“What’s Wednesday night?” Piper could barely think when he kissed her that way. Time stopped.
“The married staff potluck for CBH.” Zach beamed. “My official invitation was lying on my desk when I went in last night. We’ve got some getting-to-know-each-other to do if we’re going to be convincing at the couples’ quiz.”
Piper stifled a gasp. Cooking was no problem, other than deciding what to make that would strike the right tone. But Zach had done so much to help her, and all she’d given him was a piece of paper so far proclaiming she’d married him. She owed him so much at this point, and this potluck seemed to be the event his promotion hinged on.
Which meant his future schedule—with time to fix the Firebird—hinged on it as well. Zach was counting on her—for his dad’s sake.
Piper had better not mess up in front of his bosses.
And really, she ought to figure out a way to do something more for him, something truly personal. Actually, she knew her answer of what she could really do to show him she cared.
She was ready.
∞∞∞
Tuesday afternoon, Zach sat on the sofa in their living room with research notes for Piper’s case all around him. He eyed the clock for the umpteenth time. Yeah, he’d only been a married man for ten days so maybe he shouldn’t be sitting here worried why she hadn’t shown up yet.
Just because he kind of expected her to be there when he wanted to run something past her for her case, like getting a complete list of her addresses, or putting together a few references, gathering contact information for ICE, it didn’t mean she had to be at his side all the time. Just because he’d liked having her on his arm, smelling her honey shampoo, and having her fall asleep in his arms while he told her a silly story, it didn’t mean she would have to be with him every second of the day.
Wasn’t he getting a little possessive, considering this was a business arrangement?
Business arrangement, yeah. Tell that to the desire burning inside him every time she flipped her hair. Tell that to the instinct he had to run past her every idle thought that entered his mind. Tell that to the way wherever Piper existed had started to feel like home.
Teacup nipped at his heel. Zack picked her up and set her on the couch beside him. He was working from home today; Piper’s court date was on Friday, and he still didn’t have nearly enough prepared to go up against ICE and their lawyers. Three days compressed themselves to nothing; he could have boiled them down as minutes. He couldn’t even let Karlovy distract him today. Besides, someone needed to keep track of Teacup.
Which was why he’d insisted Piper sleep in their bed last night, the double bed, and he took the sofa. It was safer that way, everything was safer that way, especially the way he’d had to basically put on an emotional welding helmet to keep himself from noticing how hot she was in that blue dress on Saturday night after their flight on the parasail.
Piper Quinn Travis had him flying and falling and wanting and aching.
Keeping this a purely platonic and honorable arrangement was going to take more self-control, and distance, than Zach had bargained on.
So maybe it was far better that Piper not turn up right at the chime of three o’clock when he expected. What if something happened to her?
Zach’s phone chimed. Piper’s face appeared, and his heart hammered.
“Hello? Where are you? Are you all right? Agent Valentine didn’t track you down, did she?” Zach wouldn’t put it past the woman to overstep her authority. For whatever reason, that woman had directed her personal vendetta at Piper. “I’ll come get you, wherever you are.”
Piper laughed, and it sounded like a waterfall. Zach relaxed. She was all right. Something about Piper triggered every protective instinct in him. It was irrepressible. He’d have to control that or go wacko.
“You can definitely come to where I am.”
A weird sound, like a screech of a fan-belt-troubled engine, noised in the background of wherever Piper was.
“I’m at your storage unit—with your Firebird. Vito let me in.”
Vito! Zach let all his papers fall off his lap into a jumble on the floor around the coffee table as he leapt toward the door. He didn’t trust that guy for five minutes around Piper. He shot out the door to his truck, and in just a few minutes arrived at the storage unit.
Piper looked all right—and unharmed.
“I’m so glad you came. I didn’t know if you’d be too busy with work. I hated to interrupt you, you know. Your job is really important.” Piper smiled. “I appreciate how good you are at it.”
“I’m just working on getting your case ready for Valentine.”
Vito came up laughing. “You two lovebirds is already looking forward to Valentine’s Day? Now, that’s funny, since it’s still summertime and you’s got months to go. Me, I got a routine with the missus. We—”
Zach probably did not want to hear about Vito’s marital relations. Not in front of Piper. She was innocent of a lot of those things, and hearing it from Vito might not be the best initiation into that world.
“I’ll just leave the two of you’s to work things out.” Vito headed for the door. “Lock up when you’re done.”
“What’s that fabric?” Zach asked when Vito was gone.
Piper had pulled open the doors on both the driver and passenger sides, and she’d spread some kind of material over the nasty seats he’d found online to replace the burned up ones. “Red and black?”
“You’re painting the exterior red, right? With the white teardrop accent color in the center of the door, right?”
“Uh, probably.” That was the classic color scheme. It was pretty safe to assume that had been Dad’s plan.
“Well, from what I can tell, you’ve really got only three options for colors if you want the car to be valuable. There’s red, classic, or black, also classic, or a sky blue. It’s beautiful, but possibly less saleable.”
“I’m not doing this for a resale.”
“Okay, then. I just leaped to the red or black conclusion. If you like the blue better, then the white upholstery is the way to go.”
White worked well for this climate—hot and sunny. Less likely to burn the passengers’ skin when they sat on it on a summer day.
“Where did you get the fabric? And who’s going to be doing the upholstery?”
No way had Zach gotten that far on this project. He was still looking for a replacement engine. The Bondo patching he’d put on the body still needed more sanding. He didn’t have chrome detailing yet—he was still looking online and making calls to salvage yards. The Firebird had a long wait before upholstery could be a priority.
“I’m kind of handy with the needle. I reupholstered a few of my parents’ not-so classic cars. Mostly it was because I got sick of having tufts of straw scratch out onto my bare legs when I wore shorts. They encouraged my creativity, and I did their VW Bus with rainbow vinyl.”
Zach must have looked alarmed because Piper jumped to say, “I swear—no rainbows for the Firebird. I got past that phase. Now I can see the value of finding the original and making it match as closely as possible.”
“But where did you get that?” He pointed at the fabric she’d draped across the seats.
“This is going to sound hokey, but I actually had it on hand. Last year before my parents up and moved halfway around the world, they briefly owned a pink Cadillac. They were in an Elvis phase. The interior was roached, so they asked me to redo it.”
“But you didn’t?”
“Their Elvis phase added an ‘h’ to the end of the word too quickly.”
Elvis turned to Elvish. “Got it. So they sold it and moved south?”
“Way south. But I already had the nonreturnable fabric. There’s way more than you’d need for a Firebird. A Caddy contains significantly more area to upholster.” She smirked. “Instead of by the yard, they measured the leather by the acre when I bought it.”
It was leather, not vinyl. And she was gi
ving it to him, possibly offering to do this for him—for Dad.
“But, why are you doing this for me? Don’t you have a business to run, menus to plan, things like that?”
Piper’s arms dropped to her side.
“Don’t you want me to? Oh—” Her face fell, and it was replaced with apology and embarrassment. “I’m sorry. Geez. Really sorry. I mean, I get it. You need to be the one to do this for your dad.”
“No, no. It’s not that. I really appreciate the help. I love the help.” Zach loved that Piper even thought to help. “The question was literal. Seriously, why?”
Piper turned to him as if her answer should be obvious. “Because.” She shrugged. “You’re helping me. You’re putting yourself out there—in a huge way. You and I both know what you’re risking, and it’s far more than just your single man’s swagger or the balance in your bank account after laying out a huge down payment on our house. What’s really on the line is your reputation, your integrity.”
When she put it that way—Zach gulped. He hadn’t considered this business arrangement a matter of integrity. The word itched.
“I can’t sit by and do nothing while you risk everything for me. This is something I can do; it’s tiny by comparison. I have to give back, even a little. Please, let me.”
The way her green eyes pleaded with him in the slant of the afternoon sun, he would have said yes to anything she asked at this moment. He took her in his arms.
“You are incredible. You know that?” He placed a tender kiss on her mouth, one he hoped could convey all the emotion he felt for her, one bursting with sincerity—and love.
Because that was what he knew he was feeling for Piper Quinn Travis, the woman he’d said yes to, the woman he wanted with every atom vibrating in him—love. He loved her. He wanted to shout it to the farthest star.
Piper kissed him back, parting her lips, melting her body against him. Her hands crawled up the muscles of his back, and her softness pressed against him. Another kiss, and she let out a soft moan, one that turned his resolves to dust.
“Zach. I think it’s time we…” She went back to kissing him, and he let her, although he was dying inside to know how she meant to fill in the blank. “Before your work party happens, it’s important that we…”
“Piper…”
“Take me home, Zach, and let’s not place any five minute limit on ourselves.” Her words shot tingles through him like he’d touched an electric fence. “Let’s just see where time takes us.”
Hallelujah, the dust of his resolve scattered to the four winds. He lifted her in his arms, swung her in a circle, her giggles shooting him full of even more excitement than he’d have thought humanly possible. This woman had said yes, and she was about to be his in word and deed, and—
Zach’s phone rang. CBH. He ignored it.
Piper’s scent filled his head. Her kisses decorated his mouth. Her love and acceptance made his soul replete and abundant and whole.
The phone rang again. He tossed it into the Firebird’s empty shell. Piper pulled back. “Hey, you’ll probably regret that in a while.” She went and grabbed it.
“Hello? Zach’s phone. Oh, Mr. Crockett? Sure. Sure, I’ll tell him.”
The last thing Zach needed was the voice of Garwood Crockett coming between him and his unlimited time at home with Piper, his wife. He’d waited too long, was wound far too tight.
Piper hung up and stuffed the phone into Zach’s shirtfront pocket.
“He wants you at the office.”
“I’m sure he does, but you want me at home, and that’s my priority.” Yes. Piper wanted him. That was the keyword right there. He didn’t care about the at home part. He’d take the floor of a storage unit if it weren’t so tawdry. Piper was clean and pure and deserved her first experience with love to be the same. White sheets, sun streaming in.
If she says she’s willing, it must mean I’m the one man she’ll ever give herself to. That thought made Zach simultaneously soar and dip in terror. He’d better be ready for that responsibility.
He was. Oh, yes, he was.
“I appreciate that, Zach, but…he said if you turn in your Karlovy case notes by five, he’s got an interview time he’d like to give you in person.”
Interview time!
“For the partnership. It’s what you’ve wanted, Zach. It’s why you’re doing this, right?” She waved her hand between the two of them.
Was it—was it really why he was doing this?
“Oh, right.”
“You’d better go.”
∞∞∞
Piper sat a long time in her car, parked outside the storage unit where the Firebird sat. She’d told Zach she was ready for him. And he hadn’t seemed averse to it, but then he’d left the minute she suggested the reason for their marriage was still his interview and promotion.
For a few minutes as they’d kissed, she’d thought she felt an honesty between them, something a lot more than the incredibly powerful physical attraction that nearly crushed her whenever she was with him—an honesty of true feeling. Respect, admiration, even love.
Love. She was falling hard for Zach. Regardless of any prior claims Chad might have made, Piper couldn’t lie to herself anymore. Her feelings toward Chad didn’t even seem like feelings when she thought about how broad and deep her attachment to Zach had grown.
If the promotion was still the main reason for his being with her, though, she might say she made a narrow escape, thanks to that phone call. If she’d given herself to him in the way she’d offered, and he’d taken her offering, and then left her the second he got promoted, she’d get so hurt she’d be like those people after car accidents: burned beyond recognition. No surgeon could ever repair something as damaging as that would be.
Foolishness had pushed her to that brink. Until she got better confirmation from Zach that his intentions were longer term, she’d better stop throwing herself into his arms, and definitely refrain from offering to sleep with him.
∞∞∞
In all his days of hating Crockett, Bowie, and Houston, Zach had never hated them this much. It was one thing to keep him from having time for a hobby, or even preventing him from having time to work on the Firebird and help his dad’s psyche. It was another thing entirely to pull him out of the willing arms of Piper Quinn.
Frustration made him press the accelerator far deeper than good sense would allow, and he had to slam on the faulty old brakes of his truck just in time to stop for a red light.
Smoke floated up past his rear view mirror after the fast braking.
Huh, kind of like the fast brakes the phone call had put on the freight train of Piper’s and his speed toward consummation of the marriage.
With just a little time and distance in the afternoon sun, Zach realized what a close call that had been. She’d been talking about gratitude to him for his so-called sacrifice. That had to have been her motive for finally offering to make herself his wife in the final respect they lacked.
He loved her for it, but gratitude was the wrong motivation for such a momentous decision.
Zach parked and went up the elevator to CBH. Within half an hour, he had placed the Karlovy case notes on Crockett’s desk and been handed the note:
Partnership interview, eight o’clock sharp, Friday morning.
It was different from his earlier scheduled interviews for partner. Those had all come through his scheduling secretary, while this one was personal and handwritten straight from Crockett.
He’d hit the big time. The interview was happening, and this time it wasn’t a situation where Crockett and the other partners had already made up their mind about hiring him based on his marital status. The handwritten note was his clue: this was for real.
Friday—the word lodged in his craw. Friday was also Piper’s court date. That thing had better not be at eight in the morning. He scanned his memory and thought he could place it later in the morning, nine, perhaps. That was right—enough time to win the case
and still let Piper prepare lunch at Du Jour. Perfect.
Assuming he would win her case.
He groaned as he trudged back to his office. Piper. He wanted her so much. Everything told him he should take her up on her offer of herself—their marital status, the insane desire he had for her, the fact that Agent Valentine claimed she would be “checking” on whether the marriage had been consummated. It all pressed him toward the brink.
However, suddenly Piper’s word earlier cropped up like a steel wall to stop him: integrity. She’d said Zach’s integrity was on the line in this whole situation. While she obviously had meant to apply the word elsewhere, like to his reputation as a lawyer, in his gut he knew it applied even more appropriately to whether or not he’d compromise a woman who had guarded her virtue all her life, even when she was willing to give it up. He couldn’t cheapen her.
Well, not until he was sure she wanted him forever, and not just felt she owed him some debt. If she wanted him forever, it wouldn’t be cheap. It would be expensive: like, as in he would give her everything he ever had in every sense for the rest of his life.
So until it clearly became the most expensive bargain either of them had struck…Zach had better take up sleeping quarters at Crockett, Bowie, and Houston.
∞∞∞
Piper hugged Teacup on the couch, ignoring her shopping list for tomorrow. Stirred up with agitation like she was, she couldn’t think of what to make for Du Jour, and worse, she had no idea what dish to bring to Zach’s office party.
It had to be exactly the right food. She needed to do this right for him. Especially since she’d resolved—again—that she couldn’t do right by him in that other way.
Why didn’t he come home? The clock struck eight. Teacup slept in her arms. Piper couldn’t seem to keep her mouth from drying out. When Zach came home, what would he be expecting, the same Piper he’d left behind—willing and ready for him? Terror gripped her, not of the giving of herself, because she would mean that sincerely, but of how to tell him she couldn’t give herself to him yet. She ached to tell him why, but it seemed so obvious he still only wanted the business arrangement with its end date solidified.
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