I walked through, stripping as I went and snuggled down under the covers, naked. He sat down on the end of the bed, then scuttled up beside me, over the covers. He was shivering. “Cooper, you need to go to bed.”
I wanted him to stay, I wanted to spend one last night with him, but at what cost?
“I love you.”
“Then prove it, leave your fiancée.” Stop being so damned weak. “Now get out of those clothes you'll catch your death of cold.”
He unbuttoned his shirt, revealing a chest and abs carved by angels and started to undo his belt. My emotions were as turbulent as the blizzard outside. I wanted that body, those lips, those abs, but I wasn't willing to compromise.
I pulled back the sheets, climbed over him, scuttled down, pulled down his jeans and massaged his balls. The look on his face was priceless. My tongue ran up his shaft and I slowly lowered my mouth over him, making sure he was looking right onto my eyes as I did it.
Once he was wet enough, I rubbed his dick down my chest, trapping it between my breasts, thrilling him with my body. He started to gasp, pushed his fingers through my hair, but I stopped, pulled away.
“Feels good doesn't it. Feels so good you don't want it to stop.” I sat back on my side of the bed, leaving him completely motionless, dick in the air. “Does she do it like that for you, huh? Does she make you come like I do? I’m not your mistress Cooper and I don't like people who don't keep their promises.”
What was I even doing? What was the plan here? I was humiliating myself, and yet at the same time, I could see it in his eyes.
Turning him on felt like a win, like I really was the only one who could do it for him.
“I know.”
“You make me feel cheap.” Finding out he was supposed to be marrying another woman had been devastating. I’d been taken for a slut. I got back under the sheets again, turning my back on him. I wanted him so badly but I was nobody’s second choice.
He moved beneath the sheets. Lay down behind me. Holding me. I could feel him, pressed up against my back. My whole body wanted him but I held strong.
“You’re not...” A slut? I certainly felt like one.
“Yes, I am. I’m silly and weak. I try to persuade myself that tonight is just for fun, that I’ll get over it, but I love you. My stupid heart thinks that you’ll give all this up for me, stupid, ordinary me.”
“You are the most beautiful, amazing woman I know.”
“You say that, yet you left me for someone else.”
“If anything I left her for you, she never got my heart or my body. Carrie, look around you. This is my room. Look in the wardrobe, you’ll see my clothes. She never got me at all. She got an image, she got a fulfilled contract. You have me, all of me.”
“I wish I’d just gone home tonight. No. I wish I’d never come.”
“I’m sorry.”
“All you do is lie to me, everything is lies.”
“It’s not what you think.”
“It doesn’t matter. You know everything about me, I know nothing about you.”
“You know my heart; you know that I love you.” He kissed my neck.
“I hate you right now.”
“I know.”
“I hate this place.”
“I know.” He slid his hand down, stroked me with his fingers.
“I still hate you.” I said as I rolled around to face him, grabbing his dick, gliding it between my fingers.
“You should, I’m horrible,” he said before softly parting my lips with his, silencing us both. He rolled on top of me, entering me. Apart from the tiniest inwards gasp I made when he filled me, we made love in silence. No dirty words, no cheeky comments, this was much more. He held onto me as I came, marinating in my pleasure, breathing it in. He put his head onto my forehead, barely moving, staring into my eyes. A feeling so incredibly profound that I wanted it to last forever.
“Carrie,” he whispered as he came, “I love you.” For the second time that night, he fell asleep in my arms.
Chapter 4
It was probably around 1am when the repeated ringing of the doorbell woke us. As if that wasn’t enough, the person was banging and kicking on the door too.
Cooper sat up, slipped and fell out of bed. “What the fuck?” He grabbed a pair of sweatpants, putting them on as he went. “Stay here.”
There was absolutely no way I was staying in the bed on my own just so some psycho could come up and get me too. I plucked a robe from behind the door, slipped it on and tiptoed out behind him, staying at the top of the stairs, listening in.
A very loud man was shouting something at Cooper. The words were muffled, so I went down a couple more steps. Cooper had brought the guy into the large entrance hallway and was trying to calm him down.
“I will not lower my voice. I’ve had about enough of you, fixing your fucking mistakes. I can’t get you out of this one. You stole a fucking stripper from a strip joint, the day before your wedding!”
“Can’t we just pay them off? The club, I mean. The stripper. She’s not a stripper, but whatever. I was just getting her out of there, that club was dangerous.”
“Cooper, there’s video, online. Jeez, have you even looked at your phone tonight?” I couldn’t hear the rest of the conversation, but the door slammed shortly afterwards.
I walked down the stairs. He took my hands in his. “Shit, Carrie, I’m sorry.”
“My bare bum is all over the internet? Ha!” I cackled with laughter. “No, listen, it’s okay I had the mask on. Can’t you just tell everybody you were saving me from the fight?”
“I could. It’s not that I’m worried about. She’s on her way back. Tonight. Her plane left a couple of hours ago.”
And? Tell me you’re going to leave her, it’s over. But nothing, he said nothing, just looked angry.
“Dammit Cooper. I think I’m going to be sick.” I opened three identical brilliant white doors before I found the downstairs toilet. The pizza came back to haunt me in the worst possible way. I sat back on the bathroom floor feeling sorry for myself. He came and sat next to me, handing me a paper towel and a glass of water.
“Sorry. I just have to work out how I’m going to do this. This morning I thought you hated me. I was resigned to my fate. Now, all this. I’m so fucking tired of all of this shit. I’m just a guy from Montana who can sing and play guitar. I don’t get the rest of it, the celebrity shit. My fucking house looks like a fucking toothpaste commercial. What the fuck is that about?” He laughed, put his arm around me. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Should I leave? If she’s coming, I should leave.”
“No.”
“I don’t feel sleepy any more, how about we go snuggle on that comfy couch before the next angry person comes in to disturb us.”
“Deal.” He grabbed his phone, went and sat on the couch, looked up the video of the strip club. He would have really pulled off the whole hero thing, if it didn’t start where he recognized me by my bum. He’d even shouted my name. Well, shit.
“You sure do know my bottom.” That was flattering, sort of.
“Yup, your derriere is unforgettable, honey.” He moved his hand down from around my shoulder and tapped it.
“Perfectly round, ideal for sitting, slapping, etc.” His phone beeped. “Her helicopter has landed.”
“I really think I should go.”
Forever, I should go forever because you won’t have the courage to do this.
“No, stay, please. Just a little while.”
Thought so, you’re not going to do it. I stood up. “No Cooper, we both know that this is it.”
Damn you. Fight for me. Make me stay.
He stayed silent. Again. I was such a fool to fall for it every time. It was just sex, nothing more, it never had been. Every single I love you was just to get me to sleep with him one last time. “I need a man, Cooper, not a fucking doormat.”
His phone rang and he walked away. “...I don’t give a shit about the contrac
t. It’s over. As if there was anything anyway. It was never real, Sabrina, you know that. We both love other people, we can turn this around.” He nodded, turned his back on me, nodded again. “Yup, I know. Mmhmm. Yup. Okay, see you later.”
He slammed his phone down onto a giant white ampersand. I ran over threw my arms around him. “You did it.”
“Yup. You’re right I should have done it months ago. It should never have gone this far. I can be the man you need Carrie, I’ll show you. Do you want to listen to some music? I want to listen to some music. I need to celebrate. Drinks we need drinks.”
“Yeah, and I need cookies, it's Christmas Fucking Eve, can I make cookies?” I was already heading for the open plan kitchen, the land of no door handles. “Which one of these white cabinets is the fridge?”
I started hitting doors willy-nilly until most of them were open and I’d found everything I needed. Cookies were food for the soul; everybody needed them at 2am on the holidays.
Christmas music blared from invisible speakers. He served us both a bourbon then danced around the room with his. A slow song came on, it was his voice, but I didn’t know it. “One of my first songs. Do you like it?”
He held out a hand for mine, waltzed me around the room. It was a sweet winter love song. Bending me backwards, leaning over me he kissed me and cried “I’m free, free to do whatever I want.” He stopped, cringed. “I’m broke though, broke because Sabrina's management is going to sue my ass off. Can I come, live with you, do your gardening?”
I headed back behind the island in the kitchen, laid out the ingredients and starting mixing. “You know, I don't think I've ever actually heard you sing live. Country music isn't exactly common on our side of the Atlantic. Break me out a ballad, romance me.”
He bowed, “As you wish, ma'am.” Then went off to get his guitar. Back with a jet-black acoustic guitar he hiked his leg up on the coffee table, balanced his guitar on his knee and started singing a Christmas song.
The hairs stood up on the back of my neck. His voice was sharp and sweet at the same time. The soft tones brought a lump to my throat as he sang a song I'd heard a million times, but never like this, never with such tenderness. I put my hands to my chest, then to my face, failing to stop the blood from rushing to my cheeks and the tears from falling down.
He looked up from his guitar and stopped suddenly. “Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost.”
“It's so beautiful. I didn't realize how beautiful your voice is.” It wasn't like that country twang hadn't melted me into a puddle the first time we'd spoken, but when he sang it was something else, something powerful.
I was clearly in the presence of a person with great talent, and yet I'd always hated him for his fame. That which had taken him away from me, that which had given him this home, an incredible life, was the one thing that I hated most about him. I'd wished he were 'normal' just like me, so that they hadn't made him leave that day. But now? Now I couldn't imagine him doing anything else.
As I baked he sang, a whole medley of Christmas carols. It was the perfect yuletide moment. As they say, you make your own Christmas traditions and this was, without a doubt, going to be one of ours.
His phone buzzed on the floor, but he kicked it away. Then someone pummeled on the door. “It’s nearly 3am.” He sighed, put down his guitar and stomped back to the front door.
Some woman was yelling through it. He opened it an inch and she stormed in, sending him flying back on to his bum.
“Where is she? Is she here? I got woken up at lord knows what hour of the morning to find out you’ve been sleeping with whores!” A woman in a bright pink bathrobe and slippers, curlers in her hair and an angry frown, was storming through the house, closely followed by a sheepish looking Cooper.
“Mom, calm down, it’s not what you think.”
“Oh it’s not what I think is it young man? You went to the whorehouse and you brought home a damned whore, don’t think I haven’t seen the video of you looking at that girl’s ass.”
“Mom, stop shouting.” I tried to find a white door to hide behind, but with nowhere to go I just cowered in the kitchen.
“Is she here? The whore.” He tried to calm her down, but he couldn’t get a word in edge-ways, she was having none of it. I decided to take things into my own hands. I wiped the flour off of my nose and stood up, cookie tray full of freshly baked snicker-doodles in my hands.
“Oh hello!” I said in my poshest accent. “You must be Cooper’s mother. I’m Caroline; I run a guest house in Hove, England. You probably haven't heard of it. Seaview. Helped my grandparents renovate it this year, bless them.” I put my hand on my heart. “Family is so important, don't you think?”
She looked at me then at Cooper then back to me, “Uh...hi.”
“You must be the amazing woman who brought up Cooper here. Such a gentleman. He has your kind eyes.”
After a long pause she mooched over, sniffed the cookies, then took one. “Thank you my dear. There seems to be some mistake, my friend Edie rang me to tell me that he’d been to a whorehouse. Cooper sweetheart I am so sorry to have interrupted you with your friend here.”
Cooper just stood there, shaking his head, clearly unable to comprehend what had just happened. I'd won over his mother. From the look of this formidable woman, such a thing had probably never happened in the entire history of girlfriends.
“Are you staying nearby?” She nodded and reached for another cookie.
“She's staying in the guest house, aren't you, Mom? With the rest of my family.” said Cooper, trying to usher her away.
“For the wedding.” added his mother, spitting out crumbs. “These are just delicious. Did you make them?”
“Yes.”
“There is going to be a wedding, isn't there, Coop? Only, Mark called to say you hadn't gone back to the hotel like you were supposed to tonight, left your friends and your brothers and disappeared off into the night with some girl.” She winked at me.
“Well, about that Mom...” He composed himself, as one does when you're about to tell a parent you've done something terrible.
“Oh thank the Lord.” She pulled him down to her–Cooper was not a small man by any means–and hugged him tightly. “Marrying that popstar would have been a terrible idea.” She choked on the word as if it was dirty.
“Can we talk about this tomorrow?”
“Of course. Goodnight, Caroline, save me some of those cookies.” He escorted her to the door and locked it behind her.
It was 3am. A little bit of sleep before the next surprise guest was in order. I'd been up for twenty-four hours by now. Stuffed with cookies, we undressed, again, slid back into bed, scooched up together, hugging tightly and closed our eyes.
“I can’t sleep” I said.
“Neither can I.”
“You said your Dad has a farm over here, what kind of farm?”
“A cattle ranch.”
“Does that mean, you're, like, a cowboy?”
“I guess.”
“With the hat and the boots and...the lasso?”
“Yup.” He rolled over and looked me in the eyes. “Why?”
“I was just wondering.” I giggled. “Are they here, can you get them?”
“Oh my god, you're insatiable. I love you, Carrie Waterford.”
“Am I your girlfriend now?”
“I guess. Does that make you happy?”
“Very.” It did. It was glorious.
The sound of the door opening interrupted the conversation. “Wait here,” said Cooper, jumping out of bed, grabbing his phone and putting his sweatpants back on again.
As if I ever did as I was told. As soon as he was gone I tiptoed out and waited at the top of the stairs.
The first crash sounded like something heavy, then the following two were more glass-like. I popped my head down just enough to see Sabrina, America’s sweetheart, and all round superstar, failing badly at destroying a white marble coffee table with a white marbl
e owl.
Cooper was trying to reason with her, but she had a wild look in her eye that said he probably should think about calling the police. He had his phone in his hand and was trying to dial whilst avoiding flying white decorative items.
“Calm down!” A porcelain letter R whizzed past his left ear; shortly followed by an S.
“Calm down?” She picked up a vase and held it over her head. “You cheated on me with a stripper and you want me to calm down?” She slammed the vase onto the floor. “Fuck you!”
“It's over, Sabrina, finished!”
“Oh, you don't get to decide when it's over, I do, and it's over, alright, you'll see.”
Crap.
What was she going to do to my brand new boyfriend? My foot hovered on the step. Run down and step in front of him before she shot him or run back into the bedroom and try to save myself.
“Did you get that?” asked Cooper, turning towards the wall at the bottom of the stairs.
“Yup.” A man's voice. “Perfect.”
“Thank you.” added Sabrina. Then she walked over and touched Cooper's ear. “Shit, I think I got you, sorry, I was trying my best to miss.” Everybody was awfully fucking friendly all of a sudden. “Is she here? Can I meet the lucky lady?”
“She's probably asleep, hold on. Carrie, you there?” I walked down a couple of steps.
“Oh she's so cute.” She sounded sincere, but I hadn't been called 'cute' since I was six and starred in the school nativity. “Come here, give Sabby a big hug.”
I looked over to Cooper who was nodding and encouraging me. “Sorry, what? What the hell is going on?” Call me suspicious but I was pretty sure this woman wasn't supposed to welcome me with open arms. And, to be honest, she was clearly not feeling her best tonight.
“Oh gosh. No. Sorry, that...the fight...it was all for show. Look, this is Andrew, my close friend. He just filmed our dramatic break-up. Cooper was right. This contract went too far. I can't marry him, I love Andy here.” She indicated to the other man to join us and grabbed a hold of his arm.
I turned to Cooper, “I told you there was nothing not to like about this girl.” She was even more beautiful in real life. I rubbed my hand down his arm, claiming him, just in case he suddenly changed his mind again.
The Last Christmas Cowboy Page 3
