Chapter 19
CHAPTER
NINETEEN
ELLERY
Ididn’t prepare myself for Cooper Rice’s wooing.
The next morning, there’s another breakfast waiting for me, this time a huge spread since there’s so much food that will go bad in the fridge since it’s our last day here.
I grab my phone halfway through our meal and realize that I never turned it back on after our day trip yesterday. “Shit.”
Cooper leans back in his seat, sipping his coffee.
“Well, if we thought we had until we got back for people to figure it out, we’re wrong. Bryce sent this over to me.” Something in my gut told me those ladies on the park bench were staring at us a little hard, but I thought they were moms, and Cooper had a hat on.
I turn the phone for him to see the picture of us kissing on the path, another one of him carrying me to the car, me laughing, and a third of us walking around packages after shopping downtown.
The headline under the kissing picture reads, “Looks like Cooper Rice finally found love with his best friend.”
He stands, kisses me, and goes into the kitchen. Refilling his cup, he doesn’t say a word.
“You have nothing to say?”
He shrugs. “People were going to find out one way or another. Now it’s done with.”
“Bryce says people are speculating whether this is going to be good or bad for you. That maybe I’m a distraction you don’t need. And she said some people aren’t being kind about the fact that I was with Bradley first and now you.”
My stomach drops. Sure, I’ve been photographed with Cooper, and we’ve always maintained that we’re best friends, so there was never any judgment except for the people who said a man and woman can’t be just friends.
Now, I’ve opened myself to ridicule online.
I pray I don’t affect his game, otherwise it will only get worse.
“They don’t have to worry about my game, that’s my responsibility. All I care about is you and me.” He comes back over, kissing me before he sits down at the table.
“Coop.”
He’s already shaking his head. “Nope. We don’t care about those people.
They sure as hell don’t care about us, they don’t even really know us.
The football fans only care if I’m performing well enough for their fantasy football league, and the single women think they should be the ones on my arm.
I learned a long time ago to not give a shit.
None of them can come on that field and do what I do.
” I bite my lip, causing him to stop and scrunch his eyebrows at me. “What?”
I stand and walk over to straddle him on his chair. “You’re really sexy when you’re being all ‘I’ll tell you how it is.’”
He grins, and his hands slide under my shirt and he pulls me closer to him. “Should we talk about my views on politics?”
I laugh. “No. Definitely not. I just like it that way you’re all like, ‘This is my life and they can all be damned.’”
“It’s true.” He stares into my eyes so hard I grow a little uncomfortable with the intensity of the intimacy, but my gaze doesn’t leave his.
“It’s taken us so long to get here, I’m not going to let anyone tell us it’s bad.
And they’ll see next game day that I’m still the same quarterback they had before his gorgeous best friend snapped him up. ”
I wrap my arms around him, nuzzling into his arms. I’m sore from how many times we’ve had sex, though I still ache to have him inside of me. Will that ever go away?
His hands run down my back. “I won’t allow anyone or anything to come between us. I promise, Elle.” He kisses the top of my head.
“I just wish we could stay here forever.”
“Me too.”
We stay like that for a while, but as soon as we get back to Chicago, I know our bubble is going to burst. I’m scared it could be like a tsunami, and it won’t matter how tight Cooper’s hand is in mine, they’ll slip apart.
Cooper rings the downstairs buzzer of my apartment building even though he has a key.
“Who is it?” I pretend to not know.
“I’m here to pick up Ellery?” he asks.
I chuckle. “I’ll be right down.”
He hits the buzzer again.
“Yes?” I answer.
“You’re not going to invite me up?”
“This is our first date, and I’m sorry, but I don’t let strange men up to my apartment on the first date.”
He laughs. “Fair enough.”
I grab my clutch and look at my dress. It’s a shorter green one that cinches at the waist and only goes out a little bit over the legs. Walking down the stairs, my stomach fills with butterflies because I have no idea what he has planned for us tonight.
I purposely didn’t let him spend the night Sunday or Monday, and I didn’t stay at his place either. I hope I can kiss him goodbye on the porch, but my willpower has to be strong.
I open up the door to my apartment building and find him standing by a car with a driver. Any willpower I had flies down the street with the fallen leaves from the trees. Cooper Rice cleans up well, and I’ve known that as long as I’ve known him, but there’s something different now that he’s mine.
He approaches me dressed in a suit, with a bouquet of flowers in hand. “You look stunning,” he whispers, leaning in and kissing me on the cheek. Very first-date behavior.
“Thank you.” I smell the flowers. “And for these, too.”
“It’s funny that I know so much about you, but I don’t know what your favorite flower is.”
“Honestly? I don’t have one, so this assortment is beautiful. Should I run it up, quick?” I ask.
“Sure, I’ll help you.” He places his hand on the small of my back and gestures with his other hand for me to lead the way.
I shake my head. “I think they’ll survive.”
“I’m not getting in that apartment tonight, am I?” he whispers.
A few guys walk by and stop, seeing Cooper, but they only nod and continue walking. Cooper should go give them an autograph and a selfie for not interrupting our date.
“I’m not sure yet.”
I walk to the car, and he opens up the door for me. Sliding in, the driver introduces himself as Seth and then puts up the barrier as soon as Cooper climbs in next to me. Obviously, there were some conversations about what Cooper wanted before I was picked up.
“It’s taking everything in me not to call off this dinner and take you back to my place,” he says, his hand sliding to the back of my neck and drawing me in for a kiss.
His lips move slow and tender, his tongue gliding along the seam of my lips, asking permission.
I open for him, and his tongue slides along mine in the perfect rhythm we mastered this past weekend.
This is the man I’ll kiss for the rest of my life, I just know it, and I’m thankful he’s so damn good.
I lose myself in his gentle caresses, sweet kisses, and soft demeanor.
He’s right, let’s just go to one of our places.
I don’t need to be wooed. The man has done so many nice things for me my entire life, I know what he’s capable of.
But the other side of me says, this will be fun, it’s like we’re doing everything backward.
We’re in love and just now getting to the dating part.
I protest with a groan when he closes the kiss, leaving me with one last touch of his lips.
“No questions, yet?”
“I’m wondering where you’re taking me.” I look out the window. The stop-and-go traffic is already telling me we haven’t left the downtown area.
“That I cannot answer. But…”
“Are you going to answer anything?”
He shakes his head. I knew he’d be like that.
“Fine then.” I roll my eyes.
We each talk about how our day was, he was off, and I worked the early shift today. I don’t remind him that I’m on early tomorrow too, so there won’t be any sex fest going on tonight.
The car pulls off the curb, and I wait impatiently to see what Cooper has planned.
In all the years I’ve known him, we’ve never really discussed our previous relationships.
He never came to me for advice on what to do if he was taking a girl out on a date or divulged much of anything that happened on his dates.
I never wanted to say a word about the dates I went on because it felt weird.
I’m guessing that’s because of all the feelings we harbored for one another that we pretended were in the realm of friendship.
I reach over and squeeze his hand, and he flips it over and links our fingers. We look at one another, our eyes catching, both smiling. I’m a lucky, lucky woman. Cooper couldn’t be more perfect for me.
We’re in traffic for the entire ride, and when we stop, I see a huge theater sign hanging from the building.
“Really?” I ask, staring up at the marquee.
“Really.”
“But—” I want to protest because Cooper has always said he finds plays and musicals boring.
“It won’t be boring with you up in the private box with me.”
“Private box?” I’m smiling so wide my face feels like it might crack.
He laughs. “Only the best for you.”
My cheeks flush, and he exits the car, keeping the door open and holding out his hand for me.
Once I step out onto the sidewalk, a flash goes off, blinding me. Cooper pulls me into his body. “There’s only two photographers here, and they’re probably looking for someone with a bigger name than me,” he whispers into my ear.
“Cooper!” one of them yells as we make our way to the theater entrance.
Cooper nods in acknowledgment, opens the door, and we both file into the theater.
He shows our tickets, and we’re escorted up to our seats.
We’re some of the last to arrive, the rest of the theater already filled in with people chatting before the show starts. I’m betting he planned that on purpose.
There are only two seats, and we’re in the very first box. It’s a breathtaking view.
“Cooper.” I sigh thinking about what he must have paid for these tickets.
He sits down in the seat the furthest from the stage, allowing me to have the closest seat.
A girl could get addicted to this kind of behavior.
I lean over and kiss him as a thank you, but he deepens the kiss, moaning into my mouth. He pulls me as close as he can while sitting in two separate chairs. This man drives me wild. I could straddle him in a second or fall to my knees for him.
Instead, I lean back, catching my breath. “Be good, Mr. Rice.”
“Or what?” he whispers. “You’ve already warned me I won’t get to sleep with you tonight. I should’ve copped a feel earlier.”
I laugh, and he smiles. He leans in millimeters from my ear, whispering, “I’m not joking.
Do you have any idea what it’s like to walk around with a hard-on all day?
Anytime I remember us in bed together, how perfect your tits look, bare and ready for me…
your soaked silk thongs, my dick springs up to attention. ”
Oh fuck, he’s going to make me give in on the whole “no sleepover” thing if he keeps talking like that.
I’m saved from having to respond as the lights dim and the curtains open.
Cooper slides his chair as close to me as he can, wrapping his arm around the back of my chair. His fingers tease the curve of my neck, gliding over my skin ever so gently.
If I make it through the entire show without jumping his bones, I deserve a medal.