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“Then drive me there,” she pleads. “You can fight. You’re intimidating. You have a car.”
“I’m not wasting any of my resources on Ashley. The woman needs to learn how to take care of herself.”
I release Piper and walk away. She follows after me, her footsteps heavy across the damp ground. “Please! Timofey, I can’t do this without you.”
“So you're finally starting to see reason. About time.”
“Don’t be smug,” she snaps. “I’m admitting that I need your help. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
I spin around. Piper has to slam to a stop before our bodies collide. “I don’t do anything unless I benefit. Picking your friend up from her drug den doesn’t help me in any way. I gain nothing.”
“Okay, then I’ll… I’ll…” Piper’s mouth twists into a knot as she thinks. “I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll go to that wedding with you.”
“Regardless of what you thought, you were always going to that wedding with me,” I inform her. “You didn’t have a choice.”
She rolls her eyes. “I’ll gowillingly.”
“I don’t give a fuck whether you’re willing or not.”
“But this wedding was supposed to be a place where people would see us as a couple, right?” she asks. “You wanted it to be a coming out for us as a couple to help your image?”
“I need you to be breathing, that’s all.”
In one instant, Piper’s expression shifts. She lowers her chin and cocks a brow. Her mouth twists into a seductive smile, and she crosses one leg in front of the other as she moves towards me. She trails a finger over my shoulder and down my arm. “It would be more convincing if I really played the part, wouldn’t it?”
I know she’s putting on a show, but it’s a damn good one. “What part is that?”
“The part of your adoring girlfriend.” She drags my arm around her waist and slides my hand lower so I’m cupping the curve of her ass. Her body arches into mine. “No one will doubt that we’re a couple if I give it my all.”
“You’re no actress.”
Her brow flicks in obvious annoyance at my doubt. Then she stretches onto her toes and breezes her lips across my throat. “Could’ve fooled me.”
I swallow. “You won’t do anything. Your annoying moral high ground is miles above a stunt like this.”
Slowly, Piper drags her hand over my chest and lower. Her hand heads directly for the crotch of my jeans, but at the last second, she veers to my thigh. She works a delicious pressure up and down my thigh as her lips graze my neck without quite touching me.
She’s absurdly close to exactly where I want her, but without the relief that would come with it.
“I don’t need to do anything to sell the story,” she whispers. “If we get close enough to the real deal, people will buy it.”
Fuck.Under different circumstances, I’d shove her away and hire a high-class escort just to prove a point.
But I’m not in different circumstances. Right now, the police are looking into Emily’s murder again, and if I’m right—which I always am—it might all lead right back to the Bratva. Plus, tensions are high with the Albanians. My public image is so tarnished right now that a little shove from either of those two things could spell more trouble than I want to deal with.
A devoted girlfriend in the form of a wholesome-looking social worker could be just what I need.
I sigh. “You do realize your friend is firmly in Albanian territory, don’t you?”
“No,” Piper says, pulling away from me. “I don’t even know what that means.”
I reluctantly remove my hand from the curve of her ass and grip her chin. I force her eyes to mine, making sure she is paying attention. “Which is why you had no business hopping on your bike and going over there. They would have fucking killed you, Piper.”
“Does that mean you’re going to go get her?” she asks hopefully.
“I’m not going to drag her out of there kicking and screaming,” I tell her firmly. “Either she wants to come with me or she doesn’t. If she refuses, I’m not getting myself killed for her. Whichever the case, the agreement still stands.”
Without hesitation, Piper thrusts out her hand. “Deal.”
