Playing Dirty

by Taryn Leigh Taylor

  “Okay, let me know if you have extras. I’ll take whatever you’ve got left. See you Thursday.”

  “What did he want?” Lainey asked, sliding back into the booth.

  Cooper set the phone back on the table. “Advice. Hockey tickets. Food. Has he always been so damn needy?”

  “I...don’t know.”

  Cooper was surprised by the revelation, but even more so by the fact that she seemed just as surprised. “I...well, except for the funeral and all the lawyer stuff that happened with the will, the last time I saw Brett was when he was seven.”

  Cooper had spent his share of time sitting at poker tables, but judging by her scowl, he obviously needed to work on his poker face.

  “My dad was an asshole. He left us, me and my mom. Walked right out the day after my tenth birthday, and you know what he said to me? ‘Later, kiddo.’ That’s it. And then I didn’t see him again until he and his shiny new family came by because, ‘Brett should get to know his sister.’ I mean, were they serious?

  “My mom cried for a week after that visit. And a week after that, we moved to LA. To ‘start fresh,’ she said. After that, I didn’t see them again until my mom died.”

  Coop moved his hand to cover hers on the table, silently urging her to go on.

  “She was killed in a car accident on her way home from work when I was seventeen. I got shipped back to Portland to live with my dad and his new family while I finished my last semester of high school and counted down the days until I turned eighteen and could head out on my own.

  “I spent six months in their house, with this annoying little kid who wouldn’t leave me alone. ‘C’mon, Elaine! Let’s play street hockey. Wanna play video games? Will you take me to the store to buy some candy?’ He was always right there. Bugging me.”

  The heat left her words somewhere in the middle, as her adult self recognized what her grieving, teenage self hadn’t. Lainey dropped her eyes, and Cooper recognized her shame, because he felt it, too. A twinge of recognition deep in his chest. Will you help me with my slap shot? Wanna grab a drink? What was your first year in the league like? Grown-up equivalents from someone who wanted desperately to fit in.

  Fucking Sillinger, he thought, but all of the heat was self-directed.

  “Sounds like he wanted some company. And to get to know you a little better.”

  Lainey shrugged. “Yeah. I guess. I just... I hated him. Maybe not him, but what he represented. He was my dad’s new kid. My replacement. He had two parents, and I didn’t have anything anymore.” Lainey swiped at her eye with the back of her hand, and Cooper didn’t know what to do. He wanted to hold her, but she would hate that.

  “I was a total asshole to him.” Lainey’s frown was back, and Cooper gave in to his need to touch her, placing his hand on her back. “And later, during my first year of college, when I found out that my dad had gotten divorced again, I was glad. I was glad Brett had to go through what I went through. Had to feel the same pain I felt. That’s so awful. So vindictive.”

  “Hey. You were a kid yourself. And you’d just lost your mom. And you had every right to be mad at your dad. You can’t be so hard on yourself. You were doing the best you could.”

  She was so sad, and Cooper felt like a bit of an ass at the pleasure he took when she tucked herself under his arm, and dropped her forehead on his shoulder. “I shouldn’t have taken it out on Brett. He was seven. He didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “Hey, seven-year-olds can be total bastards. I speak from experience.”

  The words were out of Cooper’s mouth before he’d thought them through—a truth meant to soothe her guilt, at least a little, but also an unintended glimpse into one of the worst years of his childhood. He didn’t want to talk about it, was usually careful not to bring it up.

  “I’ll bet. You were a real hell-raiser, huh?”

  Cooper tried not to be hurt that she assumed he was talking about having been a bully, when he was the one who’d been mercilessly picked on back then. But it was better than her knowing why he’d been the target...at least until he’d hit a growth spurt in junior high, and cool stopped being about what happened in the classroom and started being about clothes and sports and girls. That was when he’d figured out that fitting in was about putting on a good show. And he’d been performing ever since.

  Which was the reason he shot her a cocky smile. “You know it. Ladies love it when you’ve got a bit of the devil in you.”

  She straightened up, using the lifeline he’d thrown to find her way out of their earlier conversation, putting herself back together right in front of his eyes. “Oh, ladies do, do they?”

  Cooper shifted his hand from her shoulders to the back of the bench, respecting her show of strength but unwilling to move too far from her. “Haven’t heard you complaining.”

  “Then you haven’t been listening very hard.”

  “Sorry, what did you say?”

  Lainey rolled her eyes at the bad joke, reaching for her beer.

  “I’m serious! I was very distracted. I don’t know if you know this, but I find a woman drinking a longneck intensely erotic. I’ve always had a thing for smokin’ hot women who have a bit of that ‘one of the guys’ mentality.”

  Lainey smiled and leaned closer to him.

  “I don’t think that’s the reason you like it so much,” she countered, her voice pitched low enough that he leaned a bit closer in response.

  “Oh, no?”

  She shook her head, biting her lip as she squeezed the lime into the bottle with her thumb. She licked the citrus from her thumb, and Cooper might have groaned, but he couldn’t be sure.

  “You want to know what I think it is?”

  Cooper managed a nod.

  Lainey made him wait for it, wrapping her fingers around the Corona with deliberate precision before bringing the beer to her lips for a long pull.

  His gaze never left her mouth as she lowered the bottle and licked her lips.

  Cooper set his jaw against the sudden hunger in his belly. Hunger that had nothing to do with tacos.

  “I think it’s because men are easily turned on by penis metaphors,” she finished, quirking a brow as she drew the pad of her thumb across her bottom lip.

  Judging by the effect her calculated seduction was having on a certain part of his anatomy, he was in no position to dispute her theory. “So what do you think, Slick? Am I right?”

  “About me being turned on? Definitely.”

  Their server chose that auspicious moment to show up and announce, “Here are your chicken tacos, one with extra meat.”

  “Tiffany, your timing could not be better. We were just discussing the merits of extra meat, weren’t we, Lainey?”

  His comment startled a laugh from Lainey, but Tiffany remained unflappable.

  “Whatever. Here’s your side of guac. Enjoy.”

  “You are a twelve-year-old boy,” Lainey admonished, digging into her tacos.

  “I really am.”

  “I think Tiffany there is the first woman I’ve seen who would definitely not sleep with you.”

  “Luckily for me, she’s not the woman I was hoping to impress.”

  Lainey gave him a playful scowl. “I thought we agreed this wasn’t a date.”

  “Well, that’s a relief. Because if was a date, it would be going really well.”

  “You think?”

  “Oh, definitely. Good food, cold beer, dirty jokes, sexual tension. If this was a date, I’d definitely be getting lucky tonight.”

  “I know you think this Mr. Charming routine is going to make me change my mind, but you’re still not getting in my pants.”

  “Lucky for me, you’re not wearing pants, so I can hold out hope.”

  “Eat your tacos.”

  Coop
er smiled and followed orders.

  * * *

  THEIR LEVEL OF the parkade was completely deserted when they spilled out of the elevator, laughing. Lainey’s footsteps echoed in the cavernous concrete structure, the hard soles of her sandals in direct contrast to Cooper’s stealthier suede boots.

  The Maserati was parked on an angle near a pillar on the far end of the structure, the buzzing light illuminating the side closest to them, leaving the far side of the vehicle in shadow.

  “I feel like we’re in a car commercial.” She looked over at Cooper—dark good looks, stylishly messy hair, black dress shirt open at the collar, cuffs rolled up his forearms—and amended her statement. “Or a music video.”

  “I’m surprised it’s so dead up here. Especially since the restaurant was so busy.”

  “It’s Tuesday night,” Lainey offered by way of explanation.

  “In New York, that’s no excuse.”

  “It’s not in LA, either. But I kind of like cities that don’t try quite so hard. Sometimes the bustle is overwhelming. It’s easier to get lost in, but that can make it hard to find yourself.”

  Cooper nodded thoughtfully. “I didn’t know you were such a philosopher. So, are you trying to get lost or get found?”

  The sudden depth of the conversation made Lainey feel like she was drowning. “I’m just here for the tacos.”

  “Hey, nothing wrong with tacos,” he agreed, letting her off the hook, although the look on his handsome face let her know that she hadn’t escaped; he’d let her get away.

  They walked in silence, except for steady slap of her sandals, their hands still clasped, and Lainey leaned her head against his broad shoulder. Her free hand came across her body so she could trace her fingers down the ink that swirled across his forearms.

  “I had fun tonight,” she confessed, but in the echo chamber of the parking garage, it came out louder than she’d intended. Or maybe it only felt loud because she meant it so much.

  Cooper’s hand tightened in hers as they approached the car.

  She’d thought he’d meant it in an encouraging, “me, too” kind of way as he walked her to the passenger door, but when she glanced up, it wasn’t to find the easy smile she expected. He looked dangerous, bathed in shadows, like the kind of guy mothers warned their daughters about.

  “The night’s not over.”

  The simple words laden with so much meaning made her mouth go dry.

  He let go of her hand and ran his knuckles up her arm, from wrist to elbow, then higher and higher still until he encountered the strap of her dress. He tugged it down baring her shoulder, and dipped his head to kiss the spot he’d revealed. Lainey’s head fell back, rewarding Cooper with unfettered access, and he took advantage, kissing the pulse point at the base of her neck, his playoff stubble scraping the tender skin.

  “That tickles,” she breathed as her cheek came to rest against his ear. He kissed and licked his way up her throat, nipped the sensitive skin behind her ear. “Tell me to stop.”

  “Not yet.”

  Cooper grabbed her hips, his grip biting into her skin through the thin material of her dress, and she shivered despite the heat. Aching for him. Her body strained for his touch, and a warm rush of tingling heat settled at the apex of her thighs. Her skin was a magnet, so desperate to be pressed against his that she could feel herself swaying close, closer, but thanks to the barrier of their clothes, not close enough.

  “I want you. I want on top of you, inside you, all of you.”

  Lainey bit her bottom lip, entranced by the rough declaration, the baritone of his voice rumbling through her chest, through every part of her.

  He groaned. “Your mouth makes me want to do dirty things to you.”

  Her smile was feral, and she watched in fascination as his Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed. “Jesus, Lainey. Don’t look at me like that.” His fingers flexed against her hips in warning, biting into her skin, and his body grew rigid—his biceps, his shoulders, his pecs. Even the set of his jaw.

  “Like what?” she teased, cocking an eyebrow, issuing a challenge.

  “Like you want me to fuck you right here.”

  She could see it, his full-body battle for control. She could smell the promise of high voltage in the air, like ozone before a thunderstorm. It made her breath come faster. “Maybe I do.”

  That lightning strike she’d been anticipating flashed in his eyes. He took a predatory step forward, forced her back against the car. The heat of him made her melt, but the sudden shock of cool metal and glass against her bare back turned her sigh into a gasp.

  He cursed, almost reverently, and dropped his forehead against hers. She could feel him wrestling for control. “Someone might see us.”

  He was trying to be a gentleman, she knew, but the gesture was wholly unnecessary, and to prove it Lainey reached between them, reveling in his sharp intake of breath as she tugged his belt loose. “Then we’d better hurry.” She lifted her head, felt his shaky exhalation against her mouth, and bit his bottom lip.

  His hands tunneled through her hair, bracing her head as he covered her lips with his, working her mouth with such focused desperation that she thought she might die of pleasure. Then he wedged a leg between hers and her dress rode up until his thigh pressed intimately between her legs and she decided there was no better way to go.

  Lainey redoubled her efforts on his belt, desperate to get to the button on his pants, but her clumsy hands fumbled as he kissed her inside out, licking into her mouth, and distracting her with the sweet friction of his thigh against the barrier of her underwear.

  With all the strength she possessed, Lainey pulled her mouth from his and went on offense, spinning him so that their positions were reversed.

  He raised his eyebrows as she shoved him back against the Maserati. She had him unbuckled, unbuttoned and unzipped in seconds. “I told you I wanted you fast,” she reminded him. “Now undo your shirt.”

  Cooper pinned her with smoldering brown eyes, as he began undoing buttons, every movement of his fingers revealing a little more of his chest to her hungry gaze.

  “Your turn.” The challenge in his voice turned her on even more.

  Lainey shimmied her panties down her thighs. “You’ve got a condom, right?”

  She stood up to find him ripping into a square of foil. She didn’t analyze how much of her smile was directly attributable to relief, but she knew it was a lot. “Didn’t know you were such a Boy Scout.”

  Cooper glanced up from the task of sheathing himself. “I wasn’t. Dropped out when I discovered there’s not actually a badge for condom preparedness. Had to strike out on my own to earn those credentials.”

  She licked her lips as he reached for her, pulled her close. “How industrious of you.”

  He tugged her dress up her thighs. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

  Lainey was deliciously light-headed with arousal and danger. She’d never strayed out of the bedroom before, but she understood the appeal now. There was something so hot about the buzz of fluorescent lights, the scent of concrete and gasoline, and the risk of getting caught. Cooper wasn’t even inside her yet, and she was already so turned on that her orgasm felt imminent, pulsing so close to the surface that for once, coming seemed like a “when”, not an “if.”

  Then Cooper grabbed her by the backs of her thighs and pulled her up to his body, swallowing her cry of surprise with his kiss as she wrapped her legs around his waist and held on as he slid inside her body.

  Cooper reversed their positions again, shoving her against the car, and she buried her face in the crook of his neck as he drove inside her again and again as Lainey whispered dirty words of encouragement. This wasn’t about finesse, it was about fucking, and with every thrust, Lainey flew higher and higher. She buried her hand in his hair, tug
ging his head back and kissing him as she came, fast and hard, the sharp contractions of her body pulling him over the edge with her.

  10

  “WHY ARE YOU smiling like that?”

  Lainey looked up from the narrow swath of counter she’d been wiping for who knew how long before Darius’s arrival.

  “What? I’m not smiling like anything.”

  Certainly not like a woman who’d been fucked senseless against a car that was worth a cool two hundred grand. Besides, just because a woman had expanded her sexual repertoire and her list of turn-ons to include sex in a public parking garage didn’t mean she smiled differently.

  She shivered at the memory of Cooper’s gravelly voice. I want you. I want on top of you, inside you, all of you. Everything about last night had been so damn hot.

  “I’m serious, Lainey. Stop. It’s creeping me out.”

  Lainey took a deep breath and schooled her features into her best boss persona. “Fine. But only because I need to talk to you for a second before you start.”

  She motioned toward the empty table near the window, and despite the odd look he gave her, Darius complied.

  She followed him over, preparing herself for what she had to say as she took the seat across from him. This was going to be hard.

  “I know you and I have an unusual working history.”

  The table started to jiggle as Darius bounced the heel of his red hightop against the floor.

  “What’s going on? Are you firing me? This is about the bottle of Crown that got broken the other night, isn’t it? Because my frat will pay for it. It was so busy in here, and Geoff accidentally knocked it off the counter when—”

  “Would you shut up for a second and let me thank you already?”

  Clearly taken aback, Darius snapped his mouth shut. When her words finally registered, he shrugged, modest for the first time since she’d met him. “Don’t mention it.”

  “I wish I didn’t have to,” she admitted, startling a smile from her barkeep. “But we’re kind of a team here, and you stepped up, rallying your frat brothers like that. You saved the day. You did. And I appreciate it.”