Cooper

by Lagomarsino, Giulia

  He stared at me blankly for a moment. “Coop?”

  “Yeah?” I grinned.

  “Get the fuck out.”

  I reared back in confusion. “Fine, but I’m telling you, it’s the way to go.”

  I walked out of their room, whistling again at my good deed done for the day and made my way to the training center. It was Sunday, but that didn’t mean that I needed to take a day off. I wrapped my hands and went to work on the bag, getting in a good workout. When I was done, I ran the track and really got my heart rate pounding. It felt amazing. Everything felt amazing. This was a good fucking day.

  “Problems?”

  I turned to see Cap standing near the doorway, watching me like I was a caged animal.

  “Why would there be a problem?”

  “Because you’re here on a Sunday and way too fucking early in the morning. Nobody else comes in until at least after noon if there’s not a job on the books.”

  “I just felt like a workout. It’s a great day and all is right in the world,” I said with a grin. “Why are you here?”

  “Because Maggie’s in one of her moods. We’ve got a few months to go still, and she’s already too uncomfortable.” He sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. “She’s on this kick again about being fat. You know, she doesn’t actually have any fat on her. She’s carrying it all out front, but according to her, she looks like an elephant. And it’s my fault because I knocked her up.”

  “Well, it kind of is, but you should just tell her to stop being upset about it. She’s creating life and that’s an amazing thing. You just have to keep reminding her how beautiful she is.”

  “I do that every day. I’m pretty sure it’s not helping.”

  I nodded and slapped him on the shoulder. “You know what you need to do?” He shook his head. “Take her to the spa. It’ll help leech out all those toxins and make her feel better. I’m serious, man. Women really dig that shit.”

  He stared at me blankly. “No wonder you fucked things up with Becky.”

  “Well, not anymore,” I grinned. “As of yesterday, things are back on track and fucking fabulous.”

  “Well, I’m happy for you, but you need to watch what the fuck you say or you’re gonna end up alone.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because, you just suggested I take Maggie to the spa to leech out toxins.”

  “Women love that shit.”

  “And when you say that to a woman, you’re either going to end up with a black eye or completely alone. Trust me on this. I have more practice than you.”

  “You know,” I grinned. “I’m not even worried.”

  I walked past him for the exit when Chance walked in. He gave me a chin lift and eyed me suspiciously. “You got laid.”

  I grinned and walked past him, shouting over my shoulder. “Shirley Temples, man. Fucking Shirley Temples.”

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  After another fantastic night with Becky, I was walking a high that no one could drag me down from. But everyone kept staring at me like I was crazy. Even Becky thought that I was just a little too chipper. But that was what happened when you had your eyes opened. Everything was clearer. The sky was bluer, the grass was greener, and the fucking was even more intense. And last night was so intense that I could swear I saw what life would be like for the next fifty years.

  I was grabbed by the collar of my shirt and dragged into Cap’s office. The door was slammed and a very angry Cap stood in front of me fuming. His shoulders heaved as he stared me down, but I couldn’t figure out what I could have done between the time I left yesterday and arriving just a few minutes ago.

  “Can you stop being…this?” Cap waved up and down my body.

  I glanced down at myself and frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that you’re too fucking happy.”

  I grinned wide and held my arms wide. “I know! For the first time in years, I feel like a new man. I mean, I have the most fucked up scars and I know that it’s fucking ugly, but I have a woman that erases all that. I’m telling you, it’s given me a whole new perspective on my life. Things that bothered me before are just little blips on my radar. Hell, they’re not even on my radar anymore.”

  “And that’s fucking fantastic, but you’re driving all of us nuts.”

  “No, that can’t be right,” I said, still way to fucking chipper. I felt like I was high or something, like I had been drugged. “I haven’t even seen everyone. It’s not possible that I pissed everyone off.”

  “Look, you have to stop with the attitude. You’re all happy and shit, and that’s just not the way things go. You find your woman, you’re happy, but that’s where it stops. There is no walking around on cloud nine or feeling like you have the answers to the universe. In fact, once you find your woman, that’s pretty much when your life goes from happy to fucking complicated. You don’t get to skip fucking steps.”

  “What steps did I skip?”

  He shook his head in frustration. “You skipped right to death. No man is that fucking happy until he’s dead and he no longer has to hear his woman nagging.”

  “Wow. That’s a little cynical.”

  “Look, just tone down the chipper. Not all of us can handle it. Besides, you’re handing out advice that only a happy man hands out. It doesn’t work for our situations. You’re fucking all of us up.”

  “What are you talking about? I haven’t handed out any advice.”

  “Telling Storm to propose? Leading him into Jessica’s room and proposing without thinking about it? What about that sounded like a good idea to you?”

  “What? It was spontaneous and romantic.”

  “Exactly, and not Storm’s strength. You might as well have sent him in to be castrated. He didn’t know any better. Thank God some of the other guys did.”

  “Like who?” I asked, trying to think back to everyone I talked to yesterday.

  “You told Ice that he and Lindsey should talk out their problems instead fucking it out.”

  I grinned as I remembered. “I know. That worked for Becky and I. The guy always looks frustrated. I figured that would help put them on the right track.”

  “For some people, that works. Ice and Lindsey fight so they can fuck. It’s foreplay for them. You could have destroyed their relationship, asking them to talk. What the fuck were you thinking? And how many guys did you tell to go get a spa package to leech toxins out of their women?” he all but shouted.

  I cringed, counting in my head the number of guys I told that to yesterday. “Okay, I get your point. I may have gone overboard on the advice.”

  “May have? Christ, it’s like you’re trying to take down the whole fucking company in a matter of days.”

  “Alright, fine. I get it. I’ll stop handing out advice.”

  “Thank you. And stop being so fucking chipper. Put a scowl on your face and be the dick that we all know. You’re creeping me the fuck out.”

  I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t that bad.

  “Yes, you fucking are,” he said as if he read my mind. He walked up to me, slapped his hand against my cheek, holding it there as he forced me to look at him. “I want you to repeat after me.” I rolled my eyes, but nodded. “I am a fucking badass.”

  “Come on-”

  “Say it,” he growled.

  “I am a fucking badass,” I muttered. God, this was ridiculous.

  “I will not hand out romance advice to any of my teammates.”

  “I will not hand out romance advice to any of my teammates,” I repeated.

  “I will man the fuck up and stop walking around with a smile on my face.”

  “Do you really want me to be pissy again?” He glared at me and I sighed, repeating what he said. “I will man the fuck up and stop walking around with a smile on my face.”

  “Good. If I catch you walking around here smiling, I will send you to Knight and I’ll let him put you in the right frame of mind.”

  He released me and sh
oved me back a step. The man had some serious issues with being happy in life. “Geez, you guys need to lighten up.”

  “Look, I get it. I’m happy for you. But remember this, the happier you are, the fucking harder you fall when everything comes crashing down around you.”

  “So, you’re saying that I shouldn’t be happy because the cost is too high? That’s fucking brutal.”

  “I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be happy. I’m saying that you need to keep your guard up. Be happy, with caution.”

  “You know, you should write Hallmark cards. Be happy, with caution. Fucking brilliant.”

  I turned and walked out of the room, but the further away I got, the more I felt like my old self was sinking in and the high was passing. I stumbled and fell against the wall, feeling like the whole world was tilting on its axis. I thought back to yesterday and this morning, how I had been walking around smiling like a fucking fool and handing out advice left and right. That wasn’t me. What the fuck had I been thinking? Shit, I actually tried to convince Storm to marry Jessica.

  “Holy shit,” I whispered to myself.

  “Good to have you back,” Cap said as he walked past me.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Becky

  “Stop,” I swatted at Coop’s hand as he attempted to grope me yet again. We went to a movie and picked up takeout on the way home. We had been together for two weeks now and he spent every moment he could with me. We hadn’t made it back to a restaurant yet, but he was attempting to take me out on actual dates. Sometimes that was just going on a walk and talking. Other times, it was taking me shopping for whatever new computer equipment I needed. He was definitely a changed man, but the horny side of him never seemed to go away. I could barely keep his hands off me in the theater and I missed half the movie. And a simple thing like picking up takeout ended with us in the restaurant bathroom, fucking up against the stalls as we waited for our order to be ready. Now, we were just walking up to my house and he was at it again.

  “Becky?” a woman called out. I turned around to see my neighbor running across the street.

  “Hey, Carrie. What’s up?”

  “Have you seen Chester?”

  Chester was her new dog. She’d gotten him only a week and a half ago, but old man Marley was already screaming and hollering about the dog being a menace. Her husband had to intervene already when old man Marley walked out with a shotgun.

  “I haven’t been home most of the day, so I haven’t seen him, but I’ll keep my eye out for him.”

  She looked so distressed and I felt really bad for her, but other than organizing a search party for a dog, I wasn’t sure what I could do.

  “He’s been so good about staying on the property. I even have a shock collar on him. I just don’t see him running off.”

  “I’ll keep an eye out for him, but I don’t think you’ll find him tonight in the dark.”

  “Why don’t you keep the garage open for him,” Coop suggested. “He’ll probably come home when he’s ready.”

  She nodded, but I could tell she didn’t believe Coop. “Alright. Thanks.”

  I shoved the door open and walked inside, hoping that the conversation had distracted Coop from his groping for at least long enough for us to eat. I had just set the bags down on the table when he was behind me and his hands were roaming all over my body. I tried to resist him, but before I knew it, he had me down on the couch and my clothes were being torn from my body as his lips caressed my skin.

  “Eh-hem,” Delaney cleared her throat. Coop sighed and pushed up off of me, covering me with a blanket as he glared at Delaney.

  “Can we help you with something?”

  “Yes, you can get me my sex on a stick so that I don’t have to hear you two going at it anymore.”

  “Your what?” Coop asked in confusion.

  “Tony,” I clarified. “He agreed to go out on a double date with us. I haven’t been able to finish setting it up yet.”

  “You mean you keep forgetting,” Delaney clarified.

  “Well, yeah. Coop’s been…occupying all my time.”

  Delaney leaned over the couch to speak to me. “And if you don’t find the time to speak with him, I’m going to come knocking on your door.” She smiled and slowly turned to look at Coop. “I’ve always wanted to try a threesome.”

  He shoved back from the couch and pulled out his phone. “Tony, I need you over here at Becky’s…No, now…Yes…No, you need to drop everything…” He glanced over at Delaney and then turned away from us, talking as quietly as he could. “Because she’s cock blocking me, man. She said she wanted to try a threesome…Because I don’t want to have a threesome with her…” He hit the button on his phone and grinned at me. “He’ll be right over.”

  “There, see? Problem solved.”

  “Perfect,” she said cheerily. “I’ll go get dressed. You two should…put your clothes back on.”

  I glanced at Coop in disappointment. I had really been hoping that we would be in for the rest of the night. “Does that mean I don’t get my Kung Pow Chicken?”

  “Look, we’ll just put it away for now. I’m sure that they’ll hit it off and we won’t have to stick around long. Then we’ll have as much time to ourselves as we want.”

  “You’re forgetting something.”

  “What’s that?”

  “He lives in the panic room. She can’t just come and go as she wants, which means he’s going to be spending his time here if they hit it off.”

  “Oh, shit,” he groaned, tossing his head back as he screamed at the ceiling. “Why? Fuck, I just want one night where she isn’t banging on the walls.”

  “Well, at least she won’t be banging on the walls for us to be quiet.”

  “Yeah, but I wasn’t looking to go into competition with them.”

  I grinned and snatched his arm, pulling him back toward me. “We’ll just have to prove that we can be louder. Then they’ll want to go somewhere else.”

  “I can definitely do that,” he said with a grin.

  Twenty minutes later, Tony was knocking on our door. Coop answered it, thinking he could ask for a favor, but before he got a word out, Delaney was shoving him out of the way.

  “So, you’re Tony Tacos.”

  He rolled his eyes. “It’s Tony Russo. Just Tony. There’s no taco in my name. I’m not even fucking Mexican. I’m Italian.”

  Delaney shrugged. “So, just Tony, where are you taking me tonight?”

  “We,” Tony stressed, “are going out to the shooting range.”

  “The…” Delaney glanced back at me with a what the fuck expression.

  “Hey, you wanted one of them. This is what they do.”

  Her lips thinned, but she grabbed her stuff and followed Tony out the door. This was good. It would give her the chance to see him the way he truly was and not what she had worked up in her head.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Coop whispered as we walked out the door.

  “It’s sink or swim time,” I said on a sigh.

  “Yeah, but…aren’t you afraid he’s going to shoot her?”

  “I have a feeling that he’s going to love standing behind her and showing her how to hold his weapon,” I grinned.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  “God, I think my eyes are burning,” Coop muttered. “Can’t they take that shit somewhere else?”

  I smirked up at him, glad that he wasn’t groping me right now the way Tony was groping Delaney. This wasn’t even foreplay. This was…it was basically sex without actual penetration. The glass around their cube was fogged up and the lack of a visual on their hands made me think that there was definitely something going down in there.

  “Well, the good news is that we can sneak out at any time. They seem to have this covered.”

  “But I haven’t had a chance to show you my gun,” he said quietly, licking my ear as his hand slid around my waist. Desire pooled between my legs and my body betrayed me by pushing back against
his growing erection. I wouldn’t be them. I wouldn’t fuck Coop in the middle of the gun range. But that didn’t mean that I couldn’t find somewhere else to have some fun.

  I snatched his hand and pulled him along after me. We hadn’t actually done any shooting, so we didn’t need to unload our weapons. We had been too busy watching what was happening between Tony and Delaney. With a quick nod to the man behind the counter, we headed outside and Coop hoisted me up into the truck. It wasn’t even two seconds later that he was slamming his door and we were heading away from the gun range. The need to have him was too strong, and I found myself unbuckling and moving across the console to get to him.

  “Becky, that’s not safe,” Coop groaned as I ran my hand across his erection. “Put your seatbelt back on.”

  I bit my lip and undid his pants, shoving them down so I could get to what I wanted. He wasn’t exactly fighting me since he lifted his ass to help me out. I felt the truck jerk and then pull to a stop. Coop slammed the truck into park and hauled me out of the truck, throwing me over his shoulder as he made his way toward the field.

  “Coop, what are you doing?”

  “Fucking you.”

  “But we’re outside!”

  “You started this,” he said, slapping me on the ass.

  “I did? You started that shit about me seeing your gun!”

  “Hey, I was happy to fuck you at the house. You’re the one that me call Tony Tacos over.”

  “Yeah, because I wanted to be alone with you.”

  “Well, now we’re alone,” he said as he tossed me down on the ground, just barely catching me before my ass landed hard. His body covered mine and his mouth latched onto mine. My hands flew to his zipper and yanked down his pants that he had pulled up at some point. I barely had his pants shoved down when he started tearing at my leggings. I heard the rip, but I didn’t care when he shoved inside me and started fucking me hard and fast.

  I gasped when something sharp poked me in the back, but then his hands were all over me, caressing me and rubbing me to orgasm. I lost all sense of time and sense. All I cared about was getting off and feeling him come inside me. His kiss swallowed my scream as he fucked me into the ground. My body shuddered as I took in every last inch of him and then clenched tight, holding him inside me.