Page 74 of Broken Heart

Cooper’s body vibrated beneath mine with his laughter. “Is that so?”

For the first time since I’d made it to the other side of my orgasm, I pulled my face from his neck and looked at him. Then I offered a lazy smile and confirmed, “Absolutely. I think I’m a very lucky woman.”

He grinned at me before lifting his hand to the side of my face, stroking my cheek with his thumb, and leaning forward to touch his mouth to mine. After he kissed me, he asked, “Can I take this to mean that you want to give us a chance to explore this between us?”

“Yes,” I murmured without hesitation.

Cooper’s arm tightened around my waist. “I promise you won’t regret it, sweetheart.”

I dropped my forehead against his, nodded slightly, and insisted, “I know. I trust you.”

And I did.

Sure, I’d come into this tonight feeling nervous and believing I needed to share the fears I felt with Cooper before we took the next steps. But the instant I shared those concerns, he didn’t back down. Cooper faced them. He accepted I had them, and he promised to fix my broken heart.

If I was honest with myself, I was relatively certain he’d already done that. At the very least, he’d taken a huge step toward making that happen.

“You seem to be lost in your thoughts right now, but I’m wondering if I can take a minute to correct something I said to you before,” Cooper said.

“What did you say?” I countered, pulling my head back to look at him.

He smiled at me, a look of pure adoration in his expression. “Do you remember when I took you out on that boat and we did those rapid-fire questions with one another?”

“I think it’s crazy for you to believe I could have forgotten that,” I teased.

Cooper chuckled. “Right. Well, I had originally said I preferred sunrises, but after what just happened, I think I need to amend my answer. I think sunsets are my new favorite.”

I bit my lip in an effort to stifle the smile. Lifting a brow, I offered a playful expression. “I told you there was nothing quite like a gorgeous sunset, especially when work doesn’t factor into the equation.”

“It was only gorgeous because of you,” he argued. “Do you know how badly I’ve wanted to touch and kiss you like I did tonight?”

“Is that all?” I asked.

His brows drew together. “What?”

I hesitated a moment, the tension building, before I said, “The way you kissed me and touched me just now. Is that all you wanted? Did you ever imagine doing anything else with me?”

Cooper’s gaze darkened. “I’ve thought about doing a lot more with you ever since I met you, plenty that didn’t involve having my fingers inside of you.”

I squirmed on his lap, feeling how hard he still was beneath me. “But something else was inside me, right?”

His fingers pressed in deeper. “Absolutely.”

For several long moments, I held Cooper’s gaze. And as I stared at him and thought about all that had happened ever since I’d met him, one thing became abundantly clear. I wanted to take that next step with Cooper. I wanted him to be able to live out the fantasies that had been playing over and over in his mind for weeks.

After everything he’d done for me, after the way he’d treated me, I had to admit I wanted him just as badly.

So, when I could no longer take it, I finally suggested, “Why don’t you take me inside and show me what you thought about doing?”

His body grew tense beneath mine. “Are you sure?”

I nodded. “Yes, Cooper. There’s nothing I want more than for the two of us to take off our clothes and give ourselves what I think we’ve both wanted for a long time.”

Cooper hesitated for all of a few seconds before he shifted a touch to deal with the fire while keeping me firmly in his hold. Then he stood with me in his arms and walked us back inside the house.

With each step he took, I felt better and better about my decision to take a chance on this man.

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