Revelry (Taint #1) (48 page)
He shrugs off my hold. “Levi told me you were seeing someone. I’ve known that for weeks.” He buries his head in his hands. “I just fucking met the guy, and I fucked you anyway because I couldn’t help myself. I lose my head completely when I’m with you. I’m sorry, Ali.”
“You think I’m sleeping with Tim?”
“Well, aren’t you?”
“Cooper, he’s my old flatmate. He was Bradley’s best friend. We’re just friends—he felt badly for me when Levi called, so he made out he was my boyfriend.”
“But you brought him back to your apartment?”
“Yeah, and he also found me here four hours ago, with unwashed bedhead and Mint Pattie stuck to my face.”
He frowns. “Why would you have Mint Pattie stuck to your face?”
“Shame spiral.” I wave that away, trying to get him to focus on what’s important here. “It’s irrelevant.”
“So you’re not—”
“Fucking my old roommate? Nope. I’m in love with some other guy. He thinks he’s a big hot-shot rock star, but he’s mostly just average in every way.”
He laughs, and it’s been so long since I’ve heard that sound that more tears spring into my eyes. “That so?”
“Yup. Honestly, the ego on this guy is ridiculous.” I swipe at the tears and Coop climbs over me, settling his hips into the space between my legs and pinning me to the bed, his forearms pushing down into the mattress either side of my head.
“Hi,” he whispers. “I’m the egotistical, average-in-every-way rock star.”
I smile up at him. “Hi.”
“I have to go soon.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. I only had an eight-hour layover. I’ve got a show in about forty-six hours.” His eyes light with excitement. “You should come with me.”
“I can’t. There’s that whole paparazzi thing. I finally got them to leave me the hell alone by never leaving my apartment. Plus I have to work.”
“I’ll pay you to never leave my bed.” He says, and then cringes when he realises that hits a little too close to home. “Shit, Ali. I didn’t mean—”
I pull his face down to mine and kiss him deeply, cutting off his apology. Yes, he lied, but I was an idiot to doubt his sincerity or his love for me.
“Sorry,” he says, when I finally release his mouth.
“I am too.” I run my fingers through his curls, and take in those beautiful blue-grey eyes I missed so much.
“Will you think about coming with me? We have three more weeks through Europe and I don’t want to be away from you that long.”
“What about Levi?”
“He’s fine,” Coop says, and I try to hide my grimace at that. Of course he’s fine; he’s dating Victoria’s Secret models and banging anything that moves on the European continent.
“Right.” I smile up at him. “Of course he is.”
Cooper frowns. “Actually, he’s not, but he’s trying to be. He wants you to be happy, Ali.” He lets out a deep breath and says, “I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but that’s all I want, too. If he’s what makes you happy, then you should be together.”
“We really made a mess of things, didn’t we?”
He gives a derisive laugh, smoothing the hair back from my forehead. “Little bit, yeah.”
“Levi will always be special to me, Coop. Seeing him with another woman, being around him? That’s not going to be easy. I won’t deny that, but there’s always been a clear choice between the two of you.”
“And I’m it?” he asks. There’s trepidation in his eyes. He seems so uncertain, as if he’s expecting me to turn him away. I can’t help it; I laugh. Because I don’t know how this man could possibly be so damn blind.
“Well, you’re not my first choice. I mean I’ll always be holding out hope that Josh Holme will leave his wife for me, and there’s the ego thing, and then—”
He cuts my insults short by kissing me, deeper than before, but sweeter at the same time. I moan into his mouth, my body tightening and begging for more of him.
“So maybe we hold off on you joining us on tour, just for now. After this leg, I have two months off. I want to head up north, spend some time with Pepper, and I want you to come with me. No paparazzi, no Levi, no Taint. Just you and me.”
“And your ex,” I add, teasingly.
“She’s the mother of my kid, Ali,” he says, tenderly stroking the hair back from my face. “You two are going to have to meet at some point.”
“You know, if we wanted to, I bet we could have our own show with all the messed up stuff that goes on in our lives. We easily out-crazy the Kardashians.”
“I’m done sharing you with others. I just got you back, and I want to keep you all to myself,” he whispers, kissing my jaw, nipping his teeth down my neck and sinking them into my shoulder.
“And I want to let you.”
Hooking his arms beneath my back, Cooper sits up so that I’m straddling his waist, his face just inches from mine. He leans forward and takes my breast into his mouth, sucking hard on the nipple and then biting down until I cry out. I reach between us and take hold of his cock, guiding it into my body, gasping as I sink down on him. Cooper moves in and out of me, filling me up and hitting all of the right spots. I wrap my arms around his shoulders as I rock my pelvis against his lap, grinding my clit against the base of his cock as pleasure arcs through me with each thrust.
My orgasm builds slowly, tempered only by our gentle rocking and his mouth on my flesh, nipping, sucking and licking everywhere that he can reach.
“Fuck,” he says through clenched teeth. His cock jerks inside me. “Come for me, Ali.”
“Coop. Oh god, don’t stop,” I pant, and throw my head back as my body jerks with release. I collapse against him, pushing us both back onto the mattress. He softens and eventually slides out of my body, but neither one of us move. I don’t want to. I’m afraid if I do, he’ll leave.
We doze on and off like that—our bodies flush against one another, chest to chest, my face buried in his neck, legs stretched out on top of his.
“Don’t go,” I whisper against his throat. He doesn’t answer, but his arms tighten around me. Feeling warm and happy for the first time in weeks, I sleep.
“Wake up, kitty cat,” Cooper whispers. I cover my eyes with the crook of my arm and try to roll over, but his hand slides between my legs, gently rubbing my clit, and a moan escapes my mouth. “I have to leave.”
“No,” I protest, flexing my hips towards him for more. He indulges me, working me faster until I explode with pleasure, white hot and searing.
“Fucking beautiful,” he whispers. I open my eyes and catch him smirking down at me. I throw my pillow at him.
“Stop fucking smirking at me, Ryan.”
He chuckles and leans in, snaking his fingers behind my head and bringing his mouth down on mine in a soft kiss that quickly turns needy. He pulls away with a groan. “I’m gonna miss my plane if I don’t go.”
“Fine. Go make the panties of millions of women wet. I’ll be here when you get back.”
“Promise?” he asks, his mouth tilting up at the sides.
“Cross my heart.” I smirk back.
“Love you, Ali-Cat.”
“Get outta here, butt munch.”
He lays one last kiss on my lips and disappears through my front door. I flop back against the bed with a contented sigh, and then the bastard cat jumps on my chest. I scream. She hisses in my face, and darts over to the windowsill, meowing at something down below.
I sit up and press my face against the glass. Down on the street, Cooper is getting into a town car. He looks up at my window and catches me staring. I flip him off, and he chuckles. I can practically hear that melodic low tone of his, even from this distance.
He blows me a kiss that I catch, and then I pretend to eat it, poking my tongue out at him afterwards. His shoulders shake with laughter, and then he disappears into the backseat. I can’t see him through the tinted windows, but I’m pretty sure he can see me. So I blow him a kiss and press my fingers to the glass as he drives off.
“Stupid egotistical, average-in-every-way rock stars,” I mutter to my bastard cat. She glares at me as if I’m the reason he drove away, and then goes about licking her genitals while she balances on the windowsill. Lucky bitch.
I get up and make myself a coffee, and then climb back into my bed and wrap my body in sheets that smell like him. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future with Levi, and the press, his ex, and a career that will most certainly see us spending more time apart than we do together, but I know that he’s worth waiting for.
No matter how long it takes. No matter how many time zones, tabloids, tours from hell or fangirls between us, I’ll still be here waiting, because it turns out I’m his biggest fan.
Even if I never wanted to be.
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Carmen Jenner is a thirty-something,
USA TODAY
and international bestselling author of the Sugartown, Savage Saints, and Taint series.
Her dark romance, KICK (Savage Saints MC #1), won Best Dark Romance Read in the Reader’s Choice Awards at RWDU 2015.
A tattoo enthusiast, hardcore MAC addict and zombie fangirl, Carmen lives on the sunny north coast of New South Wales, Australia, where she spends her time indoors wrangling her two wildling children, a dog named Pikelet, and her very own man-child.
A romantic at heart, Carmen strives to give her characters the HEA they deserve, but not before ruining their lives completely first … because what’s a happily ever after without a little torture?
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