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“Let’s hope you were,” he told her as he finished and rose to his feet once again. “Because, trust me, Piper, I have more intentions than you could ever imagine. ”
There was the fear.
It flashed in the bright green of her eyes and tightened her expression as she fought to hold back the response. Hell, she was fighting to hide that fear from him, and he hated it.
“Good Lord,” she muttered, suddenly reaching down for her bag. “I’m out of here. Remind me to make damned sure you’ve left before I come in to clean your room again. ”
“I wouldn’t put chains on you, Piper. ”
She paused, her hand on the doorknob, her face turned from him as her head lowered.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. ” The edge of anger in her voice wasn’t nearly as well hidden as he was certain she would have liked.
“Yeah, you do, Piper. ” He rejected the instant denial she gave the moment she turned her back on him. “You think if you take me as a lover then you’ll be exchanging your brother’s protectiveness for one far more permanent. ”
“My brother’s protectiveness? Is that what you call it?” She turned back to him then. “Trust me: They named my brother well when they nicknamed him Dawg. He’s tenacious, and guards his territory like a junkyard dog. And he sees every damned one of his sisters, as well as our mother, as his territory. It wouldn’t matter who we took as lovers, he’d still be hovering over us like a damned pit bull. ”
There was no anger or heat in the words, only a sense of regret and uncertainty. In the past year, her life hadn’t exactly been her own, as her brother did everything in his power to ensure the danger that had threatened her older sister didn’t touch the younger ones.
“Nevertheless,” he said softly. “I wouldn’t put ties on you. I wouldn’t treat you as though you didn’t have the good sense to understand whether your life was in danger or not, and the intelligence to know whether you can live life as usual, sit tight, or just plain hide. ”
She watched him warily. “You’re the same type of male Dawg, Rowdy, and Natches are. ” She finally informed him, and it was clear she believed it to the bottom of her soul. “Having you for a lover would be like sleeping with human handcuffs. ”
God help him, he swore he could see the pain and disillusionment filling her very soul. It was in the weariness of her voice and the soul-deep certainty that filled it.
“I would defend you with my life,” he admitted. “But I would also defend your right to a life, Piper. When you decide you’re tired of being a frightened little girl rather than the independent woman I know you are, then let me know. Perhaps once you’ve figured out which you are, then we can resume all the pleasure we were interrupted in this morning. ”
Her shoulders tightened, defiance and denial immediately flashing in her gaze.
Jed didn’t hang around to hear her argument or her reasons for her beliefs; they would just piss him the fuck off.
He knew the past year had been hell on her and her younger sisters. Eve, the eldest, had pranced from the suite she’d lived in for the past five years and moved in with the government agent she was now engaged to, perfectly content to fight her battles of independence and keep her opinions private within the secured houseboat they were currently living in at the lake.
Eve had left her younger sisters to face the fallout with her brother and cousins. Her sisters, though, had never been given a full explanation of why that overprotectiveness had suddenly increased, or when it would end. Though he knew Piper had her suspicions.
Jed couldn’t explain what had happened either, not yet, not until he knew Piper understood his intentions where she was concerned.
But hell, in order to make her understand them, he was going to have to figure them out himself.
One thing was certain: He intended to have her in his bed. And he sure as hell didn’t intend to let her go anytime soon once he had her there.
Hell, why couldn’t he imagine ever letting her go, period?
ONE
ONE MONTH LATER
She was going to cave.
Piper could feel it coming. She could feel that bond of pleasure Jed had created four weeks before tightening between them, pulling them together.
She’d taken Eve’s suite on the first floor of Mackay’s Bed-and-Breakfast Inn after her sister had moved in with her lover, Brogan Campbell.
Brogan had been staying in the suite next to Eve’s for the two years he had been there doing whatever it was he was doing. She had a feeling he was a hell of a lot more than a building contractor or supervisor or whatever the hell he claimed to be. She was all but certain he was a covert agent and working directly with her mother’s lover, Timothy Cranston.
And she highly suspected both Jedediah Booker and the other contractor staying at the inn, Elijah Grant, were Brogan’s partners.
There had been strange things going on in Somerset—hell, in Pulaski County, period—for the past few years: thefts that didn’t make
