“What if I have plans, Cooper? I could have a date, you know.”
“Then you need to cancel it, Jo.”
“I can’t believe you just said that! You can’t tell me what to do.”
“I just did. There’s something you need to get straight here. You and I are going to see more of each other. We’re going to explore this pull between us and there’s not another man going to touch you while we do that.”
“I… Cooper, I just told you that you aren’t my type. I just gave you every reason why this won’t work between us.”
“And tomorrow you can try and tell me again. Do you like Chinese food?”
“This is crazy.”
“Answer the question, Jo.”
“What question?”
I find myself smiling. “Do you like Chinese?”
“Chinese checkers? Yes. Food, no.”
“You play checkers?” I ask, laughing.
“I play them with my nephews. See? I’m not your kind of girl, Cooper.”
“Tomorrow night, sweetheart. I’ll bring food … not Chinese.”
“I still think it’s a bad idea,” she argues.
I turn around and walk away and I do it smiling.Chapter EightJoA part of me hates that I’m still thinking about him.
A part of me keeps saying just go to bed and forget anything that has to do with Cooper.
But even all these hours later, here I am, not able to fall asleep, working on shit I can put off for another day, because I can’t stop remembering our dinner, and what happened afterward.
That kiss.
That touch.
That look he gave me right before he turned and left.
I lift my hand and touch my lips. They still tingle, the memory causing a flush to steal over my body as my temperature rises.
God, he pisses me off so much, yet I want him like a fiend, like I am starving and dying of thirst, and he’s the only thing that can sate and quench both of them.
I clear my thoughts, or at least try to. Then I finish up some paperwork for the gym and shove everything in my bag. Leaning back on the chair in my office, which is also my bedroom, I stare at the ceiling. I try to keep my mind off of a certain sexy-as-sin fighter by counting the little dips and mounds above me. Thank God for popcorn ceilings in a girl’s time of distress.
But the end result is the same.
I can’t stop picturing him coming to my place. We don’t eat, and instead he clears off the table with one swoop of his hand, knocking everything to the ground for the sole purpose of using it to fuck me on.
At that thought, I feel my body getting hot, my pussy getting wet. God, I am ready for him to fuck me now and he isn’t even here. All it takes is a dirty thought of Cooper taking me and I’m primed.
I stand up and walk over to an old worn photo album that is on my nightstand. I sit down on my bed and start flipping through the pages, feeling like a stalker because of what I’m looking for. But I know it’s in here, have seen it in passing a couple of times when my uncle and I went through old photos, reminiscing.
And then I find it, a large photo taken a few years ago of my uncle and all the guys at the gym. I recognize Cooper instantly. He looks a little younger, obviously, but he was just as big then as he is now. I feel my heart jump up in my throat, feel myself start to perspire slightly.
Am I really going to do this with him?
Am I really going to let Cooper into my life like this?
I know it is probably too late for me to back out, not only because he was persistent in his desire for me, but also for the fact that I don’t want this to stop. I told him what I wanted, how I saw my life going. And to be honest, Cooper didn’t seem like the type of guy to want any of that.
But it hasn’t scared him off, and in fact seems to make him want me even more.
I close the photo album with a resounding snap and stare at the wall. Although I told myself I would not be another notch in his bedpost, a part of me doesn’t feel like that would be the case with him.
Yes, I tried to push him away, to make him see what I wanted in life. And I thought he would surely run for the hills, but he stayed. He wants more. And I guess I will just have to show him exactly how serious I am about my husband and baby plan.
Maybe then he will see how I feel and realize that in the end he’d be dodging a bullet if he doesn’t get involved with me.* * *