Touch Me - Complete Collection (3 page)

He took her hand and sandwiched it between both of his.
“I don’t have to but I want to.”

The
ir eyes met again, but his time, neither of them could look away. Warm electricity traveled through his orbs to her limbs and she saw Cooper’s Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed.

Not a good idea
, Cooper. You always mess things up. You can’t risk it with Jenny. “
So, am I taking you?” He broke the awkward silence.
Am I taking you? What is wrong with me?

She sighed
, feeling unnervingly giddy in her toes. She vowed to never look directly into his eyes again. They were magically addictive. Dangerously so.

“If you’re sure it won
’t bother you.”

“It won’t.” He casually slid away fro
m her to maintain a safer distance from her very appealing body.
She’s heartbroken and very sensitive. I’m not going to give her something else to worry about. I’m all she has. I have to behave
.

“Do you want to go
for a walk?” It was better if they were out in a public place. The novelty of having her around was clouding his judgment.

Her face brightened up instantly. “Yes!”

Ten minutes later Jenny was outside, inhaling the aroma of New York. She loved New York, always had. But every time she visited, she hadn’t called Cooper. She had been too busy, too involved in her own life, immersed in her relationship, in her work. Cooper had called her every Christmas, on every birthday, and although she had been ecstatic every time to hear from him, she had never attempted anything for him. And when she finally needed him, he hadn’t wasted a moment to give her his hand.

She turned to smile at him adoringly a
nd he grinned back at the very obvious expression. Linking her hand through his arm, she held him close while they walked. He had been busy too, but he had never forgotten her. With a sinking heart and guilty conscience, she faced the fact that she had let him go completely. But he hadn’t.

She grasped him tighter and f
or a while, Jenny forgot all her troubles. She had an interview the next day, and she had a bed to sleep in, which she wasn’t expected to share with her moronic ex-boyfriend.

**

“Do you think I overdid the makeup?” Jenny asked for the second time, and he put the car in parking, switching off the engine.

“
What makeup?” he answered just like he had earlier, and she scowled.

“I'm nervous. Interviews always
make me nervous. It’s like people will watch everything…nitpick petty details. It’s scary.”

“You look great.
Don’t worry.” He meant it. In her beige suit and starched white shirt, she looked like a different person. He had been taken aback when she came out of her bedroom that morning. The tousled brown hair was swept down her back neatly, pinned on top of her head to keep it off her face. Her subtle pink lipstick and barely-there mascara and blush was impeccable. If she had sauntered into his office, he would’ve hired her on the spot. But then again, he was dreadfully biased where she was concerned.

She stepped out of the car
, outside the small but impressive building of O’Malley Trust. “Aren’t you coming?”

“I don’t think
it’s a good idea to take your sidekick along on a job interview.”

She chuckled.
“No, I mean inside the bank at least.”

“
I’ll stay in the car. Take your time.”

“Okay.”
She breathed harshly, smiling, her full lips making his heart flip over.

“And Jen…y
ou look like a million bucks. Flaunt it.”

She blushed with giddy happiness. Coming
from his lips, she suddenly felt like a million bucks. “If all goes well…my treat. McDonalds. Cause that’s all I can afford until I actually get the job.”

He laughed. “Done! Go now!”

Two hours later, they were sitting inside McDonalds. Jenny took a sip of her cappuccino. “I feel good about this job, I really do. I can’t believe how quickly you arranged one but thank you. It’s really awesome of you.”

“
I did nothing.”

She rolle
d her eyes and glanced at his midnight blue suit for the hundredth time, unable to keep her eyes off it. It fit him flawlessly, accentuating his broad chest and wide shoulders. With the button on his jacket undone, his shirt showed underneath, hugging his taught stomach. She could almost see through all the layers of fabric covering him. She had seen him half naked, and the trousers hanging from his hips when she arrived hadn’t really hidden much of the nether region either.

H
e caught her staring at his chest and she blushed. “Why did you wear a suit when it was my interview?” she improvised quickly and he chuckled.

For a moment, he had thought she was checking him out just like he was checking her out. “Because I have to stop at my office for a few minutes. There’s a Japanese
investor waiting for me.”

“
Like…right now?”

“Yup.”
He sipped his coffee.

“So why are you sitting here wasting time
with me? You should go. I’ll take a cab back to your place.”

“Not a
big deal. He can wait for a while. And I’ll be inside for just fifteen minutes max so you can wait for me in the lobby. If that’s not a problem.”

“Sounds good.
Let’s go.”

Sh
e pried his coffee out of his hand and made him quicken his pace, chiding him about not taking his job seriously.

An hour later, she mutely marched behind him as they entered his apartment. The large metal letters outside his office building had almost made her head spin.
Farrell Corp. Cooper actually owned the place he had stopped at. The high-rise building housing the headquarters of his corporation had been impressive to say the least, and she was even more daunted now than she had been before. She didn’t know how to deal with it. She didn’t even understand why she had to actually deal with it and not just brush it off as a minor detail. If she had known Cooper was as successful as he evidently was, she would never have mustered up the courage to call him for help.

“Do you mind if I smoke?”

His voice made her turn around. “What?”

“
Smoke. I usually smoke inside but I wasn’t sure if you’d mind.”

“
Why would I mind? It’s your apartment. Smoke away,” she said sullenly.

“What
did I do now?”

She real
ized how sulky she was. “No nothing. I just…I’ll freshen up.”

“Jen?” S
he turned, pasting a cordial smile on her face. “Why do I feel like you don’t want to be here?”

“
I…”
I’m so ungrateful
. “I do…I just feel bad being here, cramping your space.”

“
It’s a big space, Jen. I don’t mind.”

She
bit her lip. “Why didn’t you tell me you owned a whole damn corporation instead of just saying you…you let me think you had a job.”

“
It didn’t come up. You’ve been here one night. It’s not something to hide.”

“
I just…” It was time to be honest. She could manage something; work out some other living arrangements while she found a job. Living with Cooper was not a good idea, especially when being near him made her jittery and nervous.

“
Why are you doing this?” she cried out suddenly.

H
is eyes narrowed to slits, he slid his hands into his pants pockets as he neared her. “What am I doing exactly?”

“Everything!
Asking me to stay…helping me!”

“
We’re friends, Jen.”

“
But I’m a terrible friend! I never called you back, I never came to see you, and now when I’m a needy jobless loser I come banging on your door for help!”

A gasp esc
aped her as he reached for her face. His palms caressed her cheeks warily, while his eyes bore holes into hers. “It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. You matter to me, Jenny. You always have.”

Silence followed hi
s admission and he wondered if he had said too much. But words were tumbling over themselves in his brain, fighting to be let out. “When you called me, I was happy that you had called me. But then you started crying. I can’t…I can’t see you cry. No! Not happening! I wont allow you to cry over any fucking job or any worthless-piece-of-shit guy who doesn’t deserve to be within a hundred feet of you. You’re too...precious.”

The words
were fierce, and she knew he meant them. He didn’t seem like the kind of man to say these kinds of things, but he was saying them to her. Her heart twisted in her chest and her breasts tingled in excitement.
What is he saying? What’s going on?

“
I don’t feel precious, Cooper. I feel like a moron. I feel like I’m using you- ”

“
Shut up.”

“
No! I mean it! I don’t want you to feel like I’m taking advantage of you, because I feel like I am and I hate the feeling.”

He dragg
ed her face up and stepped closer. Jenny’s heart skipped a beat as he gazed at her lips. “You’re not taking advantage of me. I don’t think that at all. But I think I’m going to take advantage of you being so close to me.”

He bent his head and kissed her softly
on the lips. Her eyes refused to close and she stared at his face, his cheek, his brows, as his lips forayed gently over hers, exploring the contours.

Cooper had wanted to assuage her insecurities, but the moment his lips met hers, he knew that it was a lame excuse.
There was a storm brewing in Cooper’s body ever since he had laid eyes on her, and he had just given in to it.
Stop, Cooper! Stop!
The voice in his head was screaming and ranting.
But she tastes so good
. Her lips parted slightly as she gasped, and he seized the moment to slip his tongue past them, tenderly, timidly, waiting for her to push him back.

F
or years, he had questioned his feelings. The feeling that he was in love with Jenny, the same Jenny he hadn’t seen since he was thirteen years old. It was a stupid idea, and Cooper wasn’t stupid. It had complicated his relationships with every woman he dated. His feelings always seemed feigned, like he was ushering them to the surface when they cowered and diminished. The only time he truly felt connected to someone was when he thought of Jenny.

He was
taking a monumental risk. The longer his lips stayed on Jenny’s mouth, the longer he caressed her face, the more he was on the verge of pushing her onto the couch and taking what he fiercely felt was his to begin with. He could lose her completely. He couldn’t afford to risk anything with Jenny.

He lifted
his head abruptly, too soon. Jenny shivered, her eyes closing as the air hit her wet lips. “I’m sorry, Jen,” he stammered, swiftly pulling away.

She grabbed the
front of his jacket, scrunching up the lapels in her palms to yank him back. “Sorry for…stopping?”

Cooper’s last ounce of control, and his sense, snapped. He felt such fondness, such adoration for her face – for her – that the shattered words coming from her lips made him shake with need.
She doesn’t want me to stop.
With a groan of surrender, he slid his hands tighter on her nape and held her face imprisoned while his mouth swooped down to claim hers. This time, she parted her lips hungrily, kissing him back. When his tongue entered her mouth, she met it with her own eagerly, and the kiss exploded. His mouth slanted fiercely over hers, swallowing her moan of pleasure.

“Jen!” he whispered against her lips, pulling her c
loser until her pliant body was almost embedded into his. Her breasts were squashed on his chest, and his cock was branding its shape into her stomach.

T
hey stood, their suits crumpling together as he sucked on her lips and tasted her mouth. There was so much riding on the moment. There was so much he was scared of. No way was he going to let her go after this – after tasting her mouth, after feeling her sweet response. There was no way he was letting her out of his damned sight.

That
scared him. The feeling of helplessness, the fear of losing her, the way it made him cripplingly vulnerable so swiftly. That made him do what any other thought had failed to accomplish.

He lurch
ed backward and away from her, breathless, his eyes glued to her swollen, ravaged lips. “I…uhh.” He swallowed, sliding his tongue over his lip while he stared at the ceiling and then scrunched his eyes shut. “I have an important phone call to make.”

Jen
ny stood with her shoulders slumped, her hands in the air as she watched his back. He closed the bedroom door behind him, and Jenny didn’t know what to think.

What am I supposed to do now? What in hell do I do now?
One lifeline I had, one thing to hold on to, and I managed to destroy even that
. She touched her lips unthinkingly; knowing that he had ended their kiss abruptly, knowing there was no freaking phone call he had to make. He had bailed. He hadn’t felt what she had felt, and he had bailed while he still had a chance.