by S. K. Lessly
“Sweets.”
I jumped and brought my eyes to his. “Yes?”
Josh smirked at me and shook his head. “Can you concentrate on what’s coming out of my mouth and not what’s hidden in my briefs?”
I folded my arms and sat up. I crossed my legs, the best way I could, but then I uncrossed them. “I have you know I wasn’t looking at your package. I was looking at your abs.”
“Uh, huh…”
“I was, but if you want me to concentrate on your mouth, I can do that.” I grinned devilishly.
Josh moved to me, bent down over the bed and kissed me. “I love your dirty mind, baby.”
I moaned in his mouth as my response. I reached to grasp the sides of his briefs and gently pulled them down, just enough to free him. I went to circle my fingers around his now throbbing erection and received a low groan from my man.
“I’ve missed you,” I whispered against his mouth as I stroked him up and down.
This pregnancy had also managed to bring the sexual vixen out in me. I couldn’t contain myself when he was around. I wanted him all the damn time. It was exhausting I tell you, exhausting… But wow! Oh so good.
Josh managed to get my T-shirt over my head and undo my bra before pushing me back onto the pillows behind me. My belly was large, so he couldn’t settle his weight on top of me. He laid next to me and began to explore my body with his large magical hands. His lips moved from mine to my cheek and then down to my neck.
“How much did you miss me, Sweets?” he asked against the sweet spot behind my ear.
His expert fingers started gently rolling my nipple between them. I could feel my hips start to circle, the anticipation of him doing amazing things to my body was building and becoming completely overwhelming. Not only was I horny all of the time, but it seemed as though all of my nerve endings had heightened to extreme sensitivity whenever he touched me. I could feel every touch and stroke all over my body, from my head to my toes. My back arched into his touch and my toes curled into the bed.
“Oh, Josh, baby, that feels so good,” I whispered. I bit my bottom lip to prevent the scream that was inching closer to my mouth. “Please, Josh…please, baby…right now…”
“Tell me what you want, Sweets. You want me to fuck you with my tongue, my fingers, or my dick?” he asked, which was something that he always did when he wanted to tease me.
The intensity of the sensations he was giving my body were getting stronger. I couldn’t think straight to respond. That was something that I always did whenever he drove me mad with need.
“Um… I don’t know, baby. I can’t decide. Just fuck me please.”
Josh didn’t waste any time. He got on his knees between mine and placed his hands underneath my knees. He pulled me closer to him with just a little force behind his grip. Then he pushed my panties to the side and slid into my greedy slick folds. My back arched into him again and I closed my eyes and let the feeling of my husband raid my entire body.
I’d never imagined that this would be my life; that I would find a man to fall flat on my face in front of and it turn out to be the best highlight of my life.
The day we met should have been an embarrassing one, but it was amazing and beautiful. He held on to me from day one and he never let me go. It didn’t matter the many times I told him he needed to let me go, he never listened. Even when I was lost to him because the cartel had taken me and beaten me within an inch of my life, he never wavered or gave up. He held onto me, and God, I loved him for that. I loved him so much that I hoped he’d never let me go because if he ever did, I didn’t think I would survive it. I know I shouldn’t say things like that. I should be a strong woman, able to survive without a man. And hell, maybe I would survive physically. But emotionally, I would die. I would die without him.
“Where are you, Sweets?” I heard him ask, and I focused on his dark blue eyes. He frowned above me, worry lines prominent on his handsome features.
I reached up and cupped his face between my hands.
“I’m right here, baby. I’m right here. Take me there, Josh. Yesss! Just like that… I love you sooo much!”
***
Soaked to the core and completely satisfied, I gently lifted off of Josh and laid on my back next to him. I was spent, but every part of my body felt good.
“Damn, Sweets you are amazing,” he breathed as he turned to face me.
I responded with a deep hum and then I turned my head away from him so he wouldn’t see the tears in my eyes. There was no rhyme or reason for the tears. It was this damn pregnancy that was turning me into a great big ball of emotions. The first time around, I cried a lot in the beginning of my pregnancy only. But now, it didn’t take much for the flood gates to be unleashed.
“Baby,” he said between the trail of kisses he’d started placing along my shoulders.
I turned my back to him and pushed up against him wanting to feel the heat from his body against me.
“Sweets,” Josh coaxed, adding a little bit of softness in his voice.
Damn it!
When I didn’t answer or turn in his direction, he sat up slightly, touched my chin with his finger and turned my face to his. “Sweets, why are you crying? What wrong, baby? Did I hurt you or something? Are you in pain?”
I shook my head, feeling like a complete idiot. “It’s nothing, Josh, believe me. It’s just my damn hormones because of the pregnancy.” I turned my body to face his and looked into his concerned eyes. I raked my fingers through his short hair and kissed his chin before I tilted his head to kiss his lips. “Trust me. I’m fine. You didn’t hurt me, and I’m not in any pain.”
He looked at me for a long moment, studying my eyes. He’d told me once before how expressive my eyes were. He could see any type of emotion I was feeling, regardless if I was sad, angry, or hurt by just looking into my bright green eyes. He also kindly told me that whenever I was turned on and wanted to rip his clothes off, my green eyes would darken.
I didn’t believe him, but I swear if I was just thinking about sex or jumping his bones and he was around me, he’d grin as if he and I were sharing some hidden secret. Come to think of it, I guess we were.
Josh touched the side of my face, caressing his knuckles along my cheek before he kissed my forehead. “I love you so fucking much, baby.”
I smiled. “I know.”
“Good. Don’t you ever forget it.”
He kissed my lips and slowly moved his hand along the contour of my body to my hips and then my stomach. He stared at my belly as he rubbed it, not saying anything. He just looked at my belly filled with his child.
I never asked him what he was thinking about when he did this. We were having a girl, so I had an idea. Still, it amazed me how he’d transform. Josh had always been a guarded person. His facial expressions never showed any hint of vulnerability in public except the day of our wedding. The picture that hung in our living room was that only time I’d ever seen him let his emotions bleed through. Now, on top of when he was with me, he did it every time he held his baby boy and every time he caressed my belly.
I let him be for a bit before I lightly touched his face and asked, “Tell me what happened today. Why were you so pissed off at Misty?”
Josh’s eyes locked with mine, and I saw the hardness from earlier return with a vengeance.
“I swear I think she has a death wish sometimes, baby.”
“Why?”
“Because lately she’s been making some questionable choices.”
Josh then brought me up to speed with everything that had happened tonight.
I was quiet as he spoke, processing everything I knew about the case along with the play by play of tonight’s raid. I was also trying to stay neutral. Misty and I had become close over the years. She and Lili were like sisters to me. Hell, they were my sisters in every way besides in DNA.
However, Misty and I spent the most time together. She and Josh were best friends, but not according to Josh, as you would
imagine. His macho ass just called her his partner, but as of lately he referred to her as a pain in his ass. But I knew better. After his sister, mom, and me, he’d go bananas on someone over Misty. That’s the reason why he was so pissed right now.
But as I said, I knew Misty. I knew for a fact whatever Josh thought about Misty was furthest from the truth, but I couldn’t tell him that.
“Sweets?”
I refocused on his frowning face. He had sat up and was looking down at me frowning. I sat up a little, resting on my forearms. “What?”
“That’s what I’m asking you. I can tell you have something to add to this. I’m waiting to hear it.”
I knew my silence was pissing him off even more. Just like he claimed he could read me, I could do the same to him. Like now I knew for a fact he was holding on by a thin thread. I sighed deeply and sat up further. I propped the two pillows behind me against the headboard and leaned back against them. “Look, Josh, I see your point. I really do. Misty should have waited for you—”
“But…”
“But I see her point as well.”
“I don’t see how you could. She was told to stay put and she disobeyed a direct order.”
“Oh, come on, Josh. You know for a fact that it’s never that black and white with you guys. Also, if you or your brothers had been in her situation and things had gone south, you would have done the same thing she did.”
“No, that’s not true, Sweets.” Josh shook his head, but I called bullshit.
“Seriously, you’re going to just lie to my face like that or are you really blind that you can’t see what you guys are doing?”
Josh’s brows furrowed deeply, his lips a tight line. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the good ole Cooper Protection Detail. You guys are like the Secret Service, but with hotter, meaner, and deadlier men.”
“I’m sorry. The what?”
I rubbed my belly and thought about how to say this without pissing him off even more.
“The Cooper Protection Detail. That’s when you overprotective Cooper men get all macho, pound on your chests, and act that the women in your lives are incapable of protecting themselves.”
Josh started shaking his head long before I finished my sentence. “No, Sweets, I beg to differ. For one, there’s no such thing as being overprotective. It’s just us being cautious. Now, I’ll give you that point when it comes to you, Ma, or Liliana. I can safely say it’s the same for my brothers too. But I’m not that way with Misty and neither are they. Misty is different. She knows how to handle herself. She’s a freakishly precise marksman with any gun and has a wicked knife game. She knows how to kill effectively and efficiently. I’m not saying we don’t have her back because we do, I’m just saying we aren’t overt with it.”
I folded my arms and allowed a small smirk to reach the side of my mouth.
“Not overt with it? Josh, I remember there was a time Misty went on missions all by herself. She would call in if she needed backup or needed one of you for extra surveillance. It was never to help her take someone down or complete her mission. And no she didn’t tell me any of this. I’ve read some of her files.”
Josh nodded as if I was making his point for him. “Exactly, Sweets, Misty is a beast. She’s capable of taking care of herself.”
“If that’s so, why hasn’t she been on a mission by herself since Shane’s taken over? Nowadays, anytime she works a case, one of you guys are with her.”
“Sweets, you don’t understand. It’s situational, depending on the type of mission we have. When we need her to work a case on her own, we’ll send her. Right now, none of the cases require her many talents and gifts. They require just one.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. The bullshit that he was feeding me was comical at best, and at worst, sad that he believed his own bullshit.
“Josh, do you really believe the horse poo you’re shoveling? And please don’t give me that situational rhetoric again either because I’m not buying it. You guys have grounded one of your best assets, and it’s not because she is underperforming because she isn’t. It’s because you three care about her more than you want to admit, and the thought of something happening to her under your nose is messing with that alpha gene that has the desire to protect.”
“I disagree, Sweets. Granted, I care about Misty. She’s like family.”
“Joshua Leone Cooper, you are so full of it. You know damn well she is family. That’s why she’s always at family dinners at your parents’ house or here or at Malcolm’s. That’s why you and your brothers clown on the men she brings around you guys. No one is good enough for her. It’s why you asked her to be the godmother of our son. You love that woman just as much as you love Lili. She’s become more to you than just your partner, and that’s okay.
It’s also the reason why you were so pissed at her earlier today. But baby, all she did was follow her instincts. She felt she couldn’t wait for you. She did expect you to have her back and get to her as soon as you could, which was why she felt safe enough to enter into the building. She expects you to trust her judgment and trust that she’s going to do her job the best way she knows how. You said it yourself she’s a beast. But you guys are stifling her. You’re trying to silence her inner warrior. I’m sure you know what that feels like and just as much as you don’t like it, neither does she.”
Josh remained quiet for a long time. He fell back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling saying nothing, and I let him. Everything I had said was true. Misty hadn’t told me any of it, though. I could just see it in her eyes.
Josh wasn’t exaggerating when he said Misty was a beast because she was. She was freakishly talented with any weapon given to her and she was able to speak four different languages fluently. She was a borderline genius, yet she’d decided that her life’s calling was neither academic nor intellectual. It was combat. It was putting every skillset she had into being the best marine and warrior she could be.
Misty had achieved that and then some. The woman was sadistic when it came to hand-to-hand combat. She never went easy on me or Lili when we trained with her. She wanted us to act and react to any situation we found ourselves in. That’s what had happened that night at the biker bar for me. I had reacted quickly and it was because of Misty. Action and reaction, that was the motto that she lived by since she was born, and she’d carried that throughout her life.
Josh knew her role with the team had changed. He was kidding himself thinking otherwise. I wasn’t sure if it was his doing or Shane’s, but as Josh remained quiet, the only sound coming from him was the heavy breathing of resolve. He was beginning to see my point.
Josh finally sat up and looked at me. He climbed on his hands and knees and crawled over to me. Once his lips were inches from mine, he kissed them once, then twice. He then deepened the kiss, his tongue caressing mine, awaking the desires that had been resting quietly.
When he released my lips, he rested his forehead against mine. “Did I ever tell you how much I love you?” he asked.
I shook my head, still trying to catch my breath. “Yes.”
“Good. Don’t you ever forget it.”
Chapter Five
Shane
“I hate you,” mumbled the semi-conscious woman lying next to me.
The corner of my mouth rose in amusement. I had my eyes closed and I was trying my best to keep my mind clear.
I had spent longer than I expected sitting with her. I was just supposed to check up on her, maybe have a drink or two, and then head home. My plan, however, went down the drain fast. I told her one story about Josh…just one, and it wasn’t even the funniest one I had either. But because of the way her face lit up in amusement and the sound of her laughter, I couldn’t help myself. I had to tell her more.
As I betrayed my brothers by telling Misty most of the embarrassing stories I could think of, she and I practically destroyed the rather large bottle of cognac I’d brought, which I migh
t add, loosened my lips even more.
When it was all said and done, I had told her some of the most embarrassing stories I had in my arsenal about Josh and Malcolm growing up. They were going to be pissed, but oh well, she’d asked and I had answered. Quite honestly, I would have told her every secret I had if only to see her smile.
At some point, between the drinking and laughing we ended up moving our party to some very comfortable S-shaped chaise lounge chairs she had facing the pool. The scene around us was serene, amazing.
The pool was large and took up a majority of her fenced-in back yard. The landscape that bordered the fence was filled with exotic bushes, flowers, and large plants. There were well-placed landscape path lights, candles, and Tiki torches all around us, giving us just enough light to see, but not too much to destroy the ambiance. The stamped concrete made to look like flagstone underneath us, together with the covered patio, fire pit, and the array of very comfortable seating helped to make this entire space like an oasis.
What also added to this relaxing atmosphere was the instrumental jazz that poured through her wireless speaker. It aided in filling us with a sense of calm. It had set the tone, if you will, for both of us to just let go. And speaking of us, that was serene and amazing too. There were no uncomfortable moments between us. Our conversation was, as always, effortless; it was never forced. And when silence settled between us, the feeling of contentment followed.
Everything was going great, until now. At the moment, I was shamelessly wondering what she would look like naked, how she would feel under my touch, and how good her legs would feel wrapped around my waist…or better yet my neck.
Man, I bet she tastes like pure fucking heaven. Fuckkkkk!
