Mr. Hot Stuff Next Door

13. Piper

CHAPTER 13

Piper

I press my forehead against the door I just slammed shut, feeling like my heart is about to burst, my legs hardly keeping me upright.

Oh, wow.

What the heck did just happen?

In my mind's eye, I see Gage take that last step toward me, crowding my personal space as he towers over me with his giant, sexy self. I see his dark eyes full of promises I didn’t know I even needed him to make, let alone to keep. I see him lowering his head until we’re nose to nose. I smell his powerful, masculine scent of sandalwood and pine and feel it sink into me, making my soul shiver.

I feel the ghost of his big, rough hands as they cup my face and then the forceful touch of his lips as they press against mine, stealing my breath in a heart-rending kiss, his tongue searching mine without even asking for permission.

Then my feet are no longer touching the ground. His big, long fingers are clutching my ass and keeping me suspended and mashed against his body as my whole being trembles in a delight I've never known to be even possible in real life.

I feel him nuzzle my neck and throat, breathing me in like I'm the sweetest thing he's ever smelled. He’s clasping me to him with a touch that’s both soft and protective, like I'm the most delicate thing he's ever held.

His tee is crumpled in my fingers and I feel how wet it’s the fabric as I touch his hard chest all over.

And then… then I gasp, both in reality right now and in my memory when it happened because that’s when his groin makes contact with mine, and I feel his insistent hard erection grinding against my most sensitive parts, the cotton of my PJ shorts, no shield at all from his utter manliness.

I shake my head.

Oh, dear. I’m so gone over this guy!

This guy that’s still on the other side of this door.

And I don’t know what to do right now.

My body is still shaking all over, my nipples are hard and achy, and pertinent parts between my thighs have soaked my shorts through and through and they are still pulsing to the wild tempo of the climax I just had by rubbing against the hard erection of a complete stranger I was arguing with only a few minutes before.

A flame of pure heat rushes through my body at the mere thought of being in his arms again, and I start to feel dizzy again as I turn my back to the door and lean against it.

This is so not my style!

I’ve never acted like this before. Literally.

Give me a pen and paper, or rather a screen and keyboard, and I can paint you the hottest of the steamiest scenes ever, but in real life? Not so much.

I’m so painfully shy and just so plain bad when dealing with the other sex that it would be fun if it weren’t so sad. If it weren’t my life. And yet there I was, humping Mr. Hot Stuff Next Door like it was going out of style!

Me. The woman who’s barely gone beyond second base with guys and has been frequenting no base at all since her freshman year in college.

I hear Gage knocking on my door, calling for me and pleading for me to open it.

Shit!

Like it wasn’t bad enough that I actually came on him practically on impact, I also had to chicken out on him and close the door in his face, leaving him high and dry!

Well, not so dry. But still, I’m pretty sure he didn’t… when I did… so, yeah, I don’t think that’s very nice.

I mean, I don’t know if there’s an etiquette when it comes to this kind of stuff, but if there were, I’m pretty sure I majorly fucked it up.

I hear him call me through the door again and feel my face flush even more.

Oh, God!

What do I do now?

How it is that I’ve spent years hiding away in the shadows with nothing like this ever happening to me unless I was inventing it myself and putting it in a book, and in the last twenty minutes or so, my life has suddenly become some crazy-fast romance novel in the making?!

I try to think about what any of my heroines would do when presented with a similar situation, but I come up with nothing.

I’m a daring writer when it comes to steam, but I don’t think I’ve ever written stuff like this happening this fast, so my imagination and creativity aren’t going to be of much help, and it’s not like I can draw from actual life experience, so what do I do now?

Run and hide and hope this goes away?

Open the door and… what?

What then?

Just jump into his arms and lose control over my faculties again?

Or maybe try to explain to him that I don’t know what to make of him –of this–, that I don’t know how to behave with a real man other than maybe make some sassy joke and then leave real quick?

What?

“Piper! Come on! Open the door. It’s clear to me that we need to talk!”

Yeah, no doubt about that…

I take a huge breath, going over my options.

Not that I have that many.

Either I ask him to go away and hope that Gage, being a real person and not a book character, alpha male or not, crazy or not, in insta-whatever with me or not, takes it easy on me and leaves—which as I’m thinking about it I find out by the sinking feeling that just touched my heart that I wouldn’t like very much if it did happen.

Or would he just ignore my feeble request and maybe tear down this door from its hinges, and then pick me up and throw me over his shoulder fireman-style?

And what would I do if it happened?

Just let him sweep me under again?

Hmm. Now, this option makes a strange heavy feeling that’s entirely too pleasant unfurl low in my tummy.

Or perhaps I’ll simply open this door and go through the awkwardness of having to explain to a two-hundred pounds 6’4’’ tall horny man that I’ve spent the last ten minutes teasing and provoking that I’m not exactly ready for anything more with him right now since I’m not what you would call experienced with this stuff.

Decisions, decisions!

Gage knocks again, and I can practically feel his frustration vibrating through the door.

“Piper, please! I just want to talk!”

I sigh.

My brain just came up with a fourth option that’s totally cowardly but the best of both worlds right now.

“Okay, then… talk!” I say to him, turning to face the door again and crossing my arms under my boobs.

“Uhm… through the door, you mean?” he asks doubtfully.

I look at the ceiling, puffing out air and fixing my eyes back in place. “Yeah, you got a problem with that?”

Oh my God, why do I end up sounding so confrontational when I talk to this guy?

Is it sexual tension or something?

I hear Gage chuckle. “Well, no… not really. I mean, I think it’s crazy, but I’ve come to realize crazy might be par for the course when dealing with your little ass, so okay… let’s talk. Why did you just give me the slip and close the door in my face?”

Stubborn bossy asshole!

“You had to start from the one question I don’t want to answer right now, uh?”

He sighs. “That’s a talent of mine… I know how to make people squirm.”

I do just that, rubbing my thighs together. “Very funny.”

“Wasn’t joking…”

I glare at the door. “Of course, you weren’t…”

“Fine… let’s leave that for later then… how about I answer what you asked before…”

I purse my lips. “You mean before you stuck your tongue down my throat? Before that?”

“Yeah, and please don’t act all put out about it. We both know you liked it… and we both know how much you liked it, baby.”

“Jerk!” I mutter, not meaning for him to hear me, but he does.

"Don't give that type of order right now, babe. There's a part of me that's begging me to do just that," he says with a smile in his voice, purposefully misunderstanding my meaning, and I feel a deep blush covering my chest as my breath hitches.

At the same time, my very misbehaving mind pictures him doing exactly what his willful interpretation of my single word suggests.

Those big work-roughened hands fishing whatever monster I’m sure he’s packing into those obscenely low-hanging sweatpants and just give it a squeeze.

I try to say something, anything, but my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth.

He chuckles again. “Hmm, I guess you wouldn’t mind it all that much if I did jerk off, provided I’d let you catch a glimpse of the action, right?”

I frown at the door. Flushing even more.

Does this big brute also read minds or something?

He goes on talking, either totally unaware of the effect his words are having on me or getting a kick out of discombobulating me.

“Yeah, that could be a bit of fun… especially if you put up the same show for me and let me get a good look at the little treasure between your lush thighs, you know, the one that left a mouthwatering wet stain in the front of my sweats…”

My eyes widen, and my nipples, which had barely started to calm down, harden again into little painful, steely points.

“Oh My God! Please stop! Are you trying to give me a heart attack or something?” I ask before I can stop myself.

He sighs. “No, baby doll. I’m just trying to make you feel through words what you make me feel when I look at you. You’re feisty and fiery, and you strike me as the type that could have an appreciation for dirty talk.”

Oh my…

He has no idea how right he is!

Not that I’m about to tell him that.

I sigh, shaking my head as I try to clear the fog of lust clinging to my brain. “Quit it and answer the question if you want me to open this door sometime this century…”

“Oh, you’re opening for me, baby. I’m not worried about that. And not just this door, either.”

I growl at that. “You are such a cocky bastard!”

And why is it that I like it so very much?

“Yes, I am, thank you very much. But I’ll stop with the double entendres now and leave them for later, Piper.”

“Can you just tell me how do you know my name? Should I dial 911 and report your ass?” I quip.

He laughs. “I don’t think there’s a need for that just yet, baby doll.”

“Just yet? Are you planning to end up in jail at some point in the near future on account of me?”

“Well, I might. Jail or a padded little room somewhere if you continue to keep yourself from me, Piper. You’ve been driving me crazy for days…”

I roll my eyes at that. “I said I was sorry about the music deal!”

“I wasn’t talking about the music deal , as you put it… I was talking about you… just you … your eyes, those lips, that amazing rack you got, and let’s not forget that masterpiece of your ass…”

I swear I can hear him swallow. He must have his forehead pressed to the door, just like me. For some reason, the image makes me feel weak at the knee again. Oh, mercy!

This guy is powerful stuff. There’s a steady beast thrumming behind my clit and making me even more wet and distracted, and it’s all his fault.

Still, I’ve got to scold him if, for a little bit, it’s only right!

"Sheesh! You are so damn romantic, dude! You really know how to get a woman's heart to go all aflutter!”

He laughs. “Wasn’t trying to get your heart to flutter right now… but I’m pretty sure I just set some other cute pink part of you to pulsing.”

“You are terrible!”

“That, maybe… also, don’t let my words make you think this is all a lust thing. This is so fucking much more, baby! And if you open this door, I’ll prove it to you and do to your heart all the things you’ve been doing to mine for days…”

“Please elaborate… one more time: from where you know me, and how do you know my name?”

“Okay, so… it all happened on Monday. I was heading into the office downtown…”

“You work around here?” I ask, tilting my head to the side.

“Not exactly. I’m opening a new division of my company here in Phoenix, but I’m mainly based in Seattle…”

I feel my eyebrows meet my hairline. “You’re from Seattle?”

“Uh-uh…”

“Wanna know where I am from?” I ask.

“Seattle?” he asks, and I can hear the grin once more in his chocolatey deep baritone.

“Yeah…”

“Better and better,” he mutters.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, to be with you, I would have stayed my ass here until I could convince you to move with me to Seattle, but I’ve got to tell you that would have cost me ‘cause I really hate this heat… not that I wouldn’t have put up with it for you.”

Is he for real?

“Whoa, whoa! Slow down, Mister! Move with you ? You were going to ask me to move to another state? You don’t even know me!”

He actually scoffs. “Well, that’s beside the point, baby. I want you. You want me, and please don’t say you don’t… you don’t really strike me as the type that would just jump up in the arms of a stranger and rub her sweet pussy all over his cock if said stranger didn’t mean something to you.”

I feel my jaw hit my chest.

I mean, I’ve written plenty of take-charge, direct, blunt heroes, but this man is in a category of his own!

Also, he’s real and has a mouth on him that would make the most navigated romance author blush!

Also, he has no idea how right he is!

I’m definitely not that type. I tell him as much.

“I’m more the type that wished they had the balls to do stuff like that normally… but yeah, I wouldn’t have just jumped you because you happen to send my hormones on a rave party on sight. There is… something… something…”

“More,” he finishes for me.

I sigh. “Yeah. For one thing, my brain just switches the heck off when I see you…”

“Same here…”

“Now we only have to be certain where it is that you saw me…”

“Ditto, babe.”

I flinch. Crap, I walked into this one. He’s going to think I’m even more of a lunatic if I tell him where I know him from.

“So let’s go back to what you were saying… you were going to your new offices and…?”

"And I was standing just outside this building, waiting for my driver-slash-PA to come pick me up. That’s when I saw you passing me by, and I just… I don't know… I just couldn't look away. You did something to me, Piper… at first sight. Don't ask me to tell you what the fuck that is because I don't have the slightest idea. What I know is that I had to restrain myself before I did something insane like grab you or some shit, and it was hard as fuck. Also, it wasn't the only thing that was hard as fuck. I was hard as fuck. Like… really hard.”

I feel my lips twitch even as I feel my eyebrows arch up again. “Tactless much, Gage?!” I tease him, yet again just a tad bit disconcerted at his straightforwardness.

“Maybe, but that’s me. What you see is what you get. I’m a direct kind of man, and I don’t play games, and I don’t have it in me to dissemble, especially not with you.”

How do you reply to such a statement?

I wouldn’t even know where to begin.

I mean, there’s frank and then there’s… Gage , apparently.

Not only is he honest —even too honest— but everything that comes out of that sexy mouth of his is either so dirty it makes me blush or so startling a bombshell that I don’t know how to react to it.

“What happened then?” I ask him.

“Well, my guess is that fucking time itself stopped or some bullshit because I was pretty sure I had been standing there staring at you, trying not to come up to you and kiss the shit out of you for about five minutes when I blinked, and you were gone. So maybe those five minutes just felt like an eternity to me but were only sixty seconds instead. I’m not sure. You got on your Uber ride, and that was it… I’ve spent every waking moment searching for you and the little bit of time I managed to sleep, which wasn’t much, I assure you, I had my entire security team and my PA looking for you. It took me days to even just learn your first name, but nothing more… I had no idea you were staying next door to me. How come you’re not listed in this building, baby?”

I try to process what he’s saying and implying, and I’m beyond shocked but not as displeased, or even as scared, as a woman who finds out some stranger has been searching all over the place for her should be.

I want to ask him where the heck he gets off to do such a thing as searching for me and clearly violating my privacy to try and find my name and address and stuff, but what comes out of my lips is an answer to his question.

“That’s because I don’t actually live here, Gage. I’m house-sitting for a friend.”

"Uh, right… I see 'cause you're from Seattle and all that. Staying here long?"

I sigh. “Until September…”

Why am I telling him this stuff?

Ugh! It’s like I have no control over my faculties when I’m anywhere near this guy, and apparently, it still applies even if there’s a closed door standing between us.

“Hmm, that’s good…”

“Why”?”

“Because the fact that you’re staying put gives me all the time in the world to accomplish both my objectives without having to chase you back to Seattle and leaving my business here unattended…”

I frown. “ Both your objectives? And what are these objectives of yours?” I ask. What is he talking about?

“Well, objective number one until Monday used to be fixing up my local offices and dealing with all the stuff that comes with opening a new branch, hiring people, overseeing final stages of construction and furnishing… etcetera . Now, that’s understandably still in my plans, but it fell to second place since I have a new number one objective right now.”

I gulp down oxygen. "I'm guessing this new and more important objective has something to do with… me?" I ask incredulously.

“Yes, it does. And you’re such a smart girl, I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you exactly what the objective is…”

I laugh. “Not that you wouldn’t have the shameless cheek to tell me about it…”

He chuckles. “See? You know me so well, already!”

“Yeah, right! I know that you’re a nut!”

“Maybe. Now, I’ve got a question for you…”

Oh dear, I can imagine what that is! “Shoot, but, please, not to kill.”

“Never, baby doll! Why did you run from me on Monday?”

I tilt my head, taken aback by his question. “I didn’t– What do you mean?”

“Well, if you saw me checking you out and you felt this… whatever it is… this…”

“Pull?” I suggest, and he sighs.

“Yes! That’s it! This pull between us, why didn’t you stay put and let me catch up to you?”

“Because I didn’t see you then.”

“What?”

“Standing there… I didn’t see you there. I didn’t know you were there at all.”

“But then… I don’t understand. If you didn’t see me on Monday, and you didn’t obviously just saw me now for the first time since you had a nickname for my ass already, where do you know me from?”

Here goes nothing.

I sigh.

“Piper?”

“You’re going to think I’m nuts…”

He laughs. “Well, what’s the problem with that? We’ve already established I’m nuts myself. Hell, this entire situation is nuts! so I’m not going to be too surprised if it comes out you’re just as nuts…”

“Oh, but what I’m about to say goes beyond your average nuttiness, Gage…”

“Hmm… you have me more than a little intrigued, baby doll…”

“Yeah, you’re going to be a helluvalot more intrigued by the time I’m through then…”

“Piper?”

“Yes?”

“Are you stalling?”

I sigh, looking upward again. “Maybe…”

He chuckles. “Oh, come on! It can’t be that bad!”

Yeah, right ! If only he knew!

Well, I guess he is going to…

All right, no more beating around the bush.

Here goes nothing!

“I actually saw you on Sunday morning… the first time. You were coming back from a run in the park.”

“Yeah? And how come you didn’t approach me?”

Oh boy. “Well, I’m not exactly a first-move kinda gal, and besides, you were too far away.”

“I was too far away?”

“Yeah… I was on my balcony…”

There, I said it!

“Your balcony? Here on the seventeenth floor? And you managed to get a good gander at me how?”

I sigh, my cheeks flaming in embarrassment.

“Hmm, I might have caught sight of you through my high-powered telescope lenses,” I say it all fast. Better pull the Band-Aid off all at once, right?

I hear nothing for a while and start to worry.

“Gage?”

There’s a hissing sound coming through the door, and it takes me a minute to figure out what it is.

He’s laughing so hard he can’t breathe properly!

Oh. My. God!

I flush even deeper.

This is the day where the mortifications never end, apparently!

When I hear his voice again, saying my name, he’s still laughing.

“Well, it’s nice that you at least find this funny,” I grumble.

“Sorry… babe, I’m just… you don’t hear something like this… every day, I guess! You… spied… spied on me… with… a… fucking… telescope?” he replies, his words broken by his chuckling.

“I didn’t spy on you … you happened to be there and… well, it was kinda hard looking away once I spotted you…”

“Fair enough. So… about that 911 call you meant to make, you sure I shouldn’t be the one dialing that number?” he quips.

“Ha-ha! Very funny!”

He sniffles a bit. “It is! And tell me one more thing while we’re at it, please… I’ve been going for runs daily, including today, actually… were you, by any chance, looking at me through that telescope of yours any of those times?”

Okay, girl. This is easy: just lie to him and save face.

“Maybe, a few times,” I mumble.

Ugh! Why can’t I lie to him?

Now if he’s a sane person, he’s going to get pissed at me.

But he doesn’t. He just chuckles some more at my expenses.

“Interesting… I’m going to interpret this maybe as a yes and the a few times as every damn time …”

I glare at the door, trying hard to ignore the effect his baritone has on all my systems.

“Well, it’s a free country! You can believe what you want.”

“And you can deny as much as you want. It doesn’t matter… what you just told me proves my point.”

“Which point?”

“There’s definitely something between us… something powerful and worth exploring, Piper. Like I said, maybe I’m acting a little bit crazy, and maybe you are as well, but I still like you, and you still like me. We still want each other, baby. So, either open this door or tell me that I’m wrong.”

I say nothing for a moment, my heart gaining speed as I grab the doorknob. “I really am sorry about bothering you with the music, Gage. I didn’t think someone was using the other apartment, and my headphones broke, but I needed to have the song on a loop,” I say, my fingers tightening on the brass handle.

He sighs. “That’s okay, baby… that’s behind us. As long as you promise not to torture me with that song any longer, we’re good.”

I smile. “What you got against Aerosmith, anyway? Pink is a kickass song!”

He sighs. “Not a blessed thing! I actually liked Aerosmith until Friday night. It’s just that you can have too much of a good thing, right? I think Jane Austen said that…”

My little smile becomes a full grin.

Oh, my word!

Did he just quote Jane Austen to me?!

My ovaries practically break into song at this!

I might have just found the father of my future children.

I just have to have enough balls to open this door.

“Right,” I whisper.

“And while we’re on this topic, why the hell are you so obsessed with the song anyway? Why did you need to have it on a loop? You tell me why you play it all the time, and I’ll forgive you for turning stalker on my ass, deal?” he asks, the smile in his voice still in place.

I shake my head. “Can you ever be serious for a moment?”

“Sure I can! Open this door, and I’ll prove to you how serious I can be, baby doll.”

I sigh, feeling my heart squeeze at the sweet endearment. I’m a total sucker for this kind of stuff!

The more time I spend with this man, the more in trouble I get. And this, with a door between us!

I shudder to think what he will do to my sanity when we are face-to-face again, especially if he comes anywhere near me.

Better set some rules first.

I clear my throat. “I open this door, and we wipe the slate clean, right?”

“What do you mean?” he asks.

“I mean, you walk in, and I offer you a cup of coffee or maybe a glass of iced tea, and we have a nice getting-to-know-each-other talk with no funny business…”

“Sure…”

I lower the handle a bit. “You promise?”

“I do. No funny business until you want business to get funny, baby. I promise.”

“Okay, good… I’m going to hold you to this promise, Gage.”

“ I’ll be a perfect gentleman. You didn’t answer my question, though. About the song…”

“You are so nosy!”

He laughs. “Come on! You said you would! And it can’t be weirder or crazier than the telescope thing, right?!”

“It’s not! Quirky, maybe… but not crazy weird… I’m a writer. Sometimes, I need to have absolute silence around me to work. But most of the time, I like to have music on, but in order not to be distracted by lyrics too much and have my mind wander behind all the words, I either put on instrumental track or the same song on a loop, okay? And by the way, you’re having entirely too much fun mocking me with the telescope bit… might I remind you that having people you don’t know obsessively searched for days is also weird and crazy?”

“Oh, there’s no need to remind me about that. I know it is.”

I laugh at his devil-my-care attitude. “Of course you do!

“Piper?!”

“Hmm?”

“The door…”

I sigh. “Right…”