Sliding across the floor, he tumbled into the hot tub bandit, both of them now rolling around in wine and chlorine-scented water.
Cooper froze again, but this time it wasn’t from his need to fight. This time, it was because he had no doubt whom he’d just captured—and somewhere in their tumble his towel had fallen away.
There was no way he could hide the evidence of how he felt about this woman, not when there wasn’t a single stich of clothing between them.
Neither of them spoke for several tense moments as both of them tried to gain back their breath.
“I . . . uh, thought you were in Japan,” she finally said.
“Cancelled flights . . . sick people,” he mumbled. “Why didn’t you answer me?”
“I was panicked being naked,” she said in a gasp.
Stormy was still beneath him, but that didn’t help. With her hands against his shoulders, her fingers moving slightly, he was about to lose control.
Cooper found himself reaching up, his fingers gliding across her soft cheek as he gazed down into her lovely dark eyes.
A slight moan escaped her mouth, and that was it for Cooper. Her lips were moist and parted and he wasn’t resisting for a moment longer. Bending down, he captured her mouth, and together their moans floated around them.
With every rise of Stormy’s soft breasts against him, and the rhythm of her tongue mating with his, Cooper became harder and harder. Pushing her thighs apart, he rested his throbbing manhood against her moist opening.
She was clutching at his hair, no sign of regret within her. Gripping her hip tightly with one hand, Cooper leaned back slightly and then pushed forward, sinking himself fully within her heat.
She cried out—and Cooper froze.
“Are you going to keep playing games or are you going to admit that you know who I am?” he asked, suddenly furious.
He’d lost control for a moment, and he was still on the verge of doing it again, but dammit, he’d meant to talk to her first about this before plunging within her sweet folds.
“I . . . uh . . .” She wasn’t forming coherent words and he was growing more and more angry.
“Is this a game?” he asked.
With no other choice but to strangle her or let her go, he withdrew from her body, wanting to cry out at how wrong that felt.
“No!” she cried out, quickly sitting up with her arms wrapped protectively around her knees.
“What else am I supposed to think?”
She was quiet for a moment. “You didn’t want more than a one-night stand back then and neither did I,” she said, her voice still too quiet for him to figure out what she was feeling or thinking.
“Maybe I did want more,” he said. He thought of the locket he still had.
“Don’t lie, Cooper. It was a great night—but it was only supposed to be one night,” she said, irritation in her voice.
“Then what are we doing here now?” he asked.
“We were about to have sex,” she grumbled.
He went stock-still for a moment, but Stormy didn’t see the warning in his anger. She grumbled something else and Cooper shot to his feet.
“Is it sex you want, Stormy?” he demanded.
Now she was understanding the full extent of his anger. Her eyes rounded.
“Not when you’re ticked off,” she said, but her breathless excitement belied her words.
“If it’s a night of sex you want, that I can give you.”
Leaning down, he easily lifted her up and then began moving toward the staircase.
“Cooper, what are you doing?” She gasped as she hit his chest. “Put me down!”
“Gladly,” he said, anger and passion mixing within him. He made it to his room in record time and unceremoniously dropped her on the bed.
“Caveman,” she snapped, her voice still a bit breathless.
“Oh baby, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
And then the talking stopped as he joined her on the bed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Stormy should have been furious with Cooper but all she felt at this moment was excitement. The need in his eyes was something she’d never seen before in a man, and she wanted him, but hell would freeze over before she would admit it.
“Do you like games, Stormy?” he asked as he straddled her on the bed, holding her arms above her head.
Her breath was coming out in pants and she almost hated him for making her want him so badly.
“I think you’re the one who likes to play,” she finally replied when he didn’t move.
“That’s right, baby. I do love games,” he said, his lips turning up. “And I win every single time I play.”
It took a moment for those words to process, and when they did a shiver rushed through her. She wasn’t sure if it was excitement or fright. But Stormy knew beyond a doubt that if they didn’t have sex very soon, she was going to perish for sure.