42. Piper
FORTY-TWO
PIPER
There were no lies I could tell to stop this.
I didn’t even want to try.
Because I was standing at the horizon.
The chance at a new life swirling all around me.
It was no longer a tease but a fierce, unrelenting hope that I found in the safety of Theo Mallin’s arms.
Fire licked through my veins and joy pulsed in my spirit as he blindly turned the knob on the interior door of the garage and kicked open the door.
He carried me into the warmth of his cabin.
He had me hoisted up high, hovering a few inches above him, his head tilted back and his greedy kiss unending as he fisted a hand in my hair, angling me how he wanted me as he pillaged and plundered my mouth.
Tongue hot against mine. Lips both desperate and sweet.
His breaths raked between the nips and pulls as he walked with me in his arms down a hall.
“Theo,” I muttered into the frenzy, and I rubbed myself against the hard, rigid planes of his abdomen and chest.
I wanted to touch him everywhere at the same time. The same way as I wanted him to touch me.
Frantic, I pulled back enough to wind myself out of my jacket and toss it to the floor, then my fingers sank right back into the nape of his neck as I poured myself into him.
A long groan rolled up his throat. “Piper. Can’t believe it’s come to this.”
Lightheadedness swept through me, like I might be floating, though I didn’t think I’d ever felt more grounded than this.
The questions squashed. The fear obliterated.
“Nothing has ever felt so right,” I murmured at his lips.
He kept kissing me wild as the hall opened to a massive great room.
I pulled away to take in his home.
The ceiling was pitched and two stories high. The beams made of rustic woods and everything accented in raw stone. So different than the worn black leathers of the man, but somehow they were fitting.
Like he’d etched himself into this place.
The Sanctuary.
This refuge he gave his entire life to.
It was similar to the cabin where we were staying but at least three times the size. A giant stone fireplace sat in the middle of the far wall. There were windows on each side of it, and one side led out to a porch that overhung the lake.
Completely awe-striking.
But it was the man who’d stolen my breath.
The one who’d stolen my heart.
And I knew after today there would be no getting any of myself back.
He flicked a switch on the wall and the fireplace jumped to life, flames licking from the hearth and adding a glow to the dim, late afternoon light that flooded into the space.
“Don’t bring anyone here, Piper.” His words were gravel as he spoke, and I returned my full attention to him.
To this gloriously foreboding man who held me like a treasure.
“This is my own haven. The barest amount of peace that I have, even though I still can never find much of it. But you…you belong in the middle of it. A balm. Respite. A cure.”
His strong brow pinched when he said the last, inflicted by the idea that he could be healed the way he was healing me.
I dragged my fingertips down his cheek, and my voice was held in a whisper. “Maybe we’re supposed to mend each other. Maybe all our broken pieces fit.”
A clash of grief and greed flashed across his face, and he started to walk again, moving through the great room. He bypassed the gorgeous kitchen and wound around the oversized furniture before he knelt so he could lay me down in the middle of a plush, fluffy rug in front of the fireplace.
He peeled himself out of his leather jacket, then crawled the rest of the way over me. He remained on his knees as he planted his hands on either side of my head.
Energy lapped in the small space that separated us.
A glow that whispered and whisked across our flesh.
A call of our spirits that were finally being heard.
A soft grin rippled over Theo’s mouth. “The first night I found you, I sat right in front of this fireplace thinking about the way I wanted to strip you out of your clothes and watch the flames dance across your pale skin. Way I wanted to peel you apart and put you back together.”
“Is that your plan?” It was a shaky tease.
“Oh, I have all kinds of plans for you, Piper Whittman.”
“Then you’d better get started.”
“Guess I’d better. Wouldn’t want to earn another one star.”
Lightness weaved with the intensity that blazed between us.
He took the hem of my sweater and pulled it over my head.
He sat back on his knees, and my chest gripped at the sight of him.
Pinks and reds and the deepest blues filtered in through the enormous windows as they reflected off the glittering waters of the lake just outside.
It cast him in a chaotic rainbow as he knelt between my legs.
A fortress.
A tower of steel and fortitude.
A canvas of loss and horror, though his spirit whispered of the same hope that had tremored within me for so long.
In sorrow we must stand.
Theo had stood for so many, and now, I wanted to stand for him.
“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, Theo Mallin. All of you,” I whispered.
It was admission.
Acceptance.
Surrender.
A hint of that arrogance kicked at the edge of his mouth, his voice rough and scraping, though there was no missing the tenderness that adorned it. “You clearly don’t have the view I have right now.”
He reached out and dragged his fingers from my chin and down my trembling neck until he was brushing them over my breasts that strained beneath the lace of my bra.
“You have me on my knees, Piper.”
“You have me everywhere. You’re the current that rushes through my veins.”
He dragged his fingers down my abdomen then flicked the button of my jeans.
Desire quaked through my body.
There was no question that Theo felt it. Lust hot on the surface of his skin.
He sat back farther, gaze tipped to my face as he grabbed me by the ankle and slowly pulled down the zipper on my over-the-knee boot.
The sound echoed against the walls, reverberating back and stoking the need that flamed and lapped.
I sighed a shaky sound as he dumped it onto the floor, then he turned and did the same to the other, quick to rid me of my socks before he set his palms on my knees.
I burned at the connection, and shallow breaths panted from my lungs.
The oxygen nonexistent.
His aura was the only thing I could breathe.
The mossy woods and crisp snow and the faint vestiges of warm, smokey leather. Though now, the scent of sex ran rampant.
A vapor that wisped through the dense, dense air.
“The way I want you, Piper Whittman. Never have hungered for anything or anyone the way I hunger for you. This emptiness inside me that only you can fill.”
My fingers reached out to trace the harsh angles of his ruthlessly beautiful face. “I think you’re only reflecting me. This ache that only you can satisfy.”
“I plan on satisfying it in every way. Filling you full. Again and again. I’m going to write myself on you so deep that you’re going to feel me like a tattoo. Inscribed on your heart and forever scored on your body.”
Trembles raced, and Theo pushed up higher on his knees and hooked his fingers in the waistband of my jeans.
Moonlit eyes flashed as he began to tug them free. I lifted my hips to help him, and my heart fluttered at a frantic beat as he peeled them off my legs. He took my underwear with him as he went.
“Look at you, achin’ for me,” Theo grunted.
“I need you so much. In a way I didn’t know I could need anyone,” I whimpered.
“You have me.”
He leaned over and reached beneath me to unclasp my bra, and he dragged it free, leaving me completely bare and writhing on the plush rug.
Every muscle in his body flexed as he took me in, and his tongue stroked across his bottom lip.
“So fuckin’ gorgeous. Going to explore every inch of you, Little Liar. Pleasure you in every way you’ve been dreaming.”
“Please.” It was nothing but a wisp.
“Nothing. Nothing in the world is better than you. Nothing better than this. My girl fucking trembling and ready for me. Is that what you are, Piper? Are you mine?”
“Yes. I’m yours. Every part of me.”
“Good girl. That’s what I want to hear,” he rumbled, then his mouth creaked as he said, “Wait right there.”
He was nothing but a massive silhouette as he pushed to standing and strode for the kitchen.
He rummaged through a drawer then came ambling back into the living area.
The man a dark, raging fire.
He tossed the condom he’d grabbed onto the rug beside me, then he peeled his tee over his head. Without looking away, he dipped down, unlaced his boots, and kicked them off, then he straightened again.
My belly somersaulted at the sight.
Power rippled over his defined, cut body. Every muscle trembled with hinged, vibrating strength. The colors and innuendos etched into his flesh seeming to come alive.
Howls of dark, dangerous beauty shouting from his skin.
My throat tightened as he flicked the button of his jeans. The sound of him dragging down the zipper ricocheted from the walls.
Every molecule in my body buzzed as he began to shove his jeans and underwear down his legs.
He kicked them to the side before he pushed back to his full height.
Shivers rushed me, and I squirmed as I stared up at him. The man gloriously bare.
His huge cock stone. Hard and heavy as it bobbed and swayed.
“You see what you do to me, Piper? What you’ve been doin’ to me from the moment I met you? Driving me wild and fucking with my mind. Should have known you’d be the one to steal my heart.”
Uncontrolled, my hips arched for him. “You’re the one who wrecked me. The one who broke through the belief that I would never be touched again. The one who made me want it.”
“You want it?” Moonlit eyes flashed, and his voice turned to gravel.
“Yes. I want it. I want you.”
“Good, because you’re about to have me.”
Theo eased down onto his hands and knees, crawling over me.
My body arced to meet with him as he did.
He was a magnet I couldn’t resist.
My nipples brushed against his chest, and shimmers of pleasure lit up my body.
Theo growled at the connection.