I can’t help but laugh because that’s absurd. Why the hell would I suggest marriage to him? I was straight back then. Or so I thought.
I bring his knuckles up to my lips, kissing them tenderly.
“It doesn’t matter. Let’s just go upstairs and relax.”
“Oh yes, relaxing with you is my favorite thing to do. You want to go look for seashells later too?”
My chest constricts, and I let out a shaky exhale. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
After dropping our stuff off at the loft, we spend time leisurely walking the beach, searching for shells as the waves crash around our toes. My pockets are now filled with small treasures that will eventually sit in containers on the dresser in our room. I can see them any time I want.
As we make our way back inside to sort through them, we find his parents outside our door. Our footsteps hesitate, and I see his mom reach out toward us, an Italian word leaving her lips.
“English, guys,” Cooper grunts and then glowers at them. “What are you here for? He signed the damn paperwork.”
“Oh love, we came to apologize. Or your father did.” She nudges him, and his father sighs.
“I was rude, impossibly so. I apologize.”
Cooper huffs and then opens the door to our place, letting them inside. I can feel the tension thick between us all, and I hate it. Hate that he loves his parents and the only reason they’re fighting is because of me. I need to make it right.
“I’m so glad you’re here. We haven’t planned dinner. Would you like to stay for it?”
His mother pulls me into a grateful hug, and his father gives me an approving nod. “We’d love that.”
And so it begins and ends. A peaceful night chatting with them, eating food that we had delivered. We talk about our plans to travel, our dreams, and when they finally leave, I think that we’ve made progress. Coop is happy again, his family unit is restored back to the happy clan they once were.
I did the right thing. Money isn’t important. Family is.
Signing those documents was the absolute best thing for everyone.
I don’t know why I waited so long to fuck Coop, to even think about fucking him. Maybe I was afraid, scared of how much I’d crave him after giving myself to him like that. But as I watch him sort my seashells and rocks, placing them carefully in the containers on the counter, I realize that I want him. That I need him more than I need air. He’s my life, the center of it all.
I’m in love with him. Deeply, irrevocably.
It’s a soul-deep ache that only being connected to him physically will alleviate. I want to place myself inside of him, want to empty myself into his body, marking him as mine in the most primitive of ways. Is this what obsession feels like?
I watch him murmur under his breath. Something in Italian, I’m sure. But it’s so beautiful, the way he moves, the way he speaks.
He’s absolute perfection.
Without any more hesitation, my hand wraps around the back of his neck, pulling him into me as I lower my mouth to his. A surprised gasp leaves his lips, but then it morphs into a needy moan, setting me ablaze. It licks up my arms and settles in my chest, making my heart beat faster.
It beats for him.
“I want you,” I tell him between kisses.
“I want you too,” he replies as I stand and lift him into my arms. Carting him around is becoming my favorite pastime. I know Sem likes to do this with my brother, and I can definitely see the appeal.
It feels a bit like I’m a caveman, dragging my man back to where he belongs.
With me.
His ankles lock behind my back, his mouth on mine as I bring him to our bedroom, lying him down on the bed and undressing him slowly, unwrapping him like a present. He lets me, arching up to make it easier as I peel the fabric away from his flushed and pink skin. He’s like cotton candy.
Wetting my lips, I press them onto his smooth, warm skin, trailing across the hard planes of his body. I make sure to slide my tongue along the ridges of his abdomen, swirling around his puckered nipples before meeting his lips. He tastes like magic, like summer, like my sunshine.
He came into my life when I needed him, when I needed to be seen. He saw me, he embraced me, he shined his light on me and I grew warm from it.