Cooper (6 page)

She looked at her own arm and then turned her gaze onto Cooper. He read confusion, doubt, and then relief on her highly expressive face. Had she really believed that she’d made it up?

He couldn’t let this go on. His agitation grew the longer he considered the ramifications of those marks. The bastard who was supposed to care for her like any father should had, instead, hurt her repeatedly and taught her to doubt herself.

"How old are you?" he asked, random thoughts converging on one clear imperative: getting Amy out of that house, away from that danger.

"Twenty. I turn twenty one in March."

"Then you need to leave your father's house. You're old enough to live on your own. You don't have to put up with this abuse. The physical
and
emotional abuse."

She reached for her clothes in defeat. "I can't. I'm not considered sane enough to live on my own, even if I am old enough. I tried once before. When I turned eighteen. I thought…I thought he'd be glad to be rid of me. But instead he saw it as losing control of me, I guess. I don't know. He made sure I couldn't do it."

"And your mother? Is she abused too?"

"Oh no. Mother is perfect. He'd never hurt her. And she doesn't hurt me…" She pulled her sweater and undershirt over her head, once again causing a waterfall of gorgeous hair to fly before settling around her shoulders. It amazed him that she didn't realise just how beautiful that hair was.

"But she doesn't protect you, either."

"No. I think she considers I deserve what I get. I've disappointed her, too. I came from her womb, after all. Father blames her side of the family for me being… the way I am. So she blames me. I'm her failure. Her only purpose in life was to produce an heir, preferably a boy. And if not a boy then a girl who could marry well so there was the possibility of a male grandchild. So, instead of a boy, she got me and no chance of a grandchild."

He took her limp hands and drew her down to him so he had her face only inches from his own. "Amy, there is nothing wrong with square pegs. I think they are way more interesting than round ones."

That created a slight lift of her lips. Before he knew what he was doing, he was leaning in to kiss those almost-smiling lips.

He'd only ever kissed one girl before Amy. Back when he lived in Oz. Casey had been a jillaroo on their property and, in retrospect, he knew she'd seen him as her meal ticket to better things. She'd flirted and kissed him. But when she found he didn't get aroused, no matter what she did, eventually she gave up in disgust.

But before that happened, she'd taught him how to kiss. And for that he'd be eternally grateful. Because it now gave him the confidence he needed to kiss Amy. Even though the cat was scratching at his cage to get out; even though he was still furious about how she'd been treated by the people in her life; even though he knew they had no future because she was quite clearly of Guild blood, he kissed her inexperienced lips with all the tenderness in his confused heart.

How could he feel so drawn to this girl if she was the enemy? It didn't make sense. And yet there was no mistake. She'd said she was born to her Guild mother, not adopted. Her father had made a point of telling her he'd had numerous blood tests done to confirm his worst fears. If any of them had hinted at an abnormality Hays would have gloated as he told her the news.

No, his Amy was Guild. And it broke his bemused and already aching heart into tiny, little pieces.

Nothing had gone as she'd planned. Sitting in the dark outside her home had felt wrong, so she'd suggested a motel. What kind of idiot was she, anyway, to suggest going to a motel when they'd only met a few hours ago? He had to think she was cheap or easy. If he'd suggested it, she would have thought he was a sleazy player. But he'd taken it well.

Then when they got into the room, while she rehearsed yet again what she planned to say, he'd taken over the conversation. Before she knew it, she was blabbing about her abusive father and taking off her clothes to show him the evidence. None of that was supposed to happen.

The kiss, on the other hand, may not have been in her plan, but it was certainly in her daydreams. And Cooper kissed like she'd imagined her Prince Charming would kiss, with confident tenderness and infinite gentleness, teaching her by example what she needed to do.

His lips were so soft. They moved over hers like stroking hands, butterfly-soft kisses that she felt right down to her toes. But the position was difficult to maintain, crouched down in front of his wheelchair, especially as she still hurt from her earlier injuries. And something of that discomfort must have transferred to him because he drew back in frustration.

"Would you be totally offended if I suggested we move onto the bed?" he said, a deep flush spreading up his neck and into his cheeks. Unlike her, his blush made him more attractive, not less.

She shook her head and gratefully sat on the edge of the bed. After a bit of manoeuvring, Cooper lined up the chair and lifted himself onto the bed. It wasn't elegant but it was efficient. In moments, he was sitting at her side on the bed, the wheelchair pushed a little further out of the way.

What was she doing? Yet more options, more decisions she could be getting horribly wrong. If his kisses changed and she wanted to escape, could she? He might be immobilised from the waist down, but his upper body was significantly stronger than her whole body. In this position he could have her pinned to the bed and do anything he liked to her.

That thought shouldn’t have thrilled her as it did. That thought should have made her scared. But it didn’t. The choice was made, and it felt like the right one. Something inside her purred with excitement.

"Now let's do that again," he said so low it was little more than a growl. The sound created goose-bumps on her arms.

Cooper swivelled to the side and took her face between his cupped hands, as if he held something infinitely precious. With an intense, bemused smile, he lowered his head to recapture her lips. Sitting like this, his height compared to hers was apparent. She was a tall, gangly, five eight in flats, but Cooper was at least six inches taller again. And way broader. His shoulders seemed huge as he took her hands and put them around his neck.

This was her chance to feel the softness of his untidy, sandy-brown hair. While he gently mouthed her lips, she combed her fingers through the hair at his neck. He purred as she did it. Cooper actually purred out loud!

With a jerk, he pulled back. The sound must have startled him as it had her. For a moment he looked confused and embarrassed, and he shifted his position on the bed, as if sitting as he was had suddenly become uncomfortable.

"I…I'm not sure where that came from," he said, almost as an apology.

She smiled nervously at his embarrassment and said the first thing that came into her head. "I thought it was sexy and part of your seduction technique."

"I don't have a seduction technique. This…Well, I haven't had much experience with this. Not enough to develop a technique anyway." He blushed deeper and rubbed at his softly bearded cheeks. Now she knew what they felt like too. Not bristly at all. Soft, like his kisses.

"It doesn't show. But then I've never been kissed before." The admission sounded pathetic to her own ears, it must sound so much worse to Cooper.

But he smiled gratefully, as if by sharing her inexperience she'd allowed him to be okay with his too. But then he shifted his position again, blushing.

"This is not supposed to happen," he said, almost to himself.

"What, us kissing? I know. I came here to say this was a mistake, but –"

"No, my erection. I…" he suddenly stopped, as if he'd suddenly realised what he'd said. "Shit, scrub that. I did
not
just tell you that." Even his ears were red now.

It was delightful.

And thrilling to know he was aroused by her. It still amazed her that this handsome, obviously intelligent man, could find her attractive and arousing. It just didn't fit with anything she'd experienced in her life before. But she didn't doubt it. There was nothing artificial in the way Cooper was responding to her now. This wasn't an act. Everything inside her pushed Amy to accept this amazing change in her fate.

"I…I'm flattered," she got out, feeling her own blush heat her neck and spread up to her face. Fighting the urge to cover her face to hide it, she instead looked down and took his hands. As she did so, she saw what he meant. There was a large tent in the front of his pants.

"But you don't get it. It's not supposed to happen! Except for the occasional, very occasional half-mast affair, I don't get hard-ons. I'm pretty much dead from the waist down. This shouldn't be happening. But I'm hard. Jeez, this is weird!"

Curious, Amy looked more closely at the tent. While her cheeks burned with embarrassment, she continued to stare, trying to get an idea what lay beneath those pants. Her only experience with male genitalia was from Sex Ed classes and Paul Harrison's obscenely disgusting erection he'd revealed when he dropped his pants behind the bleachers that long-ago day.

Somehow, she didn't think whatever lay behind Cooper's dark pants would seem obscene or disgusting to her.

"This is a good thing then, isn't it? Maybe whatever injury you have is repairing itself," she offered, completely out of her depth.

He grunted with annoyance. "The damage to my nerves can't repair itself. This is just… an aberration. That's all. Like everything else that's been happening since I met you."

His tone and words had her jerking back, reflexively cringing as if he'd hit her.

Cooper swore and reached for, but didn't touch her. "Don't flinch away from me, Amy. I wasn't mad at you. And even if I was, I'd never hurt you. I'm not your father.

"I don't know what's happening. I don't usually get angry like this, and it's getting worse. It feels like a lifetime of rage, I didn't know I felt, is trying to break loose. I've got to get you out of here. I'm not safe to be around. This
was
a mistake."

She didn't know why she did it. Maybe it was because he was suddenly so scared of himself. Or maybe it was the fear of him leaving and never coming back. Whatever it was that drove her, in the next moment, had her sealing her lips to his, kissing him with more passion than technique.

His answer was immediate. He grabbed her shoulders and kissed her back, opening his mouth and running his tongue along the line between her lips. Automatically she opened for him, allowing Cooper entry. And his tongue lunged in to meet hers, deepening the kiss shockingly.

For a moment, the intensity frightened her. She was so out of her depth. What was she doing? Another choice that could go horribly wrong.

But it hadn’t yet. Everything had been more wonderful than she could ever have dreamed of, from the moment she’d chosen to come to him. Her decisions had been right. So far.

Amy consciously relaxed into the kiss. This was Cooper. She
could
trust him. Whatever was happening was natural and right, where everything else in her life was wrong.

He moaned, panting as he drew back a little so he could kiss her cheeks and down her neck. Then, without a word of request, he took the bottom of her sweater and pulled it over her head, leaving her low, round-necked tee-shirt still on. Should she stop him? This was going further than she'd planned. But as he began raining kisses down her now-uncovered neck, she knew she didn't want to.

With a anguished gasp, Cooper’s head suddenly reared up and then jerked back towards her. She felt a sharp pain in her neck before the most incredible sensations began to explode across every nerve-ending in her body. Crying out as her body climaxed, she let the exquisite, unknown sensations take her over.

With the part of her brain not focused on her extraordinary pleasure, she heard Cooper panting and purring as he stayed clamped to her neck, seemingly as caught-up in the throes of whatever this was as she was.

Something wild and frightening began to rise in her. And still the pleasure held her captive. Having read women’s magazines, she’d taught herself about orgasms, but the pleasure coursing through her body now made those self-stimulations seem like nothing in comparison to this firestorm raging inside her. How was this possible? How could he be drawing such exquisite sensations from her with so little effort?

After what felt like an eternity, Cooper's grip on her neck eased and he withdrew, licking her neck as he went. Very slowly he turned her head to his, meeting her gaze.

His eyes! His eyes had turned golden, with dark slits instead of round pupils.

Gasping with surprise, she pulled away. Those eyes should have terrifying her, but instead they excited her. And that in itself was shocking. As was the answering surge of recognition that came with seeing those eyes. Something in them called to her. Called forth an intense yearning for completion.

But his apparent shock shook her free of the strangely enticing thrall.

"Fuck, you’re one of them! You can't be Guild," he exclaimed, studying her eyes as keenly as she was doing to his.

A little trickle of blood ran out of the corner of his mouth, making her reach for the tender spot on her neck. He'd drawn blood. It wasn't a hickie; he'd bitten her with his teeth. Cooper had said he'd never hurt her and then he'd bitten her so hard he drew blood. For a moment, she forgot how wonderful that bite had felt. All she knew was yet another betrayal. Another wrong choice. Here it was, just as she knew it would be, evidence that yet again her ability to decide was faulty.

"You said you wouldn't hurt me. You said you weren't like my father," she accused, spitting each word out like a cat, as she edged away from him. The rage surged up from deep inside her so quickly she had no time to think it through. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Always wrong. She wasn’t sure if she was more furious with Cooper for betraying her this way or with herself for being duped, yet again, by a male she thought cared for her.

Cooper gave his head a shake, reminding her of the male lion she'd once seen in the zoo. Slowly, he reached out and took her hand. Reluctantly, she let him, while the rage seethed on.

"God, I don't know where to start. I didn't expect this. How could I have expected
this
? I'm sorry if I hurt you. I didn't know I was going to do that. My cat… Jeez, my cat got activated and it just bit you! But it's not supposed to hurt. It's supposed to feel orgasmic."

She wasn't sure what he was babbling excitedly about; but whatever it was, it was infecting her. This was something new for Cooper and it had everything to do with her. Her fury began to abate. Curiosity took its place. As rational thought began to return, she realised that what he said was true.

"It didn't really hurt. It did feel incredible. I just saw the blood on your mouth and realised you bit me, and that seemed… violent," she confessed, her head spinning.

"Good. That's good. I don't think I could stand it if I'd really hurt you. Amy, have my eyes changed?"

She nodded. He beamed at her as if she'd just given him the best present ever.

"So have yours. You don't know what that means yet, but I do. It means this is not some twisted Romeo and Juliet thing going on between us. We're the same. You're not Guild!"

So had hers?
The rest of his words flowed over her without making impact. But that first part felt like a physical blow. She scrambled off the lumpy bed and went into the bathroom where the only mirror in the unit was to be found. Moaning in terror, she stared at metallic green eyes with slitted pupils. Just like Cooper's golden ones. He'd said they were just like his.

Her teeth ached. Cautiously, she lifted her lip to look at them. Instead of the neat, straight row of Hollywood-white teeth she was used to seeing when she cleaned them, the line was broken by two, long, jagged canines. When she experimentally touched them they hurt a little. Their points were sharp. No wonder Cooper's teeth had drawn blood, if his were anything like hers.

Woozy and numb with shock, she tottered back to Cooper, who sat impatiently waiting for her. She sat down carefully beside him and let out the breath she wasn't aware she'd been holding. Her carefully controlled life was unravelling before her eyes... and she didn’t know what to do about it.