14. Christian #2
Before I even realize it, I’m stalking in her direction, but I hang back in the shadow of the barn because I’m not ready for her to see me yet.I need a minute to get myself under control, to remember how to act like a man instead of this half-crazed thing she’s turned me into.
I can hear her laughter from across the snow-covered field while little bodies chase after her in their puffy coats. She keeps just ahead of them, dark curls flying wild in the wind.
God, she’s got this hold on me I’ll never break free from.
She calls time and collapses back in the snow, chest heaving as she tries to catch her breath, and I can’t help the rough laugh that escapes me when two little ones dogpile right on top of her. Their parents are watching from the sidelines, grinning at the scene she’s making.
I need to get closer because no matter how sweet she looks playing snow angel with other people’s kids, my brain won’t stop circling back to the bruise my son left on her.
The evidence of his anger and failure to be the man she deserves still lingers on her skin, and the thought of touching her while that reminder remains ignites something savage inside me.
But if that bruise has started to fade, then maybe I can fool myself into believing she’s ready for what I want to give her.
Maybe I can finally let myself do what every cell in my body has been desperate for since the second I laid eyes on her, and I can mark her in my own way, covering every inch of that soft skin with something she wants.
My brother hasn’t helped; he’s been feeding the fire and encouraging this thing between us instead of pulling me back. And now, watching her in the snow, I know with absolute certainty that she’s about to become my whole damn world.
I stride over, lifting Larry and Jade's little terrors off Piper one by one. Their parents are laughing at the way I have to wrangle the squirming kids, but I can only focus on how close I am to her now.
“Alright, you two monsters need to give this girl a breather.”
“No fair, Mr. Christmas,” Tommy whines, bottom lip jutting out in a way that usually works on everyone but me.
“Tell you what—” I nod toward where Savannah’s got her truck parked at the edge of the field.
She’s set up right next to the paddock, just like always. She says the horses are there when she needs a minute to breathe, a little quiet when the world gets too loud, and after everything she’s been through, she deserves all the peace she can find.
“Go find Savannah and tell her I said to give you the biggest cookie she’s got.”
The kids let out these ear-splitting squeals of joy before taking off with their parents toward sugar-induced chaos, and I don’t feel even a little bit bad about it.
I step closer to Piper, reaching down with my hand extended, and the second her fingers slide against my palm, electricity shoots straight up my arm.
She takes my hand and lets me haul her to her feet, bringing her close enough that she’s pressed against me while she shakes off the snow.
“Walk with me?” She nods, and I slide my hands into my pockets as we weave through the snow-covered trees. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m good. I’m… yeah, I’m fine.” She hesitates, glancing up at me. “Was Callan okay?”
I guide her deeper into the woodland, to a place where nobody but me ever goes. It’s all fenced off, locked behind gates that require keys I keep on my ring, and right now, I’m taking her where I know we’ll be completely alone, where no one can interrupt what needs to happen between us.
“Pretty sure he wanted to knock me on my ass for sending Travis down there, but he understands why I did.”
It’s breathtaking out here. Everything’s draped in this pristine white that should make me want to protect it. Instead, all I can think about is how perfect it’ll be when I ruin it. When I drag Piper down with me, straight into the darkness I’ve been fighting.
I’ve thought about this moment over and over again, turned it inside out, and played every possible version of it in my head.
And still, nothing is going to stop me. Not the consequences.
Not the mess we’ll leave in our wake. Not the fact that I know exactly what it means when I finally take what should’ve always been mine.
“I’ve been meaning to thank you, Christian.
” I pause in my tracks, turning to face her as snow drifts lazily around us.
“The way you handled everything the other night. I’m not sure what I was expecting or what I thought would happen, but you made me feel safe in a situation that could’ve escalated.
And you made Travis leave instead of me, which I know must’ve been hard… ”
“Hey, the hardest thing was seeing you hurt like that.” Our eyes lock, and I’m struck by how impossibly green hers are against the winter backdrop. “Nobody—and I mean nobody—who’d raise a hand to a woman is welcome under my roof.”
“I hit him back. That makes me just as bad.”
“It was self-defense, Piper. There’s a difference.”
“I’m pretty sure I heard bones crack.” She leans back against a snow-dusted pine, and I find myself stepping closer, drawn into her orbit.
“He’s lucky it wasn’t his goddamn spine.”
She smiles, shaking her head as she turns away, but I can’t let her hide.
My hand finds her cheek, and her eyes flutter closed as she leans into my touch.
My thumb traces the mark I know lies beneath her makeup, hidden either for my benefit or hers.
I can’t see it, but that doesn’t erase the truth of it.
“I’ve tried so hard not to want this.” Her whispered confession steals my breath.
“You think I haven’t? I’ve been walking around for months like I’m dying, Piper.” My gaze drops to her mouth. That perfect, parted mouth that’s so damn close I can feel her breath ghosting across my lips.
One step and she’s mine.
One heartbeat and nothing will ever be the same .
“I’ve tried so hard to be the better man, but I can’t… I can’t do it anymore.”
“Christian...” Her hand lifts slowly, fingers trembling as they trace along my jaw. “You were always the better man.”
Fuck it.
The last thread of restraint snaps, and I claim her lips, pouring months of want into a single kiss. She melts into me, her hands gripping my jacket and her nails digging in like she needs something to hold on to.
Each slow, teasing stroke of her tongue draws a growl from somewhere low in my throat.
My fingers tangle in her hair, tilting her head back so I can take more, taste more, consume more…
and she gives it all to me. Her body molds against mine, and my control is gone—shot to hell, burned to ash, and obliterated under the weight of this moment.
I press my body against hers, pinning her against the rough bark of the tree where the branches have made us a private little sanctuary.
She pulls back with a gasp that turns into something darker, more primal, when she feels exactly how hard I am against her.
No point hiding it, not when my cock is practically begging to be buried inside her.
I haven’t kissed a woman like this in years.
Sure, I fooled around when I was younger, but then Travis came along, and that whole shit show was enough to make me lock everything down tight.
But this girl has me wanting things I swore I’d never touch again.
She has me acting like a goddamn animal, and fuck if I care anymore.
Too many clothes between us.
I didn’t exactly factor that in when I brought her up here, but when my hand slides down to her throat, she makes this sound—this desperate little whimper that has my dick throbbing against her.
“I shouldn’t have done that.” Her brows crease, and I feel her body go rigid. “No, fuck no… I mean out here.”
I lower my lips, dragging my tongue along the seam again before sucking her lower lip into my mouth.
“I want you naked and spread wide open for me, and I can’t have that right now. ”
“Touch me.” She breathes the words against my mouth, and Christ, if I’m not about to answer them.
I keep my grip gentle but firm at her throat, holding her gaze, almost daring her to look away as my fingers slip beneath her sweater.
Thank fuck her coat’s open, or that would’ve killed the moment.
She flinches a little at the cold press of my hand, but a smile tugs at those kiss-swollen lips as I move it higher.
The discovery that she’s gone braless today nearly shorts out my brain. My palm finds one full breast, and it’s perfect. More than a handful, giving me plenty to explore until my thumb drags over her nipple, drawing another one of those sounds that makes my cock stir.
“You have no idea how many times I’ve thought about having your hands on my body.” She pants between kisses.
“Is that what you thought about yesterday when I was in the shower?”
“No.”
My hand slides to her other breast, fingers teasing her nipple until she arches into my touch.
“Tell me, Piper.”
“I was thinking about you touching yourself,” she finally admits, breathless. “Wishing you were making yourself come and thinking about me.”
“You wanna know what I imagine?” She nods as my hand finds its way to the waistband of her leggings.
“Every time I get myself off, I picture how pretty you’ll look stuffed so full of my cum you’re leaking me for hours after.
Last thing at night, first thing in the morning…
fuck, it could be the middle of the day, and you’re all I think about. ”
I slip my hand inside her leggings, past her panties, until I feel the soft brush of hair against my fingers, and then lower—Jesus fucking Christ, she’s so smooth and wet I nearly lose it right there.
“You like that idea, darlin’? Me filling this pretty little cunt until I’m all you know?”
“Please,” she whimpers, her hips trembling as she desperately presses into my hand. “I need more. Please touch me.”
“God, you beg so pretty for me.”
I drag my lips over hers as I start working her clit with my middle and forefinger, feeling it swell under my touch as she gets wetter with every stroke.
My hand’s still wrapped around her throat, holding her right where I want her, drinking in every needy breath while I rut against her thigh like some desperate teenager.
“You need my fingers inside you?”
“No… Fuck no, I’m too far gone. Keep doing what you’re doing.”
I work her pussy faster, feeling her start to pulse against my fingers as I capture her mouth with mine.
I’m grinding against her thigh, knowing damn well I’m about to lose it the second she breaks.
She grips my shirt, crying out into my mouth, but I swallow every sound as everything builds and she starts to shatter.
With one last thrust against her thigh, I groan into her mouth as I shamelessly come in my jeans just from the privilege of getting her off.
I keep touching her with whisper-soft strokes, memorizing every inch of her pussy like it’s the last thing I’ll ever learn.
“Did you… Did you just?”
“Lose it just from playing with you? Yeah, Piper. That’s what you do to me.
” Her eyes go wide, and I can’t help but smirk.
“You’re a goddamn dream, and touching you was always gonna get me off.
How could it not when you moan like that for me?
” I pull my fingers from her leggings, bring them up to my mouth, and suck them clean.
“You taste like heaven, and as much as I’d love to keep you pinned against this tree until your legs give out, I need to get cleaned up.
But after I’ve fed you tonight, I’m going to take you apart piece by piece until you can’t remember anything but the feeling of me inside you. ”
I hold my hand out to her, and when she takes it, we don’t need words. The way her fingers lace through mine says it all.
I walk her back toward the house, releasing her hand only to place my palm at the small of her back, because I’m pretty sure I’m going to forever be addicted to touching her in any way I can.
Savannah flashes me that smirk she’s perfected over thirty years of friendship—the one that says you definitely just got the girl —as I reluctantly leave Piper in her hands.
She thought she’d found her person once upon a time—married him, even—but the bastard showed his true colors and bailed before my brothers and I could tear him apart.
Probably for the best because none of us would’ve let him walk away in one piece after what he put her through.
At least she got something out of that mess.
She got enough cash in the divorce settlement to buy her coffee truck, build something of her own, and turn a shitty situation into something worthwhile.
Now she parks it on my farm, no strings attached.
Every penny she makes is hers, and I’d fight anyone who tried to change that.
Once I’m inside the house, I take off my hat, drop it on the kitchen table, and run my hands through my hair as I let out a breath.
I know I should feel guilty, or at least something that proves I have a conscience. But all I feel is her—how right touching her felt, how she melted into me like she was made just to fit against me. And I know, deep down, with a certainty I’ve never felt before, that I’m never letting her go.