Chapter 41 #2
Before I can turn and run to my room, he grabs me by the waist and pushes me against the wall, pinning me with his thigh between my legs.
One hand on the wall next to my head and the other on my ribs.
I lay my head back against the wall and wait for him to make the next move.
He pushes his thigh higher, and I inhale sharply, hooking my leg around him, searching for friction.
“I missed this mouth,” he mumbles taking my lips.
My back arches and our tongues graze. The kiss goes from I missed you to I’m ravenous for you.
He grips my thigh, practically lifting me off the ground. My shorts and the angle of his thigh press in right where I need him and relieve the throbbing between my legs for a breath. “Coop,” I whine.
“Tell me,” he says, breathless as his mouth trails down my neck and across my chest.
“My sheets aren’t clean,” I blurt.
He pulls back with furrowed eyebrows. “I’m sorry you’re more focused on the cleanliness of your sheets instead of the way I’m going to devour you?”“Uh, no?” I say.
Cooper chuckles and shakes his head. “I don’t care.”
“I cried in them a lot…” I trail off.
“Well, we’re about to sweat on them too, so…” he says, grabbing the hem of my tank top to take it off.
I reach for his t-shirt and freeze, staring at his chest in shock. Next to his tattoo of Naomi’s birth flower is mine, a peony. “Is this…” I rasp, at a loss for words.
“Yes,” he says.
“Why?” I ask him, flabbergasted.
“I told you, stubborn. I knew you were mine at the end of our first date. You told me when your birthday was, and that about sums it up.”
“But I could have left, broke it off.”
He chuckles and reaches for my mouth. “I’m aware, but when I realized how I feel about you, it didn’t matter how long it took to get there. I love you and I wanted my girls on my heart forever.”
I trace the lines and trail my hands down his firm stomach to his happy trail, then back up to his shoulders.
“I love it when you do that,” he says, watching me.
“Do what?” I ask tracing the tattoo.
“Touching me as if I can give you the world.”
I look up, and he smiles.
“I will, you know. I’ll do whatever it takes to give you everything. Including myself,” he says.
“I don’t want anything but you,” I whisper.
“We’ll you’re about to get more of me now,” he says against my mouth.
I snort and he grunts.
“I’m sorry that was so cheesy.” I laugh.
He moves his leg and flips it before shoving them over my hips. I’m glad I did an everything shower.
“I’ll do you one better and give that sassy mouth something else to do instead of make fun of me,” he says and spins me around, holding me against the wall.
I pant, surprised and very interested in what he’s up to.
He grazes a knuckle through me, and I arch my back, trying to follow him.
Cooper chuckles in my ear, and his belt buckle grazes my backside, making me shiver.
“Coop,” I whine.
“You know, I should drag this out, make it unbearable —”
“But?” I prompt.
“But,” he groans, sliding his hands up my body. “I don’t have it in me to be patient. I’ve been waiting all my life for a woman like you, and want every second I can get.”
“Then stop talking and take it,” I say out of breath.
He chuckles. “With pleasure.”
I expect him to take me right then and there, but he picks me up and carries me to my room, places me on my feet and shoves down his jeans before encouraging me back to the unmade bed.
He crawls over me and grabs my mouth in a kiss edging on frustration. I whimper into his mouth and he nips my lip.
“That’s for assuming I’d have eyes for anyone but you,” he says.
“What else are you mad about?” I ask, egging him on.
He chuckles and tweaks my nipples. I moan, but it’s not from pain. “That’s for …” he trails off. “I don’t know what it’s for. I’m not actually mad at you,” he says.
I pull back on grin and lift my hips to his. “I know, but maybe you could act like you are.”
He sits back. “Oh? Angry sex?”
“Is it really angry sex if you’re not actually angry?” I ask him.
“I don’t know, we’ll find out,” he says against my mouth and grabs my wrists, holding them in his hands again. He pushes my knees wider, rendering me immobile. And it’s almost unbearable.
“Be patient, stubborn,” he grumbles and draws his mouth over my chest.
I whine, arching my back, needing to touch him, no, dying to touch him.
“I love you,” he whispers.
“I love you,” I rasp.
He guides himself over me, and I whimper with the sensation. I want to beg, but I also don’t want to give him the satisfaction.
Cooper groans with the friction, and I pin my lips together, swallowing my whimper.
“Let me hear you,” he grumbles letting go of my wrists and pressing a line of kisses down my stomach.
He reaches my hips.
“Coop, please,” I moan.
He sits back on his heels and grabs both of my knees, yanking me up onto his thighs. I don’t have a second to breathe as he thrusts himself into me.
My head lolls back on a loud moan, and Cooper groans long and low, pausing to give me a second to acclimate.
“Move, please,” I whisper, reaching for him, for sheets, something because this angle is about to send me into space.
“It’s like you were made for me,” he says, lifting my hips. He rocks into me lazily, deeply, ravishing me with every heavy breath.
Needing more, I reach for him, and he drops over me, keeping my knees hooked around his thighs. He groans again, and I sigh, pulling his mouth to mine.
Every stroke of his tongue and thrust of his hips lights a fire in my core until I’m a melting, babbling mess. He picks up his pace, ramming into me with ruthless abandon, sending sparks shooting through my sternum, making me cry out. And dare I say, it’s almost angry, and I like it.
I lift my hips frantically, trying to meet his rhythm.
He whimpers, breathing roughly in my ear, and I love that I’m able to bring him to the edge of himself.
Another shiver runs through me, and Cooper licks the side of my neck over my pulse.
He grunts, hips still desperate and deep until he pulls back, and I groan from the loss. He puts my leg in the crook of his elbow and rocks back into me with primitive intention. Everything is too much and not enough all at the same time.
Lava flows from my chest to my center, and I feel myself sitting at the edge, at his mercy. Then he slows, drawing out and thrusting back in.
“Every inch of me is yours,” he grunts out.
I gasp, overwhelmed by him, by us.
“Look at me,” he commands, bodies unrelenting.
I open my eyes and he changes the angle of our bodies just enough the lava becomes an eruption. My back arches, all I see are stars and I ride the wave of us, gasping for air, my scream is cut off my vocal chords giving out.
Cooper groans, slowing through his release. But still hungry, still desperate. My chest heaves for oxygen watching him fall apart, sending aftershocks zipping through me.
He keeps moving, sitting back to look between us as his hips lift softly. Hair a mess, and his eyes focused completely on our connection. I love that he’s so deep into us. I don’t know where I start or where he begins.
Not sure how to articulate that with words, I reach for him, hoping he can read it from my body.
He thrusts himself into me one more time, and we groan simultaneously.
He looks up and gently rests my lower half on the bed and tosses himself next to me, gathering me into his chest. “I’ll never get enough of you. Call me clingy, obsessed, I don’t care,” he says, nuzzling my neck.
I lean back, searching for his lips. Our mouths skim and taste each other, exploring this new way of loving each other.
Eventually, we pull back, needing to breathe, and he stares down at me, but reality is the elephant in the room.
“When do you want to talk?” I ask him.
He sighs and rubs a thumb on my shoulder while I stay tucked into his side.
I could stay here all day.
“Rebekah called me.”
“Okay. Not where I thought you’d start.”
He takes a deep breath, and I can feel the tension in his body next to mine. This wasn’t a simple phone call. I’m missing something.
“I’ve started the legal process of becoming Naomi’s legal guardian, and then I plan to adopt her fully.”
I sit up to look him in the eye. “Cooper, that’s amazing,” I breathe.
He nods and rubs his mustache. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I just…”
I shake my head. “It’s nothing you have to apologize for. That’s a long-term decision, and I wasn’t in that frame of mind.”
The corner of his mouth tips up for a breath, and he sobers. “She was served, and it’s why she called and … I don’t think she took it well. I told her if she wanted to speak to me, she needed to go through my lawyer.”
I wince. That couldn’t have been easy to say. “How did she take it?”
“I don’t know. I hung up,” he mutters, and rubs his face again.
“Do you think she’s going to fight it?” I ask him.
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he rasps.
“She left Naomi with you years ago. Does she have any standing to fight?” I ask him.
“Unfortunately, yes. A lot of courts rule in favor of the mother unless there are some crazy circumstances.”
I sit up with my hand on his chest. “Cooper, leaving her with you at the age of two without a peep in the meantime is crazy circumstances.”
“They are, but…”
“It’s going to be okay. You’re going to win this. It’s going to be okay. We won’t lose her.”
The corner of his mouth tips up, and he stares down at me. “You said we,” he rasps.
I nod, resolute. “I did, but to be clear, I’m not trying to replace her mother.”
“But you’re a better example than Rebekah will ever be.”
I sit up, crossing my legs, and reach for his hand because I feel like I need to touch him. I thought I lost him and he’s here, with me. “Has Rebekah ever told you why she left Naomi with you?”
He shakes his head. “I never asked partially because I didn’t want to know.”
“Do you think it’s something you should know now?”
“I don’t think she’d tell me if I did, and I don’t think it matters anymore.”