Chapter Thirteen #2
Piper spent the next day trying to put Agnes out of her mind.
She cleaned the cabin while Tag ran down to town to check on his store.
She noticed that he didn’t take any overnight adventure trips, leaving those to Torren and a few other guides that they hired for the summer.
Today, he had to go in to get the gear ready for a group of college students who’d booked an overnight with Torren.
Really, a bunch of college students and Torren—what could go wrong?
She chuckled at her thought. Tag assured her that he didn’t need to be gone overnight, but she worried that she was keeping him from his job.
The last thing she wanted to do was to hurt his business.
He went on a few day trips, always coming back to the cabin late at night, exhausted but not too tired to spend some time with her.
He was so attentive and patient with her, and she wanted to give something back to him.
She just wasn’t sure how to do that. Piper knew that she was falling for Tag; any woman would.
But she fought those feelings with every fiber of her being.
She was afraid to fall in love with him for fear that she would someday lose him.
She had weekly appointments with her therapist, which now turned into more of a gossip session.
Jill told her that she felt guilty about charging her for the sessions.
Over the years, she went to many doctors.
Jill was a new recommendation. She was a town over from Harvest Ridge, which made Piper feel less like a freak.
She was also close to Piper’s age, which made her seem easier to talk to.
In just a few short weeks, the two became friends, and Piper found herself spilling all the sexy details about her and Tag.
Jill didn’t make her feel like a complete loser for being a virgin until recently.
She also didn’t try to pressure Piper into taking the next step.
Right now, they were working on getting Piper over her fear of possible loss.
Rationally, Piper knew that losing her parents did not mean that she would lose everyone else who meant something to her.
Lorna and Sunny were in her life long enough for her to know that she could get close to someone, and they wouldn’t die.
Still, the thought of losing Tag kept her awake most nights.
Although Tag did help to keep her busy when she couldn’t sleep.
Piper hired some summertime help for Scrumptious.
She usually brought in a few of the local high schoolers to help with the crowds that couldn’t get enough ice cream on the warmer summer days.
Lorna also became her assistant manager since her hours at the library were cut back.
Piper sometimes wished her aunt would leave her job and help run the shop, but she knew how much Lorna loved the library.
So Piper took whatever help Lorna wanted to give.
Lorna ordered Piper to stay up at the cabin with Tag for the next two days.
She even winked at her, actually winked, when she gave her orders to take it easy.
She wondered if Lorna ever got lonely. Before Tag, Piper felt very alone.
She just didn’t realize it until she moved in with him.
Now she couldn’t imagine not having him around day in and day out.
She loved falling asleep in his arms every night and waking up to his wet, sloppy kisses.
Tonight, she was going to make him a special dinner, chicken marsala.
Her dad was a great cook and often taught her a few dishes on the weekends he had off.
They would make enough food to feed an army, and Lorna would come over.
The whole family would sit around the dinner table laughing and eating.
After, they would pile into the family room and play board games.
She missed those times. One of her favorite meals that her dad made was chicken marsala.
Once, he put red wine vinegar instead of the Marsala wine into the dish.
He wasn’t paying attention to his cooking, thinking about an article that he was working on.
Everyone sat around the table talking about how good everything smelled; that lasted until the first bite.
They all ran to the garbage can, vying for a turn to spit out the sour-tasting meat.
Her father was so upset with himself, but Lorna and her mom couldn’t stop laughing.
Her dad made the meal again the next weekend as if to prove to everyone, including himself, that he could do it.
Chicken marsala quickly became Piper’s favorite.
She still smiled every time she pulled out her dad’s old handwritten recipe card and found that he scribbled a note to himself about not getting red wine vinegar and marsala wine confused with each other.
She ran into town and picked up all the ingredients to make the meal for Tag.
Piper found herself playing peek-a-boo with a toddler who was less than patiently waiting in line.
She wanted kids someday; she even talked about it with her therapist. She just needed to find the courage to ask Tag how he felt about kids.
Would his rough childhood mean that he wouldn’t want to be a parent himself?
When she got back to the cabin, she checked her phone and saw that Tag had sent her a text saying that he would be home by six for dinner.
That left her just about an hour to make dinner, set a romantic table for two, and slip into something with a little less fabric.
She was pouring the wine and lighting the candles when she heard Tag’s truck pull up.
Her stomach did a little flip-flop. Every time he entered the room, she got butterflies.
She sat down in her seat and tried to strike a seductive pose.
She was still new to the whole seduction game.
Tag didn’t seem unhappy about walking into their cabin to find her sitting at the table in her lacy, see-through black bra and matching thong.
In fact, he dropped his backpack and crossed the room in two long strides.
Piper wasn’t sure what her next move should be; she usually let Tag take the lead.
She looked up through her lashes at him, her tongue nervously licking her bottom lip.
Tag groaned and lifted her from her perch, helping her feet find the floor.
He spun her around, taking in her barely there outfit.
“What’s all this, Honey?” Tag kissed her lips, continuing down her jawline and back up to her mouth.
“I wanted to surprise you. Is it okay?” Tag acted as if it were impossible to keep his hands off her. They were everywhere—seeking, grabbing, tugging. She felt like her whole body was on fire from just his touch.
“Piper, this is more than okay. You cooked me dinner, and you are wearing this? This is way more than just okay.” He looked her body up and down, eyes glaring at her perky nipples rubbing up against the lacy fabric of her bra. “I want to lick you from head to toe.”
“But I made dinner; we should eat.” Tag pulled her into his arms and carried her back to their bedroom. He dropped her onto the bed, then pulled down her barely there panties.
“How about I have an appetizer first? I need to eat your sweet pussy then I want to fuck you. We can warm dinner later and eat it in bed, naked.” Tag bobbed his eyebrows at her as he worked his way from her breasts to her drenched mound.
She bucked against his mouth at the first lick, not able to control her need for him.
Piper wrapped her legs around Tag’s shoulders, inviting him further in, giving his mouth better access.
Writhing and moaning shamelessly against him, she came into his mouth screaming his name, and he didn’t seem to want to stop.
“Tag,” she panted, “I need you in me, now!” She felt Tag laugh against her sensitive folds, the vibrations sending her over the edge again.
Tag pulled her up from the bed and flipped her over.
He tugged her to the bottom of the bed so she was standing in front of him, bent over the end of the footboard.
He spread her legs wide, grabbed her hips, and slammed his cock into her tight, needy pussy.
He leaned over her body, pushing deeper inside of her, eliciting another of her breathy moans.
“Honey, you feel so good. So hot.” He reached around to the front of her body and pulled her up to almost stand in front of him.
Tag gently cupped her neck with his hand, tipping it slightly to give his lips better access.
He kissed his way down to her shoulder, biting her flesh, leaving his mark.
She liked the thought of him marking her, telling the world that she belonged to him.
His hands dipped further down her body to find her nipples, tugging and pulling them so hard that she nearly came again.
When he finally dipped his hand down to find her clit she exploded around him.
She could feel his release minutes later as he spilled himself into her spent body.
She collapsed onto the bed, and he followed her down, pulling her body into his.
“Now that was a homecoming,” he panted. “I think I could get used to coming home and finding you like that every night.” Piper laughed against his chest.
“We would never eat dinner. You would waste away in favor of constantly having sex,” Piper teased. Tag playfully swatted Piper’s ass.
“Well, put on my t-shirt and let’s go see what you made me for dinner.” Piper slipped from the bed. She found Tag’s shirt on the floor and slipped it on.
“Give me just a minute, and then come in. Maybe put on your boxers.” Piper eyed Tag’s cock, licking her lips like a hungry tigress.
“Honey, you look at me like that again and you won’t be wearing my shirt for long.” She giggled and squealed when Tag reached for her, trying to pull her back down on the bed. She stopped in the doorway and turned to face Tag.
“Do you want to have kids?” Piper didn’t miss the way Tag froze like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. Maybe she should have fed him before she dropped that bomb. Oh well, too late to take the words back. She waited him out, knowing that sooner or later he would have to blink.
Tag wasn’t sure that he heard Piper’s question correctly.
It sounded like she was asking him if he wanted to have kids.
The answer was complicated. Before he met Piper and chased her around for a year, he would have answered that question with a resounding, “Hell no!”.
But now, with the woman that he wanted for so long standing almost naked in front of him, asking him to have babies with her—well, he would agree to as many kids as she wanted.
He felt like her question might be a trap.
What if she was going to freak out once she knew the truth?
Could Piper handle knowing that he wanted everything with her?
He thought about a life with her since the first day he asked her out.
Would she run away from him after he told her the truth?
He couldn’t bear that, but he also wouldn’t lie to her.
“I’ve never found anyone that I wanted to have kids with.” He paused, weighing his words, not missing the disappointment on Piper’s face. “Until now, I couldn’t imagine myself with a family.”
“And now?” Piper looked like she was holding her breath while waiting for his answer. He wanted to cross the room, go to her, touch her. He also knew that she needed her space to process what he was about to tell her.
“Now, since you, I think I do want a family. I’d like to have kids someday.” She let out her pent-up breath, and he felt like he could breathe again, too. He didn’t realize he was also holding his breath.
“Do you want kids, Pipe?” She looked down at her feet, and he was afraid to push her for an answer.
“Yeah, I think I do.” Piper smiled, looking up to meet his eyes, and for just a moment, he could have sworn that he saw his entire future looking back at him.
“Good to know,” she said. Piper spun around and left the bedroom.
Tag knew that she escaped to the kitchen to take a moment to think about what he said.
Truthfully, he needed a minute too. He was hopeful that this was a step in the right direction.
He was working to slay her monsters one at a time.
Most days, he wished he were fighting real monsters—that way, he could get his hands dirty.
A physical fight would be so much easier than fighting off demons that only Piper could see.
But he was determined not to give up—she was worth it.
Their future was too important not to fight for.