by Tara Mills
Brent’s eyebrows went up at the simmering anger in his friend. “What did he do to her?”
“Used her, drained her, and then threw her away.”
“Prick.”
“Big time.”
“So he’s casting a shadow over your love life.”
“Looks that way. Let me have some of that.” Chad held out his hand and Brent passed him the beer. Chad took a good swallow then handed it back.
“Can I say something?” Brent asked cautiously.
“Maybe.”
“You need to pull it back a notch.”
Chad chuckled at himself, at the situation, at the whole bloody mess of it. “How am I supposed to do that?”
“You can’t take your eyes off of Piper and it shows. The way you feel about her is in your eyes, blatantly, man, that’s all. You should know that if you think you’re going to pull this off.”
Chad groaned. “Oh hell.”
Chapter 15
Chad’s best friends did him a huge favor that night by being more spirited, more amusing than ever. Their stories and anecdotes were so entertaining that they managed to keep both Chad and Piper distracted from each other.
At the end of the night Pam and Piper exchanged telephone numbers and then Brent took hold of his wife’s arm and towed her out to their car. Chad and Piper waved them off from the door then returned to the kitchen to do the clean up.
“You don’t have to stick around and help with this,” Chad told her, taking a wine glass out of her hand. “You’ve done plenty already.”
“That’s okay. I don’t mind.” When she saw him putting the stemware into the upper basket of the dishwasher she intervened. “These should be washed by hand. They could get broken in there.”
“If they break I’ll replace them. They’re not expensive.”
“Chad,” she said wearily. “It’s the principle of the thing.” She put them in the sink. “I’ll wash them myself. Just leave them.”
“You and my mother would get along great,” he said with amusement.
Piper went out to the living room, bringing the other two glasses back with her. “I liked your friends. They’re really nice.” She started running water into the sink.
Chad looked up from his work. “Thanks. I suppose they’ll do.”
She watched the dish soap foam up. “Pam said she introduced you to Chelsea.”
He set another plate in the dishwasher. “She did. They were best friends from way back. When Pam started dating Brent — ”
“Your roommate.”
“Right, they maneuvered Chelsea and me into a double date. As soon as we saw each other that was it. We were a foursome, then two distinct but close pairs. They’re Missy and Kenny’s godparents.”
“No kidding.”
“Yep.” He stood the silverware in the baskets.
“Would you mind if I called Pam?”
He looked up. “Why would I?”
“I don’t know. I just wanted to be sure it wouldn’t hurt you.”
He smiled, touched. “Call her.”
Piper sat at the counter and watched Chad wipe everything down. She liked that he was neat. “Can I ask you something personal?”
He didn’t stop but the sponge moved slower as he scrubbed at a spot on the top of the stove. “Go ahead.”
“What do you miss most about your wife?”
He turned. “Chelsea,” he said carefully, walking the sponge back to the sink. “I don’t think I can break her down like that. Sometimes it’s the way she smelled or the sound of her voice. Coming home to a house with her in it and simply knowing everything was right.” He sighed. “I miss her company. It was nice having someone who, even when she didn’t agree with me, understood where I’m coming from. Seeing her every day never stopped feeling good. Like hot tea for a sore throat and spontaneous laughter all rolled into one.”
“Wow,” Piper whispered.
“Do you know that feeling of contentment, that utter happiness you can get just coming home after a long day or after being out of town? It’s like a full-body sigh of relief.”
“Like coming home from camp,” she murmured.
He nodded. “You do understand. You feel like life makes sense again, you’re back to normal. That’s how it felt every single day.”
And he’d lost that. Piper was choking up inside just picturing this gaping hole in his chest.
Chad grimaced. “I hate how this sounds but I miss the sex, too. It was hard not being able to reach for her at night, curl around her.”
“Why should admitting that bother you? You were in your prime when you lost her. It’s perfectly understandable.”
He laughed. “Is my prime already over?”
She smiled. “No, of course not but you know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I do.”
A sad little smile flared across his face then winked out. “We wanted each other all the time. We could have ignored eating if the kids weren’t there to ground us in reality. As much as we loved Kenny and Missy they were an extension of our feelings for each other not the heart of our marriage. Our relationship was the nucleus of the family.”
Touched, Piper said kindly, “I think that’s a good thing. How many marriages collapse because the commitment between the parents is shunted aside when kids enter the picture? I know a few. Any kid would be lucky to grow up in a family where the parents are in love and committed to each other. Who wouldn’t want that kind of marriage for themselves? A loving marriage is the best example you can give a kid.”
“That’s what we thought, hoped anyway.”
She smiled. “Someday when I grow up, maybe I’ll be lucky enough to find that.”
“From what I can tell you’re already grown up.”
“I know, but I’m intentionally reverting.”
“Can you intentionally revert? Doesn’t it take a head injury or something?”
“Why leave everything to chance?” She kicked the bottom of her stool a couple of times, weighing something. Finally she gave in. “Do you think you’ll ever find that again? What you had with Chelsea?”
He leaned back against the counter and tipped his head to the side. “For years I doubted it, now I realize that was the grief talking. I’m pretty confident.”
He put some soap in the dishwasher and started it up. Piper was watching him silently when he turned with her canvas bag in his hands.
“I’m not sure if I have exact change but I can give you what I have and owe you the rest,” he said as he handed her the bag.
“Whenever.”
“I know where to find you, anyway.”
She laughed. “That’s true.”
“I’ll walk you out.” He took her arm and turned her down the hall.
Tenderness for this man was blooming to life inside her and he was walking her to the door? Tonight he had to behave like a perfect gentleman? Piper didn’t know what to think. She was all screwed up, all confused.
Just as Chad reached out to take the doorknob Piper turned and leaned heavily against the door, keeping it closed. She took a deep steadying breath.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t attracted to you or that I haven’t fantasized about, well, getting intimate, but what happens then? I don’t have many friends here and I worry about ruining the friendship that we’re building between us if I give in to those temptations. I’d rather keep the friendship if I have to make a choice.”
His surprise was obvious. “Who says there has to be a choice? Friendships are the best basis for deeper relationships.”
She smiled weakly. “I knew if I brought this up you’d have a good response but right now that’s all I’m prepared to give.”
She reached up and stroked the side of his face
. It was a mistake. The look in his eyes was killer. There was so much roiling around in them, a storm of emotions he held inside that were suddenly spilling out across his face as he looked at her, needed her. It was unnerving to see how much he was hauling back by the reins. The effort it took had to be incredible.
There was an ache inside her too, as though she was letting them both down but she wanted to believe she was doing the right thing, leaving before regrets could start and the irreversible happened.
Please don’t stop me, please don’t stop me. Those words repeated over and over in her head. She knew, was absolutely certain that one more word, one more look from him would destroy her already shaky determination to leave.
“Thanks for coming over and helping me tonight. You were awesome,” he said.
She was still leaning against the door but she didn’t know why. No, that wasn’t true, she knew why, wasn’t comfortable exploring it, felt compelled to remain anyway. This just sucked.
“Have you ever heard of friends with benefits?” Piper asked then launched herself into Chad’s arms.
Chapter 16
To say that Chad was staggered was putting it mildly. Just when he least expected it, Piper gave in — to the lust, the curiosity, to every damned thing she fought not to trifle with.
She combed her fingernails through his hair then grabbed a hard handful and hauled him down for a hungry kiss. He didn’t need a translator to understand what she wanted when she ran her tongue over his lips. He opened to her and wolfed her down, his arms tugging her powerfully against him.
Chad let her take him where she would but not without pangs of doubt. Should he step back, set her away from him and ask whether she really wanted to do this or did he simply let her take control? Of course, offering her an out was the last thing he wanted to do. Then he thought, screw it. If she was willing to revise her own rules why fight it? Her plan beat the pants off of his.
Piper’s surrender to the attraction sizzling between them was indisputable, a physical thing. Once committed, the confident decisive woman who warned Chad off with mace was back. He liked this sexy side of her.
Chad broke the kiss to draw a ragged breath then veered right and grazed his rough cheek along her jaw, down her neck, then finally nuzzled her ear. The sensations set Piper vibrating in his arms but it was the tip of his tongue tracing along the shell of her ear that prompted her desperate groan. Piper skimmed her hands down his chest and reached around his waist. Without warning she clapped them firmly on his ass.
Taken by surprise Chad rose a good four inches before settling back on his heels, slightly dazed. Oh no, this was not the same woman who held him off for three excruciating weeks. For some inexplicable reason Piper was making a complete about face and lowering her barricades. Chad wasn’t complaining.
• • •
Only someone who’s endured a self-imposed diet for one too many days only to find themselves suddenly confronted by a buffet table set with all of their favorites could understand this kind of surrender. Piper was overwhelmed by the compulsion to feast, the need to gorge on what she denied herself.
To hell with being seduced. If she was going to cave in to her needs, she was going to be an active player. There was nothing ambiguous about the way her lips moved over Chad, tasting and licking, sucking his chin, his lobe. He let her mood and the momentum she set carry him along on the current. Her hands returned to his chest and she clutched his shirt then proceeded to devour every bare inch of skin she could reach.
“Are you always this aggressive?” he asked, the words followed by yet another deep moan. Chad pulled her head back and went for her throat while one of his hands slipped up under the front of her shirt.
“No.” She laughed and gasped, breathless and impatient. “Oh god, kiss me again, please!”
With one hand on the back of her head, the other cupping her breast, Chad obliged. They parried and twirled, thrust and stroked until Piper trembled. If Chad thought by her response that he finally wrested the advantage away from her he was mistaken. Piper easily took it back again by sliding her hand down his body and pressing his straining fly. His eyebrows shot up in surprise.
He drew a shaky breath and caught her wrist. “Careful.”
She ignored the warning. “But I need to know.”
She shook off his hand then popped the button on his jeans. Chad sighed with relief as the constricting zipper eased down. What happened next was downright embarrassing. His swollen cock sprang through his open fly like a novelty snake shooting out of a can of peanuts.
Piper laughed in delight. “Quick out of the gate, aren’t you?”
Without another word she whisked his pants down his legs and Chad kicked them aside. Piper wrapped her hand around the silky yet solid party crasher jutting out of his boxers and purred with approval.
“You’re torturing me,” Chad groaned against her temple yet he wasn’t stopping her.
For the first time in her life Piper was the aggressor and she loved it. Her eyes were glowing as she stroked him, recognizing that what she held in the palm of her hand was prime cut, a filet mignon, reserved specifically for those with a discerning palate. Piper was a gourmand.
She watched Chad sway; his eyes closed tight, his breathing irregular. He wasn’t exactly putty in her hand (who’d want that anyway) but close enough. Piper wondered how much farther she could push him. She savored the control but it was time to find Chad’s line and test it. There was a wicked smile on her face when she plunged her left hand down the back of his shorts and ripped another gasp right out of him by running her polished nails along his fuzzy crack.
• • •
That did it. Chad thought it was pretty safe to assume that since she was the one to break the no contact rule — annihilated it to be more precise — all rules were suspended and he was free to use everything in his arsenal.
Chad eased Piper’s hands out of his underwear then caught the bottom of her shirt and, ripping it up and over her head, sent it flying without caring where it landed. Her bra swiftly followed.
Chad took a moment to simply look at Piper’s body, bare and beautiful in front of him. His nightly torturous fantasies were over. From here on in, she would know him, his flavor, his texture, his possession, and he would know her. He was going to taste everything. He needed to explore her, divide and conquer her, and Piper was going to thank him for it. Yes, she started this but he was going to finish it.
• • •
Chad’s eyes locked on Piper’s and what she saw in them was a little frightening. She’d poked the caged beast with a stick then set it free. There was an untamed animal hunger flashing in his eyes that she never expected to see. It was thrilling, exhilarating even, to know that he was about to make a meal of her.
Chad swooped down and consumed the air right out of her. She gasped and he thrust his tongue into her mouth, foreshadowing the sexual act to come. Piper swayed dizzily and the hand she’d used to tease and stroke him mere seconds ago now groped for support instead, his erection turned into a railing.
He eased back ever so slowly, the suction of their kiss drawing her lips out until finally the connection broke and Piper’s lips sprang back, swollen and sensitive. She drew a ragged breath and stared at him. There was a message in Chad’s eyes and it was unmistakable — foreplay was over.
With a move so sudden it made Piper gasp, Chad lifted her off her feet, ripping her hand out of his shorts at the same time. The waistband snapped him hard across the stomach but he didn’t flinch. She wasn’t even sure he noticed. There was a serious set to his face when he carried her over to the carpeted staircase and set her down.
Piper tugged his boxers down while Chad fought with her slacks. She managed to get a quick arousing glimpse between Chad’s legs just before he crawled over her like a panther, caging her between his arms and fo
llowing her down as she dropped back on the treads. All appetite, he took her mouth and pressed his body full against hers. Her momentary taste of power was over.
Piper’s prophetic dream came back to her in sharp detail but it didn’t disgust her now. She understood herself for the very first time and wasn’t ashamed to want a man. Nothing was more natural. When Chad ran his hands over her, ground his pelvis against her suggestively she rose up to meet him, consumed by the need to join her body with his.
She needed to touch him, feel him with everything she was. Her fingers sliced into his silky hair, flowed along his broad shoulders, and dug into his muscular hips. Piper gasped when Chad drew half her breast into his mouth and clung when he slid a finger inside her to explore her sultry terrain.
“Mmm, nice,” he murmured, grazing his lips, his rough chin down her shoulder.
That word, the timbre of his masculine voice, his very touch, was enough to set off seismic rumblings deep inside her. Liberated from her sexual hiatus Piper couldn’t stop herself from grinding against his plunging hand, desperate for release.
But he withdrew, though the seismic pressure remained, leaving her teetering precariously on the edge.
With her mind so clouded by sex Piper didn’t want to dwell on anything but what they were doing. She was beyond rational thoughts and feelings. Damn the consequences — she needed this man and he needed her. It didn’t feel wrong. It might later but at this moment she didn’t care.
Piper dropped her head back on the step, it was dead weight anyway. As he raised her hips she shifted willingly, offering herself. He could have her on a platter if that’s what he wanted. She just needed him inside her, she needed him now.
Chad smiled down into her glassy eyes, delirious with lust, and entered her.
Piper’s orgasm slammed into her so hard she bucked and thrashed violently, inadvertently kicking Chad away. He dropped down to the next tread with a loud thump.
“Holy shit!” He stared at her in surprise as he stood and rubbed his knee.