14. Monroe

CHAPTER 14

MONROE

W hy was it so weird being in Cobb's bed? I hadn't stepped foot in his bedroom when I'd been here two nights ago. His sister had slept in his bed then changed the sheets in the morning. Though she'd joked about leaving it so everything would smell like her soap and shampoo to fuck with Cobb. In general and if he brought a woman home.

That was when I'd desperately wanted to know if that was something he did often. She confided that no, he didn't. He usually was a relationship guy, unlike her heathen other brothers. Though now two out of the three were in actual relationships.

My discomfort—if you could call it that—came more from Cobb being here with me.

Looking over and seeing him made my core ache and I had to clench my legs together to get some relief.

Maybe getting the protection order wouldn't be such a bad idea. Maybe that would put Owen in my rearview faster and then I could be honest with myself and with Cobb about what I wanted from him. What I wanted with him.

Because even now, I wasn't fully honest with myself. I'd allowed myself to know that I was attracted to him—it wasn't like I could hide it—but beyond that, I kept a trap door shut over those thoughts and feelings.

What good would it do me, though? Cobb told me he could only be friends, too. There was a reason for that. I just didn't know what it was.

After enough time had passed and I clearly wasn't going to get sleep, I slowly took the blanket off me. Cobb was being so good at staying on his side and hadn't made contact with me once.

Thank god. Otherwise, he would've set me on fire and it didn't matter how innocent the touch was, either.

Everything I did was in quarter speed and with purpose. I got my legs over the side of the bed, but as soon as my feet had hit the floor, Cobb said, "Are you leaving?"

My shoulders slumped. I'd thought he'd been asleep. "Just going out to the couch."

He sighed in the darkness. "I'll go, but can you tell me why? I haven't moved."

"I know." Maybe it was the cover of darkness, but suddenly, I felt bold. "Do you want the truth?"

"Of course."

"I can't be in this bed with you. Lying here next to you is too much. It's got my hormones going crazy because you look like… well, you and you're a great guy. You've been there for me when you didn't need to be. I feel safe with you, which apparently is something I was lacking and didn't know it."

The light next to his bed clicked on, so I bit my lips together and my cheeks flushed.

It was much easier to say these things in the dark.

"Hormones, huh?"

I rolled my eyes. "I'll just go die now." I turned to hurry out the door, but he suddenly jumped in front of me, causing me to skid to a stop.

"Hang on," he said, holding his hands up as he took a step away. I didn't know if it was his intention, but the movement told me that I could keep going if I wanted to and he wouldn't stop me. "Explain."

I rolled my eyes. "I think I already overexplained and I'd like to go bury myself in a hole right now." It had to be late. I was going to be the reason he got hurt tomorrow. His focus wasn't going to be there.

"So being next to me has your hormones going crazy." He smiled but bit his lips together like he was trying not to. Cocky bastard.

"Move, please." Though he wasn't really in my way.

Cobb stepped aside so that I could continue out to the living room, where the couch would be good enough to wait until the sun came up, then I could leave before he woke.

"All I'm saying," he said to my back, "is that I could help you out with that."

My footsteps stopped and I turned slowly with wide eyes and pinched brows. "What? Are you crazy?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. But I could."

"We're friends, Cobb. We've both been clear that we aren't anything else. We're friends." I sighed. "Unless you're talking about taking me to buy a battery-operated boyfriend, which I'm really not interested in."

He chuckled. "I wasn't, but you shouldn't count poor B.O.B. out."

To hide the embarrassment of this whole thing, I slapped a hand over my face. "I can't believe you just said that."

"We are friends." He took a step closer. "But I could be a friend who helps you out. It's not even a hardship like helping you move or driving you to the airport. It'd help me out to." Then he pointed down.

My eyes followed where he was pointing to find a hard cock behind the cotton of his boxer briefs. "I've been dealing with that since you sat down next to me on the couch. Fuck. Probably before that."

Heat fanned out across my chest and up my neck. Normally, I wasn't easily embarrassed by sex talk. I was an open person. This wasn't about the talk, but who was saying it and who he was saying it about.

I cocked my head to the side. "Are you serious right now? I don't know how to take this."

"I'm completely serious."

"Have sex then continue to be friends?" I confirmed. He nodded. "I've never done that before, Cobb. I don't have one-night stands."

He chuckled. "This wouldn't be that, would it? With one-night stands, you never see the other person again. Hopefully."

Everything in my body screamed at me to jump at him immediately, but my brain wouldn't stop.

I wanted Cobb. Probably had wanted him since I'd seen him in that coffee shop. But would this change things?

"Listen." He stalked toward me, not stopping until he was right there within touching distance. "You said being close to me has you horny." I opened my mouth to dispute that claim, given that those had not been my words. "I know you think you didn't say that, but you did." He pushed his fingers into my hair, cupping my cheek with my palm. That was the moment I knew I'd never be able to hold out. "We don't have to do this. I just wanted you to know it was an option."

Just having him this close had me wet and squeezing my legs together to relieve some of the pressure. It wouldn't be enough. Nothing would be enough without his touch.

My breath quickened as I looked up at him. How did I say it? Please fuck me, Cobb? That wasn't about to come out of my mouth.

Luckily, it didn't need to.

Whatever he saw when he looked at me was enough.

Cobb pressed his lips to mine.

His mouth was wet and hot against mine as he walked me backward toward the bed until my legs hit the mattress and I fell. When my ass hit the bed, Cobb didn't allow our connection to break. He pushed his hands into my hair, cupping each cheek with his large hands. I trailed my finger tips up his bare chest.

Cobb's skin was so smooth and soft over the hard muscles that playing baseball gave him.

Once I was breathless, he pulled back and slowly slid my pajama shirt up my body until he could toss it away over his shoulder. I'd never been self-conscious about my body and that wasn't about to start now but the way he looked hungrily down at me had my stomach squirming.

He looked like a man dying for a taste.

Which if we were doing this, then he probably was but the intensity in his gaze had me feeling… things. Things beyond the sex we were about to have and I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't catch feelings when I knew he couldn't return them.

Instead, I laid back, propping myself on my elbows and bit into my bottom lip. His chest rose quickly and his jaw tightened as his gaze slid down my body.

Without touching any part of me, Cobb leaned slowly in and took one of my nipples into his mouth. I dropped my head back and groaned so he scraped his teeth over the sensitive skin.

"You did that on purpose," he said, his voice deeper than it normally was.

"Did what?"

"But into your bottom lip." His hand trailed up my chest, between my breasts, coming to a stop with a loose grip around my throat. It wasn't choking me. Just resting.

"I mean, of course I bit my bottom lip on purpose. I just didn't know you like that."

"Me either."

He dropped to his knees and ran his big hands up my thighs to push them apart. Then he kissed from my knee until he hit my pajama shorts.

"Well, these are in the way," he said right before yanking them down my legs. Then he did the same with my panties. There was absolutely nothing sexy about those panties. Just cotton bikinis because I like to keep things breathable but that didn't seem to matter.

Then I was completely naked but he still had his boxer briefs on. Not exactly fair but given what I thought he was about to do, I wasn't going to complain.

Cobb shoved a two fingers into his mouth then pulled them out with a pop. Slowly, he worked those fingers into me, watching as he did it. Now that… maybe that made me a little self-conscious.

Watching him was too much. Just him touching me about sent me to that euphoric place we were both chasing. So I laid back, and let myself be in the moment. Shut off my brain and just feel.

When he licked me, my legs tried to clamp shut involuntarily. He used those large, strong hands to push them away so he could continue his work. He sucked my clit into his mouth and ran his tongue over it as he pushed and pulled his fingers.

In no time, my orgasm slammed into me one wave after another, again and again until I didn't think I could take it anymore. Once I came down and my muscles relaxed, Cobb pulled his fingers out of my for the last time, moved to… somewhere then came back. I finally forced one eye open to see him opening a condom package.

Well, it was my turn.

I pushed myself up until I was sitting then looked up at him with a mischievous grin. Once he noticed it, I raised and eyebrow. He blew out a breath and handed the package to me.

After ripping it open, I set it on the head of his cock and slowly, as slowly as I could allow myself to, unrolled it over him.

"You're killing me," he said then growled in his chest.

"That's on purpose, too."

But the moment I got it full on him, he nudged me back and sunk into me. I wasn't even all the way on the bed and neither was he.

Didn't matter. He slammed into me like he couldn't wait another second. We were only like that for a few moments when he pulled out and told me to get up on the bed.

"I was so close," I pouted. He would've been the first to give me a second orgasm.

"I'll get you there."

I wasn't sure if it was a promise, but it sounded like a vow.

With me in the middle of his bed, this time, Cobb moved slower. Everything was slower, most purposeful. He brought me to the brink again then backed off. I didn't know if it was his goal for me to kill him but if he did that again, I probably would.

"Cobb." It was a warning and a plea but he snickered.

"It's just this one time right?"

I froze. I'd be lying to myself if I denied that this felt more than physical to me. But that was the agreement so I nodded.

"Then I'm going to take my time."

Take his time, he did.

Cobb's tongue pushed into my mouth as he slid in and out of me, slowly, making me want to scream at him to hurry up. But he was right. If we were doing this just this once… helping each other out, as he put it… then I'd be patient.

But then he got impatient and thrust himself into me harder, faster. I thought he was about to lose it and this was going to end without that promised second orgasm but he pulled back and slipped his hand between us. First he touched where were connected and dropped his head to my shoulder. Then he moved his fingers to my clit where it only took three circles for me to come undone.

Which meant he could too.

"Fuck," he muttered with his forehead pressed to mine. Then he kissed the spot his head had been and slowly pulled out of me, holding the condom the way you're supposed to. Not every guy did that or knew to. It was all part of taking care of me.

"Do you want the bathroom first," he asked. I shook my head, unsure if my legs would hold me up just then. "I'll bring a cloth back to clean you up."

"No." I grabbed his arm. "I'll use the bathroom after you."

He nodded then he was gone.