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My heels dig into Cooper’s ass, and he groans. The sound spurs me on, and I bring my lips to his neck. Sucking. Scraping my teeth against his skin. Pleasure ripples through my veins, warming me.
One of Cooper’s hands slides down my ass until his fingers bite into my skin.
“Jesus, I’m close,” I breathe.
“Come on my cock,” he orders with one final thrust.
I detonate on a whisper while Coop works me through my orgasm silently, then sets me carefully on my feet.
Come drips down my leg as Cooper tucks himself back inside his pants.
When he looks up, it’s with a mixture of apprehension and regret on his face. “Did I hurt you?” He doesn’t reach for me. Doesn’t touch me. He never once called me baby when he was fucking me, and that realization steals my breath from my lungs.
“Carys...”
Oh. I didn’t answer him. “No. I’m fine. I just...”
“Let me walk you to your room.” Worried blue eyes meet mine.
“There’s Secret Service all over the resort, Coop. I’m okay. I don’t need you to walk me back.”
“We need to talk.” An unreadable mask slides over Cooper’s face. “I leave the day after the wedding, Carys.” His words are a warning as he turns and walks away, and I’m left watching him go.
Wondering if I made a mistake tonight, or if the mistake was made two months ago.
I spentthe night staring at the wooden palm-leaf ceiling fan spinning and feeling like I’m doing the same damn thing. I know I fucked up last night. She’s running away, and instead of forcing her to stay, forcing her to talk, I gave her another way to avoid me. Sex wasn’t the answer. It was a Band-Aid, a fucking phenomenal stalling tactic that solved nothing.
Just before sunrise, I give up on getting any decent sleep and decide to go for a run. But on my loop around the resort, I slow as I come up to Carys’s hut, and without overthinking it, I knock on her door. I stand there, leaning against the door frame, waiting. Muffled noise comes from the other side, so I know she definitely heard me.
When she cracks open the door, I realize just how early it is and remember Carys isnota morning person. Too late now.
“What do you want, Cooper? It’s six a.m.” She’s dressed in black lace boy-cut panties and a matching black lace-bra thing that kinda looks like a tank top but shorter. And way sexier. Damn. Her hair’s a mess around her face, and those emerald-green eyes of hers are glaring daggers at me for waking her up. All I want to do is kiss her, but she’d probably break a lamp over my head if I did.
“We need to talk, Carys, and I’m not giving you a chance to run away this time.” I take a step forward, and she begrudgingly opens the door further to let me in.
“Fine.” She grabs a tee out of her suitcase and throws it over her beautiful body, which certainly helps me concentrate. I’m strong, but I don’t know if I’m strong enough to have this conversation with a half-naked Carys. Although, when she turns around, I force back the groan caught in my throat. One of the few things better than a half-naked Carys is her half-naked in my shirt. My inner caveman roars to life at the vision in front of me, seeing her in one of my old Kroydon Hills Prep football tees withSinclairand my number across the back.
“Nice shirt.”
Her delicate hands grip the hem, tugging it down while she looks to see what she’s wearing and then blushes. “It’s comfortable,” she shrugs. “What do you want, Cooper? What do we have left to talk about?” She crosses her hands over her chest, and the five-year-old shirt lifts with her, grazing the tops of her thighs.
I mimic her stance. “How about we start with why you pushed me away?”
“I told you—”
“You didn’t tell me anything. Just said you needed space. I need more than that, Carys. I deserve more. We deserve more, and you know it.” I force myself to stay put and not cross the room. To not go to her the way I want to. “What happened to us?”
“Cooper...” The way my name leaves her lips... It’s a sigh of exhaustion. She drops down onto the small sofa and tucks her feet up under herself. “Can’t you please just accept that it’s over and leave it at that?”
“No, I can’t. I refuse to. We were fine. We were making plans, and everything was fine. I know I said I wanted to talk to the family about us. I wanted us to be open with everyone. But when you pushed back that you weren’t ready, I promised to give you time. What the fuck happened after that to cause this? Because I love you, and I’m pretty damn sure you still love me too, baby.”
Her eyes flare on my last word as they shoot up to meet mine. “It doesn’t matter, Cooper. None of it matters anymore.”
“Why?” I push, needing better answers than she’s giving me. “Why doesn’t it matter? Because you’re sick? What kind of man would I be if I backed away because of that?”
Her hands fly up into the air, pissed off. “I’m not sick right now, Coop. I’m living with lupus. I have good days and bad days. Sometimes bad weeks, but I’m not always sick.” Some of her anger subsides as she lowers her voice. “But that doesn’t mean there aren’t complications that I don’t want you to deal with. This is for me to live with. Not you.”
“Who are you to decide what I live with? I love you. I want to live with you. I want to spend my life with you. I don’t care about the rest. Who better to lean on when you need support than the man who loves you?” I stand my ground, staring down at this beautiful woman who must have no idea what she means to me. “Where the hell did I fuck up? Why don’t you believe that I love you enough for us to get through anything?”
