Cooper (The Family Simon #6) - Juliana Stone Page 0,61

kind of bad that’s part of my vocabulary is the kind of bad that makes good seem like a waste of time.”

His hands crept up to her shoulders, and he slowly turned her around until she was forced to look up at him. Cooper’s face was dark and intense. His nostrils flared, his lips slightly parted. Shadows thrown from the fireplace made him look not only mysterious and sexy, but dangerous as hell. Was she really going to trust him?

Could this man bring her back to life?

He stared at her for so long, the silence rang in her ears, and she swayed a bit, liking the way his arms held her. He opened his mouth, and she held her breath, thinking he was about to say something. But instead, he lowered his head and slid his lips over hers.

He’d kissed her before. She knew what to expect, and yet this was something else entirely. Cooper Simon had an arsenal of weaponry in his back pocket—his mouth was at the top of that list.

This kiss was a slow, soft, gentle assault. The kind that rocked a girl to the core and left her wanting more. It was the kind of kiss that spoke of secrets and naughty things—of hot, dark places to explore. Yet it was also a kiss filled with promise. It was tender and coaxing and demanding all at once. Her head spun. She was falling because… Good Lord, Cooper Simon could kiss.

Morgan groaned into him and was thankful his hands held her, or she would have melted into a puddle of need at his feet. She was liquid. Her muscles were no more. She was at Cooper’s mercy, and right now, in this moment, she didn’t care.

She wanted this. She wanted it bad.

She opened her lips to him and groaned when he deepened the kiss, his tongue tasting every inch of her, his body slowly thrusting against her, mimicking the rhythm of his tongue. His hands slid down. They drifted over her hips until he cupped her butt, pulling her even closer. So close his erection pressed into that soft, pliant center…the one between her legs. The one that throbbed painfully.

“See how much I want you?” Cooper rasped, breaking their kiss. The naked desire on his face stoked an already burning fire inside Morgan.

“Yes,” she managed to answer.

“Only you. Right here. Right now.” He searched her face, and that thing inside her, the thing that had held her back for so long, broke apart. It splintered and fragmented under the heat of his gaze. “You say stop, and I will. I promise.”

This was the moment that mattered. The moment where Morgan could turn away and end this before it got…

“This might get complicated,” she managed to say. It was hard to speak and vocalize what was in her head.

“I like complicated,” he shot back.

“And messy.”

His fingers were on the edge of her top. “I’m good with messy.”

Her hands crept up to his face and held him steady, because she needed him to know—to see how bad it really was.

“Trust me. My kind of complicated and messy isn’t anything you’ve ever seen before.”

Something in his eyes shifted, and she felt him stiffen—only for a moment, but she knew her words had struck a chord. “I’ve seen complicated and messy. I don’t scare easily.”

Surprised, she licked her bottom lip, struggling to find the right words. In the end, she didn’t have words. She only had herself and her damaged body. Morgan took a deep breath and slowly extracted herself from Cooper’s arms. She stepped back, grateful for the deep shadows and the limited light from the fireplace.

Fire.

It wasn’t so long ago that particular word had the power to drop her to her knees. And now, as her gaze moved to the flickering flames, it wasn’t fear or terror she felt. It was, oddly enough, some weird sense of liberation.

Morgan exhaled, closed her eyes, and slowly tugged her top over her head before tossing it onto the floor. She felt faint—most likely from the fast-beating heart that had taken off like a locomotive barreling down the track. Eyes still shut, she unzipped her jeans and winced a bit because her leg was stiff. Ignoring the pain, she stepped out of them, and the denim joined her top somewhere a few feet away.

She stood there, more than a little uncertain, and gasped when Cooper’s big, warm hands slid up her back. She felt his fingers work at her bra clasp, and then