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I growled at him, but I knew his words had been a dig at me spending time with Piper, not about Mum and Maddy. Rio Salazar was many things, but he respected family. Real family. The ones who loved you. Blood or not.
As much as he was yanking my chain, I wasn’t going to lie to him.
I sucked my teeth and answered reluctantly, “She’s hanging out with Hadley today.”
Rio perked up at the mention of Hadley Reynolds. “Why don’t we go and see if we can bump into them?”
I tipped my drink to my lips and shook my head, “No,” and I stood up and dropped my board into the bowl, as much to get away from him as I needed something to do.
I’d long since stopped denying my addiction to Piper. It was way past dangerous, but I couldn’t stop. She was everything I could never have, should never touch, but she wanted to be around me. She made me forget who I was; resident underachiever, no hoper, degenerate. I needed her like I needed to breathe. I’d figure out a way to give her up eventually, but not until I had to. And I figured I had at least until we went back to school and whatever little bubble we’d created for ourselves burst.
By the time I was leaving the boys at the skatepark that evening, Rio was well glad to see the back of my moody arse. I felt kinda bad for being such a dick, but when Piper opened the door with a big smile on her face, I stopped caring about anything except that moment.
She took one look at me and I felt like we both caught the moment that seeing each other helped us shake off our own funks. She drew me inside and welcomed me with a kiss.
“What was that for?” I asked.
She looked me over, uncertainty creeping into her eyes. “Is that not a thing we’re allowed to do?”
I put my fingers under her chin. “I don’t think we have rules, Barlow.”
“What about ‘no judgements and no apologies’?”
I huffed a laugh. “Yeah. Okay. We only have two rules. The rest? Lawless.”
Her hands ran up my chest as she said, “I guess you can’t break the rules if you don’t have any.” Her tone was suggestive as well as clarifying.
I nodded. “Exactly.”
She nodded as well. “Okay, then.”
“But,” I started.
“But?” she repeated.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t say when a boundary’s been crossed. No rules doesn’t mean we get to do whatever the fuck we want. Boundaries still exist.”
For a moment, I didn’t think she’d understood what I was trying to say. Then her eyes brightened, and she smiled at me.
“Okay, Roman.”
I pulled her to me. “I don’t want to cross any boundaries, Piper,” I said into her hair, more expressively than I’d intended.
She hugged me tight. “Me either.”
Had it not hurt so much, I’d have laughed at that. Piper Barlow had crossed just about every boundary I owned. She’d got into every single part of me that I thought I’d locked up tight. I didn’t want to get her out, but I knew it would destroy me to keep letting her stay. Shame then that I was too weak to push her away.
We spent the night with movies and dinner. We made out for a while, but both fell asleep with all our clothes on. Not that she went to sleep unsatisfied. I woke up with the hardest morning wood that I could ever remember, but it was worth it to have her snuggle into me as she resisted waking up.
Tuesday was spent with Maddy, who was finally feeling a little better. Mum kept an eye on us, and it was obvious she thought she knew what we were up to with me staying over at Piper’s place. It served me right, but did it stop me staying there that night? If John Cusack or any other Rom-Com didn’t stop me sleeping in her bed, then my own mother’s smarmy non-verbal teasing sure as fuck wasn’t going to stop me.
Wednesday saw Piper hanging out with Hadley again, and I was too chicken shit to even joke about if they’d talked about me. Per Piper’s instructions, I had dinner with Mum and Maddy before going to her place.
“Seeing Piper tonight?” Mum asked as Maddy got into her PJs.
I nodded. “Yes.”
“You didn’t lie to me.”
