“Sorry,” he said halfway up. The laughter in his voice made me doubt his sincerity.
“I’m starting to think you get off on picking me up,” I said, squeezing my thighs around his waist. The bad one twinged, muscles protesting how much I’d put them through today, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.
“Maybe I do,” Cooper responded as we reached the top of the stairs.
“Bedroom,” I demanded, jerking my head toward it. He’d seen it last time, but the reminder couldn’t hurt.
“Bossy.” Cooper grinned up at me, striding toward the bedroom.
“You love it.”
“I do,” he rumbled, the tips of his ears darkening. Oh, hedidlove it. I hadn’t done as much with that thought as I would’ve liked last time—maybe things would be a little differentthistime.
Cooper set me down on the edge of the bed and dropped to his knees in front of me, sending a surprise jolt of arousal straight to my core. I’d never seen anyone on their knees for me.
I stared at him for a heartbeat, then another, before he broke into a smile so broad it made the corners of his eyes crinkle.
I surged forward, threading my fingers into his curls and catching his mouth in a hard, biting, demanding kiss. If Cooper liked it when I was bossy, I could be bossy.
Probably.
Practice wouldn’t hurt.
“Want you to fuck me,” I said, stomach bottoming out as soon as the words were hanging between us. I didn’t know how to ask for things, and I wasn’t sure how he’d react.
Cooper swallowed, going still. I pulled back just far enough to look him in the eyes, uncertainty curling around my insides until the look on his face registered.
He wanted that, too.
Then his gaze darted to my injured leg. My heart sank.
I took a breath to say something—to tell him it’d be fine, not to worry about it,I’dbe fine, I was fine, I could still do this, it didn’t matter, I was still?—
Cooper’s hand on my knee stopped me.
“I’m not gonna insult you by asking if you’re sure,” he said. “I just don’t wanna hurt you.”
I looked down at his hand. It was resting on my injured leg—he definitely knew which one it was. I’d tried to distract him from the ugly surgical scar that ran up almost half the length of it, but I knew he’d seen it and I knew he’d seen me favoring it.
Then I looked at his face. His open, earnest face that never looked at me with judgement or disgust. Cooper didn’t wrinkle his nose at me, or twist his lip, or roll his eyes, or scoff, or huff. When he looked at me, he looked like he was thrilled to be doing it.
Even now.
“You’re so fucking perfect,” I blurted out, unable to stop myself voicing the thought as it came to me.
Cooper’s brows rose. God, he wassoperfect he was surprised by being called perfect. What a man.
I bent forward to kiss him. Not one of the desperate, biting kisses from earlier, not a fuck-me-now kiss. Gentler, our nosesbrushing together as I pressed my mouth to his, lips soft, fingers threaded into his hair. I lingered, warmth spreading from my lips all the way down to the tips of my toes, making them curl.
By the time I had to pull back to breathe, I was even more sure I needed Cooper tonight. That Ihadto be with him.
“I don’t think there’s a way to do this without hurting me,” I said, rubbing the tip of my nose against his. I loved his nose, straight and pronounced enough to verge on Roman without quite getting there. I wanted to feel it pressed to my skin, nuzzling me everywhere like he’d nuzzled my head earlier.
“But,” I continued, “I think there’s a way to do it where I accept that, and you trust me to tell you if it’s too much. I’d like to do it that way. Assuming you want?—”
“Oh, Iwant,” Cooper said, pulling back to look me in the eyes. His were dark, pupils blown, and in the light of the bedside lamp I could see a flush to his cheeks that hadn’t been there before.
I wanted to kiss him again.
