Only One Bed
JON
Something was very wrong with Cooper. He’d been ravenous all day despite eating nonstop.
Even after napping for hours, he was asleep again, his head lolling against the headrest in a way that exposed the pale, vulnerable line of his throat.
I had an urge to lean closer and suck a bruise into that soft skin.
It was almost a primal need—to claim him and shield him from the rest of the world.
Protect. Control. Keep.
Something was very fucking wrong with me too.
Had he really whispered “thank you” before falling asleep again? He had sounded sincere, like he trusted me again. Didn’t he remember the last time he gave me his trust? It was a good thing I remembered for both of us.
I picked up food from a drive-thru and pulled into the motel parking lot.
I needed to get drowsy Cooper inside. I weighed my options: leave him in the car while I check in, or drag him with me?
The thought of leaving him alone in a dark parking lot for even three minutes made my skin crawl with an irrational fury.
The idea of someone else seeing him like this—vulnerable and unaware—made something vicious twist in my gut.
“Coop?” I said, gently shaking his shoulder. “We need to check in.”
No reaction. Frowning, I touched his forehead again, but he didn’t feel any hotter than before.
He was sweating, though. I pushed a damp curl off his forehead and studied him for a moment.
It was difficult to describe what he made me feel.
I’d never been good with words, and Cooper’s looks often robbed me of the ones I had.
Sometimes what started out as a compliment came out as a grunt.
I walked around to Cooper’s side and opened the door. As I leaned in, the scent hit me like a physical wall. It was musky, floral, and so sweet it made my teeth ache. It filled my lungs and my veins, overriding everything. A very fucking inconvenient crash in my system.
I pressed my nose against his neck and inhaled before I even realized it. Then I jerked back, fast. What the fuck was I playing at, smelling Cooper like he was Sleeping Beauty and I was some starving, predatory prince?
I adjusted myself quickly. “Coop.”
He stirred, then blinked. His blue eyes, hazy with sleep, widened as he realized how close I was. I stepped back fast, my heart hammering.
“Sorry,” I said, clearing my throat. “I tried to wake you. Didn’t want to leave you in the car.”
“Please don’t leave me,” he mumbled. The neediness in his tone went straight to my gut—and lower. He was half-asleep and probably didn’t realize what he’d said. Didn’t mean it either.
The logic of it didn’t matter. Leaving him had never been an option.
“I’m awake,” he added, yawning. He climbed out, and I caught him automatically, my hand splaying flat against his narrow waist to steady him.
Just in case. That’s all. He fit so easily by my side that I let my touch linger.
Cooper made a weird noise that sounded alarmingly close to a purr, but unless he had turned into a cat, it didn’t make sense.
The guy at the front desk looked like he’d been cast as “Guy at Reception” in a low-budget movie. His name tag said Doug.
“Hi. One room, two beds,” I said.
“Two beds,” Cooper echoed.
“I already said that.”
“Well, I emphasized it.”
Doug moved the mouse around like he was doing something, then set a key on the desk.
“And there are two beds?” I asked.
“One bed.” Doug didn’t even blink.
Cooper leaned forward. “No, you don’t understand,” he said earnestly. “This is not one of those situations where one bed leads to anything good. This is the opposite of that.”
Something twisted in my chest. That was one of the smartest things Cooper had ever said, and I was what, disappointed?
I really needed to get my act together.
Doug stared at him blankly.
“Still only one bed,” he said.
“We’ll take it,” I snapped, grabbing the key before Doug could look at Cooper for another second.
“You don’t get to decide that,” Cooper declared, sounding more like himself. “This is my trip, remember?”
He inhaled deeply.
“We’ll take it.”
“Mature,” I said under my breath.
“Got a problem?” he shot back. “Maybe you should spank me for it.”
Every muscle in my body locked. My grip tightened around the plastic key card hard enough to snap it. Doug perked up as if he’d just found his evening entertainment.
Nope.
Nope nope nope.
I grabbed Cooper’s arm and marched his bratty ass out of the lobby, pushing him firmly against the wall. “What the fuck was that?” I hissed, my face inches from his. “You think that was funny?”
He shrugged, though his face had gone pink. “You said I wasn’t mature. I was just meeting your expectations.”
“There’s a difference between immature and whatever the hell that was.”
Cooper’s pupils widened, but he didn’t say anything.
“If you think I wouldn’t put you over my knee again, you’re wrong,” I grunted. A small sound escaped him. Shit. I shouldn’t have said that.
I shouldn’t want that.
We walked to the room in a tense silence. When I unlocked the door, Cooper hovered behind me, waiting for me to enter first. His body drifted closer to mine as if seeking shelter.
He had to be getting sick.
I dropped our bags on the floor.
“We cannot fit in that,” Cooper said, pointing at the bed. “It’s not one bed. It’s half a bed.”
“A houseplant takes up more space than you,” I said dryly. “We’ll survive.”
“Rude.”
“You’re basically a decorative pillow, little Cooper.”
He glared, but I welcomed it. He appeared brighter, more alive. It was slightly alarming that threatening him with a spanking seemed to improve his mood, but I was too exhausted to unpack that.
“Sleeping next to you is going to be torture,” he declared, sticking his tongue out.
“Put your tongue back in,” I snapped. The last thing I needed was his tongue giving me ideas.
“Geez, someone’s wearing their cranky pants today.”
I scrubbed a hand over my face. “I’ll take the floor.”
“You are not sleeping on the floor.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I thought sleeping next to me was against human rights.”
“It is. But so is that carpet.” He smirked. “As long as you don’t spank me in your sleep, I guess I’ll manage.”
I stared at him, the blood rushing to my ears. “So we’ve moved on from ignoring me for a year to joking about it?”
“I realized it’s not my fault,” he said, stepping even closer. “That spanking me rocked your socks off.”
Christ.
A part of me was relieved to see the old Cooper back. A much bigger part of me was terrified for my health.
“It did not rock anything,” I muttered.
His smile was as angelic as it was alarming.
“Something definitely felt like a rock that night,” he murmured, letting his eyes flick down.
Every nerve lit up at once. I tried not to think about it, but my brain was mocking me, throwing one memory after another at me as if they were flash cards.
Cooper moaning. Squirming. Rubbing himself against me. Pleading. Whimpering. Coming.
Yes, I had been hard as a rock. I hadn’t done anything about it, but that was not the point.
I looked at the ceiling for strength.
“Cooper.”
“What? I’m tired. Don’t get mad at me.” He leaned closer, his forehead almost touching my chest. He knew exactly what he was doing, and all these versions of him were short-circuiting my brain.
I didn’t know how much fight I had left in me.
I was starting to suspect it wasn’t much.
Not with Cooper testing my cage and begging me to break out.
“I’m not mad. Let’s just eat and get ready for bed.”
“There’s only one blanket,” he noticed. Before I could react, he wrapped it around himself like a cape.
“Don’t hoard the blanket,” I said.
“You’re built like a fridge. You probably have your own insulation system.”
Fighting a smile, I opened the bathroom door.
“One towel,” I noticed.
Cooper darted past me, grabbing it.
“Sounds like a you problem,” he said cheerfully. Both the blanket and the towel were now draped over him. He looked ridiculous and too fucking appealing.
He pointed at the nightstand. “Only one lamp.”
“That’s normal.”
He grinned, clearly finding himself quite a comedian. “Only one front door.”
“You’re overcommitting to the bit,” I said, but I was smiling.
I opened the mini fridge. “One water bottle.”
“I need hydration,” Cooper said immediately, lunging for it. The blanket and towel tangled around him, slowing him down. I twisted the cap and took a sip before handing it to him.
He stared at the bottle. Then at me.
“It has Jon bacteria.”
“Drink the water, Coop.”
He did. I tried not to stare at his throat bobbing when he swallowed, but failed miserably. He noticed. Slowly, he lowered the bottle.
“We shared a bottle,” he said, stepping closer.
“Yes.” I stepped back.
He looked at my mouth.
“That was basically kissing.”
Why the fuck was I so flustered?
“That is not how kissing works.”
“Indirectly, it is,” he said, his voice a soft, dizzy murmur. “I wasn’t prepared for this level of hydration intimacy.”
I rubbed my temples. “This trip is going to kill me.”
“Not as fast as your bacteria is going to kill me.” He sat on the bed and gave me the brattiest little smirk. “Death by Jon bacteria. Not a bad way to go, to be honest.”
My lips twitched.
I didn’t know if he had any idea what he did to me. If it had even occurred to him how badly I wanted to throw him on the bed and worship every inch of his body.
Obviously I didn’t do that.
I brushed my teeth instead.
* * *
Cooper’s breathing slowed almost immediately, like his body had simply decided it was done for the day. I was starting to suspect his secondary gender was breaking through, but I didn’t want to dwell on that. This trip was already a fucking minefield.
I stared at the ceiling. The motel room was quiet except for the distant buzz of a vending machine outside. And Cooper’s breathing. His smell was so strong now. It was everywhere—in the sheets, in the air, in my lungs—slowly driving me insane.
I turned my head slightly.