Page 9 of Cooper & Jake (Gomillion High Reunion #2)

I press the start button, and the puck drops on Jake’s side.

He places it on the surface and fires it towards me.

The first few taps are softer, getting a feel for the disc.

Neither of us scores, with the puck bouncing between us.

My competitive side kicks in, and I hit the puck with all the force I have.

It slides straight into his goal, and I jump up and down, doing a happy dance.

“Take that!” I yell, raising my fists in the air.

“Lucky shot. And you still need six more.”

His arms flex as he reaches down to grab the puck, and my tongue wants to be like one of those cartoons whose tongue rolls out onto the floor.

As soon as he walked up to me this morning, I was a goner.

He’s wearing these dark blue, tight-as-hell jeans, with a plain black tee that might be one size too small.

But my dick is very appreciative of how tight it is, stretched across his thick chest. And then there are his tattoos covering the entire length of both arms. When we were in high school, he only had one tattoo on the upper part of his forearm.

Plus, the piercings in his ears are new, too.

He didn’t have those back in school. The lights flash, and the sounds go off, my body jerking as I look down, seeing that he got a goal.

“If you weren’t ogling me so much, you wouldn’t have missed that,” he snarks, leveling me with a huge smile.

“I was not… okay, whatever I was. But can you blame me? You’re trying extra hard to flex those muscles there, buddy.”

“I would never try to do that,” he says, placing his hand on his chest, giving me what he thinks is an innocent look.

Okay, two can play this game , I think. I snatch the puck out of my goal and place it on the game surface; I don’t hit it too fast because I don’t want it to ricochet back to me just yet.

Once my paddle hits the disc, I use my other hand to grab the hem of my shirt and wipe away my invisible sweat.

It’s not even hot enough in here to perspire, but he doesn’t know that.

There’s shuffling on the other end of the table, and I look up to see he’s fumbled the puck, and his eyes are dead set on me. “Well, that’s not fair at all.”

“I know.” I shrug my shoulders, letting my shirt drop back down. “But you’re playing dirty, so I want to play dirty too.”

“Trust me, Cooper, if we were playing dirty, you would know it. Now watch me kick your ass with no distractions.”

He puts the puck back into play again, and this time we play back and forth without trying to mess up the other person. I kick his ass seven to four, and I might gloat a little too much, but it’s all fun and games. Taking my beer bottle, I walk over to him and tap his chest.

“It’s okay. We’ll find a game you might be good at. Well, we’ll see. What should we play next? I’ll let you choose since you lost and all.”

“Fine. How about basketball?”

“At an arcade?” I ask incredulously. “Is that even a thing?”

“Of course it is. Come on.” He drags me over to the other side of the arcade, where, sure enough, there’s a basketball hoop.

“Now would be a good time to admit that I don’t know how to play basketball.”

“I’ll show you.” He takes a ball out of the bin, then steps up behind me. “Put your hands on the ball where mine are,” he tells me gruffly in my ear. My body trembles from the closeness, and I turn my head, locking eyes with him.

Neither of us is saying a word; both of us are just staring at one another. “Like this?” I whisper.

“I really want to kiss you right now.”

“I’d really like that.” God, it’s been torture trying to keep my hands off him all day.

We haven’t even been around each other for a full twenty-four hours, and I’m already a sucker for him.

I’m standing right in front of him, my backside pressed to his front.

His palms are on top of mine while we hold the basketball together, his eyes flicking from my lips and back up to my eyes.

Having been given the all-clear, I drop the ball when he places his hands on my hips, twirling me to face him fully.

He walks me backward until I’m up against a machine, and he’s caged me in.

One hand stays on my hip, while his other finds the back of my neck.

He grabs hold tightly, pulling me up close to him.

He ghosts a soft kiss across my lips at first and it causes my body to shiver from head to toe.

He gives a tentative nibble of my bottom lip and I moan which he takes as my go ahead to kiss me roughly.

My hands find his shirt, gripping the sides with a strong hold as I pull him in a little closer to me.

His tongue slides into my mouth, and I whimper, feeling him harden in his jeans.

We only kiss for a minute or two before we pull away slowly.

“We probably don’t want to put on a show in the middle of the arcade,” he tells me, breathing heavily from having his lips against mine. God, his kiss is so damn perfect. How his plush, pink lips fit with mine just like a puzzle piece.

“Oh god,” I whisper, my shaky hand coming up to touch my lips. “Wanna come back to my hotel room?”

“Cooper, that’s not why I kissed you.”

“I know. Trust me, I know. But fuck, Jake. That kiss was amazing, and now I’m horny as fuck, and my dick is so damn hard. It needs relief. Either I go back to my hotel room and take care of it myself, or you can join me.”

“Damn it, Cooper. I could never say no to you. Let’s go,” he growls.

“Wait, what about the rest of the tokens?”

“Fuck the tokens.”

We rush out of the arcade, Jake passing his bucket of play coins to a young couple sitting at one of the tables.

The walk back to the hotel isn’t too far, but with a raging hard-on, it’s definitely uncomfortable and a little awkward.

The glass doors slide open to the lobby, and my body is giddy at the thought of being so close to the finish line.

All we have to do is get into the elevator and then take it up to my room.

“Coop!” Taylor’s voice yells from the side of the waiting area.

Jake and I stop in our tracks, seeing Taylor and Peyton walking toward us. “Hey, there you two are,” Peyton drawls, walking up to me and ruffling my hair. “’Sup, Little Dude?”

I look at Taylor and Peyton, and then back at Jake with pleading eyes. Jake chuckles, then nods his head. “I hope y’all have plans, ’cause we sure do. See you tonight.”

He takes hold of my hand and drags me to the elevator. My head whips back to see them both staring at us with huge smiles on their faces. I do a double-take when they fist-bump each other, and my head snaps to Jake to see if he noticed.

“They just fist bumped. Oh my god, what the hell?”

“Because they know what’s about to happen,” he says, smirking.

“Oh, yeah? And what’s that?” I ask, laughing loudly.

The elevator door slides open, and Jake shoves me in, crowding me against the railing.

His nose trails up and down my neck, and my head leans to the side to give him access.

Savoring the feeling of his heat against me, my eyes fall shut.

“I’m about to have you begging and pleading for my cock. Does that sound good?”

“God yes,” I moan, arching into him. “Fuck, this elevator needs to hurry the hell up. Why is it so damn slow? Is it always this slow? There’s no way I can wait much longer.”

Jake cuts off my rambling when he presses his mouth to mine, and fuck, I wouldn’t say another word if he kept his lips against me. The doors slide open, but I don’t care. I’m too enamored of Jake’s spectacular kissing skills. A throat clears loudly, and Jake and I jump away from each other.

“Sorry,” we say in unison, side-stepping the two women standing before us.

One winks at me while the other fans herself dramatically, staring at Jake.

Yeah, I get it; I can’t help but stare at him either.

We walk down the hallway, Jake keeping his distance, which I’m thankful for.

I don’t think I could find my room, let alone open the door if he were still touching me.

“This is me,” I say shakily, opening the door to my hotel room.

I’m not scared of being alone with him. I’m nervous.

The last time we were together, we were fumbling teenage kids who didn’t know what we were doing.

What if we’re not compatible anymore? What if I suck?

What if he’s had someone better in the past?

“Hey, what just happened?” he asks, his hand coming to rest reassuringly on the small of my back. “It looks like you completely shut down.”

I blow out a breath, stepping into the hotel room. “I’m in my head, I guess. I wasn’t expecting this to happen, so now I’m having all these negative thoughts.”

He shuts the door, then turns to face me. “We don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to.”

“Oh god, no. I want to. Fuck, I want to so badly. Don’t listen to me,” I say, flipping my hand around in the air.

“Let’s take a shower. That way, we can both relax. Then, once we’re done, we can decide if we want to still put our hands all over each other, or we can take a nap until we have to get ready for tonight.”

“Okay,” I breathe, nodding my head. “A shower sounds good.”

Jake walks ahead of me, whipping his shirt over his head and tossing it onto the floor.

He unbuttons his jeans, shoving them down to the ground before disappearing into the bathroom.

Not wanting him to be in there by himself for too long, I strip out of my clothes, rushing into the restroom.

Jake is standing next to the tub with the water running, and his arms crossed over his chest.

“Took you long enough,” he growls, his eyes scanning up and down my body.

“I was literally thirty seconds behind you.”

“That’s thirty seconds too many. Now get that sexy ass in the tub.”

I walk past him, yelping when he lightly slaps my ass. “Do it again,” I moan, stopping and wiggling my ass.