by Ashley, Ava
Nate throws his hands up. “My bad, man! You’re right, I’m not marrying Savannah. She’s your girl. But we have to come up with some solution.”
“We can’t turn ourselves in or Cooper and I are dead. You can’t go back without me or your life is fucked,” I say. “We only have one option.”
“We’ll all get new identities,” Cooper said.
“You think the motorcycle clubs don’t have people on the inside in the government?” Nate scoffs. “That would last five minutes, if that, before we would be ratted out.”
“I didn’t say anything about going to the government, did I?” Cooper says. “I will take care of it. We leave tomorrow.”
Nate shakes his head. “Look, man, even if you can get new identities for us that the motorcycle clubs can’t crack and can’t bribe some government official to leak, I can’t go.”
“And why not?” I ask. Is he really going to whine about starting over, because he won’t have his fancy toys anymore? Grow up.
But what he says next is far from what I expected.
“Nikki is pregnant,” Nate says, holding his head in his hands. “With my baby.”
Chapter Eight
Cooper
Fuck.
Up until this point, I was ready to do whatever needed getting done. I was ready to take Nate on the run with us or kill him, his choice. But this? This changes everything.
I can’t take some innocent kid’s dad from him before he’s even born. I never knew my dad. Hell, my mom never even knew who my dad was. Since she was whoring pretty hard back then and didn’t take a pregnancy test until she was almost four months pregnant, there’s a pool of hundreds of nameless guys out there who could theoretically be my dad.
Not having a dad really messed me up. I had to listen to my single mom fake loud porn star orgasms with strange, trashy men in the next room over, because she was out of food stamps and I was a growing kid with a big appetite. I didn’t learn real discipline or how to respect a male authority figure, or any authority figure for that matter, until falling for Sarah gave me the kick I needed to go to the Navy and get my life in order.
I will not do that to some innocent, unborn baby. I am not going to make another kid grow up without a dad, even if that dad is this punk.
But I am also not about to let Savannah die, either.
I get up and pace around the room. I have a crazy idea. Definitely crazy, but sometimes crazy can be just what you need.
“Okay, punk, listen up,” I say, stopping pacing. “We only have one chance to do this and if it’s going to work, you have to be all in. We all have to be all in. If there has ever been a time in your life where you need to man up, where there is no room for error, this is it. But if we pull this off, we, and Nikki, could all walk free. Do you understand?”
Nate nods. “I am all in. What is the plan?”
“When I was tracking Savannah, I went all into her background—looking up everything from birth certificates, to the 103.2 degree fever she had when she had the chicken pox at age five, to the juvenile detention record of her father, Flint Santos, for aggression against an officer of the law.” I look at Savannah. I know it’s pretty fucked up to research someone you’re with, but I didn’t do it out of curiosity. Her big eyes are open wider than normal and I can’t read her in the moment. “Sorry, babe. You know I wouldn’t have gone prying in your background if I didn’t have to. But I needed to find you, fast, and I didn’t know what would provide me with the key to track you down.”
Savannah nods. “It’s okay, baby,” she says. “I understand.” She pauses and gives a little tired laugh, shaking her head. “It’s a little weird to think that you know everything about me and my family now, but I have to admit that I actually feel a little relieved. Babe, don’t worry, I don’t feel at all violated. After keeping such huge secrets from you for such a long time, I’m just relieved that now you know everything there is to know about me. And you still want me.” Despite the terribly somber situation, Savannah smiles and it’s like a million-watt sun breaking through the clouds. I lean over and give her a kiss on her perfect rosy lips.
Nate clears his throat pointedly. “Guys?” he says. “I’m still here, you know.”
I know. I wish you weren’t. Then I could do what I want with this beautiful woman and you better believe it wouldn’t just be a tame kiss on the couch.” The thought gets me going a little, but I hold myself back.
“Anyway,” I say, turning my attention back to Nate, “I found some big things the motorcycle clubs are trying to hide.” Nate leans forward, a little too eager. Savannah shifts on her seat, looking concerned. “Both of them,” I say, directing it at Nate. “Don’t get so excited. This isn’t something you have over the Santoses. Both of the motorcycle clubs They’re both hiding lots of tax fraud.”
Nate rolls his eyes. “So what? Everyone and their grandma screws up on their taxes sometimes.”
“This isn’t your grandma’s miscalculated taxes,” I snarl. The little shit thinks he’s a lot bigger and stronger than he is. There are few things I would like more right now than to make the little punk feel some real pain for all the shit he put Savannah through. I grit my teeth and count to five silently to keep myself from knocking his cocky smile in. “I’m talking about millions of dollars in unpaid taxes. Apparently, they’ve been paying off some guys on the inside to let records disappear conveniently whenever it’s time to pay up. Believe me when I say the IRS will have their heads for this, if they find out.”
“And even if that’s true,” asks Nate, “how does that help us walk free?”
“I recovered those files,” I say. “I’ll give them to a trusted friend in a sealed envelope, addressed to my former admiral from my Navy SEAL days. I will leave instructions to send them if we don’t get back in forty-eight hours. In the meantime, we’ll go turn ourselves in and tell them they’d better either let us and Nikki off, and never bother us again, or we’ll turn them in.”
“Blackmail,” Nate whistles. “Not such a golden boy after all, are you, Cooper “Veni Vidi Vici” Quin?”
“I get it done,” I say.
“Sounds risky,” Nate says.
“If Cooper thinks it’s what we should do, I say yes,” Savannah says. She has been pretty quiet throughout the talk, but now she sits up straight and says it confidently. There’s that strong girl again, the one who walked into my apartment and gave me a more assertive handshake than half the guys I know. “I’m on board with it. He knows what he’s doing and I trust him. With my life.”
I give a small nod. “I won’t let you down, babe.”
I turn to look at Nate and see Savannah shift in her peripheral vision to look at him, too. He looks at me, then her, for a moment, then sighs.
“What choice do I have?” he asks. “I’m in.”
Chapter Nine
Savannah
This incredible man never fails to surprise me in the most wonderful ways. Cooper is wonder after wonder. He is strong, brave, sexy, sweet to me, and so intelligent, too. He always knows just what to do, even in situations like this where it seems like there cannot possibly be a solution that will work out well for everyone.
Quite frankly, it makes me want to rip his clothes off and have my way with him right now. There’s a growing damp spot that, let’s be honest, is more of a big wet spot in my panties, and I really wish Nate would just disappear for a little bit so that I can have Cooper in me, filling my ready body, right now.
Alas, we aren’t done here yet.
“So,” I say, shifting in my seat and crossing my legs to try to keep it together a little better, at least physically. “What do we do next?” Nate and I both turn to Cooper, as it just seems natural that he would be in charge. If there is one thing that the man has written all over him, other than flat-out sexy, it’s alpha male. I never even get catcalled when I am out with him, even when I’m just in a sports bra doing stretches in the park, because other men can smell the alpha on his from
a quarter-mile away.
“First,” says Cooper, getting up, “we are all going to get a good night’s sleep. Then tomorrow, we’re going back to Chicago to pay my pal a visit and make the delivery.” Cooper barricades the door to the hallway solidly with more furniture, piling the living room table and a few shelves on, and then finally pulling the television stand with the large flat screen TV still on it, in front of the pile. He moves the furniture like it’s made of fluff and I squeeze my legs tighter together. At this rate, I’m going to stain the couch.
What is it about this man that awakens every carnal instinct in my body, including many that I would never have even expected to be there? Why is it that I seem to lose all control over my body and turn into a walking sex-starved hormone when I am anywhere near him?
Cooper turns back to face Nate. He didn’t even break a sweat.
“You can sleep out here,” Cooper says. “Make yourself comfortable on the couch. But don’t try any funny business. If you try to leave, I will hear it and I will come out here and make you hurt like you have never hurt before.”
“Chill, bro,” Nate says. “I’m in this with you guys, remember?”
“I am not your ‘bro,’” Cooper says, coolly, “and I am not going to chill. Our lives are at stake. Savannah’s life is at stake. I am not going to ‘chill’ about this and I am not going to hesitate to mess you up so bad you’ll never see straight again if you try to fuck with our plan.”
“Understood.” Nate stops smiling and gets up, his face serious. He extends a hand. Cooper looks at it for a moment and I realize I’m holding my breath.
“Have a good night, we’ll see you in the morning.” Cooper shakes Nate’s hand, man to man, and I finally breathe out in relief.
Cooper walks over to where I am still sitting on the loveseat, exhaustion crashing over me now that all the tension of the absurdly eventful day is temporarily released. He holds out a hand to me and I take hold of it, grateful when he pulls me up to my feet. I suddenly feel so tired that I can barely move.
Cooper puts his arm around my waist and half-carries me to the bedroom, closing the door behind us. The he swoops me up into his arms and carries me over to the bed. He gently places me down, like a friendly bear, and climbs over me to lie down by my side.
“How are you doing, babe?” he murmurs, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear and resting his hand gently on my face. It’s a warm, reassuring weight.
“Mmmm,” I murmur in response, snuggling up closer to him. I rest my face on his strong, hard chest and listen to the steady beat of his heart.
“It’s been a long day, Savannah, and I know you’re taking a big risk by trusting me so fully,” he says, softly. “I appreciate it.”
“Of course,” I murmur, basking in his special, intoxicating man smell. It isn’t body odor and it isn’t soap; it’s just pure, sexy Cooper.
“It’s not an ‘of course,’” he says. “It’s not a given and I appreciate it. And before we go any further, and before anything happens tomorrow, I need to tell you something.”
I open my eyes, which had fallen shut as I snuggled up to his chest and look up at his face. It is suddenly deathly serious and I feel a pit of fear form in my stomach. Has this all been too much? Is this finally the point where he is out? Is he about to tell me that he thought he could handle all of this and still want me, but after seeing Nate, the man I was supposed to marry, he can’t feel that way about me anymore. My stomach clenches. I take a steadying breath, inhaling his intoxicating, soothing scent, and try not to let the fear creep into my voice. “Shoot,” I say. “What’s up, babe?” I keep a hand on him for comfort, even though I know that what’s making me uncomfortable is that he will likely not want me anymore. Fuck. This is it.
“Savannah, you have intrigued me since day one,” Cooper says, looking me directly in the eyes. “I always wanted to know more about you and the more I knew, the more I wanted to know. And Savannah, after spending all that time with you, I started to fall for you. You’re a really special girl.”
Is this the slow let down? It isn’t what I was expecting him to say, but I refuse to get my hopes up now, just to have them crushed in a moment when the inevitable ‘but’ comes.
Only it doesn’t come.
“Savannah,” Cooper says, instead, “I love you.”
It is what I have been waiting for since I was little girl and I found out that my mother and sister were dead and that my life would never be the same. And I cannot believe that it is happening now, with this man that I love. But I know how I feel and I don’t even have to think about it for a moment. Though I haven’t let myself put it into words, not even in my head, until now, I know exactly how I feel.
“I love you, too,” I say.
Then Cooper takes my face in his hands and kisses me, soft and deep and slow and long. It is the most perfect kiss that I have ever had in my life and I never want the moment to end.
Even though I might die as soon as tomorrow, I am happy to be able to spend what might be my last few happy hours with Cooper. My love.
Chapter Ten
Cooper
After Sarah, I never thought that I could love another woman again. She broke my heart into a thousand jagged shards and I thought I would never heal from her betrayal. I didn’t even think that I wanted to heal. I was done with love. I was done with giving someone else the power to hurt me.
That all changed with Savannah. Even though I only told her now that I love her, I have been feeling it for a while. Hell, I started falling in love with her the very minute that she walked in my door. It was a gradual fall, the kind where it seems like nothing is happening at first and then before you know it, all you want is to see her beautiful face and feel her, warm and soft, in your arms.
“I love you, Savannah” I murmur again. “I love you.”
“I love you so much, Cooper,” she says, her face millimeters from my own. “I love you so much that it almost hurts.”
I close the small gap that remains between us, finding her soft lips with my own. Normally, I am not that big on the whole kissing thing. I get in, I get off, I get out. With Savannah, I finally understand all the hype around kissing. I could kiss her all day. Her subtly sweet feminine smell, her soft lips, having her beautiful face right there on mine, and having her wrapped up in my arms is bliss. It almost beats sex.
Wait. Fuck that. No, it doesn’t. Sex with her is like nothing else.
Thinking about having sex with her, while she’s wrapped up in my arms, gets me hard. I know I don’t have to worry about Nate, because no matter how distracted I get, there is no way in hell I won’t hear him trying to move the furniture blockade that I put up in front of the door out. My member, which has gone from zero to rock-hard in a fraction of a second, presses against her supple thigh. She breaks the kiss and smiles at me. Then she takes my hand in hers and guides it between her legs. She’s sopping wet.
“I need you, baby,” she whispers. I slide one finger, then two, into her ready sex, throbbing with heat and longing.
“Ohhhh yes,” she moans, her eyelids fluttering shut with pleasure as I start to play her gently, from the inside, like a piano.
“You like that?” I ask. I slide in a third finger.
“Oh, baby,” she breathes. “Yes, yes, oh yes!” She is ready for me, but I am going to make her come so many times that she quivers with pleasure and exhaustion by the time that I finish. I pull her on me, so she’s sitting on my face. I start by teasing her, stroking all around her clit with my tongue. I have my hands on her waist and can feel her back arch with pleasure when I finally take her clit in my mouth, sucking on her delicious juices as her body rocks with pleasure. I am as hard as granite, about to burst with desire, but I focus on making her come once more, fingering her g-spot while tonguing her clit.
“Cooper,” she gasps. “Baby, I want your cock. Please.” How am I supposed to resist that? So I don’t. I put on a condom faster than a politician puts on a blue co
llar worker persona come election time.
Then I pick her up by the hips and move her down to hover with the entrance of her wet pussy directly above my throbbing member. I look her deep in her beautiful, brown eyes before thrusting up, her back arching as I penetrate her. We are flesh on flesh, moving together as I thrust deep into her. She moans, her fingers digging into my back as she folds over forwards, the new angle letting me hit her g-spot with each deep thrust her stroking her clit with my full length every time I pull back out. Her body heaves as she climaxes again. She digs her fingers into my back. “Cooper!” she screams, voice breathy with ecstasy, and I can’t hold on anymore. I yield to the need for release and give in to my own need. We come as one, entwined in the most intimate of all embraces. When she finally collapses onto my chest, both of us completely spent, I feel the deepest, most permeating satisfaction of my life.
She is the only woman I will ever want.
Chapter Eleven
Cooper
Savannah is lying in my arms, her beautiful, naked little body snuggled up against mine. Already exhausted from her day, her multiple orgasms took the rest right out of her. She is always cute when awake, but she looks purely angelic when she is sleeping. She looks so sweet and innocent and I want to do everything within my power, and more, to keep her safe.
I cannot let her down.
It crushed me when I let my brother in the SEALs down, but letting Savannah down? That would destroy me. I am not going to let it happen. I lay an arm over Savannah’s sleeping body, my hand falling into that perfect dip where her lower back meets her perfect, inverted, heart-shaped ass. Everything about her personality and physicality is as perfect as if it was made for me. This is the woman I am going to spend the rest of my life with.
And it’s up to me to make sure that that’s more than just a few days or weeks.