Page 34 of Play the Game
She leaves without a backwards glance, and I practically collapse onto the exam table.
Cooper sits in an empty chair and scoots it forward until he’s sitting right in front of me, his eyes meeting mine. “Want to tell me what happened in that little room the mean nurse banned me from?”
I close my eyes, taking a deep breath. “It’s really stupid.”
He takes one of my hands and squeezes it. When I open my eyes, the patience and kindness on his face loosens the knot of anxiety in my chest.
“I promise it’s not.”
“I hate having my blood pressure taken. Actually, no,” I say, trying again. “I’m terrified of it. Always have been. I don’t know what it is, but it scares the shit out of me. Every time a doctor comes at me with a blood pressure cuff, I freak the fuck out, which of course means my blood pressure is high, which makes me freak out even more so it’s higher the second time they takeit. It’s usually no big deal, but I think blood pressure is actually a little bit of a deal when you’re having a baby.”
Cooper nods, allWe’ve got this. “They took your blood pressure in that room, and it was high?”
“Sky high. And even higher when they tried again.”
He waits until my eyes meet his again, and then he gives me a reassuring smile. “I’ve been doing some research on pregnancy.”
“You have?”
“Of course. I want to know what to expect, for you and for me. Pregnancy comes with all kinds of weird medical shit, it turns out. A lot of uncertainty and a lot of wait and see. I promise we’ll deal with all of it together. If you’re scared, tell me. If you want to bitch and complain, lay it on me. We’ll handle this one thing at a time, and we’ll get through it, starting with this. When the doctor comes in today, we’ll talk to her all about blood pressure, what scares you, and how we make it less scary. Whatever it takes, Rhodes. That’s what we’ll do.”
I have to blink back the burn of tears at Cooper’s words. “Why are you being so nice to me?” I ask in a whisper. “You’re here and being all reassuring and shit. I mean, you were waiting outside the office bathroom with a handful of cherry Jolly Ranchers after I threw up this morning for fuck’s sake. We don’t even like each other, and I can take care of myself. What gives, Cooper?”
He smiles, running his thumb over mine. “I know you can take care of yourself, but why should you have to? I told you, I know there’s not much I can do to actually grow the baby, but I can do this. And maybe we didn’t used to like each other, but I like to think that maybe we’ve made an odd sort of peace what with the whole sharing a kid thing.”
I look away from him at the ultrasound machine that will probably have the baby inside me on the screen at some point in the next half hour, the glass jars of medical supplies, the pictures on the wall of fetuses at various stages of development, and my anxiety comes roaring back. I shake my head. “Idon’t think I can do this. As a matter of fact, I know I can’t. I have to go back to work. I can’t be here when I have piles of work on my desk and a million deadlines and a partnership position to earn. I changed my mind. We need to send this baby back. Where’s a fucking Delorean when you need one?” I mumble.
Cooper chuckles, squeezing my hand. “If we find one, do we have to take back the part where I fucked you against a window? Because I really liked that.”
I laugh despite myself. “Maybe we just go back to the part before that where you were all,Fuck we need a condom, and I was all,Of course we don’t.”
He smirks at me. “Admit it, Rhodes. You were too desperate for my cock to wait for anything.”
I roll my eyes even as the wordcockcoming from his mouth has a curl of lust snaking through me. “Keep dreaming.”
Cooper looks me dead in the eyes, face serious. “If you think I haven’t dreamt about the way you looked when I was inside you—the sounds you made—you’re out of your damn mind.”
I have no clue what to say to that, and suddenly the exam room feels like a sauna. I jump up from the table, grabbing the folded paper sheet. “Turn around. Apparently, I have to strip from the waist down.”
He chuckles. “Nothing I haven’t seen before.”
“Fuck right off with that my dude. This isn’t a conference room at two in the morning. You don’t get to see me take off my underwear here.”
Cooper leans back in his chair and crosses his arms over his chest. “I’m pretty sure I didn’t see you take them off in that conference room either. Just tugged that lace thong you were wearing right to the side and sank?—”
I slap a hand over his mouth, cutting off whatever he was about to say. “Don’t even think about it. Close your damn eyes.”
He grins behind my hand and closes his eyes, but then the asshole licks me. Fucking licks my hand, and it should be grossbut instead it kind of makes me want to see what other parts of me he could lick.
For the love of god.
Whipping off my skirt and underwear, I shove them both in my bag then sit back down, unfolding the scratchy, crinkly paper blanket and spreading it over my legs. You would think they would make this whole experience more comfortable. If men had the babies and had to get a speculum shoved inside their vagina once a year while a doctor peered at their cervixes, these exam rooms would be like luxury hotel suites and this blanket would be cashmere.
“Okay, you can open them.”
Cooper opens his eyes and gives me a onceover. “Looking good, Rhodes.”
“I hate you,” I mumble.
