Imperfect Love: Operation: Girl Next Door (Kindle Worlds Novella)

by Casey Hagen

  The idea that his favorite parts of her not only were innocent, but also exposed to his gaze even clothed warmed her.

  His gaze roamed lower. “You have pretty breasts, heavy and round. They move like breasts should instead of being some alien result of plastic surgery. They’re sweet,” he said as his hand grazed the underside of one and slid along the skin of her torso to her waist. “And here, you’re rounded, not a lot, just enough to make a man think of soft places to land, comfort, and fertility.”

  She glanced up at him in surprise. Tingling warmth spread from her breasts and heat pooled between her legs. The combination of sexual desire and biological, animal desire stole the air from her lungs, leaving her panting out shallow breaths.

  “Weird to hear from a guy like me, right? Well, it’s true. You’re healthy and round. Your body, with your curvy hips, soft thighs, your soft belly, make a man think about ripeness and readiness to carry a child. I don’t have to look hard to see a hundred different things I love about you. But how long would it take you to find three things you love about yourself? And I bet once you found them, if I gave you five minutes, you will have talked yourself out of every single one.” He kissed her temple, and then disappeared into the bathroom, leaving her standing there, leaving her nakedness between her and the mirror.

  The truth of his words, the way he saw into her soul, consumed her. She took a deep, shuddering breath and blinked back the tears. All this time, all her life, she had waited for a man to see her, really see her. Trevor saw so much, he forced her to see herself.

  Now, if only she could do the same for him.

  ***

  Trevor showered and prayed that when he was done Piper had dressed and left the room. Their past crashed with the present leaving a lot of issues between them that needed to be addressed, but he couldn’t continue going down this road with her anymore right now. They still had one more day where they had to dance for his boss and then maybe, just maybe, they could sort this whole thing out.

  Like if they planned to keep seeing each other.

  The idea terrified him. She’d have a front row seat to his life. Not that he intended to continue the way he had been going. Not if he wanted a relationship with her. But it would take time to extricate himself from the connections he’d made, not all of them, but definitely the ones made on carousing with women and weekends with the bottle.

  When he looked at it, at what he really had become, disgust burned in his gut.

  He needed this promotion. With this promotion, he’d no longer have to schmooze on that level. This promotion gave him the freedom to have Piper.

  What a tangled mess it had all become. He needed her to get the promotion. He needed the promotion to be the kind of man to hold on to her. What else could he do to tip the balance in his favor?

  He could land Tate & Cane Enterprises. Unbeknownst to him, the company had hit a rough patch the first time he’d made an attempt. He’d ended up at the same dinner party with Noah Tate and took the opportunity to make a play for their business. Noah had a bit of a reputation as a player so Trevor knew just what to say, to do, to get the conversation rolling, only Noah shut him down flat, muttering something about pain in the ass women and a spending freeze on anything marketing and public relations related, cutting Trevor off at the knees. All hadn’t been completely lost, Noah had given Trevor his number.

  But Trevor had heard that Tate & Cane was fluid now. Maybe Trevor could capitalize on that.

  With a plan forming, he dried off and got dressed. He dialed the number and left a message for Noah to get in touch with him.

  He had this. And in the end, he’d have Piper.

  He found her in the living room chatting with Deanne and Christina again. Hands flew during their animated conversation and laughter filled the air so the last clenched part of him relaxed. Maybe last night hadn’t been quite the disaster he imagined.

  He stepped up to the back of Piper’s chair. When she threw her head back in laughter, he captured her cheeks and held her there to kiss her forehead. “Did you eat?” She hadn’t touched the food he’d brought into the room for her.

  “I did. Want me to get you something?” she asked him, her eyes soft and a small smile playing upon her lips.

  “Nah, I’ll get something.” He’d burned off the croissant with all the thinking he had done.

  Mike stood by the coffee maker with Rachel.

  “Good morning,” Trevor said.

  “Morning,” Mike said with a raise of his cup.

  “Anyone know what we should expect today? I didn’t look that closely at the timeline,” Trevor said.

  “There’s nothing on the timeline. Just two free blocks,” Mike said.

  “I overheard Davidson talking to his wife. She’s on the way up. She’ll probably have something in store for us,” Rachel added, taking a sip of her tea.

  “Overheard? Are you spying again?”

  “Cute, Trevor,” she snapped.

  “I’m not kidding. I’ve seen you operate,” Trevor said, popping a piece of pineapple into his mouth.

  “You forget that you and I have been one and the same. That’s what you liked about me.”

  “Nope, that’s not what I liked about you,” Trevor said after he swallowed.

  Mike tried to suppress a laugh. Rachel gave him a hard glare.

  “That’s what you said you liked.”

  “I say a lot of things. I don’t mean half of them.”

  “When are you going to grow up, Trevor? I mean really, how do you expect to pull off partner when you’re still a child?”

  Trevor nudged Mike with his elbow. “This coming from a woman that acts like a fourteen-year-old cheerleader in a rich bitch school,” Trevor said.

  “Call me what you want, Trevor, I don’t care, because I’m shrewd. I notice things. For instance, the way you answered the first date question. It’s odd, being a man and all, you answered “her prom”, but she didn’t. Women don’t forget these things.”

  Trevor forcibly controlled any outward sign that her words scared him. He gave her the same bored expression he’d adopted years ago and wielded at social events when the catty gossip started and his date for the night expected him to participate. “It might have something to do with the fact that when I took her to prom, we were just friends. We didn’t officially date until seven years later.”

  “It’s a tidy explanation. I have to give you that, but I don’t buy it. You’re up to something…and I have every intention of finding out what it is. I won’t lose this promotion to your games.”

  “You say that like you and Trevor are the only ones in the running,” Mike said.

  Rachel looked at Mike as though he were a brainless child that she had to tolerate. “We all know who the real contenders are, it’s just difficult to sustain a competition with only two adversaries. Where’s the fun in going straight to the final round?” She sauntered off with her drink in hand and joined Steve on the deck.

  “You think she’s right?” Mike asked.

  Yeah, she was right, but only she was cruel enough to rub that in someone’s face. Trevor clapped him on the back. “Not at all, my man, not at all. Let’s go see what the ladies are up to.”

  Chapter 10

  Piper bit her lip waiting for Davidson to make the introductions and told herself there was no reason to worry. Just because they had dancing daughters didn’t mean that Davidson’s wife had any idea who she was. It’s not like she was a big, household name like Blush. She’d been so busy up until that point navigating everything else and trying to avoid missteps that she hadn’t even had time for the worry to creep in.

  ‘I’d like you all to meet my wife, Marla.”

  Marla? Didn’t Rafe say the woman trying to reach her was named Marla? Maybe not. Even so, it’s not like there was only one Marla on the planet. Totally fine.

  She looked nothing like Piper imagined. Davidson stood tall and larger than life, but his wife was a pint-sized spitfire of a
woman who radiated energy from the top of her blonde head to the Nike running shoes on her feet. Thick lashes framed her pretty, brown eyes and while she looked as sweet as could be, the energy radiating from her told Piper that she was a force to be reckoned with.

  Davidson introduced them all by their first names. When he got to Piper’s name, Piper noticed Marla paused for the briefest of moments, her forehead wrinkled.

  Or Piper, in her paranoia, imagined the whole thing.

  As soon as Piper could break away, she was going to call Rafe and reassure herself that the Marla in question was not Davidson’s Marla.

  They all made their way into the house where Davidson gave Marla a rundown of all she missed. Much like the first day of school where you have to introduce yourself, they went around the room and talked about what they did for a living, forcing Piper to lie again. The thing was, she didn’t so much mind it in the beginning, but now she’d gotten to know these people, bonded with them, considered them friends. Naïve of her considering at some point, she and Trevor had to manufacture a breakup.

  Piper didn’t have a lot of female friends. Most of the women she had known over the years also danced, and with that came a certain hunger and drive, making the dance world a competitive, backstabbing arena. When thirty dancers vie for one slot, there’s not room for friendship as much as Piper wished there had been.

  Maybe her body wasn’t the only thing keeping her from advancing in the dance world.

  “So, did you all have fun?” Marla asked.

  “Absolutely, you have a beautiful home,” Christina said.

  Rachel broke away from the group and wandered toward the front hall, perusing the pictures on the wall. Piper noticed she kind of stayed on the fringes of almost everything. If it wasn’t directly related to her career or to cause trouble, she had little to no attention span.

  “How about the Newlywed Game. You can be honest, was it cheesy?” Marla asked.

  “Not cheesy at all,” Rachel practically purred. “Revealing. Definitely revealing,” Rachel said.

  Well, apparently Rachel hovered on the outskirts, but didn’t miss a beat.

  “Yes, well, don’t hold too much stock in it. Davidson is great with remembering locations and activities, but timelines…not a chance. If he and I competed, we’d likely come in dead last.”

  He put his arm around his wife and smiled down at her. No question this man absolutely adored his wife. “I can’t argue that. When you’re on the downhill slide in life the last thing you want to do is go over the math. When Marla talks about the eighties, for me, it’s like yesterday. For her, well, she was ten,” Davidson said, shrugging his shoulders, his palms out.

  “Oh, stop! Age is just a state of mind, but after that drive and the stuff going on with the girls, I feel like I’ve put on five years. Do you guys mind if I borrow my husband for a minute so I can fill him in?”

  “Not at all, take your time,” Deanne said.

  They headed off toward the master suite and Piper grasped Trevor’s arm. “I need to make a quick call.”

  “Everything okay?”

  “Sure, it’s fine.”

  “Good,” he murmured as he trailed a finger along her temple and rubbed a lock of her hair between his fingers.

  “Thanks,” she pressed a kiss to his lips and held it for a few beats longer than innocent and laughed when he let out a little growl.

  She headed for their bedroom like Trevor had asked. She’d hit Rafe’s contact in her speed dial when she stepped through the door. His voice popped on the line just as she shut the door with her foot.

  “It’s Sunday. What could possibly be so important?” he mumbled sleepily.

  “The woman that’s been calling, what’s her name?”

  “Good God, woman, you were going to call her tomorrow. Let it go and enjoy your weekend.”

  “I’m trying to enjoy my weekend, but I need to know that Davidson’s wife is not the same woman that’s been so persistent in reaching us so I can breathe again.”

  “Come on, what are the chances that it’s the same one? It’s Martha something or other, give me a minute and I’ll check.”

  She heard the shuffling of papers on the other end, then Rafe muttered a swear and returned to the phone. “Sorry, not Martha. It’s Marla.”

  Piper bit her lip and flinched. Heat flooded her face. “What’s Marla’s last name?” She crossed her fingers and prayed.

  “Williams.”

  Fuck.

  Maybe when Trevor threw together that binder, he should have given Piper a different first name.

  “What’s going on, Piper?”

  “She’s here. At least I think it’s her. How many women of the same name are running around New York?”

  “You mean there, there?”

  “Yes, like shook her damn hand here.”

  “Does she know who you are?”

  “No, Trevor didn’t introduce me as Piper Bradley. Just Piper.”

  “What the hell are you going to do now?”

  She blew out a breath, dropped to the bed, and stared out the slider to the lake. “I don’t know. Even if I can keep it under wraps, she’s going to find out that I’m not who Trevor said I was when we meet with her. He didn’t say how long it would take before the new pick for partner was announced. I might be able to hold her off for a week, but not much more.”

  “Or you could just not take her on at all.”

  “And turn away the kids left high and dry by Blush? I can’t do that. Even if it hadn’t been Blush to let them down, thereby giving me a marketing advantage, the kids suffer in this one, and the whole point of what I do, of what I’ve built is to prevent that.”

  “I know, I know. Piper, I hope you’ve been practicing your dance moves, because dancing through this situation is going to be more precarious than anything you’ve ever done before.”

  “I just need to be my best for one more day. She thinks I’m a teacher and she didn’t ask any questions so I think I’m good there. It’s not too far of a leap from dancewear designer, right? I mean, I do work with kids, it’s just I design fashion for them. It’s a six degrees of separation kind of thing. That’s all.”

  Rafe let out an abrupt laugh. “Oh, yeah, totally. How long will it take you to convince yourself of your own bullshit?”

  “Hey, I have to believe it and sell it for less than a full day. When this is done, remind me to never do something so outrageously stupid ever again.”

  They said their goodbyes and Piper took a minute to calm herself.

  Okay, so Davidson’s wife was “the Marla”, but Piper could deal with that. She’d focus on Trevor, on his career, she’d avoid any deep conversation about herself, and she’d get the hell out.

  She joined the small group back in the living room where they were talking about where they went to college.

  Christina had a degree in English Literature, but worked in a bank. Deanne had a degree in fashion and design and worked part time as an event planner while she looked for something more permanent.

  Piper could give her something more permanent, if she had the talent. Well, and if Deanne didn’t hate her when it eventually came out that Piper was a fake.

  Marla glanced to Piper. “So, what about you, Piper?”

  “I have my Masters in education from NYU.”

  Rachel snorted into her drink and everyone turned to look at her. “Are you okay, Rachel?”

  “Yes, perfectly. After all, I know what degree I got in school. Piper though, seems to be confused.”

  “Excuse me?” Piper said. She resisted the urge to stand and confront her so she didn’t embarrass Trevor.

  Rachel narrowed her eyes and gave her a sly smile. “How does someone with a Masters in education become a dancewear fashion designer? I’m just curious.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Piper said as her stomach dropped to her toes.

  Rachel shook her head and tsked. “Such a short memory you have.�
�

  “What’s all this nonsense about?” Davidson said with an air of authority.

  Piper hadn’t yet seen that from him. She imagined this was the Davidson they got at the agency.

  Trevor gave Piper a hard look.

  “It seems Piper here isn’t really who she says he is. Turns out she’s Piper Bradley, the founder of Exclusively Piper. So Marla, you were looking to get in touch with the woman and here she is in the flesh. You should take advantage.”

  Piper flinched. Trevor had warned her not to handle business there. If he had had his way, she wouldn’t have made any calls from the house, and apparently, for good reason.

  She watched him go from running a jerky hand through his hair in frustration to holding his head in his hands in defeat, and it was all her fault.

  “What the hell is she talking about?” Davidson bellowed.

  “She’s not really a school teacher,” Trevor said, locking his eyes on Piper. He stood up and faced them all.

  Piper’s mind raced for a solution to this, but came up with nothing. It was best for Trevor to just come clean while he had the opportunity. She considered interrupting and telling everyone that she kept that part of her life secret for privacy reasons, but at some point, this all had to stop. It had become too tangled.

  “Why did you lie?” Marla asked.

  “I think their whole relationship is a lie,” Rachel said with a shrug.

  “Why would you say that?” Davidson asked.

  “Because Trevor hasn’t been in a serious relationship for as long as I’ve known him, but all of a sudden he has a girlfriend of one year? Plus, look at the game. For Piper to get the answer wrong to the first date question is odd. A woman never forgets something so significant.”

  “What are you suggesting?” Marla asked her.

  “I think Trevor borrowed a date for this weekend. Well, Trevor, did you?” Rachel asked with a raised brow.

  ***

  Trevor stood up then and joined Piper. He didn’t take her hand. He didn’t touch her. He couldn’t. Everything he had worked so hard for just went up in smoke.