Love on the Line (Beaumont Legacy #2)

20. Maya

Chapter twenty

Maya

M aya couldn’t tell if the tense silence on the way back to the house was anticipatory tense or we shouldn’t have done that tense. Cooper appeared to be very in his head as he drove them.

“That went well,” she offered, to try to break the silence.

He mumbled something vaguely like mm-hmm but said nothing else.

Maybe this silence was bad. Maybe he’d only kissed her because she’d been leaning in and he hadn’t wanted her to feel badly but now he regretted it. Sure, he’d said some things that had made her think otherwise, but something inside her was telling her that maybe it’d been a heat-of-the-moment kiss.

As they pulled onto her street, Maya asked quietly, “Do you regret it? ”

Cooper’s eyes snapped to her, his hand flying over the console to rest on her knee. “Never, sweetheart. Of course not. I’m just thinking.”

Maya nodded once but looked out the window as they pulled into her driveway, still not sure how the rest of the night would go. Maybe he didn’t regret it, but that didn’t mean he was ready to do anything more.

Maya put a hand over her face when a flash went off to her right, and Cooper stepped around so he blocked her, guiding her with a hand on her back up to the front door. “Gonna buy you a security system. I hate this.”

Maya shook her head. “I’ll get the garage door fixed in no time, and then I’ll go through there instead of up to the front door. It’s no biggie.”

She didn’t need him worrying about her. Maya locked the door behind them and began moving up the stairs, hoping she didn’t look as crestfallen as she felt.

“Sweetheart.”

When she turned back around, his hair was wild, like he’d managed to run his hands through it fifteen times in the seconds it had taken her to get halfway up the stairs.

“Hi,” she said dumbly. Her brain felt scrambled taking him in . It should be illegal to look that fucking good.

“Hi.”

She blinked, not sure where to go from there.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, so softly she almost missed it.

Her heart dropped. “Hey, no, I get it. I was leaning in, and you wanted to protect my feelings. I get—”

He held a hand up to quiet her.

“You have no idea how badly I wanted that kiss. There is nobody in this world who wants something as badly as I want you,” he all but growled.

Relief filled her at the affirmation, though she was still confused why he’d apologized.

“So then take me.”

His gaze slowly slid down her body and then back up, taking his sweet time enjoying the view. “No.”

Maya crossed her arms over her chest. “Why not?”

“There isn’t enough time in the day to go through all the reasons this is a bad idea.”

She scoffed. Cooper kept seeing her as Colton’s sister, and if that was one of his big reasons for holding back, she was over it.

“I’m not going to beg you. You said you want me, then prove it. Just because I’m Colton’s little sister doesn’t make me a kid. I can make my own damn decisions. And I’m choosing you. I want you. If you can’t say the same and mean it, then yes, we should stop whatever this is.”

Cooper’s jaw clenched, and in only a few strides, he was one step below her, a gentle hand applying next to no pressure to her throat. Just the brush of his fingers was enough to send a zing of excitement through her body, her blood boiling in anticipation of what he would do next .

His hand tightened slightly, though still gentle, and his lips found hers in the most passionate kiss she’d ever had. Maya’s head emptied as her sole focus became keeping herself upright. A few moments later, when he pulled away, kissing and dragging his teeth down her jaw and neck until she was nothing but a puddle, her knees finally gave out.

Cooper’s other arm wrapped around her waist to keep her standing, her center grazing over his leg. He buried a hand in Maya’s hair, pulling her head back so he could have better access to her neck. A needy moan escaped her open mouth as she let her head fall back, enjoying the bite of his teeth and the soothing strokes of his warm breath and tongue as he kissed it better.

“Look at what you do to me,” he breathed into her neck, lifting her head so she looked at him.

Maya peered down at his dress pants through lowered lashes, seeing the way he strained against them.

“That’s twice now tonight. You felt that and really thought I don’t want you? I’m in a perpetual state of wanting you. The devil on my shoulder wants me to do depraved things with you, but the angel keeps telling me that you’re better than me. That Colton won’t talk to me again if I let this go any further. That I don’t deserve to kiss you until I rectify how the public sees me.”

Her tongue swiped across her lips quickly, his eyes following the motion. “Let the devil win. Imagine how much more fun it’ll be.” Her reedy voice was foreign to her ears. She sounded like a fucking seductress, and she loved it.

Anything to make him see she wasn’t just Colton’s little sister.

He seemed to like it too, his hand gripping her hair tighter, tilting her head back slightly to lick up her neck and suck her earlobe into his mouth, warm breath in her ear.

“Maybe so.” He seemed to recover slightly, placing both of his hands on her waist to steady her on the stair above him. His hands stayed there, fingers caressing her.

Maya remembered what he’d said about deserving her, her brain finally catching up. She grabbed hold of his dress shirt with both fists and frowned at him. “Please hear me when I say that I don’t give a fuck how the public sees you, and I wish you would stop caring too. I don’t care what they call you or what they’ll say about me or us. I care about you, how you feel, and how you make me feel. There is nobody more deserving of me than you, Coop. I thought I’d made that clear.”

His eyes flicked back and forth between hers. “How do I make you feel?”

“Like I’m on fire. Like I can’t breathe. Every time you pull away, it only gets worse, like my body knows how good it would be to kiss you and never stop.” Quieter, she continued, “Like I’m safe and worthy.”

Cooper’s hands left her, flitting through his hair once more. Maya placed her hands in his and squeezed, looking into his eyes meaningfully, hoping he could read how true her words were.

“Mai, you can’t say things like that to me…” Cooper groaned, looking away.

“I mean it. Every word.”

Finally, he sighed, his hands finding her waist again. “If I’m going to be with you, I’m going to be with you. I don’t want casual with you, sunflower. I want to take my time enjoying everything. Your smiles, your laughs, your moans.” His voice dropped. “Your screams of pleasure. I want to show you how wanted you are. Will you let me do that, sweetheart?”

Maya nodded, struck dumb by his confession. Words failed her entirely as she watched his kiss-stained lips curl into the sexiest of smirks, like he knew how badly he tied up her insides.

“Yes,” she managed.

“You got a crush on me or somethin’?”

She’d missed his teasing while he’d been gone for the draft. She never wanted him to leave again so she could have it forever.

She was so far past crushing on Cooper Hayes. Nothing could’ve prepared Maya for the feelings she was having for him, that had been tossing and turning inside her for weeks, maybe months.

This was no crush. This was far more, and she couldn’t believe it could be hers.

“Or something,” she whispered, and his smile widened .

“Good. Now let’s get into comfy clothes and fall asleep on top of each other.”

Cooper helped her unzip her dress, stepping back and looking away as it fell. Maya faced him, letting the dress drop down slowly and pool around her feet on the floor, nothing but panties covering her body. The bodice of the gown had been so tight, she hadn’t needed a bra. When they’d been quiet for a few moments, Cooper’s eyes flicked back, and his expression turned pained.

“ Maya ,” he groaned, though his eyes stayed on her, drinking her in. He took a step forward, hand reaching out, then he backed up again, shaking his head. “I’ll shower in the guest bathroom.”

Her heart broke for him as she wondered if he was holding back, keeping the physical part out of it, to protect himself. To not have the same thing that had happened in college happen to him again.

A little over half an hour later, they’d both taken separate showers—much to Maya’s dismay—and changed into sweatpants, settling into her bed shoulder to shoulder, staring up at the glow-in-the-dark stars on her ceiling, and intertwining and disentangling their fingers over and over, like a promise .

Maya whispered into the dark, “How do we handle this? Publicly, I mean. And with Colt.” She couldn’t imagine her brother would react well to this.

Cooper blew out a sigh. “I don’t think I’m ready for people to know until something changes with the media. I was trying to stay away from you until then too, but it’s been torture.” He squeezed her hand. “I know you hate when I talk about my reputation, but I can’t let you be associated with where I’m at right now. Just give me a little time to keep working through it so I can prove to the world that I’m good enough for you. Colton may never see it, but I have to keep trying.”

Maya turned her head to look at him, taking in the structure of his profile. Strong, defined cheekbones and jawline, almost-straight nose, his clean-shaven face starting to regrow its usual stubble. A pang of hurt hit her square in the chest, like her body believed he didn’t want people to know about her. But she knew that wasn’t true and even understood where he was coming from, though she didn’t agree.

Plus, she already felt more cared for than she had with Ryan. Cooper wanted her so badly and yet was holding off so he could improve himself to be better for her.

Even if she didn’t think he needed any improvements at all.

“Okay.”

He almost looked shocked. “Okay?”

Maya nodded once. “But not because I don’t want to be associated with your reputation. I’ve made it clear I don’t care about that, but I understand what you’re saying. And I really don’t want the start of the charity impacted by this either. I don’t want speculation. I just want these kids to get the lessons they deserve. Plus, Colt might go ballistic, and we don’t need that right now.”

The last thing she wanted was for On the Line to seem less legitimate because of their relationship. It’d already been insinuated at the press conference, and she didn’t need it “confirmed.”

Cooper nodded, his thumb rubbing circles over the top of her hand. “Agreed.”

Maya wanted them to have a fighting chance. There were infinite variables that could change the course of whatever this could be. Her brother. The press. The charity. Her fear of accepting things from Cooper, especially the money she’d been trying to make up through tennis lessons. His fear that he was undeserving of her love. The fact that it was already early May, and soon he would be too busy to come see her. All of it and more had the power to knock them down before they’d found their footing.

“So, we keep it private, then. We fly back and forth as we’re able under the guise of working on the charity and see what happens.” Maya stated the words, though they were more like a question. She wanted to make sure they were on the same page.

Cooper frowned. “I don’t like ‘see what happens.’ I want you, no matter how many damn flights I have to take to get to you. ”

Maya’s lips ghosted over his sculpted shoulder. “I think I can be okay with that,” she teased.

She could handle having him quietly. Reporters and people in his comments could say what they liked; Maya didn’t care. At the end of the day, at least for now, she knew she was his and he was hers.