The Risks We Take Duet Box Set

22. Cooper

COOPER

O nce dinner has been cleaned up, those of us without babies who needed to be put to bed sit around a table on the back porch of Brady and Chloe’s parent’s house, playing Cards Against Humanity while we wait for the fireworks to start. It’s a typical hot and humid Fourth of July—with just enough of a cool breeze floating in off the churning ocean to keep us comfortable and yet warn of an impending storm.

There’s a slow pace to the night. A level of relaxation we don’t typically see back in California, when you’re always a call away from getting spun up. Years of friendship envelop those of us sitting out here. These guys see each other all the time. Hell, until Bash proposed to Lenny last spring and officially moved out, most of them lived together.

It’s easy to get lost in the comfort of home.

We’ve been coming here together for years and would typically all watch the fireworks on the beach, but everyone’s been given instructions for tonight. Brady wants us to stay here until the first burst of colors explodes in the sky. Then we can join them.

Of course, my sister has no clue what’s happening.

“Come on, guys,” Nattie pleads. “You can’t be party poopers. The fireworks are starting in a minute. Who wants to go sit on the beach with me?” she pouts.

“Sorry, Nat. I got sunburnt today and don’t feel like getting sandy again.” Lenny’s sitting on Sebastian’s lap, not looking anything like the football heiress she truly is. Content in a way I don’t know Carys and I can ever achieve in front of these people.

Sabrina stretches and places her long legs on Murphy’s lap, then closes her eyes. “I’m just so comfy, Nat.”

“Whatever. You guys all suck.” My sister turns to Brady, completely oblivious to his nerves. “You’ll come with me. Right, QB?”

“Anywhere, Nattie.” He tugs her toward the stairs leading down to the beach and grabs the blanket from the railing.

But Nattie stops and looks my way. “You coming with, Coop?”

“Yeah, that would be a no.” I tilt my beer toward them. “Have fun. I get enough sand every day, sis.”

She pouts for a minute before turning down the steps.

I watch Brady follow her onto the beach, then let my eyes roam over my friends—each coupled up with their girls, happily engaged—then stop on Carys and Chloe whispering to each other. And while she and I agreed we both wanted to keep this thing between us to ourselves for now, I can’t help but be jealous of the way my friends can all enjoy being with their women, while I sit on the opposite end of the table, being careful not to get caught staring at mine.

She’s wearing a black strapless top, that’s tight and crinkly around her chest and loose down to her hips, with a pair of white shorts. None of her laces or bows tonight. Her normally pale skin is sun-kissed, and her dark hair is down and wavy around her shoulders, blowing in the ocean breeze. Her laughter is intoxicating. I want another taste of her skin so fucking bad.

And she has no idea as she sits there, ignoring me.

I tear my eyes away from her when Chloe jumps up and runs inside to grab her camera. “It’s almost time,” she cheers.

Bash picks up Lenny’s hand and kisses her ring finger. “I swear, I figured Brady and Nat would have been the first of us to get engaged.”

“Yeah, man. Me too.” Murph stands and tugs Sabrina to her feet, then punches me in the shoulder. “You gonna stop giving him a hard time about kissing your sister now, Coop?”

Yeah.

I might need to lay off on that one, considering all the ways I want to make Murph’s sister scream.

N attie said yes, to absolutely no one’s surprise.

She’s already announced she wants to get married next summer and asked me if I knew when I’d be deployed. I think she might have even picked a date, but I can’t be sure. I’ve never seen my twin so damn excited, and I’m happy for her. I am. But it seems like the happier Nattie and Brady become, the more Carys avoids me.

I know we’re complicated, but I don’t back down from a challenge. And I’ve never been so damn sure about anything as I am about my feelings for Carys Murphy.

As the celebration winds down, I watch her hug Nattie, then turn to leave. So, I kiss my sister and say my goodbyes, then quickly catch up with Carys on the beach.

“Hey. You gonna leave without saying goodbye?”

“You should go back, Coop. Go celebrate. I’m going to bed.” She walks a few steps ahead of me down the sand without turning around, making it past Declan’s house and into Dad’s backyard before the first raindrop falls. But even the rain can’t hide her tears when she finally looks at me.

I pull her back under the covering of the second-floor balcony, hidden from view and the rain, then cradle her head. “You want to tell me what’s wrong?”

“Nothing...” She sighs and looks beyond me, instead of at me, worrying her bottom lip and holding back a sob. “Everything... I don’t fucking know, Cooper. Maybe this whole thing is a mistake.”

Fuck that.

“Eyes on me, Carys.” When her gorgeous green eyes lock on mine, I refuse to let them go. “We are not a mistake.” She takes a deep breath but doesn’t say anything. “Tell me what’s going on in that beautiful brain, baby.”

Her lower lip trembles. “I don’t know how we’ll ever work, Coop. My brother is a giant pain in the ass, and we’re both lying to ourselves if we think he’s not going to cause a problem. We’re walking through a mine field of family issues if we do this. And what if it doesn’t work out? What are we supposed to do then? What does that look like during holidays? Hey, can you pass the potatoes and act like you haven’t made me come?”

I can’t help the laugh that slips past my lips or the glare it earns me. “I don’t know that my dad would appreciate hearing about sex over potatoes.” I wrap my arms around her, holding her tightly against my chest. “We might want to save that for dessert. Hey, can you pass the cake and pretend you haven’t licked icing off my body? ”

Carys presses her palms to my chest and shoves me back. “I’m serious, Cooper. Promise me if we do this, we’ll keep this thing between us.”

“There’s no if about it. We are doing this. And I promised you that.” I press my lips to hers and enjoy the shivers that travel down her body. “We’re going to take our time figuring this out for us before we worry about them.”

She silently nods as a bolt of lightning cracks open the dark night’s sky, ushering in a downpour of rain. Carys fists my shirt in her hands, and her body sways closer. “Stay with me tonight?”

Fuck.

I know I’ll never be able to deny her anything. I capture her pouty lips with mine for just a second. They’re soft and warm and so much like coming home.

We step inside the house and scan the darkness of the first floor, checking for Dad or Katherine, before sneaking down the hall to her bedroom. With the door locked behind me, I stalk toward her until the backs of her knees hit the bed, and she sits.

“Carys...” The moonlight filters in through the glass doors of her room, illuminating her creamy skin and leaving me speechless.

She tucks her legs under her on the bed and sits up on her knees, making us the same height. Then she tugs her shirt over her head, leaving her bared to me. Her pink nipples become hardened peaks in the cool air, begging for attention, and I’m awestruck.

She’s incredible.

And she’s mine.

“I’m yours, Cooper.” She runs her hands under my tee and shoves it up my body, then drops it to the floor with hers and pops the button on my shorts. “I’ve been yours for years.” Her nails scrape down inside my boxers before she wraps them around my dick and squeezes, sending chills over my skin before she shimmies out from under my arms and drops to her knees in front of me.

She’s tiny, barely coming up to my waist. But when she looks up at me through those dark fucking lashes, I can’t think.

I gather the length of her hair in my hand and wrap it around my fist with slow deliberation as she drags her tongue from the base of my cock all the way up to the tip, my blood thickening as my spine pulls tight. “The question is, are you mine?”

The question drags a visceral reaction from me. “You’re fucking right, I’m yours. Now show me.” I tug her hair with my fist, and Carys swallows me down her throat, sending an electric bolt of pleasure up my body from the base of my spine.

Her head bobs, and her eyes water as she works her way down my cock.

And fuck me, she’s such a pretty sight, but this is not how I’m coming tonight.

I tug her head back by her hair until she looks up at me, then lift her and drop her on the bed.

“Did I do something wrong?” Confusion tugs at her, and I press my lips to hers.

Licking my way into her mouth, then down her neck, I worship her perfect nipples and grab her knees. “No, baby. But the first time I come with you, I need to be inside you.” I spread her legs, settling in and then lick her cunt through the lace of her thong.

Her tart taste coats my tongue as she squirms beneath me.

“Coop . . .” she whines.

“I need to make sure you’re ready for me, baby. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Her breath comes in quick, short, silent beats.

Shoving the delicate lace aside, I drag my finger along her drenched sex, then push inside her as she moans quietly. When I curl my finger, just like she needs, and suck her pretty little swollen clit into my mouth, I growl against her pussy, and she locks her legs against my head and comes, writhing on the bed.

A silent scream falling from her lips.

So fucking perfect.

“Shit, baby. I’ve got to get a condom from my room.” I lean forward, placing my hands on either side of Carys’s head.

Cradling me between her legs, she tightens her hold to keep me close.

As if there were anywhere else on the planet I’d rather be.

“I’m on the pill, and I’m clean. I haven’t been with anyone in a long time, Cooper.” The softness in her voice begs me to take what she’s offering. The gift she’s willing to give.

I gently run my thumb over her cheek. “I’m clean too. We get tested for work. I’ve never been with anyone without a condom. Are you sure, baby?”

Carys shimmies her panties down her legs, then envelops me back between them. “I need you, Cooper. Just you. Nothing between us.” She presses her tits to my chest, clawing at my back, trying to get closer. Her tongue skates over my ear as she whispers, “Don’t be gentle.”