Oh, dear, maybe she shouldn’t have mentioned the big, soft beds, because now that was all she could think about. She’d never made love in a king-size bed before. Hell, she could hardly call the few liaisons she’d had in the past “making love.” “Frantic, unfulfilling couplings” was more accurate. Somehow she imagined sex with Cooper would be very different.
“So how about a Scotch and water?” he asked. “Or vodka tonic.”
Suddenly liquor didn’t sound tempting. She knew what she needed, and he was peering into the mini fridge, giving her an awesome view of his tight butt and muscular legs. A man like him shouldn’t be allowed to wear gym shorts.
He straightened and turned to look at her. “Allie?”
Her need must have shone right out of her eyes, because suddenly he had an answering hunger in his.
What would it hurt? If they spent one night together…or two…What difference would it make? Nothing they said or did tonight would change their legal dispute. A judge would decide the outcome, and he would have no knowledge of whether she and Cooper had slept together.
“Cooper…”
That was all she needed to say. He reached her in two long strides, and before she could even take a deep breath to prepare herself, she was in his arms and he was kissing the daylights out of her.
This kiss was definitely not in her imagination. His mouth was hot and insistent on hers, his hands were tangled in her hair while hers grasped at his T-shirt, clutching blindly, wanting more of him, more, more…
“Allie, oh, Allie,” he whispered against her mouth. “You’ve driven me completely, utterly insane, and if you don’t put a stop to this right now-”
He kissed her again, harder, more demanding, his tongue darting in and out of her mouth. He used one hand to cup her bottom and the other had found her breast, rubbing the nipple with his thumb.
It responded immediately, hardening to a pebble. Her insides turned molten, and she sagged against him, defeated. If he actually hoped she would stop this train, he would be disappointed.
Before she became so boneless that she sank to the floor, he scooped her up and carried her into his bedroom.
Cooper knew what he was about to do was probably the stupidest stunt of his entire life. But he’d lost control of his senses, and right now he hoped he never got them back. He wouldn’t, however, compound one stupidity with another.
He laid her on the rumpled bed. “Don’t move. Promise me you won’t move.”
“Where are you-”
He didn’t stay to listen. He dashed into his private bathroom and pawed through his shaving kit, praying he hadn’t been organized enough to clean this thing out in the past year or so.
Yes! He rushed back to the bedroom relieved to find Allie still sitting there, though she looked a bit bewildered.
When he kissed her again though, it was as if they’d never paused. She came alive in his arms like a wild thing.
Clothes went flying. Cooper couldn’t get naked fast enough. He wanted skin against skin. When he got it, it was better than anything he’d imagined. Peaches and cream, kissed golden by the sun. He ran his fingers along her faint tan lines and marveled at how brief her bikini must be.
He pushed her down gently onto the snowy-white sheets, then leaned back so he could admire the effect of seeing Allie tangled in his sheets. “You are the most beautiful-”
“No, don’t say it.” She closed her eyes, as if embarrassed. “‘Cute’ I can believe. Not beautiful. Don’t spoil this by lying.”
She had to be joking. Did she honestly not know how incredibly gorgeous she was?
He wasn’t going to argue with her about it now, though. There were better things to do than argue. Right now, he intended to focus on loving her thoroughly, in every way a man could love a woman without getting arrested.
He kissed her breasts one at a time, circling the nipples slowly with his tongue as she moaned and wiggled in semiprotest.
“Oh, my word!”
He chuckled softly as he moved to her other breast. Meanwhile, his hand explored the fertile territory of her flat belly, slowly moving down to the soft curls that protected her feminine secrets.
When he planted a trail of kisses down the center of her belly and teased her naval with his tongue, he thought she was going to come unglued.
“Cooper!” she objected.
“What?”
“I’m just-it’s just-”
“You don’t like it?” He’d never had complaints before. Then again, a lot of the women he’d dated might have had an agenda and wouldn’t have told him if his lovemaking wasn’t up to their standards.
“I’m overwhelmed, I’ve never done-oh, shoot, I’m going to spoil this.”
She wasn’t a virgin, was she? “You’ve never…”
“No, I mean, yes, I have, just not so, so…Can we stop to catch our breath?”
To tell the truth, Cooper had been moving at breakneck speed partly because he wanted her with an intensity he’d never experienced before, but also because he didn’t want to give Allie time to catch her breath.
He was afraid she’d change her mind.
But he didn’t want to take Allie if she was the slightest bit hesitant. He wanted no regrets. The very nature of their relationship meant they could have no future. No matter how the judge ruled, someone would be ticked off, and that pretty much ruled out anything long-term.
He scooted up next to her, slid an arm behind her and pulled her close. “You’re not spoiling anything. I got carried away because, Allie Bateman, you are beautiful. I thought so the first time I saw you, clutching your coffee cup like you were ready to clunk me over the head with it.”
That got a little chuckle out of her. “Like I could really hurt you.”
“We don’t have to do this,” he said, though it was painful to consider giving her up, sending her back to her own bed.
“Oh, no! I don’t want to stop, Lord no. I just want it to last.”
The relief he felt was overpowering. “Don’t worry, I’ll make it last.” He kissed her more gently this time. “And if it doesn’t, we’ll just do it again.”
“Really? You won’t roll over and start snoring?”
He laughed. “I don’t know what kind of men you’re used to, but as long as you’re in bed with me, there won’t be any snoring going on.”
But amusement fled as he set out to deliver on his promises. He kissed and stroked, taking it slow, letting Allie set the pace. He hardly touched her below the waist until she took his hand and dragged it downward.
She parted her legs readily, allowing him full access. She responded to the lightest of strokes with soft sighs and little gasps, her hands clutching at him wherever she could find purchase.
When he slid a finger inside her, she suddenly cried out and shuddered, and he realized what she meant about wanting it to last. He’d never seen anything as beautiful as Allie in the full throes of ecstasy.
He continued to stroke her until her shudders died down, then he pulled her into his arms and just held her.
“Now you see what I mean.”
“What, you think it’s a problem? Do you have any idea how it makes me feel, that I can turn you on so quickly? It makes me want to do it all again.”
And he did. He kissed and stroked and nibbled until she was writhing again, but this time he quickly sheathed himself and entered her before she climaxed. He moved inside her as slowly as he dared, drawing out their pleasure as long as possible.
“Not yet,” he whispered into her ear, going still, then bringing her up to the very brink and slowing again.
By the time he couldn’t hold himself back any longer she was almost in tears. And when she came the second time it was even more explosive than the first. Her body clenched around his as she cried out, and his own climax was so…vigorous that he thought he might black out. Every drop of blood that fed his brain had left to take care of more urgent matters.