Page 67 of The Off-Limits Rule: Extended Edition

He grins. “You just want a Cheetos runner?”

“Mm-hmm.” My eyes drop to Cooper’s mouth, and one side curls up slightly. He lightly brushes his fingers against mine before he leans down and whispers, “I better go before Drew gets out of the shower.” His warm lips press into my cheek for only a fraction of a second before he pulls away. “Leave your window open tonight.”

“What? Why?” I ask Cooper’s fantastic retreating back. He looks too good in navy T-shirts.

He shrugs those big shoulders. “Going to be a nice night.”

Chapter 30

Lucy

I’m lying in bed with my window open, feeling like a kid waiting to see if Santa shows up. But that’s ridiculous, right? Cooper is not going to come through my window. That would be insane. I don’t even have a tree or a lattice or anything for him to climb up. So, unless he’s Peter Pan and can fly me off to Neverland, I don’t think he’s going to show up tonight. Maybe he really did just want me to enjoy the nice weather.

Or—

Wait…was that a sound? That was definitely a sound.

I shoot up in bed and clutch my covers against my chest. It’s dark in my room, the only light coming from the moon, and suddenly I’m terrified. The boogie monster definitely exists, and he’s about to climb through my window.

Ah!There’s a shadow looming now, and if I pee this bed I will never forgive myself. “Cooper?” I whisper angrily. “That better be you! I swear if it’s not and whoever is coming into my room rightnow is an ax murderer who kills me in this bed, I’m going to come back and haunt you in terrifying ways until the day you die!”

Cooper’s familiar low-rolling chuckle washes over my skin and goosebumps surface. There’s something about hearing that chuckle in the dead of night with limited visibility that makes my body go tingly. “You got lucky this time. The ax was too heavy to carry up the ladder, so I left it in the truck.” Cooper puts a long leg over the windowsill and ducks his head through. Now he’s in my room, and I can’t catch my breath.

“You brought a ladder?!” I guess it’s a good thing my room is at the back of the house, where no one will seeit.

“A freaking tall one. Not gonna lie, scared me a little climbing up it.”

A pack of wild horses are all stampeding through my chest. That’s normal, right? I’m not dying?

Cooper gently closes the window, and now we’re trapped in here together. I’m not wearing enough clothes. My T-shirt and sleep shorts are too flimsy; I can feel the breeze blowing through them. And Cooper is walking toward my bed. Oh gosh, he’s walking toward my bed!

I force myself to swallow that lump in my throat as I watch his masculine silhouette approach. I scoot to the far side of the bed, but it’s only a puny little queen-sized mattress, so when Cooper and his big body sit down on the side, I roll toward him like a marble.

“What are you doing here?” I whisper, pressing my back up against the headboard.

I can hear the smile in his voice when he says, “You wouldn’t spend any time with me tonight in front of Drew. I wanted to talk to you more.”

“So you’re just here to talk?”

“Mm-hmm,” he says, leaning forward and pressing a soft, slow kiss to my lips.

This isn’t talking.

Cooper grabs my ankles and tugs me down so my head slides from my headboard to my pillow. He then climbs on the bed and hovers over me, elbows on either side of my face. Even in the dark, I can see his beautiful smile.

“You should see how wide your eyes are right now,” he says, a chuckle in his voice. He leans on one elbow so he can run his thumb across my cheekbone. “I don’t know how you open them that wide. You’re like an owl.”

I’m basically a wooden board. My arms are superglued to my sides, and my back is rigid. I don’t move. I don’t breathe. I’m afraid if I do, Cooper will vanish into thin air, and I’ll realize this was all a glorious dream.

“Cooper…”

“Lucy…”

He dips his head down and kisses right below my earlobe. My shoulders melt, and I sigh. His lips are warm, and his body is heavy, and I feel so safe. There’s nowhere—not a single place—I’d rather be than here with this man.

Tentatively, I move my hands up his arms and over his shoulder muscles. I feel every dent and ridge and can’t believe I get to be touching him. Cooper’s arm slides under my back to curl me up close to him as his kisses move up my jaw to my mouth. He hovers there, his lips brushing tender warm sparks across mine. His restraint is unearthly, a paradox. The tight hold of his arm coiling around me is the polar opposite of the light touch of his mouth.

I breathe deep, smelling Cooper and letting his scent wrap around me. It’s his freshly showered, manly smell—the one where he should be starring in a commercial, standing in a towel, chestglistening with moisture in a locker room, holding up a green bodywash bottle and getting paid a million dollars to doit.

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