She now knew the truth.
He wanted her, too.
Chapter Four
West Security was completely deserted when Cole walked in. He hadn’t expected anything else at six thirty in the morning.
Sleep eluded him. In fact, he hadn’t been able to sleep for four shitty nights. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Piper. Blond hair down around her shoulders, his suit jacket swamping her curvy body. So tempting, so sexy. So damn sweet.
He rubbed his hands over his face. Jesus, he needed to stop this. She wasn’t for him. It didn’t matter that he could still feel her soft lips against his, the way they’d parted for his tongue, the way she tasted like wine and wedding cake. Jesus, he’d been hard ever since he pinned her to the wall, could think of nothing but the heat between her legs pressed against his aching cock.
And the sweet, urgent sounds she’d made while she’d clung to him, shit, they played on a constant loop in his head. He dragged a hand across his chest, where the overflowing mounds of her breasts had crushed against him.
Piper had kissed him, and instead of walking away like he should have, he’d kissed her back.
Idiot.
The realization that she’d wanted him, too, if only for those few minutes? He could barely believe it. Why? Why the hell would she want to kiss him?
Yeah, she’d had a thing for him back when they were kids. And she sure as hell hadn’t made it easy on him. Seventeen-year-old Piper had baited and harassed the shit out of him. Flaunted her new curves in that cute, sexy, completely clueless way of hers. Driven him damn near crazy with wanting her.
But she was over that now, wasn’t she?
He shook his head. It didn’t matter. She was as off-limits now as she was then.
God, he still remembered the first time he really saw her, saw her as more than Deke’s baby sister. He and Deke had been at the West’s cottage, shooting the shit out back when the girls arrived home. The Axle Alley Vipers the local boys had called them. The name had definitely fit. All three girls beautiful, full of fire, and a truck load of attitude. Well, he’d always thought Alex and Rusty lived up to the moniker, but Piper, not so much. He’d seen her as sweet and shy, a little awkward.
Until that day.
Shy, little Piper had changed. And not just her attitude. She’d gone from a kid to a smokin’-hot seventeen-year-old with more tits and ass than a girl her age had a right to. She’d worn cutoffs and a bikini top that barely covered what she had going on. And when she’d spotted him, her big blue eyes had warmed, lips curving into a smile. Not the way she had in the past, all shy and rosy cheeked, no, she turned all that new attitude on him. If he hadn’t already been sitting, he would have fallen on his ass.
That was the day he fell for Piper West. From a motherfucking great height.
And since he’d returned to Miami, it felt like some sick bastard had his finger on the rewind button, taking him back to the point of impact, just to let him smash into the unforgiving ground over and over again. Blowing his attempts at maintaining control over his life all to shit.
He’d wanted Piper to be in his future, and not just as his best friend’s little sister. He was still struggling to accept that dream was well and truly over. He wasn’t the same man he’d once been. Now, he was fractured, messed up, beyond redemption. He had nothing to offer anyone, shit, he had nothing left to give. And Piper deserved a fuck of a lot more than that.
Turning on the lights, he headed to his office and fired up the computer. He had several quotes for possible new clients to work on. He did not need to be thinking about Piper, or the way she’d gone up on tiptoe and pressed those full, sweet lips against his.
It was clear the woman had been put on this earth to tempt him.
A few months ago she’d called him by mistake, completely shit-faced. He’d held the phone to his ear, jealousy pumping through his veins at the things she said. The call was clearly meant for someone else. But he hadn’t corrected her. No, he’d stayed on the line, listening, wishing the words pouring out of her mouth were for him.
He hadn’t felt one shred of guilt for possibly screwing things up between her and the numb-nuts she’d really wanted to talk to. If the guy was too stupid to know what he had, if he’d let a woman like Piper slip through his fingers, he didn’t deserve her.
I’m done waiting for you to make a move. So I’m telling you, I want you. If you want me, too, come get me…I’m yours. If I don’t see you by the end of the week, I’ll know that you don’t feel that way about me. You’ve got one week. Then I’m moving on. I’m getting over you.
He’d lay there in his bed, struggling to breathe, to stay where he was.
Ignoring the urge to call her back, to ask where she was, had nearly done him in. That need, that pain in her voice, it hadn’t been for him, but he’d wished it had been.
Pull it the hell together.
He rounded his desk and planted his ass in the chair. Working, focusing on something else was all he could do.
When Deacon added a security business to his growing portfolio several months ago, he’d asked Cole to help with the change of ownership. His friend knew nothing about security, so Cole had agreed. It wasn’t like he’d been doing anything else. It’d gone well; so well, he’d offered him a permanent job. Being a control freak had paid off. Now he was the new manager of a large security firm, in charge of staff and doing a whole host of other shit he’d never seen himself doing. Yeah, he was grateful, but this was not where he’d seen himself ending up when he’d joined the force fresh out of college.
This life was not the one he’d planned. Becoming this, living with what he’d done…
