Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 154379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
“I can’t fall for you, Theo.” It was a warning.
I kissed across the knuckles of her hand that I held in mine and murmured, “Don’t worry, baby, I can’t fall for you, either.”
I paused, gazing down at the angles of her stunning face, searching through the rubble. “What do you need from me, Piper? Right now? Right this second?”
Those blue eyes stared up at me.
Open and dragging me down into their depths.
The girl bared and her truth bleeding out.
Her voice was the thinnest it’d ever been. “I want you to hold me, Theo. I want you to hold me. I’m so tired of being alone. Please, take it away, just for a little while.”
My chest tightened, and I gave her a tight nod before I sank down to my side and pulled her against me, one arm under her as I shifted around and drew the covers over us.
Her body nestled into mine and her head rested on my shoulder.
That connection between us hummed in satisfaction, and I exhaled a contented breath as she snuggled against me.
That cherry scent in my nose and her sweet heart pounding around me.
Sleep pulled on my consciousness, something it rarely did. Most of my nights were spent pacing the motel, sleep coming in erratic fits that never offered any real respite.
Exhaustion was my constant partner, though I’d pretty much grown used to it.
But somehow, right then, a strange sense of peace rolled through me.
Comfort that washed and weaved. The horizon not feeling quite so bleak.
Piper’s breaths had evened out, the woman already there, riding on that thick blanket of peace, though she whispered the words against my bare chest. “I should be terrified of you, Theo Mallin, but I’m not.”
I curled my arms tighter around her. “I would never hurt you.”
I prayed it wasn’t a fuckin’ lie.
Because that’s what I did.
I got too close, and I hurt the ones I wanted to protect the most.
I should get up and leave.
But I was held.
Pulled toward slumber.
And somewhere at the beginning of that dream, I tried to remember we’d agreed this was temporary.
Completely temporary.
And I had to wonder exactly who we were lying to.
TWENTY-TWO
PIPER
NINETEEN YEARS OLD
“Oh my gosh, you’re home!” Piper’s mother peeped as she came flying out the front door and down the walkway that cut through the middle of their yard. Piper dropped her bags to the ground and reached for her mom at the same second as she threw herself against her.
Tears sprang to Piper’s eyes as her mom rocked her and squeezed her tight. That voice of encouragement that Piper loved the most whispered in her ear, “My baby girl. I missed you so much.”
“I missed you, too.” Piper’s words were wisps of affection, and she clung to her mother just as tightly as her mom clung to her.
They swayed each other back and forth for the longest time before her mom stepped back. Hanging onto the outside of Piper’s shoulders, she smiled as she took Piper in.
Tears stained her mom’s cheeks. Her mom who could pretty much be Piper’s twin if they weren’t separated by twenty-five years. Still, they got mistaken for sisters all the time.
Piper didn’t mind. She was honored to be compared to her mother.
Her mom’s expression filled with mirth. “I mean, not that you aren’t exactly where you’re supposed to be. You know I couldn’t be prouder of you. But getting to have you home for the whole summer?”
Joy burned through Piper’s chest. “I think you just want me home so I can design you an entire wardrobe. You want to test out my new skills.”
Okay, Piper had already designed one and couldn’t wait to show her. Shopping together had always been one of their favorite pastimes. Piper always figured her love for fashion had been inherited from her mother.
Any time Piper had a bad day, her mom would load her into the car and they’d either head to the high-end shops or go thrifting, depending on their mood. While they’d browse the racks, they’d talk, her mother giving her support and insight and that pure, honest love. Never coddling but giving it to Piper from the heart.
God, had she missed it.
A light giggle rolled out of her mom, and she gave Piper a soft shrug. “Guilty.”
Piper threw herself at her again, light laughter rolling out of her as she rocked her back and forth and murmured, “I really am happy to be home.”
“Are you going to save some of that for me?” Piper looked up to her dad’s playful voice coming from where he stood in the doorway of Piper’s childhood home.
A simple one-story house in a quiet family neighborhood.
“I might have a hug or two in store for you,” she said with a grin, then she went jogging his way.
He stretched out his arms, and he sighed an affectionate sound as he wrapped them around her. “Ah, there’s my girl.”