by Hope Ford
There’s something going on with Ivy and Jenny. They aren’t even looking at each other.
“So, uh, Jenny, how’s the job hunt going?” I ask with my eyes focused on her.
She looks across the table at me and I swear I feel my dick twitch. She looks over at ‘Ivy’ and then back at me. “Good. I’m actually moving out next week. Ivy has been so good to me – ya’ know, supporting me all these years – it’s time I got my shit together.”
When I look over at ‘Ivy’ she has shed her jacket and she has a tank top on and there is a tattoo on her shoulder. I grind my teeth together. Unless it was all a lie, my Ivy doesn’t have any tattoos.
We order a few drinks and ‘Ivy’ keeps trying to get me to dance but I turn her down.
“We should have went somewhere else. I hate country music,” she comments before getting up and telling us she’s going to request the DJ change it up a little.
She walks away, but I don’t take my eyes off ‘Jenny.’ “That’s weird, I swear in her letters she said she loves country music.”
Her eyes widen and Matt leans across, putting his arm around her shoulder and whispers in her ear. I can see the guilt in her face. Instantly, she jumps up and excuses herself to go to the bathroom. I hesitate for only seconds before I get up from the table. Matt starts to get up, but I stare him down and tell him not to move.
I stalk after Ivy, the real Ivy, and I reach her right before she walks into the bathroom. Tugging her arm, I turn her around and lean her against the wall. I muscle my body against her until I can feel every inch of her pressed against me.
I lean down and inhale the side of her neck and her hair. “You smell just like your letters.” I take a few deep breaths to try and calm myself. “I’m too old for these games. Why are you and your friend playing with me?”
She gasps as her hips flex against mine. Hell, just being this close to her my cock is hard and I’m poking against her hip. She doesn’t answer me.
I lean my head against the side of her face. We are right next to the dance floor and the music is loud. I want to make sure she hears me. “I thought we had something. I thought I meant something to you. What happened? Did you meet Matt and decide you wanted to throw away the last year with me?”
Her eyes are wide and I can feel her body tremble against me. “Fuck it,” I say before I bend down and devour her mouth with mine. I give everything I have with that one kiss. It’s the only way I can convey everything I’m feeling right now. Damn, I love her, and her lips against mine are even better than I ever imagined. When I pull away from her, we are both gasping for breath. She’s still quiet; nothing to say. I feel no guilt, because I know that I just kissed my Ivy. I tip her chin up and lean in to whisper into her ear. “We could’ve been good together.”
I release her then and I do the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. Harder than all the killing that I’ve done, harder than being away from my family for so many years, hell, harder than burying my best friend. I turn and walk away from her.
Chapter 6
Ivy
I collapse onto the dirty floor of the club. My whole body is heaving from the sobs I just can’t stop. What have I done? I ask myself over and over. When I feel someone crouch down in front of me, I lift my face, hopeful that Cooper came back.
“Are you okay, Ivy?” Matt asks me.
I try and wipe the tears off my face. “Yes.”
He eyes me for a minute. “He knows that you’re Ivy, doesn’t he?”
I nod my head, still unable to catch a breath and form a complete sentence.
Suddenly, it hits me. It’s like I’ve been in shock, but the words he whispered in my ear, We could’ve been good together echo through my mind. He did think it was me writing him. He did think it was me that was beautiful in the picture I sent him. But because of the switch that Jenny did, oh my God, what have I done? I jump up off the floor.
I start jogging toward the door, fighting through the crowd. I call over my shoulder, “I have to go, Matt. I’m sorry.”
Once I get outside, I realize I don’t have my car or know where I’m going. Fuck.
I click on my phone for an Uber and then I send Cooper a text.
Please. Please let me explain. Where are you? I’ll come to you.
Staring at my phone, I wait for a text back. I see the little bubbles like he might be typing something, but then they disappear.
Groaning, I text him again.
I promise it’s not what you think. Give me five minutes. Then you’ll never have to see me again. But I need to explain.
Before I even think about it, I send another one.
Please
When the bubbles show up this time, he only responds with the name of the hotel and the room number.
I release a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. I text him back.
I’m waiting on an Uber. Be there soon.
Cooper
I walk back and forth, pacing across the carpeted floor of the hotel room. When I got here, I packed up my bag to get ready and drive straight home to Knoxville. But right when I was about to go out the door, I dropped my bag and sat down in the chair.
I don’t know what is going on. I don’t know what these games are that Ivy is playing, but I do know that, even after all of this, I still want her.
Sitting with my head in my hands, my phone chimes in my pocket.
I dig it out and read the text from Ivy. I almost respond, but don’t. Even though I want to.
When she texts again, I give in and give her the name of the hotel and room number.
Only twenty minutes pass before I hear a soft knock on the door.
I open the door and stand there looking down at her. The top of her head barely comes to my chest, she’s so much smaller than me. Her head is lifted backwards and I can see the remnants of tears on her eyes and face.
Her hands are wrapped around each other. “Can I come in?”
I don’t say anything, just stand back to let her pass me. I inhale as she walks by and that smell, the smell of her, brings back so many memories from this past year. Every letter she ever wrote me was enveloped in that smell.
She walks slowly into the room and stops when she gets to the bed. She turns around and I instantly think of all the times I’ve imagined her and me together, or her on the bed spread out for me.
Her face flushes as she starts talking. “I know you probably hate me. I can’t say I blame you.”
“I don’t…” I start to tell her, but she interrupts me.
She holds her hands up in front of her. “Please, just let me get this out. It’s not what you think. When I sent you that picture of me and Jenny, I never told you which one was me. I was afraid that you assumed I was actually Jenny.”
I take a step toward her. “I never.”
She gives me a look and I stop talking.
She continues. “However, after writing to you for over a year I didn’t care anymore. I knew how I felt about you. Anyway, it was Jenny’s idea. She said she was worried about me getting my feelings hurt and would be there on standby just in case I needed her to jump in as me. I told her I didn’t need her to, but she insisted and well, you know me, I didn’t argue with her about it. Well, when you got here, I guess, I mean, she thought you were disappointed and she stepped in. I didn’t want her to, but I also didn’t want you to be upset either.”
I glance at her. Her brown hair curls down over her shoulders. Her green eyes are wide and expressive, like I can see every thought she has. She’s still hugging herself and I hate to imagine everything that she has put herself through the last few days. “Are you done?” I ask her.
She bites her lower lip and nods at me.
I take another step toward her. “So you said you knew how you feel about me. How do you feel?”
Her eyes widen and her mouth opens and closes like a fish. “Uh, you know how I feel. I’ve told you in my letters.”
I tilt my head to the side. �
�Yes, you’ve told me. In letters. I want to hear you say it.”
She looks unsure, but then she surprises me. She straightens her back and her eyes never stray from mine. “I love you, Cooper. I love you so much. And it killed me to let you go out with Jenny.”
I reach my hand out and stroke a piece of her hair. “Did she tell you that she kissed me?”
Her face, her whole body, clenches when I say it, but I want her to know. I don’t want there to be any lies between us. “No. No, she didn’t tell me that.”
I take the last step toward her and cup her jaw in my hand. “I felt guilty for kissing her. Even though at the time she was saying she was you, I still felt guilty.”
I lean her head back. “I’ve thought about kissing you so many times this past year, Ivy. When I kissed you at the club, it was everything I imagined it would be. All those months, it was you that I looked at, it was you I was picturing myself with. Hell, my whole future is planned out and it’s you that I imagined it with.”
She smiles at me and watches as I move in close to her. I seal my lips to hers and wrap my arms around her as I tighten our bodies together. Her arms go around my neck and I deepen the kiss until I’m ravaging her mouth with mine.
Chapter 7
Ivy
“You are so beautiful,” he tells me. His arms lift me up and my legs go around his hips. He leans his forehead against mine. “God, I want you, Ivy. I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything before.”
I unlatch my legs from around his back and he lets me slide back to standing. I step out of my shoes, making quick work of taking off my clothes. Cooper just stands there, watching every movement that I make. When I’m completely naked before him, his eyes glance down my body. Instead of indifference or loathing, his face is filled with lust.
He starts undressing and my mouth waters as his chest is uncovered and I get to see for the first time his tight torso and all his tattoos. His body is perfection and my mouth is watering just looking at him.
He undoes his jeans and pulls them down his legs, stepping out of them. His long hard cock springs free from his boxers and without even thinking about it, I drop to my knees before him. Already he has precum leaking. I touch my tongue to his tip and I hear him hiss. I can’t stop the smile that fills my face, knowing that I do that to him. Knowing that I control his pleasure.
I stroke my tongue along his length and then wrap my lips around his wide, thick shaft. I stroke him, up and down.
“Oh baby, that feels so good,” he groans as he wraps his hand around my hair, his hips and his hand controlling the movements. His hips pull back and he holds my head steady. He gyrates forward and pulls my face against him. With each thrust, I swallow down his length until he’s rutting against the back of my throat.
When it’s too much, when I feel my pussy pooling with desire, I moan against him and he pulls back, trying to pop me off of him. I shake my head ‘no’ and then give it all I’ve got. I may not be the most experienced at this, but I can tell what he likes. I suck him in, cupping his balls with my hand and gliding his length in and out of my mouth. I don’t stop until he’s groaning his release and hot cum is pouring down my throat.
Licking my lips, I kiss the inside of his thigh before sitting back on my knees.
Cooper
She’s a goddess. That’s the only way I know how to put it. When her lips were wrapped around my dick and her eyes were trained on me, I knew that I couldn’t wait to have her. That my sole goal in life right now is to make her mine.
After I come in her mouth and she licks her lips, I pull her up into my arms and lay her back on the bed. I stand over her, just looking at her lush body. Fuck, I’m a lucky man. I lean down and capture one large, round breast in my hand and pluck her swollen, hard nipple between my lips. Sucking on her, my hand slides down between us and I stroke my fingers through her slick, wet heat. She grabs on to my head and holds me close, almost forcing her breast into my mouth. I bite down on her nipple and her body lurches from the sweet pain that erupts.
As I rub circles on her clit, she moans my name. She grips my face, pulling me from her breast and up to meet her lips. My hard cock is pressing against her and even though I just came, I know that I have to get inside her.
Kissing her mouth, stroking her clit, her soft, sweet moans have me applying more pressure until her hips are steadily rocking against me. I know she’s close, but I want her to come with my dick buried deep inside her. I want to feel her hot channel gripping me and sucking me in when she finally peaks.
I line my cock up at her center and slide in slowly until I’m balls deep and tapping her cervix. She moans my name, either from pleasure or pain, but when she lifts her hips against me, I know she wants more. I slide in and out of her body, and every time I pull out, she is pulling me back in. I can feel her pussy vibrating and it feels like heaven on my cock. I know I’m about to lose control. She’s so tight. She’s so hot. She’s so perfect. I put my thumb on her clit and rub back and forth. Her body is writhing underneath me and when I bend down and bite her gently on her collarbone, it completely puts her over the edge and I can feel her release pooling around my dick.
I groan her name, shooting streams of cum deep inside her. I lay there, basking in her warm, soft pussy wrapped around me. When I feel like I can move again, I slowly pull out of her.
After cleaning her up, I help her slide up the bed and I pull the sheet up over us. I wrap my arms around her. There’s so much I want to say. So much I need to say. But I don’t. I think she knows she’s mine. After a short time, I hear her softly snoring against my chest.
I just smile and tuck her even closer into my shoulder. Kissing her forehead, I whisper, “I love you, Ivy.”
Chapter 8
Cooper
With the light shining through the hotel curtains, I feel Ivy, who is snuggled next to me, start to move. I grab on to her and pull her against me, lifting my body so I’m looking down at her. She has makeup under her eyes and her hair is going in every direction. But still, she looks beautiful to me. “I want you to go home with me. Today is Christmas Eve. I promised my family I would be home in time for dinner.”
She smiles shyly at me. “Are you sure?” She already told me that her brother was busy with his girlfriend’s family and her mom is on a cruise, so I know she didn’t have any other plans.
I lean down and kiss her lips lightly before pulling back to tell her, “Honey, if there’s anything that I’m sure about it’s that I want you by my side.”
She smiles widely, then pushes me onto my back. Lifting up, she straddles my waist and I can feel her bare drenched heat on my already hard cock. “Then I would love to go home with you. Do you think we have time for this?” she asks me as she grabs my girth and lines it up at her opening. All I can do is groan as I push into her hot core.
Ivy
By midafternoon, Cooper had taken me home to pack and we were on the road to Knoxville. Luckily, Jenny wasn’t there. I wrote her a note and told her that I was sorry, but I do think it would be best if she moved out. Will we still be friends? Probably. Will I trust her again? Probably not. I know she was never really a good friend to me. But I also know it’s my fault too. I let her treat me like that. I should have distanced myself long ago.
During the drive to Cooper’s home, he tells me stories about his family and all the different holiday parties that they’ve had. You can hear the love he has for his family in his voice.
When we pull into a two-story white rancher, my nerves start kicking in. Cooper must sense it because his hand on my thigh tightens. He had his hand on me the whole way. Either holding mine, or on my leg. It’s like he can’t stand not to be touching me.
He releases me and goes around to the side of the car and opens my door. I get out and he leans down to kiss me. “Ready?”
I nervously nod. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“I’m about to make one of your dreams come true.” He brings my hand up and
kisses my knuckles.
I look at him with confusion on my face. “Huh?”
He nods his head knowingly. “Yep, you are about to get your big family Christmas. Full of chaos and everything else you ever wanted. Just you wait and see.”
He grips my hand and we walk up the steps. Before we even get to the door, it swings open and people start pouring out of the house. His mom, I’m assuming, wraps her arms around him and everyone else is taking turns hugging him, slapping him on the back and welcoming him home.
Once everyone gets their turn, he looks around and finds me standing off to the side, giving everyone room. “Guys. Everyone. Hey, I want to introduce you to my girl. This is Ivy. She’s going to be my wife.”
My mouth drops open, but I don’t have time to fully think about what he just said because everyone, his whole family, turns to me with huge smiles on their faces and I’m passed around for hugs. As I hug each person, his mom introduces me. I meet his brother Jackson and his girlfriend Megan, I meet his brother Ford and his girlfriend Allison, and then I meet his sister Abby and her boyfriend Brent. When I catch a glimpse of Cooper as I’m being spun around, the smile on his face is huge, and right then, I know that everything is going to be okay.
Epilogue
The next day - Christmas
Ivy
We had a wonderful dinner with his whole family. And he’s right, it was complete chaos. However, I basked in it. I loved it. It was like a part of me had been missing and I was finally whole. Cooper never left my side, even after everyone was finished and I helped clean up in the kitchen. He helped too.
When we went to bed later last night, he held me all night long. And now that it’s Christmas morning, I start to go to the bathroom and get ready, but he stops me. “C’mon. I’m sure they’re waiting for us.”
“Cooper, I have to at least get ready,” I tell him and start walking to the bathroom.
