The Titan Was Tall (Triple Threat Book 1)

by Kristen Casey

  “You got scared?” he asked. But that was moronic—it was plenty apparent she had. “By what?” he tried.

  No answer. Nothing but a shiver.

  “By me?”

  Red wasn’t sure but he thought maybe Piper shrugged.

  “Honey, please believe me. I would never hurt a single hair on your head—not in a million years. I adore you, you must know that.” It sounded lame, given the circumstances.

  “I’m sorry,” she hiccupped, not quite sobbing, but not quite breathing right, either. Piper’s eyes were enormous muddied pools, filling up and spilling over every couple of seconds. Red felt like an ogre, and he hadn’t even done anything but turn his back.

  “No, don’t be sorry.” he petted her hair, smoothing the thick silken fall of it across her shoulder. “I’m the one who’s sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” she murmured soggily, gripping the covers tights around her like a shield.

  “Piper…” Red shook his head, utterly poleaxed by this turn of events. She was a damn erotic romance author—hell, she’d probably written five books or more about BDSM relationships. How could this even be happening right now? Then something awful occurred to him.

  “Have you done this before?” he forced himself to ask. “And had a bad experience, maybe?” If some bastard—that Kyle character, perhaps—had roughed her up while she couldn’t fight back, Red swore on all that he held holy he would find the fucker and end him.

  “No, never.” Piper peeked at him with watery, blinking eyes. Her breathing was settling down, at least.

  “If this was your first time,” Red floundered, casting around for what to say, “then you didn’t know this would happen, huh?”

  Piper shook her head emphatically.

  Naturally, she hadn’t known—she wouldn’t have agreed to it, otherwise. Mentally, Red berated himself. He was, undeniably, a venal motherfucker to have ever thought this would work. Piper was simply too damn sweet, even if she did know all the filthy words.

  Slowly, carefully, Red pulled and lifted her, nestling Piper securely in his lap. He cradled her in his arms, surrounding her gently with his warmth and strength, trying to protect her from all her fears—even the one of him.

  It hurt like hell to do it, but Red stayed alert for any sign at all that she didn’t want to be there, that Piper needed her space from him. She rested her head on his shoulder, though, and relaxed into his hold.

  “I am so, so sorry you got scared, little dove. I shouldn’t have left you alone for even a minute on your first time. I should’ve stayed with you and explained what I was doing. I don’t know,” he fumbled, “I just…I really didn’t intend for it to go this way.”

  “Not as hot as I thought it would be,” Piper agreed dryly.

  “No,” Red laughed, relieved to see the color coming back to her cheeks. “It wasn’t. I feel awful. What can I do for you?”

  Piper simply said, “This.”

  Yes, this, this connection between them. This was good. This was right. It had to be, because it was all Red could offer until Piper decided to forgive him for his lapse. If she decided to forgive him.

  After a long quiet while, Red asked her, “Can we talk about what just happened a little more?”

  Piper’s gaze skated away from his. Her jaw was set but as he studied her, Red saw her lip quivering the tiniest bit.

  He stated the obvious. “You were afraid?”

  Her beautiful eyes flicked to his. Her lovely throat moved as she swallowed. Yes. She was.

  “Of me?” Red cupped her cheek and turned her face to his.

  She nodded and turned away.

  After that spanking thing, he’d been careful to reassure Piper that pain was not a part of this package. Either she didn’t believe him, or there was more at play here.

  Red couldn’t let her withdraw, though, not if they were going to work out what had gone wrong. They needed to clear the air so this wouldn’t dog them going forward.

  “I’ll say it, okay?” He nudged her chin, so Piper would look at him again. “So you won’t have to. You’re afraid I’m lying. That I’ll really hurt you, or worse. And you’re scared you won’t be able to do anything about it.”

  Piper’s tawny eyes were watery, glittering like topaz in her precious face.

  “Maybe you were afraid I’d leave—walk out and strand you, alone and powerless. And then maybe someone else would find you and make you feel ashamed for what I did. Add in humiliation on top of everything else.”

  She watched Red quietly but didn’t say anything.

  “Am I close?” Nothing. “Piper? Am I close?” Red caressed her cheek, suspecting that he was not only close, but spot on.

  Finally, she admitted softly, “It’s not just you. I barely trust anyone.”

  Red nodded. Finally. “I know, honey. But I want you to trust me.”

  “I can’t.”

  “You can. That’s what all this was supposed to prove. The control thing—it’s arousing, sure. I love being the one who gets you off. And I would love being in control of how much, how soon…just how. I want to play your body like a fucking instrument and make it sing.”

  Red trailed a fingertip down the center of her chest and watched Piper shiver.

  “But I only want that if it means you truly trust me—not to leave, not to hurt, not to lie. If it means you actually let yourself be vulnerable with me.” He picked up her hand and kissed her palm. “If you believed that I wasn’t going to disappear if you were in a bad mood, or you gained a few pounds, or you got wrinkles or gray hair, then you might open yourself up to what’s possible between us…what I know in my bones we could be together.”

  “So, it’s all about me,” Piper said dubiously.

  “Not just you,” Red explained. “I need you to trust me, too. I need to be the man that won’t leave you, won’t hurt you, and won’t lie. I need to be the person you can depend on. It would feel incredible, knowing that I earned that privilege. That I can be that for you if you let me.”

  “Why?”

  “Why do I like to do things this way? Or why with you?”

  “Probably both.”

  Red was petting her skin the way he’d soothe a panicked animal, but it seemed to be helping.

  “Maybe you were right. Maybe all this domineering crap stems from not having control of some of the important stuff. I’ve been thinking about it, and I guess it makes as much sense as anything. Or maybe…I don’t know, Piper, maybe this is just the way I’m built.”

  “Bossy,” Piper sighed. “Then what about me? Why choose me?”

  “Because, Piper, I suspected you were the one for me the second I laid eyes on you. After feeling nothing but irritation or indifference for women for years—years—my mind and my body and my heart all stood at attention when you walked in my office that day. They woke up, came alive, and said, yes.”

  “Oh, Red.” She snuggled closer.

  “Piper—” God, this part was trickier, because it was too damn soon, but Red had to rid her of her anxiety like he needed air. “—my soul knew you, too. Reached right out and declared, Mine. Don’t you feel it?”

  “Maybe. Honestly, I’m not sure what I’m feeling, at the moment.”

  Red nodded. Understandable. “Why do I suspect there’s something else, too?”

  Once again, Piper kept quiet, like that would stop him. Like it could keep him out as it’d probably kept out all the other men she’d known.

  “Say it, honey.”

  “I just don’t understand,” she relented in a rush, “what’s wrong with me. Why can’t I just…”

  Red was too impatient to let her finish. He was so furious with her goddamn father, or Kyle, or whoever, for saddling Piper with this insecurity, he’d like to obliterate them with his bare hands.

  “Why can’t you catch a nice man—one who won’t want difficult things from you?” he demanded gently. “How about a guy who won’t push you? Maybe he’ll let you hide somewhere safe where
you won’t have to worry about getting hurt. I doubt you’d see much of each other, though.”

  Piper winced.

  “That guy’s not me, Piper Mae. If I’m going to have you, I want all of you. Not some cardboard cutout that only looks like you. Where’s the fun in that? We’d be no better than a couple of wax figures in a museum that way.”

  “You seemed like a stranger tonight,” she whispered quietly. “Someone I didn’t know. And not just because we had to pretend at the party. It was…realizing you had all these friends that know you better than I do. This life that I’m not a part of most of the time. Not to mention, boxes of secret toys stashed around.”

  Red arched a brow at her.

  “When you turned away before, all I could think was, Who is this guy? I don’t even know him. It freaked me out.”

  “Oh, Piper,” Red said sadly, “What the hell did that asshole Kyle do to you?”

  “Enough,” she said.

  “How long am I going to have to pay for it?”

  “You don’t.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Piper’s eyes were wide. She looked so gorgeous, so sweetly vulnerable in the center of his big bed, that Red had to turn away for a moment to compose himself.

  “Hell, Piper. Look at me. You’ve already got me wrapped around your little finger. I’ll pay whatever I have to if it means I get to keep you.”

  She didn’t quite look like he’d convinced her, but at least she looked stable and whole again.

  Red nudged away the closest restraint, lying black and damning against the pale covers. “We obviously need to table this idea, anyway.”

  “No, I…I don’t want to,” Piper said. “Now that we’ve talked more about it, I’ll be fine next time. I swear. Maybe not tonight, but soon.”

  “I’d rather you be something a bit less neutral than fine.”

  Piper huffed in annoyance. “Okay. How about this? You’re a total sex god and I definitely want you to have your wicked way with me. Next time.”

  Red gave her his wickedest grin, since she’d asked so nicely. “Okay, sweetheart. You have a deal. And you are definitely going to be invoking God by the time I’m through with you.”

  TWENTY-FIVE

  THEY STAYED IN on Sunday morning because Red was expecting yet another delivery—and it turned out to be two comfortable couches of soft caramel-colored leather for his living room, as well as a couple of other nondescript boxes that the movers set in the corner.

  The guys carted away the hard, white couches on their way out. Piper wondered where they would take them—some modern, high-end bridal boutique, perhaps? Or would it be Gina MacLellan’s garage? Not that it mattered. Piper was just happy to see them gone.

  After they ate a late, lazy breakfast, Red produced several large and sturdy boxes from his study. Then he commandeered Piper’s help in gathering up all the assorted lamps and strange, misshapen pieces of sculpture from the main rooms. They packed them all up for the movers to fetch later that week.

  The new cartons were next on Red’s to-do list. When he cut them open, Piper saw that they contained new lamps for the apartment, in understated mercury glass and simple bronze. Before her eyes, Red’s loft was undergoing a transformation, and Piper admired the way it was finally becoming a space that truly reflected its owner. She already felt more comfortable in the living room and hoped he would, too.

  By late afternoon, they were tired and ready to call it quits. The autumn sun was sinking low behind the buildings outside, throwing the living room into darkness. Red left the new lamps unlit—commenting wryly that there was still plenty of ugliness left to banish, despite the hill of boxes stacked near the front door.

  Lights were beginning to wink on in the buildings outside his windows. Piper turned on the bulb over the stove, then grabbed a bottle of wine and two glasses from the kitchen counter. When she turned back, Red had turned on the television, and its pale ghostly glow illuminated the rest of the cavernous space.

  Red sank onto one of the new couches and used the remote to cue up the spy thriller they’d decided to watch. Then, he sprawled back and watched Piper walk over.

  She set the bottle and wine glasses on the plexiglass coffee table and wondered how long it would be before Red replaced that, too. Not long, she’d guess. It stuck out like a sore thumb, now that the items around it had been changed.

  She went to sit next to him.

  “Wait,” Red burst out. This close, Piper could see how determined he looked. He stood and moved behind her, wrapping an arm around her waist and leaning down to murmur in her ear. His mouth was hot against her skin.

  “Close your eyes,” Red told her.

  Piper did as he asked but wished she could hide the way she was suddenly shaking. It made no sense. She loved when Red touched her. Still, she couldn’t help wondering what he intended to do. After last night’s failed escapade, everything felt…ambiguous.

  He’d absolutely noticed, of course. Red made a reassuring sound against her cheek, then kissed her softly.

  “It’s okay, little dove,” he whispered. “I promise. Nothing scary, okay?”

  Piper swallowed hard, hating that her confidence had failed her, that she needed a minute to decide. Why couldn’t she be different? More like the Antoinette Corelli people expected?

  With feather-light fingertips, Red caressed her shoulders and arms.

  “Piper?” he asked again. “Will you trust me?” His voice cracked just the smallest amount, and that was what finally did it. The infinitesimal flash of vulnerability in a man so in charge of everything else—it demolished her reservations.

  Piper nodded, squeezing her eyes shut again. Red’s fingers moved deftly down the buttons of her shirt, undoing them so he could slip it from her shoulders and set it aside.

  “Oh, honey,” he murmured, unbuttoning her jeans, too. When he pushed them down her legs, he took her panties along with them. Piper stood there with her knees quivering, like she was a skittish cat about to bolt.

  She waited for Red to unclasp her bra next but instead, he set his hands on her hips and sat back down, pulling her into his lap. Red arranged her legs so that her thighs were draped wide across his. When he moved his knees further apart, it spread her open even more. She shivered at the sensation of the cool air hitting her, and Red growled low in his throat in appreciation.

  “Now, then. Where were we?” he wondered. “Watching a movie, wasn’t it?” He brushed her hair back and delicately kissed the rim of her ear. “Open your eyes, dove. Watch the show.”

  The TV screen flared too brightly in the dark room. For the first several minutes of the movie, cars chased each other through narrow streets, explosions detonated, good guys charged after bad ones—and Red’s careful fingers trailed over her thighs and stomach and the inside of her forearms.

  He stroked and teased and caressed, and Piper tried to ignore how exposed she felt, so she could focus on the movie, or on her mounting desire. Anything but the worry that she wasn’t enough for this burning hot man—and wouldn’t ever be.

  Soon Red was scooping her breasts out of the lacy cups of her bra to toy with them. He kneaded and massaged her, rubbing her nipples between his fingers while she tried not to squirm.

  Sometimes she felt his breath tickle across her temple. Sometimes his hot tongue flicked out for a second to taste her earlobe or her neck. Piper was hyperaware of the material of his jeans, soft against the back of her thighs and rear. She was lulled by his touch and the rise and fall of his chest, his cotton shirt sliding silkily across her back.

  Piper shifted, trying to ease the tension building inside her. Red still held her legs wide with his, but he hadn’t ventured very far south yet. When she whimpered in frustration, she felt him smile against her hair.

  “Shh,” he soothed. “Keep watching. This is the best part.”

  At last, his maddeningly-light touch dipper lower, to trail through the slick folds between her legs. He drew out her pleasure as lo
ng as she could stand it, until her moans were louder than anything happening onscreen.

  By the time Red guided her skillfully over the cliff, a sniper on the big TV was taking out the unsuspecting players in a high-stakes poker game, and Piper was a vibrating, boneless heap of flesh, splayed across his lap and panting like some kind of erogenous blanket.

  Red was definitely grinning now, planting kiss after kiss on the top of her head, her temple and ear and cheek and jaw, his palms stroking her in soft, soothing caresses, easing her back down to earth.

  Before Piper knew it, he’d cast aside her bra and pulled a throw from the back of the couch to tuck around her, nestling her sideways in his arms to curl close against his chest. His heart thumped loud and steady beneath her cheek, anchoring her.

  Once again, the blazing chemistry between them had managed to leap right over her hesitation. Piper probably ought to be more worried about that, but damn, it was fun. She’d taken a chance, trusted him, and it had worked out fine.

  Piper peered at Red’s face in the flickering light, then back at the screen. The movie had ended. She couldn’t imagine he was overly interested in the credits rolling up the screen. She ought to say something. She should say…anything that was less lame than “thank you.”

  She managed a breathy, “Whoa,” and immediately winced at how juvenile it sounded.

  “Indeed,” Red agreed cheerfully. “I’d like to bring you upstairs now,” he added more carefully, “Unless you’d rather watch another movie?”

  The cheeky bastard. Piper glared at him. “Not just yet,” she said. She rearranged herself until she was straddling his lap, whipping off his shirt, and wiping that smug look off his face.

  Red’s eyes glinted in the TV’s weak light, then widened when she ground down against the admirable bulge behind his zipper. At least one part of him couldn’t play dumb—his erection, as always, was quite happy to make Piper’s acquaintance.

  “No?” he inquired mildly.