Good Girl Complex(Avalon Bay #1)(79)

MACKENZIE

I’m waiting on Cooper’s doorstep when he gets home from work that evening.

After leaving my parents, I had all this pent-up energy and nowhere to release it, so I walked the boardwalk for a while, then strolled down the beach until I wound up at his place. A while later, I’m still sitting on the porch when Cooper’s truck parks in their driveway and both brothers get out.

“What’s up, princess?” Sauntering up to the front door, Evan gives me a wink as he lets himself inside. We’re old pals now, me and the Bad Twin.

“How long have you been out here?” Cooper looks surprised to see me as he comes up the steps.

I momentarily forget what he asks, because I’m too busy gawking. He puts me on my ass every time I see him. His dark eyes and windswept hair. The suggestion of his body under his T-shirt and faded jeans flirts with my memory. There’s something wildly masculine about him. He’s spent all day on the jobsite, dusty remnants still coating his skin, his clothes. The smell of sawdust. It gets me positively reckless. Reduces my entire being to want want want.

“Mac?” he prompts. A knowing smile curves his lips.

“Oh. Sorry. An hour, maybe?”

“Something wrong?”

“Not at all.” I take the hand he extends and let him help me to my feet. We go inside. Once we kick off our shoes, I lead him straight to his bedroom.

“I have news,” I announce.

“Yeah?”

I close his door and lock it. Because more than once lately, Evan has gotten his kicks by jiggling the handle when he knows we’re getting up to something, just to scare the shit out of me. Guy needs a hobby.

“I dropped out of school.” I can barely contain my excitement. And maybe there’s some fear too. It all feels the same, bubbling inside.

“Holy shit, that’s big. How’d that happen?”

“My parents ambushed me on campus and kind of forced my hand.”

Cooper peels out of his shirt and tosses it in his hamper. When he starts to unbuckle his belt, I cross the room and pull his hands away, taking over. As I undo his zipper, I feel him watching the top of my head and his abdomen clenches.

“How’d that go?” He sounds a bit distracted now.

Leaving his jeans on, I reach inside his boxers and begin to stroke him. He’s already half hard when I do. Quickly, he’s fully erect and his breathing is shallow.

“I told them to get bent.” I swipe my thumb over the drop of moisture at his tip. He hisses in a sharp breath. “Not in so many words.”

“Feeling pretty fucking full of yourself, huh?” His hands comb through my hair and tighten at my scalp.

I lean closer and kiss him under the corner of his jaw. “Just a bit.”

Then I walk us backward until his legs hit the bed and he sits on the edge.

Hunger darkens his gaze. “What brought this on?”

“Mostly me.” From his nightstand I grab a condom and toss it to him. Then I pull my dress over my head. “A little you.”

My bra and underwear drop to the floor.

“Independence looks good on you,” he says roughly, running his fist up and down his shaft as he watches my every move.

Slowly, I climb onto his lap. He curses in my ear, grabbing my ass with both hands. With my palms flat against his chest, I ride him. Gently at first, as a flurry of shivers race through me. It’s always a shock to my system, being with Cooper. Everything about him feels right, and yet I’m still not used to this. I don’t think I want to be. I’m still finding surprises. Still shaken every time his lips travel along my skin.

I rock back and forth. Shamelessly. I can’t get him deep enough, close enough. My head falls to his shoulder and I bite down to keep from making a sound as I grind on him.

“Oh hell, I’m not gonna last,” he mumbles.

“Good,” I breathe.

He groans and gives an upward thrust, his arms tightening around me.

I smile as I watch the haze of bliss fill his expression, as I listen to the husky noises he makes when he comes. After he tosses the condom, he lays me on the bed and kisses his way from my breasts to my stomach, and then lower, until he settles between my legs and opens me to his tongue. Cooper licks me until I’m tugging at his hair and moaning with pleasure. He’s too good with his mouth. It’s addictive.

Later, after a shower and another round of orgasms, we sit on the front porch with Daisy while a frozen pizza bakes in the oven.

“I don’t know if I would’ve gone through with it if I hadn’t met you,” I tell Cooper, as our puppy sleeps in his lap. “Dropping out, I mean.”

“Yeah, you would have. Eventually. I’m the excuse that gave you a nudge.”

“Maybe,” I admit. “But you inspired me.”

He rolls his eyes.

“Shut up. I mean it.” Something I’ve learned about Cooper: He’s terrible at taking compliments. It’s one of his more endearing qualities. “You’re not afraid of anything or anyone. You make your own rules. Everyone else be damned.”

“It comes easy when you don’t have shit to start with.”

“You believed in me,” I say. “You’re the only one who ever has. That means a lot. I won’t forget that.”

But even as I bask in my newfound independence, I’m not na?ve enough to believe my parents will take my decision lying down. They’ll figure out a way to make it hurt. No one crosses my father and gets away with it. So there will definitely be fallout from this sudden outburst of disobedience. It’s only a question of how bad.