I didn’t reply. Couldn’t even muster a response, because I knew what I was about to do and if I spoke or thought of consequences or barriers, I was going to think about all the reasons whyI shouldn’t. Stepping forward, I crowded her with my body, ignoring the way my heartbeat thrummed in my ears and my conscious screamed at me to retreat. My willpower, strong as an ox for all these years, was pulled as tight as it could go and I knew it was about to snap.
CHAPTER 14
Eva
Cooper watched me intensely, his sharpened gaze sending a shiver down my spine. When I saw him pacing, I thought he was angry. His scowl was heavy, and he appeared fidgety. Only when his gaze travelled from the top of my head down to the heels I was wearing did I realise his scowl was coming from an entirely different emotion.
One which, as he stepped into my space, caused desire to pool in my veins, slow and simmering. I’d spent the afternoon glued to him, maintaining the facade of the dutiful betrothed couple, only now, as he crowded me with determination in those steely blues, did I question the facade. Because the unexpected warmth of his hand as it came around to my lower back holding me in place didn’t feel fake. Nor did the soft swipe of his thumb across my lower lip.
“I don’t think I am okay,” he breathed, speaking entirely to my mouth. His scent was a physical caress, his touch propriety and desire burned in my blood. He was looking at me in a way I’d never seen before and I wondered if he felt that same pull, that same longing pressing against his ribs, insistent and unyielding.
“Oh,” I mouthed, realisation dawning on a bone deep level.
His eyes flicked up towards mine for the briefest moment and I was instantly drunk on the power of the lust I saw.
He wanted me – that much was obvious – but whether this was part of the ruse I couldn’t be sure.
“Evy,” the name reserved for his mouth alone fell and I sucked in a breath.
Nerves fluttered to life in the pit of my stomach. Twenty years of wishing he would look at me like this was my last coherent thought before his hands were in my hair and his mouth came down on mine. The intensity of his lips against my own was matched by the feral rumble emanating from somewhere deep inside his chest and refusing to overthink, I opened for him. His tongue claimed mine with a desperation that left no room for air, my fists knotting in his shirt as I pulled him closer.
As close as I could possibly get him to me.
Suddenly starving. Suddenly aching.
Only the closer I dragged him, the more ravenous he became - his mouth devouring mine, his grip tightening until my back arched into him desperate to feel him everywhere.
Never in my wildest dreams, I thought, as his hands moved up my sides, cupping my neck. How long I’d wished for him to do this very thing and now, when I least expected it, I was entirely at his mercy as he backed me into the wall and encased me with his body.
Screw dinner, Cooper’s kiss served an entree, main and dessert of everything I needed, as if the menu was designed for me alone.
His hips pressed into me, and I almost wept at the unmistakable feel of his arousal. Need throbbed beneath my skin as my fingers entangled and tugged at his hair. Another move I’d thought about far too many times. Boldly, my hands skated across his shoulders before slipping beneath his shirt and grazing his warm, bare back. Lust coursed through me, and I wanted to strip naked and bare myself to him. My body was climbing, my mind a firing range of thoughts, each filthier than the last. CooperDane was kissing me as though the world started and ended with us, right here in his living room.
As if this wasn’t just a ruse and he wasn’t my brother’s best-friend.
Almost like he plucked my thoughts straight from my head, he backed away abruptly with a heaving chest and swollen mouth.
“Shit,” he panted, his tongue darting out almost daringly and his fingers gripping his hair in the same place mine had been only moments ago. Only this was a Cooper speciality - a telltale sign of his unease and my first instinct was to comfort him. To close the gap between us and reassure him, but right now I couldn’t trust myself not to mount him like a tree. Because like forbidden fruit, I wanted more. Was starving for more.
That was a kiss I would be telling my grandchildren about one day. That was an,I’m going to take up poetry so I can immortalise that moment, kind of kiss, and by the terror in his eyes, he knew it too. And it terrified him as much as it turned him on. I’d had a long time to wish for this and I wasn’t sure he was in the same place judging by the shock and confusion evident on his face.
There were a dozen reasons why we shouldn’t have crossed that line. But no one had been here to witness it - the urgency, the heat, the way it shattered any illusion that either of us were insouciant to the bond we shared. And that was both a blessing and a curse. I couldn’t imagine rationalising any of this to myself let alone trying to explain it to someone else.
“Ummm,” I straightened my jacket, the disarray only further highlighting the intensity of what just happened. “I should probably go.”
His eyes stayed locked on mine, silent and unreadable, and the weight of that wordless stare - of standing frozen in the unknown - finally became too much. I grabbed my purse off the floor and all but bolted for my car, a mess of emotions swirling inside me, none of which I had the time to unpack before dinner.
CHAPTER 15
Cooper
Iwatched her drive away, my breathing still laboured, my mind a mess.
I kissed her.
I blurred the lines of everything and acted on an impulse beyond my control. I was spiralling, desperate for her to stay, and painfully aware I had no right to ask, and then she came out looking like my fantasy came to life. A pair of jeans painting every curve, a thin blue shirt which sat just above her waist showcasing the smallest amount of skin, and those fucking heels. I couldn’t not imagine her wearing only those and when she’d asked me if I was okay, any doubts about how I really felt, vanished.
I wanted her.
