Cooper kisses me sweetly and then starts singing, “Let it go, let it go.”

“You really need to stop watching Frozen with Ryder and Alex.” I push him off me and straddle him.

Cooper stops singing then, his eyes anywhere but mine. I think he knows he’ll give in if he looks at me.

“Jay,” Cooper warns as I grind myself against his hardness.

This time it’s my turn to smirk, I know he feels that.

Cooper pulls the cups of my bra down, freeing my br**sts, and then rolls his fingers over my aching ni**les. I arch into his hands and grind against him again, this time harder.

He lets me and we go on like this for some time, he tells me how beautiful and fearless I am. My heart squeezes tight from his words, feeling them with every beat. Cooper tells me how he’s so thankful I’ve let him in to help me. He says this, but he has no idea that he is the only thing that saved me. With all his words and touch, I fall more and more in love with this man in my arms.

After a while we lay under the blankets facing each other, our legs tangled together, skin to skin, heart to heart. Cooper has a hand on my hips, right where my tattoo is, and he’s drawing hearts with his thumb. I don’t think he realizes that I know he’s doing it since they are messy hearts, but hearts nonetheless.

As we lay tangled together we don’t really need to talk - everything that we need to say is conveyed in our looks and touches, as if our bodies are saying what needs to be said.

Cooper and I have been messing around for months now, going a little further each time, but something holds him back. He hasn’t been with anyone else since all that shit went down back at Boston University. He used to have girls at his beck and call but not anymore, not since that night. He’s changed just as much as I have. We’ve got a connection we never had before, but there is also line that keeps us from crossing paths.

“So are you really ok about the whole Brittany situation?” Cooper asks, still drawing hearts on my hip.

I rest my forehead against his, not knowing if he wants the truth or not. “Honestly?”

“Always.”

I kiss his lips. “Yes and no. I hate that it was her. If it was some random girl that I didn’t know then it would be a lot easier to deal with. I know it happened a few years ago and you had no idea who she was and that’s the part I’m ok with.”

Cooper lets out a breath, his annoyance displays in the heaviness. “I should have told you sooner. I’m sorry but I was afraid of what it would do to us. You’ve been through so much shit and I didn’t want to add to it.”

I rub the back of my index finger over his cheek, “I know and I understand but I can handle shit Cooper. Look at how much I’ve handled and I’m still going. It’s going to take a lot more than that to knock me down.”

Cooper’s eyes crinkle as he smiles. “My fearless girl.”

I laugh, “Fearless, I’m not so sure about.”

Cooper stops rubbing his thumb on my hip, “You’re fearless to me. You fought when you could have been tucked away in a corner. You kicked, screamed and fought your way to the top.”

“Hey ass**le! Get your f**king hands off my sister!” Hunter yells behind the closed door, smacking it with his fist.

My eyes go wide in surprise and Cooper chuckles.

“Oh Cooper… harder.” I yell, giving my voice that seductive tone it needs. “Yes…yes just like that.

Cooper covers his face with a pillow to stifle his laugh and I pulled the blankets up over my head preparing for the door to be broken down.

“Fuck! Jay, get your ass out here now.” Hunter yells back before I hear him stomping down the steps.

Cooper and I laugh as we untangle our bodies from each other and get dressed.

4

As soon as we walk downstairs Hunter is on me. I laugh as he wraps his arm around my neck and tries to choke me while jabbing me in my side.

“Hunter!” Jaylinn yells. “We were just screwing around with you.”

Of course I have to add fuel to the fire. “Yeah, we were just screwing around.”

I flip around and Hunter and I wrestle around on the floor. I know he isn’t trying to hurt me because his hits aren’t hard like they would be if he really thought I was upstairs screwing his sister. After a few minutes we’re both panting and sweating as my little nephew, Ryder, climbs on his dad’s back.

He starts pounding on Hunter, “You want me to get off Uncle Coop?” he asks Ryder.

Hunter lets go of me and rolls his son off him, tackling him on the floor and tickling him.

Climbing to my feet, I pull my shirt back down, noticing the rip in it now.

MacKenzie leans against the doorway to the foyer and shakes her head, “Boys will be boys. You know you two are getting pretty old now, you might hurt yourselves.”

Hunter covers Ryder’s ears and smiles up at her. “You weren’t saying that this morning, were you?”

I level Hunter with a glare and hear someone growl behind me. “Keep your f**king hands off my sister. You already knocked her up twice.”

Hailey waddles up, almost the same size as MacKenzie who is almost due and poor Hailey is only a few months, “Keep it in your pants Mase, if I remember correctly you weren’t complaining this morning either.”

Jaylinn comes from somewhere behind me and jumps on my back, “Aren’t you glad we don’t have to worry about this shit.”

Hunter smiles up at his sister, his eyes bright with amusement. “At least someone around here listens to me.”

Jaylinn starts laughing, barely able to control her laughter. “It’s not that I’m listening to you, big brother. It’s that this guy here is waiting until I’m old, grey and living with a hundred cats before he decides that I’m ready.”

Her confession stings a little because I want nothing more than to take her virginity but neither of us are ready. She may think she is but I’m not. I can’t take something like that from her without her being one hundred percent sure she’s ready. And she’s far from that.

Hunter ignores Jaylinn’s comment and continues on with tickling Ryder.

We all pile into the living room and kitchen when my other little nephew, Alex, comes running down the hallway followed by Jackson and Chloe. Alex runs into the living room and starts playing with Ryder before he even takes his coat off.

Jackson walks into kitchen, shaking the snow from his hair, “What’s up?”

“I’m going to turn into a cat lady.” Jaylinn responds dramatically, her eyes are trained on mine as she talks. I want to take her right then and prove to her that’s not it, but I don’t.