Page 68 of The Off-Limits Rule: Extended Edition

“Are you smelling me again?” he asks, lips tickling mine as he speaks.

“Busted.”

He takes his lips away from mine to bury his head in my neck, and I hear him breathe in audibly. “Mmmm. I finally figured it out,” he says as he lays a warm kiss on my collarbone.

“Figured what out?”

“What you smell like.” He pauses and breathes in one more time. “Froot Loops.” I strangle a laugh in my throat and can feel my smile touching both of my ears. “It’s Froot Loops, isn’t it? All this time I thought it was a perfume, but you just eat a lot of cereal, don’t you?”

“I had a bowl about ten minutes ago.” I’m using all of my strength to hold in my laugh so I don’t wake the whole house.

“Mm-hmm, thought so.” He sounds like he’s smiling too.

He leans down and kisses me again, but this time it’s not quite as gentle. It’s just a littlemore.He pulls away and pauses, staring down at me. So I lift up off my pillow and kiss him—a little bitmore.It’s a tantalizing back-and-forth game of one-upping the other opponent…until it’s not a game anymore, and Cooper’s mouth is slanted over mine, and we’re lost in this deep kiss. It’s passion like I don’t think I’ve ever experienced, and yet, it’s still just kissing. His arm is still firmly wrapped around me, and his other hand is woven deep in my hair, but he’s not exploring.

Does he know how much I appreciate this? I feel safe. I feel out of control—but also stillveryin control. Cooper knows my history, knows I haven’t slept with anyone since Levi was born, and he’s so gentle with my heart it’s making me ache. Many men would be rushing this, pushing me forward toward an end goalthat’s selfish and fleeting. Cooper is set tolow and slow.To have a man who’s so sexy and powerful be nothing but tender and patient is intoxicating. I wish I could send this moment back in time to my younger self, when I was hopeless and thinking the world is made up of nothing but selfish pigs, and whisper,Just hold on, there’s a good one out there.

I run my hands up Cooper’s corded back into his hair. He makes a sound that strikes a match inside me, and now I don’t think we’ll be doing much talking tonight. Our kisses turn hungry, and I think the world outside could be burning down and I wouldn’t notice. Somehow, between breathless kisses, Cooper’s shirt comes off. (Because I took it off him.) I run my hands over his shoulders and biceps, dying a little at how electrified I feel from touching him.

I am tuned in to nothing but Cooper and his hands and his lips and his breath. His fingers move an inch toward my stomach, and my abdomen clenches. A thought hits me like a cannonball, and I peel my lips away from Cooper’s.

Sensing my sudden distress, he stops and pulls back. “What’s wrong? Moving too fast?”

“I’m a mom, Cooper.”

He’s silent for a second, needing to process this abrupt change in…everything, then he lets out a short, breathy laugh. “Yes, Lucy, I know this.” His big hand comes up to cradle my face. “I’m perfectly aware of your motherliness.”

“No, I mean…I have amombody. Seriously. It’s not the same as when I was a twentysomething.”

“You’re a twentysomething right now,” he says as a counterpoint.

“It’s different.” I’m not deterred from trying to talk him out of this, though. “My stomach has this squishiness to it that I cannever ever get rid of no matter how many sit-ups I do, and my boobs are definitely not perky like they used to be—” My voice is shaking, chin wobbling. I’m completely ruining this romantic moment, but I can’t help it. The words are pouring out, and I can’t stop them. “I feel like nothing about me is the same as it used to be before I had him. I have stretch marks all over my stomach and thighs and—”

Cooper cuts me off with a simple yet forceful kiss. “Lucy.” He says my name but nothing else. Instead, his hand moves slowly from my face to my navel, where he tenderly rolls up the bottom hem of my T-shirt to expose just my stomach. My breath is frozen in my lungs as I watch Cooper lay his warm palm flat across my abdomen and spread his fingers from farthest rib to farthest rib. Even in the dark, I can make out the way his eyes are staring down at me, and I want so badly to hide, to pretend none of what I said is true and just keep my clothes on for the rest of my life. But when his thumb runs delicately across my deepest stretch mark and he smiles, I relax—I rest.

He rolls my shirt back down before hovering over me again, pinning me in so he can look me right in the eyes. “You are beautiful, Lucy. Everything about you.” He gives me a slow, lingering kiss. “Sexy.”Kiss.“Feminine.”Kiss.“Strong.”Kiss.“Everything I could ever hope for.”

Tears are rolling down my cheeks, and Cooper kisses them. I bury my head in his neck and let his weight and words soothe me, not realizing until tonight just how insecure I really am. He rolls over to his back and pulls me onto his chest. His hand strokes my hair, and another tear rolls down my face. For the last four years, I have been soothing Levi, tending to his needs, sacrificing my own desires and comforts so I can make sure his are met. But tonight…I am the one who is comforted.

He doesn’t say anything else, and I don’t either, because I’m not even sure what to say. Everything feels too weak, and I’m afraid if I say what my heart is really feeling, I’ll scare him away. Instead, I run my hand slowly up Cooper’s chest until it settles on his jaw. I play with my favorite lock of hair that flips up at the nape of his neck and smile before settling my head in the crook of his shoulder. I close my eyes, feeling the warmth of his skin against my face and listening to his quiet, steady breaths. He’s good for me, and I think I’m good for him.

I don’t know how long we lie here together, my arm wrapped tightly around Cooper’s chest and his hand gently stroking my hair away from my face, but it’s bliss. Eventually, as I’m drifting off to sleep, I think,I’m never letting himgo.

—

The sun wakes me early the next morning, and I squint my eyes open, taking in the large man-arm draped over my shoulder. I kiss it and smile against his tan skin, the hairs of his arm tickling my lips.

Cooper takes in a stirring deep breath as I roll over to look at him. Because everyone knows morning breath is a beast, I bunch up the sheets and pull them over my mouth before saying good morning.

He gives me the most adorable scrunched-nose smile and cracks an eye open. His hair is sticking up in all directions, and his bare chest is on display for all to see. Well, not all—just me. Only I get to see it, because even though we don’t have an official title yet, Cooper is mine—all mine—and I refuse to share. “Morning, beautiful.”

My smile beams because it’s cheesy lines like this that get me. I want to gather up as many as I can and dress myself in them eachday, strolling all over town and flaunting them so everyone can see. Flowery words are wonderful when they’re genuine.

“Is this real?” I ask Cooper, snuggling into his chest and feeling heat radiating off his skin like he’s made of the earth’s core. My shirt is uncomfortably twisted around me, and I don’t know how Cooper senses it, but he does. His hand reaches behind me and tugs it down so it’s sitting correctly again. It’s the little things like this he does that turn me inside out.

“I hope so,” he says in a sleepy, gravelly voice. I can’t help but smile and kiss his chest.

“You’ve got to climb out of this tower soon, Rapunzel,” I say, snuggling deeper into him.

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