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“That would be the bit you’d focus on,” Piper points out.
“Of course it is. I like to know I’m the first.”
“That’s it, then? You’re just going to rush in here, sweep me off my feet, and declare yourself to be my Dom? Don’t I get a say in this?”
“You had a say before you stopped taking care of yourself, Piper.”
“Hey,” she says quietly, but she looks embarrassed. “I still got out of bed every day, didn’t I? I still went to the post office to check my mail.”
“Did you go to work, Piper?”
“Well, no, but I was working from home. I’m not behind on any of my projects. In fact, I’m ahead by a few months. They can handle things without me.”
“Love, you’re letting this guy ruin your life, and he’s not even here. For all we know, he’s back in Cherryville.”
She looks at me, and her gaze is wary. Yeah, we both know he’s not in Cherryville. That’s not how these abusers work. He’s just biding his time, waiting for the opportune moment to strike.
Piper reaches for the toast on the edge of her plate and picks it up. She begins to eat it slowly.
“You were a cop before, weren’t you?” She asks, shooting me a glance out of the corner of her eye.
“I was,” I tell her.
“Why’d you stop?”
“Politics.”
“What do you mean?”
“Being a cop was fantastic. I loved the men I worked with. They truly were my brothers, but they were more than that. They became part of who I was, Piper. We lived, breathed, and fought together. We did everything together. We saved the world together.”
“Sounds like you really loved it.”
“It was all I’d ever wanted.”
“So what happened? Something must have prompted you to walk away,” her voice is gentle, quiet, and I realize that Piper really has this way of drawing me out of myself. I like that about her. She’s sitting here, terrified and scared, and her wet hair is hanging in her face, but she’s the most gorgeous, most courageous thing I’ve ever seen.
Piper Queen is incredible, and I’m suddenly hit with the realization that I want to marry this woman.
I’m never going to meet anyone else who’s quite like her.
I’m never going to get to know another woman who makes me laugh, who makes me think, who makes me feel the way she does.
I want Piper Queen to be in my life forever.
I want her to become Piper Blake.
“There was a woman,” I tell her. I can tell her this. I can trust her with this. Piper has trusted me with so much already. I can trust her with this one issue. It’s not that this is embarrassing, and it’s not even scary. Not anymore. It’s just sad, and it’s not something she really needs to know.
But something in her eyes tells me that she does need to know.
She needs this.
Piper needs a little bit of raw honesty between us, and I can give that to her. I can and I will because Piper is a little fighter.
“She’d been abducted.”
Piper lets out a little gasp, but I keep going. It’s all or nothing at this point. I have to tell her the truth, to get this story out. Piper seems to know I’m struggling because she reaches for my hand and she gives it a little squeeze.
