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It wasn’t a lie, but I hoped she was strong enough for both of us because, if she said the word, then I’d lose all semblance of restraint I managed to hold together around her.
“Oh, and now you’ve ruined it!” she chuckled.
“I’m not apologising,” I told her.
“Good. If you did, I’d be worried you got abducted by aliens or something.”
I laughed loudly. “If I ever apologise, you’ll know I’m being held hostage.”
Piper snickered. “That will definitely be your tell.”
“And yours?”
“My what?” she asked.
“Your tell? For if you ever get abducted.”
“Um… ‘I hate John Cusack’.”
“Well, I don’t love him, but that seems a bit harsh, Barlow. What did he ever do to you?”
“No,” she laughed and already my bad mood was dissipating, “that’d be my tell.”
“John Cusack?”
“Yep.”
“Okay. Well, Carter will be devastated.” I might have been devastated.
I parked the ute and got out, and she followed me.
“Oh, Mason knows about my love for John,” she said.
“He’s a better man than me, then.” And I meant it. If I had a chance to make Piper mine, I wouldn’t just sit back while she pronounced her love for someone else.
“I get the impression you don’t know who John Cusack is…” she said slowly and I heard the humour in her voice.
“Oh, what gave it away?” I asked sarcastically as I headed for the back of the tray and pulled the tailgate down.
Piper met me there and I held my hands out to help her up, but she didn’t do anything. After a few moments, she looked at my hands like she didn’t know what they were there for.
“Do you want a hand up, or not so much?” I asked.
Her eyes found mine again and I saw the lightbulb go off. She nodded and I froze before I put my hands on her waist and helped hoist her onto the tray. God damn, but that was a bad idea. I was standing between her legs with very little clothing between us. My hands were on her waist and she was looking at me like…
I watched her bite her lip as her eyes searched mine.
How was I supposed to keep my hands off her when she looked at me like that? When I was close enough to feel her breath hitch slightly? When her lips parted like they were just begging to be kissed?
It felt like an age before she gave me a small smile and started shuffling back into the tray. My senses already on high alert, I tried to shake it off before climbing in beside her and lying down. She was looking at me with an intense look on her face. Something like I felt, but different.
“You okay?” I asked her.
“I should be asking you that, surely?”
There was no reason for her to be, but that was Piper. I might have teased her about never had a bad word to say about anyone, but she was such a kind and sweet person. Behind the façade of not wanting to rock the boat, she honestly cared about people.
So, I had no words for her and just held up the blankets for her to snuggle up next to me. There was another word I didn’t think I’d have ever let pass my thoughts. ‘Snuggle’. And yet there was no better word than what I wanted to do with her just then. I could still feel me standing between her legs, and I wanted to hold her close. But she deserved better.
