Back To Us (Shore Secrets 3) (21 page)

“I just wanted to get your attention.”

“Well, this is what it feels like. So you know for next time.” Ward’s tongue flickered like tiny bolts of lightning across the top of her breast. It was good. It was great. It sent pulses of warmth through her entire body. With just his teeth, he opened the front clasp. Yup. Color her impressed.

After a wink, he swept the white satin out from beneath her. Plumped her breasts in both hands. Caressed. Stroked. Squeezed. Almost like he was memorizing every inch of them. She squirmed. Tried to shift to get his hands more...centered. Because it felt really, really nice. It felt like Ward was both seducing her and adoring her at the same time.

But Piper was just about ready to beg him to touch her already hard nipples. Or bribe him. Really, whichever would work. Because this slow approach of his was torture. She already burned with need for him. The soft circles she’d been making on his back turned into more of an insistent pull of his skin upward.

“Still worried that you aren’t ready for me? For this?”

Such a tease. When their roles were reversed, she’d make him pay for this. “I’m ready. I’m
so
ready, Ward.”

He rolled off the bed just long enough to take off his pants. Only his pants. Piper’s eyes widened. And not just at the impressive spear of his erection. “No underwear? God, that’s...that’s just
hot.
”

“Glad you approve.” He dropped back onto the bed alongside her. Threw one heavy leg across hers, as if needing to keep her there. Then his mouth descended to latch on to her breast. Piper arched off the bed at the sensation of the sucking pulls that created a matching pulse between her legs. Ward used his fingers to almost replicate the sensation with masterful pressure on her other nipple.

A thought ran through her mind, like headlines scrolling at the bottom of a newscast. She should be doing more. Seducing
him.
Not just to be a fair lover, but because Piper absolutely wanted to touch Ward. Everywhere. To trace the definition of every single muscle. “I want to touch you, too. Make you feel as good as you’re making me feel. Let me—”

One finger across her lips cut her off. “Let me love you.”

Piper blinked. Nodded. Nodded because his request had robbed her of the ability to speak. Ward stared at her for a long moment, his eyes unreadable in the flickering shadows. They both just breathed, in sync.

Then Ward carefully stripped off her blue chonies and the matching blue panties. Threw back the comforter to tuck her legs beneath it. Ran one hand in a feather-soft caress from her cheek, along her shoulder, down the line of her torso to flare out over her hips. “God, you’re so beautiful, Piper.”

Back in the day—as well as now—she’d worried that her breasts would be too small to please him. That her generally bony frame wouldn’t be curvy enough to satisfy him. Piper knew she’d never wonder that again. The reverence in his voice, the awe in the curve of his mouth...it utterly convinced her that she was the most beautiful woman in the world to him.

She trailed a hand down his amazing six-pack. “You’re so perfectly sculpted. You’re like one of those ancient Greek statues.”

“Hard all over?”

“Definitely.” Belatedly, Piper realized her strategic error. Canted her body to reach down and circle the tip of his penis with one finger. “No, I take it back. I mean...prove it.”

Prior to this he’d ignored her pleas. But evidently Ward had hit the limit of his self-control, too. It took him a split second to rip open the condom packet with his teeth and roll it on. Another endless, torturous few minutes to kiss his way from her clavicle, around both breasts and then down her belly. Where he paused. Drew a single finger through her slickness with a slow precision that had her head thrashing from side to side.

“How’s that?”

“I need more.”

This time he slid the finger into her wetness. Once in, back out, and then in again with a second finger, stretching her. “How’s that?”

“Damn it, Ward, you know exactly what you’re doing and precisely how spectacular it is. Please,
please
get inside me right now.”

His teeth flashed as he smiled. “Told you I’d make you beg.” And then the teasing stopped.

Ward used one hand to position himself at her opening. Then he braced both hands by her shoulders and drove inside her. It was as if time stopped. Because the sensation of him entering her was endless. Smooth. Hard. Filling her. Setting off little miniature explosions from the tips of her toes to her fingers to her eyebrows. When, finally, he was seated all the way inside, Piper moaned.

“Do it again.”

His hips pistoned back and forth, the rhythm steady and insistent. Piper clawed at his back. At his hair. How could she be so full and yet still
need
so much? “More.”

“I’ll give you everything I’ve got.” And with that, showing off muscle control that would no doubt blow her mind when she could finally think again, Ward lowered into a push-up to take her mouth. Their tongues twined, thrusting at the same pace as his hips. They were sealed together in every way imaginable. Including the invisible but every bit as tangible joining of their two hearts.

The heat started there, in the heart she knew belonged wholly to Ward from this moment on. Passion, lust, love, they all churned together into a burst of joy and satisfaction and completion that spread through her limbs and finally detonated in a white-hot torrent of ecstasy as Ward shouted his release into the pillow and collapsed onto her.

Slowly, Piper came back to reality. Noticed her shockingly dry mouth. The sound of their heavy pants. The crackle of the fire. Oh, yeah—and that nothing in her life would ever be the same after having made love with Ward Cantrell. Piper just didn’t know how to say it. This was one more instance where there was a gap between the whole being-best-friends thing and being lovers. A Grand Canyon—sized gap.

First things first. Piper tried to shove at his shoulder. Well, she did shove, but he was a dead weight. “If you’re interested in a round two—”

His groan vibrated against her throat. “Babe. I’m a man, not a machine. Gotta give me at least sixty full seconds to reboot.”

Only sixty seconds? The man really was a machine. A sex machine. “If at any point in the foreseeable future you want to do this again, it would be in your best interest to stop suffocating me.”

Immediately he rolled to the side, but tucked one arm tight around her waist, keeping them connected. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. You made me forget for quite some time there that I actually needed to breathe.”

“High praise indeed.”

“Oh, are we to the heaping-of-praise portion of the evening?” Piper kept her tone light, friendly. Because as much as she knew Ward, this was the single side of him she didn’t know. Was he a cuddler? A talker? Or was he seconds from pretty much passing out? Would he want her to spend the night? Or was that a completely separate step in the relationship?

“No. We’re to the serious part of the evening.” Ward disposed of the condom in the wastebasket at the side of the bed. Tucked the covers around Piper tightly, then spooned along her back. “I need to tell you something.”

“A secret?”

“I’m not sure. You might have guessed it by now.”

“You secretly love sushi.”

He tickled her ribs until she squealed. “Raw, smelly fish? In my mouth? Not in a million years. I said this was serious, remember?”

“Sorry. My brain cells are still jellified from that truly excellent orgasm you just gave me.”

Ward ran his hand up and down her thigh like a slow, sensuous boomerang. “When we started this whole thing, I said I wanted you. That was only half-true.”

“Okay.” At least, “okay” is what she said. Because it seemed the best way to keep him talking. What Piper
wanted
to say, though, was “huh?” It didn’t make sense at all. He’d pretty much just proven his wanting her was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

“And I wanted to wait until this moment to tell you the rest of it so you wouldn’t think I was trying to get your panties off.”

Piper moved his hand down to tuck it between her naked thighs. “That ship has sailed.”

“I love you.”

Her heart, which had barely stopped pounding, sped right back up. They’d been dating for exactly twenty days. Well, a year and a half, followed by a ten year break, and twenty days. Counting it the long way didn’t make it any more believable. Men, as a race, didn’t use the
L
word that fast. They didn’t offer it up without hints and prompting and a few occasions of pouting. So obviously she’d heard wrong. Maybe he was still in a post-orgasmic coma and only semiconscious. “What?”

“I’ve never stopped loving you, Piper.” His breath was warm against her neck. “After you cut me loose, I tried to stop. Did everything possible to forget about your hair the color of a sunset. Tried to erase the sound of your laugh from my head. Throwing myself into work didn’t do it. Dating other women? It was fun, I’ll admit, but it didn’t do it either. Nobody compared to you. Nobody made me as happy. Even when you were making me miserable on a daily basis. Deservedly so,” he hurried to add.

“You love me,” she murmured. Saying it out loud, herself, made it all the more real. Still hard to believe, though. It definitely fell under the too-good-to-be-true category. Like believing you could lose weight just by switching to diet soda. Or that an after-Christmas sale would have the right size and color for her in absolutely everything.

“I’m
in
love with you. That’s the real reason behind this crazy experiment. I had to try to make you fall in love with me all over again. Even though it was a long shot. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I hadn’t given it one more try before some other, less-awesome man snapped you up.”

“No chance of that.” She fought the covers—and the heavy weight of his legs—to flip over. Because she desperately needed to see his face. To trace his lips if he said the words again. To feel his heart beat against hers. “I don’t settle, Ward. And I figured out a long time ago that there was no man who had all your qualities.”

“Huh. Such as?”

Oh, but he was adorable. And it settled her wildly racing heart to know that Ward was at least
close
to as nervous as she was. “Are you fishing?”

“Yeah. I think it’s the...what did you call it? The heaping-with-praise part of the evening.” His heel hooked her legs beneath his. Always the need to pull her close, apparently. Not that Piper minded even one little bit. “I just laid all my cards on the table. My heart’s sitting there. Exposed. Yours for the taking.” His voice was a gritty rumble, like the engine on his motorcycle. “You gotta give me something here, Piper. Some scrap of hope. Or I’ll cut you loose. Won’t even make you play out the last ten days. If you don’t feel for me at all, then you should get up and leave.”

The word
love
balanced on the tip of her tongue, like a ballerina on pointe about to
jetté
into the air. Piper loved Ward. She’d never stopped loving him either. Not for a single day. Not even during the long, dark months when she hated him with the unique fury of a woman scorned. They’d made love. Blissfully so. He’d poured out his heart to her. The stage was set, and she’d gotten her cue to say it back to him.

But...she couldn’t. Or at least, was pretty sure that she shouldn’t. Ward had hurt her once. Terribly. Now that she knew the whole story, it turned out not to be the epic betrayal that she’d assumed, but it still gave her pause to wonder how fully she could trust him.

She didn’t plan on spending the rest of her life second-guessing his every move. But the brilliance of Ward’s thirty-day experiment gave her the time to exorcise those particular demons. The ticking clock allowed her time to wallow and wonder and poke at every potential trouble spot. And when it went off? Piper was determined to firmly shut the door on the past and her doubts forever.

So for tonight, and with more than a little guilt pinching at her, she’d leave him hanging. Out of self-preservation. Ward wouldn’t realize how much more it meant when she finally spit out those three little words on October 13, but she would. She’d be able to say them unfiltered. Pure and true. Like draining all the old, dirty water out of a pool before refilling it, instead of just topping it off. It was the right thing to do. They’d be stronger for it. No matter how much Piper yearned to blurt out how deeply she loved him.

Pushing him onto his back, Piper clambered on top of him. Distraction was the name of the game. “No need to kick me out just because I can’t decide which facet of you I find the most appealing. Your loyalty is very sexy. As is your drier-than-my-chardonnay sense of humor. I definitely have all the feels for you, Ward. Growing stronger every day.”

She scrunched lower, until her face hovered right between his legs. Right above the...oh, God. Tiny tattoo of an initial
P
that flared into a heart at its base. Right on his hip. Her breath caught at the sheer, overwhelming romance of it. He’d inked her into his flesh. Piper dropped a soft kiss onto the tattoo, then lifted her eyes to meet his.

“I can’t quite find the right words, Ward. I think I’m going to have to
show
you what I like best about you right this very minute.”

Chapter Seventeen

Early October frost made Piper’s breath puff into a cloud. Which she loved. Each change of season was its own beautiful mash-up. The leaves were an amazing mix of yellow, orange and green. Birds chirped overhead. Piper felt like she was starring in her own personal Disney cartoon. Except that in the wonderful world of Disney, princesses didn’t do the walk of shame. Not at all. And certainly not after oversleeping and having to jog along the road hoping none of her employees would spot her on their way to work.

Okay, waking up in Ward’s arms had been totally worth it. Didn’t mean she wanted to be caught with bedhead by anyone, ever. She picked up her pace, Oxfords scuffing at the gravel along the edge of the road.

A car slowed, made a U-turn, then pulled alongside her. One she didn’t recognize at all. Great. Actually, a kind stranger stopping to ask if she needed help was probably preferable to a friend stopping to tease the living daylights out of her. Piper plastered on a smile.

“Thanks for pulling over, but I’m fine.”

“Piper Morrissey? Is that you?”

Piper bent her knees to lean through the passenger window. Resisted the urge to do a double take when she put together the stranger’s voice with a face that was almost familiar. Talk about an unexpected surprise. “Lori? Lori Cantrell?” She looked all grown up. No, more like a teenager playing at being grown up, with those bright green streaks in her hair. “I barely recognize you.”

“Can’t say the same. You look the same as the last time I saw you, including the outfit.” With a snort, she continued, “Isn’t it kind of early to dress up for Halloween?”

Great. Caught by a family member in the walk of shame, no less. “Definitely. The high school honored your brother last night. A few of us dressed up to support him.”

“Last night?” Lori gave Piper a once-over. Looked at the farmhouse in plain view behind Piper. Looked at the direction Piper had been heading. Did the geographical math. “And you’re still dressed like that at nine in the morning? Wait—are you and Ward sleeping together?”

That sounded all kinds of wrong. It wasn’t a hook-up. It wasn’t even a long-term fling. Ward loved her. And even though he didn’t know it yet, Piper loved him right back. It wasn’t about the sex, no matter how breathtakingly glorious that had all been. All three times. And all four orgasms. “We’re dating. It’s kind of new. Exciting. And sort of weird to gush to Ward’s baby sister about what a dreamboat he is, so I’ll stop right there.”

“Yeah. Weird.”

“I’m sorry you missed the ceremony last night. If he’d known you were in town, Ward would’ve loved for you to come and be a part of it.”

Lori’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “He knows I’m here.”

“Really?” Odd that he hadn’t told her something that big. Really, really odd. In fact, it set off alarm bells in her head.

Why on earth would Ward keep his sister’s reappearance a secret? Lori used to trail around after Piper with something close to hero worship. As an only child, Piper enjoyed Lori’s attention, and played with the girl quite often. Ward knew how close they’d been. He knew how devastated Piper had been when Lori and Mrs. Cantrell left town. This made no sense.

“Well, I’m sorry I didn’t know. But I’m very excited to see you now.”

Lori wrapped a strand of green hair around one finger, then another. “Are you?”

“Of course I am. In fact, get out of that car.” Piper ran around to the driver’s side. The moment Lori stood, Piper gave her a tight hug. “Look at you. We’re the same height now. Finally. Remember when you used to borrow your mom’s heels to be as tall as me when we made cookies together?”

Lori nodded. “Snickerdoodles.” The first smile broke across her face, making her look all the more like the girl Piper remembered. “They were so yummy.”

Did it matter that thinking of cookies made her smile, but seeing Piper hadn’t? Sure. It stung a little. But reunions could be awkward. You never knew if the other person had transformed into someone completely different or not. They’d feel their way through this. And after work tonight, Piper would put Ward on the spot about why he hadn’t mentioned Lori was back.

“Maybe we can make some while you’re here. Not today, I’m afraid. Saturdays, especially Saturdays in October with the harvest and all the leaf-peepers, are wild and crazy at the winery. On top of that, we’re short-staffed. Sophia went back to college a few weeks ago and I haven’t managed to find a replacement. I don’t suppose you want a job?” she joked.

Lori shifted from one foot to the other. “That’s sweet of you.”

“It’s entirely self-serving of me,” Piper said with a laugh. The wind swirled leaves against the back of her bare calf. Yet another reason not to wear a skirt designed to be so short that people could read the SLHS stamped on the back of her chonies.

“I’m not moving back here permanently.”

“Too bad. What did bring you back?”

“My boyfriend, Rich. He has a band. They had some gigs here, well, all over in the Finger Lakes for a while. Yellow Snow will be going back on tour soon, and I’ll go with them.”

“Well, I’d love to have lunch and catch up with you. How long are you staying?”

A harsh laugh. “Depends on Ward. On how fast he comes to his senses.”

Hmm. What could that be about? Maybe he’d told Lori that she shouldn’t throw her life away being a groupie. It was certainly on the tip of Piper’s tongue. “Your brother can be stubborn sometimes. Anything I can help with? Not that he always listens to me. But he does listen to reason. Eventually. If you hit him over the head with it enough times.”

“I don’t know. Rich said to keep this a secret.” Lori bit her lip.

Her boyfriend was involved? In something Ward wouldn’t budge on...oh. Now she could put the pieces together. “Lori, do you and Rich want to get married? Is Ward objecting because he doesn’t know Rich?”

“No. Rich doesn’t believe in marriage.”

Lovely. Sounded like a real keeper. There was only one other thing that would make Ward dig in his heels. “Are you, uh, having a baby with him?”

Lori doubled over, laughing. “God, no. Bite your tongue, Piper. How could you even ask me that?”

“I probably shouldn’t have. I’m treating you like the girl I used to adore. Poking at your personal business crossed a line. I’m sorry. I feel like I know you, but I guess I don’t.”

“It’s nice that you still care. Care enough even to poke at me. Nobody’s done that in a really long time.”

“Of course I care. So come on, let me help. What’s the problem with your brother?”

Color flooded Lori’s cheeks. “He owes me money.”

“Oh.” It took about two seconds for curiosity to get the best of her. How could Ward owe Lori money when he hadn’t seen her, or even known how to get in touch with her, for over a decade? “For what?”

“Look, Dad was wrong to cut me out of his will. Ward got everything.”

Hardly. The way Ward described his inheritance—on a
good
day—was to call it a shit sandwich with a side of flaming crap. “That
everything
you’re talking about wasn’t a pile of gold, Lori. It was a pile of bills and a gigantic burden. Trust me when I say you’re lucky you avoided having any of it dumped on you.”

“He made it a success, though, didn’t he? Maybe I could’ve done that, too. I should’ve at least had the chance to come out the other side with a pile of cash.”

Piper had been raised to never talk about money. Or to talk about people behind their backs. This uncomfortable conversation was pushing all of her well-mannered boundaries. Of course, her mom would probably be more shocked that she was having said conversation on the side of the road with her bra tucked into her purse. And Lori needed to be set straight.

“Ward’s come out the other side, true. But he’s hanging on by his fingertips. The pile of cash you’re envisioning is probably smaller than the pile of jacks we used to bounce for on the porch.”

“Right now. Things change.” She tilted her head. Squinted. Nodded slowly like they were exchanging spy passwords. “You know what I’m talking about.”

“I’m afraid I don’t.”

“Look, I’m not asking for a share of Ward’s booze business or anything. I don’t want him to have to sell the farmhouse or close down the distillery. I’ll settle for a fair profit from the wind farm sale.”

Piper’s stomach did a roundoff, then a handspring between choking her throat tight and knotting in her belly. Because Lori could not possibly be telling the truth. There was no way Ward would sell his land to a wind farm. “The, uh, what?” she asked cautiously.

“Don’t pretend you haven’t heard all the rumors. If they’re talking about it over on the other Finger Lakes, then I know for sure that everyone here on Seneca Lake already knows about it. A wind farm wants to buy Ward’s extra acreage. Put up a couple of windmills.”

Sure, she’d heard the rumors. But hadn’t for a moment thought that they’d involve prime Cantrell acreage. “On the edge of the lake?”

“Duh. Best place to catch the wind. That’s why we always flew our kites out there.”

Where to begin? Piper glanced at her watch. She really didn’t have time to insert herself into a family squabble. On the other hand, being in love with Ward, trying to build a future with him, meant dealing with Lori’s ridiculous statement sooner or later. Better to nip the whole thing in the bud right now.

Piper drew her around the hood of the car for safety. Now that it looked like they’d be hanging out on the edge of the road for a while. “First of all, you’re wrong to ask your brother for any money that he’s slaved to earn. You don’t get handed things in life. Or if you do, you don’t feel good about it, I promise.”

“Says the woman who’s going to inherit an entire winery.”

Lori had to be over twenty-one by now. Old enough to know that life was never that simple. Piper was exhausted, late, caught off guard in a dozen different ways and therefore just cranky enough to let her temper fly.

“Aren’t you full of assumptions today? I get a paycheck from Morrissey Vineyards, and I earn it by working usually fifty-hour weeks. There are no handouts. Even if I do inherit the winery someday, it doesn’t run itself. I’ll need to keep working, even harder, so that it stays successful. That’s what Ward does every day with his business, too. Unless you put the work in, you don’t deserve a cent of his money.”

“He’s not working on the wind farm land. All he’s doing is signing over three stinking acres to a big company. He can take another five seconds and sign over a check to me.”

Three acres?
Her
three acres for the port line? Piper’s head was spinning. If it was true, it certainly explained why Ward had kept it a secret from her. But there was absolutely no way that it
could
be true. Lori must’ve heard some silly rumor, like the one that made the rounds at the sing-along
Sound of Music
, and fallen for it hook, line and sinker.

In the calmest tone she could muster, Piper continued. “Second of all, you’re just flat-out mistaken. Ward would never sell to a wind farm. In fact, the only extra acreage he has I plan to lease from him.”

“Mmm-hmm. Got that in writing?”

“Of course not.”

“Because I’ve talked to the men who hold the contract for the wind farm. Then I talked to Ward about it. He didn’t deny it.”

Piper closed her eyes for a second. When she reopened them, the lake still gleamed with its ubiquitously overwhelming presence just on the other side of the road. The damn birds were still chirping. Everything looked and sounded the same. Except that her world was now, irrevocably, turned upside down.

“Lori, I’m sorry we argued. I really do want you to come by and have lunch with me soon. And I truly want you to think about what you’ve done to deserve a cent of Ward’s money, no matter how he comes by it. Now I’m afraid I have to run.”

It wasn’t a figure of speech. Bitterness, shock and sheer fury fueled her sprint back down the road to the farmhouse. It didn’t matter that the winery was short-staffed and this was their busiest day of the week. It didn’t matter that Ward had to go open his own tasting room. It didn’t even matter that she could still smell Ward on her skin. There was going to be a fight. A big fight. One in which she’d let her redheaded temper fly free. Because just when she’d let her guard down and decided to trust Ward fully, he’d betrayed her. Again. And this time she wasn’t walking away until she told him to his face what an unforgivable mistake he’d made.

* * *

Piper threw open the bathroom door so hard that the knob banged against the wall. Maybe it had gouged the wall. She kind of hoped that it had. She wanted Ward to have a physical reminder of the gouge he’d taken out of her heart. Steam billowed toward her. She didn’t wait for it to clear. He had to be in there. So she let it rip. At the top of her lungs.

“Did you enjoy screwing me last night? Since you were already screwing me business-wise, and screwing me over as a member of the town as well, why not screw me for real, too? Was that the twisted logic that you used?”

“Piper?” Ward hastily knotted a towel at his waist and grabbed her hands. “What’s going on? Why are you screaming at me?”

“Because the choice is between yelling or crying, and I’m not ready to break down and cry yet.” It’d happen, though. Definitely at the top of her to-do list for the day.

“I’m not a fan of either of those options. How about I take what’s behind door number three?”

Piper twisted out of his grasp. “Don’t joke. Don’t tease. We’re about to have the most serious conversation of our lives.”

His eyebrows shot up to his scalp. “Should I put on pants?”

On any other day, his tanned chest covered in water droplets would have overloaded her mental circuits. Tongue-tied her...or after last night’s sexcapades, driven her to use her tongue to catch every last drop. Sure, he’d always be an exquisite male specimen. But Ward’s body would no longer move her. Or distract her. Because she knew it housed a lying, cheating black heart.

“I don’t have time for you to get dressed. I’m going to say what I came here to say and then never come back.”

“Piper, what’s with all the dramatics? You left here ten minutes ago. What could possibly have happened to set you off like this?”