by Huss, JA
I stop myself from staring with a blink. “Why are you in my room? And how did you get up here?”
She walks over to me, offering a glass of bubbly. I take it and sniff the fizzy bubbles. “My father gave me the elevator code.” She rolls her eyes. “In case I wanted to visit Cooper in the night.” These words come out mockingly. Sarcastic. And then I remember what Dante told me. Isabella is into girls. But her family is having none of it.
“Cheers,” I tell her.
She smiles at me, clinks my glass, and we both sip, staring at each other over the tops of our glasses. Then she turns away and saunters across the room before turning back. Like she needed to create some distance between us. “You’re not mad at me?”
“For what, Isabella?”
“Cooper and I will be married.” She pauses to see how I’ll react. But I don’t really have a reaction.
He doesn’t love her.
She doesn’t love him.
They are stuck.
I walk over to the large canopy bed and sit on the foot of it. “I’m not jealous, if that’s what you mean.”
“Because you know, don’t you?”
“That you like girls? Yeah.”
“What?” Her face contorts into anger. “What did you just say?”
“Sorry. Dante told me—”
“Fuck that little dick. He has no idea what’s he’s talking about.”
“Sorry, Isabella. I’m… sorry.”
She frowns, pressing her lips together, then takes a deep breath and forces a smile. “You were saying?”
“I was?”
“You’re not jealous because…?”
“Well…” Fuck. Why do I have to have this conversation with her? She’s not my problem, is she?
Isabella straightens her shoulders. “Go ahead. You can say it.”
I thought I already did. But apparently not. So I try again. “Um… well, he’s not in love with you, Isabella.”
“Is he in love with you?”
I shrug. “Maybe? I don’t know.”
She smiles at me, back to her bright self. And I can totally see why Cooper goes out of his way to make her happy. She’s so much—what’s the word? Not prettier—so much more alive when she’s happy. “He does.” She takes a long sip of her champagne and puts up a hand, like she’s telling me to give her a minute, and downs the entire thing. When she finally comes up for air, her words sound breathless. “And I’m totally on board with that.”
“You are?”
She splays her perfectly manicured hand over her heart. “Of course. Cooper and I are a business arrangement. I mean”—she hikes her shoulders up to her ears and grins—“we mess around a little. But… it’s mostly for show.” She pauses then, like she’s reconsidering. “Mostly, but not always.”
“O-kay.”
She looks at me for a long moment. “He’s never going to be all yours, Cadee. Not as long as I’m around.” It doesn’t come out mean. Or sarcastic. Or anything other than sincere. “And we’re not really in charge of it.”
“We were in charge of it,” I say. “A few weeks ago. When we all decided to get on board with Dante’s plan and get ourselves out by taking them all down. Any of this ringing a bell, Isabella? Why has everyone suddenly forgotten that we had a plan? I was going to pay your tuition. You didn’t need to go crawling back.”
“I didn’t crawl back for that, Cadee. And neither did the other girls.”
“Then why? I don’t understand.”
“We need them.”
“You don’t need them! I bought the inn so we could live in it. I said I’d pay—”
“No, Cadee.” She sits down on the bed next to me and crosses her long, slender legs, then hunches over and props her elbow on her knee so she can rest her chin in her hand. “We need them. The boys.” She looks at me. “I don’t know how to go on without Cooper. And I know he doesn’t want me. He wants you.” She shrugs. “But I need him. And we made promises to each other.”
“First of all, that’s not totally true, Isabella. He does love you. In his own way. And he’s not going to leave you behind.”
“Maybe not this year, but after graduation?” She shakes her head. “He will leave, Cadee. He will never think of me again if we don’t get married.”
“All right. I don’t know what you’re looking for here. Why are you telling me this?”
“Don’t make him push me away.”
“I won’t.”
“You say that now, because none of this is real. But one day, Cadee, it will be real. It will be very real. And then you’re going to realize that the love of your life is married to me. And even though you are the one he wants, I’m the one he gets.”
“So what do you want me to do? Step away?”
“No. Of course not. Cooper really does like you. I’m not going to take that away from him. Just… go in with your eyes open. You can’t go back now. It’s too late. The Chairman has… well. Look around.”
“Yeah,” I scoff. “He kinda went over the top with this place, right?”
“Bitch, this is so far over the top, we are sailing over the other side.”
I laugh. And she laughs. And then we just stare at each other and have an awkward moment.
Is this how Cooper feels around Ax and Lars when we’re all together?
Because it’s weird.
“So.” Isabella decides to change the subject. “Did you register for all your classes?”
My smile is wide. “Yes.”
“Did you pick a major? Or are you going to explore all your options?”
“No. I know exactly what I want to do here this year. Art. I’m majoring in art. Painting, specifically.”
“Yeah.” She smiles at me. “That fits you. Oh! I almost forgot. I got you a present.”
“You… got me a present?”
She hops off the bed and walks over to a pretty yellow paper bag with blue curly ribbons on the handle. “I hope it’s not a weird present, but I know what Cooper likes. And I have a sneaky suspicion that your mother never taught you how to turn a man on.”
“W-w-what?” I think my whole face goes red.
“Open it.” She thrusts the bag at me. And then cocks her hip and grins.
I pull the tissue paper out and find a very sexy High Court Prep schoolgirl uniform inside. In fact, it’s an exact copy of what Isabella is wearing right now. Including a pair of very sexy, high-heel Mary Janes.
“Um.” I look up at her. “What is this?”
“I saw your bookstore bag when you came in the dining room yesterday. It was pretty full.”
“Yeah.” I blush. “I went a little overboard.”
“I was reminded of that other time when I saw your bag.”
“What other time?”
“It was a long time ago. I was maybe…” She pauses to think. “A junior in Prep? Somewhere around there. So you were young. And I saw you stealing a uniform from the lost and found.”
“Ohhhh. Busted.”
“And then I followed you.” She pauses. “I saw you put it on and pretend you were a student.”
“Oh.” I deflate a little as I imagine myself from Isabella’s perspective. Sad. I probably looked sad. Or pathetic.
She shrugs. “It looked good on you. Anyway. And then I saw that bag of school spirit and figured—that was your fantasy, wasn’t it, Cadee?”
“Yeah,” I admit. “It was. Is.”
“Well, Cooper likes that look too. Obviously.” She pans her hands down her own body, like she is exhibit A. “So I picked one up for you.”
“Why, though?”
“Why?” She frowns. “Because I want you two to be happy. If you’re happy, we’re all happy. That’s how it works. We all stay happy. Surprise him with it. It’ll make him smile. OK, so.” She folds her hands together in front of her body and smiles at me. “Let’s recap, shall we? Cooper and I are engaged. He likes you in ways he does not like me. You’re not jealous. I’m not jealous. But we bo
th understand what’s happening here, correct?”
She tilts her head at me and waits for my answer with sideways squinted eyes.
“Um. Yup. OK. We’re… all on the same page.”
“Good. I want us to be partners, Cadee. That’s the only way this works.” Then she leans down and kisses me on the cheek. Her lips linger there for just a moment too long. Then she pulls back, twiddles her fingers at me in goodbye, and pushes her way through my billowing yellow curtains, calling out, “I’m in room 301 if you need me.”
I just sit there on the bed for a few moments, looking between the bag of sexy clothes and the curtains where Isabella just disappeared.
Did she come on to me?
I laugh. I’m seriously not sure.
Did she insinuate that she will be Cooper’s wife and I will be his mistress?
Yes. I’m fairly certain that was the goal of her visit.
And even though I’m not jealous of Isabella, I’m also not sure I want to spend my life as “the other woman”.
Cooper and I will need to discuss this.
But not today. It can wait. We just got here. I’m not going to ruin our first night sleeping in the Hunter Building as King and Queen with stupid things like details.
Nope.
I’m gonna put this sexy outfit on.
This is not an official High Court Prep school uniform. It’s better. And I look just as good in it as Isabella does. In fact, we kind of look alike, her and I. We both have the long blonde hair. She has green eyes and mine are light brown, but we’re about the same height and weight. And we both have long legs, so when I pull on those thigh-high stockings, I rock that shit.
In fact, I look so damn good in this little costume, I just stare at myself for a few moments. Then I look around at the room and start planning Cooper’s first look when he comes back. There are a lot of candles. All of them match the room in subtle shades of light blue and pale yellow. And there are two large candelabras on the bedside tables that each hold a dozen white candles.
I want to light them all and turn this room into my ultimate romantic fantasy. But it’s still daytime. So once I get them lit, it just doesn’t have the same effect.
Then I notice the heavy velvet gold curtains pulled back into the corners with large blue tassels. I release the tassels and tug on them until the room is blackout dark.
That’s much better. It’s almost like it’s night out now.
Then I plan on how I should position myself on the bed so that when he enters, his first look at me in this outfit will knock him off his feet.
I prop myself up on some pillows. Fluff up my hair and arrange all the pleats of my skirt.
Wow. That’s really terrible.
I get up, lean against the bed post, one leg crossed in front of the other, like I’m sorta rubbing my thighs together.
All right. No. That’s not good either. I’m really bad at this.
I pull on my shirt, revealing my shoulders, then face the bed—my back to the door—and bend over.
I laugh.
That’s good. I like it.
But how about this? I get on the bed and lie down with my head towards the footboard. Then I scoot up a little until my head is hanging over the edge and my hair is trailing on the floor.
I might get dizzy. I’m just about to get up and go back to the bending-over one when I hear the elevator ding.
Shit! He’s here! That was fast!
I bend one knee while keeping the other leg straight, and then reach out with both arms and grab the posts on either side of me.
Then I close my eyes and start licking my lips.
The swooshing sound of a curtain being pulled aside makes my heart thump. And I open my mouth and make pouty duck lips. “Finally,” I say. “I’m so horny. Fuck me, Cooper. Now!”
“Uh… Cadee?”
I open my eyes and see—a groin. Then tip my head up and… that groin belongs to Lars. “Shit! Lars! What are you doing here?”
He laughs. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Oh, my God. I was posing for Cooper!” I try to get up, but from this position that requires more core strength than I actually have. “Push me, Lars!”
He does, and I’m just about upright, when another voice says, “What the fuck is happening in here?”
Lars turns, I fall back, and then I’m looking at Cooper.
I twist around on my stomach and then get up on my knees in the middle of the bed. My legs are open, my hair is wild and messy, and my tits are practically hanging out of my little tie-front crop shirt.
“What the fuck, Lars?” Cooper walks into my room and pushes him out of the way, then positions himself between Lars and me.
“Cooper,” I say, scrambling to the edge of the bed. “He just got here.”
Cooper pokes Lars in the chest and Lars just glares at him. How did they get like this? They used to be such good friends. “Why are you here?”
“Someone has to look out for her,” Lars quips back.
“Me!” Cooper pokes himself in the chest now. “That’s who looks after her. You’re not the King, Lars. Get over it.”
“I will if you will.”
“Jesus Christ.” I hop off the bed and stand between them, pushing Cooper back a little. He looks down at my outfit with wide eyes. Like he really wants to know why the fuck I’m wearing this outfit in front of Lars while he wasn’t here. “Cooper,” I say, warning him not to jump to conclusions and make this a big deal. “The outfit was for you. I was posing on the bed, waiting for you, and then Lars came in.”
“Right.” Cooper looks back at Lars. “You need to leave, Lars.”
“So what? We’re not friends anymore?”
At first, I think Lars is talking to Cooper, but he’s talking to me. “Oh. Well. Yes. Of course, Lars. We’re friends. We’re all still friends, right?”
“Whatever,” Lars says. “We were friends, Cadee. Pretty good friends, in fact. I always had your back. But if you want to throw that away just because Cooper can’t deal with his jealousy issues, then fine. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. When Cooper Valcourt wants something”—Lars is looking Cooper straight in the eye—“he takes it. Even if it’s not his. Even if it means destroying everyone else around him. You’re just like your father, you know that, Cooper?”
Cooper just stares at him, either trying to be the bigger person in this argument and not say anything back—and let’s be honest here, Cooper is almost never the bigger person in a battle of wills—or he just can’t think of a comeback for Lars’s accusation.
Lars nods his head. He and I both know why Cooper is silent. Then he just turns and walks out.
Cooper watches him, then walks over to the door and slides the curtains closed again, making the room dark so that the flickering candles light up his face when he turns back to me. “We need to change the security codes.”
“You know, that’s probably a good idea. Because Isabella came up here too.” Then I pan my hands down my new outfit. “She brought me a present.”
Cooper puts his hand over his mouth to hide his smile, Lars temporarily forgotten. “She brought you this?” He looks me over real good.
“Yes. She brought me this little outfit.”
“And you… put it on? For me?”
I’m just about to answer when I remember I’m in super-sexy mode. So I make my eyelids heavy and then open my mouth a little and breathe, “For you, my king.”
He takes a step towards me and then his hands are in my hair, grabbing it and pulling me towards him.
“Jesus, Coop. That’s hot.”
He pushes me over to the bed, turns me around, and bends me over the edge of the mattress. My skirt is so short, I know I’m totally flashing my ass.
I look over my shoulder just in time to see him flip the bit of fabric away from my cheek, and then his hand comes down with a loud smack!
“Ow!” I squeal. “What was that for?”
“That,” he says, leani
ng his body over mine and breathing the words into my ear, “was for showing Lars my outfit.”
“It wasn’t my fault. He just came in!”
He laughs into my neck and a shiver erupts inside me. “I know. But I suddenly felt the need to punish you. If you’re gonna dress up like a sexy student, Cadee Hunter, then I’m gonna paddle you for being a bad, bad girl.”
“Interesting.”
He laughs and stands up. Then flips my skirt back over my butt.
“Hey! What are you doing? You don’t get to pull my hair and spank me once, then just walk away.”
He lifts his shirt over his head and I think I stop breathing. All the muscles of his upper body are suddenly cut in shadows. His rampant lion tattoo dances in the flicker of flames. His dark, disturbing blue eyes track up and down my body as his mouth opens and his tongue swipes across his lower lip.
He looks different in this light. The fight with Lars lingers in the air like a mist of anger. And for a moment, I don’t recognize him. He’s not Cooper. He’s not the boy I grew up with, but some other man. Some tall, muscular, commanding man who completely understands his place in the world.
Neither of us moves.
And then he says, “Bend over the bed, Cadee. Because you’re right. I have no intention of spanking you just once.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN - COOPER
She mouths the words, Bend over, and when she’s done, her lips remain in a perfect O-shape and all I can think about is easing my fat, hard cock past those lips and along her tongue until I hit the back of her throat.
“OK.” She’s breathless with the thought. And then she turns and stretches her arms out, places both palms flat on the comforter, and bends at the waist, keeping her long legs perfectly straight and sliding her hands up the comforter.
Her skirt is so short I can see most of her ass. But she’s wearing a pair of sexy white panties and I fixate on the way the tight elastic bites into her fleshy cheek for a few moments.
She glances over her shoulder at me, more than just a little bit nervous—I can see it in her eyes. “Now what?”
“Spread your legs, Cadee.”