“Did you want to come in for a cup or tea, or something?”
Theor somethingechoed inside his head, reminding him of all the things he’d like to do to her. He let out a long breath. Piper was nothing if not well-mannered. She didn’t expect him to accept.
“Sure. Why not?” No one had ever accused him of having good etiquette.
To her credit, her smile didn’t slip and she didn’t run screaming for her front door. “Great,” she said, as though she meant it, and opened the car door.
He followed her up the garden path. The house might be converted into flats but was still beyond the budget of most students. Maybe her parents owned the place, and Piper was living here rent free.
Still didn’t explain the state of her car, though.
“We’ve got the garden flat, at the back,” she said as she led him into the wide hallway, where three doors led to separate sections of the house.
We?
She unlocked the one at the end and flipped on the light switch. The first thing he saw was a large stroller against the wall.
Shock punched through him.She has a baby?He bet his parents didn’t have a clue. In their world, Piper was going to spend the rest of her life in love with Colton, to the exclusion of anything else.
Is this why she drives an old banger and no longer lives in a mansion?Had her parents disowned her? Anger stirred, and a strange sense of protectiveness surged through him.Where the fuck was the father?
The light was already on in the living room. It was a large room with original Victorian features, and French doors to the garden. It was also littered with toys and kid’s clothes.
“Oh God, I’m sorry.” Piper snatched up a heap of things from the sofa. “Peyton’s so messy. She was supposed to clear up before she left today but she never hastimeanymore.” She flashed him a smile over her shoulder.
“Peyton? Your sister?” Her twin sister, although he’d never met her. According to Colton they were identical. His brother had harbored fantasies of having both sisters at the same time. Once Mason had met Piper, he hadn’t wanted to know about his brother’s fantasies anymore.
“Yes. We’ve lived together for a few years now.”
She disappeared through another door and as he dropped his jacket onto a chair he swept his glance around the room. Everything looked good quality, from the large rug that covered the floor to the velvet drapes and the matching embroidered sofas, but there was an unmistakable air of shabbiness over it all. Obviously nothing had been replaced in decades, if not longer.
“Right. Tea.” She eyed him from across the room. She’d discarded her coat and her plait flopped over her shoulder. Christ, he was getting a hard-on over a fuckingplait. “Or would you prefer something stronger?”
“What’ve you got?” He’d kill for a beer.
“There’s some Scotch left over from Christmas.”
“Sure.”
She opened the door of a mahogany and glass cabinet in the corner of the room and brought out a half-full bottle. It was top notch stuff, nothing like the gut rot he drank in the name of whisky.
For the price of that bottle she could’ve bought four new tires for her car and still had change.
“Cheers.” She handed him a glass. She’d poured them both a generous shot. “I hope you like it neat. I don’t have any mixers.”
“Neat’s fine.” He swirled the amber liquid but couldn’t take his gaze from Piper. She didn’t break eye-contact as she took a sip of her drink. Fascinated he watched her slide the tip of her tongue along her lips, as though to catch any stray drop of alcohol.
Is she doing that on purpose?Generally he knew when a woman was coming onto him. But this was Piper. She was off-limits. Always had been.
Doesn’t mean she always will be.
He took a long swallow of the Scotch before he could stop himself. The rich aromatic liquid slid down his throat, the burn warming him all the way down to his unruly cock. He closed his eyes, and it didn’t have anything to do with savoring the single malt and everything with the way he imagined Piper was looking at him.
“I always thought you were more of a beer drinker.” There was a faint hint of huskiness in her voice. Or was that all in his mind as well?
“You didn’t offer me beer.”
She rolled the edge of her glass along her bottom lip. “Dad doesn’t drink beer.”
“I’m drinking your dad’s booze?” He took another long swallow.Slow down, man.He didn’t drink and drive anymore. Not since his brother’s funeral.
“He likes to have something decent to drink when he visits.”
He didn’t want to talk about her father.
“Is your sister due back soon?” Yeah, subtle. Did he really think she’d asked him in because the place was empty and they could get naked?
She didn’t answer right away. He had the strangest feeling she was weighing up her answer. Weighing uphim. And then she spoke. “Peyton’s away all weekend.”
