The Titan Was Tall (Triple Threat Book 1)

by Kristen Casey

  Was Red in there right now? She’d gone out on a limb and made a copy of her key for him, something she’d never done before. Red had promptly turned around and sort-of ghosted her, acting like it was no big whoop.

  Maybe Piper was remembering wrong, and he hadn’t said he’d visit this week. In person, it was impossible to doubt the things he told her but after a few days away Piper began to question all kinds of things—such as her ability to recall basic information or whether she held any appeal for a man who assured her repeatedly that he was crazy about her.

  God. She had to stop acting like such a nitwit.

  Piper steeled herself, unlocked her own damn door, and swung it wide.

  Keys. On the table in the foyer, placed neatly in the wooden bowl that usually held hers. A trim black travel bag perched stolidly at the foot of her stairs. A dark suit jacket was folded lengthwise and slung over the banister. And total silence reigned.

  Piper waited on the threshold, listening for some sign of Red’s presence, her heart tripping along in double-time. There wasn’t a single creak or rustle or sigh to indicate he was here—nothing at all except his things.

  Maybe…maybe he’d seen that she was out, dropped off his stuff, and gone out again. But, no—his keys and car were still here. Piper stepped the rest of the way inside and closed the door behind her. She was assuming it was Red. Who else could it be? Even Kyle hadn’t had a key to this place.

  She dropped her keys and her phone into her pocket and set her purse and groceries on the floor. She slipped off her shoes and padded across the entryway with silent steps. Piper peeked into the living room, knowing she was being ridiculous, but unnerved by the pervasive quiet anyway.

  She didn’t see Red at first. It was only when she inched further into the room that she had a view of the front of her couch, and him.

  Her tension released her with a snap. Red was out cold, poor guy. Piper smiled and studied him unabashedly.

  His tall frame stretched from end to end on the couch, his arms folded on his chest, and his long legs crossed at the ankles. His polished wingtips were angled carefully to the side, where they wouldn’t get the upholstery dirty. The top button of his dress shirt was undone, his tie a little loose and his sleeves rolled to his elbows.

  Even like that, Red still looked perfectly put together, freshly showered and shaved, without a single errant piece of lint anywhere to be seen. Of course, he did. No wrinkle or speck of dust would dare defile His Majesty.

  Piper crept closer. Those forearms. Those wrists. Red’s big, beautiful hands—what was it about those elegant hands? She found them totally irresistible. She loved that she knew how sensitive the skin on his arms was—from wrist to elbow to shoulder, Piper could touch Red there and make this big, strong man tremble.

  She watched his face and chest, but he was so still, dead asleep while he waited for her. He must have been exhausted—she hadn’t been gone long enough for him to have waited more than a half hour or so.

  Piper tried to stay quiet—she’d always hated to wake someone that was sleeping so soundly. But she couldn’t quite keep her hands off Red, either. Where he was concerned, Piper was weak.

  She stood right next to the couch—right next to him. Reaching out, she touched her fingertips lightly to his hand, then ran them up his forearm. Red, who spoiled her lavishly and routinely said things too good to be true, was warm and soft and didn’t budge. She hadn’t felt attraction like this in so many years. Maybe ever.

  Piper turned aside, however. She had groceries to put away, and Red obviously needed to rest. But just like that, she was dragged back and landing on top of him. There was no time to gasp, much less scream—but Piper felt both those things stuck in her throat when she blinked down at him.

  Red gripped her waist and held her tightly against his belly. Grinning up at her, he winked and asked, “Miss me?”

  Cheeky bastard. Piper managed a nod, and he lifted her hand from his shoulder, kissed it, then pulled her head down so he could kiss her mouth. He held his lips still against hers and lingered a long moment, savoring her.

  And then Red kissed her for real. Hot, hard, hungry—his mouth opened under hers as if she’d missed the beginning and had been dropped smack into the middle of some very salty proceedings.

  She’d have to remember the way this felt. Piper could definitely use this in a book. In every book. If she could recreate this sensation somehow, her fans would go wild for it.

  “I really like having the key to your place,” Red said eventually. He murmured against her mouth, “Why does it feel so illicit?”

  “I have no idea. Maybe because you didn’t warn me you were coming?”

  “I thought it would be fun to surprise you. But I took the 5 a.m. shuttle to get to an eight o’clock meeting in D.C. and it must have caught up with me. Sorry.” Red yawned and stretched beneath her. “I almost waited for you upstairs, but I didn’t want to scare you.”

  Piper felt her cheeks flush.

  He touched one with his fingertips. “Damn. I scared you anyway, didn’t I?”

  “Only a little. I saw your stuff, but it was creepy-quiet in here, and I didn’t spot you right away.”

  Piper rolled against the cushions, cuddling up along Red’s side. His arms wrapped around her, and he let out a contented groan.

  Her feet encountered a large purring blob of fur near Red’s ankles, and it growled when she nudged it. Piper should have known—Fredo had already staked his claim and wasn’t about to be ejected by the likes of her.

  At Red’s chuckle, she rolled her eyes. “I see you’ve met Fredo,” she said.

  Red raised his head and smiled down at the sneaky gray beast. “I knew it was you, didn’t I, buddy?”

  Fredo squinted, then flopped over to look at them upside-down.

  “He actually let you pet him?”

  “No, I just wanted to say the line. He must have gotten comfortable once I was asleep.” Red kissed her on the temple. “But there are two, right? I haven’t seen the other one.”

  Piper glanced around the room, then smirked and pointed toward the stairs. She could just make out a black ear and some whiskers, where the other cat peeked between the stair rails at them.

  “There,” she pointed.

  Red called, “Here, kitty kitty,” and burst out laughing when they heard Sonny take off up the stairs. The sudden sound scared Fredo, who instantly leaped up and over the arm of the couch before disappearing, too.

  “At last, I have you alone,” Red drawled in a campy Dracula voice. He bent his head to nuzzle her neck.

  “I didn’t think you were coming,” Piper admitted softly.

  He reared back to look into her face. “I said I would.”

  “I know, but when I tried to pin you down, you either avoided the question or said you didn’t know. It seemed like maybe you’d changed your mind.”

  “I’m sorry,” Red said. “It was a crazy week and I wanted to surprise you. I didn’t think about how it might look from your end.”

  “Oh.”

  “You didn’t believe me, did you?”

  Piper objected, “Sure I did.”

  Red studied her face, then shook his head. “I don’t think that’s actually true.”

  Piper shrugged and moved to get off the couch, but he held her in place along his side.

  “I told you that you could trust me, Piper. I wasn’t just saying that to fill the time, you know.”

  “Just because people tell you something,” she said, swinging her legs over his lap so she could get to her feet, “Doesn’t make it true. If you want me to trust you so badly, then earn it.”

  “Man, that ex-fiancé did a number on you, didn’t he?” But then Red grinned, not intimidated in the least. “No biggie. Challenge accepted,” he said. And then he yawned so widely she could hear his jaw crack.

  “God, what time did you have to get up this morning?”

  “I don’t know. Three-something? I think. Everything is so
rt of hazy before about 7:45.”

  Piper laughed. “Why don’t you go up and crawl into bed for another couple of hours? I have to put away my groceries, but I’ll still be here when you wake up. I promise.”

  Red shook his head and sat up. “No way.” He shoved himself off the cushion, then clapped his hands briskly once he was upright. “I must’ve sacked out for thirty or forty minutes. I’m totally good to go now.”

  He tried to stifle his next yawn. When that didn’t work, Red reached up to scratch his neck and attempted to hide his gaping mouth against his sleeve. Piper raised her eyebrows at him.

  He said, “You know what? I will definitely be good as new once I shower and change into casual clothes.”

  “While you do that, I’ll brew some coffee,” she told him. “And maybe I’ll even make the box of tapioca I just bought at the store.”

  Red caught her in his arms and squeezed her tight. “See? You did think I was coming.”

  “I like to be prepared,” Piper said. “You never know.”

  There was a sudden commotion in her front hall that sounded an awful lot like the cats had found the grocery bags. Piper shooed Red away and went to save her food.

  Cats vs. Bags, however, turned out to have nothing on the destruction she found in her kitchen. It seemed that her surprise visitor had not come empty-handed—there was a big bouquet of hot-pink roses in a vase on her counter.

  Red could not have known about the long-standing blood-feud between Sonny and Fredo and anything botanical, however. The evidence was everywhere. There were shreds of leaves strewn across the counter and floor, edges nibbled off several blooms, and at least three puddles of shockingly pink vomit on the tile.

  Piper sighed, grabbed the paper towels, and rushed to clean up as much of the mess as possible before Red returned.

  HE WAS A shockingly fast bather, sauntering into her kitchen with damp hair and flushed cheeks before the pot of coffee had even finished brewing. The scent of his soap mixed quite nicely with the sugary smell of the pudding Piper was stirring on the stove, and her brain tumbled headlong into a dirty cavalcade of images involving Red, a bath, and tapioca.

  She cleared her throat. Red looked up from the ragged rose he was touching.

  “Feeling better?” she asked.

  “Much. And I also didn’t spot any water on the floor up there. Did you get that plumber out already?”

  “Yup, he came out yesterday. He said the valve under the sink was cracked, so he replaced it.”

  Red nodded. “Good. Good,” he said. “What about the pipes?”

  “Status unchanged,” Piper responded. “How about some coffee?”

  He accepted both the mug and the change in topic with good grace, then sank into a chair and looked around cheerfully. Red fit so perfectly there, which was strange considering what a recent addition to her life he was.

  “How long can you stay?” Piper wondered.

  “Until Sunday—I have a few things early Monday that I have to get back for.”

  “Damn, I was going to call you in sick and fly you to Florida on my private jet that day,” she sulked, snapping her fingers. “Oh well. Maybe next time.”

  TWENTY

  MONDAY MORNING, RED was back at his desk and fresh off a conference call with some of the biotech managers when Rob stuck his head in and begged for another meeting.

  Trident’s point man looked positively gray when he intoned, “We…have a bit of a problem.”

  Red sighed. His post-Piper high had lasted less than twenty-four hours, and he had no idea how soon he would be able to see her again. “Rob, why do you always say that?”

  “Because that’s what you pay me the big bucks for?”

  “Right. And we’ve had some version of this conversation, what—ten or twenty times now?”

  “Give or take.”

  “Okay, so why does the look on your face make me happy I’m sitting down right now?” Red wondered.

  “This is an emergency. You remember that conversation we had a while ago?” After a loaded pause, he added, “About those diverted Trident funds?”

  “How could I forget?” The problem had been simmering at the back of Red’s brain, making him antsy while he waited for the other shoe to drop. He hadn’t followed up with Rob yet because he’d wanted to give the man and his team time to do their damn jobs.

  But Red had also been distracted, chasing like a rutting deer after the first intriguing woman he’d met in an eternity. If he’d been in his right mind, he would’ve comprehended that this little headache wouldn’t stay quiet for long.

  “Well, I have some more information for you.” Rob slid a chart across Red’s desk and pointed. “See here?”

  Red’s stomach dropped. “They were stealing royalties?”

  “Yeah. That’s putting it mildly.” He shuffled some papers and place a second paper on top of the first.

  Red stared down at the numbers in front of him. Too many numbers. Attached to one very inconvenient name.

  “From Miss Corelli,” he stated, though the words tasted like gravel on his tongue.

  Rob nodded. “I mean, who else were the Dentons going to steal from? She’s the only one who was making them any real money.”

  “Fuck.” Red massaged his forehead. This could not be happening. This. Could not. Be. Happening.

  Rob started babbling, “Right? We have to tell her. How are we going to tell her? Maybe we shouldn’t. Shit, no. What am I saying? That’s crazy pants. Of course, we have to.”

  “Get a grip,” Red said, needing to shut the man up so he could goddamn think. “Obviously we are going to tell her. But…”

  He flexed his fingers, then drummed them on those disastrous charts. He shifted in his chair and blinked. Red tried out every nervous tic known to man, attempting to puzzle out how the hell he could fix this clusterfuck without ruining his chances with the one woman he was over the moon for.

  Rob waited, looking peaked.

  “Okay. We do have to tell her,” Red said, feeling his way forward. “But have your people keep this under wraps for just a little bit, until I can figure out if I can line up a few new investors to get us past the worst of it. When we do go to Corelli, I want to make sure we have a game plan in place for how she’s going to get her money back.”

  “Red, this goes back years,” Rob said darkly. “It’s a lot of freaking cash.”

  “I fucking know that, Robert.”

  “Keeping it from her is a bad idea. We could be opening ourselves up to litigation.”

  “Also aware of that.”

  “And you still think this is a good idea?”

  He wasn’t sure at all. But what other choice did Red have? He could not bring this to Piper without having a no-fail strategy to offer her as well. God damn it.

  “No one finds out about this. You hear me?” Red said. “This whole thing is on fucking lockdown as of right the fuck now.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  Red had never threatened an employee in all his years at PKM, but he was sorely tempted to do it now. Instead, he muttered, “I know you will. Don’t let me down.”

  RED’S ABYSMALLY LONG day finally dragged into night, but it wasn’t the early autumn darkness blanketing the city outside his office windows that eventually drove him toward home. It was his bone-deep exhaustion.

  On his way down to the lobby, he stopped the elevator at Rob’s floor and wasn’t the least bit surprised to find all the lights on and most of the team still hunched over their desks.

  He sent them all home, too.

  Downstairs, he pushed his way out of the revolving door fronting PKM’s main lobby but stalled once he hit the sidewalk. Rush hour was over, the pretzel vendor who usually worked that part of the block was long gone, and the usual throng of weekday commuters had dispersed.

  Red stood there, warming his hands in his pockets and trying to decide what to do. He’d forgotten to send for his car and didn’t want to mess with hailing a c
ab. Instead, Red turned north and hoofed it up Broadway, his steps decimating block after block while his brain circled through the same excruciating loop it’d been in all day.

  Eventually, he came to the Canal Street station, so he trotted down the steps and climbed aboard the next train heading toward home. For once, Red was happy Piper didn’t live here in the city. If she had, he’d almost certainly end up on her doorstep, and that would be a bad plan.

  He had no idea how he was going to keep this secret from her, but the idea of telling her without having a ready solution to ease her mind seemed like an even worse proposition. Piper had enough to worry about with the leaking pipes at her house and the new series being drafted. This was one thing Red could take off her plate. A nuisance he could spare her.

  It was a totally logical assessment of the situation, so it begged the question—why did it still feel so fucking horrible? Red marinated in that uncomfortable feeling for what felt like an infinity, one more New Yorker in a sea of them, slouched on the subway while it screeched through the tunnels at the end of the day.

  Once he hit Chelsea, Red got off the train and walked the last three blocks to his building. His loft was too quiet and too full of ugly things that he could no longer ignore. Now, Red despised every garish thing in the place—and there was a whole hell of a lot of them.

  He grabbed a beer from the fridge, dropped onto the stupid couch, and groaned. He had Piper to thank for his sudden disaffection with his own home.

  Inside his jacket, his cell started ringing, and he groaned again. He wanted it to be Piper, wanted to hear her sweet voice, wanted to tease her and be comforted by her. Red wasn’t sure he could do it, though, not right now.

  Right before the call shuttled over into voicemail, he regretted his cowardice and fumbled the phone out—but it wasn’t her. Instead, it was Luca, and he hung up before Red could answer.

  Between the New York/Rome time difference and Luca’s crazy hours at the hospital where he worked, Red didn’t get to talk to his old friend as much as he’d like to. However, if there was ever a time when he could use the man’s sage advice, it was now. Red dialed him back and breathed a sigh of relief when Luca answered on the first ring.