I stared at Cooper, embarrassed, my heart racing in my chest. There were emotions flitting through his eyes—anger, desire, confusion, all at once.

“Cooper,” I said. “Stop being such an idiot.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “What?”

“I want you inside of me,” I said to him, letting the words come out as I lowered my face to kiss his jaw, his neck. He was stiff, his body trembling. “I want you to be the first person to touch me.”

“God,” he growled. “But—”

I cut him off with a kiss, pressing my breasts against his chest, pulling him on top of me. He didn’t resist, but went easily, his mouth ravenous on my own.

“I’m going to be so gentle on your little pussy,” he said into my ear, nipping at it. “I’m going to treat you so good, angel. I need you to tell me if it’s too much.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding. I spread my legs for him and he looked down, gazing at my pussy, at my swollen clit. His cock was hard, long, and thick as he aimed it inside of me. He took a moment to roll a condom on, one that he had taken out of his wallet. I expected pain, closing my eyes, wincing as I waited for it.

“Violet,” he said, not pushing inside. “Look at me.”

I opened my eyes, held his, whimpered when he pressed a couple of inches inside of me.

“That okay?” he asked gently, more gently than I had ever thought to expect from a man for my first time. I nodded and he pressed in further, stretching me out, sending a wave of pleasure through my body as he started to rock his hips gently, filling me up inch by decadent inch until he was almost fully buried inside of me. Nothing hurt—I was so wet that he had gone in smoothly, so hungry for him that I wanted even more.

“Go all the way,” I said to him. “I can take it.”

“God,” he breathed. “No, I don’t think so, angel. Not for your first time—”

“Please,” I said, biting my lip. He growled and pressed inside of me then, burying his cock as deep as it could go. I moaned when he filled me up entirely, my hips shaking, my body moving to get him to start riding my pussy the way I wanted him to. It was slow and languid, deep strokes, allowing me to get used to the fullness of having him inside of me. I squirmed on his cock, wanting more, realizing that in all of my fantasies we had been frantic with each other. I kissed him, tasting his mouth, trying to get him to speed up. He shook his head, instead hooking my legs over his elbows to spread me further apart. He grinded into the back of my pussy, right into a sweet spot I hadn’t even known I’d had. My hips were moving with his, feeling frantic, but he took them in his hands and held them still as he continued his slow movements, looking into my eyes with a grin.

“Easy, angel,” he said, his breathing ragged. I felt so tight on his cock, felt my pussy trembling and clenching, and I could almost feel him throbbing inside of me, holding something back. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I want—I want—” I said, unable to speak when he started rubbing my clit.

“I know what you want,” he said. “I can see it in your face. You want me to pound your pussy. You want it rough.”

“Yes,” I said, blushing. He shook his head, leaning down to kiss me.

“Not yet,” he said. “Not until I’m ready.”

“Cooper—”

“Not until I’m ready, angel,” he said, grinning. “You’re just going to have to take what I give you.”

“I hate you,” I said, even though his long, slow, luxurious strokes were making my eyes roll back in pleasure, even though every time he pressed hard against the back of my pussy, I was worried that I would cum too soon for him, that my body would be too responsive.

“That’s too bad,” he said, nibbling at my shoulder, riding inside of me in what were now jerking movements, carefully controlled. He was holding himself back, I could tell—he wanted exactly what I wanted. I knew that I had to convince him, to tease him, to make him want to take me hard and rough the way I needed him to. I looked up at his face, biting my lip, and lifted my hand to slap him gently on his cheek, just hard enough to turn his face. His mouth dropped open and he stared at me for a moment as I did it again.

“Jerk,” I said to him, gazing at him through my lashes. He laughed, bending down, his body pressed to mine as he spoke in my ear.

“That’s only going to make this worse,” he said, his movement still slow, still agonizing. On top of that, he touched my clit, and I felt my body seem to shatter as I came all over his swollen cock. My hips bucked against him, shuddering with my first real orgasm as I tried to take him deeper.

“God,” he breathed, and then his hips did speed up, as if he couldn’t help it. “Fuck, it feels so good when you cum on me. I had no idea it’d be so easy.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, and he grumbled something, kissing me again, pushing forcefully inside of me.

“We’re not done yet,” he said. “No matter how many times you cum, I’m not letting you go until I’m finished with you.”

“Never let me go,” I said to him honestly, looking him in the eye. He grunted again and finally his hips started to speed up, thundering inside of me, fucking me as hard as he could. It didn’t hurt—I was soaking wet, gushing over him again and again as he pulled my hips against his. I started moving in a rhythm with his body, quick and needy, and when I came again it was with a helpless whimper against his lips. I felt him stiffen as he came inside of me, groaning, his body holding me close. When he was finished, he moved away, took the condom off and threw it in a nearby bin. Then he looked at me, his eyes soft.

“Are you warm?” he asked me. I smiled at him.

“Am I warm?”

“Yeah,” he said. “You were cold earlier. Did I warm you up?”

“You could say that,” I said, pulling the blanket over me to cover my body now that we weren’t locked together. He noticed but didn’t press me to reveal myself to him. I had felt sexy, passionate, uncaring when he’d kissed my belly. But now I was worried that he’d see me differently, and I didn’t want to stress about it.

“Violet,” he said, laying down next to me on the blanket, kissing me softly. “Thank you.”

I smiled at him, kissed him back, and buried my face in his shoulder.

“I guess we’re spending the night here?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “Unless you’d rather I try to go get help.”

“It’s still storming pretty bad,” I said, taking his hand. “Don’t leave.”

“I won’t,” he said. He kissed my knuckles. “Go to sleep.”

I let my eyelids flutter closed, then, as he held me close against him. I fell asleep quickly, naked in his arms, and when I woke up I could see that the sun was out through the wooden beams of the barn. I sat up and stretched, looking up at Cooper as he stood there in his clothes, staring at the barn door.

“Cooper,” I said. He turned to look at me over his shoulder and for a moment, I was nervous. I didn’t know what I would do if he reacted to last night the same as he had reacted to the night before. I felt relief when his face broke into a smile and he turned around, looking at me with the blanket wrapped around my body. He came to me, his hands on my hips, pulling me close to him as he placed a soft, sweet kiss on my lips.

“Good morning,” he said, taking the sheet, pulling it away from my body. “I was thinking that we should go to the neighbor’s house. We can call my sister from there. But if you’d rather spend the morning in—”

I laughed. “It wasn’t exactly comfortable last night.”

He frowned, but I didn’t let him say anything before I kissed him again.

“It was perfect, Cooper. Thank you.”

He nodded, looking into my eyes.

“Better get dressed. Don’t want them to think we were up to something in here,” he said. “It would ruin my good boy reputation.”

I snorted. “Why do I get the feeling you’ve ruined your reputation with every cowgirl from here to Houston?”

He grinned. “You overestimate my charm. You’ve seen yourself how bad I can be with women.”

“Good point,” I said to him, and he kissed me on the forehead before I dressed. We folded up the blankets and put everything back where we had gotten it from, then started over a hill toward where Cooper’s neighbor lived. We got there quickly, and I was relieved when the door opened right away to show a friendly looking lady, old with fuzzy white hair.

“Cooper,” she said, her mouth opening wide in surprise. “You’re back. Oh, I knew you’d be back.”

He cleared his throat and I shot him a look.

“Really?”

He laughed. “Judy, I don’t believe that’s you. I hardly even recognize you.”

The old woman posed in the doorway. “Don’t I look twenty years younger?”

“No way,” he said in a charming voice, a flirty smile on his face. “Thirty years younger, at least. You look like a woman who’s just entered her prime.”

“Good thing we’re both in our prime then,” Judy said with a wink and a saucy look. He looked almost embarrassed as he exchanged a glance with me.

“Judy, we got stuck in your barn last night during the storm. My truck broke down. You think I could use your landline to call Jane? Neither of our cells work out here.”

“Of course, of course,” said Judy, ushering them in. She gave me a shrewd look.

“Is this your new girlfriend, Cooper?”

Cooper stared at me, a look of shock and surprise on his face.

“She’s—um—”

“We work together,” I said to Judy, smiling at her.

“She’s an employee at Maverick,” Cooper said, disappearing into the kitchen. I heard him on the phone, bickering back and forth with his sister for a moment as he called for a ride. Judy was quiet, leaning on her cane, waiting for him to come back with no interest in passing the time talking to me. I was fine with that—I had a lot on my mind about what we had done the night before, more than enough to keep my thoughts occupied through the silence. When Cooper came back, he looked longingly at me, and I felt a powerful feeling surge up within me. I wanted him alone again, to kiss him and touch him. It seemed like we had to wait forever for Jane to show up, grumbling.

“Saw your truck out on the road,” she said. “Why the hell didn’t you call last night?”

“Neither one of us get service out here. We stayed in the barn. It was no big deal,” Cooper said, though his eyes sparkled on mine as he spoke.

“Uh huh,” Jane said, glancing between us. “Alright, you two. We gotta take care of this truck. I can’t believe you don’t carry a spare. What an id—”  

“Let’s go, Jane,” Cooper said, gesturing us toward her car. We got in and he sat in the front. I kept my eyes on his face as we drove, and occasionally he would look back at me, once winking in a way that made me squirm in my seat. Everything about him was so handsome—so sexy that it made me weak. We got back to the house after a few moments.

“I’m sending Mercy with you to fix the truck. She’s the only one here right now and she’s got a spare in her trunk.”

“No,” Cooper said. “Not Mercy, I—”

“Mercy!” Jane called out, and Cooper gave an annoyed sigh as the woman came to join us. I felt something sink in my chest—Mercy really was beautiful, fit and perfect as a magazine cover. She gave him a flirtatious smile but his eyes didn’t change, didn’t look her over. He did smile, though, in a polite way.

“Hey, Mercy,” Cooper said. “You got a spare for my truck? I think I ran over something and popped mine. We don’t need you to come. We can do it ourselves.”

“But—”

“Really,” Cooper said. “Violet’s pretty good with her hands. You’d be surprised.”

Mercy raised an eyebrow, giving him a slightly snotty look before she looked at me.

“You can get the tire,” she said, a slight drawl to her voice. She was obviously irritated as she walked away. I looked up at Cooper with a question on my face, and he leaned into me, putting his lips close to my ear.

“I want to be alone with you,” he said, pulling back. “Is that okay?”

I couldn’t suppress my smile as I nodded at him. He reached for my hand, without caring about his sisters, pulled me over to Jane’s car as she loaded the tire in the back.

“We’ll be right back,” Cooper said, his eyes on my face. His sister snorted and disappeared. We got into the car and he immediately took my hand, holding it between us. My heart fluttered at the warm look on his face as he leaned forward to kiss me softly.

“I’ve been wanting to do that all day,” he said.

“You didn’t want to make Judy jealous,” I said, grinning at him.

“Right,” he said. “Well, I don’t mean to upset you, but I think Old Judy might be able to take you on. She’s stronger than she looks.”

“And how do you know how strong she is?” I asked him in disbelief as I giggled.

“Oh, I’ve known her my whole life,” he said as he drove. “She practically raised my mother.”

“Do you like having a big family?” I asked him. He nodded.

“I love it. Wouldn’t change a thing,” he said. “Although—”

“What?” I asked him when he paused.

“God, it’d be nice to have a baby around,” he said, his eyes sparkling.

“A baby?” I asked him. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he said, chuckling. “Yeah, I love kids. I keep trying to convince Jane to have another one. None of my brothers have kids and neither does Abigail.”

“Have you ever thought about having them?”

He went quiet for a moment. “Never found the right woman.”

“Too bad,” I said to him. “I think you’d make a great father. You had a perfect role model.”

He glanced over at me as he drove. “What about you? Who made you the way you are?”

“Nobody,” I said. “It was just me. I grew up in orphanages and foster homes, but none of them ever really clicked. I don’t have a family. I just kind of took care of myself.”

“I—”

“It’s fine,” I said. “Everybody wants to apologize when I tell them. It really isn’t a big deal. I’ve adjusted pretty well without any help. Families aren’t a given.”

“You do deserve a family, though,” he said. “I’m sorry that you didn’t have one.”

I swallowed, looking out the window.

“You were different with Mercy today,” I said. “You always flirt with her.”

“Mercy?” he asked. “I have no real interest in Mercy. Not anymore.”

“So what—”

He stopped the car as we got close to the truck, turning his body to look at me. He touched my cheek, looking into my eyes before he leaned in and kissed me.

“You belong in my family,” was all he said. “You do.”

I stared at him with my mouth open for a moment as he got out of the car and went to the truck. It didn’t take him long to get the tire off and changed. While he worked, I leaned against the car.

“What are you going to do about the business?” I asked him. “You said you’d think about—"

He looked up at me.

“I’m not selling my share. I’m going to play it out. If Dirk fights me, I’ll sneak up on him with a lawsuit. He won’t know what hit him.”

I nodded. I wasn’t going to argue with or push against him. I had decided the night before, as I fell asleep in his arms, that I was going to call Dirk as soon as possible and tell him that the deal was off. Cooper stood up when he was done and came close to me, backing me against the car. He took my mouth in a soft kiss.

“You are so beautiful,” he said, touching my cheek, and in that moment I felt something shift within me. I felt beautiful, and I felt love overwhelming every sense I had. I loved him with everything inside of me. I kissed him back once, twice before he was nearly on top of me on the roof of the car, devouring my mouth, his hips pressing against mine. He pulled away at the last moment, before I could lift my dress and take him deep right there next to the road.

“I want to do this properly,” he said softly. “In a bed. I want to make love to you right.”

“Oh,” I breathed, nuzzling his cheek. For a moment, all I could do was stare at him. He gave me a crooked smile.

“I’ll take the truck. You can drive the car back. We’ll get something to eat when we get there.”

“Okay,” I said to him, giving him one last kiss before we split up. We got the cars back home, and walked inside. The smell of Marie’s cooking instantly hit me—the smell of chicken roasting, vegetables and gravy. I was starving by the time we went into the kitchen. I didn’t even realize that I was holding hands with Cooper until his mother glanced down at where we were connected, grinning at us with her eyebrows raised.

“This your new girlfriend, Cooper?”

Cooper opened his mouth to answer but stumbled over the words, letting go of my hand, and I laughed.

“We haven’t talked about it yet,” I said.

“Well, you’d better hurry up and talk about it,” Marie said, wiping her hands on her apron. “We’re already getting attached to you, Violet. Can you try that gravy and tell me what you think?”

“Sure,” I said, casting a glance at Cooper, who had a pleased smile on his face. When we were finished cooking, we carried everything into the dining room. It was the night for the workers to eat with the family, and though Lola was there and constantly trying to get his attention, Cooper couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of me. It made my heart flutter in my chest, made me blush and look away from him. When dinner was over, I excused myself and hurried upstairs. I needed to make the call now, to call the whole thing off with Dirk.

He picked up the phone on the second ring.

“Hello, Violet,” he said in a chirpy, cheerful voice. “How are you?”

“I’m fine,” I said, swallowing.

“How’s it going with our friend? You convince him to sell his share yet?”

“No,” I said. “Actually—no. He’s not going to do it no matter what I say.”

“Did you even try?” Dirk asked, sounding suddenly annoyed.

“I did,” I insisted. “I tried, but he’s stubborn. He—he threatened to sue if you try to stop him. And you should see the business branch down here. He’s really perfect for the job. I think it’d be a big mistake to let him go.”

There was silence on the other end, one that made me shiver with its implications.

“Violet,” Dirk said. “Thank you for trying. I’ll see you when you get back.”

He hung up the phone then, the coldness in his voice lingering even after he was no longer on the line. I sighed and glanced at myself in the mirror. I didn’t feel as guilty as I had before, but I knew that I had to tell Cooper the truth about why I’d come out here. If I wanted a future with him, I had to be honest. I only hoped that it wouldn’t ruin the possibility of that future, though I knew it very well could.

There was a knock on my door only a few minutes later and I nearly jumped out of my skin before I took a deep breath and went to it. I opened it to see Cooper on the other side, his eyes hot on mine as he backed me into my room. He kissed me, and I told myself to pull back, to tell him the truth, that it was no longer fair to touch him under these pretenses. But the desire was too much for me to bear, especially when he pulled my dress off and had me naked below him, his eyes traveling over my body, looking at me like I was the most beautiful woman in the world. It made me feel sexy, made me want him even more, and the idea of ruining the moment made me keep the confession to myself, if only for the rest of the night.

“There are so many things I want to do to your pussy,” he growled. “I want to taste you again, to fuck you with my fingers. But right now I need my cock inside of you, okay? I can’t wait.”

“Yes,” I said to him. He nodded, grinning, slipping out of his clothes quickly and sliding a condom over his cock. Within seconds, he had pushed inside of me, started to move his hips back and forth against mine.

“I’m already addicted to this,” he said, fucking me slowly, biting his lip as he did so. “Already need it every fucking minute of every day.”

I moaned in response and he shook his head at me.

“This house is full of people,” he whispered, putting his fingers over my lips. “My family. Can you be quiet for me, angel?”

I nodded at him, though I wasn’t sure that I could manage. And indeed, another moan escaped my lips when he started to rub my clit. He only smiled and kissed me, muffling my cries with his mouth. There was a pounding on the door then, one that made us jump apart.

“Uh, not to ruin your night, but we all think this is really fucking uncomfortable, Coop. Can you not?”

“Sorry,” Cooper called out as I flushed a deep red, covering my face in embarrassment. I heard Abigail stomp away.

“Bad girl,” he said. “I told you to be quiet. Now we can’t—”

“I’ll be quiet,” I said, rolling over on top of him, taking his cock in my hand. I covered my mouth with my free hand as I guided him inside of me and started to ride him slowly, unsure of my movements, letting the pleasure guide me. Apparently, it was enough for him, because he started to buck up underneath me, hitting that sweet spot in my pussy. I whimpered against my hand and he pulled it away, covering my mouth with his own, bigger and more effective. I continued to ride his cock, letting my body move wildly as I cried out and bit into his palm. My eyes rolled back, my body out of control as I shuddered and came all over him, moving erratically. After a few moments, he came as well, and we both laid there in each other’s arms as we caught our breath.

“I guess I don’t have to sneak out of your room tonight,” he said, chuckling.

“That was humiliating,” I said.

“Nah,” he said, waving me off. “They’ll get over it.”

“You’re not the one who was making all the noise.”

“Mm,” he said, kissing me. “I love those noises you make. Tomorrow, we’ll have to stay somewhere in the city.”

“How much longer are we going to be here?”

“I don’t know,” he said. I snuggled up to him, content to stay for as long as possible. If I never had to go back to New York, I wouldn’t. I stayed in his arms until we fell asleep together, feeling perfect, like I belonged for the first time.