This Love (Cowboys & Angels 6)

His eyes swept over me again. And I realized I was standing in front of him with wet hair and probably smeared makeup.

For feck’s sake. I groaned to meself for being so stupid.

His ocean blue eyes were looking into my green, and I felt like he was going to drown me with the intensity of his stare.

“I was…tired.”

His brow quirked. “Tired?”

“Yes.”

Cord took another step toward me. “Let me ask you something. If I told you the moment I saw your naked body I wanted to be inside you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my entire life, would you believe me? Would it turn you on enough to do something about it?”

I swallowed hard and lifted my chin in defiance. I wasn’t going to let him get to me. “I’d say you were lying.”

“Why?” he asked, lifting his hand and brushing his fingers over the exposed area of me shoulder where me robe wasn’t all the way on. I gasped at his touch and fought to breathe. It appeared Cord had a similar reaction to our touch.

“I’m a simple girl. I see the women you’ve been with. I can’t compete with that level of your playing field when I’m not even at the same game as them.”

Cord frowned, a pained look moving across his face. “What?”

I took a step back into the room, breaking his contact with me. “I think you should leave, Cord.”

“Maebh, you’re nothing like those women.”

Tears filled my eyes as I looked back at him. “Please leave.”

He shook his head. “Wait, what I mean is you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

“You only want me because you think you can’t have me. I’m a challenge.”

A slow smile appeared on his face. I held my breath realizing the mistake I’d just made.

“Why can’t I have you, Maebh? Do you not want me?”

Oh, shite. Why did he have to ask that?

“N-no.”

He took a step closer.

“Liar.”

Me chest heaved as Cord’s hands cupped me face. “I think you want me as much as I want you.”

I shook me head and was about to push him away when he slid his hands into me wet hair and pulled me head back slightly. I’d never had a man touch me in such an aggressive, yet sexy way. I liked it more than I wanted to admit.

“Knowing you’re naked under this robe is driving me fucking nuts. And what I saw under that robe in all of its beauty just a few moments ago is making me hard as stone.”

“Cord,” I panted, trying to get me senses back. It felt like the air was changing around us. It was warm and crackling with energy I’d never experienced before.

“I want to slip my hand under your robe and make you come on my fingers. Will you let me do that to you, agra?”

Me head dropped back and me eyes closed. Cord had said agra again. Was he calling me sweetheart or did he realize it also meant love? Me world spun, and I was beginning to lose whatever control I had left.

“Baby, will you let me touch you? I’m fucking dying to touch you. I need to touch you.”

When I felt his fingers on the top of my thigh, I jumped. He moved his fingers up, and I almost let him before I forced meself to wake up from the Cord-induced coma I was slipping into.

“No,” I whispered, and Cord stopped.

“No?” he asked, his voice pained.

Using what energy I had left, I placed my hands on his massive chest. I wanted to dig me fingers into his body, but I pushed him away slightly.

Cord took a few steps back and stared. Pained disbelief marred his features.

“I’m not like those women who let you shag them and walk away.”

“Maebh, I—”

Me eyes burned with tears. “I want a man who wants to court me. Who makes me feel like he wants me not only for me body, but for me heart as well.”

Me words choked out. Cord made me so emotional.

His eyes widened.

Me chin trembled. “You’re not that man. You want me because you can’t have me the way you normally do with other women.”

He took a step closer. “That’s not true.”

Cord looked panicked. I was telling him something he didn’t want to hear.

Me eyes filled with tears as the truth of how I felt about Cord hit me right in me heart. “I do want you, Cord, more than you know. But I wish you’d told me you wanted to kiss me…not fuck me with your fingers while I stand here at your mercy. I have no idea what you’ll do to me body, much less me heart, if I let you have your way with me.”

His eyes closed while his head dropped. He took a few deep breaths before looking at me.

“Fuck, Maebh. I’m not used to feeling this way about a woman. I don’t know how to court someone. I’ve never dated a girl before, and this is confusing as fuck.”