Upside down, p.13
Upside Down, page 13
“So…” I closed the distance, coming toe to toe but not touching him otherwise. “What would you like us to do now?”
His eyes slid down to my lips and back up again. “I’d like us to eat. I’m starving.”
“It’s only five. What are you, sixty?”
“No.” He placed one hand on my chest before adding, “But the sooner we have dinner, the sooner we can relax.”
“Good idea,” I replied, wanting to mess with him a bit. “The Reds are on tonight.”
“The Reds? As in baseball?”
“Yep. Watching baseball is one of my favorite ways to relax.” I covered his hand with mine and leaned closer. “Who knows? Maybe someone will get lucky and make it to third base.”
Chapter Seventeen
Cooper
A crack of thunder rattled the glass panels of the patio doors behind us and plans of having dinner out on the balcony came to a crashing halt when the skies opened.
“Fuck,” he hollered above the roar of torrential rain. We grabbed our meals and darted inside but not before becoming drenched.
“Well, damn,” I said, looking down at my sodden sushi and placing the plate on his coffee table. “That came out of nowhere.”
“Common here,” Ricky said, running his hand over his face to wipe away the moisture covering it. Usually very put together, from his hair to his clean-shaven face, the disheveled look he had going stirred something within me. Strands of wet, golden hair ran diagonally across his forehead, and a sexy scruff suited him. “To watch,” he went on to say.
“To watch what?” Zoning out as I had meant I’d probably missed the beginning of that sentence.
“I said the storms over the ocean are spectacular to watch.” He motioned toward the glass wall just as a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky and into the ocean. “See?” Another bolt followed, contrasting against the charcoal horizon, along with a deafening clap of thunder.
“Oh, right.”
He glanced down at the puddle beneath my feet. “Don’t move.”
I watched as he removed his shoes and slipped down the hall barefoot, leaving a trail of water behind him. He reappeared a minute later with two large, fluffy towels.
“Here.”
“Thanks,” I said, taking one to rub away the moisture covering my body as he used the other to sop up the water on his wood floors. Between being wet and the chilled air, an involuntary shiver traveled through me, and he caught it.
Wordlessly, he disappeared down the hall for a second time. I tried to wick away the dampness on my jeans and the water that dripped from my soaked body. When he returned, he had changed into a white T-shirt and gray sweat pants. They molded over his muscular frame, the shirt revealing his biceps, the pants cuffed at his ankles, emphasizing his bare feet and the outline of his cock. “Here.”
My lingering gaze snapped up to his face and I accepted the folded garments, our hands brushing in the exchange. Again, I felt that damn pull toward him. I knew coming to his place would put us on a precipice, and he had made that clear during one of our late-night conversations. But being here now, facing that fork in the road, one that would take us in an entirely new direction, could no longer be ignored. It was now or never, and needing him to believe I was ready for this was what prompted me to put the clothes he gave me on the arm of a chair before dragging off my wet T-shirt.
Ricky’s ice-blue eyes blazed as they raked over my naked torso, and fuck if I didn’t feel my entire body quivering in anticipation. He then met my gaze again, and the struggle within him was clear as day. He wasn’t going to make this easy on me, not that I expected him to.
It was my job to open the door. It was up to me to walk through it.
This was my metamorphosis.
And I did so by stepping close enough to press my body against his, and then my lips. Although his mouth responded to mine, his arms hung limply at his sides.
Pulling away, I asked, “Do you need a formal invitation?”
“Is that what this is?” He nipped at my bottom lip and tugged before asking, “If so… there’s no turning back.”
“I know.”
“Say you want this. I need to hear it from your mouth, Cooper.”
Being the same height, it was easy to level him with my gaze. “I want this.”
Instantly, his hands gripped on to my ass before he tugged me closer. With a measured roll of his hips, he ground his cock against mine. The thin fabric covering him may as well have been nonexistent, and the wet heavy denim covering me intensified the friction. I felt every bit of him, hard and ready, the sensation causing my eyelids to slowly slide closed on their own accord.
“Open them,” he commanded, as he continued to torture me with his hard-on. Nose to nose, we swallowed each other’s panting breaths until I could no longer take the pressure building within me.
“Stop teasing me,” I barked, tormented with each stroke of his cock over mine. Nothing we’d done until now compared to this, and this wasn’t even anything significant. I was slowly losing control as all reservations I held on to were about to snap.
“As you wish. It’s time for me to sexually school the professor.” He pushed me hard enough to fall on the leather couch behind me and then dropped to his knees. While staring into my eyes, he wedged between my legs to swipe his tongue over my flat nipple. I had barely reacted to that when he sucked on it with such force I whimpered from the pressure. His lips trailed to my other nipple while he palmed my erection, still held prisoner in my damp jeans.
That hot mouth of his latched on to suck on a spot just below my pec, and that scruff of his scraped across my sensitive flesh, sending an unexpected jolt through me, ending in my cock. The animalistic sounds grew louder, and when he pulled away, I knew I’d been branded by the red angry bruise he’d left behind.
“Proud of yourself?”
“Almost.” While staring into my eyes, he unbuttoned and then unzipped my jeans. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could hear my heart, the way it pounded behind my chest wall. Slowly, he struggled to peel the uncooperative denim down my legs, and if the air between us hadn’t been so charged, I may have laughed. Finally, he was able to get them around my ankles. Leaving them there, he tucked his fingers into the sides of my briefs and paused. “Last chance.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were the one unsure.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” he countered, yanking them off my throbbing flesh, leaving me in a compromising situation—pants and briefs around my ankles as my dick saluted him.
Instantly his eyes focused on my tattoo before he ran the pad of his thumb over it repeatedly. He then traced the thin trail of hair from my navel to the trimmed patch framing my cock, wrapped one hand around it, and squeezed.
“Fuck…”
As I squirmed, his eyes alternated drilling into mine in some sort of a hypnotic state and watching himself tug on me with long, measured pulls. Every part of me pulsed as he continued to pump me through his fist. That same thumb that caressed my tat now skimmed over the tip, spreading the drop of precum and driving me insane in the process. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take without embarrassing myself, but Ricky was just getting started.
He lowered his head to resume flicking his hot tongue against my nipple, causing me to jerk and twitch in his hold. It felt like a live wire stretched from where his mouth was on me to where his hand was. Truth be told, I wanted his mouth where his hand was… no way would I ask for that. It was hard enough to process my reaction to a man jerking me off. Yet, in the way every muscle in my legs flexed, it was obvious my body did indeed respond, and holding back quickly became one of the hardest things I’d ever endured.
I could feel the build of my orgasm everywhere.
Everywhere.
He chose to ignore another growl from my lips. At that point, a fucking rocket protruded from my crotch. And like a rocket breaching the atmosphere, I was about to detonate with a million bursts of molten energy.
As his tugs grew faster and harder, I clutched the leather behind my head. It was obvious I was about to come, and he knew it too. But he still wasn’t done with me yet.
His drags slowed when he cupped my balls with his other hand. His thumb rested on my slit before skimming around my sensitive crown. His face came within a breath before he swiped his tongue across his bottom lip. His other hand was again on the move as it reached around to my ass, stopped, and slid over just enough to have his fingertips slip between my cheeks before coming back to my balls.
All the while, he never stopped pumping. He managed to work me into a frenzy, so much so I pleaded, begged, and cursed. When every muscle below my waist began to cramp, I let go. I came harder and longer than I ever had in my adult life. At the hand of a man… literally.
I spiraled down, consumed by an onslaught of emotions.
And now that I had, I wanted to do so again.
In other ways.
One final shudder traveled through me when he traced a fingertip over the grooves of my abs, painting me with my own cum.
“Do you still have any doubt that you like men, Cooper?” he asked, cockier than ever, before popping that finger into his mouth. And as though he hadn’t just thrown my world off its axis, he stood to stroll into the kitchen, leaving me gasping for air and searching for logic. Meanwhile, he snatched the sushi menu where it still lay on the island. “I’m starving. Same order as before?”
Fucking seriously?
What the hell?
But then catching a glimpse of his swollen cock pushing angrily against the flimsy knit fabric of his pants added smugness to my mix.
It turned out that quite a few made it to third base… including me.
While the Reds continued to pummel the Twins, the storm outside didn’t let up at all, continuing to punish Fort Lauderdale with its wrath hours later. Lights flickered off for a few seconds, and as the city around his building darkened with a power outage, thanks to a generator, we remained in his fortress safe from the elements.
But who would keep me safe from him?
We ate our sushi as if it hadn’t happened. If this was some sort of a power play, then I’d allow it. He’d have to talk to me at some point. My calmness didn’t surprise me. I was the type of person who would let stress build during a trying time in my life, but once I came to terms with it, I accepted it and could move on in a much more calculated manner.
Such as now.
Ricky, on the other hand, was in some sort of denial. The man had said a dozen words, if that, while shoveling an obscene amount of sushi down his throat. Pathetically, I couldn’t stop staring at his mouth when he spoke… or chewed. That orgasm he’d gifted me created an obsession with how his mouth would feel if his hand managed to blow my mind as it had.
A switch flipped within me, bringing clarity and understanding that I hadn’t experienced before tonight. Even after all the heart-to-heart talks that we’d had these past few weeks, and some were pretty damn filthy at that, it was that physical act he bestowed on me that pushed me into a different dimension. Obviously, so had the few kisses we had shared, but what had happened tonight shocked me in an unexpected way.
I had thought becoming physical with Ricky would scare me back into denial, when just the opposite had occurred. I wanted more.
Only when Ricky placed his chopsticks down, pushed away the empty plate, and stared at me did I ask, “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Sorry… I get cranky when I’m hungry.” He looked away and mumbled something else that I barely caught.
“What was that?”
One brow rose, along with a smirk. “I said… and horny.” He rolled his eyes at my surprised expression. “Don’t pretend this is news. I saw you noticing my predicament.”
“I’m not pretending,” I responded, raising my palms in a form of surrender. “Yeah, I knew you were aroused but I had no idea what you were thinking… or feeling. I was too busy focusing on the tsunami in my own head.” Because of the one between my own legs.
He leaned back and folded his arms. “A good tsunami or bad?” If I didn’t know better, I would’ve sworn his question stemmed from a vulnerability he tried to mask. Why should he be unsure?
Attempting humor, I asked, “Is there such a thing as a good tsunami?”
“That depends on how you recover from it,” he countered. “You never answered my question from earlier.” At seeing my blank expression, he added, “Do you still doubt liking men?”
“Yes, I do still doubt that.” He shook his head in disgust, misconstruing my point. “Calm down, Ricky. I may not be convinced I like men, but I do know I like you.” Those words came out of my mouth before I could think them through, but I promised to be honest at every turn. “For whatever reason, it’s you I want.”
My response instantly changed his demeanor when he gave me that smirk of his and came closer. “In that case,” he said, opening his arms as an invite. “Take me. Let’s see how you do during the heavy stuff.”
“Knock it off and be serious.” I wasn’t interested in the cocky shield he hid behind. If I was stripping myself bare for him, then I expected the same.
Maybe it was my tone, or the look on my face, but he got the message. “Okay, I’m sorry. I guess I just expected you to be more freaked out.”
“I am freaked out… but not in the way you think,” I argued. “You, on the other hand, seemed to be more freaked out than I am.” His shrug meant he wasn’t denying it. “You’ve been flipping between two modes—arrogance and trepidation, and it’s making me dizzy.”
“Maybe because I didn’t expect to be the one shell-shocked.” Again, his mood changed into anger.
“Shell-shocked how?” I pushed. This wasn’t going to be a one-way street. If I was going to be honest, damn well he would be too.
“Shell-shocked in realizing that I’m fucking screwed,” he admitted with a scowl, leaving no doubt that realization did indeed piss him off. It also caused a slew of questions to pop up in my mind. But at that moment, my phone buzzed on his coffee table. No sooner had I lifted it to see a text from Rebecca than Ricky’s buzzed next.
We both read the words on our screens from a group text:
At hospital. He or she is coming now!
And at the same time, we flipped our phones and simultaneously said, “Shit.”
Chapter Eighteen
Ricky
Thankfully, before he had the chance to fixate on my admission of being fucking screwed, I was saved by the bell in the form of a text. I was trying hard to process it all, but I knew he would eventually want to discuss what I meant.
For starters, once he made it clear he wanted to make things physical, it took every ounce of willpower to keep it somewhat tame. My intentions were a test of sorts. If he couldn’t handle a hand job, then his game would be over before we got started. But he had handled it, like a fucking pro. And not only had he taken what I gave him; he managed to somehow turn the tables to where it felt as though his hand was pumping my dick. With each stroke I made, my own cock throbbed relentlessly, wanting release.
Yeah… he fucking passed with flying colors, and he was right. It was me who’d freaked the fuck out.
Never in my life had I gotten so fucking hard over giving a man a hand job. Until now, it was just a method of foreplay to get to the better stuff. But having a man like Cooper submitting to my advances, becoming putty in my hands, was hot as fuck. In just four months he’d gone from being in complete denial to willingly exploring his sexuality at my hand… literally. Yes, that was a huge turn-on, but the abrupt about-face was hard to trust.
What we’d done earlier somehow managed to confirm feelings that I’d been carrying since the night Rebecca had forced us to have dinner together. It had taken me a while, but I now saw the real reason I’d run the next day without so much as a goodbye. And once he’d forgiven me, our phone conversations while I’d been covering for Martin had caused those simmering feelings to intensify with each passing day. Where we went from here was what freaked me out.
But for now, we had his sister’s delivery to deal with, and thankfully that also provided a great distraction for us.
We arrived at the hospital, and while he rushed to Rebecca’s room, I held back a few minutes. Deep down I knew staggering our arrivals wouldn’t throw her off in the least, mainly because just five minutes after leaving my apartment we’d received another text from Rebecca that read: Get your asses over here!
She absolutely knew. Cooper would need to take the wheel, though, because clearly I wasn’t ready to drive.
Ten minutes later, I stepped through the mechanical doors leading to maternity to see a grinning Marco in Cooper’s embrace.
“There he is,” Marco said over Cooper’s shoulder. “She has arrived.”
“It’s over?” Well, that attested to Rebecca’s last panicky text. “That was quick.”
“Si. We barely made it here,” he admitted with a weary expression. “We had to rush Antonio over to our neighbor’s place. I swear I thought she was going to give birth in my Mercedes.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the look on his face. “Told you not to go with the cream leather.”
“Eh… I’d buy a new car. More important my wife and daughter sono buoni.”
“I’m glad they’re doing well. What’s her name?”
His dark-brown eyes welled up from my question. “Liliana Ella, for our mothers.” I’d seen my friend ecstatic many times in his life, but never had I seen this level of raw emotion on his face.
“You’re screwed, man,” I admitted with a grin. He nodded knowingly as I added, “Congratulations!” I leaned in to give my best friend a one-armed bro hug while my eyes connected with Cooper’s… and held even after separating from Marco.
As Marco ran a hand over his face to compose himself, his focus bounced between Cooper and me. “Everything okay?”
