“Oh, I’m sure if I complain enough, you’ll find a way to fix it.”
“Careful, I just might rub it for you,” she said and then sprinted to the front of the cart to begin unloading before he could comment further.
When they returned, Piper began putting the groceries away. She could hear the rest of the family playing board games in the dining room, the roll of dice and Aunt Deb shouting about cheaters.
“I got this, you go play with the others,” Kol said, pulling a box of mac and cheese out of her hands. “I’ll even put everything on shelves low enough for you to reach.”
She let him take the box but just unpacked more from the totes. “Aunt Deb’s way too competitive. It makes me too anxious to be on her team, and it’s even worse to play against her.”
“At least sit then,” he urged, tugging a can of ravioli away from her. “Take a break.”
“Can’t.” She crossed the kitchen to the uppermost cabinet and tucked away the paper towels.
“Won’t,” he corrected from just behind her.
“Same difference.” She turned, but his chest blocked her from retrieving more groceries.
Kol boxed her into the counter. “You need someone to force you to stay still, don’t you?”
She pressed back but wanted to press forward into him. “That actually sounds wonderful,” came tumbling out before she could catch herself.
The iciness in Kol’s eyes darkened, his hands fall to the counter on either side of her. His body just grazed hers as he leaned in. “Is that what it’s going to take? Pinning you down so you can’t move?”
Piper’s heart skipped at the prospect of not having to choose, not having to think. “I’d fight you,” she said, not sure if she meant it.
He dropped his lips to her ear, and his hands circled her waist. “I’m sure you would,” he rumbled, vibrations tickling her skin. “But not once I start licking your—”
“That’s another win for Deb!” Her aunt’s voice jolted into Piper’s brain as the woman bustled into the kitchen, wrecking the fantasy of Kol kneeling between her legs.
“Take Doc out,” she said, pushing his chest so hard he stumbled backward, then added, “Please,” before turning back to the counter and hiding her red face away.
13
Well, The Song Doesn’t Go This High, So…
What in the nether was I thinking?
Well, Kol wasn’t thinking, he was just acting—acting like a brainless, horny elf. He was quite good at the brainless and horny parts, or at least he had plenty of practice. So much, in fact, he’d sworn off of that life a year ago, and it had worked until he met Piper.
Kol had been surprised with how easy it was to just not answer a call, especially when they came in the middle of the night. It was really only difficult when he sprawled out flat on his back and felt the full brunt of the emptiness that was his bed, but burying his face in a pillow and curling into a ball helped just enough to wait out the ringing until it stopped. After a season of letting his voicemail fill up and avoiding Sylvan Park where the elves in Bexley congregated, the calls finally stopped, and the temptation to fill the void he sank into when it was quiet and dark with the body of someone who didn’t care was fully removed.
But now? Piper flashed him that smile of hers or offered even the slightest kindness, and everything in him opened up like petals searching for the sun. He never forgot he was two halves of an impossible whole when he was in an elf’s bed—they never let him—but when he was in Piper’s, it didn’t matter, and he wasn’t even distracted by someone bouncing on top of him. Those disparate pieces were always floating at the corner of his eyes, refusing to come full focus and fit together. But simply walking at her side while she compared prices on dried pasta made those fuzzy edges smooth out and click together.
So of course he wanted to touch her, to do all those things he’d been told he was so good at, but not because he felt he needed to prove himself. Being with her made him feel…gods, whatwasit?
Home!At Kol’s side, the terrier plowed through the snow, tenacious and energetic. Its stubby legs weren’t made for snow, but he pushed on anyway. Kol thought to pick him up, but the dog’s point of a tail was wagging ferociously. How it could be so happy out of its element, he didn’t know.
“Okay, okay, we’ll head back,” he said to the dog then gave the fehszar a goodbye nod.
She’d found an aspen and was ripping at its bark, chewing lazily. Another creature, out of its element yet complaintless. Perhaps it was easier, lacking complex thought. He lacked plenty of it when he wanted to rub himself against Piper, and just a second more and he would have given in. That was where his elven sensibilities stopped and the human ones took over. But Kol supposed he wasn’t very good at being a human either as it came with a whole different host of feelings and complexities that no one ever taught him to manage.
Rarely are most humans taught to manage their feelings, complex or otherwise—usually humans shelled out big bucks to sit in quiet, little rooms with white noise machines and at least one set of kind but expensive ears to start learning such things, but Kol didn’t really know that. All he did know was that his feelings were always too big, everyone always said.
And those big feelings made him want to grab Piper, to hold her in place, to beg her to let him fuck her so she would just relax for once and he could finally…gods, he didn’t know. Just hold her? It would have to be tight because tightness meant safety, and that was the point, wasn’t it? It was the point of the EPA and the trees and everything Kol existed for, when it came right down to it—his job and his life may have been a handed-down, bastardization of what he wanted, but hedidwant to preserve wonder in the world, and Piper needed preserving as much as any enchanted grove.
The cabin came into view, but even after a long walk in the frigidness, he could still feel the heat from her hips calling to attention everything from his navel to his knees. If it weren’t so damn cold out in the woods, and he could get a few minutes alone, he’d consider taking care of things to make the rest of the day and especially the night more bearable, but—
Home!Doc yapped, and he picked up speed before plowing into a drift, only his tail left sticking out.
