by Cari Quinn
Though it might be fun to tease him with the possibility.
“You know, this seatbelt is so tight.”
He gave me a strange look. “So, pull it out and loosen it a bit.”
“It doesn’t help. I feel all hemmed in.”
“Seatbelts are necessary, Teag. Sorry. Besides, since when do you not like seatbelts?”
“Since I’m imagining crawling across the seat, laying down with my ass in the air, and unzipping those cargos.” I tilted my head and gave him my best innocent expression. “Sometimes it helps to be small. I can squeeze into all kinds of places.”
He gripped the steering wheel with both hands. Hard. “You have an evil side. Is it the red hair?”
“Undoubtedly. It’s also that my ex said I liked sex too much, and I know you won’t ever say that to me. Even if I’m still sort of stunned sex is even on the table with us.”
He was quiet so long I decided to work on unraveling the loose threads in my skirt, one by one. “Or maybe—”
“Take off your belt.”
I blinked. “Huh?”
“Teagan, take off your belt and get over here.” He never looked away from the road as he gestured toward me.
When I hesitated, he laughed, long and low. “Such a law-breaker. Except not really. You’re a good girl.” But despite the words, I heard a challenge in his voice.
A dare.
I undid the belt and slid closer, letting out a little gasp as he drew me as close as he could in the tight confines. The console was in the way, and something dug into my ass, but I didn’t really care since his fingers were resting on top of my breast, just inside the material.
“I’ll never tell you that you like sex too much. If you want me to, I’ll keep you on your back all fucking night long—” when my lips opened, he gently pressed his fingers between them, “and on top of me, riding me with those gorgeous tits on display.” He removed his fingers and wiped the bit of my dampness on my cleavage. “What color are they?”
I was still locating my brain, currently located between my damp thighs. “My breasts? Same as the rest of me. Pasty white and freckled.”
The sound he made verged between a laugh and a growl. “Your nipples.”
“Oh. Well. Um, kind of cinnamon? Ish. I guess. Like other parts of me.” Some of my sexy game had slipped away with this new demanding side of Cooper. Not because I didn’t like it, but because it seemed to be frying my synapses.
Amazing kisser, big dick, and commanding in just the right way? Holy bonanza. And I wasn’t exactly batting a thousand on the luck scale lately.
I darted a glance at his groin. But apparently, my tent had just come in. Ship. Whatever.
“Keep looking at me like that, and I’ll make your wish come true.”
“I have a lot of wishes, and so far, you’re fulfilling them all.”
His Adam’s apple moved up and down in the faint light from the streetlights. Thank God it was late enough for traffic not to be much of a factor, and we weren’t that far from his place. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to hear that from you.”
“No. I really don’t. Maybe you should tell me?” Back to playing with my thread. “In the interest of science.”
His hand covered mine on my thigh. “A damn long time. You never guessed?”
“Are you kidding me? If I’d thought it was a thing, you think I would’ve just ignored it?”
“I don’t know.”
His desolate tone made me ache in a new way as I cupped his hand between both of mine. “I wouldn’t have. A couple times I wondered… Well, I wasn’t even sure what I thought. But some of those times, I had thoughts of my own I kept pushing down.”
“You were jealous tonight.”
“Not the first time. But I don’t—” Only because it was Cooper could I say this. “I’m not good with relationships. You were the first guy I built something real with, and I didn’t want to mess it up. I don’t,” I added, gazing at my hands wrapped around his instead of at him. Hoping like hell he couldn’t hear the tremor in my voice. “You’re nothing like him, but I’m still me. I made mistakes too. I could do it again. I probably will.”
Before he had a chance to respond, I tacked on a wholly insincere laugh. “Not that I’m saying this is some big epic thing. Friends can have sex.”
“Have you had sex with any of your friends?”
I snorted. “Like who? Jamie is pretty hot, gotta say.”
“Teagan.”
“No. Of course not. But I don’t want to make it weird. This is not Friends and you’re not going to come home tomorrow and find me sitting in my wedding dress drinking beer.”
“You have a wedding dress?”
“No. I always wanted to get married in a bikini. Water lapping at my feet. Easy access for the honeymoon, which would take place twenty feet from the marital location.” I shrugged. “See? Sex addict.”
“You act like that’s a problem.”
“I’m just overwhelming. I know I am. I’ve scared off guys before. Ricki and I used to joke we would be single at forty, and we’d each have half a dozen cats. Which isn’t a bad thing,” I added hastily. “Cats are clearly the superior pet. They don’t need to be walked.”
Apparently, he had no desire to weigh in on the merits of dogs. “Ricki is not single. She’s so married we all take bets on when her husband will literally fuck her to death.”
I sighed. “I know. What a way to go.”
“So, half your theory was wrong.” He laced his fingers with mine. “If you want the part about you to be wrong, I’m entirely sure you can make it so.”
“Look, kidnapping worked for Jamie, but I’m not that ballsy.”
Something about Cooper’s laughter was so wonderful, especially when we were holding hands. We’d done it before, here and there. Stolen moments when our fingers had tangled or we’d been hurrying somewhere. Once, the band had gotten into a snowball fight after a show, and he’d held my hands to warm them up. But this was different.
Incredible.
“I don’t know how, but somehow, you don’t see your appeal. At all. I have a feeling some of that has to do with that asshole.”
I said nothing.
“If I ever meet the guy, I’m not responsible for my actions. How fucking dare he lay a hand on you?”
More silence on my part. I was too busy swallowing over the boulder in my throat.
“A woman like you deserves to be protected. Adored. Treated with respect. And when it’s time for bed, fucked over and over until she never doubts how much she’s wanted.”
My eyes filled. Which thankfully he did not see until he parked the car in the garage, unsnapped his seatbelt, and turned to me.
“Jesus, I didn’t want to make you cry. You talk about you messing stuff up? Kleenexes before sex never work out well.”
I let out a sniffly laugh. “You just lo—” I stopped and got myself back in line. “I matter to you, and it’s not an act to get in my pants. Or for a free room in a townhouse you don’t have to chip in on.”
His knuckles brushed over the tears gathering on my cheeks. “No. Although admittedly, I’d do an awful lot to get under your skirt. But not lie. I would never do that.”
I smiled. “Like Meatloaf.”
“Only you, babe.” His grin was like lightning. “And to me, you’re perfect just the way you are.”
I sniffled again, but already the tears were receding. I’d be damned if I spoiled what could be a perfect night with recriminations. “Even if my panties are soaked?”
“If I die tonight, make sure someone uses the shock panels on me, okay? I’m not giving up without a fight.”
I laughed.
“Now get your ass out of this car and into my apartment. I want you naked.”
“Yes, sir.” Before I got out, I reached beneath my skirt and wiggled my panties down my legs and over my heels. I had not been exaggerating their current state. If anything, I should have wrung them out befor
e handing them over. But Cooper’s slack-jawed expression as I pressed them into his hand made it worth it. “Souvenir,” I said lightly.
I didn’t know what I expected him to do with them. Maybe ball them up and put them in his pocket. Smell them. That was a usual choice. But I definitely didn’t think he would lift them to his mouth and lick right where the heart of me had been just a moment before.
I swallowed. “Expensive seats. I’m getting out now.”
His laughter trailed me out of the vehicle.
“I’m probably going to bronze these pants since I put your panties in my pocket,” he said as soon as he joined me and grasped my hand. He’d tucked the panties in his back pocket and left them hanging out enough to be visible.
“Platinum-line the panties?”
“Nah. Sleep with those under my pillow every night.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I’ll have to keep you supplied with fresh pairs. That could get messy quick.”
He squeezed my fingers. “Promise?”
It was such an innocently dirty question. But it didn’t feel that way when my pulse was hammering, and my skin was too tight and hot. “Judging by recent events, it will not be a problem. Of course, I think I only have a couple pairs in my bus duffel, if mine at home are ruined. Oh, well, shopping trip.” I kept my tone cheerful, but he wasn’t fooled.
“Why don’t you let me buy you some?”
“Really? Why would you want to do that? Do you have a secret fetish?”
“Yes. Imagining peeling them off you with my teeth would bring me endless pleasure.” He nodded at the security standing sentry and nudged me ahead of him to go inside.
I cleared my throat once we proceeded past the ice-eyed attendant who had looked at me late last night as if I were a dead bug in the building’s pool. God, had it really not even been twenty-four hours yet?
Pretty sure this day qualified as the most eventful one of my life. And it wasn’t over.
“I think those security types heard you talking about peeling off my underwear.”
“With my teeth,” he reminded me as if I’d forgotten.
“So absolutely noted.”
He swiped his fingers over his pocket panties before withdrawing his pass to use on the elevator.
On the swift ride up to the penthouse, we were quiet, mutually lost in our own pre-sex worlds. His probably consisted of times tables so he wouldn’t come prematurely. Mine was made up of admonitions not to mention anything more future-related than dates to fuck.
I wouldn’t even do it intentionally. Sex addict or not, if I got into bed with a guy, I had feelings. I didn’t know how to do meaningless sex. Pity for me, but I supposed I was a traditional sort deep down.
Cooper, on the other hand, might just get the title of bad boy.
Deliciously bad.
After we stepped into his staggeringly huge place, I wasn’t even that surprised to find myself with my spine against the wall. Or with him on his knees before me while he pushed up my skirt.
The surprise came in when he lifted both my legs onto his shoulders and held me up just with his absurdly big hands.
Being small sometimes came in pretty useful.
“God.” It was the only thing I could manage when he found me with his mouth. And tongue. And even a little bit of teeth, just the edge of them against my already swollen clit. The jolt had me rearing back against the wall, but his hold didn’t falter. Not even when he moved just that much lower to slip his tongue into me. Way in, so that I was left shuddering with the first slow slide.
It wasn’t just what he was doing. It was the sounds he was making deep in his throat. Rumbles of desire and appreciation that were so hot I could’ve come from that alone.
Instead, it only took a couple tongue thrusts and his lips sealing around my clit before I was a goner, helplessly lost and quivering as I dug my nails into the wall for purchase.
It took a minute for him to stop. Maybe a lifetime. Time had no place in my world anymore.
He set my still-trembling legs on the floor and moved up my body. My hair was a tangled mess across my face, and I didn’t even know if my hands had helped make it that way. Tearing at myself before letting all of that out seemed entirely reasonable in this moment.
Carefully, he untangled the strands and parted them until he could look into my eyes. Seeking something that didn’t scare me here and now. “There you are. Hi.”
“Hi.” It was probably stupid to be shy after you’d come in a guy’s mouth after approximately two minutes. Yet here I was.
Then he framed my face in his hands and kissed me with lips that tasted deliriously like me, and I wasn’t shy anymore. I was ravenous.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and boosted my legs onto his hips and held on while he staggered toward the nearest piece of furniture that could support us. He almost tried the glass end table first before redirecting toward the long couch. We went sailing back onto it, and his head hit the arm with a sizable thunk. I moaned in sympathy while simultaneously trying to rub out the hurt and sucking on his tongue.
Evidently, he cared less about his possible concussion than slipping free the couple of tiny buttons on my top and letting free the one thing nature had not been stingy on when it came to my curves.
My ass was decent. My breasts, especially considering my petiteness? A bounty I could not deny. It helped balance out all the damn freckles.
He wasted no time in opening my bra clasp. “Jesus, Teagan. You’re fucking stunning.” He cupped me in both hands, but he looked at my face instead of what he held. “Do you know that?”
I didn’t have time to answer before he was hauling me off him and then dragging me down the hall.
Okay, reroute to bedroom. I could deal.
But no, he drew me into the bathroom and slapped on the lights. The brightness made me shield my eyes as he pulled me into the cavernous room and shut the door.
On the back of it was a full-length mirror.
Immediately, I turned away.
I liked my body most of the time. I knew that made me lucky, because that wasn’t true for many. But I wasn’t confident enough to face the glass when everything was on display with a new lover standing behind me—even if that new lover was my best friend.
He didn’t chide me. Didn’t force me. Just touched my jaw until I shifted enough to see myself with him looming behind me. So tall and strong. Dark and powerful even though he was still dressed and I was half naked.
And then I couldn’t look away.
My bra was unclasped but still twisted in my unbuttoned top, and I still had on the costume jewelry I’d worn for the show. He lifted my top over my head and pried off my bra, leaving the glittery jewelry alone.
I felt like I was shimmering just as much.
It would’ve been easy to cross my arms over myself. To not face myself so openly. It was one thing knowing a lot of guys liked a woman bigger upstairs. It was another not to imagine how that heaviness might seem at the wrong angle. How maybe I wasn’t as perky as some.
Forget maybe. Only so much perky could happen at my cup size.
Then his darker fingers slid against my fair skin. Cupping and lifting. Caressing in a way that made everything inside me strain for more. Especially my nipples.
“Definitely cinnamon,” he said against my ear as I trembled. “You’re so beautiful. Every part of you.”
One hand moved lower to splay over the swell of my belly. I was not super skinny. I was a morass of freckles. And he still explored me as if I was the finest treasure.
He undid my skirt and it fell down my legs to pool over my heeled booties. I stepped out of it and faced the rest of me. Slight in some parts, a little too wobbly in others. In between my legs were delicate red curls that I didn’t shape into the shaved trend of the day. Or better yet, made disappear entirely. I was groomed, but I was natural. Just me.
“Beautiful here too.” He slid his hand over me, held it there while I absorbed the sight of his
tanned skin against the pale flesh I’d by turns hated and learned to ignore. Through his eyes, it wasn’t something to wish away.
It was simply part of the whole. Part of who I am.
Just like the barely visible stretch marks here and there. The bony knees. All the pieces that never quite added up right in my head, so I didn’t look. But this time, I did. And when I reached down to lace my fingers with his over me, his mouth at my ear was more than the devil on my shoulder. He was my angel too.
“Let me watch.”
Those words. So innocent. Such a fire in the blood.
I was still sensitive from a few minutes ago. It felt like forever. I couldn’t decide how I felt. If I wanted to turn my face into his shoulder as my fingers moved slowly against my slick folds, because his fingers were still on top of mine. Pinning me in a subtle way even now. Or if I wanted to study the slide and twist of them as I made myself arch back against him.
In the end, I did both. My eyes were wide open and, on the mirror, as I sought my release. He lifted his hands to my breasts, his fingers restless against my nipples, now so much darker and fuller. The insistent pressure of him behind me both supported me and let me fly.
And then I didn’t need to watch anymore, because it was all happening inside me and he’d helped me find my way to this place. Turning my head to hungrily meet his mouth seemed so much more important than seeing myself shatter.
So much better if he shattered with me.
In me.
I drew my hand away from between my thighs right when I was on the verge. He grabbed my wrist and brought my fingers to his mouth with a low needy sound I felt in my bones. My other hand went to his zipper and he shuddered, not even bothering to hide it. Just the promise of what was to come made him vulnerable.
I’d never felt more for him than I had in this moment. When we didn’t have to speak and everything was new and unsteady and somehow so right at the same time.
“You wanted to watch,” I murmured into his mouth before I kneeled before him and pulled down his zipper. I couldn’t do it slowly. Not now. It felt like I was unwrapping the best gift I’d ever been given. My fingers tangled in the material of his boxers and then I shoved both them and his pants down and he popped free.
