I’m startled for the hundredth time tonight as I watch Caleb punch the stalker in the literaleye.
“Bother her again and you lose vision in the other one.” He stands back to full height, swiping a fallen piece of hair from his eye. “You should be thanking me that I didn’t break your legs. Might I suggest it’s time for you to use them and get the fuck off my property.”
Jesus Christ.
I can’t decide what I’m out of breath from—the shock of tonight, or the incredible man standing in front of me.
Caleb turns to me and reverts back to his calm, collected self, sliding his hand through my hair to offer me some reassurance.
He really just did that. Showed up and gave a shit.
I think that shocks me most above all else.
“Let’s go back inside.” He clutches my hand and leads the way.
24
CALEB
That man wasstick and bones and barely a threat. I don’t care how many people he’s killed and tortured in Boston. Cities are easy.
The fucker underestimated living out in the countryside, as did I when I first decided to spend a summer in this place.
There’s no hiding from yourself out here.
You don’t win unless you play fair.
“You should be heading back to work,” Piper says on our way down from putting the kids to bed.
I hope they manage to get some sleep tonight, after witnessing that travesty outside. I’m not exactly setting a good example to Sonny by throwing a guy on the ground and then proceeding to punch him in the face.
Alas, I’m hoping things will simmer down now.
I just have James Taylor left to drop-kick.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
Piper looks up at me with a bewildered sort of gaze that I don’t know how to interpret.
“Why are you looking at me like you want to fuck me and love me all at the same time?”
She shakes out of her daze, and heat immediately floods her cheeks. “That was…extraordinary.”
“It was a punch. Not sorcery.”
“It was hot.” After realizing that she just said that aloud, she takes a step back and stutters with her next sentence. “U-uh…thanks for what you did back there.” Her eyes flutter to the floor, then back up to my face again, as if to check if I’m still looking at her.
I’m always fucking looking at her, so much that it’s starting to become a subconscious thing.
“Work,” she says. Another tremor. “You still have a few more hours left of it.”
“Fuck my job. I want to fuck you instead.”
Beautifully said, Rourke.
Looks like she’s not the only one who’s tripping up over her words.
I’m over the embarrassment because Piper’s mouth is already on mine. Our tongues blend together in a fiery heat that causes me to shed a layer.
