by T. M. Cromer
21
Summer felt conspicuous as she perched on the edge of the living room sofa.
Keaton wandered into the room. “C.C. asked me to entertain you for a bit while he takes a shower. He said something about a scorching shower to disinfect Rosie cooties, whatever that meant.”
She bit back her smile.
“I don’t pretend to know what’s going on with you two, Summer. But I do know I don’t want to see his heart crushed. He should have free will in all things.”
Coop’s brother was worried. His downturned mouth and solemn eyes told a story all their own.
“Keaton, we cannot control someone’s will,” she said gently. “Whatever you felt for my sister when you were dating was real.”
“We’re not talking about Autumn.”
“I think we are. You’re under a misguided belief that we can cast spells willy-nilly. To a degree, witches can. But you should know, there are laws in the magical world just as there are laws in the non-magical world.” She frowned and tried to explain. “There is no such thing as a love spell, desire spell, or any type of will-altering spell to make you attracted to someone you wouldn’t normally be attracted to.”
He burrowed his hands into the hair on either side of his temples. “You’re wrong.”
“I’m not.”
“Then why was I so consumed? My every waking thought was Autumn. Hell, my every dream was of her.” His scathing tone hinted at bitterness.
“That was all you, Keaton. But even if a spell like that existed, a twenty-two-year-old young woman doesn’t have the experience or power to cast it. Not without help from a more experienced witch.” She shrugged. “Aunt GiGi was our mentor. She’d never condone something like that even if it were possible.”
He paled. “If she didn’t…”
Summer waited him out. Keaton needed to wrap his head around his mistake.
“If she didn’t, then I’m a complete ass.”
She inched forward and placed her hand on his. “No. You were young and scared. But you should know, she loved you.”
“Past tense,” he said softly. He wasn’t asking a question but stating what he believed to be fact.
Summer didn’t have an answer. “I don’t know her feelings now. She won’t talk about you. Or she wouldn’t until the day you showed up about your truck.”
“What did she say?”
“I’m not going to betray a confidence. But you owe her an apology for your ugliness that day.”
His stubborn expression returned. “She torched my truck.”
“And you broke her heart by sleeping with another woman. I’d say you’re even.”
“Not even close. For almost ten years, she bound me.” He stood to pace. “You preach free will, but she made it so I couldn’t reveal what you were. Not in speech, not in writing. I felt like I was losing my damned mind.” White-hot rage made his voice hoarse.
Summer realized Keaton wouldn’t get over his anger anytime soon, and her heart pinged for her sister. Autumn’s battle, if she chose to fight for Keaton, would be all uphill. But her stubbornness matched his. The probability of these two strong-willed individuals setting aside their differences was slim to none.
“She thought she was protecting her family. You know how she was; young, impulsive, fierce,” Summer tried to explain.
He shook his head. “I don’t want to discuss her. The remote is on the table. You can entertain yourself. C.C. should be done soon.” He glared down at her. “Don’t you dare hurt him. Don’t even think about using magic on him. Ever. I’ll tear your family apart.”
“Keaton!” Coop snapped out his brother’s name as warning. “Whatever your issue is with Autumn, that’s between the two of you. But Summer doesn’t deserve your hatefulness.”
The two brothers, alike in size and looks, squared off.
“You can’t see it, but I can,” Keaton sneered. “She has you wrapped around her finger ready to fight your own brother for a taste of her magic pussy.”
Summer gasped at his crudeness.
“The only reason I’m not throat punching you right now is because you’re my brother and I love you. But talk about her like that again, and I won’t hold back.” The ice in Coop’s tone chilled Summer to her core.
“Guys, please don’t fight.” She inserted herself between them, her back pressed to Coop. “Keaton, I swear on my life, and the lives of my sisters, Coop will always have free will in our relationship for as long as it lasts.” She placed a hand on Keaton’s arm. “If you believe nothing else, believe me when I say that I don’t want anyone that doesn’t want me. I’d like to think I have more pride than that.”
“Pride? Really?” he scoffed. “This whole town knows you’ve been in love with him since the second you set eyes on him.” He didn’t soften his stance. “I’m sorry, Summer, but I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you wouldn’t do anything within your power to have him.”
Her own anger took hold. “Then why wouldn’t I have done it years ago?”
Coop’s arms enfolded her from behind. “Sweetheart, you don’t have to justify anything to him. He’s determined to be a bitter fucktard. You can’t change that.”
Keaton laughed humorlessly. “Oh, that’s rich coming from you. You sat here not two weeks ago, drunk off your ass, telling everyone to shut up when they tried to talk to you. All because of a little lover’s spat between you two.”
“Yeah, well it didn’t take me ten years to wake the hell up,” Coop retorted.
Keaton scrunched his nose and squinted his eyes. “Didn’t it, though?”
“I’m going to go,” Summer said. “Coop, when things have settled down on both sides, we can talk.”
“Both sides? What’s that supposed to mean? Your family thinks you’re too good for my brother?” Keaton demanded in an abrupt about-face.
“No. There are other factors in play, Keaton. I’m done defending my family to you,” she snapped.
Coop’s arms tightened. “You aren’t going anywhere, Summer.” To his brother he said, “Keaton, don’t you have a kid to tuck in for the night or horses to check?”
Keaton threw up his hands in surrender. “Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Clashing with his brother didn’t sit well. But Coop would be damned if Keaton would dictate his relationship. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize for someone else. You can’t control their actions, Coop.”
He cupped her face and met her eyes. “I need you to know, I don’t believe anything he was spouting.”
Her face morphed from upset to sanguine. “And I need you to know, I’ll never use what limited power I have on you.”
“Limited?” he snorted. “I think you underestimate yourself, sweetheart. The things I’ve seen you do don’t appear to be a novice witch.”
“Oh, and do you know many witches?” she challenged.
“There’s only one witch I want to know.” Coop bent his head and brushed his lips lightly against hers, a test of the waters.
Her response was all he could’ve hoped for and more. Her arms came around him, and she rose on her toes to press closer.
He pulled back and quirked a brow. “No lingering Rosie cooties?”
“Not that I can tell. You taste like pure Coop based on the few kisses we’ve shared.”
“Excellent. Let’s make out.”
Her giggle warmed his heart.
“I’d sweep you up and carry you, but my room is upstairs, and I’m not as young as I used to be.”
Summer squinted her glorious eyes. “Are you saying I’m fat, Cooper Carlyle?”
“Hell, no! You’re a wet dream with those curves.” To emphasize his point, he cupped her full breasts and sighed. “I could feast on your beauty for days.”
“That just scored you major Brownie points.”
“Yeah, about that Brownie Brigade thing, can you still squeeze into the uniform? Because I have a thing for women in tight little skirts.”
“Like this?” She waved her hands and created a sexy, adult version of a Girl Scout uniform.
The material barely covered her butt cheeks. Coop was in heaven.
“Fuck. Yes!” He ran a hand under her skirt to cup her ass. “I think I’m going to like this particular parlor trick of yours.”
They raced up the stairs with Coop insisting on Summer going first in order to catch a glimpse beneath her miniskirt.
She laughingly held her hands behind her all the way to the top.
“Second door on the left,” he instructed as she hesitated.
“Now that we’re upstairs, and there’s no chance of breaking your back, I think you should carry me,” she teased.
The sparkle in her eye sang to his heart. If he wasn’t eager to taste every inch of her, he would’ve stayed in this moment forever.
“Whatever the lady wants,” he murmured against her lips. But instead of the grand sweeping gesture she expected, he scooped her up in a fireman’s hold and tossed her over his shoulder.
Her squeal almost brought the walls down around them.
With a chuckle, he swatted her ass. Not hard enough to hurt, just enough to get her attention. “Quiet, woman! You’ll wake the house.”
“You are so going to get it when I get loose,” Summer threatened.
“That’s what I’m hoping,” he quipped.
After entering his room, he quietly shut and locked the door before shifting Summer in his arms to gaze into her beautiful flushed face. “Have I told you how happy I am you decided to give me another chance?”
“After you left today, I didn’t know how to react. I only knew that I didn’t want to move from that spot. That if I did, it would make the whole thing real. It would mean you were gone from my life for good.”
He remained silent to give her the opportunity to formulate the words.
“Autumn told me that if Keaton had offered her even half the love you’d laid on the line, she’d have grabbed it with both hands. I think it was her way of calling me an idiot for letting you leave.”
“You’re the smart one in this duo, sweetheart. Sometimes your capacity for love and forgiveness scares me.”
“Why?”
Coop crossed to the bed and sat on the edge, cradling her in his lap. He took his time answering
“Because I don’t deserve you,” he finally said. “You’re too good for me. I knew that eleven years ago, and I know it now. Maybe that’s why I tried to hurt you back then. Maybe it was my way of saving you from me.”
“You’re a much better person than you know.” She stroked her fingertips over his furrowed brow and down his cheek until she reached his lips. The light caress shot straight to his groin by way of his heart.
“You see the good in me. Like I said, it scares the hell out of me.”
“I see you for who you are, Coop. Flaws and all. None of it matters.”
He kissed her.
There was no way he couldn’t when she said something that profound. The kiss was beautiful in its simplicity. Lips on lips in a gentle touch to convey all the words a man didn’t know how to say aloud.
She drew back, and their eyes connected in a perfect moment of understanding.
Within seconds, mischief altered her expression, and she shifted to straddle him. “I believe we were about to get busy before you became all serious on me.”
His hands gripped the smooth skin of her upper thighs and his fingers toyed with the hemline of the skirt. Coop opened his mouth to speak, but the not-so-subtle shift of her pelvis against his dick chased any thoughts out of his head.
He sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh, babe.”
She laughed and nipped his lip.
In a spiral roll that would do an alligator proud, he pinned her beneath him. “You have too many clothes on,” he growled.
As he reached for the zipper of her skirt, the material dissolved into thin air.
“I think I’m going to like magic in the bedroom,” he laughed. “Can we make the shirt go the same route?”
Her shirt disappeared, leaving her in a matching bra and panty set.
“Oh, babe,” he said again. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as beautiful as you are at this moment.” And he hadn’t. With the color high in her cheeks, her blond curls spread over his chocolate colored pillowcase, and her glorious chest heaving in her red lace underwear, Summer stole his breath away.
He buried his face in the valley of her breasts and sighed his pleasure. The silky-smooth softness of her skin begged to be kissed, and Coop ran featherlight kisses up across the divide between the mounds. He scooped her breast from beneath the bra’s cup and nuzzled the hardened nipple before circling his tongue around the tip.
A sultry moan escaped her lips and egged him on. He gently bit down then sucked her into his mouth. Her hands came up to cradle the back of his skull and press him closer. Coop became more aggressive in his ministrations.
“Oh, Coop,” she gasped.
The sound of his name in that breathy little voice caused the blood to drain from his head straight to his cock. He’d never tire of hearing her pleasure-filled gasps.
Coop tasted his way down the slight curve of her stomach on his way to the promised land. With one finger, he dipped beneath the edge of her panties and glided along the wetness he found there. “So hot,” he murmured. “So fucking hot.”
She squirmed beneath his touch when he grazed his teeth along the satiny material covering. In his experience, it wouldn’t take much to send her over the edge. He grinned against her mound and applied pressure with his tongue. In a move that made him blink, her panties dissolved into a red mist.
He lifted his head and met her desire-laden gaze.
“I thought I’d help you,” she said saucily, one brow lifted in challenge.
“Impatient much?”
“You have no idea.”
Coop swirled his fingers up and down along her slick opening, never taking his eyes from hers. When he inserted a finger, Summer’s eyes rolled back.
“Again,” she whispered.
He slid in another finger.
“Goddess!” she groaned. “Again.”
Coop continued to finger her. Sometimes hard and fast. Sometimes gentle and slow. Stopping now and again to worship her with his tongue. He took an inordinate amount of time and leisurely explored every part of her below the waist.
With her fingers tangled in his hair, she urged him on—both with words, whimpers, and hip thrusts. His tongue toyed with her clit and she squealed when he bit down, bucking wildly against his mouth as the wave of release crashed upon her.
He didn’t give her time to recover. Tightening his hold on her hips, he dove in for seconds. Tasting. Teasing. Tantalizing.
When she was on the verge of another orgasm, he stopped and rose to his knees.
“Please,” Summer begged.
Her tongue swept across her parted lips. The glistening sight of her cherry lips made his cock jump and cum bead on its head.
“Please, Coop.”
Along the way, she’d magically dispensed with his clothing, for which Coop was exceedingly grateful. He didn’t want to break their contact any more than she did.
He gripped himself and worked the tip along her wet folds. “Tell me what you want.”
“You. In me. Now.”
As Coop went for the condoms in the top dresser drawer, Summer stopped the forward movement of his hand.
“No need.”
His heart hammered in his chest. “For a condom?”
“Not unless you want to. Witches can’t catch STDs.”
“What about baby witches?”
“Already taken care of.”
“Oh, sweetheart, you know how to make a man’s dick stand up and salute you.”
She giggled and wrapped her hand around his girth, giving him a light tug. “Now.”
“You’re a pushy little thing. I like it.”
He sank into h
er warmth with a long, low groan. When she contracted around him, he hissed. “Fuck me, you feel so tight.”
“Don’t be gentle, Coop.”
His wits deserted him.
“You heard me. Fuck me like you mean it,” she growled.
He didn’t have time to ponder why she didn’t sneeze, but he was grateful for the lack of a rodent audience.
With one arm hooked around her knee, he lifted and parted her wider.
Thrust after thrust, he pounded into her as she voiced her encouragement with words like harder, faster, deeper.
Sweat beaded his brow as he fought to hold back his orgasm.
“Come for me, babe,” he urged.
Summer dragged his mouth to her breast. “Suck me, Coop,” she panted.
Christ, he wasn’t going to make it. The tightening of his balls told him his time was near.
He cupped her and drew her pebbled bud into his mouth, sucking hard.
The resulting contraction of her vagina had him repeating the action, following up with a bite. Fingernails scratched a path down to his ass and she gripped him hard enough to bruise. She slammed her hips against his twice and cried out. The pulse of her womb sent him over the edge. He pumped until every last drop was milked from him then ground against her once more for good measure.
For two full minutes, he lay atop her, unable to move. His heart hammered in rhythm with hers. “I think I might be in the midst of a heart attack,” he gasped.
She laughed and ran her fingers through his sweat-dampened hair. The gesture soothed and allowed his lungs to draw in much-needed oxygen.
Coop grinned. “You know, I wasn’t expecting anything more than an incredible necking session. I honestly believe you’ve spoiled me for all other women.”
“My job here is done,” she managed through her own short panted breaths.
“Christ, I could die happy right now.”
She giggled and rolled with him as he shifted their positions. One of her delicate hands trailed over his chest, tracing hearts on his bare skin. “Me, too.”
“You’ve never said it, you know.”
Summer raised her head to look into his face. “Said what?”
“That you love me.”
