pull up to Cooper’s place, he’s standing on the porch dressed and a tired look on his face.
He smiles as I climb the stairs and pulls me into his arms. Pressing a kiss on my temple.
“Are you okay?” I ask him.
He sighs heavily. “I’m fine, but being a cowboy is a 24/7 kind of job.”
I rest my cheek on his chest and breathe him in.
“Come on,” he says, taking my hand.
The house is quiet, but it’s also one in the morning. “I’ll hopefully be back before Naomi gets up. She’ll remember you. It’s all hands on deck, otherwise I’d have my aunt or June come. They have to help.”
“Okay, does she like anything specific for breakfast?” I ask him, looking around the house. It’s cozy, a little messy, and I can see touches of Cooper and Naomi everywhere. It looks like a home full of happiness.
Cooper smiles and kisses me, and I wince, realizing I didn’t bother brushing my teeth. I literally ran out the door.
“I like these,” he says, toying with the edge of my pajama shorts. “Makes me wonder what else you’ve got going on under here.” He slips his hands under my hoodie.
“Don’t you have cows to go wrangle?”
He groans and presses his forehead to mine.
“I hope to be back before breakfast is a thing, but I’ve got some cereal you can give her. She’s not super picky.”
“Okay,” I whisper.
With my hand still in his, he takes me into his room. The covers are thrown back on his side, and the lamp sitting on the nightstand illuminates the room with a soft glow.
“Sleep in my bed. If she wakes up, she’ll come in here and probably be startled, but I doubt she will. She sleeps like the dead.”
“What do I tell her if she does?” I ask him.
“She’ll know who you are, but just call me and I’ll talk to her.”
“Okay.”
“Thank you so much. I’ve gotta go. Go back to sleep,” he says, and kisses me again.
I watch him leave, closing his bedroom door behind him. A minute later his booted feet fall silent, and I hear the faint click of the front door.
Very much awake, I look around his room and smile to myself. He’s messy, but clean.
I drop my purse on the floor and my phone on the table.
Realizing I need to pee, I open the door and look for the bathroom, realizing it’s right next door to his room.
I do my business and go back to Cooper’s room. It smells like him. Lately, when I’m next to him, I find myself memorizing his scent. It makes my body bubble.
Slipping under the covers, I snuggle into his side and take a deep breath of his pillow.
It doesn’t take long, and I slip into a dreamless sleep.