“So then…all of that clusterfuck happens, and when I’m back inside…he hugs me! Rushes me like I’ve been gone for hours! Holds me in his arms like I’m the most precious thing in this uppity, over-styled display home…sorry, I know it’s a rental, but it is…” she takes a breath, so I nod that I’m not offended and motion for her to continue. Personally, I agree with her. What I’m sure are expensive sculptures, ornaments and figurines, decorate every damn room but all I see are dust collectors.
“…Kisses me, and storms away! And…the look on his face, Jackie? God, I don’t even know anymore! He’s just so fucking impulsive, I can’t keep up!”
“Sure, you can.”
Shit, did I say that out loud?
“Sorry?” Piper yelps in shock.
Double shit, I must have…so much for staying out of it.
Moving to the sink and rinsing my hands of garlic juice, I come back and stand in front of Piper, mirroring her posture, hip against the counter.
“Piper Quinn, you know as well as I do that you are, and likely always will be, the level head in any relationship between the two of you. You have a grounding way about you, that for whatever reason, he just doesn’t have. Unless, he’s with you. Whether you realise it or not, you provide that for him, Piper. Seth will probably always attempt to offset his self-deprecation by being overly confident, or, he’ll try to withdraw completely. But you balance that in him, and more over; he better balances that for himself when he’s with you. And it’s not a one-way street either, honey. Granted, I don’t know you as well as I know him, but I suspect he brings out the best in you, too. You’re both stubborn and quick tempered, you’re both deeply feeling and protective as hell of those you love, but where you’re able to apply logic and common sense to things, Seth is driven by his emotions. Lead almost solely by the depth of his passion. And the one thing I’m praying he’s finally realised is that there is nothing, and I mean nothing, he’s more passionate about, than you.”
Piper blinks at me, a long, slow blink like she’s processing my words, but when that’s all she does, I figure I’ve said this much, I might as well keep going.
“If you let him, he will love you so fiercely, that until the day he dies, he will hold you like you’re the most precious thing in the room. Because to him, Piper? You will be. So, the question then becomes, are you willing to take the risk and let him?”
Picking a carrot up off the bench, Piper snaps a section off from the tapered end, takes a bite, and starts chewing, “Well, fuck.”
* * *
Turning all the lights off downstairs before heading to my room towards the back of the house - a suite of three rooms: bedroom, bathroom and small sitting room, that the agent actually called, ‘the maids quarters’ - I check that the back door is locked.
Through the heavy leadlight glass, the figure sitting outside in the dark, tiny courtyard should’ve startled me, but given how many times I’ve found him exactly like this since we moved in, my pulse doesn’t even change.
Opening the door I lean into the frame, watching quietly as he runs his palm over the upturned wheels of one of his many skateboards, from where it rests across his thighs. The glide and turn of the dual mounted circles is rhythmic, the bearings ticking as they provide stability to the spinning wheels.
“I’m off to bed, Piper turned in a while ago.”
The poor thing barely made it through dinner with her eyes open. Jet lag aside, it had been a long-ass day.
“Yeah, she saw me before she went upstairs. Thanks, Jacks.”
“Don’t thank me yet, Seth. I have to tell you that I opened my mouth earlier, with Piper. While we were preparing dinner.”
The wheels come to a sudden stop. I don’t.
“Nothing bad, and only a version of things I’ve already said to you myself of late. Except this, this next bit is just for you. You have to stop running, Seth. Stop holding back, and stop avoiding going all in with her. Because if you don’t, she will be back on a plane first thing next week, and this second chance you’ve both been given will be gone.”
“Well, fuck,” he mumbles.
“Funny.” It wasn’t. “That’s exactly what Piper said. Night.”
CHAPTER 23
Seth
My first bollocks moment had come this morning as I’d waited for Piper to come downstairs from changing her clothes. I’d been looking at the fancy-arsed brunch Jackie had prepared, my mouth watering despite the fact it wasn’t the fry-up I’d requested the night before. Jacks, I think excited at Piper being with us, kept prattling at me about a grocery order I couldn’t have given a monkey’s fart about. And I don’t know why, because Piper had only done it a few times in the months we’d been together, but like a kick the balls it’d struck me that what I was looking at was the kind of meal she would snap with her phone and send to her friend. That had led me to the obvious but no less confronting realisation that she had an entire life in back in the U.S. Her friends, her family - and even though it took her anywhere - her job, all of them were in the States. Whatever half-cocked fantasy I’d had about Piper relocating permanently and staying with me in London had soured. Not only was I unsure if she’d even be open to the idea, I’d known then that I couldn’t ask that of her, knowing she’d be giving all of that up. Because what kind of right royal wanker expected the freedom to chase his own dreams at the expense of the woman he loved?
And then there was the blow-up we’d had in the kitchen. Wasn’t that a fucking delight? At least a one, two combo, it had been a stonking great kick to both the bollocks and the heart. And not just for me either apparently, but Piper, too.
But when that clueless prat had decided to walk to my place, because he’d had another client close by, instead of driving his bloody car like he’d been told, and therefore not getting into the house via the secure fucking garage? Jesus! That time they’d been kicked so hard they’d become a lump in my throat that I’d struggled to swallow back down. For hours. And not just because the physio bloke, Dev, or whatever his fucking name was, had led the rats to my front door like the Pied Piper of Cuntown. Or even that they’d gleefully taken the fucking bat to me when they’d got here. No.
What had fucked me up was that not only had they verbally attacked Piper, and disparaged her character, she was the one who’d then had to face them. After everything they insinuated about her integrity, she was the one who had stood out there, on her own, head held high, while politely and professionally telling them to kiss my arse.
What the fuck kind of life would we lead, if at every turn Piper was having to run interference with the press on my behalf? No, scratch that. Not the press, the paparazzi. Big, fucking difference.
And then finally, Jackie. Ever so eloquently, the woman who is more family to me than employee, gives them one last twist to top my day right off.
Meeting Piper has been the best thing that has ever happened to me, but loving Piper has changed my life. Not the wealth, not the notoriety, not the faux-fame. Piper. Bossy, stubborn, competent, and sexy as fuck, Piper.
So here’s where I’m at…what bloody good is having all the other shite, if seeking more of it, means I’ll lose her? Answer – none.
Dropping the skateboard I’ve been fidgeting with to the pavement, I know with certainty that all my goals up until now have been as fake as the business I’m in.
In the past few hours a different dream keeps floating through my mind, and each time it comes, I think it through a little further than I did the time before, and still, it keeps growing. Gaining traction and merit, even if at this point, in my mind only.
I laugh ruefully to myself as I lock the back door, remembering the first time we surfed together. How we’d sat close to each other on our boards and Piper had asked me what it was I wanted the most. Christ, still so completely blind, I’d told her it was to be taken seriously as an actor. What a poncy fucking wanker.
Easing into the most uncomfortable bloody chair known to man, I sit at the
base of the stairs, under the only lamp Jackie has left switched on. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I fire off an email to Alistair Westbrook, making sure to copy Rash in, too. That done, I then write a longer email, addressed only to my agent. It’s all over the shop, my thoughts and feelings spewing from my thumbs, but the intent of my message is there. Hitting sent, I turn off the lamp, and head upstairs.
Slowly opening the door to my bedroom, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. Figuring it about three p.m. in LA, my guess is Rash has already replied. Taking a quick look, his reply confirms everything I already know.
RASH:
Best decision you’ve made in years.
Whatever you need, I’m with you.
Stripping down to boxers, I take in the perfect form of the woman tangled in my sheets, her petite body sprawled over more of the mattress than should be possible, and I know that there is nothing I wouldn’t give up to keep her there.
Assuming she’ll have me.
CHAPTER 24
Piper
Still mostly asleep, I slowly reach behind me in search of Seth. It didn’t escape my notice yesterday that Jackie had put my bags in his room, and honestly with all that had gone down since being here, I didn’t want to be anywhere else. My fingers graze the muscled skin of his bare back, reassuring me that he did actually come to bed at some point, and I draw my hand back. There was a small part of me that had wondered last night if once he’d found me in here, if he’d sleep somewhere else. Then I remembered the night before at the hospital, all he’d done to keep me with him, and my worry vanished.
Eyes closed, not wanting to fully wake yet, I roll onto my back, and lift off my pajama top and drop it to the floor, before raising my hips to shimmy my shorts down my legs. Kicking them off, I leave them in a ball at the bottom of bedding. My body is thrumming, every nerve ending needing to be touched, demanding to join with his, and this morning I have no intention of denying it.
Rolling onto my side, I squirm against him, my lips kissing his shoulder as my nipples do the same to his back. My hand roams over his hip and down the outside of his thigh as his breathing changes, my touch rousing him from sleep. My nails scrape lightly across his abdomen, circling through his sexy trail, my hand dipping just below the waistband of his boxer briefs making his hips flex forward. Kissing across his skin in open-mouthed tastes, I rise up a little and nip his ear lobe, his resulting groan causing my pussy to pulse. I need Seth inside me, need him filling the empty ache I’ve felt every morning since he left. Gripping his dick in my palm, Seth moves to turn over, but his groan of pleasure changes to one of discomfort.
“Stay still, ok?” I whisper. “I’ve got this.”
“Ok.” His voice is husky from sleep and my pussy clenches again in response.
Working his cock my strokes are firm and sure, making my pressure tighter at the head, and because I’m impatient I’m not sparing on the twists. Seth rocks into my fist, and my own body follows, my mound and pussy rubbing against the soft cotton covering his firm ass. Giving attention to his balls, I know nothing gets him harder faster than me being needy, so I hold nothing back. Hot and heavy in my hand, he’s velvet skin over iron, and when I feel a drop of precum against my fist, I know he’s ready, too. Letting go of him, I pull the elastic of his underwear down under his ass, leaving it there until I can get them off properly.
“Ease onto your back for me.” My voice still a whisper, but deeper now, heavy with need.
Shifting back a little to give him room, I moan at the loss of his heat from the front of my body, the rush of cooler air stinging my nipples in an erotic agony. While he’s turning he’s pushing his underwear down onto the top of his thighs, and I reach back and switch on the lamp by the bed, the small bulb giving the otherwise dark room a dusky glow.
From his new position, Seth watches me through hooded eyes, and the moment our gazes meet he reaches out. Wordlessly encouraging me back to him with both his touch and his open expression, I go eagerly, stripping him completely of his underwear. Careful of the deep purplely pink blemishes across his shoulder, chest and upper hip, I straddle him, both of us groaning as I settle my wet sex on top of his fully erect length, my hands on the mattress under his armpits.
Kissing him while keeping most of my weight on his lap and my hands, Seth’s warm palms sculpt my breasts, teasing my nipples until his pinching roll of their extended points makes me gasp. Slick and aching, I push harder against him, his hands leaving my breasts to grip my hips, urging me to glide further and deeper against him. Panting into each other’s open mouths as Seth’s blunt head bumps against my clit, I rasp, “Condom?”
“No,” he growls.
Fuck.
As I try to think past the sex fog to remember if I brought my handbag up with me last night, Seth grits out, “Don’t need one. Don’t want one. I want just us, just you. Ok?”
Kissing him again until we’re both breathless, I lick the curve of his upper lip before I answer, “Very ok.”
Fingers trailing along the skin of my back, Seth pleads, “Put me inside you, Bubble, now.”
Knowing it will feed into his fixation as much as it will be easier on his injuries, I shift quickly, my knees still across his hips, but now my hands are planted on the outside of his calves and I look back at him over my shoulder.
“No, you put your dick in me, Seth. Now.” I say with a smirk.
Without further prompting, I watch as he lifts one hand to my ass, and then gripping his cock with the other, runs it through my soaked slit, before feeding me his thickest inch.
“Stop,” I moan, the pleasure of feeling him stretch me is so exquisite my eyes almost roll into the back of my head. “I’ve got this, remember?”
Smirking back at me, his hands move to hold the bottom of my feet at his sides. I spread my knees wider and dip my back, knowing my ass cheeks will open, exposing all of me and giving him a hell of a view.
“Oh…blllloody…hell!”
Mind you, watching his face over my shoulder, seeing him clench his teeth and breathe hard through his nose as I sink fully onto him is a pretty decent view, too.
“So, so beautiful, so fucking wet. Jesus, you feel incredible, Piper,” he pants, my pussy quivering at the open awe in his voice.
Too needy to start slow, I immediately fall into a pace that leaves no room for words only sounds. Closing my eyes and dropping my head, I’m swamped with so many new sensations. His long cock has always rubbed against my walls in just the right way, but whether it’s only my visual mind or the reality of him being bare, it’s like I can feel everything now. From the thick and ridged veins along his shaft, to the flared meaty rim of his head, Seth’s cock is the true celebrity in this room.
His hips begin to lift, meeting my own, and the give and take that has always been the way with us fills me with warmth, driving each other closer to the edge.
Pussy filled and as happy as fuck, my clit is burning. Tight and hot, the damn thing is almost pulsing an SOS. Whimpering with relief, because of course this man knows my body as well as I do, I feel his hand on my inner thigh as it glides between us, and his long fingers start massaging so firmly, my wetness runs and my thighs tremble.
I look back at him, jaw tight, forehead sweaty, his eyes lust blown and intense. Sexy British asshole. No, make that my sexy British asshole.
“Ahhh, yesss, God yes. Make me come, Seth, fuck, make me come.”
My orgasm is bearing down on me fast, so intense as it builds, I have to bite my lip to stop from screaming. Then Seth’s wet thumb breaches the tight ring of my asshole and I’m swamped with the sensual burn of it stretching and fucking me in the same way as his cock, while the fingers of his other hand keep working my clit, and overwhelmed with sensation, I give up trying to be quiet.
Joining me in waking the dead, Seth is cursing as my pussy grips and releases against him, my hips frenzied as my sphincter does the same to his thumb. Riding my own wave, I’m not sure I can take anymore, but then
I feel Seth’s cock kick and jerk inside me. The thought of his hot jizz splashing inside me, of no thin barrier stoping his cum from mixing with my own, has my arms giving out. The top of my body sprawls over the bottom of his legs, and I’m limp.
Seconds pass in satiated silence as Seth runs his palms all over my skin. Feet, calves, thighs and ass, his touch making me feel cherished as we both come down. I moan as he pulls out of me, feeling tender as he uses what must be his underwear to clean us up. When he’s done, he taps my foot, and reading his prompt, I crawl off his body on shaky limbs, Seth moving to his side, as I switch off the lamp. His long, lightly haired arm reaches for me, and I wiggle back against him. Little spoon is my favorite position after sex, something Seth learned without me ever telling him. Turning my face back to his, I’m asking to be kissed, but his face is already waiting, his lips expertly moving over mine. Dropping my head onto his bicep, his fingers combing through my hair has him breathing deep again, and matching my breaths to his, we drift back to sleep.
* * *
For the next day or so, things are more settled, or at least for the life we lead they are. I’ve been doing my job, Seth’s been doing his, and while we’ve shared a bed and our bodies every morning, there’s still an underlying tension between us. Or maybe that’s coming from me, and I’m the only one feeling some kind of way.
I can’t put my finger of it, but since the first morning we’d made love, Seth has been filled with a nervous, excited type of energy, and while I know most of his moods, this is a new one to me.
And to be blunt, I don’t know what the fuck to make of it.
He’s been talking with Ronald frequently and secretively, once quickly hanging up when I’d walked into the room. At first I thought it was about the play, nerves or something. Makes sense, right? Nope. Watching him as he’d spoken with Alistair on Thursday at the theatre, he’d been completely relaxed. Both men were.
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