Chapter 4
Chapter Four
West Security was completely deserted when Cole walked in. He hadn’t expected anything else at six thirty in the morning.
Sleep eluded him. In fact, he hadn’t been able to sleep for four shitty nights. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Piper. Blond hair down around her shoulders, his suit jacket swamping her curvy body. So tempting, so sexy. So damn sweet.
He rubbed his hands over his face. Jesus, he needed to stop this.
She wasn’t for him. It didn’t matter that he could still feel her soft lips against his, the way they’d parted for his tongue, the way she tasted like wine and wedding cake.
Jesus, he’d been hard ever since he pinned her to the wall, could think of nothing but the heat between her legs pressed against his aching cock.
And the sweet, urgent sounds she’d made while she’d clung to him, shit, they played on a constant loop in his head. He dragged a hand across his chest, where the overflowing mounds of her breasts had crushed against him.
Piper had kissed him, and instead of walking away like he should have, he’d kissed her back.
Idiot.
The realization that she’d wanted him, too, if only for those few minutes? He could barely believe it. Why? Why the hell would she want to kiss him?
Yeah, she’d had a thing for him back when they were kids. And she sure as hell hadn’t made it easy on him. Seventeen-year-old Piper had baited and harassed the shit out of him. Flaunted her new curves in that cute, sexy, completely clueless way of hers. Driven him damn near crazy with wanting her.
But she was over that now, wasn’t she?
He shook his head. It didn’t matter. She was as off-limits now as she was then.
God, he still remembered the first time he really saw her, saw her as more than Deke’s baby sister.
He and Deke had been at the West’s cottage, shooting the shit out back when the girls arrived home.
The Axle Alley Vipers the local boys had called them.
The name had definitely fit. All three girls beautiful, full of fire, and a truck load of attitude.
Well, he’d always thought Alex and Rusty lived up to the moniker, but Piper, not so much.
He’d seen her as sweet and shy, a little awkward.
Until that day.
Shy, little Piper had changed. And not just her attitude.
She’d gone from a kid to a smokin’-hot seventeen-year-old with more tits and ass than a girl her age had a right to.
She’d worn cutoffs and a bikini top that barely covered what she had going on.
And when she’d spotted him, her big blue eyes had warmed, lips curving into a smile.
Not the way she had in the past, all shy and rosy cheeked, no, she turned all that new attitude on him.
If he hadn’t already been sitting, he would have fallen on his ass.
That was the day he fell for Piper West. From a motherfucking great height.
And since he’d returned to Miami, it felt like some sick bastard had his finger on the rewind button, taking him back to the point of impact, just to let him smash into the unforgiving ground over and over again. Blowing his attempts at maintaining control over his life all to shit.
He’d wanted Piper to be in his future, and not just as his best friend’s little sister.
He was still struggling to accept that dream was well and truly over.
He wasn’t the same man he’d once been. Now, he was fractured, messed up, beyond redemption.
He had nothing to offer anyone, shit, he had nothing left to give.
And Piper deserved a fuck of a lot more than that.
Turning on the lights, he headed to his office and fired up the computer. He had several quotes for possible new clients to work on. He did not need to be thinking about Piper, or the way she’d gone up on tiptoe and pressed those full, sweet lips against his.
It was clear the woman had been put on this earth to tempt him.
A few months ago she’d called him by mistake, completely shit-faced.
He’d held the phone to his ear, jealousy pumping through his veins at the things she said.
The call was clearly meant for someone else.
But he hadn’t corrected her. No, he’d stayed on the line, listening, wishing the words pouring out of her mouth were for him.
He hadn’t felt one shred of guilt for possibly screwing things up between her and the numb-nuts she’d really wanted to talk to. If the guy was too stupid to know what he had, if he’d let a woman like Piper slip through his fingers, he didn’t deserve her.
I’m done waiting for you to make a move. So I’m telling you, I want you. If you want me, too, come get me…I’m yours. If I don’t see you by the end of the week, I’ll know that you don’t feel that way about me. You’ve got one week. Then I’m moving on. I’m getting over you.
He’d lay there in his bed, struggling to breathe, to stay where he was.
Ignoring the urge to call her back, to ask where she was, had nearly done him in. That need, that pain in her voice, it hadn’t been for him, but he’d wished it had been.
Pull it the hell together.
He rounded his desk and planted his ass in the chair. Working, focusing on something else was all he could do.
When Deacon added a security business to his growing portfolio several months ago, he’d asked Cole to help with the change of ownership.
His friend knew nothing about security, so Cole had agreed.
It wasn’t like he’d been doing anything else.
It’d gone well; so well, he’d offered him a permanent job.
Being a control freak had paid off. Now he was the new manager of a large security firm, in charge of staff and doing a whole host of other shit he’d never seen himself doing.
Yeah, he was grateful, but this was not where he’d seen himself ending up when he’d joined the force fresh out of college.
This life was not the one he’d planned. Becoming this, living with what he’d done…
The phone started ringing. A mixture of affection and guilt shot through him when he saw who it was.
He’d gotten close to his ex-partner’s twelve-year-old son during the five years he and Adam had worked together.
Cole wanted to be there for the boy, though it wasn’t as easy now that he was no longer in New York, but they spoke often on the phone.
He owed Adam that much, at least. “Hey, Davey.”
“Cole! I made the team!”
Cole chuckled. “No wonder you’re up so early. That’s fantastic, bud. But I’m not surprised; you’ve been training hard.”
“Are you coming to New York anytime soon? Do you think you’ll be able to make one of my games?”
His gut tightened painfully. “I wish I could, but I don’t think I can swing it. Get your mom to email me some pics from your first game, though, yeah?”
“Sure thing.” There was a pause. “Be there in a sec, Mom. I gotta go, but I’ll call you after training Wednesday.”
“Sounds good.”
“Bye, Cole.”
“Bye, Davey.”
Cole slumped back, the twisted knot in his gut nearly overwhelming him.
“Thought I’d find you here.” Deke’s voice cut through the noise of his thoughts. Cole looked up to find his friend leaning against his office door. “You’ll turn into a workaholic like me if you’re not careful.”
Cole sat back in his chair. “How long have you been standing there?”
“Was that Adam’s boy?”
Cole rubbed a hand over his face. “Yeah.”
“It’s good you’re still close…”
He cleared his throat. “So, back from the honeymoon already?” He didn’t want to go there, not even with Deke.
Deacon stared at him for several long seconds, then thankfully decided to let it go. “Yeah, unfortunately. I promised Alex I’d take her away again when things aren’t so busy.”
The expression on his friend’s face changed, became all business. Did he know? Had Piper told him what happened? “This is early, even for you. Problem?”
“I need to talk to you about something. About Piper actually.”
Fucking wonderful.
This was the part where Deke warned him away from his baby sister. Well, he was wasting his breath. He already knew he wasn’t good enough for her. He’d never do that to Deke, not after everything he’d done for him, the way he’d stepped up when his world had crashed down around his ears.
He took the chair across from Cole. “I’ll cut to the chase.
I know it pisses Piper off when I get involved in her life.
She thinks I should butt out and let her do whatever the hell she likes, but I can’t.
I won’t. These last few nights I’ve lost sleep over a situation that I just can’t leave alone, which is why I’ve come to you… ”
Cole lifted his hands, stopping him before he could go any further.
“You’re her brother, and I respect that.
But you have nothing to worry about where Pipe’s concerned.
” There, surely that was clear enough without getting into it.
Because he sure as hell did not want to talk about any of this.
Not now, not ever, and sure as hell not with Deke.
The guy frowned, sitting back in his seat, disbelief clear on his face. “You think I should let her live all alone on that street with no other houses close by?”
Okay. That wasn’t what he’d expected. “What are we talking about here?”
Deke frowned. “What did you think I was talking about?”
Cole forced a careless shrug. “Fucked if I know.”
Resting his elbows on his knees, Deke leaned forward. “When Alex moved in with me, I was okay, because Pipe still had Rusty. But now Rusty’s moved in with Reid and Pipe’s all on her own. Every night I worry about her.”
Deacon wasn’t the only one. “It’s not ideal.”
“She told me you drove her home after the wedding. You must have noticed how isolated that road is at night?” He’d noticed. He hadn’t liked it, either. “She won’t leave. I know that much. When I brought it up she closed me down.”
All three women loved that place. The cottage had belonged to Grandma West, and she’d left it to the girls when she passed away. Getting Piper to leave would be no easy feat.
His friend crossed his arms and sat back. “I need a favor.”
Wherever this was going, he didn’t want any part of it. “What kind of favor?”
“Alex’s old apartment above the garage. I want you to move into it.”
He couldn’t be serious? “I already have an apartment.” A crappy shit-hole of a place that he’d intended to be temporary, but still.
Deke held his gaze and looked almost desperate. “I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t going out of my mind. I just need you to keep an eye on her. That’s it. Plus the place on Axle Alley is closer to work than the one you’re in now.”
“I like my apartment.” Disbelief covered the guy’s face for the second time, because yeah, no one would like living in that dump.
“It’s not permanent. Just until I can get her to see reason and move somewhere she isn’t so isolated at night.”
It would be a cold day in Hell before Piper left that cottage, and Deke knew it as well as he did. But the bastard had him over a barrel. How could he say no?
Deacon had ignored Cole’s behavior when he’d acted like an asshole for months after the accident.
He hadn’t gone away though Cole had repeatedly slammed the door in his face.
No, he’d stuck around, stuck by him. Given him a job when Cole would have been just as happy to stay shut in his dingy apartment, only coming out for his physical therapy sessions and appointments with his shrink.
What choice did he have? He owed Deacon West. Big time. “Fine.”
Deacon smiled. “This weekend?”
“I’ll move in Saturday afternoon.”
Deke stood, buttoning his jacket. “Thanks. It’s a relief knowing you’ll be right next door. I know you’ll look out for her.”
Relief wasn’t a word that came to mind when he thought of seeing Piper every day. Frustration maybe? Torture? Yeah, torture best described what it would be like for him from here on out.
He had months of sleepless nights to look forward to. Because how the hell could he be expected to sleep when the woman he wanted with every fiber of his being was right next door…wearing that flimsy, pink satin nightie?
He and Deke made small talk for a few more minutes, then his friend, looking pleased with himself, left for an early meeting.
Cole stood and shoved his hands through his hair. How was he going to deal with seeing Piper every day after that kiss?
The woman made his dick hard, his heart beat a million miles an hour. Made him wish for things he could never have. He craved her, dreamed about her, rubbed off to thoughts of her. Pathetic.
And now they were neighbors.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
But he’d have to deal with it because, as much as he wanted her, he couldn’t have her.
He was physically and emotionally scarred. A goddamn mess. Deacon had given him a chance, given him something to wake up for in the morning. He wouldn’t repay the guy by messing up Piper’s life, which is exactly what would happen if he was in it.
And now, every damn time he looked out the window, she’d be there. So fucking close, but so completely out of his reach.
If this was punishment for what he’d done, for taking a good man’s life, his partner from his wife and kid, he deserved it. That and a whole lot more.