Last Good Man (A Crown Creek Standalone) Read online

  I sat.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Willa

  In the past seventy-two hours, I’d seen Cooper shirtless and gorgeously bed-headed. I’d kissed him and folded myself along the length of his warm body as he held me against his chest. I’d stood still while my heart thumped wildly and my blood sang in my veins as he traced a trail with his lips down to the place between my legs.

  What did it say about me that I’d never wanted him more than I did right now, as he sat still and compliant while I ministered to the nasty cut on his forehead?

  Probably more than I cared to find out. Maybe it was a good thing I couldn’t afford the years of therapy it would take to understand why I was practically shivering with need as I gently dabbed the trickle of blood away from his blue, blue eyes. Besides, finding out why I loved him like this - vulnerable and needing me - would ruin the magic of it. “What happened?” I wondered as he hissed in a sharp breath.

  He closed his eyes. He had such black lashes they almost didn’t look real. “I found a stream,” he sighed.

  I narrowed my eyes. “You did what?”

  “For us.” He opened his eyes. “For you. To wade in.”

  My racing heart suddenly stumbled, then thumped even harder. He had to be hearing it. His head was close - so close - to my chest. “You did?”

  He nodded. “But there were all these branches in the way… I didn’t want you to get hurt…”

  Shocked gratitude clogged my throat, sending me into a coughing fit. Cooper watched, amused, as I ran to the sink to gulp water from the tap.

  “Easy now,” he chuckled.

  I choked and then wiped my mouth with my good hand. Nagging was easier than saying how I really felt. “It’s raining like crazy out there, what were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking about going wading with you.”

  “So you went out in the rain with a hatchet?”

  He was silent.

  “Seriously?” I snatched up the cloth and wrung it out in the sink, then went over to him again. He hissed as I pressed it to his forehead. “Hold still.”

  “You’re enjoying this,” he observed. “Stop using your left hand though.”

  “Stop talking for one second of your life.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Getting to yell at someone while also overdoing it when you should be resting? This is like catnip to you. Ow!”

  “I told you to stop talking.”

  He dutifully shut his mouth. I thought that would help. But his silent, watching eyes were worse. “This could get infected easily,” I babbled. “It needs to be covered.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay?” I definitely wasn’t expecting that.

  “If it’ll make you happy.” He finally lowered his eyes, but somehow it was worse. “I like it when you’re happy.“

  “No you don’t.” Even as I said it, I knew I was a liar. He’d gone out into a drenching downpour just to make it possible for me to do something I’d vaguely wished for. My words felt like ash in my mouth, and I couldn’t swallow anymore.

  Especially not when he said, “Yeah. I do.”

  I was still dabbing, dabbing, even though the blood was all cleaned. When his fingers closed around my wrist, soft, but strong, it was with such a purpose, I nearly passed out. Such intention in the space of three fingers. I wondered how I had missed it until now. “Cooper...”

  It was the only thing that made sense to say.

  I let my hand drop, allowing him to catch it back up again, turning my palm down to brush his lips across the back of my hand. Soft. Chivalrous. Gentle. Cooper was gentle.

  It was like I was holding two people in my head simultaneously. The Cooper I thought I knew. The one from back home, the one who’d treated me with nothing but contempt for years. And the Cooper I was discovering here at the cabin. The one who was sweet, thoughtful and such a good kisser. That was the Cooper I saw in front of me right now. The one who was gazing at me with full-hearted longing.

  “Willa.“ He said my name the same way I’d said his. Startled. Like I had suddenly appeared in front of him, with no warning. “Willa I…“

  Whatever he was about to say was swallowed when I kissed him. It was as intentional as the way he’d closed his fingers around my wrist. Into that kiss, I poured all of my gratitude to him. For saving my life. For taking care of me in his rough, inelegant way. For trying, trying over and over to show me he was really a good man.

  I was learning he wasn’t the man I’d thought he was. And into the kiss, I poured all of my longing for the person he’d showed me he was. It was a kiss as a way of re-introducing myself. Starting over again.

  I gasped and then moaned as his fingers slipped into my hair. He tightened his grip at the same time he deepened the kiss. His lips, his tongue, his taste, were all I could feel, all I was capable of understanding. The feeling of sliding, of falling, was so overwhelming that I gripped him tighter, certain I was about to go crashing to the ground.

  But I didn’t because he’d caught me. In one motion, Cooper swept me up into his arms. “I’m taking you into the bedroom. Right now.” He looked me full in the eyes. “I have so many things I want to do to you, Willa. And once I start doing them, I don’t think I’m going to be able to stop. Tell me to put you down and I will. But if you don’t say something right now, I’m…”

  I didn’t say anything. I just kissed him again.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Cooper

  She was so light and fit so neatly in my arms that I could have run. I wanted to run, full out, a fifty-yard dash right to the bed where I’d set land speed records in tearing off her clothes.

  But she also fit so sweetly in my arms, I wanted to keep her there as long as I could. It seemed completely possible that I could hold her like this forever. I could. I really could.

  If only she’d stop kissing me like that.

  Her lips on mine made me cross the wide living room and burst into the master suite in two seconds flat. My knees bumping up against the bedframe brought me back to myself. I jerked to a halt and remembered in a half-daze to lower her gently to the bed.

  But the way she looked up at me had me crawling right over the top of her. I braced my hands on either side of her shoulders, propping myself up and away from her hurt arm.

  “Is this one of the things you wanted to do to me?” she murmured, gazing up at me with wide eyes.

  “No,” I told her truthfully. “Not touching you was not part of the plan.”

  “I like you this way though.” She reached up and brushed her good hand up my forearm, past my bicep and to my shoulder. “You’re like… planking over me.”

  “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “You’re not hurting me. You feel… nice.” And she stroked her finger over my arm again.

  “You’re pretty good for the old ego.” I bent to kiss her.

  She squealed. “Seriously though, how are you holding yourself up right now?”

  “I can’t say it’s practice. I usually don’t hold myself back like this when I’m on top of a beautiful woman.”

  Her eyes darkened. “So why are you holding back right now?”

  I licked my lips. “Because you’re not naked yet.”

  “Once I’m naked - ?”

  “I’m not holding back.”

  She squirmed underneath me, trying to tug her shirt upward one-handed. “Fuck,” I breathed. The squirming was nice, but the intent behind it was even nicer. “Let me help you, baby.”

  “Baby?” She let me lift her shirt for her.

  “Yeah. Baby.” I bent to kiss her.

  She moaned in my mouth and wrapping her good arm around my back, began tugging at the hem of my shirt. I obliged her by kneeling up and ripping it off before returning to her lips. “There, baby,” I murmured into her mouth. “Now I’m not holding back.”

  “Good.” Her lips curled into a smile against mine and her dark eyes were pure challenge.

  I never
backed down from a challenge.

  I dragged my lips from her mouth over to the place behind her ear that had been tantalizing me every time she tucked back her curls. Her skin was as smooth as silk and I could hear her breath quicken. She was already panting, and I had barely even started. Emboldened, I moved downward in a line, kissing along her neck and down to the pulse point, resting there for a moment until it quickened, and then moved lower.

  “Let me see you,” I whispered against her skin as I reached up to slide the strap of her bra down her shoulder. She shimmied in that wonderful way again, letting me slide my hand under her back and unfasten the hook and eye. “You did that one handed,” she whispered back.

  “I’m trying to play fair.” I kissed her as she giggled and then inhaled sharply as her breasts spilled free. They were high and firm, with perfectly dark little nipples that were begging to be licked and suckled. “Clearly you’re not, though. Hiding these beauties is a crime against everything I hold dear. For shame, Willa.”

  “You’re such a - ah!” She gasped as I nipped her, then groaned as I curled my tongue around that stiff little peak, drawing it into my mouth and sucking.

  I cupped my hand around the firm curve of her breast, still bracing myself on my elbow. “I could play with these all day,” I told her. “But there are a few more things I still want to do to you.”

  She hissed and arched her hips when I cupped my hand over the seam of her jeans. “You want to do… that?”

  “That is all I’ve been thinking about. Why do you sound surprised?”

  “Oh, I thought guys didn’t like… didn’t like to…”

  I pushed myself up so I could look her in the eye. “If you’re telling me that the guys you’ve been with haven’t liked… no, haven’t been downright eager to put their mouth down there, then I’m telling you the guys you’ve been with were complete dogshit.” A fleeting thought of Liam drifted through my head. But no, they hadn’t… they were still in high school. He would have told me if they had done anything. I exhaled sharply, and her eyes widened. I grinned. “But also, I’m going to thank them, because now I get to be the one to completely rock your world.”

  “You’re awfully sure of yourself.”

  “I have every reason to be.”

  She watched me as I undid the zipper of her jeans, then her head fell back as she groaned. “Is this really happening?”

  “You tell me, baby.”

  At first, I just pressed my lips over the cotton that hid her from me, letting her get used to me being there. I breathed in the scent of her and felt like it was possible to get high off of it. She sighed as I let my lips wander, and I felt her relaxing by degrees. Her thighs fell open and her eyes closed. And when she began to arch her hips to me, I knew she was ready.

  Thank God, because I was about to explode. I yanked her panties down and buried my tongue inside of her. She gasped as I began to lick her, slowly, tasting every part of her, but she and I were already past the point of teasing. I slid my hand under her, lifting her hips higher and moving her in rhythm with my tongue. Every time I rocked her forward, she let out a little keening note, a high animal cry that sounded like nothing I’d ever heard from her before. It drove me crazy. I shifted my weight and then plunged my fingers inside of her.

  She gasped, and that high keening noise dropped to a low, guttural moan. She was so close now that I could feel her clutching at my fingers, trying to pull me in deeper like the greedy girl I hadn’t realized she was until right now. I let her, let her grind herself against me, let her control the rhythm of my fingers and suddenly another guttural cry tore from her throat. She arched up against me, squeezing her thighs tight as I lapped and sucked and kissed and bit. “That’s it, baby,” I realized I was chanting. “That’s good. That’s so fucking good.”

  Her eyes fluttered open and she stared at the ceiling. I moved up and over her, drawing her lower lip between my teeth and then kissing her full on the mouth, making sure she tasted herself lingering there. “Was there…?” she breathed. “Was there anything else you wanted to do to me?”

  I swallowed hard. This girl was too fucking much. “I can think of a few more things.” My cock was a fucking diamond for her. “Like fucking you right now.”

  “That’s exactly what I was thinking.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Willa

  He could move so fast it was scary.

  In one smooth motion, he had pushed himself up off the bed, dropped his jeans and boxers to the floor and had his cock in his hand. He’d somehow produced a condom out of nowhere, and I watched, fascinated, as he unrolled it down his length. He stroked himself as he looked at me, then in another frighteningly fast move, he was hovering over me again. The press of his cock against my thigh felt so good that I groaned, but his face was pained. “Sweetheart, I promise you I would never hurt you. And I’m afraid that if we do it this way, I might.”

  “So…” I exhaled. The shattering orgasm he’d just given me had only made me greedy for more. I wanted to feel him inside of me, I wanted to watch the way we connected and moved together. I wanted… Well… I wanted him to fuck me and now he was saying we couldn’t? “So you want me to… instead?” I gestured at my mouth.

  He laughed. “That’s awfully sweet, and I’ll be happy to take you up on that offer some other time. But no, I said I wanted to fuck you and I meant it. I just want you to get on top.”

  “I’ve never done it that way before,” I confessed.

  “I think you’re gonna like it,” he said with a grin.

  I bit my lip and then nodded. “Help me get up?”

  His eyes wide, he slid his hand under me, pressing it to the small of my back. When I nodded again, he half lifted, half rolled. I held my arm protectively to my chest, but I didn’t need to worry. He was so skilled and so careful that before I could take in a breath, I was lying on top of him.

  I placed my hand on his chest, curling my fingers to press into his skin. His heart was beating under them, strong and sure. Not racing like mine. “That was kind of impressive,” I told him. “How you moved me like that.”

  His tongue flicked out and brushed across his bottom lip. “Speaking of things that are impressive…”

  “Oh, real nice.”

  “I was talking about your tits,” he rumbled, pushing himself up on his elbows to draw the peak of my nipple between his lips. I hissed, and he grinned up at me. “Why? Was there something else in this room you thought was impressive?”

  Laughter bubbled up in my chest. I’d never laughed while naked with someone before. Never felt this push and pull between raw desire and complete ease. “Oh, I’m not so easily impressed, you know.”

  “Guess I’ll just have to work harder then.” And just like that, the pull of easy comfort because the push of desire as he rocked me back until I was straddling him, poised with his cock brushing across the entrance to my pussy. The way he rolled his hips was some kind of witchcraft, and paired with the way he was nipping and sucking at one breast and then the other, I had no choice but to fall completely under his spell. With his strong hand guiding my hips in perfect rhythm, he let his cock brush over my clit and across my folds again, and again, bringing me right to the edge before pulling back and looking up at me. “Look at me,” he rumbled in a voice that was totally different from the Cooper I’d known so long. “I want to see your face when I do this.”

  “Do what… oh!” My eyes flew wide open when his thumb pressed against the nub of my clit right as two of his thick fingers slid right inside me. I was so wet now and feeling so raw and needy that the sudden fullness was enough to send me right over the brink. “Oh… oh fuck…” I squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to lose control, but there was no escaping the rush of sensations. I went stiff and then boneless, falling forward into his arms and keening into his skin as the orgasm tore through me.

  And right at the peak of sensation, Cooper slid himself inside of me.

  I gasped and stared
down at him. He leaned in until his forehead was pressed to mine. His eyes were a shade of blue I had never seen before, something completely unreal. The sky and the sea at the same time which made sense because I felt like I was both flying and floating in his arms.

  He moved his hand, guiding me until I found my rhythm. It was so different to be able to control it, to move in the exact, precise way that I needed, and all the while Cooper watched me, his blue eyes fixed in rapt, awestruck attention. I felt like a goddess. I felt like a princess. I felt like someone else entirely, but that was my name he was saying over and over again as his body shivered.

  “Willa,” he moaned, and I covered his mouth with mine right at the moment that he growled and thrust so deeply inside of me that I was sure we’d be fused together forever.

  I closed my eyes, panting. He held me in his arms, loose enough not to hurt me but tight enough that I felt like his. His. It was unreal. Cooper Grant had just orgasmed with my name on his lips and now he was kissing my eyes back open again. “Hey there,” he murmured. “You good?”

  “I’m good.”

  He smiled. “I’m good too.”

  I licked my lips. “Yeah, you are. You’re a very good man.”

  He blinked, startled. And then his eyes softened as he realized what I was saying. “I like you too, Willa. I like you a whole hell of a lot, actually.”

  I smiled, totally content, totally thrilled that I had gotten him so completely and utterly wrong.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Cooper

  We spent the rest of the day in bed. She napped in between bouts of love-making and laughed when I wrapped the sheet around my hips to go out foraging for food. Then laughed harder when I returned with boxes of cereal… completely naked. All the while, the patter of the rain was a backdrop to her soft sighs and gasping shrieks.