Page 53 of Cooper

“God damn, your pussy is heaven,” he growls, pumping harder and faster as we ride a wave neither of us could stop even if we wanted to.

My body shakes with aftershocks as we finally start to come down from the high, and I’m a boneless mass, barely able to hold myself up so I don’t collapse on his still sensitive ribcage.

“Fuck, baby, that’s beautiful.” He’s breathless too, and when he fixes his gorgeous blue eyes on me, I’m captivated all over again.

I hate having to move, but it’s better for his ribs if I do, so I slowly slide off him and then curl into his side.

“We should do that every day,” he murmurs.

“I like that plan,” I say, smiling.

“Do you want me to give this dating thing a try, Natalia?” he asks quietly, stroking one hand up and down my arm.

“I do.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

“My future is a little uncertain right now, but one thing I know for sure is that I want to make you a part of it.”

I don’t like uncertainty, but we have time to figure it out. He’s nowhere near ready to go back to work, and my goal is to make him want to stay. I don’t know if that’s possible, but all we can do is try. That way, if things don’t work out, I won’t have the regret of not giving it a shot.

I lift my head and look at him. “We’ll figure things out one day at a time. Is that okay?”

“It’s more than okay. Especially with someone as important to me as you are.”

Warmth floods me, and I nestle against him again.

“You’re important to me too.”

“We’ve come a long way since Iraq, huh? The boys are going to give us some shit about it.”

“That’s all right. We can handle Seghin and Passero.”

“What about me? You think you can handle me?”

I sigh happily. “I’m pretty sure I just did.”

NINETEEN

Cooper

The next fewweeks are pretty low key. Natalia and I fall into a comfortable routine, where she works all day and I spend my time trying to build my strength back up. The evenings, of course, are pretty phenomenal. I’m still not ready to swing from any chandeliers, but I think I’m doing a damn good job of keeping my woman satisfied.

My woman.

I like how it sounds when I say it. Well, mostly I just think it, but it’s the same thing to me.

Now that she’s gotten comfortable with the idea of being in a relationship, things are better than I imagined. The issue now, of course, is that I have to figure out whether or not to separate from the military. Before I can do that, I need to have a conversation with Sandor.

This morning I got up and went to the gym with Natalia and the others. Once she leaves to go shower, I approach Sandor. “Hey, when you have a little time, I’d like to talk.”

“I’ve got some time now,” he says, a curious look on his face. “You wanna come up to my office?”

“Sure.” I fall into step beside him as we file into the elevator.

“What’s on your mind?” he asks as the elevator doors close behind us.

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