Chapter 11 #3
Pipe chuckled, and the sound vibrated through her.
One of his hands moved from around her to clasp the back of her neck gently.
Cora tilted her head so she could see his face.
He was so close. She could feel his warm breath against her cheek.
Smell the coffee on his breath that he’d drank with dinner.
Her body began to tingle under the blanket.
She’d never felt this close to a man before. As if she wanted to melt into him.
“One thing I’ve learned over the years,” Pipe said, “is that you have to grab hold of opportunities when they present themselves. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been in the middle of an intense op, and suddenly something utterly unexpected happens.
Kids start a pick-up game of football, we come across a choir practicing and singing the most beautiful songs ever, someone randomly gives up intel that turns out to be vital to getting out of a particular situation alive.
In every case, when I’ve gone with the flow…
kicked around that football, stopped to listen to a song, took information we were given seriously…
things turned out all right in the end.”
“And when you didn’t? When you stayed the course? Focused on what you were there to do?” Cora asked.
“Things went to shit,” Pipe said flatly.
“So…you’re saying we shouldn’t ignore what we’re feeling,” she said with a small smile.
Her core clenched when he smiled down at her. “Exactly.”
“So if we get the urge, we should drop down on Ridge’s front lawn and have wild monkey sex?” she teased.
Pipe burst into laughter. His head flew back and he chuckled, long and heartily. And Cora had never been as turned on in her life as she was right at that moment. His head tilted back down, and she could’ve sworn his blue eyes twinkled as brightly as the stars over their heads.
“I’m not sure I’d go that far. But maybe we could start with a kiss.” His thumb on the back of her neck caressed her as he spoke, making goose bumps break out on her arms. “You know, test the waters.”
“You think?” Cora asked breathily.
“Oh, yeah. And for the record…you’re the only woman I’ve brought up here. This is my place. Where I go when I need to relax, to get away from the world. My safe space.”
Cora’s heart turned over in her chest. She knew how big of a deal that was, that he was sharing it with her.
“Now it’s your safe space too,” he added.
“No,” Cora said with a shake of her head. “You’re my safe space. I have a feeling it doesn’t matter if we’re here, on a plane, in a coffee shop, or in a dungeon in some terrorist’s hideaway…I’m safe with you.”
“Bloody hell,” Pipe sighed. “I’m going to kiss you now,” he warned.
Cora smiled up at him. “Okay.”
But he didn’t move. Simply stared down at her.
“Pipe? I thought you were going to kiss me.”
“I am. I’m memorizing this moment first. It’s not every day that a man meets the woman he wants to marry.”
It was Cora’s turn to be shocked. “What?”
“I know. Too fast. But I’m not a stupid man. I know when I’ve been given a gift. Just as I knew I could take the time to play with those kids, or listen to a couple of songs. I’m forty-two years old. Too old to think with my dick. But old enough to listen to fate when she knocks me upside my head.”
“I don’t know—”
“Not today. And not tomorrow. I don’t care how long it takes, I’m gonna show you that you can be yourself with me, Cora. You can let down your guard, tell me all the things you’re feeling, good and bad. I’ll be your protector. I’ll be anything you need me to be.”
Cora knew she should be freaking out. Things like this didn’t happen to her.
This was the kind of situation that Lara should be in.
A man declaring that he wanted to marry her after only knowing her a single day?
Before sharing even one kiss? Yeah, that was totally something that would happen to Lara, not her.
And yet, here she was. And surprisingly, the more she digested what he said, the more she was excited by the idea.
“Okay. But I want it here. On your deck. At night. With the fairy lights on. Only us….and whoever’s marrying us.
Everyone else can be down in the yard, cheering us on. And I’m not wearing a white dress.”
Where all this was coming from, Cora had no idea, but it felt right.
Pipe grinned. “Agreed.”
She smiled back. “Good Lord, did we just decide on how we wanted our marriage ceremony to go when we haven’t even kissed yet? We might not click. Might not have any chemistry.”
“Oh, we’ll click all right,” Pipe growled. Then his fingers tightened on her neck and his head lowered.
He kissed her as if he’d been doing it all his life. No hesitation, no tentative fumbling.
Cora immediately opened for him and wrapped an arm around his neck, urging him closer.
And he was right. They had serious chemistry. More than she’d ever experienced with anyone. The moment his lips touched hers, sparks flew.
Cora tilted her head, wanting to get closer.
His tongue stroked hers as they spoke without words.
His other hand came up and he palmed her face as he worshiped her mouth.
She couldn’t describe it any other way. She held on to him for dear life, afraid she’d fly into a million pieces if she didn’t have him to cling to.
When he finally lifted his head, Cora almost felt bereft. She opened her eyes and found that he was staring at her as if he’d never seen her before. He still cradled her face in his hands, and the look in his eyes made her feel strong and weak at the same time…and so feminine.
“Pipe?” she breathed.
“Bloody hell,” he swore.
Cora giggled.
“Seriously, woman. That was…I don’t know what that was.”
“I think it’s safe to say we definitely have chemistry,” Cora told him.
“Yeah,” Pipe agreed before lowering his head again. This time, the kiss was sweet and slow, not quite as passionate as the previous one, but no less life-altering.
Cora’s nipples were hard and tight under her shirt, and she could feel how wet she’d gotten between her legs. From kissing, of all things. That had never really happened to her before.
And she hadn’t missed Pipe’s erection under her ass. She had the sudden thought that if she moved, she could straddle his lap and all it would take was a little shimmy and shake and he could be inside her.
But as soon as she had the thought, Pipe lifted his lips from hers, cradling her against his chest once again. One arm went around her back and the other draped heavily across her lap as he clasped her to him.
“I was kidding about going at it on Ridge’s lawn, but now I’m thinking that’s not too far outside the realm of possibilities,” Cora said with a small laugh.
“We’re gonna find Lara, find out what the hell’s going on, then I’m bringing you back to The Refuge and making love to you up here on our deck. With the stars shining over our heads,” Pipe told her.
Cora squirmed. She wanted that. Badly. “Can we maybe bring up a space heater or something? Because the thought of getting naked in the cold isn’t very romantic.”
She felt more than heard his chuckle. “Yeah, love, we can do that.”
Intellectually, Cora realized that Pipe wasn’t declaring his love for her with the pet name, it was just something that British people called others, she’d heard it often enough on TV shows and read it in books.
But still, something deep down preened and basked in the nickname.
All her life, that was all she’d wanted.
To be loved. And to hear that word from Pipe’s lips made her yearn for it to be true all the more.
They sat cuddled together for at least another thirty minutes before the chill in the air got to Cora. She shivered, despite being plastered against Pipe and under a blanket.
“Time to go in,” he announced.
Cora pouted. “But I’m comfortable.”
“Liar,” he said without heat. “You’re freezing.”
“I’m a little chilly.”
He snorted and sat up with her in his arms. Just as she’d thought earlier, he could totally stand while she was in his lap. But instead of standing right away, Pipe stared down at her with a look she couldn’t interpret.
Then he said, “Luckiest day of my life was when I pulled the short straw to be in that auction and met my stalker.”
Without giving her time to respond, Pipe stood and put Cora on her feet. He pulled the blanket away and turned her toward the stairs. “I’ll give the blanket back when you’re on the ground. I don’t want you to trip on your way down the stairs.”
Another shiver went through her, but it wasn’t from the cold.
It was because he was being protective again.
She carefully made her way down the spiral staircase as Pipe turned off the fairy lights and started down behind her.
She looked up once more and gasped as a shooting star streaked across the sky.
“Holy crap, did you see that?” she asked as Pipe stepped up next to her.
“Yeah.”
“It was…I have no words. Amazing. Beautiful. Breathtaking.”
“Sounds like you have plenty of words to me,” he teased.
Cora smacked his chest as she turned to him. “Don’t make fun of me. I’ve never seen a shooting star before. Wait, it was a star, right, not a meteor coming down to explode and decimate earth?”
He chuckled, and Cora decided she loved the sound of his laugh. She wanted to hear it a lot more. “It was a star,” he reassured her. “Come on, let’s get you inside and warm. It’s later than I thought, and we have to get up to talk to the guys in the morning.”
“Pipe?” Cora said, looking up at him.
“Yeah?”
“The way you make me feel when I’m around you has nothing to do with gratitude, but you’re going to have to let me thank you. Lara’s the only family I’ve ever known.”
“Until now.”
“What?” she asked with a tilt of her head.
“The only family you’ve had…until now. You’ve got me, the rest of the guys, their women, and don’t think I missed how you’ve already got Robert wrapped around your finger.
And Ryan too. I’m sure as soon as you meet Jess, Jason, Hudson, Luna, Carly, and Savannah, you’ll make them like you just as much. ”
Cora pressed her lips together, trying not to cry again. “You don’t understand. This isn’t me. I don’t make friends this easily. I’m the weird chick, the one people don’t get and don’t click with.”
“Wrong. This is you. You’ve just had the misfortune to not have found your people yet. Here, we accept everyone just as they are. We’re all weird, love. Embrace it, and be exactly who you were meant to be. Now, I can see you shivering. Inside, woman.”
Cora let him push her toward the back door to the cabin. She felt off-kilter, but more optimistic than she’d been in her entire life.
She was going to find Lara, get her away from Ridge—because she knew deep down he wasn’t a good guy—come back to The Refuge, have that wild monkey sex with Pipe, and figure out the rest of her life after that.
She had no illusions that things would be quite so easy, but she truly believed that maybe, just maybe, she could finally be happy.