AllFreeNovel
Share Us
PIPER
The childhood bedroom Piper had left behind when she went to college looked the same. A large antique wooden dresser sat in the corner of the room beside the arched window and white chiffon drapes. The queen-sized bed with its fluffy floral comforter had just enough space for all the women in her close-knit family to pile atop it, leaving her no room to sit with them. Piper pulled the chair from her vanity and set it beside the bed as four sets of eyes eagerly locked on her. It felt like children’s story time, though the subject was for mature audiences.
“Did your tire really pop, or was that just an excuse?” Talia’s eyebrows were raised in accusation, but there was no real threat behind the look.
“My tire really popped. We spent the whole morning getting it fixed, and Leo chewed the mechanic out for trying to sell me the wrong size tire.” Piper folded her arms over her chest, feeling a bit defensive.
“And?” Pearl waved her hand for Piper to elaborate.
“What do you want to know? I needed to stay with my car, and it was late. Or early, depending on how you look at it.” She was deliberately skirting around the main event, and everyone knew it.
“Yes, getting my car towed often leads to my husband and I sucking face.” Amala’s voice dripped with sarcasm.
“Gross, Mom!” Jayla objected.
“How do you think you and your brother were made? I’m sure Piper can explain. Take it away.” Amala gestured to Piper wildly.
“I…” Piper groaned. “Okay, we got a hotel room, and the entire point of traveling together was so that Leo could afford it, so I suggested he just sleep on the pull-out couch.”
“I take it he did not sleep on the pull-out couch,” Talia said with dry amusement.
“Well, first we snuck into the hot tub area, I tried to jump the fence, rolled my ankle, and he kinda had to half-drag, half-carry me everywhere, and we didn’t have any swimsuits, so we were just wearing underwear, and I was wearing a shirt, but…” Piper cringed and looked away while she said the next part. “Then we accidentally started making out.”
Talia tipped her head to the side, narrowing her eyes. “That’s it?”
“No.” Piper bit her lip and blushed furiously. “Then it started dumping rain on us, and he had to carry me back to the room because of my ankle, and then it just kind of happened.”
“Just to clarify,” Pearl raised her hand, “Leo? The guy you repeatedly told me you hated?”
“I still hate him. He’s a jerk! I mean,” Piper gestured to her neck as proof, “he sat next to me the entire car ride back and said nothing about this monstrosity he gave me.”
“He didn’t force you into anything, did he?” Amala’s face softened.
“No.” Piper adamantly shook her head, feeling suddenly very obligated to defend Leo despite not being his biggest fan at the moment. “He got consent. Multiple times. I promise. I don’t know why I wanted to, but I did. But it’ll never happen again.”
“That bad?” Amala inquired as Piper looked down at the floor. Did she even want to explain that it was the best sex she’d ever had? Or did she want them to think it was the worst so they would stop questioning her? The second option was appealing, but it wasn’t the truth.
“It was, um… he knows what he’s doing.” Piper cringed. “And we might have taken a weirdly sexual shower this morning. But that’s it! It’s done.” She karate-chopped the air with finality.
“Are we taking bets?” Amala turned to Talia.
“I think Walker would kill me if I took bets on this,” Talia said. “He was so convinced that something would happen with Leo on the way here to begin with, and I assured him a billion times that he was being dramatic, but apparently, he was not.”
“Well, they already made out once before the trip, so even I could have told you something was going to happen,” Pearl droned.
“True,” Jayla agreed. “Coop’s phone popped off when that news came out.”
“Excuse me?” Talia gaped.
“Carter’s a freaking snitch,” Piper groaned.
“I would think, as your sister, that I would get to know first and have the honor of snitching, but yeah, Carter can’t keep a secret to save his life.” Pearl giggled.
“I was going to tell you, but Carter read me like a book.” Piper sighed and then turned to her aunt for more explanation. “We got into it at the library once, fighting about—I don’t even know.” She technically did know, but she wasn’t about to bring up their entire discussion about love or how she’d practically dared Leo to kiss her. “Then he kissed me, and we both kinda freaked out. We had successfully avoided each other outside of rehearsals up until you decided to plan this whole trip behind our backs.”
The corner of Talia’s mouth twitched, holding back some sort of smile. “It seems like you like him more than you’re letting on.”
“I don’t. Liking his dick and thinking that he is a dick don’t have to be mutually exclusive.” Piper neglected to mention that just liking it was the understatement of the century. Leo’s body had sent her mind into the gutter too many times to count on the way home, and just recounting the night was making her face flush with the memory of how he looked thrusting into her with deep, deliberate strokes. If anyone ever wondered if they could be attracted to that small notch in between clavicles, Piper was living proof that it was possible.
