A tear streaked down her face.
“Piper, I understand if you don’t see me the same way after this. I should’ve told you before, whether you wanted to hear it or not.”
She pushed back a little from me. “You think I’m that judgmental? I’m sorry it happened to you, but even more than that, I’m furious. I want to know the full name of Aaron’s father and anyone else who was involved. So I can…” She waved her hands. “I don’t even know. Something terrible because they deserve to get what’s coming to them. You didn’t destroy your life. It was stolen. It wasstolen, Grayden.”
I brushed her tears with my thumb as they kept falling.
For years, I’d hated myself for throwing that first punch. For taking the blame for my so-called friend.
The story wasn’t as bad as it might’ve been. Better than my worst critics in Silver Ridge believed, anyway. I wasn’t a killer. But I’d still blown up my life. I’d made choices that had terrible consequences and hurt the people I loved.
“What if you hadn’t survived your prison sentence?” she asked. “If we’d never had this chance…”
“C’mere.” I pulled her into my lap. “I hate making you cry. Ollie’s not going to be happy with me. He doesn’t want you to be sad, and neither do I. I haven’t even told you the rest of it yet.”
“I can’t talk anymore,” she said. “Can’t feel anymore.”
“What can I do?”
“You don’t have to do anything. Nothing you told me changes what you mean to me.”
It was the best thing she could’ve said. I hadn’t been sure what Piper would think. But she wasn’t pushing me away. Instead she wished she could avenge me. I adored her for that, even though I’d given up a long time ago on my record being cleared.
Piper saw past my mistakes. She still wanted me. That meant everything.
She straddled my lap and kissed me. I kissed her back, pulling her up against my body. My cock responded to her proximity, hardening against my thigh. But this wasn’t even about sex. It was just the need to be close to her.
“Take me to my bedroom,” she said against my lips.
Was it possible to fall for someone this quickly? It had happened little by little over the last couple of months, and then in a cascade effect over the last few days. The more I knew about Piper and how she viewed the world, the deeper I fell.
It had to be possible. Because I was completely and utterly in love with this woman.
I picked her up and carried her. Piper rested her head on my shoulder. When we reached her room, I set her on the bed and closed and locked the door.
We undressed quickly. I just wanted to be skin to skin with her, and she clearly wanted the same.
Piper pushed back the covers. We crawled beneath them, and my blood quickened when she was pressed fully against me. Warm, smooth skin. Her golden hair, light brown eyelashes. I wrapped my arms around her and held her close, gazing into her green eyes. She did the same to me.
“So beautiful,” I murmured. “How do you get more perfect every time we’re together?”
I’d never been in love before. Never felt anything like this. For a lot of my life, I’d never believed I could have something, someone, this pure and soft and beautiful.
But Piper was right here in my arms. This was the third timewe’d been naked together in Piper’s bed, and every time, it had felt more and more like a place I could belong. There was no way I could ever let her go.
I couldn’t tell her yet, because she wasn’t ready to hear it, but hell. I desperately wanted to tell her.
I love you.
We kissed slowly. Trailed hands over bare skin. She lay on top of me, long hair falling in a curtain. I rolled us so I was above her, my erection nudging her stomach.
“We’ll have to be quiet,” I whispered.
When I slid inside of her, she sighed and put her hands on my face. We kept kissing and touching as our hips rocked.
Piper felt like home.
Still kissing her, I rolled us again so she was on top. She sat up to ride me. Her eyes were still a bit red around the edges from her crying, and that did things to my chest.
