Chapter 23 #2
Cooper wasn’t like that. Every time they were together this way, he treated her as if she was the most precious thing in his life, and that was another thing she could get used to.
If she allowed herself to go there. Even as he helped her into bed, stripped out of his own clothes and got in next to her, Gigi was aware of an invisible wall that remained firmly erected between them that would allow him to get only so close.
As long as that wall remained in place, she felt safe, even as he held her as close to him as he could get her, their legs intertwined as he stared at her for the longest time.
“What?”
“Nothing. I like to look at you.”
She screwed up her face and made the silliest expression she could come up with.
Cooper laughed. “Even still. You’re gorgeous.”
“You’re delusional.”
“I must be, because even when you try to make yourself ugly, it doesn’t work.” He placed his hand on her face and caressed her cheek with his thumb.
The way he looked at her made her feel bubbly inside, as if she’d swallowed a gallon of champagne. And when he kissed her, all the agitation that was so much a part of who she was seemed to disappear. He was making a believer of her, and she wasn’t sure whether to be elated or terrified.
The man certainly knew his way around a woman’s body. She suspected he’d had a ton of practice, but if all that practice was preparing him for her, she supposed she could live with it.
“Why are you thinking so hard?”
“Huh?”
“You get that bump right here,” he said, kissing between her brows, “when you’re overthinking something.”
Gigi sighed with the realization that she’d never stood a chance against him. There was absolutely no point resisting him or his certainty that the two of them were meant to be. He’d made a believer out of her.
“Cooper.”
He was kissing her neck and making her shiver. “Hmm?”
“I need to tell you something.”
“I’m listening.”
“It’s important.”
Raising his head, he met her gaze. “What’s up?”
She placed both hands on his face and felt his late-day whiskers poking her palms.
“Just tell me, sweetheart. Whatever it is, I promise I want to hear it.”
“If you… If you break my heart, I’ll never recover from it.”
“Aw, babe. That’s the last thing I’d ever do. If you take this chance with me, I swear to you, I’ll take very good care of you and your fragile heart.”
“That’s good to know.”
“I mean it, Gigi. I’d be so happy to have you in my life, I’d do everything I could to keep you there.”
“You’ve given me a lot to think about.”
“While you think,” he said, drawing her nipple into his mouth, “I can come up with lots of ways we can have all kinds of fun together.”
God, the man was good at that, and that. He was unreasonably good at that and had her hovering on the edge of release with the least amount of effort ever expended by man or toy. How did he do that?
“Are you still sore?” he asked.
“Not like I was.”
“Hold that thought.” He got up to find his shorts and retrieve a condom.
As he stood by the bed with that huge erection stretching past his belly button, Gigi said, “Hey, Coop?”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“I’m on birth control, and I’m clean. If you are, too, then I guess we don’t really need the condom.”
Staring at her, seeming stunned, he said, “If I heard you correctly, you’re saying we don’t need this?” He held up the foil packet.
“That’s what I said,” she replied, trying not to giggle at his reaction.
“I, um, you might want to, we might want to, uh, you know, take the edge off before we do that, or it’ll be over before it begins.”
Gigi rose to her knees and made her way to the edge of the bed, grasping his cock in a tight grip. “You need me to take the edge off like this?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as he nodded. “That works.”
“Would this work better?” Gigi asked as she bent to take him into her mouth.
He sucked in a sharp deep breath. “That’d work faster.”
She held back the laugh so she could focus on his pleasure.
“Shit, Gigi, you’re making my legs shake.” He buried his fingers in her hair and held on tight as he moved in time to the rhythm she set. “Geeeeeg… Ah, God… You’d better stop unless you want…”
She sucked hard and rubbed her tongue against the shaft.
He exploded, his entire body shaking with the force of his release.
Pleased with herself, she released him slowly, going for ultimate effect that made him tremble some more. “Is the edge off now?”
“I’m demolished.”
She leaned forward and placed gentle kisses on the ugly bruises on his ribs, aching for the pain the injuries had caused him.
He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. “That was the best I’ve ever had.”
“Out of how many?”
“Shut up,” he said, laughing.
“No, really. Are we talking a baseball team or the crowd that comes to the game? Probably the latter.”
Laughing, he gave her a gentle push that had her flopping onto her back, her breasts bouncing as she landed. He came down on top of her and kissed her hard. “You think you’re so funny.”
“I know I’m funny, and millions of people agree with me.” She’d never had this kind of fun with a man. That much she knew for certain.
“I knew there was a diva hiding inside you, what with all those millions of fans hanging on your every word. How could you not be?”
“I’m not a diva!” She pinched his ass. “Take that back!”
Cooper cracked up. “Touched a nerve, did I?”
“Yes! I’m a lawyer, not a diva.”
“Uh, sweetheart, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’re not just a lawyer anymore. You’re a huge star with a massive fan base, and I’d like to apply for the position of number one fan.” As he said that, he nudged her with his reawakened erection.
That’s what she got for tangling with a younger guy who still had stamina. “I’ll take that under consideration.”
“Will you take this under consideration, too?” he asked as he pushed into her.
At first, her body wasn’t having it, and she almost told him to stop.
“Relax, sweetheart, we’ll go nice and slow.”
“Easy for you to say relax when you’re not the one being impaled by a billy club.”
Cooper faltered as he lost it laughing. “Don’t make me laugh. You’ll mess with my concentration.”
“I won’t make you laugh if you don’t tell me to relax when you’re coming at me with that gigantic thing.”
“I’m hurt on behalf of my gigantic thing.”
“Tell me the truth. It was the entire stadium, right?”
“Stop talking.”
“Make me.”
He kissed her with unleashed desire as he worked his way into her slowly but surely, until she was out of her mind, lost to him in every possible way as he owned her body, heart and soul. Even a jaded soul like hers could recognize that everything about this—and him—was special.
All she could do was hold on to him as he took her on the wildest ride of her life that ended with an orgasm for the ages. As she screamed from the pleasure, she was thankful for air-conditioning and closed windows, or they’d be giving Jared and Lizzie one hell of a show.
“Give me another one,” he whispered.
Gigi laughed and then moaned as he slammed into her again, letting her know he wasn’t joking. And damn if the telltale signs of reawakened desire didn’t set her entire body on fire for more of his special brand of magic. “Cooper.” She arched into him.
“Yes, Gigi, like that. Take it all.”
God, what choice did she have but to take everything he had to give her, and as she tripped over the edge of the Grand Canyon into something big and scary, she couldn’t find anything to stop the fall.