Damaged and the Beast (Damaged #1)

“Hell yeah,” he said as I started moving again. “You lead. Show me what you want.”


Grinning, I had all kinds of ideas for Cooper. My face might hurt, but the rest of me felt better than ever. As soon as I helped Cooper find relief, I wiggled free of his embrace and rested on my back.

“We’re trying this again,” I said, spreading my legs.

“You’ll never want me to stop. It’s addictive. Sure you can handle it?”

“No, but I’m feeling fearless tonight.”

Cooper crawled towards me with that arrogant expression on his face. “You’ll be my slave after this.”

“Then, we’ll be equal.”

Laughing, Cooper let his gaze roll over my naked body. I knew he saw the bruise forming on my stomach where Amy kicked me. For a moment, I thought he might be more angry than horny. I shouldn’t have worried.





Chapter Twenty Two


The next morning, we returned to the Johansson property. When Kirk and Jodi appeared, the look on his face upon seeing my black eyes made me worry Cooper would one day seem so cold and unyielding. Then, I figured Kirk likely hid his soft side for his wife and kids. He didn’t know me yet and I wouldn’t get a glimpse of the other Kirk. Still, I knew he was pissed and he and his boys would take care of things.

Jodi hugged me and told me it didn’t look so bad. She also said her mother was a bitch, but we couldn’t choose our birth family. We did have the power to build a new and better one though. When she hugged me for a second time, I melted into her embrace. My mother was gone from my life, but I had a new mom. One who saw my value in a way Amy never could. After lunch, Bailey and Sawyer insisted we play beauty salon where they braided my hair to make me feel pretty. I was a Johansson now. Finally, Cooper pulled me away from his family and we retreated to his apartment where I found all of my stuff boxed up. This was my new home.

The rest of the weekend was spent making up for lost time. Cooper clung to me and I was relieved to have him always nearby. While happy to be away from my mom and even happier to be with Cooper, I always felt uneasy with change. I also awaited word about Tawny who was still barricaded in the motel room. Dad hadn’t returned and she was nearly out of food, but too scared to leave with the weirdoes hanging around. She was also penniless and couldn’t buy anything even if she dared go out. I just prayed Cooper’s guy found her soon.

Feeling guilty for enjoying my life with Cooper while my sister suffered, I could only focus on building something good in Ellsberg. Something Tawny would soon share. At Cooper’s urging, I quit my job at Denny’s. I should have been terrified to give up my only income, but I trusted Cooper and I were long term. He also reminded me about my nest egg. It was the security net I would never need, but would always have.

One afternoon when we left school in his truck, Cooper took a different route home. I didn’t think much about it because I was too relieved by my latest quiz results. As we drove into a part of town full of subdivisions with big houses and parks, Cooper glanced at me and smiled.

“I want a kid.”

“You’re too competitive with Tucker.”

“Maybe, but look at the deal I have with the family business. It’s just me. Tucker can do manual, no brainer shit, but I’m stuck doing all of the heavy lifting. Bailey seems to get dumber every day and Sawyer is more than a decade from helping and that’s assuming she wants to. Except for you, I’m alone. One day, when my kid takes over, I’d like to think he or she will have a few decent siblings to help out so they won’t be alone on the top.”

“That doesn’t mean we need to start having them now.”

“I was thinking about RVing with the kids like I did growing up and I imagined how we’d go during your breaks from teaching. I saw us young and I liked that better.”

“How soon?”

Cooper laughed. “It’s not like a trip to the store, Farah. I figure we’ll get settled in. You’ll finish the year and feel good about that then we’ll let nature take its course.”

“I come from fertile stock. Once I go off my birth control, it could happen fast.”

“So it happens fast. Or it doesn’t. We know what we must do and that’s being together. We also must finish school and live in Ellsberg. Those are nonnegotiable. The rest are hopes. Like I hope to have a bunch of kids with at least a few non-morons in the bunch so they can help each other run the business. I hope they’ll take over when you and I are young so we can travel. That’s my hope, but who knows if it’ll happen.”

Sighing, I wouldn’t mind starting a family as long as I knew I would finish school. Even if I never taught a single class, I wanted the accomplishment of gaining a degree.

“I don’t know how good of a mother I’d be,” I admitted. “I’ve never even held a baby and I wasn’t exactly raised well.”