This is more than a kiss. It's desperation and hope, a hard fight and the sweetest victory and without a doubt, Piper is the best thing to have ever happened to me. My fingers dig in to the soft flesh above her ass, then they roam over her spine until I press her flat against my chest, flattening her pillowing breasts and hard nipples against me. My cock throbs, the pulse a painful rub into my jeans, but I don't thrust up to her open thighs. I let her take me where she wants to go because I'll follow.
I'll follow Piper wherever life leads. It's that simple and just as complicated at the same time. But obstacles aren't on my mind.
Her throaty moan draws me out of my head, and I engage in baser needs. We make out for minutes or an hour, until we can't breathe and I'm about to explode in my pants and her heat scorches against my crotch.
My hands find her thighs, and I rub as she slows, breaking away to murmur against my mouth, "How do I always end up lying under the stars with you, Caden Lawless?"
It takes me a minute to catch my breath and respond, but when I do I feel the words inside of me swirling like a storm. "That's easy, sunshine." I move to cup her cheeks, pinning her with my eyes. "The dark is the scariest and best place to unleash your fears; the place to dream and wish for everything that seems impossible; that place where hopelessness doesn't exist because the stars do. And if they burn and the moon shines, then the light that scorches away the darkness is alive within us. You and me, sweetheart. We are possible."
She tucks her head into my neck and holds on tight as I whisper, "We have to be."
Dear Justin.
When I was eight, I found a kitten. I snuck him inside the kitchen and poured a bowl of milk. My father walked in, and I said nothing as he took him away. It was the last time I didn't fight for what I wanted.
I'm going to take a chance and do this. And I'm really happy about my choice.
x Piper
CHAPTER TEN
Terrifying Prospects
Caden
WHEN I CAME back to Lilyfalls, it took a minute to know Piper affected me, and a week to realize we would never be just friends. It's taken two months to get her in my house, and thirty years of wondering if I'd ever like a woman enough to stick around for long-term commitment. Now that I have my answer, I'm not letting go. Not of her or JT.
The moving company I hired knocks and then enters the new house on my okay. Piper directs and then removes items from boxes. This bit of control seems to set her equilibrium into place on a day when she has very little of it. Today is a big step for her.
After the guys leave, I pull her out of the laundry room and her delirious rub down of the washer and dryer. If I'd known new equipment would get her worked up and breathless with a dopey smile, I'd have bought them two months ago. She sighs as I pull her behind me and up the stairs to the large, floor-to-ceiling windowed room. The sun sets over the cliff sending streaks of blue and green onto the wood floor and highlighting the easel set up in the corner. Stacked canvases line up against the wall in varying sizes. Paint and brushes, thinner, and everything else an artist needs to be brilliant lie on a table.
Piper stops. As still as a mannequin, she stares, and her eyes glass. Gus hops at her feet and then races around from one corner to another, yipping his excitement. Silence stretches between us until her tits rise, fast and sharp. And then she turns, dropping her head to my chest. I press my lips into her hair, drowning in vanilla and wishing I could bury myself inside of her, take care of her from here through eternity. After a moment passes, she kisses my cheek and life moves into our new normal.
I'M TORMENTED BY sleeping alone in a big house. I toss and turn, barely closing my eyes. But morning comes with a crazy kind of domestic bliss that eases my nerves, and I find joy in grocery shopping. Grocery shopping. What would take me twenty minutes to do by myself is a good hour-long endeavor because Piper reads every label. She mumbles to herself, looks at ounces versus cost, and it's both frustrating and fucking adorable at the same time. Everything about her is. Tiptoeing around in shorts that barely cover her ass when JT sleeps is cute. Then her music goes on when she figures out he doesn't wake up unless he wants to. Just like Justin. A bullhorn could go off in his ear and the kid will stay frozen with his arms over his head. But if he pisses himself or gets hungry, forget it. He wails as if it's the end of the world.
I'm hyper aware of Piper's every move and how she watches me with a sketchbook in one hand and a pencil in the other, rushing through furious hand strokes when she thinks I'm not paying attention. She taunts me with skin, her breathless laugh, and dance moves reminiscent of those in Flashdance. I buy her a pair of legwarmers and then hide in the hallway while she opens the bag in the kitchen, convinced she'll attack me with muffins when she sees what's inside. Instead, she laughs and puts them on, reenacting "She's a Maniac" through the living room with Gus chasing after her. Fucking adorable.