Reckless for Cowboy (11 page)

He silences me with a kiss. “I know what you thought,” he says. “I hate that you thought that.” He kisses me again. Soft and gentle. Just like the way he kissed me after I’d been bucked off Sugar. Like he doesn’t want to hurt me anymore than I already am. Air gets lodged at the back of my throat, making it difficult to breathe properly.

Cooper holds me tight and starts swaying to the music. “I promised you a dance,” he says against my cheek. “I always keep my promises, Brooke.” The next thing I know, he’s one-armed, two-stepping with me around the parking lot. Better than the fact that the man is a great dancer, is the fact that he’s singing along with the chorus of the song. His voice is a little rough around the edges—he’s not Garth Brooks, that’s for sure—but I love it.

When the song ends, he cups my chin and looks deep into my eyes. He’s got this serious expression on his face. Even more serious than the day I got hurt riding Sugar. “I want to be with you Brooke.” His voice is quiet and laden with emotion.

“Cooper,” I say, my eyes filling with unshed tears. “This is…romantic. It is. And, I forgive you for not showing last Sunday…”

“But…?” He pulls back a little.

“But…you travel all the time. When you’re not traveling you’re running a ranch. I’ve got law school this fall. We come from different places and…I think maybe we’d both be better off if we just said good-bye. You know?”

He slants his head and finally says, “You don’t mean a word of that.”

A couple tears cut free. I bite my lip to keep it from trembling. “Still, I think it’d be for the best.”

“Is that what your head says or your gut?”

“My head.” There’s no point in lying. “My gut tells me it’s about to throw up.”

Cooper smiles. “What about your heart.”

I look into his eyes. “You already know what my hearts says.”

“Mine says the same,” he whispers. “And if you think you’re going to get rid of me that easy, then you sure as hell didn’t learn your lesson last week.”

My lips are wobbling so much I have to press my hand against them.”

He brushes a tear off my cheek. “See, here’s the thing about me, Brooke. I say what I mean and I mean what I say.”

“Okay.”

“Ever since Jason died, I’ve learned to trust my gut.” Pushing his hat back a little, he looks off into the distance. “Five years ago. March 14
^th
. Calving season. Also my birthday. Jason was supposed to meet me at the bar with some buddies. But he’d been up all night, minding the cows. When he called, I thought he was going to tell me he wasn’t coming. Instead he told me he was on his way.” Cooper removes his hat and scratches the back of his head before replacing it. “I had this weird feeling, this flash of warning or something. I wanted to tell him not to come.” He looks down into my face. “But I didn’t. Not a day goes by that I don’t wish I’d listened to my gut.”

My tears are falling freely now. With my arms around his waist, I whisper, “It wasn’t your fault.”

“Oh, I know. Or, at least my head does.” He smiles and it breaks my heart how sad it is. “My heart, on the other hand, is still working it out.” After a long, slow exhalation, he looks down into my face. “Since then I’ve listen to my gut on everything.” He tilts my chin up. “I heard it, loud and clear, the night I saw you. It told me you were different. It was right.”

Oh fuck.

There’s that word. What is it about that word that somehow express what regular words can’t seem to? I still don’t like the taste of it—except when I’m naked and Cooper is doing wicked and delightful things to me—but cuss words do serve a purpose.

“I’m not going back on the circuit, Brooke. Sunday was it.”

“What about the ranch?”

“I’m not ready to go back to the ranch full time. It’s why I’ve stuck to the circuit so long. But I’m also not ready to sell. I can’t let it go, not yet.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“The Stampede Board’s offered me a job as VP of Events and I’m going to take it. I’m moving to Calgary.”

“You are?”

“Yep. I need some time to figure out what’s next for me. Where I’m going. But until then…”

“Until then?”

“The only place I’m going is up to your bedroom, to strip you naked and see how wet you are for me.”

Bam. There I go. Good lord, the man knows me so well. “You better hurry up cowboy, because I’ve got all sorts of plans for you.”

“Now we’re talking.”

I take Cooper’s hand and pull him through the parking lot and up the stairs to my apartment. It’s no ranch house, but I like it. It’s me. I want Cooper to see it, to get to know me…all of me.

I lead him to my bedroom and push him gently down onto the colorful, down comforter.

“Go easy, little lady. This cowboy’s injured.”

“Don’t worry,” I say, as I remove his boots and drop them on the floor. I take his hat and put it on my dresser, pausing to admire how much I like the look of it there. I turn back to him and straddle him, undoing the buttons on his shirt. Laying on my bed like that, with his shirt wide open, his glorious chest bare—Lord help me—he’s my very own wonderful, sexy, reckless cowboy. My gaze runs lower, to his belt buckle and the front of his jeans. Before I start unbuckling, I cup him and ask, “You aren’t injured here, are you?”

He smiles. “No, thank God.”

“Mmmm, good.” I lie down between his legs. After unbuckling and unzipping, I slide my hand inside. He’s already hard. With a firm grip, I pull him out and immediately suck the head of him into my mouth.

“Brooke,” he groans. “What are you doing?”

I look up at him from between his thighs. “I’ve got this nasty mouth on me. I plan to do nasty things to you.” Then I show him just how nasty. First I circle the head of his cock with my tongue, then I slowly draw him in, taking him as deep as I can.

“Oh fuck,” he moans as he lifts his hips in encouragement. “God, I love you.”

I stop. I withdraw and look up at him, blinking. “What did you say?”

“I said I love you.” He’s tugging on me to bring me closer so he can pull off my tank top.

I slap his hands away. “You don’t mean that.”

He looks me dead in the eye. “Yes I do.”

“So when I told you I loved you the other night…?”

He looks at me funny, grabs the hem of my top with one hand and pulls it over my head. Then he gets to work—still one-handed—untying the cord on my shorts. “When did you tell me you loved me?”

“In bed.” I slap his chest. “The other night. You didn’t answer.”

He yanks me down on top of him and kisses me, nice and thorough. “Did it occur to you that maybe you wore me out and I was asleep?”

“You were asleep?”

“I must have been. Because I sure as hell didn’t hear you say you love me.” He gives me a half-grin. “Is that why you were so quiet in the truck the next morning?”

I smack him again. “Yes, that’s why I was quiet in the truck.”

“I thought you were just exhausted. You know. From all the orgasms.”

I laugh and groan all at the same time. Then I wiggle out of my shorts. Cooper helps. Before I manage to slip out of my panties, he’s already got a couple fingers searching beneath the material.

“Damn, woman. You’re soaking wet.”

I lean down and kiss him. “You have that effect on me.”

“Where are the condoms?”

I find one in my bedside table, check the expiry date—no easy feat when you’ve got a hot cowboy playing slip and slide between your legs—and tear it open. He’s still got his jeans on, but I don’t care. He looks so goddamn good. I roll the rubber over him and straddle him, pulling the elastic of my panties to the side.

“Impatient little thing, aren’t you?”

I lower myself down his length and we groan in unison. “I have wanted to ride you from the moment I met you.”

“Now you’re speaking my language.” He holds me with a firm grip—it’s amazing how firm with only one arm—just as he surges up. I’ve never felt him so deep and I lean back to accommodate his length. I caress my breasts and by the way Cooper grunts, I know he likes it.

“You better hold on. Don’t want you getting bucked off.”

I lean my weight forward so I’m chest to chest with him. It feels so good.
He
feels so good. “Haven’t you seen me?” I whisper in his ear. “It takes more than a little bucking to get me off.”

He groans and increases the pace. For all his injuries, he’s ferocious and unrestrained in a way I’ve never seen him. In this position, with my panties half-on, half pushed to the side, the friction against my clit is exquisite. “Don’t stop, Coop,” I breathe.

“Wouldn’t think of it.”

Impossibly, within mere seconds I feel something happening. Something wild and wonderful. There’s a crazy pressure building inside my belly and with each upward surge it grows more and more.

“Coop?” I’m panting now.

“Yeah, baby?” He’s panting too.

“I think I’m going to come.”

“Oh sweetheart.” He holds me close and kisses me deep. “I’m so ready,” his voice is ragged in my ear. “You tell me when.”

I slide up and down on him and crazy images fill my brain. A meteor shower, watching huge turbines, riding a horse, seeing Coop’s dark hair between my thighs, the smack of his hand against my ass, the sound of his voice when he shouts my name.
Fuck Brooke…

“Coop?”

“Yeah?” There’s a pained look on his face as if he’s trying to hold back.

“I think now.” A pulsing fire tears through me. “Oh God, Coop! Now!”

He slams me down just as he drives up. He squeezes his eyes and gasps, his pelvis flush against mine. That’s it. I’m undone. I’m exploding like the fireworks after the final grandstand show. It’s so intense I can barely breathe. I gulp air trying to put myself together again.

He holds me close as if he’s never going to let me go. I love how he’s breathing so hard. I love how his heart pounds in rhythm with mine.

“Goddamn, Brooke,” Coop says, his voice a ragged whisper. “Goddamn, I love you.”

I smile and snuggle close, loving the way my body continues to pulse and shudder around him. Loving the way I am with him.

“Goddamn is right,” I whisper back. “Goddamn is right.”

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