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Bemused, he hurried after them. Jo Ellen grinned at him over his father’s head. “Nice day for a stroll, hmm?”
Cooper shook his head and had to smile.
So, they walked. Jo Ellen would occasionally make a comment about a picture on the wall or ask Cooper about the accommodations at the home. She didn’t try to talk to Thad and he completely ignored both of them.
An hour later, Coop couldn’t take anymore. Thad hadn’t stopped walking, though he’d found a new wing to explore, and he hadn’t acknowledged either of his guests again, not until Jo Ellen touched his shoulder and kissed his cheek.
“It was good to see you again, Thad.”
The old man lurched, and swung around to gape as if he hadn’t realized she’d been there the past sixty minutes. Following her lead, Coop kissed his other cheek, and his dad swung toward him.
Staring at him without any sense of recognition, Thad blinked at his son. Cooper cleared his throat and swiftly turned away, striding down the hall toward the exit. Jo Ellen caught up with him, slipping her hand into his. He squeezed her fingers but otherwise ignored her until they reached his truck. After helping her into her door, he marched around and slid behind the wheel, then started the engine, but just sat there.
“Cooper?” her dulcet voice rattled him into reacting.
He closed his eyes and bowed forward to rest his forehead on the steering wheel. “I feel like a total shithead.”
“Why?” Concern lacing her voice, Jo Ellen scooted to him and wrapped her arms around his waist.
He leaned heavily into her but refused to open his eyes. “Because I hate coming here. I hate seeing him like this.”
She sighed. “That doesn’t make you a shithead. Feeling pain from seeing your father’s misery makes you compassionate.”
Touching his back, she eased her fingers over his tense muscles. But her caress didn’t relax him, as he was sure she meant it to. His body only pulled tauter.
“I wouldn’t do that right now if I were you.”
When she shivered, he glanced over his shoulder, his eyes burning with emotion. He groaned when he saw the tips of her breasts hard and beaded under her blouse.
“I feel like a pressure cooker. And if you keep touching me, I just might lose my composure.”
Her lips parted. Tilting her chin up in challenge, she said, “So then lose it.” To tempt him further, she slid her hand down his back to the base of his spine where her touch slid half an inch into the gap at the waistline of his pants, pushing him past his limit.
His eyes dilated and his nostrils flared as he turned to face her fully. “I meant sex.”
She pulled in a sharp breath. “I know.”
“Right here,” he rumbled. “Right now.”
She nodded, seemingly too aroused to speak.
He scanned her face and found all the answers he wanted to see. “Jesus.” She was serious. She would. Right here.
All logic gone, he cranked the key in his ignition, killing the truck.
Jo Ellen broke down first. “Cooper,” she whimpered, reaching for him.
He met her half way, his mouth open as it slammed against hers. A part of him realized they sat publicly in the open on the parking lot of his father’s nursing home, but a majority of him didn’t care. He needed Jo Ellen. He needed her very essence to fill him where he was empty, where
he hurt.
Sinking his fingers in her hair to cradle her head, he ravished her lips as he urged her backward on top of the bench seat. Lost in her, he consumed, plundered for more, and sought something from inside her he could never extract by physical means. She kissed him back, touching him as if she wanted to give him exactly what he sought.
“Someday,” he said against her throat, barely pausing to take his mouth off her warm skin. “I want to love you on a bed full of pillows and blankets. I want to get tangled in sheets and comforters until we’re wrapped together so tight they’ll need the Jaws of Life to separate us.”
She gave a small laugh as she rained kisses along his jaw. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever made love on a bed before.”
He pulled back, frowning.
