Read Online Below the Belt by Sarah Mayberry - Free Book Online Page B

reached for his hard-on again, moving her hands inside his running shorts to grip the pure, hardened steel of him.
    He worked his hand between her thighs, his mouth busy at her breasts, his body tense and focused entirely on her. Then his thumb found her clitoris, and she bucked against him as he pressed her, teased her, flicked her.
    She wanted him inside her when she came, but already her climax was rushing up at her, fast and furious, and all she could do was let it take her, her muscles throbbing around his clever fingers.
    His touch gentled as the tension left her body, then he slid his hand free from between her thighs and lifted his head from her breasts. She stared at him, loving the dazed, unfocused look in his eyes, already imagining how good it was going to be between them when he was inside her.
    She reached for the waistband of his running shorts, ready to strip him bare. He caught her hand.
    “No.”
    “What?” she asked, not quite understanding the word.
    “You heard me.” His eyes were crisp and clear, not a shadow of doubt in sight. “That’s as far as it can go, Jamie.”
    He had to be joking. They were just getting started. She still hadn’t tasted him, or had him inside her. She hadn’t discovered all the secret, soft places on his body that drove him wild. There was still too much unknown, unexplored…
    “Cooper, forget your conscience for ten minutes. Hell, forget it for an hour or two. It’s just sex. It doesn’t mean anything, it won’t change anything,” she said.
    She reached for him again. This time he caught her hand and held it loosely in his.
    “Yeah, it will. We have a professional relationship. My job is to get the best out of you, not sleep with you. You’re my fighter, Jamie. We’re supposed to trust each other, not do each other.”
    She stared at him, unable to believe that he could walk away from all the heat between them. She could see how much he wanted her still—his hard-on was damned unmissable the way it tented the front of his shorts.
    “Let me put it this way—what do you need more, someone in your bed, or a trainer?” he asked.
    That hit her like a bucket of cold water. He’d drawn a line, given her a choice. And despite how much her body craved his touch, no matter how much her blood sang with need for him, she knew and he knew which option she was going to choose.
    “Fine,” she said.
    It had been a long time since a man had said no to her. Not that she thought she was some irresistible femme fatale or anything, but she’d never gotten half-naked with a man and had him walk away.
    How very bloody noble and self-controlled of Cooper.
    It made her want to punch him, a good jab straight to his rock-hard belly. Probably it would hurt her more than it would hurt him, but it might relieve some of the frustration she was feeling.
    “I suppose I should thank you for saving me from myself,” she said.
    Cooper remained impassive.
    “I’d better not catch you looking at me again,” she said. “If I catch one hint that you’re thinking of anything below the neckline…”
    To her intense annoyance, he smiled.
    “Yeah? What are you going to do?” he asked.
    She glared at him, knowing he was right. What was she going to do? Force him to sleep with her? Quit?
    Bang her head against a brick wall?
    Damn him. Damn him and her stupid hormones or pheromones or whatever was responsible for how she felt right now.
    Without another word, she turned on her heel and headed for the change room.
    “Jamie.”
    She turned around. He tossed her crop top at her. She caught it with one hand.
    “For what it’s worth, you’re the hottest damn thing I’ve ever said no to,” he said.
    What was she supposed to say to that?
    She flipped him the finger.
    “Thanks a lot,” she said.

     
    I F THE P OPE didn’t announce Cooper’s sainthood soon, there was no justice in the world. Cooper watched Jamie walk away, naked except for those teeny tiny hot pants and her running