by Casey Hagen
She lounged in bed for ten minutes before she forced herself out. She lingered in the shower for another twenty after that. She stepped out of the steam of the bathroom wrapped in a thick towel to find Trevor sitting on the bed taking a bite out of a croissant.
When he spotted her, his jaw stopped, seemingly unable to chew while he devoured her with his eyes. His intense inspection had her fidgeting with her towel as the memories of them from last night raced through her fevered mind.
He finally gulped, but put the rest of the pastry down. “Come here.”
She stepped up to him and waited.
He unhooked the corner of the towel where she had tucked it above her breast and pulled it free. The towel fell away leaving her more exposed than she had ever been. Before, she’d had the benefit of the darkness and subtle lighting.
So now, as he looked his fill, she fought the urge to squirm and cover herself. She didn’t look like she did in high school. A late bloomer, who definitely bloomed, she had shed her lithe figure a couple years into college, leaving her a little too thick. The fitted dresses she wore actually helped her hide the fact by sucking her in in all the right places.
Well, that and the Spanx.
The fact that Rachel was tits on a stick and Trevor had been with her only made Piper more aware of what she lacked. “Done now?” she said with more bite than she intended.
He gripped her hip and glanced up to her. “Why are you mad?”
“I’m just not used to the personal inspections.”
“Nice try, Trouble, I’m not buying the bullshit you’re selling.”
She picked up the towel and tucked it around herself again. “I don’t need to stand here and have you point out all the ways I’m not Rachel. Plenty of men like me just the way I am. Not starving.”
He clenched his teeth and pushed off the bed. He stood over her, only by a couple inches, but with the anger radiating off him, it might as well have been a foot. “When did I ever once say anything disparaging about your looks or your body?”
“I—”
“You know what, you need to close your mouth.”
“You just asked—”
“And we both know the goddamned answer,” he snapped.
She grabbed his forearm. “Shhh, dammit. They’ll hear you.”
His face turned red and his nostrils flared with the effort to control his temper. The veins in his temple stood out against his skin showing her just how much keeping silent cost him.
“Look. Don’t go putting any of your self-image baggage on me. Did I give you any indication that I had one complaint about your body last night?”
“Well—”
“The answer is no, I didn’t. Did my hard cock last night confuse you?”
She glared at him as anger and the urge to fight welled up inside of her. “Hey, you don’t need to be rude,” she said.
“Rude. Rude?” He stood so close his breath fanned over her cheek. “Like when you treated me as though all I care about is some skin and bones piece of ass?”
She had done that.
Shit.
And in doing so, slid right back into the self-doubt she’d worked so hard to escape from. “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that. I’ve had a few find my body…lacking.”
He hooked his fingers around the top of the towel, backed her up to the dresser, spun her around to stand in front of the mirror, and flicked open the terrycloth. He stood behind her, his eyes locked with hers. “Don’t lump me in with other men, Piper. With our history, I deserve better than that.”
With their history, yes. However, it was his history that played in a continuous loop in her head, scarring her like a record needle skipping, leaving a deep scratch in the vinyl. She hated it. “I’m sorry, Trevor.”
“Let’s talk about what I see, just so we are crystal clear.” He traced his fingertips over her shoulders. “You always have your shoulders back and tall, you’re proud, but a part of that is defiance. You challenge people with this body. You use your tight dresses and stilettos to instigate a response. If they roll over and drool, they build your confidence. If they nitpick, you’re ready for battle.”
Piper took a shallow breath, his assessment way to close for comfort. Like, spot-on close. Almost as if he had kept just as close an eye on her as she did him. And maybe for longer than just this weekend.
Hope flared within her as she tried to see everything he did.
“You’re also caring and attentive to others. You use that same set of your shoulders, but you lean in and listen. I’ve never seen someone listen like you. You do it with all five senses and that’s how people know you care.”
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 issues 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.
“You’re 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 desire 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, soft 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? 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, leaving her 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. Trevor 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 crashed 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 extrica
te 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, the company had hit a rough patch the first time he’d made an attempt. 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.
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.
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.”
“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.”
Trevor forcibly controlled any outward sign that her words scared him. He gave her the same bored expression he’d adopted years ago and wielded at social events when the catty gossip started and his date for the night expected him to participate. “It might have something to do with the fact that when I took her to prom, we were just friends. We didn’t officially date until seven years later.”
“It’s a tidy explanation. I have to give you that, but I don’t buy it. You’re up to something…and I have every intention of finding out what it is. I won’t lose this promotion to your games.”
“You say that like you and Trevor are the only ones in the running,” Mike said.
Rachel looked at Mike as though he were a brainless child that she had to tolerate. “We all know who the real contenders are, it’s just difficult to sustain a competition with only two adversaries. Where’s the fun in going straight to the final round?” She sauntered off with her drink in hand and joined Steve on the deck.
“You think she’s right?” Mike asked.
Yeah, she was right, but only she was cruel enough to rub that in someone’s face. Trevor clapped him on the back. “Not at all, my man, not at all. Let’s go see what the ladies are up to.”
Chapter 10
Piper bit her lip waiting for Davidson to make the introductions and told herself there was no reason to worry. Just because they had daughters in dance, as evidenced by the many pictures around the house, it didn’t mean that Davidson’s wife had any idea who she was. It’s not like she was a big, household name like Blush. She’d been so busy up until that point navigating everything else and trying to avoid missteps that she hadn’t even had time for the worry to creep in.
‘I’d like you all to meet my wife, Marla.”
Marla? Didn’t Rafe say the woman trying to reach her was named Marla? Maybe not. Even so, it’s not like there was only one Marla on the planet. Totally fine.
She looked nothing like Piper imagined. Davidson stood tall and larger than life, but his wife was a pint-sized spitfire of a woman who radiated energy from the top of her blonde head to the Nike running shoes on her feet. Thick lashes framed her pretty, brown eyes and while she looked as sweet as could be, the energy radiating from her told Piper that she was a force to be reckoned with.
Davidson introduced them all by their first names. When he got to Piper’s name, Piper noticed Marla paused for the briefest of moments, her forehead wrinkled.
Or Piper, in her paranoia, imagined the whole thing.
As soon as Piper could break away, she was going to call Rafe and reassure herself that the Marla in question was not Davidson’s Marla.
They all made their way into the house where Davidson gave Marla a rundown of all she missed. Much like the first day of school where you have to introduce yourself, they went around the room and talked about what they did for a living, forcing Piper to lie again. The thing was, she didn’t so much mind it in the beginning, but now she’d gotten to know these people, bonded with them, considered them friends. Naïve of her considering at some point, she and Trevor had to manufacture a breakup.
Piper didn’t have a lot of female friends. Most of the women she had known over the years also danced, and with that came a certain hunger and drive, making the dance world a competitive, backstabbing arena. When thirty dancers vie for one slot, there’s not room for friendship as much as Piper wished there had been.
Maybe her body wasn’t the only thing keeping her from advancing in the dance world.
“So, did you all have fun?” Marla asked.
“Absolutely, you have a beautiful home,” Christina said.
Rachel broke away from the group and wandered toward the front hall, perusing the pictures on the wall. Piper noticed she kind of stayed on the fringes of almost everything. If it wasn’t directly related to her career or to cause trouble, she had little to no attention span.
“How about the Newlywed Game. You can be honest, was it cheesy?” Marla asked.
“Not cheesy at all,” Rachel practically purred. “Revealing. Definitely revealing,” Rachel said.
Well, apparently Rachel hovered on the outskirts, but didn’t miss a beat.
“Yes, well, don’t hold too much st
ock in it. Davidson is great with remembering locations and activities, but timelines…not a chance. If he and I competed, we’d likely come in dead last.”
He put his arm around his wife and smiled down at her. No question this man absolutely adored his wife. “I can’t argue that. When you’re on the downhill slide in life the last thing you want to do is go over the math. When Marla talks about the eighties, for me, it’s like yesterday. For her, well, she was ten,” Davidson said, shrugging his shoulders, his palms out.
“Oh, stop! Age is just a sCartwright of mind, but after that drive and the stuff going on with the girls, I feel like I’ve put on five years. Do you guys mind if I borrow my husband for a minute so I can fill him in?”
“Not at all, take your time,” Deanne said.
They headed off toward the master suite and Piper grasped Trevor’s arm. “I need to make a quick call.”
“Everything okay?”
“Sure, it’s fine.”
“Good,” he murmured as he trailed a finger along her temple and rubbed a lock of her hair between his fingers.
“Thanks,” she pressed a kiss to his lips and held it for a few beats longer than innocent and laughed when he let out a little growl.
She headed for their bedroom like Trevor had asked. She’d hit Rafe’s contact in her speed dial when she stepped through the door. His voice popped on the line just as she shut the door with her foot.
“It’s Sunday. What could possibly be so important?” he mumbled sleepily.
“The woman that’s been calling, what’s her name?”
“Good God, woman, you were going to call her tomorrow. Let it go and enjoy your weekend.”
“I’m trying to enjoy my weekend, but I need to know that Davidson’s wife is not the same woman that’s been so persistent in reaching us so I can breathe again.”
“Come on, what are the chances that it’s the same one? It’s Martha something or other, give me a minute and I’ll check.”
She heard the shuffling of papers on the other end, then Rafe muttered a swear and returned to the phone. “Sorry, not Martha. It’s Marla.”
