Page 70 of Play the Game
“Yours,” he says firmly, sliding a little closer to me.
“What does it mean for you to be mine, exactly?”
“It’s countdown time!” Jo’s excited voice barely registers as Cooper’s eyes lock on mine.
Ten. “It means whatever you want it to mean,” Cooper says quietly.
Nine. My stomach swoops. “What if I don’t know what I want it to mean?”
Eight. Cooper’s eyes go soft. “Then I’ll wait until you do.”
Seven. “You would wait for me?” I whisper.
Six. He leans in closer, his breath ghosting over my lips. “As long as it takes.”
Five. “Why?” My voice is barely audible, his proximity making it hard to breathe.
Four. His soft smile makes my heart thud against my ribs. “Because you make me feel everything.”
Three. He lifts my hand to his lips. “You’re all I think about.”
Two. Kisses my forehead. “All I see.”
One. “Happy New Year, Ev.”
The rest of the room falls away as Cooper cups my face and presses his lips to mine. It’s me and him and his words still swirling in my head and the sweetest kiss of my life, and in this moment, as one year ends and another one begins with him by my side and everything that means, I can’t help but think that he is definitely mine, and I am unequivocally, irrevocably, his.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
COOPER
“Fuck, Rhodes,” I mutter against Evan’s lips as I kick my bedroom door shut and spin, pushing her against it, tearing my sweatshirt over my head and tossing it on the floor. I grip her hips and lean down, pressing a kiss to her neck and inhaling the cherry sweetness of her skin, the scent going straight to my dick. “I don’t know where to touch you first. I want my hands on every inch of you.”
“Anywhere,” she gasps, her hands streaking under my T-shirt. I hiss out a breath as she traces my abs, her fingertips leaving trails of fire in their wake. “Touch me anywhere. Everywhere.”
I press my hips to hers, my cock hard as a fucking rock, as I slide my hands under her sweatshirt, up over her ribs, relishing in her sharp intake of breath when I graze my fingertips over the sides of her breasts. “Off,” I mumble, my lips traveling over her neck as I reach down and grasp the bottom of her T-shirt and sweatshirt together. “I need all of this off. Need to see you,” I breath into her skin, flicking my tongue over the sensitive spot behind her ear and sucking lightly as she shivers. “All of you.”
When I start to inch her T-shirt and sweatshirt up, Evanfreezes, her body going rigid as her hands slide out from under my shirt to press against the door.
I stop what I’m doing and lift my head, looking into her eyes that are suddenly filled with an uncharacteristic uncertainty. “Talk to me, Rhodes. What just happened?”
She bites her lip, and I see her brain working overtime. Letting her sweatshirt go, I take her hands and wait, knowing she’ll talk when she’s ready. Finally, she sighs, her shoulders relaxing just slightly but her eyes still troubled. “I don’t…look the same as I did the last time you saw me without most of my clothes on. It feels like it happened practically overnight, but all of a sudden, it’s obvious that there’s a baby in there, and it gets a little bigger every single day, and nothing looks the way it used to. Literally nothing fits except for leggings and sweatshirts, so I had to buy all new work clothes, and I don’t love what I see in the mirror every day now that I’m all pregnant and stuff, so I just wanted to tell you in case you don’t like what you see either.”
“Ev,” I say quietly, undone at the way she opened up and gave me that piece of her at the same time as my heart aches a little because she has no idea. No fucking clue what she does to me. Cupping her face in my hands, I lay my lips on hers in a long, slow kiss that is the exact opposite of the frenzied way we burst into my apartment ten minutes ago.
Coaxing her lips apart, I slide my tongue against hers, teasing, tasting, angling her head exactly where I want it until she moans into my mouth, her hands gripping my waist and my cock so hard it’ll be a miracle if I get through this without coming in my pants. But I ignore that for now because this is so much more important.
Breaking the kiss, I run my thumbs lightly over her cheeks. “You are perfect, Ev. So perfect that it’s hard to breathe when I’m around you. I can’t wait to have my hands on every flawless inch of you.” Emotion clouds her eyes at the same time as her shoulders relax the rest of the way. Testing the waters, I unwind our hands, keeping my eyes steady on hers as I slide my handsunder her shirt and sweatshirt. Smoothing my palms over her slightly rounded stomach, possession beats in my blood, surprising me as much as it turns me on.
Mine.
“You’re growing a baby, Rhodes.” I slide my hands up farther, cupping her full, heavy breasts, gliding my thumbs over her nipples and watching her eyes go hazy. “You’re making a whole entire person who is part of me and part of you, and it’s sexy as fuck.”
Slowly—so, so slowly—I reach around and unhook her bra, pushing my hands underneath it and rolling her nipples between my fingers, feeling the sharp edge of arousal when a whimper falls from her throat. “You’re in charge, in this room and everywhere else.” I slide one of my legs between hers, moving closer so our bodies are flush. “We go at your pace. Do what you want to do and nothing more. Nothing less.”
“And what do you want?” Evan asks on a gasp when I tweak her nipples, my cock leaking in my boxers as she rocks her hips forward, looking for friction.
I smile, kissing one cheek, the other, her forehead. “First, I want to strip every single piece of clothing off you. See exactly how gorgeous you look with our baby inside of you. Then I want to pick you up and spread you out on my bed so I can show you exactly how I feel about your body. I want to kiss and lick and taste every single inch of it until you know just how perfect I think you are. I want you soaking my fingers and coming on my tongue until you’re panting and sweating and begging me for more. I want my cock inside of you, right where it belongs, and I want to feel it when you fall apart around me. I want my name on your lips when you come, and I want to say yours when I do. Only yours. I want us to belong to each other tonight, and I want you to be here with me when I wake up in the morning, because I think there’s something here, Rhodes.”
