Although, she had to admit that she’d come to truly love Riley and Mason, too, as well as Finn and Chloe, all of whom had become close friends during this summer on Gansett. They would never be on the same level as Nikki, Jordan and Evelyn, but all of them had made Gigi feel welcome in their tight circle, and that meant so much to her.
And now there was Cooper, Jared and Lizzie, too.
That was a lot of people for a girl like her to care about, Gigi thought as she led Cooper up the stairs to her place after Jared and Lizzie had gone to get some sleep while they could. Not that either of them would get much sleep tonight with such a big day coming up for them tomorrow.
“What do you think will happen with the baby?” Gigi asked Coop.
“Jessie will take their offer.”
“You sound so confident when they’re anything but.”
“I got to know Jessie a little bit when she was here, and I could tell she had no idea what to do with a baby. She left her with Lizzie because she knew Lizzie would take good care of her.”
“I hope you’re right. They’ll be heartbroken if she wants her back.”
“I have a good feeling that things will work out well for them and their little girl.” He turned and drew her into his arms. “And for us.”
“You really believe that?”
“I do. I just need to get you on board.”
“I’m coming around. It’s just… It’s hard for me. I’m used to going it alone, and I like it that way.”
“I understand that, and I respect you so much for what you’ve accomplished all on your own.”
“It wasn’t entirely on my own. Evelyn has had my back from the beginning. She helped me a lot.”
“Still, you’re not used to relying on someone else or allowing yourself to feel things that have the power to hurt you.”
“No, I’m not used to any of that.”
“Do you think you could get used to it? Eventually?”
“Maybe.”
His smile lit up his sinfully handsome face, which was handsome even with road rash marring it. One benefit to having him around so much was that she got to look at his gorgeous face, eyes and smile any time she wanted. That was something she could get used to very easily. He led her into her bedroom, helped her out of the dress she’d worn to dinner and ran his hands over her with a reverence that was also new to her. Men didn’t revere her. They pawed her, took what they could get and left.
Cooper wasn’t like that. Every time they were together this way, he treated her as if she was the most precious thing in his life, and that was another thing she could get used to. If she allowed herself to go there. Even as he helped her into bed, stripped out of his own clothes and got in next to her, Gigi was aware of an invisible wall that remained firmly erected between them that would allow him to get only so close.
As long as that wall remained in place, she felt safe, even as he held her as close to him as he could get her, their legs intertwined as he stared at her for the longest time.
“What?”
“Nothing. I like to look at you.”
She screwed up her face and made the silliest expression she could come up with.
Cooper laughed. “Even still. You’re gorgeous.”
“You’re delusional.”
“I must be, because even when you try to make yourself ugly, it doesn’t work.” He placed his hand on her face and caressed her cheek with his thumb.
The way he looked at her made her feel bubbly inside, as if she’d swallowed a gallon of champagne. And when he kissed her, all the agitation that was so much a part of who she was seemed to disappear. He was making a believer of her, and she wasn’t sure whether to be elated or terrified.
The man certainly knew his way around a woman’s body. She suspected he’d had a ton of practice, but if all that practice was preparing him for her, she supposed she could live with it.
“Why are you thinking so hard?”
“Huh?”
“You get that bump right here,” he said, kissing between her brows, “when you’re overthinking something.”
Gigi sighed with the realization that she’d never stood a chance against him. There was absolutely no point resisting him or his certainty that the two of them were meant to be. He’d made a believer out of her.
“Cooper.”
He was kissing her neck and making her shiver. “Hmm?”
“I need to tell you something.”
“I’m listening.”
“It’s important.”
Raising his head, he met her gaze. “What’s up?”
She placed both hands on his face and felt his late-day whiskers poking her palms.
“Just tell me, sweetheart. Whatever it is, I promise I want to hear it.”
“If you… If you break my heart, I’ll never recover from it.”
“Aw, babe. That’s the last thing I’d ever do. If you take this chance with me, I swear to you, I’ll take very good care of you and your fragile heart.”
“That’s good to know.”
“I mean it, Gigi. I’d be so happy to have you in my life, I’d do everything I could to keep you there.”
“You’ve given me a lot to think about.”
“While you think,” he said, drawing her nipple into his mouth, “I can come up with lots of ways we can have all kinds of fun together.”
God, the man was good at that, and that. He was unreasonably good at that and had her hovering on the edge of release with the least amount of effort ever expended by man or toy. How did he do that?
“Are you still sore?” he asked.
“Not like I was.”
“Hold that thought.” He got up to find his shorts and retrieve a condom.
As he stood by the bed with that huge erection stretching past his belly button, Gigi said, “Hey, Coop?”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“I’m on birth control, and I’m clean. If you are, too, then I guess we don’t really need the condom.”
Staring at her, seeming stunned, he said, “If I heard you correctly, you’re saying we don’t need this?” He held up the foil packet.
“That’s what I said,” she replied, trying not to giggle at his reaction.
“I, um, you might want to, we might want to, uh, you know, take the edge off before we do that, or it’ll be over before it begins.”
Gigi rose to her knees and made her way to the edge of the bed, grasping his cock in a tight grip. “You need me to take the edge off like this?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as he nodded. “That works.”
“Would this work better?” Gigi asked as she bent to take him into her mouth.
He sucked in a sharp deep breath. “That’d work faster.”
She held back the laugh so she could focus on his pleasure.
“Shit, Gigi, you’re making my legs shake.” He buried his fingers in her hair and held on tight as he moved in time to the rhythm she set. “Geeeeeg… Ah, God… You’d better stop unless you want…”
She sucked hard and rubbed her tongue against the shaft.
He exploded, his entire body shaking with the force of his release.