Chasing Dreams (Devil's Bend) (28 page)

As
Tessa came, Cooper couldn’t tear his eyes off of her. When she settled back on
the bed, he eased up her body, tasting her skin along the way, teasing one
puckered nipple before continuing. There was a smile on her face that made his
heart swell.

“I
love to watch you come,” he whispered against her mouth.

“Mmmm,”
she moaned.

“Feel
better?” he asked, pressing his iron hard cock against her lower belly.

“I
will in a minute,” she said, taking him entirely off guard.

“Well,
that’s not what I expected to hear.”

Tessa’s
sudden movement surprised him, and she managed to flip their positions before
he realized what was happening. He flopped onto his back, allowing the alluring,
naked cowgirl to straddle him.

“I
could get used to this,” he told her.

“I’m
sure you could. But that comes later.”

He
growled. She smiled.

As
she probably already realized, patience wasn’t one of his virtues, but it
seemed like she always wanted to push his limits. He was just about to warn her
when she pressed her entire body against the full length of his, her tongue
teasing his bottom lip. Figuring she wanted to take the reins, Cooper remained
motionless, watching to see what she’d do next.

He
tracked every movement, heard her uneven breaths mixed with his own as she
moved down his body, her lips trailing blazes of heat over his skin. When she
gently bit his nipple, he almost bucked her off of him.

“Sonuvabitch,”
he growled.

Her
head came up, and the little minx was smiling.

“Did
that hurt?”

“Fuck
no,” he growled. It didn’t hurt. It felt too fucking good and that was the
problem. Ever since the shower that morning, Cooper had been hanging by a
thread, and he wanted to be inside of her. If she was going to torture him,
then he wouldn’t be able to make it until then.

“Then
lay back and enjoy it, cowboy,” she said sweetly, her mouth lowering above his
other nipple, teasing him with her breath before licking him.

She
must’ve sensed he was going to say something because her finger came up and
landed over his mouth, making him laugh. He got the hint. He was supposed to be
quiet. He could handle…

“Fucking
hell!”

Her
throaty laugh made his cock swell impossibly further.

“You
bit me again,” he accused.

“And
the more you talk, the more I bite.”

Ok,
he didn’t need to be told twice. Dropping his head to the pillow, he closed his
eyes and tried to hold on to his control. He was just going to have to endure.

Her
silky hair drifted over his chest as she moved lower, her mouth placing hot,
wet kisses over his skin as she continued. As soon as his brain recognized what
she was about to do, Cooper’s legs locked up.

Smooth,
soft fingers curled around his straining cock, moving ever so slowly, the
sensations nearly too much to bear. It would be one thing for her to be
aggressive, but this sensual torture was going to be the death of him.

He
tried to compartmentalize the different sensations, hoping like hell he could
ignore the subtle strokes along his cock.

Nope.
Not happening.

Shit.

“Tessa.
Darlin’, please,” he begged, his voice strained with how much he was holding
back.

“I
love when you ask so nicely,” she teased and then her hot, moist mouth was on
him, the head of his cock slowly slipping between her lips and he found himself
gripping the blankets beneath him to keep from reaching for her.

“Oh,
fuck, yes!” he roared, pushing up into her mouth.

Her
small hands landed flat on his thighs, attempting to hold him down and he gave
in, forcing his body to remain flat against the mattress as her sweet mouth
slid over him, her tongue teasing the flared head before taking him deeper. He
squeezed his eyes shut, focusing on the heavenly feel of her mouth on him. She
wasn’t just sucking his cock, she was exploring him with her mouth, and he
wanted to shout to the heavens. It was the most unbelievable feeling, her
tongue stroking, teasing. When her lips closed around him, and she sucked him
deep, he groaned, his balls drawing up tightly to his body.

Unable
to stop himself, Cooper grabbed her head with one hand, holding her still. “Uh
– uh. I’m not coming in your mouth, Tessa. Not this time, baby.” He wanted to
be inside of her. He wanted her to come at the same time he did, and if she
kept this up, he was going to lose all of his noble intentions.

He
kept his fingers threaded in her hair, controlling her movements as best he
could, enjoying the silky feel of her mouth as she sucked his cock, bathing him
with her tongue until he couldn’t take any more.

“Come
here, Tessa.” Adding a bit of demand to his tone, he kept his fingers wound in
her hair, pulling gently until she was doing as he asked. Once she was over
him, he flipped them again, wanting to feel her beneath him. “Remember what you
said earlier?”

Tessa
nodded, her wide eyes locked with his. “I’m on the pill,” she said. “I swear to
you, I’m on the pill.”

The
fact that Tessa understood his pain from earlier made his chest swell. He
appreciated her reassurance, and he believed her. Hell, he’d believed her the
first time she had told him.

“I’m
clean, Tessa. I have routine checkups, and I use condoms.”

Tessa’s
eyes darted away briefly and then back to his. “I’m clean too. I don’t have
sex. The last time – before you and I – was almost two years ago. With Chad. We
used condoms, but I was tested anyway.”

Cooper’s
gut twisted with just the mention of the bastard’s name, but he ignored the
jealousy and nodded his head.

“Do
you trust me? If we’re going to do this, I want to know that you trust me. That
you won’t run from me if things get tough.” He paused, swallowed. “This is just
the beginning, Tessa.”

“Yes,”
she said on a sob. “I trust you, Cooper.”

Her
cool fingers rested against his cheeks and Cooper leaned down, pressing his
mouth to hers. The kiss started gently, but quickly escalated, infused with the
molten heat that they generated when they were together. Shifting until he was
right where he wanted to be, Cooper didn’t break the kiss, inhaling Tessa’s
gasp as he thrust into her hard.

As
much as he wanted to go slow, to make love to her the way he had in the bed of
his truck under the stars, the thread on his control was too frayed. Pulling
back, he stared down at her. “Put your hands on the headboard,” he ordered.

Her
grin made his heart melt. She easily lifted her arms, her hands wrapping around
the bars on the headboard.

Cooper
pushed up onto his knees, gripping her hips as he lifted her slightly, pushing
deeper and then retreating slowly. Her breasts swayed as he began a slow,
almost gentle rhythm. He could only maintain slow for so long because the hot,
wet grip of her pussy was too much. Without the latex barrier, she was
scorching him, and the slow glide through her slick heat quickly morphed into
punishing thrusts of his hips as he slammed into her, her arms locked as she
added resistance against the headboard.

“Cooper,”
Tessa groaned, her eyes closing as her head tipped back against the pillow.

He
was unable to say a word, his body spoke the only language he knew at the
moment as he continued to pound into her. He refused to come until she did, but
she seemed to be holding out on him. He released her hips and took one leg,
lifting it high on his shoulder as he leaned into her, providing the perfect
angle…

“Fuck,
baby.” Cooper paused, taking a deep breath as the pleasure overwhelmed him.
“Tessa, you feel so fucking good. So damn tight.” He was rambling, but it was
the only thing he could do to keep from slamming into her and coming with a
vengeance.

“Cooper!
Don’t stop! Oh!” Tessa screamed as her pussy gripped him like a velvet vice,
clamping down on his cock until he had to give himself over to the pleasure.

♥
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

“You
do know we have to get up at some point today,” Tessa told Cooper a couple of
hours later when they awoke, cuddled up next to each other in her bed.

A
disgruntled sound came from Cooper’s chest, and she curled into him even more.

“Shit!”
he exclaimed and pushed up, glancing over at the clock.

“What’s
wrong?” she asked, pulling the sheet up over her bare breasts as she sat up.

“I
left Dalton at the bar last night. He was supposed to stay with me,” Cooper
told her, a smile replacing his frown.

“Oh,
crap.”

“Yeah,”
he answered, crawling out of bed and walking naked toward the bathroom.
“There’s no telling what kind of trouble that boy got himself into.”

Tessa
fell back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. She remembered the way Dalton
had been watching Katie and wondered for a minute… Surely not. She wasn’t sure
Katie could handle a cowboy like Dalton. Hell, she wasn’t sure Devil’s Bend
could handle him, especially if he was anything like Cooper.

He
peeked into the bedroom a minute later, smiling at her. “You mind coming to the
house for dinner tonight? I’d like you there when I talk to Dalton about the
logistics of the farm.”

Tessa
nodded, her heart constricting in her chest. He wanted to include her in his
discussions about the farm. She knew he’d been working on getting a plan
together, bringing in some volunteers to help with the barn. There was a lot of
work to be done before he could purchase horses though.

The
sound of the shower came on, and Tessa let her eyes close as she thought about
everything that had happened since last night. Just when she thought her world
was crashing in on her, Cooper went and threw her for a loop. His story had
broken her heart, and at the same time she was angry at Marcus for trying to
make Cooper sound like a serial womanizer.

Still,
there was a tiny part of her that was scared to open up to him completely. Even
if she trusted him, her past didn’t allow her to embrace any sort of happiness.
Her path seemed paved with roadblocks that would keep her from a life of
happiness. Granted, she had no one to blame but herself. Had she not been so
out of control…

When
Cooper appeared a few minutes later wearing only his jeans, Tessa pushed all of
her negative thoughts to the back of her mind and focused on him.

“I
better head out and see if I can track him down. The last thing Devil’s Bend
needs is that man on the prowl. I’ll see you in a couple of hours?”

She
nodded, watching as he moved around the room, pulling on his shirt.

“Hey,
do me a favor,” he said to her as he sat on the edge of the bed, leaning over
and focusing on his boots. “Tell Izzy and Eric to come tonight, would ya?”

That
got Tessa’s attention, but she didn’t say anything. Cooper must’ve realized she
was surprised by his request because he crawled up on the bed, hovering
directly above her.

“I’d
like to see what they think of the plans. Maybe they can give us some ideas.”

His
explanation made her feel better, and she laughed. “You don’t know the half of
it.” Izzy wouldn’t hesitate to add her two cents, especially if someone was
asking for her input. “Are you sure? I don’t want Dalton to panic if she’s
ogling him from across the table.”

“I’m
sure he can handle her. If not, I doubt Eric has any problems keeping her in
line.”

Tessa
laughed so hard, tears came to her eyes. “Right. You don’t know her well, do
you?”

Cooper
grinned, and the crooked smirk made her bones turn to mush. When he leaned
closer, his mouth pressing to hers, she put her arms around him. “I wish we
could stay here a little longer.” The thought escaped through her mouth without
her permission.

Opening
her eyes, she met Cooper’s intense gaze and what she saw there had her heart
leaping in her chest.

“I
promise, we’ll be doing plenty more of this in the near future,” he replied,
his rough finger trailing down her jaw. “I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of
you, Tessa.”

God,
she really hoped that was true.

Cooper
didn’t have much time to do anything productive when he got home. After leaving
Tessa’s, he had called Dalton to find out that the guy had, in fact, slept in
his truck, in front of Cooper’s house the night before. He apologized profusely
for leaving him stranded, but when he met up with Dalton at his house, the grin
on Dalton’s face had assured him he didn’t mind. Apparently, he’d gone out for
an early breakfast with Katie after
The Rusty Nail
closed.

Cooper
had spent an hour or so trying to straighten the house as best he could,
considering he was still living out of boxes. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the
time to unpack, but with everything else going on, he had pushed that to the
lower part of his priority list. He still didn’t consider it important, except
that he was expecting company and wanted to ensure his guests could move around
when necessary.

“You
get the stuff on the list?” Cooper asked Dalton when his buddy walked in the
back door.

“Got
it,” Dalton said matter-of-factly.

Grabbing
two of the overstuffed paper bags from Dalton’s hands, Cooper started putting
things away. When Dalton just stood in the kitchen staring back at him, Cooper
turned to face him.

“What’s
up?”

“You
mind if I invite someone tonight?”

“Not
at all. Who’d you have in mind?” Cooper had a pretty good idea, but he didn’t
jump to conclusions these days.

“Katie,”
Dalton replied shyly.

Interesting.
Cooper wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Dalton act like that when it came to a woman.
In fact, Dalton had never been the type of guy who went out with the same girl
more than once. At least Cooper didn’t think he did.

“Not
at all. Izzy and Eric are coming over as well.” Tessa had called to let him
know she had to run a couple of errands, but she had confirmed that Izzy and
Eric had accepted his invitation for dinner.

Glancing
over at the clock on the stove, Cooper knew he needed to kick it into high gear
or he’d be the worst host in the history of the planet. Taking the steaks from
the bag and the sauce he had asked Dalton to get, Cooper got down to business.

A
few minutes later, the steaks were marinating in the refrigerator, and he was
sitting on the back porch with Dalton drinking a beer.

“So,
when are you gonna have that thing torn down?” Dalton asked, his head tilted
toward the old barn that was an eye sore more than anything.

“I’ve
got a demolition crew coming next week to knock it down and haul it away. There
are a few other things out in the back forty that need to be hauled off.”
Cooper hadn’t had the time to go over the land with a fine tooth comb yet, but
he hired someone who would go out and see what all was out there.

“You
plannin’ to move quickly with this?” Dalton asked as he stood from his seat,
moving to lean against the rail that wrapped around the outer portion of the
porch. Cooper’s mind drifted to the night Tessa had come over. He wasn’t sure
he’d ever be able to look at that railing without thinking of her.

“Hopin’
to,” Cooper confirmed. “I want to do a lot of the work myself, but I’m not
gonna lie, I need help.”

“Well,
that’s what I’m here for.” Dalton glanced his way. “From what Katie tells me,
that lady of yours has a lot of resources too. Did you know she’s a youth
counselor down at the church?”

No,
Cooper didn’t know that. He wasn’t sure how happy he was that Dalton had been
in town less than twenty-four hours, and he knew more about Tessa than Cooper
did. “I know her goal was to build a farm to work with disabled children and
troubled youth.”

“That’s
what I heard, too. Pretty noble if you ask me. Does she live on some land now?”

The
question was a sore spot for Cooper. No, Tessa didn’t have property to do what
she had been planning to do because Cooper had come in and stolen it right out
from under her. He busied himself with drinking his beer so he didn’t have to answer
the question. Thankfully, Dalton moved on quickly.

“The
two of you serious?”

Well,
shit. More personal wasn’t the direction Cooper was hoping this conversation
would go, but he didn’t want to shrug Dalton off. His buddy had come down from
Nashville with the intention of helping him get this dream off the ground so to
speak. Singing at
The Rusty Nail
was just an added bonus – for both of
them.

“I’d
like to think so, yeah,” Cooper answered, staring out at the barn that would
soon be replaced with something much more modern. He could actually see himself
sitting out here with Tessa on warm summer nights, or working in the stables
alongside her during the day. Indefinitely.

“I
heard her husband died a few years ago,” Dalton said seemingly ignorant to the
fact that he knew more about Tessa than Cooper because he had spent time with
one of the women who worked for her.

“He
did.” Cooper didn’t like talking about her when she wasn’t there, felt like it
was a sort of betrayal, but this was his closest friend. Despite their
lifestyles and how often they were on the road separately, Cooper and Dalton
kept in touch often. They were each other’s sounding boards when it came to
music and ultimately, Cooper knew Dalton was a loyal friend. “He was a police
officer. He died in the line of duty.”

Cooper
hadn’t actually done any digging to find out more about Tessa’s husband’s
death. He didn’t want to invade her privacy, but now that he thought about it,
he wondered if he should have. Getting to know her had been a slow process and
there were so many things he felt she was keeping from him.

“Sucks,
man.” Dalton paused. “Katie told me they lost a baby.” Dalton’s voice reflected
the sadness one would expect with a story of loss.

Cooper
tried to keep his expressions masked, but he knew he couldn’t do it. Pushing to
his feet, he forced himself to move. She’d lost a baby? She never told him
that. The idea of Tessa having to go through anything so painful tore at his
heart. He wanted to hold her and protect her from all of the cruelties that the
world had to offer.

Then
again, she’d done the same for him earlier that morning. When he thought he was
going to be a father, he was elated. Not even the awkward situation had been
able to deflate the joy that had filled his heart. And to find out from the
jackass boyfriend that Tabitha was lying to him had been a crushing blow.

Would
Tessa want to try to have kids again? She was young and healthy, and he
couldn’t see why not, but he knew from his own experience how hard it could be
to get emotionally attached and have it pulled from his grasp.

“Man,
I’m sorry. I thought you knew.” Dalton’s firm tone caught his attention, and
Cooper realized he’d been pacing, his hand thrust in his hair.

“It
never came up,” he explained. He paused briefly, staring out at the countryside
and then back to his friend. “She’s the strongest woman I know, Dalt. I’ve
never felt like this before.”

And
maybe that was more information than he should’ve shared with anyone, but he
felt better saying the words out loud.

“I
can tell.” Dalton’s voice was louder, as though he moved closer. “I think the
two of you might have something here.”

Dalton
knew what Cooper had been through. And apparently he’d known what Tessa had
been through as well. So to hear someone confirm that they might stand a chance
renewed his faith that something might come out of this. Well, if he could get
Tessa to jump on board with the idea it would.

“What
time is everyone coming over?” Dalton asked, obviously trying to change the
subject.

“Six.”
And that wasn’t going to come fast enough.

“Well,
you’ve got about fifteen minutes to get this place spruced up. What can I help
with?”

Fifteen
minutes?
Shit.

Cooper
pulled his cell phone from his pocket and glanced at the time as though he
didn’t believe Dalton. Sure enough, fifteen minutes until six.

“We
should get the grill fired up,” Cooper stated firmly as he turned back toward
the house. “You get that started, I’ll grab the rest.”