Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Cole moved to his kitchen window and froze, hands gripping the edge of the bench hard enough to make the Formica groan. Piper stood in her yard, garden hose turned on, aiming the jet of water at herself.
But if you want me, for anything. You know where I am.
“Shit.” Had she really meant what he thought she did?
Or was she thinking more along the lines of a neighborly cup of sugar?
Fuck. He couldn’t allow himself to believe it.
Believe that shy, sexy, little Piper West—the woman of his dreams—had just invited him into her bed.
His head might actually explode if he did.
He swallowed hard, gaze following the water’s trajectory. The way it sluiced down over her neck and shoulders, down her arms, soaking into her shirt and shorts, gathering at the apex of her thighs and down her legs, making her skin glisten.
Not just my goddamn head.
Groaning, he licked his lips, like he already had her salty, sweet taste on his tongue.
Jesus.
Was she doing it on purpose? Was she trying to kill him? Because that’s what it felt like. His heart smacked around in his chest so damn fast, so hard, the possibility of having a heart attack wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. And his dick…shit. He’d never been so hard.
Was that…
Motherfucker.
Even from this distance, he could see her nipples pebbled and hard, straining against her tank as the cool water ran over her. He wanted to peel her wet clothes off, lick every inch of her smooth skin. See if she was wet anywhere else. See more than the tops of those succulent little nipples.
Finally, she turned off the hose and dropped it to the ground. Gripping the front of her shirt she rung out the excess water, giving him an enticing glimpse of her smooth, rounded belly. She was walking back to the front of her house when she turned toward him, eyes locking with his.
“Goddammit.” He needed to move away from the window, now, but he couldn’t tear his gaze from her. He stayed where he was, watching until she disappeared into her house.
This was how the first week in his new apartment began. The week from hell. A week he aptly dubbed: Operation Piper fucks with Cole until he loses his goddamn mind.
Sunday - 11:16 a.m.
Cole sat back on the couch, feet up on the coffee table, and took a long pull of his beer, draining it. The game hit halftime so he climbed to his feet to get a refill. Grabbing one from the fridge, he twisted off the top.
The bottle was halfway to his mouth when music started up. Loud music.
He shook his head and stared at his feet.
Don’t do it. Do not look. Walk away. Walk away now.
The sound of Piper singing, loudly, drifted up to him, and before he knew what he was doing, he was at the kitchen sink, staring down at her.
A growl rumbled from his chest, and he cursed repeatedly.
The woman was barefoot, wearing pink cutoffs and a bikini top—a fucking bikini top—the scrap of orange fabric barely covered her lush tits.
She was practically naked. Bucket in hand, she headed to her bright pink Corvette parked on the front lawn, and to his horror and voyeuristic delight, started soaping up its shiny surface, like she was in some ’80s rock video.
Suds and water somehow ended up all over her.
Her arms, her soft, rounded stomach, her breasts…
breasts that had the ability to make a grown man cry.
In fact, he thought he was pretty close to shedding a few tears himself.
He followed the bubbles as they slid over her stomach and her shapely thighs. “Jesus Christ.” He slammed down the bottle in his hand, causing it to foam up and overflow all over the bench. Closing his eyes, he prayed for salvation.
None came.
Forcing himself away from the window, he parked his ass back on the couch and tried to watch the rest of the game.
He had no idea who won.
Tuesday - 6:05 p.m.
Shoving his car door open, Cole headed for the stairs. He’d forgotten his workout gear when he left for work that morning, and if he missed a session at the gym his leg tended to act up, getting stiff, or at least stiffer than usual. He hit the first step when his phone rang.
Deke.
He put it to his ear. “Yeah.”
“Hey, can you do me a favor?”
He’d learned in the last few days he didn’t care much for Deke’s favors, not one goddamn bit. “What’s up?”
“I’ve been trying to call Pipe for the last hour. She left me a message, but now she’s not answering. Do you mind heading over to check on her?”
Yes, I fucking mind. He choked down his refusal and tightened his fingers around the phone. “Sure.”
“Thanks.”
They disconnected, and Cole headed across the parking lot toward Piper’s cottage. Her car was parked out front, so she had to be home. He knocked on the front door, but no one answered, so he walked around the side of the house to the backyard.
That’s where he found her. She was lying on a lounger, shades on, book loose in her fingers at her side. Head tilted, soft blond hair around her face and shoulders.
“Pipe?”
She didn’t answer, and he realized she was out cold, fast asleep.
Jesus.
Fucking beautiful.
He glanced around the backyard, and his gut tightened. For some reason, when he’d envisioned his future with Piper, a future she had no idea he’d wanted with her, he’d seen them here, in this cottage together.
His gaze moved over her, and he gritted his teeth. He’d imagined hot nights, holding her in his arms, kissing her whenever he damn well wanted to. Of one day watching her belly grow round with his baby inside her. A swing set back here for their kids.
Shit. He needed to stop this.
But he couldn’t take his eyes off her. She tempted him, pushed him beyond all reason.
She had on a green sundress, and while she’d slept it had twisted around her waist and hips, lifting high enough that he could see her orange lace panties.
Just a tiny glimpse, but enough he got an unobscured view of how they hugged her, the outline of her sexy little slit.
Even through the fabric he could tell she was completely smooth there.
His mouth went bone dry.
The urge to crouch down and lift her dress higher to get a better look was almost too hard to resist. He ate her up with his eyes—greedily, hungrily, like a starving man. That’s when he spotted something on her upper thigh, vibrant red and green ink, just a sliver of it showing.
Piper had a tattoo.
Something about that twisted him damn near inside out, pushed him past reason, and the next thing he knew, he was grazing her silky smooth skin with the tip of his finger, tracing what he realized was the base of some kind of flower.
Piper moaned, and he pulled his hand back, jarred from his lust fog, and shot to his feet.
Her head rolled toward him, and a second later she scrambled to a sitting position, shoving her shades to the top of her head. She blinked up at him several times. “Cole?”
Shit, he’d always wondered what she’d look like when she woke first thing in the morning, all sleep rumpled and warm, all soft and pliant.
Lock it down.
“Your brother’s been trying to call you.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but he turned away and got the hell out of there—before he did something he could never take back.
Wednesday - 8:30 p.m.
Dropping his gym bag, Cole slid his key in the door.
But the sound of a car door closing had him turning around and looking out at the street below.
A guy climbed out of his car and, straightening his tie, headed toward the cottage.
Cole watched him cup a hand around his mouth and discretely sniff.
Breath check. Which could only mean one thing. He was here to take Piper out.
A date.
Jogging up the cottage steps, the guy knocked on the door.
Cole turned fully, unable to look away. The door opened a minute later, and Piper stepped out, a smile beaming from her beautiful face.
Her dress was blue and stopped just above the knees.
It hugged her curves to perfection, and he didn’t need to be standing in front of her to know her eyes would glow against the color.
He could see the guy’s face redden all the way from across the lot.
He could also see the way the fucker’s trousers tented at the front.
With a growl, he took the first step, heading back down—then slammed on the brakes.
Gripping the railing, he made himself stay where he was. Hung the fuck on so he didn’t go down there and make a complete asshole of himself.
What the hell did he think he was doing? He had no right to go over there. What would he even say?
He watched as the other man placed a hand at the small of Piper’s back. Every muscle in Cole’s body turned to stone as he led her to his car.
Before Piper climbed in, she looked his way. When she spotted him standing there, her smiled widened. She pointed at her date’s back as the guy walked around to his side of the car, then placing a hand over her heart, did a silly, sexy little jiggle, an I’m-so-excited-for-my-date happy dance.
Excited wasn’t what he was feeling in that moment. And he sure as fuck didn’t feel like dancing.
A minute later, they were gone.
Cole forced himself to go inside. He decided if the guy touched her when he dropped her off later, he’d be living the rest of his life without hands.