CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
WHEN Cooper threw her on her back with more enthusiasm than care, Harley had the wind knocked out of her. But then again, she’d been having the wind knocked out of her since the minute she had first laid eyes on him at that wedding. She hadn’t planned to tell him to hell with the condom but she hadn’t wanted to wait for him to get one, and it had felt right. Like she was telling him there would be nothing between them from here on forward. No lies, no secrets. No past.
Just here. Just now. Just tomorrow.
So when Cooper rested her ankle on his shoulder and pushed inside her, she was as open to him as it was possible to be. His groan came from deep in his throat and he paused inside her, staring down at her. Harley felt tears prick at the back of her eyes. Oh, God. She was going to cry. She was having sex with the man she loved for the first time, sort of, and she was going to ruin it by blubbering.
But it was impossible not to feel emotional. She had never thought that she would have this—a man looking at her like he thought she was the be-all, end-all. Like he was in awe of her. Her. The ordinary, nonsexy Harley McLain, lover of the twinset, sunscreen, and yoga pants.
His right hand stroked her ankle and he kissed the bone there with a soft brush of his lips. “What’s wrong, baby? Is it too much? Should I pull back?”
She shook her head. “I just . . . I didn’t think . . . I never thought that you—that we—” Her tongue failed her.
But he squeezed her ankle and started to move inside her. “I know. I know. We’ve started something good here, Harley, and I don’t plan on letting it go.”
Did that mean that he wanted a relationship with her? She hoped so. She wanted that, more than anything. But as he pushed deep inside her, gripping her ankle tightly, she decided now wasn’t the time to worry about it. Though she couldn’t prevent herself from repeating, “I’m sorry I lied.”
“Water under the bridge, baby. Let’s just move forward.” He paused again and gave her a frustrated yet amused glare. “Now can we cut out the chatter and get down to brass tacks here? I’d like to think you can enjoy my dick inside you. Just saying.”
Yep. She was ruining it. She pursed her lips and stopped herself from pronouncing another apology. He didn’t want that. He just wanted to let their bodies do the talking. She could do that. She could give him what he wanted. So she stuffed down her insecurities, her doubts, her nagging little voices of self-recrimination and hesitation that Cooper could want her, and she concentrated on him. On his eyes.
They spoke to her as he found a slow and steady rhythm inside her. She relaxed, reassured by the emotion she saw in his soft gaze, and the way his thumb gently stroked her foot and on down her calf. It was hard to trust that he was enjoying it, her, when he had so many options available to him. But she’d be an idiot not to believe that the look he had on his face was genuine. While he was certainly charming, Cooper wasn’t a particularly good liar. Unlike her, apparently. It was a hidden talent she hadn’t realized she possessed.
Damn it. The guilt was back.
Harley didn’t understand how she could let her thoughts crowd out the pleasure she was feeling.
Cooper knew it. He put her foot back on the bed and pulled out entirely.
The loss of him inside her had her reaching out for him and protesting. “What are you doing?”
“I can see the little wheels in your head actually turning.” He kissed her raised knee. “What the hell are you thinking about?”
“I’m worrying,” she admitted. “That I’m not good in bed. That you can’t possibly mean to be here, with me.”
“You are truly insane.” He bent over and kissed her. “I’m not exactly a guy who is talked into things, you know. If I’m here, it’s because I want to be here. It’s because I want you.”
Cooper lay down next to her and pulled her against his chest.
Great. She had officially interrupted sex with her bullshit. “It was easier to do this when I was pretending to be Charity.”
“Why?” he asked, puzzled. “Do you doubt that I find you attractive?”
“Yes. No.” Now she really wanted to cry. She couldn’t believe she was doing this. “I’m so—”
Cooper cut her off. “Knock it off. You’re starting to piss me off.”
Now she was pissing him off. That went beyond just ruining sex. That was potentially ruining a relationship before it even got started. That took mad skill, really. To muck it up before it really even began. To bring sex and confessions of tender feelings to a screeching halt. Not everyone was capable of such a feat. Gold star for Harley.
When it was on her lips to apologize again, she bit the bottom one with her teeth, hard, to prevent herself.
“Exactly,” he said. “No more being sorry. I know and appreciate that you are, but you can’t be dragging that into the bedroom with us. I find you sexy. I have always found you sexy. I have deposited at the spank bank more than once thinking about you.”
Oh, my. Harley had to smile at his ridiculous phrasing. “Really?”
“Really.” He stared down at her. “Now I’m starting to think you do just want angry sex. Is that what you want, Harley? Do you want me to fuck you hard and prove that I can’t stay away, that I can’t resist you? That I want you so much I’ll be selfish about it and pound you until you’re slamming into the headboard and all day tomorrow you’ll walk around well aware of your sore pussy? Is that what you want?”
While he spoke, Harley was mesmerized, shocked by the intensity of his expression, aroused by his words. No one had ever spoken to her like that, and she felt her body respond, her nipples tight and high, her inner thighs hot and wet, an ache low in her abdomen. She could hear her own breathing, that eager pant of anticipation, as goose bumps rose on her skin.
“Yes, please,” she told him.
He gave a low groan and shoved her further up on the bed. He raised her hands above her head and held them together with his own rough enveloping grip. “Brace yourself.”
Harley wasn’t sure if that was literal or figurative, but before she could make a decision he was inside her with a hard thrust. “Oh!” She started to moan, but he captured her breath with his mouth at the same time his cock pushed in and out possessively, taking her hard. She couldn’t raise her hips to meet him. He had her held down by the force of his body pounding her, and she just lay there, stunned, open to him everywhere. His tongue slid over hers and she didn’t care about showing finesse or sophistication. Nor did she doubt he wanted her.
She just let him take her, while her inner muscles squeezed on him in a delicious reflex. It didn’t seem possible that she could orgasm with this kind of speed, this intensity, but without warning it was there, hard and tight and wet, the wave of pleasure forcing her to yank her mouth from his and let out a cry of ecstasy.
He forced her to look at him again, using her chin to turn her face back to his while she rode out the climax. Their eyes locked and Harley felt a connection that was so intimate, so raw, so unexpected, the tears were back in her eyes, but for the right reasons. As her orgasm slowed, so did his thrusts.
“I want you,” he said. “I need you.”
There was something so romantic about the way he spoke to her, so low, so unpracticed, that Harley felt her heart swell. Raising her leg to wrap around his, drawing their bodies closer together, she moistened her lips. “You have me, Cooper. You have me.”
He kissed her, hard. Then his eyes shuttered and he came inside her with quick, hot pulses.
It felt good, to have him connected to her that way, to have him grit his teeth and lose control. They were both breathing hard, dew on their warm skin, and Cooper collapsed on top of her. When he pulled the bedcovers over them, their bodies still entwined, Harley felt that for the first time ever, she’d found her place.
Here, with him.