by Snow, Jenika
“Chinese checkers? Yes. Food, no.”
“You play checkers?” I ask, laughing.
“I play them with my nephews. See? I’m not your kind of girl, Cooper.”
“Tomorrow night, sweetheart. I’ll bring food … not Chinese.”
“I still think it’s a bad idea,” she argues.
I turn around and walk away and I do it smiling.
Chapter Eight
Jo
A part of me hates that I’m still thinking about him.
A part of me keeps saying just go to bed and forget anything that has to do with Cooper.
But even all these hours later, here I am, not able to fall asleep, working on shit I can put off for another day, because I can’t stop remembering our dinner, and what happened afterward.
That kiss.
That touch.
That look he gave me right before he turned and left.
I lift my hand and touch my lips. They still tingle, the memory causing a flush to steal over my body as my temperature rises.
God, he pisses me off so much, yet I want him like a fiend, like I am starving and dying of thirst, and he’s the only thing that can sate and quench both of them.
I clear my thoughts, or at least try to. Then I finish up some paperwork for the gym and shove everything in my bag. Leaning back on the chair in my office, which is also my bedroom, I stare at the ceiling. I try to keep my mind off of a certain sexy-as-sin fighter by counting the little dips and mounds above me. Thank God for popcorn ceilings in a girl’s time of distress.
But the end result is the same.
I can’t stop picturing him coming to my place. We don’t eat, and instead he clears off the table with one swoop of his hand, knocking everything to the ground for the sole purpose of using it to fuck me on.
At that thought, I feel my body getting hot, my pussy getting wet. God, I am ready for him to fuck me now and he isn’t even here. All it takes is a dirty thought of Cooper taking me and I’m primed.
I stand up and walk over to an old worn photo album that is on my nightstand. I sit down on my bed and start flipping through the pages, feeling like a stalker because of what I’m looking for. But I know it’s in here, have seen it in passing a couple of times when my uncle and I went through old photos, reminiscing.
And then I find it, a large photo taken a few years ago of my uncle and all the guys at the gym. I recognize Cooper instantly. He looks a little younger, obviously, but he was just as big then as he is now. I feel my heart jump up in my throat, feel myself start to perspire slightly.
Am I really going to do this with him?
Am I really going to let Cooper into my life like this?
I know it is probably too late for me to back out, not only because he was persistent in his desire for me, but also for the fact that I don’t want this to stop. I told him what I wanted, how I saw my life going. And to be honest, Cooper didn’t seem like the type of guy to want any of that.
But it hasn’t scared him off, and in fact seems to make him want me even more.
I close the photo album with a resounding snap and stare at the wall. Although I told myself I would not be another notch in his bedpost, a part of me doesn’t feel like that would be the case with him.
Yes, I tried to push him away, to make him see what I wanted in life. And I thought he would surely run for the hills, but he stayed. He wants more. And I guess I will just have to show him exactly how serious I am about my husband and baby plan.
Maybe then he will see how I feel and realize that in the end he’d be dodging a bullet if he doesn’t get involved with me.
* * *
The next day
I hadn’t planned on working, but I figure in order to keep my mind off Cooper, I might as well do some paperwork. I finish up invoicing on the computer, shut everything down, and grab my purse to head home for the night. It’s already five, but the gym is pretty packed with guys working out and training. I haven’t talked to Cooper since last night, so I have no clue if he was serious about dinner, and if his stalker skills really did work out and he found out where I live.
I head toward the office door, grab the handle, and pull it open just to be greeted with the wide, muscular chest of Cooper blocking my way. I take a step back on instinct, feeling my eyes widen as I look at the little smirk he’s got on his face, and the way he’s eyeing me up and down.
He has balls, that’s for sure.
He lifts his arm and braces it on the doorframe, leaning against it, the wood slightly creaking from the sheer size of him. His grin widens even more, as if he’s in on some little secret and he’ll only tell me when the time is right.
And damn my body for reacting instantly. I fold my arms over my breasts, simply to try and hide the fact my nipples have hardened almost painfully.
“You ready for tonight?” He lifts a brow, flashing those straight white teeth at me. Teeth shouldn’t turn me on, but strangely enough, his do.
Everything about Cooper arouses me.
“You were serious about that?”
He sobers and pushes away from the doorframe. “Like a heart attack, baby.”
I refrain from rolling my eyes. I’m deflecting here, trying to appear like I’m not hot and bothered by the sight of him, by his very presence.
“Let me get cleaned up and I’ll meet you at your place in an hour with all the fixin’s for dinner.”
Before I can even say anything, if I even would have, he winks, turns, and then walks away, leaving me standing there with my mouth open.
Well, I guess this is happening, and I guess it’s time for a wakeup call for Cooper.
Chapter Nine
Cooper
I lean against the brick wall of Jo’s house after pressing the doorbell. In my arm I have a small brown paper sack and a pizza box. Jo probably deserves a man who can cook for her and make a great meal, but that’s not me. I don’t do that shit. I will spoil her in other ways and I definitely plan on doing that.
Jo opens the door, stopping my thoughts.
Damn she looks good.
She’s wearing dark jeans, a pale blue shirt that somehow causes her eyes to shimmer with deeper color. Her hair is pulled back in a ponytail and she looks good enough to eat. Her gaze rakes over me and she bites her bottom lip, betraying her nerves.
“Hi,” she whispers.
“Hey, baby,” I tell her, the endearment rolling off my tongue without thought. I watch as her pupils dilate in response.
“Hi,” she whispers again, blushing and I grin.
“You going to let me in?”
“What?” she asks, confused. “Oh!” she adds with a gasp, and then steps back. “Come in,” she mutters, her cheeks turning even redder.
I walk inside and scan the room. It’s a large living room, bright, open and cheerful. It’s exactly what I would have pictured Jo living in, if I’m honest. There’s a television, much smaller than I’d ever be comfortable with, and in the corner is a huge bookshelf that has so many books on it, they’ve migrated into piles on the floor. For some reason, that makes me smile.
“Where do you want the food?” I ask her once I catch her wringing her hands together and nervously looking up at me. She seems different tonight; that wall she did her best to keep between us the night before seems long gone.
Thank fuck.
“We can just eat in here if you want to put it on the coffee table,” she murmurs. I follow her and slap the pizza box and paper bag on the table. “I’ll just go get us something to drink. Is cola okay? I don’t really keep—”
I put my arm out and catch her around the waist, bringing her body in close to mine.
“Baby, you need to calm the fuck down,” I mutter, her nervousness cute, but I don’t want her to stroke out over this. I want her to enjoy tonight. With that thought in mind, I tilt her head up with a finger under her chin so she’s forced to look at me. Those beautiful eyes of hers are shining up at me and slightly wide.
&n
bsp; I was going to do my best to try and keep my hands off of her and prove I wasn’t all about getting her into bed. That seemed important to her and I didn’t know if I was ready for everything Jo talked about, but I did know I didn’t want her looking anywhere but at me for what she wanted. Looking down into her eyes now, I only know that I don’t want her to be nervous around me. I want her to come to me for everything… Every. Damn. Thing. She’ll never do that if she can’t relax and be herself.
“What do you want to drink?” she asks and again I find myself grinning.
I drop my head down so that our lips are barely a space apart. “You,” I murmur and then I kiss her.
I meant it to be a light kiss, but the moment my tongue slides between her lips, hers comes up to glide against mine. I capture her moan in my mouth and I have to have more. The kiss deepens, becomes hungry, hot and consuming. Jo’s body slacks against mine as she gives me her mouth, her hands circling around my waist, her nails biting into my back. I’ve never experienced anything like it and I know that’s because it’s Jo in my arms.
Somewhere in the back of my mind a thought takes root.
I’m never going to let her go.
When we break apart, she still holds on to me, her body trembling.
“That was probably a bad idea,” she whispers, her lips swollen from my kiss.
“I think it’s the best fucking idea I’ve ever had and I can tell you something else, baby.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s one I’m going to be repeating.”
“I… I’ll just go get us some drinks,” she murmurs. I let her go and she walks away on unsteady legs. She glances over her shoulder at me before going through an open doorway beside a breakfast bar. She doesn’t say anything, but she swallows and my eyes are glued to the movement of her throat.
Fucking gorgeous.
She comes back in with some paper plates and drinks, and we get settled. I ignore the plate and just grab a slice of pizza. I take a bite, all while watching her. She carefully puts her piece on a plate, then takes a fork and methodically plucks off every mushroom on her pizza. Once that’s done I have to hold back my laughter as she uses a knife to cut off a little corner. I wonder if the knife is going to cut through the paper plate too. I shake my head rather than laugh. I’ve never seen anything like this woman in my life, but damn if I don’t like her more and more all the time.
“What?” Jo asks, looking up at me, no doubt catching the expression on my face.
“You’re eating pizza with a fork,” I mutter.
“Uh … yeah.”
“Babe, you don’t eat pizza like that,” I laugh, taking another bite of mine.
“It’s how I eat pizza,” she mumbles.
“I can see that. I take it you don’t like mushrooms?”
“They’re slimy and taste like dirt.”
“I’ll make note for next time.”
“And you just assume there will be a next time, Cooper?”
“Absolutely.”
“If you say so,” she says, an eyebrow going up and doubt laced in her voice to show her skepticism.
“You need to stop that, Jo. Right now.”
“Stop what? I just asked a legitimate question, Cooper. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, you and I don’t exactly mesh.”
“Keep it up and I’ll show you exactly how well we mesh,” I warn her and at this point I’m not kidding.
This woman just can’t keep from busting my balls. I’m going to have to figure out a way to show her that I’m not like the other men she’s met at the gym. I don’t know how I’m going to do that exactly, but it’s imperative that I do because I really like Jo.
She’s funny, she has a quick wit that I love to spar with, she’s also sweet, so damn sweet she makes me ache. She’s direct and will tell you how she feels, but then she’ll go shy and I find the mix intriguing as hell.
“I’m just being honest. We’re completely different, Cooper.”
“I happen to like our differences,” I say and shrug.
“You live in an apartment in town, right?”
“Yeah? So? Do you have some ridiculous rule about not dating guys who live downtown?” I tease.
“Do you know why I picked this specific house and bought it, Cooper?”
I put my pizza down and look her in the eye, because whatever it is she has on her mind feels important and I want to give her my complete attention when I straighten her out.
“Why don’t you tell me?” I invite.
“It’s in a good school district.”
“Come again?”
“I told you that I wanted kids. I want it all. The house with a white picket fence—”
“You don’t have a white picket fence,” I point out, picking my pizza back up.
“I can have one put in,” she mumbles. “I made sure this place had four bedrooms. Four, Cooper. I want every one of those rooms filled.”
“Man, you’re really trying hard, aren’t you?” I shrug, then I take a bite of my pizza.
“Trying hard?”
“To push me away,” I say after I’ve swallowed my bite.
“I’m being honest.”
I look at her face. She’s working herself up and I need to get this out of the way. It probably wouldn’t help my case if I told her that she’s beautiful when she’s aggravated.
She is though.
“That’s really all you have to say about all of this?”
I lift a brow. “A white picket fence would be really nice.”
She sighs out in frustration. “I’m a woman telling a man she’s looking for a baby daddy for at least three children.”
“I’m picking up on that,” I laugh.
“You should be running for the hills about now,” she huffs, sounding really upset that I’m not.
“Do you like chocolate cake?” I ask her.
She leans back, as if taken by surprise by my change in topic. “What? Did you hear what I just said?”
“I was going to save dessert for after you finished your pizza, but the way you’re going at it we’ll be eighty and those imaginary children of yours will have children of their own before you finish,” I tell her, reaching over to get the forgotten brown paper bag I brought with the pizza. Inside is a container with an extra-large slice of Mario’s chocolate lava cake.
“Why aren’t you running for the hills?” she says, almost as if she’s confused by it all. She actually sounds forlorn that I’m not running away.
I scoop up a bite of the cake, turning so that I have the spoon poised at her mouth.
“Try it,” I tell her, waiting.
“You need to be running for—”
She can’t finish the sentence because I quickly push the spoon into her mouth. Her lips clamp down on it and I have to smile at the annoyance on her face.
“I’m not going anywhere, Jo. I’m going to sit here and enjoy dinner with my girl,” I tell her and her pupils dilate when I refer to her as mine. She lets go of the spoon, licking the chocolate off of her lips. Unbelievably sexy. I ignore the way my cock goes instantly hard. “Then after dinner, we’re going to watch a movie, kiss, make out a little and if I’m a lucky S.O.B. you’ll let me get to second base. If I’m really lucky maybe you’ll let me go farther. That’s our plan for the night. Now, do you like chocolate cake?”
“I’m not on birth control,” she sputters, shocking the hell out of me.
“Baby, what in the fuck does that have to do with if you like chocolate cake or not?” I grin. Honestly, the fact she’s not on birth control doesn’t bother me one bit. The fact she’s thinking about us clearly fucking, and worrying about what may happen, even if she is trying to scare me by talk of baby making, turns me on like a motherfucker.
“We can’t have sex. If we have sex I might get pregnant, so I can’t have sex with you even if I wanted to. So, if you’re putting forth all this effort in the hopes of getting laid, then—”
I�
��m pretty sure she’d keep talking until four in the morning if I don’t hush her so I do the only thing I can.
I kiss her to shut her up.
Chapter Ten
Jo
The kiss starts off soft, almost sweet. I know he’s trying to shut me up, and that’s probably a good thing. I have no idea why I started blurting out birth control, getting pregnant, and the whole nine yards, but there it is. Out in the open. I feel my face heat, know I’m blushing insanely. I’m nervous and embarrassed, but with each passing second of Cooper kissing me, I feel all of that melt away.
I curl my toes, glad my legs are under the table so he can’t see the little effects he has on me.
Oh, he knows.
I don’t know why I told him about why I bought the house and school districts, and all of that. But I do know that if he’d let me keep going, I would have shown him the bedrooms, explained how I wanted the nursery and kids’ rooms to be designed.
God, I’m insane.
I don’t want him to leave. I want a lot from him. I want everything.
But I want him to know how deep my passions run, want him to understand fully what he’s getting into. No matter what I say, how much I push what I want in life, he’s still here.
He still wants more.
Cooper pulls back, but only an inch. We are still so close, our mouths nearly touching. I can see that he licks his lips, hear that he lets this little groan leave.
“Now, why don’t you tell me how you like the chocolate cake?”
His voice is so deep, so rough. He sounds like a man—a real man—and it makes me wet, makes me shiver.
He pulls back another inch. “Because from where I’m sitting, baby, it tastes pretty fucking good.”
Before I can answer, he groans again and leans in to give me another kiss. His hand moves along the side of my neck, cupping my nape and pulling me impossibly closer.
Then he deepens the kiss, stroking his tongue along the seam of my lips, making me open for him. He slips it into my mouth, memorizing every single part of me. I want him closer, I want our clothes off. I want us in a bed.