Red winced, pulled a handkerchief from his jacket, and rubbed at the lipstick she left behind. Rachel’s perfume was strong enough that Piper had to breathe through her mouth. Red would probably need to dry-clean his suit three times to get rid of the smell.
Piper couldn’t believe the other woman’s lack of restraint, but who was she to talk? She’d been hot and heavy with the “dear leader” within a day of meeting him—the man whose company had bought out her publisher. The top banana, the boss of bosses.
Maybe Rachel was no worse than Piper was. Office romances were a favorite novel trope for a reason, after all. Bosses like Red, powerful and confident, were hot.
In a breathy, boozy purr, Rachel griped about having to come all the way in from Brooklyn unexpectedly. “You could at least make it worth a girl’s while,” she said to Red, waving her empty plastic wineglass around.
She was clearly three sheets to the wind and Red sent Piper a desperate look. She shrugged—it wasn’t like she could stake a claim in front of everyone. He was on his own.
And that meant she had to watch the woman continue to hit on Red. All the while, Piper was noticing Rachel’s curiously-dated hairstyle, her chipped nail polish, and the lipstick on her teeth.
The other author had always been a bit over the top, but she was a mess tonight, even for her. Her manner was coy and her banter heavy on the innuendo, but Rachel was giving off a disturbingly brittle vibe. She looked painfully thin. Piper frowned, trying to figure out what was going on with her.
Red didn’t give Rachel much, despite her striving. Eventually it dawned on her, and she broke awkwardly away again, sashaying around the room with a languid, one-foot-in-bed gait. Between knocking back glasses of wine, Rachel draped herself on a panicked-looking guy from the legal department, a burly security guard, and Wayne.
Red’s assistant was not amused. Unceremoniously, Wayne pulled the woman to the side of the room and gave her a stern talking to. Seconds later, he handed Rachel her wrap and clutch and pointed her toward the door.
Piper was still loitering beside Red, doing her best to look casual, when Rachel detoured over to say goodbye. Rachel’s kiss landed sloppily left of center, thanks to Red jerking his face aside just in the nick of time. He pulled the woman away and steadied her on her heels.
Piper couldn’t stand to watch anymore, so she turned and wandered resolutely away from them. She had never liked Rachel much, but now that dislike had grown into outright loathing. It wasn’t fair that Rachel got to hug and kiss Red, and Piper couldn’t. How long would it be, anyway, before she and Red could go public? Would they ever be able to?
Speaking of Mr. Tall, Buff, and Bossy…it was hard to ignore the way this whole evening was getting under Piper’s skin and setting off warning bells. The parallels to her last date with Kyle were beating her over the head with each moment more she had to be there.
There was the way the PKM employees bantered with Red, like they’d been friends for years. And there was the way that Rachel’s advances engendered more amusement than anger in him. Hell, Piper had only learned that morning that he had two best friends—or what their names were—and she’d been dating Red for weeks.
Forced to watch him from the sidelines, Piper had seen a different version of Red tonight, one that was unknown to her. It felt like she knew him so well, but that was just an illusion, wasn’t it? When Piper visited, she and Red spent most of their time alone. For all she knew, he could be living out a whole other life when she wasn’t in New York.
After all, no one understood better than her that just because someone said they were honest, didn’t make it true. Did truly trustworthy people walk around telling people to trust them all the time? No, they did not. They didn’t have to.
Which gave Piper a lot to think about.
Red found her near the food table about fifteen minutes later. “Shake it off,” he said calmly, sensing her unease. “Rachel acts trashy, but I think she’s essentially harmless.”
Piper had been studying people for a lifetime, though, letting her heart and mind work together to discover what made them tick. And with Rachel, the calculation was always there, lurking just under her innocuous barfly façade.
Piper didn’t trust her. Not around her man, and not around her business.
Red disappeared a while later, leaving her alone at the party that he’d meant to be a good surprise. He sent his driver in soon after, though, to fetch Piper with a handwritten note.
For the second time that day, she took her own sweet time obeying his summons. It would do Red good to realize that not everyone was at his beck-and-call all the time. Piper used the facilities, touched up her lipstick, and said goodbye to Lyla and Wayne. Then she left.
The underground garage was cold when she came out of the elevator, the autumn bite in the air worse now that the sun had been down for a while. Red stood next to the car, hands in his pockets, waiting for her. When he noticed her shiver, he immediately removed his jacket to drape around her shoulders.
Piper gathered her composure around her like his coat while the car pulled up the ramp and out onto the street, then told Red, “You have a lot of explaining to do, mister.”
She was surprised and worried about the Millhouse deal, for sure. Piper couldn’t believe Red hadn’t warned her, knowing how she felt about the company. But she was also furious about Rachel’s skeevy performance, and at herself for letting her guard down so soon.
“Oh, do I?”
“Red, I’m serious. You shouldn’t have let Rachel hang all over you like that. But more importantly, we need to talk about this Millhouse thing.”
“I don’t want to talk right now,” he replied. “Pretending to barely know you tonight was murder. Stop scowling and kiss me.”
“You’re really freaking bossy, you know that?” she fumed.
Red grinned. “Better be careful, Piper Mae. If you keep that up, I’ll have you tied to my bed in two minutes flat, so I can boss that sass right out of you. You’ll be begging me to tell you what to do, then—begging me to let you scream my name, to let you touch me, to let you climax…”
Piper nearly swallowed her own tongue. “Wh—what?”
Red’s voice was full of dusky promise. “Just try me.”
She pressed her knees together against the rush of desire that swamped her at his tone. His mouth twitched as he stared at her. He touched his fingers to her chin, and she squirmed on her seat at the contact. All thoughts of walling off her heart and giving him what for flew right out the window.
“Dear Lord,” he muttered, sounding stunned. “Don’t tell me you actually like that idea, too? You want that?”
TWENTY-FOUR
RED STARED AT Piper in shock. She sat next to him in the back of the semi-dark car, looking like a glowing jewel against the charcoal smudge of streets moving past the window behind her.
“I think I do,” she whispered.
The thought of her in restraints was almost unbearably seductive, and that went double for tonight, when Red was feeling so untethered. He should’ve known his surprise would play out differently than he’d planned. There were simply too many moving parts.
His logic-loving brain was scrambling, trying to make sense of it, and lately that was becoming a common refrain.
Red gripped the edge of the leather seat and held on so he wouldn’t do something stupid—like truss Piper up with his goddamn necktie. He needed to get the lay of the land first. Make sure she was okay.
After all, the need to act like disinterested business acquaintances tonight—annoying all on its own—had had an unintended consequence. Flying solo at the PKM party, as it turned out, had cleared the way for Rachel Wilbon to try out all her wiles on him. Without her agent to rein her in, Rachel’s efforts to seduce him into submission had progressed from mildly bothersome to outright inappropriate.
It might have been laughable if Piper hadn’t been forced to watch the whole fucking farce. And, while his secret girlfriend cer
tainly hadn’t enjoyed that, Red could safely say that he’d liked it even less. Jesus—he could still smell Rachel’s overwhelming perfume, occasionally drifting up from his jacket when he moved.
When charm hadn’t worked, Rachel had tried to strong-arm Red into keeping her on at Trident, predicting all sorts of doom and destruction if he tried to get rid of her. Which, honestly, merely confirmed for Red what he already knew—if Rachel had a new project in the works at all (something he doubted) it was not going well.
He’d said as much. The floor show took a right turn into the ludicrous.
Eyes narrowed to black-rimmed slits, Rachel had hissed, “You think you’re so high and mighty, Red MacLellan, but you’re not. You’re on very, very thin ice and you don’t even know it.”
He’d laughed. Of course, he had. Red had been deflecting pissed-off, spurned women for nearly his entire adult life. Rachel was the exact opposite of terrifying to him.
“Rachel, you’ve had too much to drink,” he’d fired back. “You know what our deal is, and you know what you have to do to stay on at Trident. Now knock off the vaudeville act before you say something you can’t take back.”
Red had tried to walk away then, tried to head casually in Piper’s direction so he could find some way to flirt inconspicuously with her, or to touch her silky skin without anyone noticing.
Rachel had sunk her nails into his arm, though, keeping him in place for one more salvo. “You’ll regret this. You’ll be sorry you ever belittled me.”
Red had been riding the buzz of success, however. He’d smiled his coldest, fakest smile, and assured her, “That is never going to happen.”
That buzz had faded now. Next to him was the woman he wanted, and Piper could try to seduce him all night long if she so chose. Sadly, Red suspected they had a couple of things to get out of the way first.
He’d watched her all through Anika’s speech, and his big surprise hadn’t, in fact, put a happy expression on Piper’s face. Red had thought, given the way she’d talked about Millhouse & Rock, that handing them to her on a silver platter would be a pretty spectacular offering. The Dentons might not have been able to give Piper a huge distribution deal with the bookstore chain, but PKM could—and had.
So why hadn’t she looked excited? Once Red had a chance to explain all the details, Piper would understand precisely how the deal benefited her. She had undoubtedly figured that part out already.
Therefore, maybe this wasn’t about Millhouse—maybe her somber mood had more to do with having to play it cool in front of all their colleagues tonight. Maybe this was about Rachel glomming onto him like a cheap suit for half the party.
If Red had to bet, he’d guess that Piper had not only been uncomfortable with the cloak and dagger routine, she was perhaps a bit jealous of her fellow author.
Now that they were alone, Red was free to put her mind at ease on both those scores. And, once he had her tied to his bed, she’d be singing a happier tune in no time.
Red hadn’t attempted much kink with her yet because Piper just hadn’t seemed the type, despite the steaminess of her backlist. The few half-assed attempts he had made hadn’t exactly gone according to plan.
It was something of a surprise that Piper was suddenly into the idea of a little bondage now. Red was quick on his feet, though. He recovered as quickly as he could.
“If you really want this, little dove,” he told her now, “I am willing and able to make it happen. Tonight, even.”
The way Piper had done her makeup earlier made her pretty amber eyes look smoky and exotic in the irregular illumination from the streetlights. Her gaze went wide at Red’s offer, and her nervous swallow seemed loud in the quiet confines of the car.
She nodded in agreement. “Okay. Yes,” she said. “Let’s do that.”
Red’s dick stood at attention, and he willed it to calm the fuck down. Its services weren’t needed quite yet, but if he did his job well, tonight could be the start of many such evenings. Maybe, if Piper liked—no, loved—how this went, it could be a regular thing for them.
Dream come true.
TRUST, OR LACK thereof, was obviously a big deal for Piper. As it turned out, that was kind of convenient—if Piper was questioning his commitment after that crap with Rachel, it wouldn’t last much longer. Red had been telling Piper all along that she was the only one for him, and now he’d make that message stick.
He knew clear as day that Piper was no submissive, but he thought a lesson or two from his bag of tricks could be the thing that finally turned the tide between them. Perhaps this would help prove to her that she could depend on him—that she could trust the things he told her.
Piper was balanced on the edge of Red’s mattress, watching him warily while he retrieved the gear they’d need from a shelf in his closet. Red set it beside her and helped her to her feet. While he busied himself slipping that insidiously sexy gown off her shoulders, she started in with the questions.
“Wait, you actually have a box of stuff? Just hanging around the house?”
Red grinned at her and ran his fingers over the thin cords lacing up the front of her black strapless bra and the sides of her matching panties. The design was devilishly appropriate. “Yup.”
“So, you’ve done this before. Obviously.”
“You could say that.” He leaned down and leisurely tasted her mouth, getting a hint of the red wine she’d had at the party, and maybe something sweeter.
“But like, often enough to have your own equipment, though?”
“Clearly,” Red pointed out. “Now sit here.” His heart was thumping out a relentless drum solo, and he marveled that Piper couldn’t hear it. She would probably have questions about that, too.
Red had never used the restraints on his own bed before, but luck was on his side and he got them set up relatively efficiently. After that, he spread Piper out and worked slowly and gently on each of her wrists, and then her ankles. Red explained carefully how she could release the restraints herself, until he was certain that she understood.
“How are we doing?” he murmured, stepping back to take in the picture she presented. She looked…heart-stoppingly perfect.
Piper’s expression was a little uncertain. Her breath hitched a bit when she said, “All right,” even though she smiled tentatively at him.
That was to be expected. She was nervous and so was he, but Red would prove to her that she could count on him implicitly. He’d never let her down.
He tested everything, making sure it was firm, but not too tight, then reached for the blindfold he’d pulled out. The look in Piper’s eyes turned a little wild when she saw it, though, so Red jammed the length of fabric in his pocket, sat beside her and kissed her neck—right where he knew she was the most sensitive.
She trembled a bit when his lips made contact. Red reconsidered, scrapping the idea of the blindfold altogether. He didn’t want to overload Piper with too much, too soon. If this went well, there’d be plenty of time later to try other things.
“Got any other dark secrets up your sleeve?” she tried to joke.
Red paused, thinking of the storm brewing at Trident. This was not the time, however. He murmured, “All in due time, little dove. All in due time.”
He dropped another light kiss on Piper’s luscious mouth, then moved over to his dresser. He stalled at the open top drawer for a few minutes, looking over the few items he had stashed there—things that had never made it into the rotation with anyone else. He wanted this to be perfect.
Red already had a pretty good idea which toys might intensify Piper’s pleasure without scandalizing her. He reviewed them now, making extra sure he chose well.
Anticipation lay heavy along his spine. His nerves sparked and jumped. Red was determined to do right by her, to win Piper over to the bondage game come hell or high water.
His reverie was broken suddenly, though, when his ears picked up the change in Piper’s breathing, jarring against the soft music he had playing on t
he sound system. Red spun around.
One look at her Piper’s face told him everything he needed to know. She was freaking out—sucking in gasping breaths like she might start hyperventilating, eyes feral, face suddenly damp with tears. Red was horrified. How the fuck had that happened so fast?
In two strides, he was back at the bed. He released Piper’s ankles since he’d gotten there first, but she was already twisting at her wrists, pulling with panicky jerks of her arms that basically ensured she’d never get free.
“Whoa. It’s okay, baby. You’re okay,” Red told her. He moved to her wrists as fast as he could. “Shh, I got you. It’s okay.” It was a dumb comment, though. She was obviously not okay. “Piper honey, what happened?”
Defensively, she drew up her knees while his shaking fingers worked on the buckles. She couldn’t seem to force actual words out, and she wouldn’t maintain any eye contact with him.
“Please,” she gasped. “I can’t get out.” There was more, but the rest was mostly incomprehensible. For fuck’s sake, her teeth were chattering.
Red finally got her free, regardless. He hated how he had to hold each arm still with a pretty solid grip just to do it, though. He hated the way Piper curled in on herself like a bug, quivering in a tight, terrified ball in the middle of his mattress. God damn it.
Red yanked at the hem of the heavy down duvet, tucking it snugly around her even though it was plenty warm in the room.
“Piper, honey,” he tried again. “What happened? Did you forget how to free yourself?”
Slowly, he slid onto the side of the bed, sitting carefully beside her. He didn’t try to touch her yet. She was still eyeing him like a cornered animal.
“I couldn’t get out,” she whimpered, burrowing deeper into her cocoon. “It wouldn’t work.”
Red stroked a gentle hand down her shaking back and studied her. Something inside his chest was squeezed so tight, he wondered if he was heading for a total meltdown himself. What had he done? Where had he gone wrong?
The Titan Was Tall (Triple Threat Book 1) Page 26