Cooper by Liliana Hart Read Free Book Online Page B

backward.
    “I’m going to have to get tough, sweetheart. You and that smart mouth of yours don’t leave me any choice.”
    “Cooper…really…this is getting ridiculous. Is it because I’m a challenge? Because you’ve never had another woman tell you no before?”
    “Sweetheart, I distinctly remember you telling me yes several times. But we’ll get back to that. I’ve wanted you for a long time, Claire. I was lying to myself by denying the attraction. And I owe you an apology for the things I said to you last week. It was a defense mechanism, pure and simple. I was terrified because I knew you were the one person who could change the way I’ve been living. Come with me,” he said, holding out a hand. “Please.”
    Her eyes were wet with tears, but they didn’t fall. She looked at his hand warily and shook her head in denial of the things he’d told her.
    Her stubbornness would have been a thing of beauty at any other time. They’d be butting heads for sure in the future, but enough was enough. He grabbed her around the waist and threw her over his shoulder to the delight of the crowd.
    Cat laughed as he passed by her and said. “Give him hell, Claire.”
    “Thanks a lot,” Cooper said.
    “Look on the bright side, Cooper. You’re brothers are going to give you grief for the rest of your life over this. Thanks for inviting me to see the show.”
    Cooper put a squirming Claire into the front seat of his truck and fastened her seatbelt for her. She stared at him mutinously, and he couldn’t help but grin. He’d never had another woman challenge him like she did.
    They drove in stony silence until he turned on the road that led to her place.
    “Why are we going to my house? How are you going to chain me in your dungeon and use all your whips and chains to bend me to your will from there?”
    He looked over and smiled at her. For the first time in his life things were starting to feel right.
    “I’ve got to tell you I’m crazy about that smart mouth of yours.”
    “I think you’re just crazy period.”
    The land her house was on was small, but it was heavily treed and private. The one-story house was white clapboard that had recently had a fresh coat of paint. A big wrap-around-porch surrounded it on all sides, and big ferns hung from baskets at even intervals.
    When he opened her door and moved to carry her inside, she stilled him by putting her hand to his cheek. Her eyes were both pleading and apologetic.
    “Please don’t do this, Cooper. If you have an ounce of kindness left inside you then don’t do this to me. You don’t have the ability to break my heart. You have the ability to crush it to dust. I realize now how naïve I probably seemed to you that night. I’ll readily admit that I weaved dreams as a girl about you. About being a part of something special with you. It was foolish to try to be what you wanted and expect to fulfill my own made up fantasies at the same time.”
    Cooper closed his eyes against the pain of her words. He’d hurt her deeply, maybe deeper than he would be able to repair. He knew better than anyone that the dissolution of dreams in the adolescent years could shape a person—whether for good or for bad—for the rest of their life.
    “Claire…”
    He couldn’t help but lean in and rub his lips across hers—slow and soft and gentle—how their first kiss should have been. Her eyes fluttered closed and she deepened the pressure, and he felt like he’d been given the biggest gift in the world. He brought his hands to the clasp at the back of her neck and turned the key in the lock. The collar fell from her neck into her lap.
    “I’ll only have you come to me because you want to,” he whispered. “Never because you think it’s what I might want or need. I’ll never own you, but I’ll always be a part of you. Just as you’re a part of me. The very best part of me.”
    “Cooper,” she sighed and kissed him again. “Take me inside. Take all of me.”
    He