38. Birdie
Confession: So maybe I talk like a porn star sometimes.
I waited inside a nearby shop, checking out the trinkets and jewelry that were far too expensive for me to buy, when my phone started ringing. Had Cohen made it here that quickly?
I held it to my ear and said, "That was fast."
"What was?" Mara asked. "Where are you?"
Surprised to hear Mara's voice, I said, "Sorry, Mom sent me on a date with a guy who was so wrong for me."
"I could have told you that," she said. "He was wearing a sweater vest underneath his blazer, Birdie. A sweater vest. At least the guy your mom introduced me to had a decent sense of style."
"Well, apparently some of us don't learn as quickly as you." I twisted the price tag on a necklace and immediately let it swing back. Way too much.
"So what's the news? Do you need me to come get you? Because this guy and I actually hit it off, and he asked me to go out with him."
"Actually..." I bit my lip. "I kind of called Cohen."
Mara squealed. "You're so bad!"
I couldn't help but smile. "I'm not bad. I'm just fed up with doing what everyone else wants me to do."
"Okay, if that's the case, I don't want you to have hot sex with Cohen and tell me all the sordid details."
I turned toward the back corner, hoping the shopkeeper at the register wouldn't hear me. "You know Cohen has to agree with the hot sex part before we can have it, right?"
"Oh, he'll agree."
"How do you know?" I asked.
From behind me, a low voice said, "Because I'm standing right here?"
My lips parted, and I turned, seeing Cohen standing in his full, handsome glory. "Mara...I gotta go."
She might have said something, but I couldn't hear it. Not over the rushing in my ears as I lowered my phone and held it limply at my side. "Cohen..."
His grin was just as disarming as his voice. "What's this about hot sex?"
A nervous giggle erupted from my chest. "Let's talk about the getaway ride first."
"I'm happy to oblige."
We left the store without purchasing anything. Outside the door, his hand rested on my lower back as he led me to his car, where he opened the door for me. As soon as I got in, I felt better knowing I was at least partially hidden by the tinted glass. Just because I was willing to play with fire didn't mean I wanted to get burned.
When he got to his side, he asked, "So what's with the getaway ride?"
Ignoring the guilty feeling in my chest, I fastened my seatbelt. "My mother set me up on a date, and I realized I'd rather be with you."
His lips curved into an almost imperceptible smile, but he didn't meet my eyes, instead looking over his shoulder to back out. "I'm guessing it didn't end well?"
"End well? How about start well. My mother basically conned me into leaving my sister-in-law's baby shower with a man who doesn't believe in sex education." I eyed him suspiciously. "What do you think about sex ed?"
He lifted his hands from the wheel for a brief moment. "Don't shoot."
"No promises."
"Well, obviously, I believe in teaching abstinence only." He cleared his throat. "No child, ever, should know about contraceptive options, sexually transmitted diseases, or any other dirty sex act that could or could not have anything to do with bananas." His face was straight and his voice level. It was like a literal nightmare. "In fact, I feel like they should learn everything on the internet or from their friends, just like I did when I was a teenager. Reducing teen pregnancy rates and teaching consent be damned." He turned to me, smiling now. "Does that answer your question?"
I fought a growing smile of my own. "I think it does."
We fell silent for a moment, but it wasn't the same kind of quiet I'd experienced with Walter. With Cohen, it always felt like something amazing was right around the corner, like at any moment he could say or do anything that would send the butterflies in my stomach soaring.
"You've been quiet this week," he said softly. "I wasn't sure I'd hear from you again."
I shook my head and looked over at him. "Maybe I'm tired of playing by the rules."
His lips lifted at the corners. "Where should we start breaking them?"
"Your place?" I asked.
"Perfect."
The drive to his apartment, and even the walk up the stairs, felt illicit. My skin tingled with that special brand of excitement you get when doing something even just a little wrong. But why was being with Cohen wrong? My boss didn't deserve to know what I did in my bedroom. Or Cohen's, for that matter.
And judging by the look in Cohen's eyes as he locked the front door behind us and turned toward me, that's where we were going—if we even made it that far.
My heart sped as he crossed the living room toward me. It beat even faster as he took the strap of my purse and slid it down my shoulder, let it drop on the floor. My breath caught, but he caught my lips just as quickly with his own.
Words didn't matter now, not with our bodies so insistent on doing the talking. Falling into his kiss was as easy as breathing had been moments ago. I tilted my head, deepening the kiss, feeling the sweet taste of his tongue as it parted my lips and tangled with mine.
His hands adored my body, gripping my hips, my back, my ass, pulling me closer and closer to him and his hardening cock.
I nipped on his bottom lip, and he responded with a moan that only emboldened me more.
Why had I been holding back all this time? This felt amazing, and we'd barely rounded first.
I reached my hand down to rub the hard spot underneath his jeans, and he growled, a sound so sexy my stomach clenched in response.
"This is for you," he said against my mouth and picked me up, carrying me to the counter. Carried me. As though I were the lightest weight he'd ever lifted. God, it was hot.
He spread my knees and stood between them, kissing me harder, faster, and I wrapped my legs around his waist, wondering why on earth I hadn't taken him up on that offer the very first night.
His lips moved from my mouth to my chin, my neck, the cleavage peeking through the sweetheart neckline of my dress, and I shuddered with need.
He easily slid down the back zipper of my dress, revealing my strapless bra, which he shoved down, freeing my breasts. Catching one nipple in his mouth, he rubbed the pad of his thumb over the other. The sensation was dizzying. Intoxicating.
Why had I ever thought I could settle for a lifetime with Dax or Walter when Cohen could make me feel like this?
He moved his mouth to my other hardened nipple, sucking, playing, dancing his tongue over sensitive flesh.
"God," I moaned, dropping my neck back. "That's incredible." I wanted him inside me; I wanted him to fill me so I forgot where I ended and he began.
But instead, he lowered his mouth and pushed the skirt of my dress up, baring the lace underwear beneath. His fingers pressed into the flesh of my thighs, shoving them apart, then he slowly ran one finger along the part of my lips.
He followed with his tongue.
I fisted my fingers in his hair and moaned.
His tongue slowly circled my clit, sending shocks of pleasure through me. "You're so wet for me," he hummed against my sex.
"I want you," I breathed. "I've wanted you since I saw you at the bar."
"Then you can wait a little longer," he said and traced another circle around my clit, sucking this time and then blowing gently.
I shuddered against his mouth.
"That's it," he said, continuing to work tantalizing patterns against me with his tongue. "I've been thinking of you, fisting my cock just from our kiss." Then he slipped a finger inside me, then two, working every part of me with his mouth and his fingers until I had to grip the countertop with all I had just to stay upright.
"I'm going to make you come," he said, looking me in the eyes. "And when you do, remember, it's going to be even better when I'm inside of you."
Just his words, his cool breath on my skin, made me shiver.
And then he was back at it, pushing me higher and higher until I fell apart around his fingers, yelling out with the force of it all, of the way he made me feel. This was nirvana.
No, this was Cohen.
And I would never get enough.