Authors: Casey Griffin
“I meant me.” He bent down and brought his lips back to hers.
“Be careful,” she said between kisses. “Holly might still be lurking around. She could catch us.” She bit her lip. That was a question she hadn’t even meant to ask. But there it was, just hanging out there. And now that the subject was broached, could she ignore it? Should she?
He paused along his trail of kisses down her neck. “And I’m supposed to care?”
“You mean you don’t?” She tried to make it sound breezy, which was aided by the fact that she couldn’t catch her breath at the moment.
He snorted and resumed his path. “Of course not.”
She bit her lip, trying hard to ignore the little voice in the back of her head, that worry that had been rubbing her the wrong way ever since they’d gone to dinner earlier that week. But rubbing turned to blisters, and this one was about to pop.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t want someone, I dunno, say more … model-like or Harvard material?”
Yeah, real breezy, she chastised herself. That blister didn’t simply ooze out; it erupted.
The hand that had been sneaking up the hem of her shirt froze. He pulled back, and in the light glowing between the fence’s wooden slats she could see him cock his head.
“Been doing your research?”
She shrugged like, “No big deal.” It’s not like it had been on her mind since Wednesday or anything. It’s not like she had been unable to think of anything else, well, before the fire, that is. “Holly Hart might have let something slip at dinner the other night.”
Aiden sighed and stepped back. Way to kill the mood, Piper thought. Her brain was starting to find this coin particularly interesting, while her body threw a tantrum.
“Well,” he began. “I’d like to say that Holly is full of it. But there’s probably some truth to what she said.”
Piper’s heart clenched like it too was about to burst, like a miniexplosion in her chest. “There was?”
“It seems like a long time ago,” he said, kicking at the gravel underfoot. “Before my father died, I guess I took advantage of the easy life I had. Let’s just say, I overindulged.”
“In … models?” she asked.
He laughed. “In the lifestyle in general. I didn’t have a lot of responsibilities or care, but I possessed a large trust fund. I didn’t need to be the serious, focused CEO I am now. But then I lost one of the most important people in my life and the weight of the world fell on my shoulders, and I guess I started to care. I began to realize what was important in life.” He gave her a pointed look, like this was a message for her. Maybe even that he meant
she
was important.
“But what about at the restaurant the other night? It came across like you were embarrassed to be seen with me.” He looked about ready to argue, but she continued before he could interrupt. “We ate in a far corner of the restaurant, we snuck out the back alley, and when you saw Holly you practically hid under the table. It was obvious that you didn’t want us to be seen.”
“I didn’t.”
Kaboom. There went her heart. “Oh, well, glad we cleared that up.” She took a step back, feeling herself close off to him. She couldn’t help it, what with her exploding heart and all.
“Piper, I wasn’t embarrassed to be seen because I was with you. How could you think that?” He reached for her hand and squeezed it even as she tried to pull away. “I was embarrassed of my life, of exposing you to self-important snobs like Holly Hart, or making you a paparazzi target. I remember how nervous you were just to go on television last week. I wanted a normal night where the two of us could be … us, like when we go to the park.” His thumb made nervous little circles on the back of her hand. “I wanted you to go on a date with me: Aiden. Not the CEO of Caldwell and Son Investments.”
Now that she’d calculated that coin’s worth, it turned out to be worthless. Nothing. It was barely a penny. No, it was a button. She took his answer in, struggling to maintain a straight face while what she really wanted to do was a relieved happy dance. Either that, or take a page from Colin’s book and mark her territory.
He’s mine, ladies. All mine!
She recalled that night at the restaurant. You can take the journalist out of the tabloid, but you can’t take the tabloid out of the journalist. Holly had been fishing for information, manipulating Piper’s insecurities for dirt on Aiden. She’d known Holly had targeted him for years, and yet Piper let herself be played.
“Well,” she began, reining in her sudden irritation with herself, “sometimes that’s going to be your life. You can’t escape it. And if I date you, I have to accept that.” Which was the nicest way she could find to tell him he was being a complete idiot.
He gave her that lost puppy look. “
If
you date me?”
“
Now
that I’m dating you,” she corrected. God, how those words made her heart dance in her chest. Oh, look. Not exploded at all.
His dimple made an appearance at her answer. “I wish I could make it up to you, take you on another date right now. But I suppose it’s getting a little late.” He eyed the sky. The sun had long since set. What light was left blushed along the skyline.
“But we could still pretend,” Piper said hopefully. “That we had our date and you’re walking me to my car.” She pulled out her keys and started to stroll to the VW Bug waiting in the dark parking lot. Colin followed behind, marking things as he went.
“And how did it go?” Aiden asked, playing along. “You know, any initial feelings, ideas, impressions?”
“It went well. I had the chicken; you had the risotto. We shared some wine. I probably had too much, because I was nervous.”
“And how was I? Was I charming? Funny?” He pulled a silly face, but his posture tensed, like he was waiting for honest feedback.
“Yeah. You made some good jokes. A couple times I laughed when it wasn’t funny, but overall, very charming.”
“Oh no. A pity laugh.” He ran a hand through his already tousled hair. “Did I make up for it? Did I at least get a good-night kiss? Was it good enough to warrant another date?”
“I don’t know. It hasn’t happened yet.” She slowed down as they approached her car and she fiddled with her keys. “I’m still waiting for one.”
“I suppose it better be a good one to make up for that pity laugh.” He rolled his shoulders, straightening his collar like he was preparing.
She laughed and pulled him in. He kissed her softly once, then again, his lips lingering against hers. A kiss worthy of a second date, sure. But after two weeks of seeing him almost every day, Piper was ready for more than second-date action; she craved a tenth-date kiss.
Dropping her keys, she reached up and gripped his collar, pulling his body closer. Aiden backed her up until her butt hit the trunk of her car, pressing, grinding against her until something firm pressed against her stomach and she knew it wasn’t the dog treats in his pocket. And if it had been a dog treat, he must have switched to feeding Sophie extra-large bones. What would his dry cleaner have to say about that one?
Her body was back in control. Her brain wasn’t just taking a break; it was gone. Away on vacation. His mouth found her earlobe and he tugged with his teeth. She felt a shiver run down her neck and right to her toes.
The little German car rocked on its wheels, squeaking with each nudge from Aiden’s hips. Piper’s groans added to the rhythm. His hand slid over her jeans and across her butt. He gripped her thigh and hiked her leg up until it wrapped around his hip in order to get his bone closer. She moaned, the sound echoing across the empty lot.
The fire the night before had done something to her. That sense of urgency, the adrenaline, still lingered in her veins, reminding her how precious life was, bringing her feelings for Aiden to the surface.
Now that the fire was out and the danger settled, all that remained, all that mattered, was the two of them. Being in his arms, feeling the touch of his hands, his mouth, the pressure of his body against hers, was a reassurance. Because life was too short.
His five-o’clock shadow rubbed against her collarbone, and she was certain she’d already died and gone to Heaven. Heaven’s gates had opened up and, oh wow, she could see the light. And it was dazzling. And bright. Really,
really
bright.
Piper squinted, cringing away from it, and held up a hand in front of her face. Turns out, that wasn’t the heavens smiling down upon her and Aiden. It was an LED flashlight pointed at their flushed faces.
“Is everything all right here?” a voice asked.
And those weren’t angels in white. They were cops in blue.
“We heard sounds of a struggle,” the other said.
Aiden jumped back, and Piper ran a hand over her clothes to make sure everything was where it should be. She tried to act natural, leaning on the car like what could they possibly be doing alone in a dark, quiet parking lot at night?
“N-n-no. No struggle, Officer,” she stammered. The only thing she would struggle with that night was her libido. “We’re fine.”
Aiden cleared his throat, straightening his tie. “Thank you, Officers.”
The flashlight lowered and Piper could see again. She didn’t miss the look that the two cops exchanged. They didn’t appear annoyed or like they were about to arrest Aiden and Piper, although it was a good thing they showed up sooner rather than later, because the things she’d wanted to do to him in her car would have been all sorts of indecent public exposure. They would have spent the night behind bars for sure. She could just imagine the headlines that Holly would come up with for that one.
“All right,” the first cop said, an unspoken warning beneath the amusement in his voice. “You two have a good night.”
“Thank you,” Piper said, stifling a giggle as they turned away.
Aiden rested his head against hers, his own shoulders shaking with silent laughter. “So?” he said when he got it under control. “What do you think? Does that warrant another date?”
“I think that warrants the next hundred dates.”
“Well, at least it didn’t warrant a trip to jail,” he said as though he’d read her earlier thoughts.
Laughing, she bent down to find her keys where she’d dropped them on the ground. She groped among the gravel in the dark, listening for the telltale jingle; then something sharp stabbed her finger. She hissed.
“Ouch!”
“What’s wrong?”
“Something cut me.”
Slipping his cell phone out of his pocket, Aiden turned the screen on and faced the light toward the ground. The gravel beneath their feet shone like it was littered with diamonds. It took a second for Piper’s eyes to adjust to the light. She kicked a glittering piece and realized what they were seeing: broken glass.
Aiden raised the light to Piper’s passenger window, which sported a gaping hole. But that wasn’t all. Spray-painted in white across the entire side of her poppy red “classic” car was the word
Floozy.
“Laura.” She clenched her teeth. “Who even says ‘floozy’ anymore?”
“Maybe she got bored of the usual.”
Reaching past Aiden, Piper wrenched open the door and saw more glass spread over the interior, the console, the floor, the seat. It felt surreal, like they’d gotten the wrong car. This couldn’t possibly be hers. But it was.
“Can I see your phone?”
With a shaking hand, she reached back over her shoulder. Aiden passed his phone to her and she aimed the light around the cramped interior. She had a lot of crap in there, bits and pieces of telegram costumes, textbooks, evidence of her Starbucks obsession. But none of it had been touched. Her purse was still lying behind the driver’s seat. Except … she checked her console again.
“Did she take anything?” Aiden asked.
“Yeah. I grabbed my mail on the way out of my apartment this morning. There was a letter—” She caught herself before she said any more. It had in fact been a notice from her cable company, saying if she didn’t pay her bill they’d turn it off. “Err, yeah. Just junk mail.”
His face turned grim. “It would have had your address on it.”
“But Laura already knows where I live. She would have no reason to take my mail.”
The phone’s light cast deep shadows on both of them. It made Aiden’s jaw seem sharper as it clenched. “Then obviously the arsonist’s not done playing with us.”
Piper froze in her search. She’d assumed it was Laura because of the less than original message. But what if it was worse? Maybe she wasn’t the only one who stopped by.
She recalled Inspector Samuels’s words from the night before.
He’ll go to any lengths to get you out of this neighborhood.
Swearing, she slammed the car door, watching the rest of her window disintegrate to the ground. She may have come face-to-face with the arsonist the night before. Had fought for her life and for her precious guests. But this was something different. This felt a little too close to home.
“It looks like it just got personal.”
The little ball of fur lolled sleepily in Piper’s hand. She chuckled at the fur on his belly and around his chest. In order to stitch the little hamster up, she’d shaved the fur—butchered, more like it. Now he reminded her of A Flock of Seagulls.
She finished dabbing the last of the ointment over the stitched wound on Theodore Copenhagen II. “There we go, Teddy. That’s much better now, isn’t it?”
He turned his glazed hamster eyes on her, looking a little doped up.
You think this is bad? You should see the other guy.
The other guy being a particularly playful Siamese who didn’t know his own strength. “Now don’t get into any more fights.”
I can take him. Bring it on!
He raised a tiny, clawed fist, but the effort sent him rolling onto his back, fat furry body sprawling out in Piper’s palm.
She laughed. Dr. Fullerton, the primary vet at the veterinary hospital, was bent over her notebook on the stainless-steel table. She glanced up from her notes, looking over her glasses. “So? What’s the prognosis?”
“Oh, he’s still got some fight left in him.”
“Good.” She smiled, signing her name and closing his file. “Thanks for coming in today. I know it wasn’t your normal scheduled shift.”