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He doesn't feel attraction unless he feels a deep connection. Love before lust. In his youth he loved it. It kept him from making the same mistakes as his friends because they were thinking with their dick.
Women had loved it too, Barb had. Because when he wanted her, when he wanted to touch and taste her, when his cock was achingly hard for her it meant he loved and adored her. He didn't see her as another notch to his bedpost.
When they divorced he hated it. He wished that lust would come before lust, that he could screw his way through as many people as possible to rid himself of the hurt.
After the bombs fell he found it to be a superpower. He never let anyone get close enough to feel anything for love or lust and he had no weakness because of it.
And then Lucy MacLean came along. Like maggots burrowing into rotten fruit, she makes her way into his heart. Cooper feels everything and he hates it.