Cooper

by Harper Sloan

  He's lucky the only thing I did was snap his wrist to get him to remove his hold on her body. That still didn't satisfy the primal animal that is snarling to be set free. It's the same feeling I get when I think about what happened to Coop. That need to wrong a right, to claim what's mine.

  Images of Chelcie, her eyes closed and his fingers touching her feet, bombard my mind again, and I swerve my Jeep over a few lanes. Pulling off onto the shoulder of the highway, I rip off my seatbelt and jump out of the Jeep before slamming the door with enough force to rock the whole vehicle.

  I'm fighting every instinct in my system to turn the car around and kill. I'm at war with myself and I am too out of control to correct it. I need to claim, to mark, and to prove that she is mine.

  I pace back and forth in short successions before stopping in my tracks and whipping my head around to look back at Chelcie. I was expecting her anger, but when I look back and see her curled forward with her shoulders shaking violently, I immediately rush back to the Jeep. This time, I bypass my door and jerk hers open. She shoots up and hiccups a sob before crumbling again. This time, it isn't herself she is escaping to. No, she lunges forward, almost falling out of the Jeep, and wraps her arms forcefully around my neck.

  Pulling my hips back slightly, I move her body so that her legs are hanging out the side of the Jeep. I push them lightly apart and step in between her thighs. She immediately wraps her long legs around my hips and all but crawls inside my body. I stand there, running my hands down her back, and let her take every ounce of strength I have in my body. I can feel her trembling against me, her tears soaking my shirt, and her heaving breath against my neck. I just keep running my hands down her back and press my lips to her head. The feel of her body and the smell that never fails to make me roll my eyes in yearning combined with the adrenaline that is still thundering through my body does nothing to help ease the need I feel to claim.

  To make her mine.

  Without speaking a word, not trusting myself to even open up my mouth, I reach my hands up and unwind her body from mine. She looks up at me with confusion before shock takes over her features and she jerks her body back in the seat.

  "Don't even think about it," I seethe.

  Her eyes flash, but she visibly tries to relax her protective posture.

  I take a few steadying breaths before I walk back to the driver's side and pull back into traffic.

  It's time that Chelcie and I have a long, overdue chat. I want to know what the hell she's hiding, and more importantly, I need to make sure she understands just where the hell things stand between us.

  ***

  The drive back to the apartments doesn't take long in reality, but with the thick anticipation of what is to come coating the air around us, it feels like hours. Chelcie hasn't spoken, not one word.

  Her silence is alarming. I'm used to her sweet murmurs--the snarky bursts of fiery attitude she normally keeps closed off from others--and most importantly, that deep-rooted desire that is usually blazing in those brown-gold pools.

  I hate this closed-off, scared version of her, and I'm almost afraid to believe that it could be me she's afraid of.

  We pull up, park, and silently make our way past a smiling Joe and into the elevator. She goes to press the button for her floor, but I grab her lightly, pulling her flush with my body.

  "No," I growl, the primal sound shocking even my own ears.

  "Please," she pleads, her eyes round with what I can only guess is panic.

  "Sunshine, would I ever hurt you? Get that look off your beautiful face," I murmur. Lightly pressing my lips to hers, I take a deep, reassuring breath when I feel her body relax slightly in my arms.

  "You scare the ever-loving shit out of me, Ash. We need to talk, and right now, I'm just trying to take a moment to get over the fact that when you hear what I have to say...you could hate me forever."

  "A little dramatic, don't you think?"

  She doesn't say anything, just looks up at me with pain very evident in her eyes.

  Even with the anger from Fat Jacks still surfing through my body, I can feel the trace of apprehension starting to take hold of my skin.

  "You don't get it, Ash. There are things I haven't told you, things that could change the way you think you feel for me. Things that could change everything, and I have no clue how to get past this. Don't you see? Don't you see how much you mean to me? I'm not sure I could handle you not wanting to be a part of my life anymore--even if it is just as friends."

  My brow creases with her words. "You're going to realize real soon that when I say you're mine, I mean it. We've been dancing around this for way too long." The earlier feelings of uncontrollable anger over her being out with another man threaten to take hold of me again. It's taking every thread of control to keep myself calm. To stop myself from throwing her on the floor of the damn elevator and showing her just how mine she really is. "And before the day is over, there will be no fucking doubt in that pretty little head just how much I mean that."

  Her eyes darken, but not out of the desire I wish I saw. No, this time they get darker with her sadness, and I wish there was something, anything, I could do to take that from her.

  ***

  (Chelcie)

  While sitting in the car on the way back to the apartments, I busy myself with trying to figure out what just happened. I'm almost positive that Asher just...claimed me? My ankle is killing me from where crazy Phil had his hands crushing deep into the muscles and tendons. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a huge welt-like bruise when I get a good look at it.

  The ride up is more heavy silence. The tension between us is so abundant that I keep shaking uncontrollably. I don't fear Asher. Even when he was at his drunkest, his meanest, and his worst, I never feared him. It's almost been as if his pain was my own, which even to my own mind makes no sense. Sure, we've grown as close as two friends who have red-hot chemistry can get, but ever since the day that I met him, I knew there was potential for something so powerful that I'm not sure I would come out the same person in the end.

  He makes me feel alive. And completely untethered to my own sense of reality.

  I'm not exactly naive when it comes to men and relationships. I've had a few steady boyfriends, but nothing that I was really willing to invest myself one hundred percent in. I haven't been avoiding being in a committed relationship, but I've also been unwilling to give myself to someone who clearly wasn't eager to look at me as anything other than a warm body.

  Which is one of the main reasons I've avoided acting on the attraction between Asher and me.

  That and the obvious elephant in the room.

  And in the back of my mind, I have to be honest with myself. Sure, we have a friendship--as precarious as it seems at the moment--and the combustible attraction... But when he finds out about the baby, how do I know that, if he still wants something from me, it isn't going to be just because I'm carrying a part of his brother.

  With a deep sigh, I lean back against the elevator car and mentally prepare myself for what is to come.

  Chapter 13 - Chelcie

  "How did you know I was there?" I question when Asher all but slams the door, trapping me in a room I'm not quite sure I want to be in. Well, that's a lie--my body wants to be here, but my mind wants to run.

  He doesn't turn around right away. He stands at the door, his hands braced on the thick wood and his breathing hard and heavy. His very presence alone is so strong and demanding that the air around us feels alive.

  I wouldn't have been able to control the thick shudder that flies through my body if I'd tried.

  "Dee--well, Sway. Dee and Sway."

  He still doesn't turn around, and it takes just a second for the blinding anger to take over my body. Damn them!

  "Don't be pissed at them, Sunshine. I'm damn happy they let me know where to find you. Tell me--did you like that asshole touching you?" He finally turns, and the look on his face causes me to take a giant step back.

 
He stalks me--predator to his prey--and I keep matching him step for step until my ass hits the wall. My shoulders pressed back as much as I can--praying that the wall will just swallow me whole.

  "I'll tell you how it made me feel. Walking in to see his fingers closed around your slim ankle, the look in his eyes when he was lost in whatever fantasy held him captive...to see another man with his hands on my woman... Do you want to know how I felt? Look at me," he demands. "I felt a depth of wrath I didn't know existed. A red-hazed fury chanting at me to kill. I wanted to rip his arms off his body and beat him with the hands that dared to touch WHAT. IS. MINE."

  I gasp. Of course I do. My words have completely left me. He just looks at me, those beautiful eyes that show so much of his emotions just taking me in. The emotions crossing his face go from angry to blazing with desire in a matter of seconds, and before I can even get a word out, his lips are feasting on mine.

  This kiss blows anything we've ever shared out of the water. This is a hungry possession of my soul. A claiming of my body. And I love every second of it.

  My hands, having a mind of their own, pull at the fabric of his shirt, moving it up his body, desperate for the feel of his skin against my fingertips. He tears his mouth from mine, panting with exertion, and rips the shirt over his head. I watch as the fabric sails over his shoulder and lands on the lamp hanging over the dining room table. When my eyes move back to his, they're still scorching my skin with the intensity of his need.

  His need for me.

  "Ash, we need to talk," I try.

  "No. What we need to do is stop talking. Talking doesn't help shit, Chelcie." His words are pushed past his lips, still swollen from our kiss, just seconds before he crashes his mouth back to mine.

  My body is just as treacherous as it was the first time. The ball of desire starts to tingle through my system, shorting all common sense with just the feel of his skin against my hands. Those hands that are currently running up his back, digging my nails in when I feel his strong arms reach my ass before lifting me up.

  We stand there, lips battling each other for power, hips slowly rocking together, and our breathing floating through the room. It isn't until I feel his hands start to lift my shirt off my body that I feel all sense of desire run from my body and replace my veins with ice-cold panic.

  The hands that were just loving every inch they could touch suddenly feel like they're burning. I rip my mouth from his and start to push him away with every ounce of strength I have.

  "Oh, God. Asher...you have to stop."

  He leans back enough to give me some space but still keeps his hips pressed tightly against mine.

  "Please. Move," I beg.

  Something in my eyes must have convinced him just how close to snapping in two I am, because he helps me gain my footing and steps back.

  "I don't like the look you're giving me, Chelcie. I understand if this is too much or too quick, but that doesn't mean I'm going to go sit on my fucking thumb so you can dance around this anymore." He paces a few steps, looking at me between running his hands through his hair, his eyes violent.

  The tension climbs higher with every second I take to try and work my thoughts out. He goes to speak, but the ringing of his cell takes over the tense silence.

  "Fuck!" He looks at the screen, throwing out a few more expletives. "This isn't done. Not by a long shot. Shit. Sit down and I'll be right back. Then...then we can talk."

  He makes it down the hallway, stepping into what I remember as the guest room, and I don't even give him a second to shut the door before I grab my discarded purse and bolt out the door.

  This conversation is definitely long overdue, but it will be on my turf. Plus, I have two meddling queens to take care of first.

  Chapter 14 - Chelcie

  After having Joe call me a taxi, I make the short drive to Sway's salon. It does not do one damn thing to calm me down. I can't believe that the one person who has been telling me that I need to move on, get back on the horse, live a little, is the same person who ratted me out to the one person I know could take my heart and smash it into a million little pieces.

  The attraction between Asher and me has always been too much. Burning too bright. And as much as I love that about us, I also fear it. Until he knows about the baby, I won't feel right acting on any of that. Not to mention that, after he finds out, he probably won't like me enough to want to start anything. The last thing I want to do is cloud his loyalties with sex.

  When I tell him--and I will tell him--I want him to be able to walk away without the thought of whatever we have between us hanging thick.

  But I would be lying if I didn't admit that a little part of me hopes that he still feels the same about me. And that he won't want me just because of what my baby can give him.

  A family. Not with me, no, but with a part of his brother that will live on. I know I shouldn't worry about that, but I'm only human, and it doesn't help that I have been living in hormone overdrive for the last few months.

  Sway sees me about two seconds before I fling the door open and stomp over to where he's working on Dee's hair. I say 'working' loosely because he's really just sitting there brushing her brunette hair between his flamboyant arm waving. He smiles brightly, completely unconcerned with the pissed-off pregnant woman marching through his salon.

  "I wonder how it's going," Dee giggles, clearly having not noticed me yet.

  "Dee, darling, shut up," he whispers with a smirk.

  "Do you think he threw her over his shoulder and dragged her off to his cave? I bet he did. He looks like a dragger." She snickers for a second before her eyes lift and they meet mine.

  Brown to brown. Shock to anger.

  If I didn't love her so much and know deep down in my heart that she meant well, I would kill her. Or maybe just pelt her in the head with my damn open-toed shoes!

  "I'll tell you how he acted, you idiot. He marched in there and saved me from the toe-sucking maniac. And then he dragged me off, because let me tell you, he is a good dragger!"

  "Uh... Hey, Chelcie," she stalls.

  "Yeah. Hey, me. Was this the plan to begin with? Just play with me until you could set Asher up to go all crazy man on me?"

  "Sweetheart, it really was for the best," Sway interjects, not even bothering to look guilty. No, not Sway. Sway has a reason for everything he does.

  "The best for what exactly?" I demand. "And how do you even know?" I hiss.

  "Sweet little ray of sunshine"--I cringe at the use of Asher's nickname for me--"you've been sitting on your gorgeous ass for months, not willing to move forward. You've closed yourself off from everything except Dee, work, and the baby. I've seen the two of you, and trust me, honey--Sway knows attraction when he sees it. What you and that hunky man have is something combustible. You needed a nudge--you got one. Dee here was just the helper bee. She buzzed right on over to my ear and asked for my help. Buzz, buzz."

  "The helper bee," I repeat, not even shocked that Dee has filled him in on everything.

  "That's what I said. I told her, we need some men that would make you realize just what's been staring you in the face. Make you move the heck on, darling."

  "You're joking, right?" Jesus, how stupid have I been?

  "Afraid not, baby." He leans closer and pets my hair. Literally pets me, smiling his beautiful smile and causing some of my anger to fall away.

  "You?" I question Dee.

  "Yeah... I'm sorry, Chelcie. I really am, but you weren't going to act on it. Hell, I don't even think you had plans to ever tell him about the baby. Wrong or right, now... Well, now it looks like you're not going to have a chance because shit is about to get really real."

  I can't even be mad at them. They're right. I've been dragging my feet. Letting the fear of the unknown and the very real attraction between Asher and myself cloud what is really important right now.

  The baby.

  Because when push comes to shove, whatever is or isn't between me and Asher is second to my sw
eet baby.

  "You're right. I'm not mad. Well, maybe a little mad for Phil, but I know you two are coming from the right place."

  Dee goes to say something but stops quickly, snapping her mouth shut, her eyes widening. Sway just bounces on the balls of his heels and claps his hands. I'm actually pretty sure he just squealed.

  "Oh, Dee...look! It's happening!"

  "What's happening?" I inquire a second before it happens.

  The front door to Sway's salon bursts open so hard that it snaps on its hinges. I know what's coming before I even hear my name being growled--yes, growled.

  "Chelcie!" The sound erupts through the room. My shoulders stiffen, but I turn and meet his eyes. "Get. Over. Here."

  I look back at Dee and Sway, hoping for some help but I only get blazing smiles and sharp nods. Lovely. Of course the matchmaker duo isn't going to help me.

  "Now, Chelcie," he declares again.

  I obviously am not moving at a pace quick enough to placate his request because he takes the ten steps to me from the door in five and lightly grabs my wrist, pulling me forward and out the door. Proving Dee's theory right. He is a wonderful dragger.

  ***

  The whole ride back to the apartments is maddening. I can tell he's pissed by the white-knuckle grip he has on the steering wheel. His jaw keeps flexing with the control he is so understandably trying to master. It was a bitch move for me to run. I know that, and I feel terrible about it.

  I could blame it on my hormones, my muddled mind, or even the drunken way his kisses leave me. When it comes down to it though, I ran because I was afraid.

  The walk past Joe is nice and embarrassing this time. Before Asher can stop me, I press the gold button for the seventeenth floor. Turning to address him, I do my best to give him a shaky smile.

  "I need to do this in my house. I was wrong to run from you, and I'm sorry. We're going to talk, but I need it to be in my space."

  He gives me a tight nod before crossing his thick arms over his chest.

  "I'm sorry, Ash. I really am."

  He studies me for a few seconds, opening his mouth to speak a few times before snapping it shut and shaking his head at me. His eyes close for a second and when they open again and he looks at me with complete understanding, I'm taken aback. So easily he's able to drop that anger?