Chapter 47
COOPER
I don’t know how the fuck my pack brothers weren’t throwing Nelly onto the old blankets and devouring her body like starving men.
Because that’s what I wanted to do.
The insatiable hunger had been building since the second her heat hit in that damn truck.
It was taking every ounce of control not to grab her now, away from where she stood near Levi, and explore every inch of her amazing body.
I’d not been thrown into a rut in eons. Not since that one Omega at the dating event that smelled passably good.
I’d forgotten how powerful it was, how impossible to fight.
I couldn't look away from her.
She’d tumbled into our lives and set everything spinning.
No, not tumbled.
She’d been yanked here by one of my wild hare ideas, my trigger finger purchases, my prankster impulses making me sign a damn contract without telling the rest of the pack.
But wasn’t it worth it? Wasn’t this way fucking better than an espresso machine we still hadn’t used, gathering dust in a closet.
Now, faced with Nelly's nakedness, I couldn't bring myself to feel any regret about Eros. Yeah, it sucked the way it went down. Yeah, it gave us a rocky start. But it led us to here, to this moment.
"Nelly," I breathed out her name as a prayer.
Because she was worth worshiping.
She was worth any sacrifice our pack had to make.
She turned to me, pupils blown wide, hazel all but a whisper around the edges.
Her freckles dotted her pinked cheeks, trailing over to greet each other at the bridge of her nose.
Our marks were darkening, bruising, gaining permanence.
My inner Alpha squirmed with satisfaction at the way she took a step towards me, tilting her head down a little to peer through golden lashes at my face.
"Cooper," she whispered back, and the sound of my name on her lips nearly undid me. If her name on my lips had been a prayer, then hers was a siren call.
Summoning me closer.
Directing me to place my offerings at her feet.
I crossed the distance between us in two strides, lifting her easily into my arms. She weighed nothing, this dancer with her lean muscles and delicate frame.
Her arms wrapped around my neck as I carried her to the pile of blankets.
I lowered us together, laying her down with more gentleness than I thought myself capable.
When she was stretched across the old blankets, I rocked back on my heels, admiring her.
I could look at this woman forever. There was something about her that made me take things seriously.
It made me think about tomorrow. It made me understand Levi stressing about my spending, and Wyatt’s determination to preserve Grampa Joe’s legacy.
I was the silly one of the pack. The one who forgot things. The one who hated socks and fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt. I was reckless. Often annoying. I didn’t do careful, because it went against my deep-seated habit of doing whatever the hell I wanted to, then asking for forgiveness after.
But in this moment, with Nelly beneath me, I found an undiscovered wellspring of tenderness.
I wanted to savor every second, memorize every freckle, taste every inch of her heated skin.
I wanted to be with her forever, cook her amazing food, use that fifteen-hundred-dollar black truffle oil I bought online, then immediately hid at the back of one of the kitchen cabinets so Levi wouldn’t give me shit over wasting money.
I wanted so many things with her.
But, mostly, I just wanted not to screw this thing up.
That was my biggest fear, because messing up was also a hard-to-break habit.
"You look too serious.” Nelly said, reaching up to me, pushing two fingers against the wrinkles between my eyebrows. I tried to soften my face.
"I'd rather look serious than scared," I admitted, the truth slipping out before I could stop it. "Because I’m fucking terrified, Nell."
She’d stopped telling me not to call her by the nickname. It had been a game at first. Nelly was already a short name, dropping the ‘y’ didn’t make much sense. I’d kept it up though, and now I used the moniker because it felt like something only I shared with her.
Her fingers stilled against my forehead, then traced down to cup my cheek. "Why?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
I leaned into her touch, closing my eyes briefly. When I opened them, I found her gaze steady on mine, waiting for an answer I wasn't sure I could articulate.
"Because I've never wanted anything the way I want you," I finally said. "And I've never been afraid of losing something the way I am now. I’m not that guy. I’m used to screwing up. I take it in stride. But I can’t fuck this up. It’ll kill me. It’ll kill the pack.”
Her eyes softened. "You’re not going to screw this up, Cooper."
“You don’t know that,” I growled, hanging my head, covering my face with one hand.
She pulled my hand away almost immediately.
I didn’t fight as she threaded her fingers with mine and lowered our arms until our joined hands rested against my thighs.
I searched her expression, looking for any hint that she might be worried about the same thing—that stupid, thoughtless Cooper would do something dumb enough in the future that she’d bolt.
But then a small smile tweaked her mouth and a mischievous glint sparked in her eyes “Look at it this way. You already did the worst thing you could do. You basically had me kidnapped.”
She paused, letting me absorb her words.
“So, anything you might do in the future probably can’t raise the bar.” Nelly closed her eyes, pulling her hand from mine and pressing it to her stomach. Her Omega scented the air again, as her heat reminded her it still existed.
“Nelly, what if—”
She cut me off. “What if everything is amazing. What if I’m impossibly, incandescently happy here for the rest of my life, and you keep being boyish, beautiful Cooper?”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
There wasn’t anything I could say to that.
So, instead of talking, I started doing.
I lowered my head, letting my lips brush against the mark I'd left on her wrist. Her pulse jumped beneath my mouth, and I smiled against her skin.
"Tell me what you need, Nelly," I murmured, trailing kisses up her arm. "Whatever it is, it's yours."
"You," she gasped, arching beneath me as another wave of heat crashed through her. “All of you.”
I felt my brothers' presence close in, but I could only focus on our Omega.
She was beyond perfection.
I shuddered, pushing my face into her hair, kissing her neck, moving my lips over and up. I licked the line of her jaw, then traced the tip of my tongue down, down, down, until I was between her breasts. My mind drift, wondering if she’d be interested in food play.
A line of whipped cream, trailing all the way down to her honey pot.
Chocolate dipped cherries, dangled over her mouth, waiting to push between her soft, curved lips.
Through the fog of unbridled yearning clouding my mind, I recalled how tentatively she’d eaten at first. We’d had to coax her into enjoying the food, into letting go of her long-standing habits of eating exactly this, at exactly that time.
Never overdoing it. What had she said? Something like, “Heavy ballerinas make bad dance partners.”
The memory made my jaw clench as my mouth moved around her belly button.
Fury bubbled up inside me at a world that had taught her to fear nourishment, to see food as an enemy rather than sustenance.
At an industry that had warped her relationship with her body until she believed its worth was measured in ounces rather than in the strength of her spirit.
It didn’t matter what she weighed. What she really needed was someone strong enough to lift her up.
When she was at her heaviest.
Whether it be in her mind, her soul, or her body.
Bullshit men make women feel lesser because of a scale. And they do that, not because the woman isn’t beautiful, but because they’re weak.
Pushing her legs apart, I moved to kneel between them.
"You're perfect," I told her now, fingers gripping her hips. "Every inch of you is perfect."
I gazed up the line of her body, catching the moment she bit her lower lip, uncertainty flickering across her face. Even here, even now, with five Alphas reacting to her, wanting her, needing her, she couldn’t chase away the doubt.
"I'm going to worship every inch of you," I promised, my voice thick with emotion. "And when this heat is over, I'm going to feed you everything you've ever denied yourself. I'm going to watch you eat until you're satisfied, just like you’re going to watch me now."
A tear slipped from the corner of her eye, tracking a silvery path down the side of her face and into her hair.
I blinked, Levi and Boone coming into focus next to her.
The latter brushed away the trail of wetness with his thumb.
The former rubbed a hand over her scalp and down her hair lovingly, cupping the back of her head to relieve the strain of looking down at me.
I shuffled slightly back, giving myself room to angle my upper body and bury my face in her most intimate place.
She bent her knees, thighs falling open, revealing the glistening pink of her sex, slippery with desire and readiness.
The sight made my mouth water and my cock throb painfully.
I lowered myself, feeling like I might explode as my pulse quickened, and my body tingled.
I swallowed hard, my mouth suddenly bone dry despite how much I wanted to taste her. The smell of her slick made my head swim. Better than chocolate croissants. Better than berry compote over cheesecake. Better than anything I’d ever baked. I couldn't wait another second.
My first taste was gentle, a slow, broad stroke of my tongue splitting her folds.
The flavor of her juices exploded across my taste buds, more intense than I could have imagined.
Nelly's back arched off the blankets, a ragged cry tearing from her throat.
Her fingers found my hair, tangling in the strands, pulling me closer.
She started saying my name but was interrupted.
I glanced up, seeing Boone stealing her voice with his mouth.
Levi’s head was burrowed against her chest, lips locked around her nipple.
Through my daze of hunger that could only be satisfied by Nelly’s body, I realized Wyatt and Wade weren’t part of the intense, soul-shifting event.
I hoped they could get past their bullshit reservations.
I hoped they’d see what our lives could be like, if they stopped worrying about conventions.
I hoped, I’d stop thinking about anything except the taste of her, and the way she made me feel.
I groaned against her—both from the flavor and the view—the vibration making her shudder.
Her thighs trembled around my head as I explored her with my tongue, discovering what made her gasp, what made her moan, what made her pull my hair so hard it hurt.
She gushed as I pleasured her, coating my lips and chin, marking me with her scent just as surely as her teeth had marked my wrist. I lost myself in the glory, lapping at her folds, circling her entrance, flicking my tongue against the bundle of nerves at her apex.
"Oh God," she cried out, her fingers tangling in my hair again, this time with more urgency. "Cooper, that feels—it's so—"
Her inability to form coherent sentences sent a surge of Alpha pride through me.
I doubled my efforts, drinking her in like a man dying of thirst who'd finally found water.
No, not water. This was a nineteen eighty-two Chateau Lafite.
Ripe, and full-bodied. Her thighs trembled against my shoulders, her back arching again off the blankets.
I cataloged every reaction, noting what made her grip my hair tighter, what made her hips surge upward seeking more contact, what made her chant my name like a prayer.
The sweetness still flooded my mouth.
Decadent.
Addictive.
Nectar.
I wanted more. I needed more. I would never get enough of her. I’d become a glutton for this woman.
"Cooper, please," she begged, her voice breaking on my name. "I need—I need—"
I knew what she needed. What we both needed.
But I wasn't done feasting on her yet. I wrapped my lips around her clit and sucked gently, simultaneously lashing it with my tongue. Nelly released a sound that couldn’t decide if it was a sob or a scream.
Her body went rigid beneath me, her thighs clamping around my head as she rode out the waves of pleasure against my eager mouth.
I kept licking, gentler now, helping her through the aftershocks, unwilling to part from the sweetest meal I'd ever had the privilege to enjoy. She was my new favorite dish; one I intended to savor for the rest of my life.
"I could eat you forever," I murmured against her sensitive flesh, making her shiver. And I meant it. I'd found my new favorite meal, and I intended to gorge myself at every opportunity.
I felt, more than saw, Wade and Wyatt finally enter the chat.