Page 99 of Savage

“ANY WORD YET?” Cooper asked from where he sat typing on his laptop in the business center the next day while I checked in virtually with my staff.

It was that in-between time, when all we could do was wait for Mick to reach out about the shipment and twiddle our fucking thumbs.

Although my thumbs—and the rest of my fingers—had found their way into some pleasurable crevices I didn’t regret at all. In fact, the only reason I’d left the penthouse was because I couldn’t seem to keep my hands off Cooper. It was becoming a problem.

Fuck.And now I was hard.

Choosing to ignore that, I answered, “You’ll be the first to know.”

“Ha. More like the last.” Cooper stretched his neck from side to side. “Doesn’t that news have to go through King, then you, and trickle down the pipeline first?”

“Okay. How about this: you’ll know when I tell you.”

He chuckled. “That’s what I figured.” With his fingers drumming against the keyboard, Cooper chewed his lip and seemed to be willing more words to come.

Or whatever it was writers did.

“Stuck?”

“No. More like there’s nothing else to say until something happens. Although…”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Cooper.”

He sighed. “I mean, if you had just let me follow you to the warehouse, I’d have a visual I could describe.”

“So if I’d put you in danger, there’s a chance you would’ve made it back intact to be able to write what you’d seen. Got it.”

“Oh, come on.” Pushing his chair back, he stood and came over to the workstation I’d commandeered, and I failed at trying not to notice his slightly swollen lips, or the bruise forming on the side of his neck. It made my dick throb, seeing the evidence of where I’d marked him. As he came to rest his jean-clad ass against the edge of the desk, he nudged my knees apart with his leg. “You’d never let anything happen to me, Lachlan. You said so yourself.”

“It would be wise not to push your luck.”

“Oh yeah?” Cooper smiled with wicked intent, and I grabbed the back of his thighs, pulling him in closer. “I think you like it when I push the boundaries.”

“Push? You mean ignore. Bust through. Leap over.”

He laughed, resting his hands on my shoulders.

I liked that—his touching me so freely, cameras be damned.

“Hold on a sec, Idoknow my limits sometimes. Like now. I’m behaving, not running off to take a look at things myself.”

“Because you know I’d follow you.”

Cooper screwed up his nose like it wasn’t true but then rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine. You caught me.”

“Yes, I did.” I gave his legs a squeeze, bringing him forward, and nipped at his lower lip, taking it between my teeth. It wasn’t the right time or place, but it never was. I just didn’t give a damnanymore. Cooper was mine, and anyone watching who had a problem with it could say that shit to my face.

And they didn’t want to do that.

Something occurred to me then. “So you still need more information for your story, right?”

“It would be helpful, but impossible, since I’m stuck here.”

“What if there was a way to get you what you wanted without boots on the ground?”