Cooper beams and takes a step toward me. “Is that a challenge, stubborn?”
I shrug nonchalantly. “I’d say it’s more of a general rule at this point.”
“Oh? Is it? Is there a rule against telling you I can’t wait to put a baby in you, and I’ll take our sweet time doing it?” he asks.
I take a step back toward my room. But then I stop.I should change the sheets.
“Sir, I need a ring on my finger for that.” I wiggle my ring finger for emphasis.
“That can be arranged,” Cooper says, meeting me step for step.
“Sounds like we both have work to do.”
Cooper throws his head back and laughs.
“I’m pretty sure it takes both of us to make all of those things happen.”
“I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” I ask him.
Before I can turn and run to my room, he grabs me by the waist and pushes me against the wall, pinning me with his thigh between my legs. One hand on the wall next to my head and the other on my ribs. I lay my head back against the wall and wait for him to make the next move. He pushes his thigh higher, and I inhale sharply, hooking my leg around him, searching for friction. “I missed this mouth,” he mumbles taking my lips.
My back arches and our tongues graze. The kiss goes fromI missed youto I’mravenousfor you.
He grips my thigh, practically lifting me off the ground. My shorts and the angle of his thigh press in right where I need him and relieve the throbbing between my legs for a breath. “Coop,” I whine.
“Tell me,” he says, breathless as his mouth trails down my neck and across my chest.
“My sheets aren’t clean,” I blurt.
He pulls back with furrowed eyebrows. “I’m sorry you’re more focused on the cleanliness of your sheets instead of the way I’m going to devour you?”“Uh, no?” I say.
Cooper chuckles and shakes his head. “I don’t care.”
“I cried in them a lot…” I trail off.
“Well, we’re about to sweat on them too, so…” he says, grabbing the hem of my tank top to take it off.
I reach for his t-shirt and freeze, staring at his chest in shock. Next to his tattoo of Naomi’s birth flower ismine,a peony. “Is this…” I rasp, at a loss for words.
“Yes,” he says.
“Why?” I ask him, flabbergasted.
“I told you, stubborn. I knew you were mine at the end of our first date. You told me when your birthday was, and that about sums it up.”
“But I could have left, broke it off.”
He chuckles and reaches for my mouth. “I’m aware, but when I realized how I feel about you, it didn’t matter how long it took to get there. I love you and I wanted my girls on my heart forever.”
I trace the lines and trail my hands down his firm stomach to his happy trail, then back up to his shoulders.
“I love it when you do that,” he says, watching me.
“Do what?” I ask tracing the tattoo.
“Touching me as if I can give you the world.”
I look up, and he smiles.
