“I’m the job,” she fills in for me.
I nod. “Things never end well when those lines get blurred.”
“Well, the lines this time are also highlighted in neon colors saying,You belong together, make a pack.” She chuckles dryly.
I can’t help but laugh, too. “Yeah, I guess they are, aren’t they?”
She nudges my leg with her knee. “You’re steady. I always feel…solid, when you’re around. Like the universe can’t fall apart because you won’t let it. But like, yeah, just because we’re scent-matches doesn’t mean wehaveto do anything. It’s just the universe putting us on a special path.”
I swallow, and it scrapes my throat raw.
“I don’t want to mess this up,” I admit. “If I cross a line, it’s all over. You lose more than just a bodyguard. Raelynn would fire me. The label would make your life hell.”
Piper shrugs. “So? My life is already hell with Reverie sometimes. Better to have company.”
She doesn’t saypack. She doesn’t saymate. She knows those words are knives, especially when we expand this conversation outward to Prince Kellen andhisbodyguard. People I don’t know and don’t trust.
We sit there in the hum of the city lights filtering through the curtains. The silence stretches and folds around us like a blanket. My fingers twitch, hovering an inch from where her pink hair curls against her cheek. The air between us feels magnetic. I curl my hand into a fist and lower it to my thigh, where my knuckles press white against my jeans.
She leans in, very slowly. I tense, but don’t move away. “Is this okay?”
I nod. Once.
She rests her head against me, light as a feather, and lets out a sigh. This is the closest we have ever been, apart from the times I’m making sure she’s not about to faint. My jaw clenches sohard my teeth might crack. Every muscle in my body has turned to stone. I’m afraid that if I move even an inch, I’ll gather her against me completely and there will be no coming back.
“This is why I was on suppressants,” Piper whispers. “Because when I’m not, I want things I shouldn’t. And who has time for that in this industry?”
“Things like what?” I ask, barely breathing.
She pulls back, just enough to look me in the eye. “Like this.”
She kisses me. Not on the mouth, because that would be too much, too fast—but on the corner of my jaw, just beneath my beard, where my pulse hammers in time with hers.
It takes every shred of self-control to not turn and claim her mouth, to not haul her onto my lap and sink into the cherry-vanilla sweetness she offers up like a dare. But I don’t. I stay where I am, hands still clenched, and let her mark me with her softness.
She pulls away, smiling. “Thank you for getting me out of the gala safely. You are and have always been my hero.”
“Not a hero,” I rasp. “Just doing my job.”
She laughs and then stands up. Thank fuck.If it were up to me, neither of us would be leaving this coffee table until I’dthoroughlychecked Piper over.
Piper takes a few steps away but I can still see the tension in her shoulders. There’s so much more to this between us. I have no idea what the fuck to do about it, and neither does she it would seem.
Piper turns back. “I’m going to bed before you combust. Or I do. You’re staying, right?”
I nod. “Couch, as always.”
“Good.” Piper then disappears into the bedroom. The soft click of the door closing is the only sound.
I sit on the coffee table and stare at the closed door until my legs go numb and my head aches with everything I almost did.When I finally move to the suite’s pull-out couch, I lay down on top of the blankets and stare at the popcorn ceiling. Minutes go by as I try to memorize every second of this night, of the feel of her lips on my skin, so I won’t do anything I regret tomorrow.
But I know it’s too late for that.
It was too late the first time I caught her scent.
CHAPTER 5
Piper
