He grinned up at her. ‘Awesome.’
Wrapping his lips around the stiffened peak, he drew it against the roof of his mouth. Her fingers plunged into his hair as she held his head and gasped, the pleasure almost too intense to bear now. ‘Oh, God...’
His growing erection nudged her belly, and she reached to stroke the shaft instinctively. But as she brushed her thumb across the bead of liquid at the head, rejoicing at his growl of need, her stomach rumbled loudly.
‘Enough.’ He gave a strained laugh, carefully dislodging her hand. Then kissed her fingers, his smile mocking. ‘I guess I’m going to have to offer you food. I don’t want you passing out your first day.’
At the mention of food, her stomach growled again. Colour tainted her cheeks as he laughed. ‘How about you go grab a shower, and I’ll put out the food my housekeeper prepared for us? We can eat out on the deck.’
‘I’d like that,’ she said, suddenly grateful for the respite, and the chance to examine all the emotions careering through her system.
Although she’d discovered in the last twenty minutes that he had a few ‘issues’ about his role as a father to overcome, it felt good to have got her first proper glimpse of the man behind the confident façade he wore so well. And exciting to know that they’d already started to establish a new intimacy between them.
Despite all Ruby’s dire warnings not to confuse her joy about the pregnancy with anything else, she wasn’t the least bit worried about jumping back into bed with Coop.
The one good thing about her terrible experience with Randall was, she’d never be delusional enough to mistake hot sex for love again.
Just because Coop looked great, smelled amazing, knew how to hit all her happy buttons—endorphin-wise—had sperm supersonic enough to impregnate her virtually barren body, and made everything inside her gather and tighten when he looked at her a certain way, she knew she could remain totally objective about their relationship. Such as it was.
Her main priority was the baby. And that would never change.
She lay back in the bed, and took a moment to appreciate the delicious view of Coop’s naked backside as he tugged his jeans back on. And stifled the sigh as the pale strip of defined muscle disappeared behind battered denim.
Her stomach fluttered as if it were filled with hyperactive butterflies when he leaned down to press a kiss to her lips. ‘Supper will be served in twenty minutes, Little Miss Sunshine. Don’t be late.’
‘Aye aye, Captain.’
He strolled out, and her gaze dipped back down to that beautifully tight butt—while the swooping sensation in her stomach bottomed out.
Okay, maybe sleeping with Coop would be a tiny bit distracting, but surely they were going to need some light relief from all the heavy stuff they had to deal with? And the truth was, the intimacy of sex seemed to be a great way to get him to lower his guard.
She squinted as the setting sun dipped lower and the light peaked past the four-poster’s gauzy curtains onto the bed. In fact, now she thought about it, maybe she should consider it her duty to seduce him as often as possible.
* * *
Damn, you nearly blew it.
Coop put the last of the platters Inez had prepared on the outdoor table. The generous plate of lobster salad, Inez’s salted crab cakes and colourful sides of fruit salsa, fried plantain and cornbread had saliva gathering under his tongue.
Good, hopefully Inez’s mouth-watering spread would keep his mouth and hands busy when Ella came down for her supper. He uncorked a chilled bottle of Pouilly Fuissé and splashed a couple of slugs into a glass before planting the bottle in the ice bucket next to the table.
Time to cool the hell down.
What the hell had got into him? He’d seen her less than a week ago. Had made love to her less than ten days ago. And yet, he’d jumped her as soon as she’d arrived.
One gasp of breath, one look from those trusting eyes and he’d been all over her like a rash. His first night with her had already caused more problems than he knew how to solve. And now he was losing all his cool points too? What the hell?
He gulped the pricey wine without tasting a single drop—the thought of the baby going some way to dousing the heat in his pants.
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She loved this kid already; he could see it in the dreamy look every time she mentioned it. And then there were all those questions about how he felt about the baby. Making him pretty sure she wasn’t going to be impressed with his initial thought that maybe his role in the child’s life could be limited to setting up a hefty college fund and giving her a monthly allowance to cover her expenses.
On the balcony above, the white cotton curtains billowed out of the open balcony doors caught by the early evening breeze off the ocean. The sound of running water drifted down from the guest room’s shower.
The image of Ella, naked and flushed, her rosy nipples begging to be sucked, swirled into his brain.
He drained the glass. Snagged one of the patties off the plate, wrapped it in some arugula and stuffed it in his mouth.