by Ali Parker
“Piper,” he breathed.
“No. I’m not done. This year has totally screwed me up. I don’t know what I want, let alone what I need, and I’m terrified of letting you down. Of fucking everything up. Of hurting you. Betraying you. Misleading you. All of it. I shouldn’t have let you kiss me on the carousel. I shouldn’t have gone up to your room with you in San Francisco, and I shouldn’t have—”
“Piper,” he spoke my name firmly.
I blinked at him, and a tear rolled down my cheek. I loathed it for showing my vulnerability.
Max looked me straight in the eyes. “You can’t control what I feel. Besides. I signed up for this. You don’t think I considered the fact that I might fall for the girl and the girl might fall for one of the other men? I mean, look at the stats. It’s more likely that you’ll choose one of them than me. That’s just simple math.”
I blinked. The wine must have been getting to my head. “What?”
“You have nothing to feel guilty for, Piper. I like you. I like you a hell of a lot. But there isn’t an expectation on my end that you have to feel the same way. Let’s just enjoy the rest of the month together before it slips through our fingers.”
“But—”
“There are no buts. Not with me. I know what I want, and I know what I’m risking by wanting it. By wanting you. And I’m not afraid of that risk or what will come in the end if I’m not the guy you choose. And you need to hear me when I say this, Piper. That’s okay.”
I wanted to hide.
He stroked my cheek. Instinctively, I leaned into his touch and closed my eyes. His palm was warm and smooth. The comfort of a simple thing like this made no sense to my wine-muddled brain. All I could comprehend was how it felt.
And just like everything else with Max, it felt right.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
I couldn’t remember what I was apologizing for. This conversation hadn’t gone at all how I thought it would. All I knew was I was supposed to be putting distance between us. But distance felt even farther away now. Somehow, we felt closer. Like my little emotional breakdown was an invitation for him to come in and save the day and patch me up and put me back on my feet again.
“Don’t be sorry. Never be sorry. I want you. Even if all I get is another two weeks.”
His words cut through my last defenses, and I nodded.
That was all I wanted, too.
I was desperate to soak up every second I had left with him. Every kiss. Every touch. Every moment of bare skin against skin. I wanted all of them in spite of how much it would hurt when they were gone.
“Do you think we can do that, Piper?”
I licked my lips.
“Talk to me,” he said.
I nodded. “Yes. Yes, we can do that.”
He peered up into my face. “Are you sure?”
Tears burned my eyes, and I nodded more fiercely. “I’m sure.”
Max didn’t wait for me to fall apart before he pulled me into his chest. I curled in on myself, and he drew me into his lap, where he cradled me against his chest and I cried my heart out. I cried over what we had and what we were going to lose. I cried over how foolish I felt.
And I cried for the kindness he showed me that I did not deserve.
If he knew the truth of all this, that I was money hungry and only in this to bring the cash back to my parents, would he feel the same way?
I highly doubted that.
He thought the only threat to him were the other bachelors.
And I was the wicked woman who was going to let him believe that so I could get the last morsels of time that remained.
Chapter 20
Max
Piper drew herself into a small ball in my lap as I rubbed her back. Her crying had eased off, and now she was sniffling as she nuzzled in close. I rested my cheek on top of her head, breathed in the scent of her shampoo, and closed my eyes.
I didn’t know how long we stayed like that.
It could have been ten minutes. It could have been an hour. All I knew in those moments together was that I would hold her for however long it took for her to feel better. And then I would order her pizza and make sure she drank water.
She’d had a rough evening.
I felt bad for being out of the house all day. Had I not taken the meeting after my breakfast with my sister, this might never have happened. I might have spared her from a night of anxious waiting.
Piper shifted in my lap, and I lifted my cheek from her head as she pushed off my chest. I stroked her hair away from her face as she wiped tears from her cheeks and then offered me a bashful and somewhat sad smile.
“I’m sorry, Max. I’m such a mess.”
“It’s all right.”
She sniffled softly and rolled her eyes at herself. “I shouldn’t have opened the wine. It made everything feel a lot more intense. It was silly of me.”
“You needed to get it off your chest. I understand. Do you feel better now than you did earlier?”
She nodded.
“Good. That’s what matters. Let’s order that pizza, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Do you need anything else?”
She shook her head. “No. No, I’m all right.”
“Delivery up to this part of town usually takes forty-five minutes or so. How about I run you a bath and you drink some nice cold water while you soak? You’ll feel right as rain in a couple of hours.”
She searched my eyes. “You don’t have to do that. I can pour my bath and—”
“Nonsense.” I patted her thigh before gently sliding her off of my lap onto the sofa, and then I got to my feet. “I want to. You can use the tub in my bathroom. It has jets.” I waggled my eyebrows.
Piper giggled and rocked back on the sofa, holding her ankles. “Well, I guess I can’t argue with an offer like that.”
“Sit tight. I’ll come get you when it’s ready.”
I could feel Piper’s eyes on my back as I took my leave. I crossed the foyer and took the stairs to the second level two at a time. I busied myself with selecting the perfect bubble bath from under the guest bathroom sink. All of them were still sealed, having never been used. I selected a lavender bath soak and headed back to my bathroom, poured it under the running hot water, and breathed in the relaxing aroma as it filled the tub.
Then I went about pouring her a glass of iced water, fetching her current read from her nightstand in my bedroom, and lighting a couple of candles along the edge of the tub. When I was done, I stood back to admire my handiwork and nodded confidently. This would do the trick.
Piper needed to relax. She had to decompress. She was in the same headspace I’d been stuck in when she first arrived here. A never-ending loop of doubt and confusion. I didn’t envy that. Not even a little bit.
When I left my bedroom to go downstairs, I found Piper in the hallway. She was coming out of the guest room and was wrapped up in a floral-printed silk robe.
As per usual, her beauty took my breath away.
She came toward me, her bare feet silent on the hardwood floors, all the while drawing her hair up into a messy bun. She tugged a black hair tie from her wrist and secured the mess of curls on top of her head.
I guided her through my bedroom with a hand on the small of her back. When we stepped into the bathroom, a smile spread across her lips, and she stepped in front of me to dip her fingers in the hot bathwater.
She looked over her shoulder at me. “I’ve never had someone run a bath for me before.”
I leaned up against the bathroom wall and folded my arms over my chest. “I’ve never ran one for someone before. A first for us both. I hope I didn’t botch it.”
“You’re the CEO of Apple,” she mused, straightening up and tugging the drawstring of her robe so the loose bow came undone. “I think you can handle drawing a bath.”
She put her back to me and dropped the robe.
The bathroom lights were out, and her body was painted in th
e wavering light of the candles lining the tub. She stepped over the edge and dipped one leg in the water. She smiled to herself, seemingly unaware of her captive audience, and stood in the hot water for a moment before lowering herself into the tub.
Piper leaned back to rest her neck against the back lip of the tub and closed her eyes. The water gently lapped at the edges and kissed the top of her breasts. The tub was deep. Part of me wished it wasn’t so I could have seen more of her.
She cracked one eye open and peered over at me. “Are you going to join me, just watch, or order pizza?”
I pushed off the wall. “I’m going to order pizza. And despite how much I want to slip in there with you, I will resist. You relax. I’ll meet you downstairs. Take your time.”
I turned toward the door and stepped out into my bedroom.
“Max?”
I paused to look back at Piper. “Yes?”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Piper was still in the bath when the pizza arrived, so I put the box in the oven and set it to keep it warm. I didn’t want to rush her, and I had a feeling she deeply needed the quiet space to breathe and reflect and not be influenced by my company.
While I waited for her, I signed into my work email on my phone and started going through the emails from the week that I hadn’t had time to get to in the sparing moments I went into the office. Shawn had developed a nervous twitch about the whole thing, insisting there was no way I could make up for this month’s lost ground.
It didn’t matter to me. My job didn’t save lives. It provided a luxury. And people could wait when it came to such things.
I’d made it through about eight emails when Piper came downstairs from her bath. She was wrapped up in her robe again, but it was tied loosely, letting air pass through the wide collar and open front. Underneath, she wore a pair of white boxer-cut panties with a thick elastic band and a matching sports bra.
I nearly swallowed my tongue.
“It smells good down here,” Piper said, sniffing the air like a cat.
I extracted myself from the sofa. “Pizza is in the oven. I didn’t want to bother you while you were soaking.”
She brushed past me, trailing her fingers over my chest as she went. “Let’s eat. I’m famished.”
I followed her into the kitchen. Lavender filled the air all around her as she fetched us plates and glasses of water. I pulled the pizza out of the oven, and we dug in, filling our plates with cheese-oozing, vegetable-loaded slices of goodness.
Piper had already crammed three bites into her mouth by the time we took our seats in the living room. She sat cross-legged on the sofa while she ate, and we talked about mindless things until we finished eating. Then I collected our plates, left them in the kitchen, and rejoined her on the sofa, sitting close enough so I could wrap an arm around her shoulders as she sipped her iced water.
“So,” I said, “I wanted to tell you about breakfast with my sister this morning.”
Piper glanced up at me. “How is she?”
“She’s good. I took your advice, you know.”
“What advice?”
“I talked to her, like you said. About our family and about how I felt bad about leaving her behind when I moved to LA. I think I scared her a bit at first. She didn’t seem too keen on talking about it. But I wouldn’t let it lie. And she came around.”
“How do you feel?” Piper asked, twisting around to face me directly.
“Like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” I admitted.
She grinned and put her hand on my knee. “I’m so glad for you, Max. For Holly too.”
“Thank you. I can’t believe how much of a difference a single conversation can make to how I feel. I mean, it’s like my childhood doesn’t feel so dark anymore, you know? Like it doesn’t hold any weight over me anymore.”
She bit her bottom lip. “Max. That’s wonderful.”
I chuckled. “I know it all sounds so cliché.”
Piper leaned in. “I love clichés.”
And then she kissed me.
The kiss started out soft and sweet. Her lips danced with mine, and my nose filled with the scent of lavender upon her skin, which was smooth and creamy beneath my fingers as I ran a hand up her leg to her hip. Her cotton panties traveled beneath my palm as I moved up her front, across her hip, to her back, and drew her in close.
Piper giggled into our kiss as she returned to my lap once more.
Her strong thighs pressed against the outside of my legs as she straddled me. The kiss deepened, and I held her close, reaching up to pull her hair down from its bun. It tumbled down around her, around us, and she rolled her hips, grinding against my cock as I grew hard beneath her.
When we broke apart, she gazed into my eyes. Neither of us said anything. There was no need to. This time was ours. Nobody could take it from us.
Not for another two weeks, at least.
Chapter 21
Piper
Max tugged playfully at the waistband of my booty shorts. It snapped against my skin, and he showed me his teeth in a wolfish, dangerous grin.
I swatted his hand away. “Down boy.”
The lavender-infused bath Max had run for me chased away all the lingering side effects of my emotional breakdown less than two hours prior to our steamy make-out session’s beginning. The salts soaked into my pores, cleared my mind, and soothed aches I didn’t know I had.
I felt renewed. Invigorated.
All sense of worry and doubt over how this was going to end seemed like a far-off fuzzy thought now, one that I didn’t need to concern myself with.
Especially not with such a perfect man beneath me. A man who, in another life, might have been mine for good.
Max left a trail of kisses down my throat and moved his lips delicately across my collarbone, from one side to the other, and then along my shoulders, nudging my robe off my shoulders with the tips of his fingers. I rolled my hips in subtle defiance as if to remind him which one of us presently held the power.
Me.
“Should we move upstairs to the bedroom?” Max asked against the side of my neck, his breath a hot and merciless tease upon my flesh.
I cupped his face in my hands and shook my head before kissing him. Deeply. Ravenously. Like a simple thing like a kiss could say all the things my words didn’t before.
I’m sorry.
You’re special to me.
Don’t forget us.
Don’t forget me.
And please don’t hate me when this is all said and done.
Max squeezed my ass in an effort to still my hips. Apparently, he wasn’t the only merciless tease among us. I giggled against his lips, and he squeezed harder before pushing my panties down to expose my bare ass.
I yelped in surprise when he gave me a slap.
Then I bit my bottom lip and pulled back. “I didn’t know you had that in you.”
Max slid his hands under my ass, pulled my cheeks apart, and spread my pussy. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Piper.” He ran his fingers along my opening. It was a challenge not to squirm in his grasp. “But you know I like to take my time. And you know I like the way you lose control when you come.” He paused, leaned forward, and kissed the sides of my breasts over my sports bra. “And you know I like to make you wait before I give you what you want.”
“Bastard,” I breathed.
“Your bastard.”
For now.
I pulled my sports bra off over my head. Max descended upon my breasts and worked as he always did, with ease and deliberate slowness.
It became impossible for me to stay still in his lap with his fingers teasing my pussy and his lips puckering around my nipples. I hung my head back, my hair cascading down to graze the top of my ass, and I closed my eyes to savor the glorious moment.
Max stretched my pussy. I moaned. His teeth pinched my nipple, and I whimpered and writhed until the pain became pleasure and he ea
sed a finger inside me.
“You’re so wet, baby,” Max purred. “What got you all hot and bothered?”
I pressed down against his fingers, desperate for more.
He chuckled. The rumble in his chest drove me wild, and I frantically began working to undo his jeans. He let me. The belt came undone first, and then the button, and then the zipper. But as I slid my hands inside to grope him over his boxers, Max caught my wrist and clicked his tongue.
“I don’t think so,” he said.
“But—”
Max flipped me over. The world spun, and I landed on my back on the sofa, half propped up against the back cushion. Max lifted my ass up and stripped my panties off me. Then, with his classic sexy little smirk playing on his lips, he tugged me to the very edge of the sofa and demanded I spread my legs.
I pushed back. “And if I don’t?”
“You will.”
He called my bluff. There was nothing I wanted more in that moment than to do as he asked. So I let my knees fall apart for him.
It was the only invitation he needed.
Max settled between my thighs and ran his tongue along my slit. He paused at my clit and worshipped it with quick flicks of his tongue and long, circular caresses. It drove me wild. He knew exactly what to do to light my entire body on fire with need.
A terrible and wonderful ache formed below my belly as he worked. Every suckle and lick only intensified the pressure until the knot was pulled to its ultimate tightness and I could hardly suck in a breath without shuddering.
When Max drew my clit between his lips and sucked hard, I gave in to the pressure.
Something inside me burst apart and sent pleasure coursing through my entire body. I let out a cry of ecstasy that spurred Max on, and he watched me writhe and tremble as I came.
Then when I was done, he kissed the inside of my thighs and leaned back to sit on his heels.
I pushed myself up. “My turn.”
He arched an eyebrow and tried to conceal his bemused expression as I struggled to get to my feet with weak knees and trembling thighs. Luckily for me, he didn’t put up a fight when I pulled him up, turned him around, and worked his jeans off of him.