Page 96 of Falling for the Grinchy Bad Boy

“For what?”

“For being here. For caring enough to worry.” His voice caught slightly. “I’m not used to that.”

The admission broke something open in my chest. I turned in his arms and kissed him, pouring all my feelings into the contact. I showed him my relief that he was safe while trying to hide my growing love for this complicated man.

His mouth on mine was filled with a hunger that was about so much more than physical need. It was about connection, about the recognition of something precious building between us.

We made it to his bed still damp from the shower with our skin warm and flushed. His naked body stretched out on top of mine. I slid my hands up his bare back and his muscles rippled under my touch.

“I need you,” he whispered against my throat. The vulnerability in his voice made my heart flutter.

“I’m here,” I told him as my hands framed his face. “I’m right here.”

He kissed me like he was drowning and I was air, his mouth claiming mine with a desperation that made my pulse race. I could taste the need on his lips, feel it in the way his hands trembled slightly as they roamed over my body.

I didn’t know what happened tonight, but he was different. I wanted to give him everything he needed. Would I be enough?

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, his voice rough with emotion as his gaze traveled over my naked body. “I can’t believe you’re here with me.”

I reached up to touch his face, my thumb tracing the sharp line of his cheekbone. “Where else would I be?”

The question seemed to undo something in him. He kissed me again, slower this time but no less intense, his tongue sliding against mine in a rhythm that made heat pool low in my belly. I could feel him hard against my thigh, could feel the barely leashed control in the way he held himself back.

“I want to take my time with you,” he said against my lips. “I want to memorize every inch of you.”

“We have all night,” I breathed, arching beneath him as his mouth moved to my throat.

He took me at my word, his lips and tongue mapping every sensitive spot he could find. When he took my breast into his mouth, I gasped and arched off the bed, my fingers tangling in his damp hair. He lavished attention on one nipple until I was writhing beneath him, then moved to the other, his free hand skimming down my body to part my thighs.

“Cooper,” I gasped when his fingers found me already wet and ready for him.

“I know,” he murmured against my skin. “I can feel how much you want this.”

He slid one finger inside me, then two, his thumb circling my clit in maddening slow circles that had me trembling on the edge of release. But just when I thought I might come apart, he pulled his hand away, ignoring my whimper of protest.

He kissed his way down my stomach until he was lying flat with his face between my legs. I looked down at him. And then he kissed me there.

My head dropped back, and my eyes closed.

The first touch of his tongue against me made me cry out, my hips lifting off the bed as sensation shot through my entire body. He held me steady with his hands on my thighs, his grip firm as he explored me with his mouth.

“God, you taste incredible,” he murmured against me. The vibration of his words sent another wave of pleasure through my core.

My fingers intertwined through his hair, not to guide him but just to anchor myself to something solid as he worked me with his tongue. He took his time, alternating between broad, flat strokes and focused attention on my clit that had me gasping his name.

He slid two fingers inside me while his mouth continued its relentless assault. I felt myself climbing toward the edge of release. My thighs trembled around his head. I could hear myself making sounds I didn’t recognize—desperate, needy whimpers that came from somewhere deep inside me.

“I’m close,” I managed to gasp, my back arching as the tension built to an almost unbearable peak.

He didn’t let up. If anything he just became more focused. His fingers curled inside me, finding that spot that made stars explode behind my eyelids, while his tongue worked my clit with perfect pressure.

The orgasm crashed over me like a tidal wave. It stole my breath and made my vision go white around the edges. I cried out his name. My body convulsed as pleasure radiated through every nerve ending.

He kissed his way up my body before he positioned himself between my legs. “I want to feel you come around me. I love being inside you. I love feeling your body squeeze around me.”

When he finally entered me, we both groaned at the sensation. He filled me completely, stretching me in the most delicious way as he sank deep. For a moment, we stayed perfectly still, foreheads pressed together, breathing hard as we adjusted to the intensity of being joined.

“Move,” I whispered, my legs wrapping around his waist. “Please, Cooper, I need you to move.”

He started slow, each thrust deliberate and deep, his eyes locked on mine as if he were memorizing this moment. But as the pleasure built between us, his control began to fray. His movements became more urgent, more desperate. I met him thrust for thrust, my nails digging into his shoulders.

“God, Joy,” he groaned, his rhythm becoming erratic. “You feel so perfect. So right.”

I could feel another orgasm building, that familiar tension coiling tighter and tighter in my core. When Cooper shifted slightly, hitting that perfect spot inside me, I cried out and shattered around him. My body clenched as waves of pleasure crashed over me.

The feeling of me coming undone beneath him pushed Cooper over the edge. He thrust deep one final time and came with a broken groan, his body shuddering as he spilled inside me.

Afterward, we lay tangled together, both of us breathing hard and slightly stunned by the intensity of what had just happened. Cooper’s arm tightened around me, pulling me closer against his chest.

We stayed like that for a long time, skin to skin in the darkness of his bedroom, neither of us wanting to break the spell of intimacy we’d woven around ourselves. Eventually, Cooper’s breathing evened out as exhaustion from his long day finally caught up with him.

His heartbeat steadied beneath my ear and something shifted inside me. This wasn’t just physical anymore—hadn’t been for a while, if I was being honest with myself. What I felt for Cooper was deeper than desire, stronger than attraction.

I was falling in love with him, and the realization both thrilled and terrified me in equal measure.