Tears threatened. She wanted to hide. Somehow the kind words caused a pinch of pain. If he found her lacking, he was the problem. If kind words caused her this kind of heartache, the is-sues were hers.
“Your face, with those high cheek bones, the faint freckles, yeah, I still see them. I still see that girl with the sun-kissed hair pinned up with a pencil, pieces escaping. Both images are just as beautiful as the one we’re looking at in the mirror.”
She swiped the tear that slid down her cheek.
“Your neck…God, I have never had a thing for a woman’s neck before, but yours, the gentle elegance, and softness. It’s my second favorite place to put my lips.”
“And the first?” she choked out the words as she contemplated her breasts. Almost all men loved them. She prepared herself to hear the obvious answer and told herself to not be disappointed.
“Here,” he said, running his fingertip over her bottom lip.
The idea that his favorite parts of her not only were innocent, but also exposed to his gaze even clothed warmed her.
His gaze roamed lower. “You have pretty breasts, heavy and round. They move like breasts should instead of being some alien result of plastic surgery. They’re sweet,” he said as his hand grazed the underside of one and slid along the skin of her torso to her waist. “And here, you’re rounded, not a lot, just enough to make a man think of soft places to land.”
She sighed.
“Comfort,” he added.
A low hum vibrated in her throat.
“And fertility,” he said quietly.
She glanced up at him in surprise. Tingling warmth spread from her breasts and heat pooled between her legs. The combination of sexual need and biological, animal desire stole the air from her lungs, leaving her panting out shallow breaths.
“Weird to hear from a guy like me, right? Well, it’s true. You’re healthy and round. Your body, with your curvy hips, velvety thighs, your soft belly, make a man think about ripeness and readiness to carry a child. I don’t have to look hard to see a hundred different things I love about you. But how long would it take you to find three things you love about yourself?”
Her breath stuttered at the way he gentled his confrontation with sultry intimacy.
“And I bet once you found them, if I gave you five minutes, you will have talked yourself out of every single one.” He kissed her temple, and then disappeared into the bathroom, leaving her standing there, with nothing but her stark nakedness between her and the mirror.
The truth of his words, the way he saw into her soul, consumed her. She took a deep, shuddering breath and blinked back the tears. All this time, all her life, she had waited for a man to see her, really see her. Then Trevor came along and saw so much, he forced her to see herself.
Now, if only she could do the same for him.
Trevor showered and prayed that when he was done Piper had dressed and left the room. Their past collided with the present leaving a lot of issues between them that needed to be addressed, but he couldn’t continue going down this road with her anymore right now. They still had one more day where they had to dance for his boss and then maybe, just maybe, they could sort this whole thing out.
Like if they planned to keep seeing each other.
The idea terrified him. She’d have a front row seat to his life. Not that he intended to continue the way he had been going. Not if he wanted a relationship with her. But it would take time to extricate himself from the connections he’d made, not all of them, but definitely the ones made from carousing with women and weekends with the bottle.
When he looked at it, at what he really had become, disgust burned in his gut.
He needed this promotion. With this promotion, he’d no longer have to schmooze on that level. This promotion gave him the freedom to have Piper.
What a tangled mess it had all become. He needed her to get the promotion. He needed the promotion to be the kind of man to hold on to her. What else could he do to tip the balance in his favor?
He could land Cartwright & Ellis Enterprises. Unbeknownst to him at the time, the company had hit a rough patch when he’d made his pitch. He’d ended up at the same dinner party with Neil Cartwright and took the opportunity to make a play for their business. Neil had a bit of a reputation as a player so Trevor knew just what to say, to do, to get the conversation rolling, only Neil shut him down flat, muttering something about pain in the ass women and a spending freeze on anything marketing and public relations related, cutting Trevor off at the knees. All hadn’t been completely lost, Neil had given Trevor his number.
But Trevor had heard that Cartwright & Ellis was fluid now. Maybe Trevor could capitalize on that. If he did, no matter what a disaster this weekend had become, he might just be able to trump the competition.
With a plan forming, he dried off and got dressed. He dialed the number and left a message for Neil to get in touch with him.
He had this. And in the end, he’d have Piper.
He found her in the living room chatting with Deanne and Christina again. Hands flew during their animated conversation and laughter filled the air so the last clenched part of him relaxed. Maybe last night hadn’t been quite the disaster he imagined.
He stepped up to the back of Piper’s chair. When she threw her head back in laughter, he captured her cheeks and held her there to kiss her forehead. “Did you eat?” She hadn’t touched the food he’d brought into the room for her.
“I did. Want me to get you a plate?” she asked him, her eyes soft and a small smile playing upon her lips.
“Nah, I’ll get something.” He’d burned off the croissant with all the thinking he had done. Making his way into the kitchen, he stumbled into the thorn in his side.
Mike stood by the coffee maker with Rachel.
“Good morning,” Trevor said.
“Morning,” Mike said with a raise of his cup.
“Anyone know what we should expect today? I didn’t look that closely at the timeline,” Trevor said.
“There’s nothing on the timeline. Just two free blocks,” Mike said.
“I overheard Davidson talking to his wife. She’s on the way up. She’ll probably have something in store for us,” Rachel added, taking a sip of her tea.
“Overheard? Are you spying again?”
“Cute, Trevor,” she snapped.
“I’m not kidding. I’ve seen you operate,” Trevor said, popping a piece of pineapple into his mouth.
“You forget that you and I have been one and the same. That’s what you liked about me.”
“Nope, that’s not what I liked about you,” Trevor said after he swallowed.
Mike tried to suppress a laugh. Rachel gave Mike a hard glare.
“That’s what you said you liked,” she practically snarled.
“I say a lot of things. I don’t mean half of them.”
“When are you going to grow up, Trevor? I mean really, how do you expect to pull off partner when you’re still a child?”
Trevor nudged Mike with his elbow. “This coming from a woman that acts like a fourteen-year-old cheerleader in a rich bitch school,” Trevor said.
“Call me what you want, Trevor, I don’t care, because I’m shrewd. I notice things. For instance, the way you answered the first date question. It’s odd, being a man and all, you answered “her prom”, but she didn’t. Women don’t forget these things.”