Voices outside the door jump-started my consciousness. I fumbled with the hem of the silky blouse, pulling it back into place as the door swung open. I smiled at some ladies who looked familiar, even though I didn’t know their names, and ducked out. Trying to think of anything else, I checked emails on my phone as I wandered in the elevator and hit the button. An emotional sigh escaped. I ran a hand across my face, trying to calm down.
“Does Piper McAdams ever quit working?”
I jumped and turned to find my at-work crush, Taylor Warren, the guy every girl dreamed about but could never have because of their playboy-like ways. Except in this case, I did have him—about a year ago after running into him at a bar. After way too many cosmopolitans, I’d told him I’d fantasized about how he would look without a shirt on. That had led to a drunken night of meaningless sex, which I’d tried to forget about because it had been behind Nolan’s back.
“Taylor … surprised to see you in here. What, is the executive elevator from the top floor broken?” I turned my attention back to the numbers across the top of the doors. Damn. Ten more floors alone with him. The smell of his cologne seemed to engulf the small space. Memories of his body draped across me, sweating, moving together as one. His smell alone made panties drop.
He chuckled.
I couldn’t resist. I turned around to see his perfect smile light up one of the most gorgeous faces I had ever seen.
“You always know how to make me laugh,” he said.
“Glad I can amuse you,” I said, grinding my teeth together as my jaw clenched. I moved, putting distance between us.
Like a magnet, he shifted, stepping closer. He was behind me even though I wasn’t looking.
“You do more than amuse me.”
My breath hitched in my chest as heat blazed across my cheeks.
“Still with that boyfriend of yours?” His voice was so close, practically by my ear.
The elevator chimed, saving me.
I stepped out immediately. “Nice to see you again,” I called over my shoulder, not giving him another chance to talk. He didn’t need to. His voice did things to women. I shot across the lobby and out the door.
I trotted to the Coffee Shack next door. After ordering my usual, I drifted toward a small round table in the corner and plopped down. The warm steam seeped through the lid, hit my lip, and created a layer of condensation.
“Coffee must have been really important the way you took off. You going to drink that or just let it hang out by your lips?”
I blinked spastically, trying to regroup myself. Very deliberately, I took my time acknowledging Taylor. Why did it have to be him? Of all people, fate had sent me Taylor when I was on the verge of a meltdown and needed a few minutes of Piper time.
“Of course, hanging out by those lips is a great place to be.”
“I … uh…” The salty, warm tears cascaded over my cheeks. I couldn’t help it.
His face changed from its normal arrogant, every-woman-and-possibly-some-men-want-to-sleep-with-me nature to concern. Swiftly, he grabbed a chair from another table, pulling it out from under someone about to sit down, and placed it as close to mine as possible. “I didn’t mean to upset you,” he said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. He pulled me into him, rubbing my hair. “I should’ve taken the hint when you bolted from the elevator. I’m sorry.”
Yep, there it was. My face scrunched up and a second later, the blood rushed under my cheeks. At the moment, I didn’t care. Cuffing my hand around the front of his black jacket, I clung tighter. I heaved, sucking the air as if trying to pull it to my toes. I wanted to scream. I needed to release the pent-up energy that surged down every nerve, but I couldn’t. Somehow, I remembered I was still in public. So, I did it inwardly. The silent howl of agony was guttural.
I was unaware of how long we sat there. In my head, it had only been maybe five minutes. Taylor’s jacket was soaked. I rubbed a hand down it as if it would disappear with my touch. “Sorry.” I sheepishly looked away. That one word was loaded with heavy despair.
He intertwined his fingers in mine. “Don’t be.” The ice his blue eyes normally conveyed seemed to melt away as they crinkled in the corners.
Why did it have to be Taylor? Then again, why not? He’d done the one-thing girls wanted. He’d let me cry as long as the tears came and held me in a public place on top of that. And the most beautiful thing of all was he hadn’t asked why. This could end up being dangerous. Not really for him, but for me. I couldn’t let myself fall for him. It would only end up with me being hurt.
I let go of his hand and shifted away. I fumbled with the straps of my purse, before diving in to look for a mirror. “I really need to get back to work. I’ve probably been gone like fifteen minutes already.”
He rested his elbows on the table, pushing his no-longer-hot coffee away. “Try about two hours,” he said, suppressing a smile.
“Two hours!” A shiver of anxiety bolted through my body. Hastily, I pushed back from the table, trying to force my legs to stand.
He grabbed my arm, stopping me. “We should go somewhere.” Looking up at me through dark, thick lashes, he bit his lip, obviously waiting on my response.
“Huh?”
I couldn’t hide the confusion or the stupidity at what the mere sight of him biting his lip did to my brain. Taylor wanted me to go somewhere with him? The guy who had barely spoken ten words to me since our one-night stand. It didn’t make sense. Was I in some type of parallel universe? I didn’t remember following any rabbit down a hole or anything.
“Where are you wanting to go?” I waited for him to say “back to my place.”
He shrugged, cutting me a sideways look. “I was thinking we could ride somewhere out of the city.” He stopped, apparently waiting to see if I would have a rebuttal.
I stood dumbfounded, and he continued.
“It just looks like you could use a little breather, and to be honest, I could too.” He wanted to take a breather … with me.
I managed to compose myself. “Sure. That sounds nice.”
“Great. I’ll pull my car around front and meet you out there.”
With apprehension, I forced myself to stand and walk in the direction of the street. The years I had worked in my building I had seen Taylor with countless women, but never the same one twice. This wasn’t like him. He was a player, not the guy who held a woman and wanted to take her somewhere because he knew emotionally she needed it. And I did. I needed something like this bad. I hadn’t realized how much until now. I stopped at the front door to wait inside and allowed him to pass to get the car.
I checked my phone and saw two missed calls and three text messages from Zuri asking if I was coming back. My fingers slid across the screen, responding that I wasn’t feeling well and would return tomorrow. A white car pulled around then stopped, and Taylor got out of the driver’s side. I couldn’t help the smile that formed at the sight of him. And honestly, it felt great to smile again.
I threw the door open to be met with a tornado of black.
Wings.
Black flapping wings were all around me.
I swatted at them. They hit my face, their blow leaving a warming wound. I couldn’t see. I was too scared to open my eyes. I cried out, not really sure what else to do. A hand grabbed my wrist, harshly yanking me to the side.
“Piper,” Taylor said. His voice was strained.
Even with my eyes closed, I could picture his perfect face. His forehead was no doubt creased with worry lines, his blue eyes drilling into me while his very kissable lips frowned.
“Piper, they’re gone. You can open your eyes now.”
I peeled them open. I had been right. The exact face I pictured looked at me, everything down to his slicked black hair still perfectly in place.
“Come on.” He guided me to his Lexus, and paused on my side to open the door for me.
The leather was cool, but warm air caressed my chilled skin from the vents. I pulled the visor
down to inspect the burning on my cheek. A small cut trickled bright red. I pushed a few strands of hair behind my ear that had fallen down. Too much weird stuff was happening to me. Maybe I needed to take a vacation. Alabama with Pappy sounded really awesome right now.
His door opened as I flipped the visor back up and sank back into the inviting seat. “These damn birds are everywhere. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
I bit my lip, casting an uneasy look through the tinted window. They were huddled along the sidewalk and sitting on the top of my building. Other than that, the street was clear of them. I couldn’t help but to remember how the strange man had burst into feathers, feathers that looked exactly like those on the countless crows surrounding us.
Taylor’s eyes zeroed in on my face. “Shit, Piper. You’re bleeding.” He reached across my lap, pulled the glove compartment open, and grabbed a napkin. Pressing it gently on my cheek, his touch seemed to soothe me into a tranquil stupor. When his hand left, my detrimental reality set in.
“Get me out of here — please.”
He put the car into drive and maneuvered us away from the scene straight out of the famous Hitchcock film The Birds. I glanced in the mirror, watching them until they were tiny black dots. We put the city skyline behind us, snaking around small roads once we left the interstate. Trees and countryside were a nice change.
I stole glances at him when I could. I didn’t want to seem like I was drooling, but it was almost unmanageable not to. Looking at him kept my mind from going back to everything that had happened. Every glance out the window resulted in me seeing that thing from last night … and everything else. There had to be a reasonable explanation. We finally stopped at a lake with nothing but trees around us. Two chairs sat on the end of a long pier. It was perfect.
“How did you even know about this place?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I own it.”
“You mean your family owns it or something?” A piece of land in New York was pretty pricey. I was sure he made a lot of money, but damn.
He laughed, opening his arms as if to embrace the serene piece of nature. “No. I mean, I own it.” Before I could ask him about his family, he pulled me down to the pier. The water lapped against the wooden beams; foam stained the brown. At the edge, he plopped down in the chair, looking to me to do the same.
Slowly, I smoothed out my skirt and sat.
“Don’t you even want to know why I was such a mess back there?” I asked, finally breaking the silence.
He twirled in his seat, his nose crinkling slightly. “I’m curious, yes. But if you don’t want to tell me, that doesn’t bother me.”
“Are you even the same person?” Maybe the government had kidnapped the real Taylor, and they’d replaced him with this new and improved version. Not that I could complain.
His face fell abruptly, and he looked at me, confused. “What do you mean?”
I stood and paced the width of the pier. “We have that one night together … and—”
“And that was amazing,” he interrupted, reaching for my hand.
I scooted just out of reach and continued my pace.
“You didn’t talk to me any more after that. You just acted like I didn’t exist.” I stopped, hugging my ribs as a cool wind blew across my body.
He casted a hooded expression out across the water. “It wasn’t that I wanted to do that, I just didn’t have a choice.”
I dropped to my knees in front of him. “What does that even mean?”
“There were personal things that I didn’t need to involve you in. You didn’t deserve it. Plus, you did — and still do — have a boyfriend. It wasn’t fair for him. Not that what we did was fair to him either. But alcohol played a huge part in that. However, I can’t say I regret it happening.”
I sat back on my heels, soaking everything in. He really wasn’t the bad guy I had him pegged for.
He leaned forward, his face an inch from mine. “Do you want to know why I had to have you that night?” His brow quirked, teasing me.
I swallowed. “Yes.”
“I love your Southern demeanor, so much more attractive than other girls in this area. Although you do try to cover it up. That night you got a little too happy with the liquor, but it let me see something that you’re always trying to hide or run away from, whichever. Even your accent came out.”
I rolled my eyes.
“It was the most adorable thing I’ve ever heard.”
“I am pretty adorable, ain’t I?” I batted my eyes at him, making him laugh.
“There’s the voice I love.” I rolled over to my butt, took the heels off my feet, and tossed them to the side. I dipped my toes into the water before resting back on my hands.
No matter how much I wanted this to be one of those picture-perfect moments with him, it wasn’t. I couldn’t shake what I had seen and been through the past few days. “Do you believe in supernatural stuff?” As if on cue, the mark on my arm began to throb. Gently, I touched it, my eyes never leaving the dark water covering my feet.
He sat down beside me and dropped his feet in. “Why do you ask that?” His jaw was taut. The warm velvet smoothness had left his voice, making me second-guess bringing the subject up. Too late. I had already started down this road, and I was going to finish it. I launched into telling him of all the weird things that had happened to me.
“There’s probably an explanation why the man burst into feathers,” he said. He twisted a strand of my hair around one of his fingers. “Although I can’t think of one right now.” He laughed. “But if you said that’s what happened, then they shouldn’t have questioned it.”
My mouth opened to disagree because even I thought it was insane, but he placed a finger over my lips and stopped me.
I involuntarily shivered.
“Cold?”
I wasn’t. It was his words. I’d never had a guy other than my grandfather act so defensive over me.
When I didn’t answer, he inched closer and curved his hand around my waist. His touch woke every cell in my body and set them on fire. I shouldn’t feel this way. I had a boyfriend. It was wrong. This was all wrong. I shouldn’t be here with him. I shifted away, not looking to see his reaction. He stood, holding a hand out to me. “We need to head back. It’s getting dark.” I hadn’t noticed the change from the blue to the now pink-and-purple hue that wisped across the horizon.
We walked back to the car, not touching, but very close. Every so often, we’d bump shoulders, making me smile at the ground. I couldn’t help it. A little while later, we were back to civilization, leaving our lake behind, when my phone rang.
“Piper!” Zuri sounded like a mixture of relief and regret. “I’ve been trying to get in touch with you all afternoon.” She choked a soft sob back, trying her best to cover it with a cough. I knew something was wrong. This was going to be one of those phone calls I would wish I had never gotten.
“What is it?” I held my breath, too scared to even blink. I gripped the phone hard, but it was the only thing I could do to keep from my body breaking down into tremors.
“The office received a phone call this afternoon. It was someone from back in your hometown. Piper…”
“Please, just say it!” I didn’t recognize my own voice. It was shrill and high, like a lost little girl.
“Your grandfather died.”
My hand dropped from my ear but didn’t release the phone. Someone was going to have to pry the thing away. Her words repeated themselves over and over again in my head. I’d planned to see him. A vacation home was what I needed. The city had become too much for me obviously. He had to be there waiting for me, sitting on the porch swing like every day when I came home from school.
No. No. No.
He would be there.
“Piper…what’s going on? Taylor’s voice sounded far away, like he was at the other end of a hallway.
Something touched me. I think it was his hand on mine, but I was almost too numb to tell.
“He has to be there when I go home…” I mumbled, trailing off. I looked straight ahead, unaware of everything around me.
“Who?” I faintly heard him ask.
“My grandfather.”
“Of course he’ll be there.”
Poor guy. All he had done all day was get stuck in my shit. One thing right after another. He was going to wish he had just kept to his constant ignoring of me. At least then, he would be blissfully unaware of how seriously jacked-up my life had become in just a matter of days.
My chest constricted. It was getting harder to breathe. “No, he won’t. He’s dead. He died alone because I wasn’t there when he needed me.” The monotone sounds of the words were hollow. Empty. I was empty. Alone. Pappy was the only family I had, and now he was gone.
The car swerved to the shoulder of the road, slinging gravel everywhere. Before I could comprehend what was happening, Taylor had me in his lap. I buried my face into his neck. I couldn’t cry. The tears wouldn’t come. Where were those bastards when you needed them? There was a storm raging inside me with no way to release it. This pain was too real.
“I can go to Alabama if you need me to,” Taylor said.
A warming calmness came over me.
No matter how much I wanted him to, he couldn’t. It wouldn’t be right. “I have to see Nolan. Can you take me to him?”
Taylor stiffened.
“It’s just that he’s still my boyfriend, so I don’t think it would go over well with you going with me is all.” I scooted back into my seat, carefully avoiding his stony expression.
He remained silent.
“Taylor?”
“Of course. He needs to go with you. Where does he live?” he asked with a weak smile that didn’t meet his eyes. He slid the car back into drive and maneuvered back onto the road.
“On Washington. Let me send him a text to make sure he’s there.”
Me: Need to see you. Something happened.
Five minutes later, my alert went off.
Nolan: Can it wait? I’m at my parents’ house right now. I’ll be home around 10.
Chosen (The Urban Legends Series Book 1) Page 6