by Jenny Penn
Cooper continued to stare at her in amazement for a long minute before finally snorting and shaking off his bemusement. Still clearly amused, he offered her an assurance that lacked any depth of sincerity.
“Nobody’s going to sue you, lil’ bit.”
“Are you talking about all those people who are leaving me quite literally in the dark?” Lindsay shot back, not convinced in the slightest that Cooper had this one right.
“Now see, that’s the stubborn, mule-headed ass attitude that makes things more difficult,” Cooper groaned as he stretched his legs out.
“Why the hell are you here if I’m so horrible?” Lindsay retorted, unable to take true offense at his words. Despite what he said there was something about the way he said it that made her think Cooper liked stubborn, mule-headed women.
“Because I couldn’t stop thinking about you for one fucking minute while you were gone.” Heaving another deep sigh along with that revelation, Cooper glanced over at her.
Their eyes connected as the weight and magnitude of his words blossomed into a thick tension between them. For a moment, Lindsay thought he might kiss her again and was more than a little disappointed when he didn’t. Her disenchantment didn’t last long as Cooper continued to shock her by continuing his confession.
“I don’t want you to leave.” Spoken in a calm, rational tone, there could be no mistaking the intent or sincerity of Cooper’s claim. “I know restoring that cabin is important to you, but I’m afraid it will be too much. Either you’ll end up hurt or leaving. Neither of those options is acceptable to me.”
Her heart pounded a furious beat as Lindsay sat there staring up at him. Given all the problems between them and the very short time they’d known each other, she should have mocked him for his words, but she couldn’t. In her heart, Lindsay knew they were true. He cared and despite her better judgment, so did she.
“I don’t want to leave,” she admitted, unable to hold his gaze while she did.
“Good.” Cooper relaxed enough to offer her a small smile. “Because I’m not letting you go. You belong to me.”
Whether he knew it or not, Cooper’s words cut straight into her heart. That’s why she’d come here—to find a place where she belonged. Lindsay had thought she’d find it in the history of her ancestral home. Instead she was finding it in the presence of a man strong enough to control the world for her and arrogant enough to try.
“This is normally the part where you tell me to go to hell,” Cooper reminded her as if reading her mind. “You’re supposed to be lecturing me on how you’re an independent woman and I’m just an arrogant and bossy cowboy…or something like that.”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure I’ll find reason to lecture you later,” she warned him. “But right now I’m too damn tired to bother.”
“Well then, I guess now is a good time to push my luck,” Cooper suggested hopefully. Shifting on the bench seat to angle himself so he could wrap his hands around her shoulders, he began massaging the tension out of them. “And assure you that I’m going to find a way to give everybody what they want and need so we can put this issue behind us and move on.”
“And what if doesn’t change anything?” Lindsay countered without any real heat to her words.
Instead she mumbled them into her chest as her neck fell forward under the soothing direction of Cooper’s hands. The heat of his fingers soaked deep into her skin to loosen her muscles and reduce her to putty in his hands, leaving her struggling to concentrate on their argument.
“Will you still claim me as yours when you realize all your friends truly hate me? When they’re making your life hell and forcing you to choose between us? Then you’ll still be happy I came here?”
“Of course,” Cooper answered without hesitation. “But they’ll never ask me to make a decision like that because they’ll know I choose you.”
Lindsay wanted to believe him more than anything in the world. For the moment she let the fantasy rule, accepting that it might be a lie and probably wouldn’t last. Right then it felt real. That’s all that mattered.
“I don’t know why you make things so difficult but if you don’t believe me, call Chet…Neil…hell, any one of the boys and they’ll all tell you the same thing.”
“And what’s that?” Lindsay yawned, nearly half-asleep. Without thought, she leaned into Cooper’s sure touch, giving in to the pleasure humming through her.
“That I already made my choice and they already know it.”
His thumbs worked their magical way down her spine. All thoughts of water or arguing faded away as she all but melted beneath his sure touch. An unrestrained whimper fell from her lips as he discovered the sensitive dip that led right to the edge of her waistband.
Lindsay’s breath caught as his finger dipped beneath the stiff denim, brushing with teasing strokes over the very tip of her ass. Never before had the fleshy mounds tingled with such a thrill. It was indecent, and addictive. She arched forward to give him better access, but Cooper didn’t take the hint.
“I’m still curious, lil’ bit, about what you were afraid of last night.” Cooper’s hands retraced her spine, working their way back up to her shoulders and assuring Lindsay didn’t have the strength to stiffen at that question.
“What? I just don’t like hospitals,” Lindsay murmured, trying to hold back the drool. Cooper had such good hands. Nice hands. Large ones. They had just enough calluses to make her skin quiver with delight at his touch.
“You said ‘he would come,’” Cooper reminded her, his hands lifting, shifting through the fine strands of her hair to massage the sensitive skin of her scalp. “Who is ‘he’?”
“Carl,” Lindsay sighed, her voice a breathless whisper as she gave herself over to the waves of pleasure rolling through her with each flex of Cooper’s fingers. The gentle motion matched his deep, even tone, lulling her into lowering all her defenses.
“Carl…?”
“Bryne.”
“Your stepdad?”
“Mmmmmm.”
“Lindsay?”
Sighing, she opened her eyes and glanced over her shoulder at Cooper. “What?”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No,” Lindsay answered softly, turning back to stare at her shoelaces as she lied. As soft as Cooper’s voice had been, she could hear the violence lurking beneath his question. He was ready to go off half-cocked and no doubt threaten Carl. She couldn’t let him take that risk.
“Do you trust me?” Cooper pressed, pushing Lindsay to give him more than she ever had anybody else.
It was more than she thought she could give. After a lifetime spent not being able to trust anybody or anything, she didn’t think she had that much faith in her.
“Yes.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No.” He knew she was lying but Lindsay wouldn’t change her answer now. Lifting her chin to meet his gaze head on, she stuck to her story. “I was disoriented and—”
“Don’t,” Cooper cut her off. “I can accept you’re not ready to tell me the truth but don’t lie to me.”
“Fine,” Lindsay agreed after a moment’s hesitation.
“Good, and one more thing. If you ever pull another stunt like you did last night I will tan your ass until you can’t sit for a week. Understand me?”
Lindsay blinked, shocked by the sudden change in Cooper. Gone was the sweet, tender seducer that had moments ago been luring her into temptation. Now she faced a predator, his dark eyes gleaming with a hunger that echoed in the harshness of his tone. He meant what he said. That should have terrified Lindsay but it didn’t.
Instead she sat there staring up at him with her palms growing sweaty, while a longing so carnal and wicked filled her Lindsay could feel herself flushing with the need they inspired. More than that, she could feel the slick slide of arousal coating the walls of her cunt.
“Do you understand me, Lindsay?” Impatience sharpened his words, edging them with a demand she didn’t dare
deny. Swallowing back the nerves that left her no breath to answer with, she nodded slowly.
“Good.” Cooper’s lips curled upward in a satisfied twist. “Now this is what is going to happen. We’re going to go back up to your room and check you out. Then we’re going to go back my ranch and you’re going to stay there until your cabin is habitable.”
“No.” It took all of Lindsay’s willpower to issue that denial and even more not to take it back as Cooper’s eyes darkened from navy to damn near black.
“You don’t really think you have a choice in this, do you?” The velvety drawl in his tone held a depth of anticipation that set Lindsay’s heart to pounding.
“Yes.” Barely a whisper in the wind, her voice betrayed her rising lust. “I want to stay at my cabin.”
“Defiant as well as stubborn, what a bold set of characteristics for a little virgin to have. You don’t think your innocence is going to spare you, do you?” The sinful curve of Cooper’s grin had her heart seizing with an unexpected bolt of panic. “Because it’s not.”
That sultry vow dripped down her spine, causing every one of Lindsay’s nerve endings to fire with an excitement that left her tingling with anticipation. All the fantasies she’d never dared to give voice to were there lingering in his gaze, a promise of just what was to come.
“I have plans for you, my little virgin, plans and toys and all the time to teach you just how I like to fuck.”
That word, coming from those lips, had Lindsay’s cunt clenching as a hard pulse of need swept through her. That’s just what she wanted—to fuck, to bend over and spread her legs, to flash the swollen, creaming folds of her pussy at him. It would drive him crazy, drive him to mount her, to ride her, to give her what she dared not ask for because Lindsay would never have the strength to go to her knees on her own. Cooper would have to force her there. That thought alone had her creaming in her panties.
“I’m going to ride you long and hard and make you come so many times you can’t breathe without aching for the feel of my cock pounding into your cunt. Trust me, lil’ bit, you’re going to be whimpering and begging but I’m not going to have any mercy.”
Reaching out to cup her chin, he lifted her gaze to meet his and confront the hunger raging in his eyes. “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything, and I’m going to show you pleasures you’ve never even dreamed existed. Then I’m going to deny you, I’m going to tease and torment you until you swear to obey my every command.
“And you will give in,” Cooper promised her, vowing to do whatever was necessary to make her. “If it takes me a few hours or a few days or a whole damn lifetime to fuck you into submission, you will be mine and I don’t fancy having to stay at your cabin in the meantime. So you are staying with me.”
Lindsay swallowed and licked her lips, not intimidated in the least by Cooper’s threat. Instead she tilted her chin up and met his challenge with her own.
“Make. Me.”
“My pleasure.”
Lindsay jerked at the first brush of his lips over hers. It felt like eternity passed in the few seconds it took for his mouth to return, to fit its curved arches against her own and force her lips wide. Captivated by the velvety caress of his tongue as he licked over hers, she couldn’t resist the primitive urges goading her to respond in kind.
That quickly, Cooper unleashed the feral female lurking beneath Lindsay’s skin. She couldn’t control her urge to rise up and push against him as her lips ate at his with a hungry desperation. Twining the silken strands of his hair around her fingers, she knotted her fist in his hair, pulling him closer as her tongue pushed past his to claim the moist recesses of his mouth as hers.
The hospital faded away along with the rest of the world as Cooper pulled Lindsay into his lap. She went willingly, straddling him and settling herself against the hard length of his erection. The swollen lips of her pussy parted over his thick bulge, allowing the rough denim caught between them to press into her sensitive flesh and ignite a rapture so strong she couldn’t help but grind herself against him.
Each roll of her hips set off another round of sparkling delight that had her cunt creaming and clenching with a need that quickly grew painful. It wasn’t enough. She needed more. She needed to feel him flesh to flesh. She wanted to feel him even deeper than that.
That fierce demand pounded through her along with the urge to rip through the layers of denim separating her molten folds from the heated length of his cock. She was wet, aching with a need that only intensified with each grinding flex of Cooper’s hips.
Caught in the sodden folds of her panties, Lindsay’s clit throbbed as her cunt clenched in painful demand. There was no time left to fumble with buttons or zippers. Neither of them even bothered to try as they ground and shifted against each other until finally Cooper hit the right spot.
The swollen nub of her clit ignited a soul shattering set of explosions as it got caught and pinned beneath the long, heavy press of his erection. Lindsay cried out as her release crashed down around her but no sound ever broke the air. With their lips still locked in a kiss that had spiraled completely out of control, she could do nothing more than frantically hump him while bolts of pure rapture split her in two.
“I wondered where the two of you had disappeared to.” Nick’s sardonic drawl cut straight through the moment. “I guess I should have known.”
Chapter 16
Nick watched the pair of would-be lovers break apart as Lindsay shrieked and scrambled back on the bench. She put as much distance between her and his brother as the wood slats would allow, looking both horrified and thoroughly ravished. For his part, Cooper looked blatantly annoyed. He even had the gall to complain.
“You have awful timing.” Straightening up with a grunt, Cooper blatantly adjusted the full-sized erection, drawing attention to the massive bulge in his jeans. “Couldn’t you have waited in the bushes for another five minutes?”
“I wasn’t waiting in the bushes,” Nick snapped back, not the least bit amused by Cooper’s attitude. “I was standing in plain sight, watching you two like anybody else could have.”
“Oh God,” Lindsay gasped, glancing around in horror at his suggestion. “You don’t think…”
“I don’t know, but I certainly wouldn’t have taken the risk,” Nick added with a pointed look in Cooper’s direction. Unlike Lindsay, who looked ready to faint from embarrassment, his brother stared unabashedly back at Nick with a faint smirk pulling on his lips.
“I’m so sorry…I didn’t mean…It was just…Oh, God…” Lindsay sputtered, lifting off the bench to put even more distance between her and them. “This is just horrible.”
“Now see what you did.” Cooper gestured to Lindsay as if her condition were Nick’s fault. “You’ve embarrassed her.”
“I’ve embarrassed her? You’re the one who made a spectacle of her.”
“I was comforting her.” Cooper had the audacity to correct him as he lounged there like king of all he surveyed. “She was upset.”
“And what the hell is she now?” Nick roared before remembering where they were. Taking a deep breath, he managed to lower his tone to a snarl. “This is not what we agreed to.”
“Agreed to?” Lindsay echoed his words in confusion, though that didn’t last long. “Wait a minute. What do you mean agreed to? And why were you watching us? Why didn’t you interrupt sooner?”
“Lindsay—”
“Oh.” Lindsay’s eyes rounded along with her lips in a look so comical even Nick had trouble not snickering. Cooper didn’t bother to try to contain his snort as Lindsay wagged a finger at the two of them. “Ooooooh, I get it. You two are working together.”
“It’s not—”
“I knew it!” The finger she’d aimed at them clenched into her fist as Lindsay flushed with the same outrage quivering in her voice. “I knew you were working together! Nobody goes for a jog in the middle of the night. Nobody!”
“It wasn’t like—”
“You’re playing the good brother. He’s playing the bad brother.” Lindsay shook her head at them. “And getting me all turned around. It’s no wonder I’ve been fantasizing about the both of you. I bet that’s just the way you planned it. You sick little perverts.”
“And just what kind of fantasies would those be?” Cooper inquired in a slow drawl that was tinged with amusement. “Because I’m thinking we’re not the only perverts in this garden.”
“Shut up!” Lindsay snapped but there was no stopping Cooper now as he continued to study her with an assessing look.
“And when you say both, do you mean at the same time?”
“No!” Lindsay’s blush made a liar out of her. Even tomatoes didn’t grow that red. Neither did an innocent person talk that fast or stumble as quickly backward. “Absolutely not! I can’t even believe you would suggest such a thing? Have you no shame? Of course not, look who I’m talking to.”
With each word, Lindsay retreated one step further away until she backed herself right up against the garden’s main doors. She paused there with one hand on the handle to give them both a look of total disdain, an impressive feat given her face still glowed with a flush that had nothing to do with her indignation.
“Now I’m going back to my room to check out. Then somebody is going to give me a ride back to my cabin. After that both of you are going to get lost. Do I make myself clear?”
“As a bell, lil’ bit,” Nick assured her, unable to control his smile. “Couldn’t get any clearer, could it, Cooper?”
“Nope.”
“Good!”
As if that settled the matter, Lindsay turned her back and stormed off through the door. Neither Nick nor Cooper spoke as they both watched her strut through the lobby. The woman had locomotion and an ass that just wouldn’t quit. One day real soon Nick was going to strip her down to nothing but a thong and a set of heels and make her strut just for him. The very idea had his dick swelling.
Behind the tight confines of his jeans, Nick’s dick panted and drooled out his approval as his imagination took the image even further. It took Lindsay straight to her knees and had her panting as he parted those lush cheeks and drove himself into the sweetest, tightest heaven a man could ever know. Then Nick would ream that ass and make Lindsay come so hard she begged for more.
