“Good. And you don’t have to worry—I don’t think this means anything.”
His recent insights to his own psyche were very fresh, so he was surprised to find his feelings hurt by that statement.
“I’m not worried. You don’t want it to mean anything?”
“Do you?”
Somewhere nearby, but not in this room, his phone rang. He couldn’t remember where he’d left it.
It was his personal, not the burner, and it wasn’t the ringtone he assigned to his brothers, so it was probably a telemarketer or something. He meant to ignore it, but Siena used his momentary distraction to make distance.
“You should get that.” She squirmed until he slipped out of her.
“I don’t need to,” he said, trying to resist her wriggling—but then it became clear that to stop her he’d have to use force, so he backed off and let her up.
“It’s okay. I should go, anyway. I told Geneva I’d be just a few minutes.” She was on her feet, slipping back into her pants.
The phone continued to ring. Sitting naked on the floor, Cooper ignored it and watched the woman he’d just fucked into the goddamn cosmos scramble to get away from him as quickly as she could.
It wasn’t the first time a woman was done with him two seconds after he’d gotten her off, and, though he tried not to be a dick to the women he fucked, he’d made a quick exit himself plenty of times, but this one hit hard. All those tender places he’d exposed began to ache.
But he didn’t say another word. He was not about to fucking beg.
She swept up her shoes and went to the door without putting them on. In the doorway, she turned back and gave him a look he couldn’t read. Her color was high with the lingering rush of her orgasms, and her ponytail was snarled and loose from their gyrations. She was absolutely gorgeous—and fucking and chucking him.
“I’ll talk to you later,” she said, and then was gone.
Stunned, Cooper sat where he was for a long time.
This hurt? It was like she’d opened his chest and dragged out the contents with a hand rake. It sucked. He never wanted to feel it again.
So he would make sure he didn’t.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Siena hurried overthe gravel in her bare feet and ran onto her porch and through the front door like a monster was at her heels. She was being ridiculous and knew it; she’d left Cooper naked, sitting on the gym mat, so he wasn’t right behind her, even if he were of a mind to chase her down.
Still, once she was inside her own house, she actually leaned back against the closed door, like a horror movie character hiding from the hockey-masked slasher.
But it wasn’t Cooper who was the monster, it was her. A pathetic, shameful creature. The Unwoman.
God, she wasmortified. She’dbeggedhim to fuck her. She’d begged him, and he’d helped her out. Her pussy was like her car: needed the pump unclogged. He wasn’t really into her; he couldn’t possibly be into her. He’d just done her a solid.
Jesus. They had to move. She could never come face to face with Cooper ever again.