“Just try me, Broussard. I have to imagine that some of my pole moves would work just as well to take down a person.”
Well, fuck me.
“Now I’m intrigued.”
She grins. “You know what else you are?”
“What?” I ask, arching a brow as I search her face. She grins and leans down, letting her lips hover above mine and every cell in my body is screaming at me to close the distance between us. So I do. Thrusting my hand into her long, dark hair, I pull her down to me and seal my lips to hers. Sighing, she melts into my body and I resist the urge to fist pump in victory as my chest puffs out with pride. In my head, I’m the only fucking man who has ever made her feel like this and I’m a goddamn king as she wiggles her hips, rubbing against my cock. When she pulls away, her eyes meet mine, gray pools of desire, and she flashes me an indulgent little smile. “You were saying?”
Shaking her head, she crawls off of me and stands up next to the bed. “I think I made my point.”
“And what point is that?” I reach out and play with the bottom of her t-shirt, trying to lift it up to get a peek of the black lace panties she’s wearing and she swats my hand away.
“Don’t start something you can’t finish.”
My gaze snaps to hers and I narrow my eyes. “I always finish, Princess, and so do you… multiple times.”
“Oh, I know,” she whispers, color staining her cheeks as she grabs her jeans off of the floor. “But we don’t have time right now. People will be waking up soon.”
“Who cares? Everyone already knows so just stay.”
She shakes her head. “Not everyone knows. You ready to tell my brother about us?”
“Are you?” I ask, arching a brow and she shrugs.
“Look, he won’t like it but he’ll just have to get over it. I’m tired of sneaking around like we’re doing something wrong.”
I nod, toying with the idea. “I agree… but then again, I like my body in one piece.”
“Oh, stop it.” She laughs as she sits on the edge of the bed. “Lincoln is just a big teddy bear.”
“Only if a teddy bear could rip you apart with his bare fucking hands and has an inclination to do just that,” I shoot back, my eyes widening as she laughs again.
“You’re being ridiculous.”
I shake my head. “I’m not and I can promise you that if we tell Kodiak about us, he will probably rip off your favorite part of my body.”
“I think you’re thinking of your favorite part.”
“All right, woman,” I growl, grabbing her and pinning her to the mattress as I climb over her. “Do you need a reminder?”
She arches a brow in challenge. “Of what?”
“Of how much you love it, too,” I answer, thrusting into her and her breath catches in her throat, her eyes fluttering closed for a second before she opens them again. Downstairs, a door slams and I sigh as I turn toward the door.
“Told ya.”
“Fine,” I grumble, kissing her again before flopping down onto the bed next to her with all of the pent-up sexual frustration I feel. “But come find me later so we can continue this.”
Climbing out of the bed, she shakes her head. “So bossy.”
“Sweetheart, if you meant that to be a bad thing, you have to get that “fuck me” look out of your eyes first,” I tell her and she rolls her eyes, fighting back a smile as she backs away toward the door. “I’m serious about later, by the way.”
She shrugs. “We’ll see.”
“Don’t tease me, Princess.”
“Why not?” she asks as she opens the door and stops to pin me to the bed with a look full of defiance. “What are you going to do about it?”
She winks and walks out before I can say anything else and I stare at the door, the thought of going after her consuming me. I jump up to do just that, grabbing my jeans off the floor and slipping them on before I walk to the door, yanking it open. Piper blinks up at me from the other side, her hand raised like she was just about to knock and I arch a brow.
“Something I can do for you, darlin’?”
She nods. “Yeah, I need your help with something. If you have time…”
“Sure,” I answer, my gaze flicking over her shoulder to where Rowan stands at the other end of the hallway, smirking at me. I shoot her a look that lets her know it’s fucking on as soon as I wrap up whatever this is and she shrugs before starting down the stairs. Stepping aside, I let Piper into my room and leave the door open as I go over to my desk and sink into my chair, pointing the other one for her. She sits down and takes a deep breath, wringing her hands together in her lap. “You doing okay this morning?”
“Um… I don’t know…”
I nod because I’m sure her head is just as scrabbled as mine. “I get that. What is it that you need from me?”
“Well,” she answers, taking a deep breath before looking up at me. “I’m not even really sure that I want to know the answer to this but it’s been bugging me for days so I just thought…”
“Okay, what is it?”
“My therapist, Dr. Brewer, made a comment to me that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about… it was about Lillian,” she whispers and I lean back in my chair, scowling as I watch her. Lillian was a friend of hers who thought they could be more but I have no clue where she could be going with this. “She said that shortly before everything went down, Lillian had met someone who was encouraging her to go after what she wanted. At the time, Dr. Brewer didn’t know what they meant but in light of everything that has been going on… do you think it’s possible that this person she met was Warren?”
Her question suck punches me and the events of last night come flooding back into my mind as I blow out a breath and shake my head.
“Piper, I think where Warren is concerned, anything is possible.”
She nods like she already knew the answer. “That’s what I thought. Do you… think you could look into it for me?”
The last fucking thing I want to do today is anything to do with Warren but how can I say no to her? She clearly needs this and who fucking knows, maybe I’ll actually find something this time. Sucking in a breath, I nod.
“Sure. I’ll look into it.”
She releases a breath. “Oh, thank you. I… um, I actually got a call from the man who managed her apartment building. She didn’t have any family and all of her stuff was sold or given away except for this box that he didn’t feel right throwing out. Apparently, there were some of her diaries in there and I thought they might give us some insight but I haven’t been brave enough to read them by myself. Will you help me?”
“You already have them?”
“Yeah,” she answers, nodding, and I study her for a second before sighing. I don’t want to even fucking think of Warren at this point but I can’t deny her the help she needs. I’m not expecting anything, though. If Warren did have something to do with her friend going all psycho, I’m sure he hid all his tracks very well. It’s been the same damn story since this investigation started and I don’t expect it to change anytime soon. “Still down to help?”