Cooper scrubbed his hand over his face, and it occurred to her that she rarely saw him tired. No, not just tired—weary.
“I have to check on Jeremy’s horses,” he grumbled.
She nearly mentioned that Noah had already done that before he’d left to go do stupid things like driving without a license, but Cooper looked as if he could use some fresh air. So could she, and that’s why Lila went with him when he motioned for her to follow him.
“How’d your sister take the news of cutting her honeymoon short?” Cooper asked as they went out the back door and started across the yard toward the barn.
“Well enough. She’s a mom, so she knows things don’t always work out as planned.” She shook her head. “I wish this hadn’t happened.”
Cooper stepped in the barn just ahead of her. “Feeling guilty, huh? So am I.”
Lila made a sound of agreement and glanced around. There were no horses, but she spotted several in the pasture that was behind the barn. She hoped that was where they were supposed to be, and she looked at Cooper to verify that. He had his hands on his hips, his gaze fixed on the horses, and his expression was one of weary frustration.
Something she totally understood.
Lila went closer and pulled him into her arms for a hug. Except she knew it wouldn’t just be a simple hug. Not between Cooper and her. They had this lightning-fast heat between them, and just as she’d expected, it hit fast. Still, she forced herself to step away. This wasn’t the time to bring sexual attraction into the mix.
Or maybe it was.
Lila amended that notion when Cooper took hold of her arms, yanked her back to him and kissed her. It wasn’t a “nice” kiss. Like his expression, it was filled with all the emotions of what they’d just gone through with Noah. Maybe some frustration, too, over the fact that she’d been fighting this.
Well, she didn’t fight it now.
Maybe it was because her own defenses were down, but Lila thought it had a whole lot more to do with the fact that she was tired of wanting Cooper and not having him. This had nothing to do with Noah, Evelyn or even the fact that she could become another notch on his bedpost. It had to do with the aching need that she was certain he could fill. Even if that “fill” was only temporary.
Cooper kissed her as if she were the cure for what ailed him, too. So maybe this was a right kind of wrong. Yes, she’d have to pay for it, but for now he would soothe and pleasure.
Emphasis on the pleasure.
The man could kiss, no doubt about that. And touch. Yes, he was really good at that, too.
“This is a really bad place for this,” he muttered when he trailed his mouth down to her neck.
It was. There was nothing especially romantic about a barn, and it lacked a bed, but the house—where there were beds—suddenly seemed miles away. Plus, Noah was in there. He was shut in his room, where he’d no doubt stay, but it didn’t seem right for hanky or panky to go on with him just up the hall.
“Tack room,” Cooper insisted.
While he continued to torture her neck, he backed her into the small room and shut the rickety wooden door. The place smelled of saddle leather, hay and liniment. Not exactly sensual smells, and it was way too warm, but Lila figured after a few more moments of Cooper’s kisses she wouldn’t even notice the heat.
She didn’t.
Lila pretty much lost her mind when Cooper shoved up her loose dress, pulling it off over her head. He sent it flying over his shoulder, and in the same motion, he took his clever mouth to the tops of her breasts. Her breath vanished. The heat soared. And Lila could only hang on and let him do whatever he wanted.
Thankfully, she wanted it, too, and she didn’t put up even a token protest when he rid her of her bra, which basically left her nearly naked. However, she wanted to hide herself when he stepped back and had a long look at her body.
She squeezed her eyes shut, knowing she wasn’t his usual sort. Nope. Evelyn’s body was his norm. And that’s why it surprised her when he gave her a very naughty smile.
“Lila, you’re my fantasy,” he said.
She blinked and would have asked if he was joking, but he came at her with another assault from his mouth. He kissed her breasts. Then went lower. Kissed her stomach. Then went lower. Until he shimmied down her panties and kissed her in a spot that had her cursing him and fisting her hands in his hair to anchor herself.
Now, this pleasure. Soaring, hot, needy pleasure. It flooded her from head to toe and was especially strong in the area he was kissing. He lingered there awhile until she was ready to beg for surrender.
But Cooper didn’t finish her off. No. He took her right to the brink of release and then snapped away from her, making his way back up her naked body.
He wasn’t naked, though.
And Lila tried to do something about that. Hard to go after his shirt, though, when he was giving her more neck kisses. After she cursed, he stopped to help her, and she finally got her hands on his naked chest. It was toned and perfect, covered with a fine mat of hair that she ran her fingers through.
Despite the rising ache inside her, she took the time to look at him. She did more looking when she unzipped him and shoved his jeans and boxers down over his hips.
The man took her breath away.
“Cooper, you’re my fantasy,” she managed to say. Unlike his comment, there was no chance hers had a trace of BS in it. “Except you’re better than a fantasy because you’re real.”
The corner of his mouth hitched in a grin that made her even hotter. But she frowned when he didn’t dive back in to finish this. Instead, he fished around in his back pocket to take a condom from his wallet. Thank goodness one of them had thought of safe sex, because Lila had only been able to manage the “sex” part.
Once he had on the condom, Cooper managed the “sex,” too. He lifted her, pressing her back to the door, and Lila hooked her legs around his waist. He pushed into her with one hard thrust.
A thrust that nearly pushed her right over the edge. But she forced herself to hang on. She wanted to savor this. Wanted to keep him close to her like this just a little longer.
Cooper paused, too, clearly regrouping, and he met her eye to eye when he started the strokes inside her. All the heat and need poured out in those strokes. Harder and deeper.
Faster.
Lila lost her breath again and didn’t care. The only thing that mattered now was Cooper. She needed him to sate this searing heat, to release the powder keg of need. And he did. While watching her, he took her.
And Cooper finished her.
CHAPTER FIVE
COOPER STOOD IN his brother’s kitchen, sipping a beer and waiting. Across from him, Lila was doing the same, except she’d opted for a glass of wine. A big one. If there’d been a picture in the dictionary of waiting for the other shoe to drop, it would have been of them.
The mood in the house was definitely in suck mode.
He was reasonably sure he now knew what it was like to be a human yo-yo. Up and down, at times spinning. All accompanied by the realization that he didn’t have control over squat right now.
Especially anything involving Lila.
The sex with her had been great, as he’d known it would be, but it’d been more than just sex for him. Much more. But he sure as heck couldn’t say it was the same for Lila.
She hadn’t given him any signals that she intended to have sex with him again or that she’d reconsider having an actual relationship with him. Then again, maybe she was doing her own yo-yoing, since only minutes after they’d gotten their clothes back on, Lila had gotten a call from her sister. Crystal and Jeremy had managed to get a flight out and had immediately headed to the Vegas airport. It wasn’t easy to think about relationships, sex and such when a parental shitstorm was heading their way.
Well, maybe the sex part.
It was always easy to think about sex when it came to Lila.
Since Jeremy had left his truck in the parking lot at the airport, Cooper hadn’t gone to pick them up, but his brother had texted well over a half hour ago to say they’d landed and would start the drive home. That meant they’d be arriving any minute now to deal with Noah.
Yeah, a parental shitstorm, all right.
The boy was still in his room, where he’d been ever since they’d gotten back from the police station, but Cooper had checked on him a couple of times. So had Lila. Cooper might feel like a yo-yo, but Noah probably felt as if he were about to face a firing squad.
“According to Sophia,” Lila said, reading from her phone, “digital grounding is thirty percent more effective than actual grounding. Digital grounding is limiting phone privileges and the internet.”
Cooper glanced at her from over the top of his beer, but he didn’t respond verbally. That’s because for the past four hours Sophia had been sending one text of advice after the other. Obviously, the girl was concerned about her stepbrother and had even offered to come home, but Crystal had talked her into staying put at her friend’s.
“Wonder what the stats are on hickeys?” Lila muttered.
That got his attention. “Hickeys?”
“Love bites,” she said, as if he’d asked for a clarification. And in a way, he supposed he had.
“Do you want me to give you one?” he asked, hoping to make her smile.
She didn’t. She frowned instead and motioned toward the general vicinity of his neck. “I gave you one. I’m sorry about that. I guess I got a little carried away.”
Now Cooper frowned. He set his beer aside and went into the powder room just off the kitchen so he could take a look in the mirror. Yeah, that was a hickey, all right, on the left side of his neck. It was his first in, well, at least a decade and a half.
“I’m really sorry,” Lila repeated, coming up behind him.
Cooper shrugged, glad to have her this close to him again. She’d showered after their romp in the tack room, and she smelled delicious. “No one will even notice a hickey,” he assured her.
She made a sound that made him think she wasn’t quite buying that, and her gaze met his. Finally, they were about to have the talk, the one they needed to have.
“It wasn’t just sex,” he blurted out before she could say anything. “And you really are my damn fantasy.”
In hindsight, he wished that last part hadn’t been coated with some anger and hurt, but damn it all to hell, he’d told her the truth. And he wanted to keep telling her the truth until she believed him.
Lila opened her mouth, closed it and repeated doing so as if she kept changing her mind about what to say. But she didn’t get a chance to say anything at all because he heard the vehicle pull into the driveway.
“This discussion isn’t over,” he snarled, knowing full well that it hadn’t even gotten started.
They went to the front door, opening it just as Crystal and Jeremy stepped onto the porch. It was just after 7:00 p.m. and still light out, so Cooper didn’t have any trouble seeing their faces or expressions. They looked exhausted...and Jeremy was sporting a hickey on his neck. Apparently, Lila and her sister had a knack for such displays of affection.
“Is that some kind of pasta dish in the front yard?” Crystal asked, motioning behind her.
Cooper had forgotten all about cleaning up the lasagna. “Long story,” he muttered. “So are the trampled flowers, but I’ll replace them.”
Jeremy stepped into the house, met his gaze, and then that gaze lowered to Cooper’s neck. Right to the hickey. Apparently, someone had noticed it after all.
“Noah’s in his room,” Cooper volunteered to shift his brother’s attention to something other than his love bite. “Leyton said if you’ve got any questions, you can call him. Sandy, too. She’s not mad but figured you’d want to speak to her.”
Jeremy nodded, gave a weary shake of his head. “Thanks. I appreciate everything Lila and you did.”
Cooper didn’t feel as if he deserved any thanks or appreciation, and considering the way Lila’s head dipped, neither did she. “I’m sorry about this,” Lila and he said at the same time.
Jeremy gave another nod and doled out some pats on their backs. It had a definite “you can leave now” vibe to it. Which was fine with Cooper. But that left Lila with a bit of a dilemma since she didn’t have her own place to go to in Lone Star Ridge.
But she did have his place.
“Give me a second,” Cooper told his brother, and he led Lila out onto the porch, where they’d have some privacy. “I’m ready to hear your apology for the hickey you gave me,” he said. “I think we should go to my house and discuss it.”
Her eyes narrowed a little, but there was no anger in them. “If we go to your house, we’ll have sex.”
“You say it like there’s a downside to that.” But he waved that off because he didn’t want to go down that path just yet. “Jeremy, Crystal and Noah need to talk. We need to talk. Better for us to do that in the air-conditioning. The heat might make my hickey itch.”
This time, she rolled her eyes. Then sighed. “Crystal, I’ll be at Cooper’s if you need me,” Lila called out to her sister.
Cooper didn’t dare smile or look even a little smug at getting his way. After all, Lila had chosen him over possible heatstroke or staying on the fringes of that family shitstorm. He’d won out pretty much by default.
Lila followed him home in her car, probably so she’d have a way to leave if things took a bad turn between them. Cooper very much wanted to make sure he took all the right turns with her. However, the moment he turned into his driveway, he knew that “right turns” were going to have to wait.
Hell.
Evelyn’s Mustang was parked in front of his house, and she got out the moment he pulled to a stop behind her. She flashed him a welcoming smile that dimmed considerably when she spotted Lila.
“Oh,” Evelyn muttered. “Word is that your brother and Crystal got back, so I figured you’d be coming home alone.”
Cooper dragged in a long breath since he figured he needed to clarify to Evelyn, again, that they weren’t getting back together. “I want Lila to stay the night with me. I’m not sure she will, but it’s what I want. Do you understand that, Evelyn? Lila’s what I want.”
He hadn’t been sure Lila had heard what he said until she made a little sound. Maybe of surprise. Heck, maybe it was just a hiccup.
“I see,” Evelyn said. Her gaze zoomed to Lila, who stepped up to Cooper’s side. “Can we talk, woman to woman?”
“No,” Cooper answered for her. “You’re not going to get the chance to bully her again.”
Evelyn flinched as if he’d slapped her, and then she squared her shoulders, steeling herself up. “I know I was mean to you, and I’m sorry,” she told Lila. “But don’t do this. Don’t punish me by using Cooper.”
This time the sound Lila made was definitely surprise. Cooper recognized it because a similar sound came from his mouth, followed by a “huh?”
Evelyn turned back to him and folded her arms over her chest. “Lila doesn’t want you. She wants the idea of you.”
“The idea of me?” he repeated.
“You know, hot and popular. You’re this unattainable—”
“He’s my fantasy,” Lila interrupted.
Cooper looked at her to make sure she wasn’t about to cave to Evelyn’s BS. She wasn’t. Lila pointed to Cooper’s neck. “I gave him that, and there are others.”
He wasn’t sure how that fit with what Evelyn was spewing out, but it made him smile. “Lila’s my fantasy, too,” he said, not even sparing Evelyn a glance.
Evelyn huffed. “Opposites might attract, but birds of a feather flock together. Cooper, you and I are of the same flock.”
“I’m betting
you don’t have any stats to back that up,” Lila argued.
Because there was a little smile on Lila’s mouth, Cooper didn’t want to take his eyes off her. So he didn’t. He leaned in and kissed that smiling mouth, and while it didn’t mean everything was hunky-dory between them, it was a good start.
“Goodbye, Evelyn,” he said, and hooking his arm around Lila, he led her into his house.
“Screw you, Cooper,” Evelyn shouted, and a moment later, he heard her peel out of his drive.
Good riddance. Maybe the woman would move on to someone else she could flock and feather.
He kissed Lila again when they stepped inside, and he led her to the sofa. “Wait here while I do something.”
Cooper hurried to take out his phone so he could look up some things. Too bad he didn’t have Sophia here to help him with this, but he finally worked his way through what he needed to find.
“The average person has six relationships before they find the one,” Cooper said, sitting down next to her.
Her smile faded. “I’ve only had three.”
“I’ve had enough to make the averages work in our favor.” Not to be deterred, he continued, “The average couple has three dates before sex and a dozen dates before considering themselves a couple.” He looked up from his phone. “I clearly owe you a dozen dates.”
Her mouth quivered a little. Then it quivered a lot in a different kind of way when he leaned in and kissed her again. He kept it soft and sweet.
“The average couple has over twenty dates before falling in love,” he went on. “I owe you twenty dates.”
The next kiss he gave her wasn’t soft or sweet. He knew how to make it dirty enough to heat her up, and the hitch in her breath told him he’d succeeded in doing just that.
“You want to fall in love with me?” she asked, her voice and face all dreamy. And hot. Mercy, she had his number.
“Already done that. The trick will be to get you to fall in love with me. Think that’ll happen after twenty dates?”
She shook her head, causing his heart to stop until she said, “Much sooner than that.”
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