“You…got to move. Please.”
“Oh, I will. But I’m not going easy on you, baby. I want to take you for a ride,” he purred.
“Quit promising me a good time and fucking do?—”
I didn’t finish that sentence. Nor did I attempt speech for a few minutes. I clawed at the sheets, arching into every thrust, grunting as Cooper pounded into me, massaging my prostate in a frenzy. He wouldn’t let me touch myself.
“Mine,” he growled, his hands on my shoulders as he fucked me so hard my cock bounced against my lower abs. “Look…look in the mirror, baby. Look at yourself. Look at us.”
Huh?Cooper guided my chin and pointed at the open door to the bathroom and our reflection in the mirror over the marble sink. Me on my knees, face flushed, biceps flexed and straining to stay upright as the beast of a lumberjack drilled my ass from behind.
Christ, I almost came on the spot.
“I have to…you have to…”
Cooper slowed, rolling his hips languidly. “Yes. But I don’t want to stop. We look good together. My cock in your hole.”
I moaned. “Come on. Do it. Come in me.”
He squeezed his eyes shut and let go, pistoning his hips and barking an order to touch myself. I was a goner almost immediately, and Cooper was right there with me.
I didn’t try to move. I lay flat on the mattress in the middle of the wet spot and concentrated on breathing.
“Are you okay?” he asked, resting a hand on my left ass cheek.
I lifted my head and grinned. “Yeah. I’m good. So good.”
Cooper smiled fondly. “Me too. You’re so…beautiful. Lavender really is your shade.”
“Okay…fuck you, asshole.”
He chortled merrily, tickling my sides till I twisted around, almost bopping his nose. We wrestled like schoolboys, made out a bit, and finally agreed we needed showers, stat.
Later, we made dinner and watched the Mets get destroyed by the Dodgers. We talked about the kids I coached and the funny things they said. We talked about Bea Flannigan potentially closing her bakery and what business might take its place. And Cooper shared a story about one of the industrial hydraulic log spitters getting clogged and spewing sawdust in the mill and the blueberry tart his assistant brought to the office that morning.
Neither of us mentioned his ex-wife or the kids or the fact that we had maybe a month left before I’d leave for Boston.
Fine by me.
If I had my way, I’d stay in this bubble forever. It was nice…and safe. And I could kid myself into believing I belonged here. ’Cause damn, I wished I did.
CHAPTER 21
COOPER
“We’re interested. We think it’ll do well and boost the economy in the area. The real question is…how soon can we break ground?”
Hank and I shared shocked expressions over the speaker on his desk.
Hank recovered quickly, adjusting the brim of his Stetson. “If we can get the permits squared away, we should be able to start in September.”
“And that’s for the five initial locations?” Ralph Myers, our lead contact at the investment firm, asked.
I spoke up, shaking my head though the gesture was lost on a conference call. “No, that would be for Wood Hollow. We can pull permits in the other cities, with Rutland being next. We’ll confer with our teams in Burlington, Montpelier, and Albany to give a better estimate for those locations, but realistically, we’d break ground on those within the year.”
Ralph hummed thoughtfully. “And out of curiosity, why wouldn’t we build the first store in a larger town? Wood Hollow is awfully small, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but it’s one of the Four Forest area towns, and it’s booming in Wood Hollow,” Hank said. “We’ve had a populationsurge thanks to the mill. Lots of new housing and jobs. We don’t have corporate business here. No Starbucks, no McDonald’s, no Targets. That won’t change. We prefer artisan coffee and real farm-to-table foods, however…we could benefit from a cohesive hardware and lumber store—an answer to Home Depot. We know there’s a need and a market with an audience who’d rather not drive forty-five minutes to buy DIY supplies. You’ve seen the stats. Our hook is that we’re new yet we have experience, we’re home-grown and committed to providing a quality product. And…a lot of our private investors are professional hockey players.”
