Chapter Twelve
Whoa.
Mick sat on his trailer’s couch with an arm thrown over his face, trying to pull himself together. He was wasted, wrung out, raw, and exposed. Piper had done him in. This woman had reached into his gut and attached to something visceral, elemental.
Something he was afraid he’d never get back.
The blow job had been great. Over the top. But blow jobs were always good, even when they were bad. But this time what he was experiencing was more than a physical reaction.
The sight of Piper down on her knees, loving him with her mouth, had sent him to a place that he didn’t even know existed. A place he’d only been with Piper. A place he wanted to stay.
She’d put a term limit on this thing between them, but he found it harder to reconcile himself to her leaving and this ending so soon. They had a connection, more than sex—although that was pretty damn fabulous. In his mind, they were friends.
He fought down the weird pull in his chest. It had been a long time since he’d cared for the women he was with beyond the superficial.
He reached out to where Piper was draped across his chest. She looked beautiful, flushed, and a little shy.
Grasping her face gently in his hands, he rubbed his thumb against her still-swollen bottom lip. “Thank you.”
“It was my pleasure.”
He reversed their positions, coming to stand in front of her. He coasted his hands down her legs, gathering up the material of her skirt until he could touch the silky skin of her thighs.
“You’re the one with words, and I’m a man of action, so I’ll just have to show you how thankful I am.” Mick traced the outline of her thong, pulling it aside to delve into her sex. “Do you have any idea how much you make me…” He took a deep breath, his mind fried with the ache of desire. “Fuck…I just want.”
Piper whimpered and slumped against him, her legs trembling under the weight of her response. He leaned forward, breathing in her spicy scent and nuzzling the satiny skin of her belly.
Whimpering, Piper grabbed his shoulders to steady herself, and he spoke in a voice tight with need.
“Piper, open up.”
His hands shook a little when he pulled her thong down her thighs and off her body. Her scent made his mouth water, and he eagerly opened her wider, leaning in until he could reach out and taste her.
It was heaven.
“Mick.”
Piper groaned his name and thumped her head against the back of the couch. Her thighs trembled in his grip, and he shifted her so one leg draped over his shoulder. She was exquisite—so open and giving in her response. Alarm bells went off in his head, warning him she might end this thing between them too soon, but he brushed the thought away.
Her breath was coming in short pants, his name a mantra on her lips as he swirled the bundle of nerves and licked at her core. She was close. His whole focus shifted to making her come apart in his arms. He inserted two fingers into her, the hot muscles contracting as he pumped in and out in a rhythm calculated to bring her into this madness with him.
Shifting so he could watch her face, he laved her clit with his tongue, and suddenly she was flying over the edge. A silent scream on her lips, Piper tossed her head back in ecstasy and threw her arms open in a gesture of complete submission.
Mine.
He closed his eyes against the primal reaction that surged through his brain. He held her as her breathing slowed. Slowly, the sounds around them registered in his brain
the ticking of the clock on the wall, the rumble of the movie crew just beyond the thin walls of his trailer. The world was going on as usual as they returned back to earth.
Piper stirred in his arms, turning away from him and steadying herself against the arm of the sofa. Mick rose to follow her, unwilling to let her go. His hands shook as he smoothed back her hair and pressed a kiss to her cheek.
“I want to renegotiate our rules,” he whispered.
Piper’s entire body coiled like she was ready to take off. She refused to look at him, but he knew she’d heard him. He could feel her heart racing against his own chest—it matched his own.
“Hey. You’re not going anywhere until you hear me out,” he said.
She looked at him then, her eyes wary, darting over his features with curiosity and then narrowing in a suspicious glare. “Oh, you don’t play fair. Proposing a change after making a girl come like that. Not fair.”
He chuckled, glad his Piper was back. “After shooting is over this week, I’m going to my place in Hawaii for ten days. I want you to come. It’s totally secluded. No press. I’m literally steps off the ocean, and you can have all the space you need to finish your book.”
“It sounds amazing. Too good to be true. So what’s the change to the rules?”
“We’d have to sleep over.” He laughed at the widening of her eyes and the look of panic on her face. “Hey, I could say I’d let you have your own room, but I’d be lying. I want you in my bed.” He leaned and kissed her, willing her to agree. “I don’t understand your hang-up about sleeping over.”
“It’s so intimate.”
“I just had my cock in your mouth. I think that’s pretty intimate.”
“Not like sleeping wrapped up in each other all night. Or waking up together. That’s…that’s…” She shook her head, her eyes pleading with him to understand.
He did.
“It’s like being a couple. It’s like this would be more real that way,” he murmured, reaching his hand up to cup her face so she wouldn’t stop looking at him. “Piper, we may not be a couple, but this is real.”
“Even though it’s going to end when I go back to New York?”
Mick nodded in agreement. “Even then.”
He held back the rest of his answer—
Even though you make me want more
. Now was not the time to talk about that, especially since he didn’t entirely know what he was feeling himself.
“I’m not sure about this.”
“I’m not asking you to move in.” He made a huge effort to keep his tone light. “It’s no different from here in LA. We hang out together, have fantastic sex. The only difference is that we’d be surrounded by the ocean and a pristine beach, and you won’t kick me out of your bed at 3:00 a.m.”
“Okay,” she said.
“What parts are you agreeing to?”
“Hawaii and sleeping over.” She smiled when she got to the last part, looking like she might like that part after all.
“Great!” Mick kissed her soundly and stood to get his phone. “I’ll add you to the travel arrangements.”
“Are you sure you can get me added to the flight on such short notice?” Piper’s nose scrunched up in that adorable way he loved when she was thinking hard about a problem.
“I don’t ever fly commercial anymore. I hire a private jet.”
“Of course.”
“It’s almost impossible for me to get through an airport. Have you ever flown on a private plane?”
“Nope. Authors don’t make movie star paychecks.”
“You’ll love it—excellent service, great food, and a bed.” He paused, then asked, “Are you a member of the Mile High Club?”
She shook her head and laughed, covering her face with her hands in an attempt to conceal the blush stealing over the creamy apple of her cheeks. He knew her well enough to know this blush wasn’t from embarrassment—it was excitement. Piper and a bed at thirty thousand feet sounded awesome.
“Well, Ms. James, get ready to fly the friendly skies.”
Chapter Thirteen
Seduction by inches.
Actually, it was seduction by hundreds of feet of gorgeous Hawaiian beachfront, but it accomplished the same thing. For the last seven days, Piper and Mick had explored his private getaway, and each other. She’d come to care for Mick, more than she wanted to think about right now, and she didn’t want to be seduced by this time in paradise. Anyone would fancy themselves falling for someone in this setting. It was like one of her romance novels—and like her fantasy vacation with Mick, her books weren’t real, either.
But this was starting to feel real.
Which meant it was probably the right time to call it off. Good thing she was going back to New York in a few days.
Piper sat on the lounger, watching Mick try to catch the perfect wave. His skin was a yummy caramel color under the golden sun, water cascading over his sleek muscles and hanging in diamond droplets in his hair.
He’d been amazing this whole time. His staff were like invisible mind readers, especially Mrs. Kim, Mick’s housekeeper, who made sure Piper was well cared for, anticipating her every need as she hunkered down and finished the book. Finally, she’d bitten the bullet and sent the manuscript off to Chris this morning. Now all she could do was sit and wait.
Good thing the view was so delicious.
“Hey!” Mick bounded up to her, dropping his surfboard onto the sand. Grabbing a towel off the end of the lounger, he plopped down beside Piper, toweling off his hair and body before leaning in for a kiss.
“How long have you been out here?” he asked.
“About an hour.” Piper leaned in for another kiss before delivering her news. “I finished the book. I’m done.”
“Hell, yeah!” Mick pumped his arms in the air, then pulled her in for a kiss, which was all kinds of celebration wrapped in a sultry slow glide of tongue and warm lips. The sun beat down on her shoulders, its heat almost matching the fire burning between them. It was the same—they were always one touch away from losing themselves in each other.
He pulled back, a little breathless. “I’m so proud of you, baby.”
“Thank you.” She hugged him tightly. He’d been her cheerleader, and the past few days had been just what she needed to push through and complete her novel. True to his word, Mick had given her space and a steady supply of food and sunshine breaks. And amazing sex at night.
“You need to get something special to celebrate. This is a huge deal.” Mick turned to grab his phone off the table in the sand. “I’ll call Keiko and tell her to come by and bring some of her stuff.”
“Wait. Who’s Keiko?” Piper asked.
“She’s a local designer everyone uses. Her stuff is amazing.”
“I don’t need any clothes.”
“Your publisher wants you to join me at the John Dark premiere. You’ll need a dress, right?” Mick asked.
“I can pull something out of my closet.”
“No way. Not as my date you won’t. I have a reputation to uphold.”
“What if I don’t find anything I like?”
Mick leaned in close, his breath on her neck as he whispered in her ear. “Did you like joining the Mile High club?”
Piper nodded, her skin tingling with the memory of just how much she’d loved Mick at thirty thousand feet. They’d spent most of the flight causing their own turbulence in the cabin bedroom.
“Then trust me. You’ll
love
Keiko.”
…
“Mick Blackwell, you are
not
going to buy me a fifteen-thousand-dollar dress.”
Mick leaned against the wall, looking at Piper, who was wearing the dress in question and throwing a proper shit fit over his offer to purchase it for her. He really didn’t see what the big deal was all about.
“Damn, Piper, you’re almost too beautiful to look at,” he drawled.
“Isn’t she?” Keiko added, pretending not to notice the storm brewing as she adjusted the dress until it draped perfectly over Piper’s generous curves. “The halter-style top highlights her full breasts and the red silk makes her skin glow.”
“I love the way it dips so low in the back,” Mick said. “Very sexy.”
“It’s
fifteen thousand
dollars,” Piper stated. “I can’t spend that kind of money on a dress I’ll wear only once.”
“That’s why I’m buying it. It’s a gift for finishing the book,” Mick said. He walked over to Piper, giving in to the urge to touch as he ran a finger over the creamy smooth curve of her shoulder. On impulse, he leaned over and brushed a kiss along the same path, his heart picking up a beat when he heard her sigh. It was a mixture of pleasure and frustration, and it made him want to kick everyone else out so they could settle this the way they did best.
“Sex won’t work this time. I said no.”
“I bet I could make it work,” Mick challenged. He liked it best when Piper pushed back. “You’re being ridiculous. It’s just a dress, and I have the money.”
“That isn’t the point. You don’t give fifteen-thousand-dollar dresses to a woman you screwed for a few weeks.” Her head tilted up, her chin set in perfect stubbornness. “I go back to New York in a couple of days, and this will be over. This gift is too much.”
“Not if we keep going,” Mick said. He instantly regretted blurting it out when Piper’s face paled under her tan.
“What?” Piper whispered. She stumbled back, stopping when her legs hit the sofa.
Mick turned to Keiko, who was lingering in the background for the free show, but for once he didn’t want an audience. This had been brewing in his head for days, and he’d racked his mind for the best way, place, and time to broach the subject with Piper.
This—this was definitely not it.
“Can you give us a minute?” he asked.
Keiko slipped out of the room, but her disappointment was as clear as the Hawaiian sunshine. He’d have a talk to her about his expectation of confidentiality before she left.
When they had privacy, he turned back to Piper, pulling her into a kiss when he got close enough to wrap her in his arms. It wasn’t a lingering one, just enough to reestablish how good it was between them and give them a baseline to start the negotiation he knew was coming.
He withdrew from the kiss but didn’t let her go. She stared up at him like he was crazy, but at least he had her full attention.
“This isn’t how I planned on bringing this up, but here it is. I’d like to keep up our arrangement when you go back to New York.”
“What do you mean, ‘keep our arrangement’?” Her voice was quiet.
“You and me. Continuing the good times.” He waved his hand back and forth between them, just in case she still didn’t understand what he meant. “That way you can go to the premiere as my date.”
“But we live on separate coasts.” She ducked out of his embrace, the beautiful gown she was still wearing swishing around her ankles. “Long-distance relationships never work.”
“I wouldn’t know because I’ve never been in a relationship before, but I figure they work some of the time.” He took a step toward her, bold and sure, just like his feelings at the moment. “But I’m not trying to pin you down with some hearts-and-flowers exclusive thing.”
Piper stared, her mouth open slightly as she soaked it all in. “Why don’t you explain what you are offering?”
She hadn’t said no, and he took it as a check in the “win” column for now. “I want to keep seeing you when we get off this island and back to the real world.”
That got her going. She strode over to him, coming nose-to-nose before stopping. “Yes, the real world—where we live on two different planets.”
He laughed at her characterization of a couple thousand miles. “There are flights, long weekends.”
“I’m not talking about that difference,” she huffed.
“Tell me what you’re talking about, because all I’m hearing are logistics.” He reined in his temper. This was not going the way he wanted, and he was letting it get the better of him. And as his stomach clenched with emotion, he realized just how much he wanted her to agree.
“Not logistics. Reality.” She laid a hand on his chest, the soft caress in stark contrast to the firm lilt to her words. “We don’t run with the same crowd. You go out with actresses and supermodels, and I date accountants. Sooner or later, you’ll get tired of the novelty and will get another woman, and I’ll look like an idiot—again.”
Mick reached up, gripping her wrist and feeling her pulse thrum in time with his own heartbeat. “I’m not Rojas.”
“You
aren’t
him. You are a much better man, and I do care about you. But I know how this thing needs to end, and that’s why I won’t let you buy me a fifteen-thousand-dollar dress.”
Mick pulled her close against his body, then leaned down, taking her mouth in a deep, possessive kiss that had Piper moaning and clinging to him.
Mick broke off the kiss, panting heavily as he gazed down into Piper’s blue eyes, shot with equal parts passion and panic. He’d use the passion to his advantage; he’d already warned her didn’t play fair. But they couldn’t just let this end when she got on a plane for New York. It felt unfinished—like they were selling themselves short if they didn’t pursue this as far as it could go. He didn’t know what that meant, but he wasn’t going to blow it off.
He let her go. “You can refuse the dress and you can throw up all the obstacles you want, but this isn’t over.”