Sam

After we finish a rather tense lunch, Shane holes up in his home office to make some phone calls, undoubtedly setting some additional security wheels in action. Beth curls up with a blanket and a book at one end of the sofa facing the fire burning in the hearth. Cooper’s in the kitchen, cleaning up after the meal.

“What can I do?” I ask Cooper, as he’s washing the casserole dish.

“Grab a towel and start drying.”

Our plates and silverware are in the drying rack, already washed. There’s an automatic dishwasher at his disposal, of course, but he says he prefers to wash the dishes by hand. I pick up a hand towel and start drying. Cooper shows me where to put the stuff once I’ve dried it.

“Are you okay with moving in here?” he asks me in a low voice.

His question catches me off guard. “Yes.”

He nods as he hands me a bowl. “I didn’t want you to feel pressured or anything. If you don’t want to—or if you’re not ready—and you want more time to think about it—”

“Hey, stop. I said yes. Are you kidding? Of course I want to move in with you.”

“All right. You can keep your apartment if you want to. I’m sure Shane wouldn’t mind.”

I step closer and kiss him, just to shut him up. “What’s wrong? Why are you so worried?”

“I’m not worried. I just don’t want you to feel pressured, that’s all. I sprung the idea on you kind of quickly.”

He sets the last dish in the drying rack and turns to face me, leaning against the counter. “And I should have asked you to move in with me, not told you.” He eyes me for a long moment. Then he takes the plate and the dish towel out of my hand, sets them down on the counter, and takes both my hands in his. “Sam Harrison, will you move in with me? Live with me? Share my bed every single night?”

That knocks the air right out of me, and I can barely speak over the knot in my throat. Damn. “Who are you, and what have you done with the Daniel Cooper I know and love?”

He grins. “I guess the past couple of days really taught me what’s important, and that’s you. I don’t want to lose you, Sam.”

Ahh, so it’s fear that’s driving this sudden change in his behavior. I grab his hand. “You’re not going to lose me. Even if you don’t ask me to move in with you. I’m not expecting some kind of overnight miraculous transformation. I just want you to try. And you are trying. I can see that, so relax.”

He glances over at Beth, who’s snuggled down in the couch, completely out of sight, presumably engrossed in her book. He pulls me into his arms. “I don’t want to just try, Sam. I want to make you happy.” When he kisses me, his lips gentle and coaxing, I feel a surge of heat sweep through me. When our bodies meet, his erection presses against mine, making my knees go weak.

He reaches around and squeezes one of my butt cheeks. “You go visit with Beth for a few minutes while I finish up here. Then I’ll scrounge up some boxes, and we’ll move your stuff upstairs. All right?”

I cup the back of his head and pull him to me for another kiss. Being able to touch him like this, openly, is life changing. Before, he never would have let me do that. I could get addicted to this.

I head back over to the sofa and sit down at the far end, opposite of Beth, and put her feet in my lap. “Fuzzy pink socks. Cute.”

“Thanks.”

“Were you eavesdropping on us?”

She grins. “Yes. I didn’t look, but I heard you kissing.”

“You could hear us kissing? No way! No, you couldn’t, could you?”

“Yep. You’re a noisy kisser. All that moaning and groaning.”

“Oh, stop! We were not that loud.”

She grins at me. “Yes, you were.”

I hold one of her feet in my hand and threaten to tickle it. “You’d better stop, or I’m tickling.”

“No, don’t! If you do, I’ll wet myself! My bladder is not my own right now. The baby’s sitting on it.”

“All right. No tickling.” I look at her for a minute, turning serious. “Can I touch your baby bump?”

“Sure.” She throws her blanket aside, and underneath, she’s wearing pink flannel lounging pants and a white top. “Give me your hand.”

She takes my hand and brings it to her belly, pressing it down over the little mound, which is surprisingly firm. I get chills thinking there’s a tiny little human nestled somewhere in there, just waiting to be born.

“I’ll bet Shane’s excited,” I say.

She nods. “He is. We’re both so thrilled. But my God, he’s impossible right now. He won’t let me lift anything heavier than my iPad.”

“He just wants to protect you, Beth. He can’t help it.” I think of how I felt down in Sweetwater, watching Cooper suffer. I would have done anything to ease his pain, even jump naked into an ice-cold river. I glance back toward the kitchen, but Cooper’s already gone to get boxes. “I can relate.”

She lays her hand on top of mine. “So, you’re moving in with him. That’s a good sign, right? Things must be improving.”

I smile. “Yeah. He’s really trying. That’s all I’m asking for, not a miracle. What about you guys? Is everything good in matrimonial land?”

She blushes, which I take as a big fat yes. “We’re good. Shane’s even more protective now that I’m pregnant, but I don’t blame him for that. He doesn’t like me working full time now, so I work from home two days a week and go in the other three. Erin manages the store for me on the days I work from home.”

“Yeah, well, I imagine Shane’s not happy with us right now. Not if we’re bringing trouble with us.”

“Oh, you mean the guy who skipped bail.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think he’s really a threat?”

I nod. “It’s entirely possible. We had one run-in with him, in a restaurant of all places. He was drunk as a skunk, and I was afraid it was going to turn violent, but the cops showed up before it did, and they arrested him and took him away.”

* * *

Cooper drops a stack of empty cardboard boxes in front of the foyer door and calls me over. “Ready to move?” he says.

I pat Beth’s leg and leave her to her book. “Yep. Let’s do it.”

Cooper’s passcode allows us to stop at my floor, and we head to my apartment each carrying a stack of boxes. It’s dim and cool when we step inside my apartment. I open a couple of windows to bring in some fresh air.

I glance at Cooper. “Do you really think Roger Stevens would come here?”

He frowns. “We have to assume he would. We can’t take any chances, especially where Beth is concerned. Shane’s already arranging additional security to make sure Stevens can’t get in. And, as you know, he wants to move her to Kenilworth until Stevens is apprehended.”

I laugh. “And I think she made her opinion on that known today at lunch.”

Cooper shrugs. “Shane’s going to do what he feels is best to keep her safe, even if that means moving her. And just to be up front with you, I was serious when I suggested that you go with her. You can hang out with Beth at the estate and work on your strength training.”

I grab his forearm. “Hell, no, I told you I’m not leaving you, not after what we went through in Sweetwater. I’ll see this thing through with you.”

His eyes narrow. “You’ll do what I think is best, Sam. Besides, you would be good company for Beth.”

I know he’s worried, so I let his I’m-the-boss-of-you attitude slide for the moment. “Send Lia to Kenilworth, or Erin,” I suggest. “Erin would love to go.”

Cooper hands me several boxes and points toward my bedroom. “Let’s get busy. We’ve got some packing to do. We’ll worry about the rest later.”

As I watch him walk away, I now have more sympathy for Beth. She complains about Shane being overprotective, and now I get it. Ever since the accident, Cooper acts like I need to be protected and coddled, too. I don’t. I need to get back up to fighting strength and pass my physical assessments so I can go back to work. It’s okay for him to boss me around in bed, but not on the job.

* * *

I really don’t have a lot of stuff to bring up to Cooper’s suite, so we’re done with moving in two hours. I bring up my toiletries, clothes, shoes, books, DVDs, and Xbox games. I leave the kitchenware and the furniture behind, because the penthouse is already decked out with stuff much nicer than mine. I empty my fridge and cupboards of anything that will spoil and take out the trash.

“I guess that’s it,” I say to Cooper.

He’s got my boxes stacked in the hallway outside my door. After I lock up, it takes us two trips to haul everything upstairs to his suite. We stack the boxes in the closet and I start unpacking.

He clears out half of the drawers in his dresser for me. In the bathroom, there are his-and-his sinks with drawers, so I get my own.

When I leave the bathroom, everything put away, I catch him watching me. His expression darkens, which makes my belly clench deliciously. I know what’s on his mind when he looks at me like that. But man, we don’t have time right now.

He walks up to me and, without a word, reaches for the hemline of my T-shirt, pulling it up and over my head before tossing it onto the bed.

“People are coming over,” I remind him. “We really don’t have time.”

He shakes his head. “Not until six. We have the next couple of hours all to ourselves, and I’ve been wanting to put my hands on you all day long.”

The entire time he’s talking, he fingers my nipple piercings, alternately teasing them and gently tugging, making me squirm and arch my back, moaning in pleasure. When he bends down to lick my nipple, his tongue flirting with the piercing, I gasp and shudder. And while he’s busy distracting me with his tongue, his hands are working the fastener on my jeans.

I notice that the door to his—our—suite is closed. But is it locked? I really don’t want Beth walking in on us and seeing something that might shock her delicate sensibilities. “The door—”

“It’s locked,” he says, his voice low and rough. He pulls me close and kisses me, teasing my lips with his, sucking lightly on my bottom lip before drawing it into his mouth. “Tonight, after everyone leaves, we’re christening this bed, you hear me? Be ready—consider yourself forewarned.”

I smile and nod, not trusting myself to speak.

He leads me to the side of the bed and takes a seat, pulling me between his knees. “We’ve got a little bit of time now, though.” He finishes unfastening my jeans, lowering the zipper and tugging them down around my thighs. My erection presses insistently against the fabric of my briefs, begging for attention. He cups me through the soft material, molding his hand to the shape of my cock. And then he traces the outline of it with his index finger, his touch light and teasing, making it increasingly harder for me to breathe.

“Take off your boots and socks, then step out of your jeans,” he says in a gruff voice that has me on pins and needles. He sits back to watch me as I comply, looking like a man who expects to be obeyed. Everything is spiking in me now—my pulse, my breathing, my temperature. When I’m done, he tugs my briefs down my legs and off, leaving me standing naked in front of him, while he’s still fully dressed. I’m so hard I can barely think straight, and my cock is bobbing in the air in front of him, defying gravity.

The gaze he rakes over my naked body is hot and demanding, and damn, he knows what this does to me. When he turns domineering, like now, my legs turn to jelly. I’ve got butterflies in my gut, and my dick’s rock hard, straining toward him at a ninety-degree angle from my body. He nudges my legs farther apart so he can reach between them to cup my ballsac.

He takes hold of my erection and swipes his tongue over the tip, catching a bit of pre-come on his tongue.

“Gah!” is all I can say. I grab his broad shoulders for support as my legs feel like they’re about to give out.

He smears my pre-come across his palm and grips the shaft of my cock, sliding his hand along it. When he draws me into his mouth, I lose the ability to think rationally. All I can do is feel spine-tingling pleasure. My hips start moving on their own, and I thrust deeper into his mouth. He can take me incredibly deep, and the pleasure is mind-numbing. He works me over with his fist and tongue until my balls draw up tight and fire races along my spine, giving me a warning signal. “Oh, God,” I say, accompanied by a desperate groan.

He reaches around to my backside to tease me with a slippery finger, the tip of it easily sinking past my tightened sphincter to my happy spot, which he strokes diligently.

“Oh, shit!” I can’t hold out long, not with both his mouth and his finger driving me crazy. I’m thrusting fast and hard into his mouth, and he takes it easily, continuing to torment me with both his mouth and his finger.

“I’m gonna come,” I gasp, giving him all the warning I’m capable of. I latch onto his broad shoulders and hang on for dear life.

But he doesn’t let up, not one bit, and that’s all the permission I need to blow my load.

I try to be quiet about it, but damn it, it’s hard when it feels this good. I grip his head as I come, crying out, and he swallows my spunk right down. My legs are shaking, and he pulls me down to sit on the bed before I plant my ass on the floor.

“Oh, fuck,” I say, panting for breath. I fall back onto the bed, lying there with my legs hanging over the edge. “I’m wiped.”

He lays his hand on my chest and chuckles. “I just wanted to give you a preview of what’s coming tonight.”

Glancing at his crotch, I’m not one bit surprised to see his erection straining the front of his jeans. “What about you?”

When I start to reach for the fastener on his jeans, he catches my hand and brings it to his lips for a kiss. “Don’t worry. I’ll get mine tonight.”

I laugh. I’m sure he will.