I turn and push away from the door in time to see Piper full-on shaking from the cold. Surveying the area around us, I’m pretty sure the only way we’re going to get back into the building is to walk all the way around to the main door. Unfortunately, there’s about a foot of snow on the ground and because there’s no sidewalk that circles the building, there’s nothing to be done but trudge right through it. That, or we stand here and keep pounding on the door in hopes that someone hears us. Who the hell removes a doorstop? Doesn’t that mean someone put it there for a reason? The fuck? Seriously. I’m irritated, but know I need to take action. I beat my fists against the door one more time, but no one comes to open it.
“Nobody can hear that over the music.” Piper’s voice drifts to me from where she stands, her back to me again.
I chuckle, frustrated. “Yeah, I know. I was just hoping …” I walk back over to her, pluck my suit coat from her shoulders, and turn her around with gentle pressure from my hand. I know she’s bound to fight me on it because she doesn’t seem to want my help. I hold it out to her with a grim smile. “Put your arms in the sleeves.”
Her lips press together, and I can see her mentally weigh her options.
“Just put it on. Please?”
With a shiver, she nods, allowing me to help her slide her arms into the coat. Before she can argue, I wrap my arm behind her, stoop and swing her into my arms, her fluffy dress poofing everywhere. She gasps and holds on, her arm across my shoulders. The feeling of her body cradled against my chest may be my new favorite thing, and with those wide eyes focused on me, all I can think about is leaning in and covering her lips with mine.
“Damon, what are you doing?” Her warm breath puffs out between us, and I find myself fully fixated on her soft berry lips.
“I’m taking us around the building so you don’t freeze to death out here.”
“Put me down.” She squirms a bit, so to stop her, I take my first steps off the sidewalk.
“Nope.” I stride as fast as I can through the foot of snow.
“I’m too heavy. I can walk.”
I grunt and then laugh a bit. “Come on, Piper. You’re not walking through the snow in your heels.” I pause. “And you’re not too heavy. You’re just right.”
She tightens her arm behind my neck. “Promise?”
“It’s like an extra workout. I’m good. Are you trying to imply I’m not strong enough to carry you?”
“Yes. I mean, no. Clearly not.” She huffs. “This has never happened to me before.”
“What? Getting locked outside a gym and having a whole student body ignore our pounding on the door? Being carried around a huge building so you don’t freeze to death in those pretty heels and this dress?” I snicker. “Yeah, me neither.” As I exert myself further, my breath can be seen in the frigid air.
She squirms, making it more difficult to hold her. “No. I meant no one has ever had to carry me like this. I can walk the rest. I’m fine.”
The hand that I have wrapped around her legs is caught up in the flounces of her dress and my fingers grasp her rounded thigh through it. I swear, a blast of lust strong enough to knock me out slams into me, coursing through my veins and straight down to my cock. “Would you please just let me get you to the sidewalk without arguing with me?” I grunt a little more. “I swear, woman, you argue more than anyone I know.”
She doesn’t say anything for a full thirty seconds. But then, out of nowhere, she whispers, “I think you like it.” She coyly looks up at me from under her impossibly long eyelashes.
I groan and laugh. She has no idea what she’s doing to me—here I am, walking through snow drifts, yet I’m burning from the inside out. “That, I do. Let me set you down over here and you’ll be free to flay me with your quick-witted tongue.” Finally, I step onto a shoveled area of the sidewalk near the door we’d entered through earlier. I release her legs, hoping to be able to set her down without further ado, but with her arm still hooked around my neck, her soft curves slide part way down my chest as her feet dangle above the sidewalk.
She makes a little whimpering sound in the back of her throat. Holy shit. I glance down to see her full breasts firmly pressed against me before her feet finally reach the ground. Steadying her, I let go, take a step back, and give my feet a good stomping to distract myself. I grimace at the cold, wet mess as I shake snow and chunks of ice off of me. My feet are frozen, my dress shoes ruined, my suit pants soggy. Sure hope my dry cleaner can at least take care of the pants.
Piper glances down, her lips part, and she stutters. “Oh-Oh, Damon, shit, you must be freezing. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault.”
“Sure, it is. I was the one who went outside in the first place.”
“I’d ask you why you did that, but right now I’m going to go blast the heater in my Pathfinder on my feet.” I hesitate to ask, but—fuck it. “Want to come with me?”
Her gaze shoots to mine, and as I watch, her slim throat works to swallow before she nods. “Um. Yeah, okay.” She takes one step toward me, and her foot slides.
I catch her around the waist and pick her right back up. “Making a habit of this, are we?” I jostle her playfully in my arms and … she laughs. It’s a beautiful, happy sound that I’m not sure I’ve ever heard before from the prim, proper, and practically perfect Piper Mathison.
“It would seem so.”
With a smile to myself, I tighten my hold on her and stride quickly to my faithful old Pathfinder.
Once there, I open the passenger door for her and help her in, tucking her ruffly skirt in around her. “I’m just going to get some dry socks and shoes out of the back.” I hand her the keys. “You can turn the car on and get the heat going, if you want.” She nods, fingers wrapping around the keys, and I close the door.
Moving to the rear of the vehicle, I can’t help but wonder if this is a mistake or not. I guess we’ll find out. I open the tailgate, looking for the towels I keep in the back and my gym bag, where I know I have clean socks and athletic shoes. My phone vibrates in my pocket just as I turn to sit down and take off my wet socks and shoes. I reach for it in my pocket and spot the notification from Tryst. I glance over my shoulder. Fuck, this is getting ridiculous. There’s the woman I seem to be having changing feelings for, but who also comes with all sorts of reasons why this may not work. And there’s the woman I’ve never seen but get along well with, and whom I’d really like to meet so we can determine whether we are better off as friends … or more. I haven’t dated anyone in forever, and now I’m having thoughts about dating two women at the same time. And fuck, I can’t do that to either of them. I’m not like that. But how the hell do I choose? How do I let one of them go?
A low grumble leaves my throat as I tap the screen to open Tryst.
Sherlock4Love to Prof.M.: How do we know meeting in person won’t ruin everything?
I blow out a frustrated breath.
From over my shoulder, Piper calls out, “Everything okay back there?”
I groan. No. No, it’s not. It’s all kinds of fucked up. “Yeah, just drying off my feet. Be right there.”
Prof.M. to Sherlock4Love: We don’t. Is it a chance you’re willing to take?
I shove my phone back into my pocket and quickly towel my feet dry before putting on fresh socks and shoes. There’s nothing to be done for my suit pants right now, but I roll them up out of the way. They’re half-ruined already, and I figure I may as well really mess them up. I look like an idiot, but at least I’m slightly warmer now.
I close the tailgate and circle to the driver’s side, hurrying into the vehicle. I can’t afford to think about Sherlock4Love when I have Piper at my side. That’s not fair to her.
When I get in, it’s nice and warm. Piper has cranked the heat, and I sigh with pleasure as I settle into my warmed seat. Out of the corner of my eye, I take her in. She looks so pretty in her fancy dress with her updo, but what really sells the whole image for me i
s that she hasn’t taken off my suit coat. I like that—more than I probably should.
From beside me, Piper fidgets her hands in front of her, twisting them together. “Your car is immaculate. Is it new?”
“No. It’s ten years old, actually.”
Her head turns to me and her face registers surprise. “What? How is that possible? It even smells new.”
“I take care of my things so I don’t have to replace them unnecessarily. It’s no big deal.” I pat the steering wheel. “And he’s been a great vehicle for my whole family. Everyone fits.”
“So, that’s three sisters …?”
“And my mom.”
She angles her body closer to me. “And your dad?”
I haven’t shared this with her before. Hell, I don’t talk to anyone about it.
My gaze slides to the right, meeting her curious one. “We lost my dad ten years ago.” I hesitate before continuing. “Cancer.”
Her face falls. “Oh … I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” A line forms down the center of her forehead, and I swear I see her open her mouth three different times before anything comes out. “How old were you?”
“Nineteen.” I clear my throat. “Old enough to take care of my family.” I nod to myself. “Dad would have wanted me to.”
She nibbles on her lip and I see all the gears in that perfectly quick brain of hers grinding away. “So, Elena was seven?”
My lips pull into a tight line. “Yes.”
“You’ve helped raise her, then. Your other sisters, too, I’d wager.”
I shrug. “It’s no big deal. They are my life.” My heart pounds. I can’t handle any more of this vein of conversation. “How was the chocolate?”
Her eyes flare wide at the mention of the treat I’d left on her desk earlier this week. She hadn’t said a word about it after the fact, and I wondered if I’d embarrassed her further by giving it to her.
“It was delicious, thank you. I—” She grasps my hand across the center console and squeezes briefly before pulling hers away. “I should have said something.” She covers her mouth and to my surprise, a tiny little giggle-snort exits. “I had it with a whole bottle of merlot that night. Happy Valentine’s Day to me!” She shrugs her shoulders inside my coat. “It was appreciated.”
Our eyes lock across the center console. Her tongue darts out and wets her lower lip and her chest rises with her deep inhale. I want her to stay. I want to take her home. I want to do unspeakable things to her.
“I should go. I’ll text Sophia and tell them we had an emergency and had to leave. With six other chaperones, I should hope they can make do without us.”
So much for taking her home.
She slowly opens the door and steps out. “Go home and get those feet warm.”
She starts to shrug out of my coat, but I hold up my hand. “Just bring it to school on Monday.”
“Okay. Thanks again, Damon.” With a beaming smile that almost sets me off balance, almost has me forgetting that we are technically still adversaries, she shuts the door with a soft click and waves.
I roll the window down and call out to her as I’m backing out. “And our field trip is Wednesday?”
She whirls around, eyes widening to almost a comical size. “Our …?” She sucks in a quick breath before narrowing her gaze at me. “You didn’t.”
I wink at her and peel out of the parking lot. Because oh yes, I did.
Chapter 15
Piper
I’m still fuming when I get back to my apartment. So help me, if that man butted in on the field trip, heads will roll. He couldn’t give me one win—couldn’t even let me feel good about how things were going for just a little while. No.
And worse, he’d played me like a fucking fiddle tonight. Like a goddamn fucking fiddle. He’d let me use his coat, kept me from falling numerous times, carried me through mounds of snow … he’d even danced with me. He’d made me feel. I feel like a total freaking idiot. And he did all this for what? To ease me into trusting him? To hide his devious plan?
I feel like screaming, like pounding my head against the wall, like throwing something and watching it shatter. My phone is like a lead brick in my hand, and I almost chuck it across the room in a fit. I take several deep breaths and then smile, feeling a little crazy. That’d be just perfect. Damon would probably love it if I got so mad at myself that I threw my phone and broke it. With a shake of my head, I sit down on the couch and decide to text my girls. I glance down at what I’d sent earlier before I’d driven away from the school.
Me: Sophia, we had an emergency and have to leave. I swear we aren’t ditching you on purpose. Damon and I got locked out back and he had to carry me all the way around the building through all the snow.
Me: He’s wet and cold, and I’m just … done.
Sophia: Well, that sounds fun. We’re still here, but kids are leaving now anyway.
Zoey: OMG, you got stuck outside?
Hadleigh: You are missing the point, Z.
Hadleigh: He CARRIED her.
Madison: I think I just swooned.
Quinn: That man has all the moves.
Sophia: Piper hasn’t mentioned it yet, but he DANCED with her. It was so damn romantic.
Me: No.
Me: Stop. I know it all sounds great, and I really thought it was at first …
Me: The worst part is I actually enjoyed myself, but honestly? I think he’s buttering me up.
Zoey: What? Why?
Me: Had, have you heard anything about him coming on our field trip?
Hadleigh: NO???
Me: Well, his parting words to me were something about “our” field trip.
Quinn: How’d he manage that?
Hadleigh: Sawyer hasn’t talked to him about it either.
Madison: That leaves Jake, right? Why wouldn’t he have said something to you about it?
Me: Oh, who knows. Damon is very smooth.
Me: Never mind him, though, he’s totally not why I need you all tonight.
Me: Had and Sophia already know this, but I’ve been talking to a guy on that new dating app …
Zoey: Tryst, you mean? I’ve been thinking about creating a profile.
Me: Yeah. And you should. I found someone I like right away. I’m trying to decide if I should meet up with him, and if so, how I should go about it.
Me: Discuss.
And there’s silence for a full thirty seconds, which is completely unlike my friends. I get up from the couch and start pacing. On my second trip around the living room, my phone finally pings.
Quinn: Just stating the obvious, but a public place.
Sophia: Yep, in public, and don’t go anywhere with him.
Hadleigh: I already made her promise that.
Zoey: Do you want a wingwoman?
Me: Oh God, no. Not unless you want to witness all the moves your friend doesn’t have.
Me: Guys, I said some … stuff to him.
And thirty more seconds of silence. Oh my God, how embarrassing. I’m sure they’re all wondering what kind of kinky crap I said.
Madison: If we were in person, you’d see how big my eyes just got.
Hadleigh: Like what kind of stuff are we talking about?
Hadleigh: Because I’d probably say plenty if I thought I liked him.
Quinn: LOL. Yeah, Had, YOU would. But this is Piper.
Sophia: As long as it was normal sexy stuff …
Zoey: Why do I not feel experienced enough for this conversation?
Hadleigh: As long as you didn’t go straight to butt stuff, you’re probably fine.
Quinn:
Zoey: I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. La, la, la …
Madison: I think I almost just wet myself.
Madison: But on a more serious note, if you get uncomfortable, just leave.
Quinn: Ghost him after that if you have to.
Sophia: You okay, Piper?
Me: My face has gone up in flames.
; Me: You all think I should meet him?
Sophia: I’m disappointed that Damon is a no go, but … yeah.
Sophia: You should see what this Prof.M. guy has to offer.
I nibble my lip. I think I’m going to do it.
After washing my face and brushing my teeth, I climb into bed and curl up with my phone, clicking into the Tryst app. I’d asked Prof.M. what we’d do if meeting ruined everything. His questioning response hits me hard as I read it over again. Is it a chance you’re willing to take? The more I think about it, the more I know I can’t just sit by and watch this opportunity pass us by. Not meeting him is no longer an option. I think I want to take a chance on him. What if he’s the one? Could I live with myself if I never met him and then one day found out we were soul mates or something dumb like that? Nope. I’d hate myself forever for being a big baby about this. I can agree to a single date, right? What could it hurt?
My parents invite me to Saturday brunch every week. Sometimes I make up excuses for why I can’t attend. Some weeks I force myself to go, just so I can say I’ve been there. It’s almost become a chore, especially now that they know I’m going for the department chair position.
What was once an easy thing has become exponentially difficult now that there is another teacher involved. I never dreamed I wasn’t the ideal candidate—but worse, my parents don’t think anyone else should be in contention for the position because I’m their perfect little Piper, their only child, their shining star. I’ve never failed them before. What really gets to me, though, is the sense of entitlement they seem to have. Like somehow our family is superior and since I’m their child, it only makes sense that I’d just be given the position.
So, I’ll try. I’ll keep trying, and won’t give up … but I may do everything in my power and still not come out on the other side with the title.
Burn for You (Flirting with Forever Book 3) Page 8