Chapter Thirty-Four
“I’d have given anything for you to not find out about this that way.” His normally bright hazel eyes were clouded with sadness. “I know we’ve got a lot to talk about and I’m sorry if I hurt you, Piper. The timing couldn’t have been worse, but I couldn’t do much about it. I gave Jenna my word years ago.”
“I’m not going to lie to you, Simon. This is a huge revelation, they’re only seven years younger than me. It’s a lot to get my head around, but I knew when I got with you the likelihood of something I'd hate coming to light was a distinct possibility, but this…”
“If you think it's too much, I’d understand, because I know how it looks; but no one knows they’re my kids. Both Ellis and Suranne most definitely don’t want people to know. They both see Sparky as their real father and I totally get that.”
“That day… in Seattle. You made me feel cheap, Simon. Lying on that bed flirting and joking when I had only just left your bed.”
“I wasn’t flirting, but yes I was joking, because my heart was beating out of my chest at the thought of facing those two kids. I mean look at me. Like Gibson said, I’m hardly 'father of the year' material now, am I? The last thing I wanted was for them to feel disappointed when they knew it was me.”
“Disappointed? How could they ever be that?”
“Sparky was an incredible guy, a loving husband, and a fabulous father. Even though I wasn’t ever going to play a part in their lives, putting myself out there to give them some closure was a massive risk. Ellis hasn’t been entirely stable since Sparky died. Part of me wondered if he’d break the story or something.”
“Why would that bother you? Giving his parents the gift of children was a pretty selfless thing to do.”
“Before I got with you, I wouldn’t have cared if people knew, but it would have bothered Jenna. Then I met you.”
Eyeing him with a puzzled look, I waited for him to elaborate.
“Leaving you in Seattle was so damned hard. I’ll admit how I behaved with Kerr was shitty, and I know you felt as if I’d ignored you. Deep down, I guess I wanted you to be pissed at me because it made it easier for me to go and do what I needed to do. I guess I felt stuck in my situation. If you hadn’t been about to perform I’d have done things differently.” I could see Simon was embarrassed thinking back on it.
“Trust me, I felt guilty as fuck not telling you what the call was about. If you’d asked me, I’d have been honest. You can’t know how relieved I was when you didn’t because the last thing I wanted was to blow up your world with a huge bombshell like this when it was almost at your feet.”
“You know how that looked?”
“Indeed, and to be honest I couldn’t get away from you quick enough when we were leaving Seattle.”
A shock of electricity jolted my heart. Pain radiated through me to hear him say what I had feared I felt that day. “I noticed,” I snapped in a clipped tone as a feeling of dread spread through me.
I made to move away from him, but he clutched me tightly to his chest. Immediately, my body grew stiff. “No, Piper, not because I was desperate to leave.”
“Then why?” I whispered. My throat constricted as a lump grew there and my eyes stung with tears.
Releasing me just enough to look down at me, he sighed, his worried eyes matched the expression on his face. “Piper, you wreck me. The way you make me feel is unlike any other girl in my whole life.”
“You have a strange way of showing it, if you couldn’t wait to get away from me.” I said and closed my eyes because I felt my defenses crumbling.
“I couldn’t tell you then and this isn’t the way I planned to tell you, but I guess it’s the day for nothing going to plan. The night we spent together in Seattle was the most intimate of my life. I’ve never felt closer to anyone, and I found myself struggling with so many thoughts. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but suddenly it hit me like a bullet to my chest and I realized I wasn’t just into you, I loved you.”
More confused than ever I shook my head. “You pushed me away because you love me?”
“No. I was scared to love you because I was sure once I told you about Ellis and Suranne it would all be too much for you.”
“Do you see me running? Simon, if I’ve learned anything about life it's that families come in all kinds of colors of fucked-up. Don’t you see? I don’t know anyone who has a ‘normal’ two adults, two kids, nuclear family setting. Being with someone like you takes guts in the first place. We either embrace all of who we are and what we’ve done, or we’re screwed. If two people love each other everything else has to swim around them.”
“Swim?” A gamut of emotions flitted over his face from admiration to confusion.
“Yeah, baggage sinks people… drags them down. I don’t want us to drown because of a decision you made when I was… a kid,” I said, and we both stared at each other, then burst out laughing at my spontaneous gaff.
“Fuck, when you say it like that I sound sick.”
“No, you’re not. We’re both adults. I’m not a child anymore and from all I’ve been through, I know I could never be attracted to a man my own age. With the exception of Kerr, I don’t believe they’d ever begin to understand what I’m about and frankly I don’t have the time to explain myself. We are who we are, and we don’t really get to choose who we love.”
“So, you love me?” Simon asked with a look of expectation in his much brighter eyes, and a small smile curving his lips.
“Maybe,” I replied, flashing him a coy smile.
“You’re a fucking tease, you know that?”
“Only a tease, if I don’t follow through,” I countered.
Moving his hands around my body in a much more sensual way, his smile widened. “Ah, so I’m on to a promise here, then?” he asked in a playful tone.
“Obviously not, since you put me through hell, but I’ll let you stick around and work on me,” I replied, letting him know we had to work to push past this.
“Please, Princess. I’m sorry I hurt you and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get us back to where we were.” With a soft smile he held me tight and sighed with relief.
Waking in the night to a dull ache in my ribs, I opened my bleary eyes and realized I had been sleeping on my hand.
Simon was still awake, the soft light from the lamp on the nightstand bathed his beautiful face inches from mine. His eyes watched me intently.
“You’re so fucking beautiful when you’re asleep.”
“Implying I’m mundane at best once my eyes are open,” I teased.
“With that killer figure, this long dark hair and those big brown eyes that make my heart melt? No, Princess, you are stunning; twice as beautiful as when you’re asleep.”
“Wow, so smooth. Do you practice those lines?” I asked, giggling.
“Nope, they trip right off my tongue when I’m with you.”
“Great answer.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, definitely,” I confirmed.
Lying on his back, he turned his head and looked at me. “Go on then”, he said lifting the sheet and nodding at his morning wood.
“Huh?” I asked and chuckled.
“Reward me for being nice,” he told me and wrapped his fist round his cock.
Giggling, I slapped his chest. “Don’t be a pig,” I said chiding him with a grin.
“You wouldn’t have said that last night, if you’d have let me give you a good porking,” he said through a laugh.
Moving quickly, I straddled his chest and his hands flew to my butt.
“You have a dirty mouth,” I told him.
“Yeah, I do. Sit on my face and you can make that dirty as well,” he replied. “Go on,” he chuckled, and my eyes were riveted to his sensual smile. “You know I’m turning you on.”
“You are?”
“Mm-hm otherwise your pussy wouldn’t be leaving a wet patch over my heart right now,” he replied, slidin
g one hand under my ass to run his fingers in my hot wet folds.
“No,” I said groaning and rolling away from him. “You’re not seducing me like this. I’m not jumping from one emotional state to another. You have to give me some time.”
“Fuck,” he choked out softly, “I’m sorry.” Pulling me into his arms, he held me like he’d never let me go and whispered intimately into my ear. “Princess, I’ve fallen so fucking hard for you and I don’t even want to fight it.”
I lifted my head to look in his eyes and the honesty there almost made me cry. “Yeah?”
“Damn straight. In less than eight short weeks you’ve given me no option but to want more.”
“More?”
“Yeah. You can’t imagine how much I missed you when I was gone. Jenna said she never thought there was a woman alive who could pussy-whip me.” He chuckled, “She also figured you had a magical vagina to make me pine after you the way I did.”
“Very intuitive of her… I do.” I stated flatly and moved my ear across his heart. A few heartbeats later we both burst out laughing.
“That was sassy as fuck… and funny,” he said through a chuckle. “Come on, get some more sleep. I’m drained after staring down the barrel of your crazy adoptive father’s shot gun.”
We both laughed, and I remembered the ferocious look on Gibson’s face when he arrived at the door earlier that night.
“You can’t know what it means to me to have a man like him in my life,” I told him in all seriousness.
“Oh, baby, I do. Don’t forget I’ve seen him around Chloe. Before her, Gibson was a five-a-day man.”
My brow creased, “He smoked?”
Simon laughed and the sound was infectious. He had a sexy laugh. “No, before Chloe, Gibson didn’t have that protective instinct. To him a woman was anything with a heartbeat and a vagina.”
“Eww, TMI. Remember who he is to me,” I chided, “Besides, he’d say the same about you.”
“He would… actually I believe he did to you; not in so many words, but I’m being blunt.”
Lifting my hand, he clasped his fingers through mine and brought them to his lips.
“This may sound stupid, but the risk I took to be with you was ridiculous. Can you imagine if I had read the signals wrong?” A silence fell between us, then he sighed. “I'm glad I took that risk. Until I met you my life was trending, you know? Content being myself, having my own space, and partying when the mood took me. You made me grow up…take responsibility for myself. ”
“This may sound strange coming from someone like me, but I’m no pushover, Simon. I’d hate to think anyone took me for granted. I won’t be played.”
“Who’s playing? You have no idea how hard I fought this thing I felt inside. The right thing to do would have been to create some distance to gain perspective, but I was so into you it wasn’t an option. At no other time in my thirty-two years have I had one foot on the gas and the other on the brake at the same time.”
I turned my whole body into him and he did the same. My heart swelled when I felt the warmth of his skin against mine. “Don’t hurt me, Simon. Hearing about those pictures in the newspaper almost ripped my heart out of my chest,” I confessed.
“Never. Like I said before, the stuff with Ellis and Suranne was unfinished business from before I met you; but I have to be honest and say if they ever needed anything I’d be there for them.”
My heart squeezed because he’d done something to help someone else and it was reassuring to hear he had stuck to his original agreement and not kicked them to the curb because I was on the scene.
“You have my respect for saying that. Let the press say what they want. Your hands are tied and now I know the circumstances about your time away, I don’t care what anyone says.”
Letting out a long sigh, Simon pulled me closer and tucked my head under his chin. Briefly, he dropped his mouth to my head and gave me a quick peck to my temple.
“Sleep, baby,” he ordered and stroked his thumb over the smooth skin on my back until I fell asleep.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Incessant knocking woke me with a start. The room was in darkness. Simon had obviously turned the light out at some point.
I sat upright and peered past Simon's shape in the bed to see the shadow of feet breaking the light from the corridor under the door.
A strong hand slid around my waist and pulled me down in the bed, “Where are you going?” Simon mumbled.
“Someone’s at the door,” I replied and made to move again.
“Don’t answer it. Stay here with me,” he muttered and slid his other arm around me. No sooner had he began shifting in the bed to make himself comfortable than the knocking started again.
“Fuck,” he groaned and rolled away from me. “Stay there, I’ll get rid of the fucker,” he said with a grunt clearing his throat as he padded toward the door.
By the time he got there my eyes had adjusted to watching his silhouette crossing the room. “What?” he barked, throwing the door wide open.
“I need to talk to Piper.” I recognized Kerr’s voice immediately, and there was a note of alarm in his voice I had never heard before.
Wrapping a sheet around me, I quickly made for the door and Simon pulled it over, effectively protecting Kerr from seeing me. “Stop it, Simon,” I said grabbing the door handle as I pulled it open again.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Kerr glanced nervously at Simon. “Can we talk?”
“It’s fine, what is it?”
“Austin has shared an article through Facebook. I thought you’d better take a look at it. Passing me the phone, I stared at the images on the page. There were four of them.
The first was of earlier in the day when Kerr had held my arm when I was leaving Sears Tower. In the second Gibson was leaning out the car window kissing me on the cheek as he held my hand. The third was of Simon and Gibson in the corridor with me behind them, and the last was of Gibson and I hugging as he left my hotel room.
“Fuck. That’s enough. I’ve had it now,” I stated, angrily.
“What’s going on between you and Gibson?” Kerr asked.
“Seriously?” I asked in an indignant tone. I stopped and stared at Kerr, then remembered he didn’t know the connection.
I sighed, “Come in.” Holding the door open wide, I stepped back to let him enter.
“Yeah, come in, we didn’t want to sleep anyway. We love being dragged from our bed because of shit-stirring rumors, don’t we, Princess?”
“Stop it, Simon, and put some pants on. You look ridiculous strutting around trying to be a bad ass with your cock sticking out like that,” I said, trying to hide how embarrassed I was.
Kerr chuckled and turned it into a cough when Simon drew daggers in his direction. “It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve tucked it inside tonight,” he bit back in a double entendre that I knew was for Kerr’s benefit, but he was lying.
Pressing my lips into a line at Simon’s childish jibe, I shook my head, but inside the feeling of warmth that he loved me so much he’d think any man was competition for my affections made my heart swell, even if I didn’t show it.
Glancing to Kerr, I realized he was waiting for an explanation. “I’ll explain in a minute,” I said grabbing my phone.
When I checked out the time and saw it was 6:30 am, I knew the family would already be up. It was their week for Melody, and Gibson took his role as her father so seriously he insisted on being home when he could to take her to school.
Scrolling through my contacts I selected Gibson’s number and waited for the call to connect.
“Who are you calling?” Simon asked.
“Gibson. There are no secrets when you two are who you are.”
“Everything okay?” Gibson asked, barely keeping the anxiety from his tone.
Before I could explain, Jonny’s voice interrupted in the background. “You gotta see this, Gibson,” he said, with a note of urgency in his voice.
“Just a sec,” Gibson said to me. “Fuckers,” he cussed down the line and I knew immediately he’d seen the pictures.
I sighed and felt for Chloe. She was no stranger to constant opinion and conjecture about her husband.
“You’ve seen the pictures?” I don’t know why I even asked the question because I already knew the answer. “They’re obviously not going to leave this alone, so I think it's time to come clean and get them off our backs.”
“Oh, baby girl, I’m down with that. I’ve hated not being able to take you anywhere,” Gibson said flatly.
“Man, are they going to look stupid,” I muttered as my eyes ran over the pictures on Kerr’s tablet again. The headline was ‘The Pied Piper.’ I wasn’t interested in reading the story as I’d already guessed its content.
Whoever took the pictures had obviously been stalking Simon because it was written by the same reporter as the one who'd covered the story on him and Jenna.
The photographs were obviously a collaborative effort and he had done a great job of tying up all the images to make it appear as if I was causing a shitstorm with the men in my life.
The article had made me look as if I was with Kerr one minute, Simon the next, then when Simon was pictured with Jenna and her kids, I had sought solace with Gibson. The look of genuine love on both Gibson’s and Simon’s faces toward me in the pictures took my breath away.
Did they really think the public would believe I was capable of wrecking what Gibson and Chloe had, and having two of the world’s most famous rock stars vying for my attention? Anyone would have to be tripping on LSD or using crack to think I could have pulled this off.
What would have been a massive compliment to any other woman made me feel sick. This was drawing negative attention to my new dad, and Kerr was a dear friend.
The pictures also made Simon look like the player he once was and implied discord between him and Gibson. The press rumor mill was abhorrent because I only had eyes for Simon.
“Okay, baby girl, how do you want to play this?”
Piper: A Last Score Spin Off Page 30