by Megan Smith
“Missed what?” Logan asks.
“The free porn, hell, if it’s like this around here all the time, I may be staying a little longer.” Zeke’s voice fades the further away they get down the hallway.
I reach down between us and dip a finger into the waistband of his sweatpants. “You need a little help?”
Cooper grips my hand in a flash and pins it to the wall above my head. “If you touch me they’re going to get more than a preview,” he groans. The look he gives me causes major butterflies in my stomach.
My lips curl into a smile. I love that I have this much control over Cooper. I never thought things would be like this between us. He has always been so gentle with me. Since his season ended back in October, and we’ve been spending more time together, he can’t seem to keep his hands off of me. It’s probably all the denial from our many years not being together reaching the surface. He’s taught me a thing or two about my own body. He knows when I need the gentle and slow and when I need the hard and fast.
“Maybe later?” I ask hopeful.
“Not a fucking maybe about it, more like definitely later,” Cooper quips right back. “The second I know we won’t have an audience, you’re fucking mine.” As he says the last few words he grinds his hips against me showing me just how bad he still wants me.
I place a simple kiss on his lips and slip around him knowing he needs a minute to calm down before we can go out there with our friends.
Now I wish Mason would have asked if we minded having them stay here at our house rather than just telling us we had roommates for a few days. It’s fine that they’re here but in this moment I wish they weren’t. We had more than enough room here and there was no point in having them waste money staying in Atlantic City, where the wedding is being held, when no one was going to be there. It would be a nice distraction from thinking about my mom constantly, too. I wanted to keep my normal routine with sleeping at my mom’s like I do during the season but mom isn’t having that. I even tried again once she got out of the hospital but she told me if I did she’d just have Hunter change the locks. Well played, mom, well played.
Cooper gives me his signature smirk and grabs my hand. We walk hand-in-hand out into the living room where we are greeted with all-knowing smiles. I sneak a peek up at Cooper, who I find glaring at everyone. I chuckle lightly to myself and take a seat at the kitchen table on the other side of the living room.
“Now, now,” Zeke provokes Cooper. “No need for the death glare.”
“Go fuck yourself,” Cooper spits back at him causing everyone to laugh.
“What’s for dinner?” Logan asks. He leans back against the couch, arms stretched high up in the air.
“What are you cooking?”
Logan whirls around. “Me?”
I nod.
“Um…”
Nikki laughs and bumps her shoulder into Logan. “Relax. She’s only kidding.”
Glancing over to the clock noticing it’s just about dinnertime, I walk into the kitchen, pull out the hamburger meat, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and sour cream. Bentley takes a seat at the kitchen table watching me place everything on the counter. Logan joins him followed by Zeke.
Nikki saunters into the kitchen shaking her head. “You’d think they never eat.”
I huff. “You mean to tell me that you don’t cook for them?”
She looks at me with a shocked expression. “Hell fucking no,” then she starts busting out laughing. “Those days are long over. They need to fend for themselves.”
Logan grabs a banana from the bowl on the table and peels it open. “She used to love us but told us she needed to cut the strings.”
Zeke looks pained by the proclamation. “Saddest day of my life.”
Cooper stomps into the kitchen and points to the stuff I grabbed from the fridge. “Get to work.” Then he opens a cabinet and pulls out a few bowls and puts them near the other things.
All three sets of eyes bug out and stare at Cooper like he’s lost his mind. “And what the hell are you going to do?” Zeke speaks up.
“Watch.”
I snort. Payback’s a bitch.
Nikki peels the plastic off the meat while I grab the pan from the cabinet. She tosses it in and I start the stove. Cooper comes up behind me, reaches over top of me and grabs the three taco boxes then sets them down on the counter. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I could have done that,” Bentley pipes up.
“You could have,” Cooper quips back. “But you aren’t touching her.”
And this is how the rest of dinner goes. Nikki gets the shells ready to go into the oven while I season and cook up the meat. Bentley, Logan and Zeke work on all the fixings and Cooper leans back against the counter and keeps watch.
Cooper passes a beer along to the guys, and then hands me and Nikki our margaritas that he fixed up for us like I asked.
Zeke raises his beer and everyone follows. “To Taco Tuesday.”
We all turn our heads toward Zeke but it’s Nikki who points out it’s not Tuesday. “You do realize it’s Sunday, right?”
Zeke shrugs. “So?”
“Taco Tuesday.” The rest of us say together clanking our glasses laughing.
“Isn’t it Tuesday somewhere on this planet?” a grin gracing his face.
It’s quiet for all of about ten minutes while everyone digs in. All the food is gone leaving only a few pieces of cracked taco shells. I swear, for as lean and fit as they all are, they know how to put some food away.
“Well, that went fast,” Nikki comments, looking to each of the guys around the table. Their eyes are slightly closed and they’re leaning back in their chairs. Finally, they are all content with full stomachs.
“Anyone want another?” Cooper asks holding his now empty beer bottle up in the air.
“Yeah,” echoes from Zeke and Bentley but Logan declines.
“One beer queer,” Zeke teases Logan.
“I’m still recovering from last night, asshole,” Logan barks.
“Now, now, children,” Nikki snorts.
My God I could never live with them. I don’t know how in the hell Hailey did it.
“So, have you seen Hailey’s dress yet?” Nikki asks me with a twinkle in her eye.
“Yup. It’s beautiful. I can’t wait to see Masey’s face,” Cooper folds himself back into his chair beside me. “Hailey found the dress she wanted but they only had it in New York so the three of us,” I nod towards Cooper, “went up there to get it.”
“Ekk, I can’t wait to see her in it. How are Hunter and MacKenzie doing? I’ve really only talked to them over Facebook recently.”
I hesitate a few beats too long. Cooper answers for me as my thoughts go directly to my mom. “They’re doing real good. Chaos is being his typical two-year-old self and Olivia has her daddy wrapped around her finger.”
Cooper rests his hand on my upper thigh giving it a little squeeze. I smile up at him letting him know that I’m okay even though I feel the need to call my mom.
Nikki shakes her head. “I’ve really got to hand it to Hailey, though. I don’t know how she manages to juggle twins by herself.”
I shrug. “We’re all around to help her when she actually lets us.”
“Speaking of help with the twins,” Mason says suddenly appearing in the kitchen out of nowhere. He should have been here an hour ago for dinner.
“What if I was fucking Jay on the couch, dickhead?” Cooper throws at his brother. They got into a little bit of a fight a few weeks ago when Mason walked in on us. Thankfully, he only got a glimpse at Cooper’s ass but boy he was not happy about that.
Mason shrugs and looks at the empty baking sheet. “You weren’t, so it doesn’t matter.” He glances at Nikki. “Are you still looking to move up here?”
She shakes her head. “Yeah, why?”
“We need a nanny,” Mason tosses over his shoulder while he roots through our fridge. “Hailey needs help even if
she won’t admit she does.”
“Hailey is not going to like this idea,” I sing.
He pushes the door closed with his hip as his hands are full with lunchmeat and mustard. “She won’t like it if it’s someone she doesn’t know.” He sits everything down on the table. “Plus, she likes Nikki.” Mason takes two slices of bread and tosses them on the table. “You could move in with us, help Hailey with the babies until you’re able to find a job.”
Nikki is looking to move to New Jersey after school is out for the summer. She’s getting her degree in education and this is where she wants to teach. When I first heard the news, I thought she wanted to move here just to be closer to my brother. But, now with him being married and Nikki and MacKenzie being such good friends, I know her intentions are good.
“Um, are you sure?” Nikki pipes up.
Mason gives her one of his devilish smiles. “Yup, and even if Hailey tries to fight it she won’t kick you out.”
To my left, Bentley snorts very loudly. “Guy thinks he has everything figured out. Just wait till he’s married.”
“I heard that.”
“I wasn’t trying to be quiet. You realize you’re going to be handing over your balls to Hailey in two days right?”
“I’ll gladly hand them over,” Mason answers proudly grabbing himself.
“Dear God,” I mutter.
“What are you ‘dear Godding’ about over there? It’s only a matter of time before Cooper here hands over his balls to you.”
Cooper winks at me but says nothing to defend himself. A little excitement grows deep inside me at the thought of Cooper wanting to marry me. We’ve talked about it briefly but never in detail. He’s doing his baseball thing, he’s got Fierce to run, and I’m still in school. Then as quickly as the excitement came, a pang of sadness hits me square in the chest as I think about my mom and wonder if she’ll be around to see me get married.
Cooper
Tuesday morning I wake up to the smell of bacon cooking and my stomach growls loudly. I wrap my arms around Jaylinn and pull her back against my chest.
“I don’t want to get up yet,” I murmur.
Jaylinn reaches for my phone on the night stand. “It’s eleven-thirty.”
I bury my head into the pillow. “I don’t care.”
She giggles. “You can’t stay in bed. I’m starving.”
She attempts to get out of bed but I have other ideas. Ideas that will fill her up in a different way and are going to make her scream my name.
Finally emerging from our room an hour later we waltz into the kitchen and find that there is no bacon left. Jaylinn glares at me. I hold my hands up. “It’s not my fault they never stop eating.”
She pushes against my chest. “I know but I’m starving and I really wanted bacon.”
Nikki and Logan walk out from the back bedroom. Nikki is walking backwards down the hall so I can’t see her face but I can see Logan’s. He is staring at her like he wants to drag her ass back into that room and fuck the hell out of her. My eyes go wide in surprise; I didn’t realize they were hooking up. I wonder if Bentley knows what is going on with them. As Nikki prances by us, she whispers to Jaylinn. “Check the microwave.”
She darts over towards it, pop the door open and if she could hold a pitch she’d be singing with how happy she is that she has bacon to eat. She doesn’t wait another second and pops a piece into her mouth. I reach over her shoulder to grab a piece for myself but Jaylinn smacks my hand away. “Get your own.”
I pout but only for a second. I decide to let her eat all the bacon herself since I did keep her tied up in bed this morning. I settle with a bowl of cereal and take a seat at the table.
“When are we heading down to Atlantic City?” Nikki asks sitting at the other end of the table with a cup of coffee.
Cooper shrugs. “Check-in is at four so we’ll probably leave here around three. We’ve got to go pick up the tuxes on the way, too.”
Nikki fixes her coffee, adding sugar and creamer into it. “Okay,” she raises the mug up to her lips but Logan swoops in and takes it from her hands. “You’re such a dick.”
Logan waggles his eyebrows. “I’ll show you a dick.”
“What dick, you don’t have one,” Nikki glares at him.
“Ohhh, got him!” Bentley and Zeke say from their places in the living room.
Cooper snorts and I bust out laughing at the look on Logan’s face. He’s stunned and doesn’t even have a comeback.
This is what I need. I need a distraction from all the worry in my life over my mom, my classes that would be starting up again soon, Cooper going back to being on the road all the time, and just this soul sucking weight I’m carrying on my shoulders.
Later that day, after we’re all checked into the hotel, we all decide to meet down at the casino. Mom and dad have all the grandbabies in their room for a while so Hailey, Mason, MacKenzie, Hunter, Jackson, and Chloe are joining us.
We started out as a large group but the more we stroll around the fewer there are of us, as we all go our separate ways. Logan and Nikki stopped at a machine they both liked, Bentley is at the bar, and Zeke is talking to some girl. Hunter and MacKenzie stop at some card table, Mason and Hailey are on Black Jack, and Jackson and Chloe, well, I’m not sure where they are off to.
“So, what do you feel like playing?”
Jaylinn’s eyes are wild and excited. “That.” She points to three card poker.
“Okay.”
We walk over to the table that has two empty seats next to each other. When Jaylinn sits I have to stifle a groan because her dress rides up her fucking legs almost to the point of indecency. They’re one of my favorite parts about her, those damn legs, fucking perfect. Tan, toned, long enough to wrap around my waist and that is my favorite part. When I take a seat I angle my body towards her and she does the same so that her legs are in between mine. It’s the little things Jaylinn does that speak volumes to me and she doesn’t even realize it.
Jaylinn reaches into her purse pulling out two hundred dollars and I do the same.
The dealer gives us our chips and we make our bet. My first hand I get a pair of kings, I decide to hold and hope I beat the dealers. I glance over to Jaylinn’s cards, she’s got two nines from the two cards that I can see, and she holds as well. The dealer flips his card.
Two of spades, eight of hearts, and a queen of diamonds.
The dealer goes through the first three people at the table and then comes to Jaylinn. He flips the cards revealing that Jaylinn had the only pair. She glances over at me and winks. The dealer pays her and then moves on to my cards; I’ve won, too.
The next round I don’t get shit and bail out. Jaylinn’s leg starts to bounce up and down giving away that she has something good.
“What do you have?”
She shakes her head at me with a smile.
The dealer flips Jaylinn’s cards revealing a flush; three, seven and eight of clubs. I look over at the dealer’s hand and see that he has a nine and king of clubs and an ace of hearts. She just hit it four to one and also twenty to one on the six card bonus.
I reach over and place my hand on her bare thigh. “That’s the way you do it.”
A few hours have passed and Jaylinn is still continuing to kill it on this table. Eventually Mason and Hailey find us. “We’re going to bed,” Mason announces.
I look down at my watch. “Already?” It’s not even eleven.
A knowing grin spreads across his face. “Yeah.”
Hailey pats Mason on his chest. “Oh no,” she shakes her head. “You and your super sperm are not sleeping in the same bed as me. You’re on the bed with Caleb tonight.”
Mason groans. “See what I’ve got to put up with?”
“You’re going to be putting up with a lot more if you can’t control yourself for one night.”
“Control?” Mason smacks her on her ass. “I’ll show you control.”
“Goodnight, guys.” I say swinging
back around to watch Jaylinn collect her winnings again.
“You ready to go?” Jaylinn asks.
“Whenever you are.”
She leans over and whispers in my ear. “Think you can control me?” Then her tongue grazes my ear and I’m done.
I help her grab all her chips shoving them in my pockets then I’m hauling her to our room where I’ll show her just how much I can control that fucking body of hers for hours.
It’s the afternoon of the wedding. Jaylinn is already up in our hotel room claiming she has to go to Hailey’s room to get her hair and makeup done. I don’t know how she’s even able to be up and functioning, much less walking, after all the hours of controlling her every movement last night. I’m sore so I know she has to be. I smile to myself, good, she’ll be thinking about me all day. Every time she tries to sit she’ll remember me smacking her ass until it was that perfect shade of red. Every time she tries to walk, that little discomfort she has will remind her that I was buried deep inside her until she was panting and screaming for more. Those bite marks on her stomach and tits are a reminder that I was there, too. I was fucking everywhere last night.
Jaylinn leans over the bed and kisses my shoulder. I’m half tempted to pull her back into this bed since I’m hard thinking about all the things I did to her body last night. “I love you.”
I roll onto my back so that I can face her. Her hair is up in some messy bun but her face and body are clean from her quick shower. I reach up and tuck a piece of hair behind her ear. “I love you, too.”
“I’ll see you later tonight.”
“Are you sore?”
The corner of her lip pulls up and she squeezes her legs together. “Nope, not at all.”
Smartass. “I guess I didn’t do my job as well as you told me I did last night. I’ll have to fix that tonight.”
“Guess you will.”
I slide my hands behind her neck and pull her down to me. “Or we can fix that now.”
She slinks away. “Oh no, I’ve gotta go.”
I sit up and the sheet falls down to my lap. Jaylinn’s eyes travel the length of my torso and she licks her lips. “No one will notice if you’re a few minutes late.”