Meant for Me

4. Claire

Chapter 4

Claire

When I arrived in Dallas, Texas, a couple of days ago to surprise Cooper, it was in the middle of the night when I knocked on his hotel room door. His dark hair was mussed from sleep and his eyes were half open when he answered the door in only a pair of blue, plaid boxers.

I couldn’t deny that he looked sexy as hell. Deep in my heart, I honestly felt that with time I would be able to love him the way he loved me, and there was no better time than the present.

The moment he realized it was me, he scooped me up into his arms, and planted a firm kiss to my lips. He didn’t ask what I was doing there and he sure as hell didn’t let me speak. His lips made sure of that. We spent the rest of the early morning hours making love until it came time for him to get ready for the game the next afternoon. I was afraid he would be too exhausted to play if he didn’t get more sleep, but as I watched him run the ball down the field, I was in awe of how wonderful he played. In fact, he played the best I had ever seen him do, scoring three touchdowns, and putting his team in the lead by twenty points.

Now we were in the plane on the way home, slowly descending as the runway came into view. When Cooper took my hand and brought it to his lips, I turned away from the window and met his intense blue gaze. I was glad we were in first class with the bigger seats because with his six foot four frame and muscular build there was no way he could fit in the smaller seats in coach.

Leaning down closer to my ear, he murmured softly, “Thank you for coming out to Dallas, Claire. You have no idea how much it meant to me for you to be there.”

I lifted a brow and smiled. “Umm … I think you showed me more than once how much it meant. I was so afraid you were going to play terrible with me keeping you up all night.”

Chuckling, he put his arm around me and kissed the top of my head. “If anything, babe, you gave me the energy I needed. You know you’ve always been my lucky charm. I always play my best when you’re around.”

“Are you trying to say I need to be at all your games?” I teased, elbowing him in the side.

“I wish you could, but I know you need to stick around until Melissa has her babies. Next season, though, you better be at them all. I’m not taking any more excuses.”

Grinning, he lightly grasped my chin and tilted my head back before placing a gentle kiss to my lips. Even though he was an aggressive player on the field, he had always been the most gentle of the men I’d been with. Closing my eyes, I leaned into his touch and deepened the kiss. Taking my hand, Cooper slowly lowered it to his lap where I felt the bulge of his hardening c**k straining against his jeans. Smiling, I rubbed my hand against him, making a strangled moan escape his lips.

“Do you see what a simple kiss from you does to me?” he whispered gruffly. “If you keep it up I’m going to have to take you in the bathroom. Personally, I would rather wait until we get to your house. Trying to fit me and you both in that small a*s bathroom isn’t going to work.”

I laughed, taking my hand away from his lap so he could adjust his pants. “I don’t think so either, but before you r****h me can you drop me off at Melissa’s house for a while so I can check on her? I also wanted to tell her how everything went.”

Cooper smirked, his blue gaze sparkling with mischief when he replied, “That sounds good, babe. While you’re doing that I might throw us some things together on the grill for dinner. I could eat a f*****g horse right now. Although, I think I might stop by my place after I drop you off at Melissa’s and then come back by to pick you up. Is that okay?”

I nodded and waved him off. “Oh yeah, that’s perfectly fine. Take your time.”

I had a lot I wanted to talk to Melissa about anyway.

* * *

My phone had died at some point during the trip home so I couldn’t call Melissa to tell her I was back in town and coming over. When we pulled into the driveway of my family’s Tuscan villa—which was now Melissa’s home—I leaned over to kiss Cooper’s cheek before getting out of his brand new, black Toyota Tacoma.

Before I shut the door, he smiled mischievously at me, his gaze lingering on my breasts. “You know, I think you look sexy as hell in that shirt. Maybe you should wear it more often.”

Shutting the door, I looked down at the fitted Oakland Raiders jersey top then back over to him, rolling my eyes. He had some specially made for me, and also had some made for Melissa and Brett. Mine happened to be made a tad bit different, and it was the first time I’d ever worn it.

“And why should I wear it more often?” I asked sarcastically. “Is it because I have your name across my breasts and a slogan that says that I’m your girl on the back?”

Chuckling, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Hey, can you blame me? I want people to know that you’re mine.”

“I think you’ve accomplished that already, Cooper,” I remarked with a smile on my face. “Just come get me when you get done at your place, okay?”

“Will do, babe. It shouldn’t be long,” he assured me.

I waved good-bye to him as he pulled out of the driveway before walking up the path to the front door. Melissa’s villa was my mother’s favorite retreat when she was alive, and when Melissa and her husband, Brett, took it over they kept it exactly the same, not changing a single thing.

In a way, though, it was still strange having to knock on the door when for most of my life I could just walk on in. When no one responded to my knock, I rang the doorbell and waited … and waited. I was about to give up and call Cooper to come pick me up when the door finally opened.

“It’s about time someone answered the door,” I teased as the door opened. My smile vanished when I saw Melissa standing there, her eyes red rimmed and puffy as if she’d been crying.

“Oh my God, are you okay?” I asked, afraid that something was wrong. Taking her hands, I walked into the house, raking my gaze over her body to make sure she wasn’t hurt. She looked the same, dressed in a blue maternity dress with her hair in a bundle of red curls on top of her head. “Are the babies all right? Did you fall? Do you need to go to the doctor?”

Melissa blew out a shaky breath and shook her head. “I don’t need to go to the doctor. The babies are fine, Claire. I think the pregnancy hormones are making me emotional.”

“Really? That’s it?” I asked in disbelief. She glanced nervously over her shoulder before turning back to me. “For some reason I don’t believe you,” I scolded her. “What’s going on?”

Nervously, she tried to usher me toward the door and that was when I realized she was trying to get rid of me. Did she really think I would leave just like that? She knew me better than that. “Melissa, you can stop pulling me toward the door because I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on,” I snapped.

Before she could answer, my gaze caught a movement off to the side of the room. Someone was there, and out of the corner of my eye I realized it sure as hell wasn’t Melissa’s husband, Brett. Please, don’t let it be who I think it is, please don’t let it be …

I chanted that over and over in my mind, and even closed my eyes in hopes that it was just my overactive imagination playing tricks on me. Nope, the figure was still standing there. Even if I couldn’t fully see who it was I had no doubt in my mind I already knew. My heart pounded the same way it always would when that specific person would be near. I had done so well with moving on and now it was shot to hell. The anger I thought I had suppressed over the past few months came flooding right back, rearing its ugly head, but what was even worse was that deep down there was that little ping of excitement of being able to see him again. My traitorous heart had screwed me over again.

Melissa squeezed my hands apologetically and whispered, “I’m so sorry, Claire. I tried to call you.”

Closing my eyes, I took in a deep breath before mustering up the courage to face the man who broke my heart. I didn’t have to wait long because the moment I opened my eyes it was no longer Melissa standing in front of me, it was Mason. He was dressed in a fitted gray T-shirt and a pair of loose denim jeans that hung low on his hips with his favorite baseball cap covering his dark blond hair. What made it even worse was the way he looked at me with those piercing green eyes. It was the way he looked at me when we made love four months ago, or better yet, when we f****d, since it didn’t mean anything to him.

After all this time he had no right to look at me like that. He had no right to even speak to me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked angrily, placing my hands on my hips.

He moved closer and sighed. “I came to see Melissa and to make things right with you,” he confessed. “Can we go somewhere and talk … just me and you?”

Incredulously, I laughed in disbelief, thinking it had to be a joke. When he stared at me, with not a touch of a smile, I knew he was being serious. Out of all the times for him to come back, it had to be now, I screamed in my mind.

“Mason, you had four months to make things right with me,” I hissed. “There’s nothing you can do to make up for what you did. I’m sorry, but I have nothing more I want to say to you … ever!”

With those final words, I turned on my heel and stalked out the door.