44. Theo
FORTY-FOUR
THEO
I always thought the view of the lake from my balcony was the paragon of beauty.
Whether summer or winter, nothing could compete with the vast, shimmering lake and dense forest that surrounded it.
Backed by the gorgeous mountains with their summits and peaks that stood proud in the sky, tucking the endless blue waters in this breathtaking valley.
I was wrong.
Completely fucking wrong because there was no contest when it came to Piper.
And now that beauty was her backdrop. The woman sitting curled and wrapped in a blanket on my lap with the flickering flames dancing around her.
The warmth reflected against the contours and shape of her unforgettable face.
Stunning.
Rip the breath from my lungs and bring me to my knees stunning.
Stand on one of those summits with my arms outstretched and shout it to the world stunning.
I sat there swimming in that beauty for the longest time, holding her as we rested in the silence. Satisfied in the promises that had been made and secrets that had been shared.
I wished she’d given them all to me, but I got it.
Understood that all of this had happened so fast.
Her crashing into my life had changed everything.
Swore, I could hardly remember my life without her in it, and she’d only been here for a short time.
Woman a fatal crack in my false foundation.
I’d been worried that the sense I had that someone was lurking around the motel had been related to her, but I found solitude in the fact that it’d been Pierce Renfry. That bastard dead and gone.
Now, we could rest. Allow Piper time to acclimate to this new truth.
The fact that I was going to be everything for her.
She could give me her sorrow.
Give me her fear.
Give me the pleasure of chasing down the fucker who put those scars on her back.
I knew it was him.
Justin.
Knew whoever he was and whatever he’d done had cut her deep.
I was going to cut him fucking deeper.
Slay her demons.
But I could wait until she was ready. I didn’t want to spook her more after what she witnessed last night. After she just found out about Sanctum.
It was a lot to handle.
A lot to process.
Truly, the only thing that mattered right then was that she’d stayed.
So, until then, I was just going to stare at this treasure that had dropped into my life.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she whispered.
“Because I can’t see anything else.”
Her teeth raked her bottom lip. This understanding—the connection—a buzz that rippled between us.
“I kind of like looking at you, too.” It was a soft, breathy tease.
I leaned down so I could inhale it, and I stole a kiss from that sexpot mouth.
I couldn’t help but hum, satisfaction winding a bow in the center of my chest. “Never going to get enough of kissin’ you,” I mumbled at her mouth.
I inhaled the tremor that rolled through her, and I kissed her a little deeper. “Never going to get enough of this body.”
“You just had it.” She shifted on my lap as she peeked up at me.
My cock hardened in a flash. “Oh, Pipes, I’ve only just begun.”
What had happened between us earlier had been a joining.
A fusing together of two beings that were destined to be together.
A converging of souls.
Elemental.
Now, I just wanted to explore every inch of that divine body.
Devour and consume and sate.
Please her in a way that she’d never been pleased.
“Is that so?” Seduction wound into her tone.
“What, you’ve already had enough of me, Little Liar?” I basically dared her to deny it as I dragged the tip of my index finger down the slender column of her neck.
Chills lifted in their wake, and Piper trembled beneath the blanket.
“There will never be getting enough of you.” Her hushed admission weaved with the cold breeze that whipped through our hair.
She slid off my lap and onto her feet.
Standing over me.
A snow angel wrapped in fur. Hair a white halo around her gorgeous face.
My chest expanded to the point of exploding.
Seeing her like this.
So easy and right.
She eased back a couple steps before she dropped the blanket to reveal every glorious, naked inch of her.
Lust smacked me in the face.
“Fuck me,” I grunted.
“Oh, I thought it was going to be the other way around.” Her voice went coy, and she slowly turned and headed for the door, swaying her perfect, round ass from side to side. Curves on full display and that cascade of white rolling down to touch the sweet spot at the base of her back.
In a flash of greed, I was on my feet and stalking behind her. She slid the door open and slipped into the warmth.
The only light in my room was the toil of flames that flickered from the hearth.
Piper kept moving across my room, looking at me from over her shoulder as she lured me back toward my bed.
“Ah, Little Liar, you are playing with fire,” I rumbled into the tension that immediately strained the air.
I peeled myself back out of the sweats.
My cock pulsed its demand, so hard it verged on pain.
“You want to burn with me, Piper?”
“I’m already ash.” Her words dragged through the room, a tether that beckoned me in her direction.
I stalked her way, catching up to her just as she made it to the bed. My arm looped around her waist, and I tugged her naked body against mine.
She gasped a needy sound as I rubbed my cock in the cleft of her ass.
Her lush cheeks pressed against my dick that raged with a madness that I’d never felt before.
Didn’t understand it.
What she did to me.
How she could make me feel this way.
I buried my face in the fall of her hair, and I ran my lips along the cap of her shoulder. “Wrecked, Piper.”
It was my confession as my hands skimmed down her front, palming her breasts then smoothing over the soft curve of her belly.
“The things I’m going to do to you,” I breathed at her ear.
“You’d better start. You wouldn’t want to leave me with a bad impression of your service.” It was a throaty taunt leaving her mouth.
Rough laughter tumbled out, lust pummeling me through.
“Then bend over, baby. I want to get a better view of that delicious ass.”
She did as she was told, the woman bending at the waist and gripping the covers of my bed.
Her perfect, pert ass swayed in the air.
Her cunt pink and needy.
A growl got free as I gripped both of her cheeks.
Need slipped from her mouth in little mewls, then she moaned as I kissed a path down her spine.
Licking at her soft, glowing flesh.
Inhaling that cherry scent.
“Want to drown in every inch of you.” I rumbled it as my lips caressed and lapped, hands gliding up and down her ribs before I coasted them over the flare of her hips.
Wanted to touch every curve and dip and groove.
Explore and memorize.
Mark myself on her like a brand.
She pressed back as I kissed along the small of her back.
A whimper rode free as she whispered, “You’re the best thing I’ve ever felt. Nothing compares to being touched by you. I never allowed myself to dream of this. Never allowed myself to imagine that I might find someone who could hold everything that I am.”
“And that’s what I’m going to do. Goin’ to hold all of it. No one is going to touch this body again. No one but me. It’s mine to pleasure. Mine to tease.”
I traipsed my fingertips between her ass cheeks before I dragged them through her drenched slit.
Woman dripping and begging.
“Are you wet and needy, Little Liar?”
“Yes.” She rocked back.
I let two fingers fuck into her pussy.
So deep they disappeared at the knuckles.
“Theo,” she rasped.
“I’m going to make sure you have every single thing you deserve. Going to cherish you in every way. With this heart and this body and these hands.”
The oath climbed through the air and seeped into the walls.
“Now, get on the bed on your hands and knees.”
She exhaled a desperate sound as she scrambled up, and that blue gaze swung back to me from over her shoulder.
A flaming, arctic horizon.
A blinding light that glowed at the apex of my darkness.
A beacon.
A sign.
My only destination.
My chest clutched, heart racing at a beat it’d never aspired to before.
She was a vision.
So gorgeous I had to be suffering a delusion.
Because I wasn’t supposed to have this. And there she was. Offering herself to me like I could ever deserve the beauty that she was.
“Who knew I was going to have a treasure in my bed? Pure fuckin’ beauty in the middle of my room. Don’t even recognize myself any longer, the way I want you. The way I’ve been dying to get lost in you. Now that I’ve had you, I’m never going to stop.”
“Never stop,” she mumbled.
I returned my mouth to her spine, kissing soft and slow as I spread her cheeks. My tongue swept out and circled her tight puckered hole.
Piper jumped in surprise then whimpered in surrender.
“You like that? You want me to have you everywhere? Fillin’ every part of you?”
Her nod was frantic, and I kept licking lower, fucking my tongue into her pussy and angling down so I could get to her engorged, swollen clit.
She shivered as I swept my tongue over it, winding her up into a needy, frenzied mess.
“I’m going to mark myself on you in every way.” I muttered it as I pushed back up to standing. I slid one palm up her spine so I was pressing her chest to the mattress.
“I need…” Piper choked as she swayed on her knees.
“Is this what you need?” I grunted as I dragged the tip of my dick through her soft folds.
“Yes. I need it. I need you.”
A tremor rocked her. Chills flashing across her flesh.
“Please,” she begged.
“Want you bare, baby,” I grunted.
She nodded frantically, her hair swishing around her. “I have an IUD.”
I cinched my hands around her waist, and I drove into her.
Deep and hard.
Possession tore from my chest on a shout.
I nearly blacked out at the pleasure.
Her tight walls throbbed around me as I took her to the hilt.
She squirmed and writhed as she struggled to adjust to my cock filling her full.
My teeth gritted as I tried to keep my shit together.
“You like that? Being stuffed with me?” I grunted.