“I can understand that,” he said quietly.
She raised her face to him. “So do you understand why nothing can ever come of this attraction between us? You lead a very public life. Newspapers and magazines love to write about you, whether it’s about your business or personal life. Any woman involved with you would be fair game to the media. I can’t do that. It would kill me.”
“Yet your profession is what it is.”
“Ironic, isn’t it? But I write feature articles. I don’t go digging into somebody’s personal life and sensationalizing it to sell. My point is, that this is why I can’t give in to attraction and…” She pulled in a breath. “I’m admitting I’m attracted to you. But it can’t happen. I don’t want the media attention.”
Cooper plunged his fingers in her hair, curving around her nape, tipping her face up. “Are you done?”
“Y-yes.”
“Now it’s my turn and I want you to listen to me carefully. I am a very private person. I too abhor people wanting to know every detail of my life. At the moment, there is nothing I can do because I seem to be the flavor of the month. I don’t like it either. But I don’t intend to let it stop me from doing what I want. I won’t let it dictate how I live or who I can be with.” He paused. “I want to be with you.” That was it. Those simple words uttered in his deep voice washed over her and ignited nerve endings she didn’t even know she possessed. Heat zinged straight to her pussy. She jumped when he took her hand and placed it on his crotch—oh god—and curved her fingers around his erection. He was long and oh so thick.
“I want you. I have for a long time. That’s as honest as it gets.”
She tried to pull away but he wouldn’t let her. Under her palm, the hard shaft of his cock swelled even more. Her blood turned molten, spreading heat under her skin, melting her bones, eating away her resistance.
“All the other things don’t matter. What matters is you and me and what we both want. No bullshit. No games.”
“I don’t think I can do this,” she whispered despairingly. “You have to understand—”
“Oh I understand.” He crowded her, still holding her hand hostage against his enormous erection. “I heard you loud and clear. I’m sorry that you had to go through that. No child should ever be used as a pawn in a divorce. But I don’t see how that is supposed to make me want you less.”
“You’re not helping here,” she said breathlessly.
“I’m not going to feed into your ‘we can’t do this theory’. Nothing else matters.” He stared at her, his gray eyes dark with hunger. “I’ve been sitting here wanting to tear that dress off you. I want you naked under me, over me, spread before me. I’m not a gentleman in the bedroom. I don’t use polite words. I want to fuck you until you beg me to come, and then I’ll fuck you some more.”
His words, honest and raw, washed over her like a firestorm. A thousand-watt electricity sparked in her body, burning her resistance, shredding her ability to think. She’d never had a man talk to her that way before, never used terms that would make polite society blush. It triggered something deep within her, called to her soul. He was a man speaking plainly to a woman. There was no mistaking his meaning.
“If you’re looking for somebody who will sex you with the lights off, I’m not that guy.” He touched her lower lip with the tip of a finger. The fleeting touch electrified her. “I want to fuck your mouth. Again and again. You can’t imagine the things I want to do to you. With you.” He took a deep breath. “If that scares you, if that’s something you can’t or won’t do, tell me now. Because once we start, there’s no turning back.”
They stared at each other for long seconds. He evoked such erotic images in her mind that she was simply incapable of speech. Her body vibrated with need. From her head to her toes, she thrummed with desire. Her breasts were painfully tight and needy. Between her legs, her pussy flooded with moisture, throbbing, wanting…
Cooper was honest, painfully so. He’d laid his cards out on the table. No holds barred. If she agreed, she would go into this with her eyes wide open. No misunderstandings.
He stepped back from her, severing all contact, leaving her bereft and empty. His skin stretched tight over his cheeks, his nostrils flared. He had the look of a man barely hanging on to control. But he wasn’t going to force her.
He was leaving it up to her. It was time for her to decide.
Her heart was beating so fast, pounding in her ears. She wanted him. That she couldn’t deny. It was basic and elemental. They wanted each other. What else mattered?
She swallowed convulsively. Trust. Need. Hunger. Oh the hunger. They all swarmed over Taylor. Her world narrowed down to Cooper and Cooper alone. Her breath came in soft pants. She felt so out of her element, stripped bare of any pretenses, any veneer of civility. All thoughts of resistance, of denial, had vanished. His words rang in her ears, over and over. Unpolished, unvarnished truth.
“This is going to be complicated,” she said softly, torn.
“It doesn’t have to be.”
She trembled, awash with sensations that battered her senses, destroying her defenses, leaving her susceptible to the hunger clawing at her. “Easy for you to say.”
“Don’t overthink it.”
She closed her eyes briefly, wishing she didn’t want him so much. The feelings were too strong. Too intense. One of them needed to be the voice of reason, but it was clear he felt the same powerful pull between them.
No more thinking. This was inevitable. Twelve months in the making. No more denials. No more excuses. Sex. Primal. Basic. She wanted it with him. However he wanted her, wherever he wanted her. She didn’t need poetry or empty words. What she wanted was right in front of her. A man who was honest enough to tell her the truth. One who wanted her to come willingly to him. Of her own volition, with eyes wide open.
“Yes.” Her soft voice rang clear in the silent room.
Cooper exhaled and held out an arm. She placed her hand in his.
He pulled her along and she followed. By the table, he took a moment to extinguish the candles before heading up the stairs. Every step Taylor took only reinforced the strength of the need coursing through her. Her nipples ached where they rubbed against the material of the dress. She gulped, trying desperately to control her runaway emotions. She felt feverish. Her ears buzzed. And he hadn’t done anything more than take her hand in his.
Their steps clicked on the hardwood floor. She didn’t know how she was able to walk calmly up the stairs, as if she wasn’t dying to rip off his clothes. She stayed mute as he led her down a hallway and through a door to the master suite. The huge king-sized bed snagged her attention. God she was really doing this. She was in Cooper’s bedroom, shaking, unbearably aroused. There was no turning back.
In the next moment, she lost her breath as he grabbed her and slanted his mouth over hers. Her eyelids fluttered shut. He was ravenous, angling her this way and that to better plunder the depths of her mouth. His taste was intoxicating, like the finest aged whiskey. Taylor gripped his shoulders, grateful that he was holding her upright. He sought the zipper at her back and slid it down. Loosened, the dress slid, hanging on the stiff tips of her unfettered breasts before he roughly pushed it out of the way. Taylor moaned at the cool air that hit her overheated skin. She was busy trying to get him out of his shirt, undoing the buttons, whimpering in frustration when she couldn’t get to them quick enough. Finally, finally, she pushed the sides apart and feasted on the hot skin underneath, his muscles bunching and twisting under her touch.
The stillness of the air was broken by their moans and gasps. Taylor wasn’t even aware of how she lost her lace panties, but they were just gone and she was naked.
“Jesus. You’re so fucking beautiful,” he rasped. He cupped her breast and pulled at the tip, earning a low whimper from her. Leaning down, he captured a nipple in his mouth. No teasing. Just a hard, rhythmic sucking that tore her control.
She tugged at his belt buckle and ma
naged to work it free. Next she attacked his jeans. She whimpered when she encountered all buttons. No zipper. The huge erection he sported made it such a tight fit that it was almost impossible to get the metal studs through the slits. “Help me,” she implored.
Pushing her hands away, he made quick work of the fastening and his cock sprang free. Her mouth watered. Cooper was long and thick, standing proudly erect, nearly reaching his navel. She reached out to touch the plum-shaped head.
“No,” he grunted harshly. He picked her up and strode to the bed, laying her down.
Taylor reached for the strap of one shoe, fumbling to take it off.
“Leave them on.”
A sharp current rolled through her pussy, the flesh spasming with need. Naked save for her stilettos. She felt wild. Sexy.
Cooper chucked his jeans. Taylor stared, unable to take her eyes from him. Her mouth watered. He was such a beautiful man, with broad shoulders that tapered to a trim waist and muscled thighs sprinkled with hair. She gazed at his cock, memorizing the thick shaft lined with life-giving veins and topped with a round head. She licked her lips, desperate for a taste.
“I want to make this last,” he growled. “Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?” she asked breathlessly as she pushed herself up on her elbows.
“Like you want me in your mouth.”
She eyed him greedily. For twelve long months she’d fantasized about him. Reality was way, way better. “I do.”
Cooper fisted his cock, running a hand from root to head in a slow caress.
“Let me,” she implored, aware of her juices coating her pussy and seeping out to her inner thighs.
“If you do, this will be over too soon.” He shook his head, his jaw clenched tight. “I’ve waited for this too long to allow that.” Placing a knee on the bed, he hovered over her. “Open your legs. Let me see you.”
The hunger underlining the guttural words blazed a path directly to her clit. Unable to deny him anything, her limbs fell apart.
“Wider,” he rasped.
She bit her lip and did as he asked, watching his dark eyes devour the wet flesh now exposed to him.
He reached out and rubbed the smooth, denuded skin. “No hair. I should have known.”
Taylor shuddered. “I prefer it that way. E-Easier to maintain.” She’d waxed since first trying it in college.
“I like it.” He ran his fingertips over and around her labia, helped by the copious moisture covering her nether lips. When he slipped two fingers inside her, she arched off the bed, a moan escaping her. “So wet. So pretty. So fucking tight.”
She whimpered when he began a devastating massage on her clit, rotating his thumb, driving her higher but not enough to send her into orbit. “Yes. Yes,” she chanted, raising her hips, wanting a firmer contact.
Cooper leaned down, giving her brief, light kisses that failed to satisfy her. Frustrated, Taylor buried her hands in his hair and pulled him down. “Kiss me like you mean it,” she demanded.
So he did. She lost her breath as he gave her a kiss that drove all thought from her mind. He sent his tongue deep in her mouth, delving with a greediness that thrilled her. Eagerly she returned the favor, sucking his tongue wildly, mimicking the actions of his fingers inside her pussy.
He tore his lips from hers and feasted on her breasts. He sucked. He licked. He pulled on the tips and bit down, giving her a slice of pain with the pleasure so intense that she cried out. She knew her breasts were an erogenous zone, but the rough rasp of his tongue on her ultra-sensitive nipples drove her insane. This was madness. Every lick and suck set off little fires that burned her self-control.
Cool air kissed her nipples when he slid down her body, trailing his lips over her belly and lower…
A low, animalistic sound tore from her lips as he ate her with a greediness born of hunger. There was no other way to describe what he did to her. No finesse. No gentleness. It was like he wanted to inhale her essence by tonguing her as deep as he could reach. Cooper pulled apart the lips of her pussy and sucked her clit.
She shook, teetering on the edge of a precipice. “Cooper.”
He was without mercy, driving her to a shattering climax that brought a cry to her lips. “Ohmygod…”
Violent shudders tore through her as she came. She crushed the sheets in her hands, fighting for purchase, anything to hold on as she writhed against him. Her whole world narrowed down to his lips as he ate her like a starved man, tonguing her through her first orgasm and sending her shooting to the next. Her mind fogged over as she gave in to the blinding pleasure.
Pulling in a ragged breath, she found the strength to open her eyes and found him standing above her. His jaw was clenched tight. He looked like a man near the end of his rope.
He grabbed her legs and raised them high, giving her a sexy little bite on her instep. “I’ve thought about fucking you while you’re wearing fuck-me shoes like this.”
The image sent a fresh wave of moisture flooding her exposed pussy. “Is that a fantasy?” she moaned.
“Oh yeah. One of many you’ll be fulfilling,” he promised.
A handful of condoms landed on the bed. The implication wasn’t lost on her as he rolled one on before he placed his cock at her slit, rotating the head, gathering her silken wetness around and around, readying her for his possession.
Taylor raised her hips, trying to get him inside her, mewling with frustration. Her orgasm had only taken the edge off. She felt incomplete. She wanted him in her. Now.
He buried his cock inside her in one deep stroke, forcing through the tender tissues, aided by the copious moisture coating her labia, and slid all the way in to her soul. Oh my. She felt full, impaled on a big, thick shaft of hot steel.
As he moved, whatever ability she had to think was completely obliterated. All she could concentrate on was Cooper, his hips pounding into her. He was hardly being gentle but she didn’t want gentle at the moment. What she wanted was satisfaction, something, anything to quiet the desperate hunger gnawing at her.
He pumped his hips in long, deliberate thrusts. Guiding her legs around his waist, he gripped her buttocks and hauled her closer. The position enabled him to reach deeper, hitting a spot high inside that flooded her senses with pleasure. She whimpered, begging him to go faster. But he maintained his maddening pace, his face a mask of concentration. Tossing her head on the bed, Taylor tried to urge him on, pleading softly. Harder.
No such luck.
Taylor tightened her inner muscles around him as he withdrew. He grunted under his breath. The slow drag and push of their flesh against each other was almost too much to bear. Pure sensuality was etched in his face in the faint twist of his lips. He clenched his jaw and increased his speed, pumping in and out with an intensity that locked her breath in her throat. Again and again, he went deep, hitting a spot dead center that sent blistering vibrations all the way to her womb. He was all business as he sent them on a fast course to orgasm. Control was gone. Finesse flew out the window as they raced toward completion. Taylor was drowning. White-hot sensation swirled inside her, pushing her higher and higher, until she fell over the edge.
Teeth-gritting pleasure slammed into her, so sharp it was almost painful. She cried out. Cooper didn’t miss a beat, thrusting and thrusting until, with a muffled curse, he came as well. She relished the feeling of his cock jerking inside her, deriving as much satisfaction at the thought that she’d driven him well beyond control. When it was over, Taylor lay dazed and boneless with Cooper slumped over her. Exhausted and satiated, she fell into a deep sleep.
* * * * *
Taylor came awake slowly, blinking the sleep from her eyes. Pushing her hair away from her face, she sat up and surveyed the earth-toned bedroom, promptly remembering where she was. All the events of the previous night came rushing back. With a groan, she covered her face with her hands. Jeez. She’d really done it. The rumpled sheets and pillows strewn on the floor were testimony of the night s
he’d spent with Cooper.
She tried to finger-comb her hair. She knew what she must look like. A woman who’d just spent the entire night indulging in torrid sex. Her body still tingled with remembered pleasure and between her legs, there was a slight soreness. Her nipples were red and tender. Right on top of her breast was a love mark, a vivid reminder of the things Cooper had done to her last night. There wasn’t an inch he didn’t lick or suck. She flushed as she remembered doing the same to him, spurred on by the sexy words he’d murmured.
Last night was like nothing she’d ever experienced before. She’d never known sex to be that way. Cooper was intensity and all-out pleasure, culminating in a powerful explosion or a chemical reaction. Too strong to control.
It was scary.
Sure she’d gone out with a lot of guys. But the few men she’d chosen to sleep with had been all technique and finesse. Sex was perfunctory. Not the raw, can’t-have-enough kind that lasted well into the night, halted only by physical exhaustion.
God, it was too much to take. She didn’t know what to think. The total loss of control and inhibition, well, that wasn’t her. Taylor had always prided herself on being in charge of her emotions. She preferred calm to a turbulent storm. Instead she felt vulnerable. Off-kilter. She glanced at the empty space beside her. How was she going to face Cooper after last night? How did she act? Did she make polite conversation? Like what? What if he asked her “how did you sleep?” Oh just great. I slept like a log because you wore me out?
She moaned and buried her face in her hands. The best thing to do would be to get out of here. Gather her thoughts, compose herself, and then think of facing Cooper again. Maybe in a day or so. Or a week. Yeah, a week sounded good.
Time to get dressed and escape.
The door opened. She jumped, startled, and fixed her gaze on the man walking toward her. Too late. Clad only in his jeans with the top button undone and his hair tousled, Cooper looked achingly sexy as he sat on the bed next to her. Her heart did a somersault. Her temperature shot up a couple of degrees. It was the same powerful tug of attraction she always felt when he was near. What, last night wasn’t enough?
Tempting Taylor Page 7
