by Zoe York
“Good intense or bad intense?”
“Um…mostly good. Sometimes bad.”
“Too close for comfort?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know.” She glanced over at him. She didn’t know how much to share—he wasn’t overly forthcoming himself, except about the size of his family. He looked genuinely interested, though, so she took a deep breath and plowed on. “We spend a lot of time together, even my brother who is married and has his own family. They’re at my parents’ place for dinner a couple of times a week. I love that, mostly, but I’m glad to have a break from it as well.”
“So you got on an airplane and flew across the ocean?”
“Pretty much. Seeing Europe is a good excuse for some alone time.” Piper laughed. “Seriously, I’m not really running away, this is just a working holiday.”
“Good way to do it.” He hesitated. “I’ve seen a lot of the world through my job, too.”
Tell me more about that, she wanted to ask. But if he’d wanted to offer more, he would have. “The idea of going to a different city every day or two doesn’t appeal to me as much as staying in one place for a bit. I want a chance to sink into a community, meet people, hear their stories, discover hidden gems.”
“And for that, I am grateful, because meeting you has been the highlight of my…time overseas this go round.” There wasn’t even a hint of smarm in what could have sounded like a line. He was genuinely charming and even though he was a total mystery to her, she trusted the authenticity in his words.
What was wrong with this guy? There had to be something… And yet even as the question flashed through her mind, Piper didn’t want to find out. It didn’t matter if he was perfect, or just putting on a good cover. That was the beauty of a vacation hookup, after all. Sure, she hadn’t planned on ever having one, but that was before she laid eyes on six feet something of blue jeans and easy smiles.
“Maybe you could show me some of the tourist hotspots tomorrow—I don’t work again until Monday.”
“Hmmm.” Miles slowed to a stop, his brow pulled tight.
“What? If you don’t want to…”
“Oh, I promise it’s not that I don’t want to.” He grinned and held his hand out to Piper. “I have to go to work tomorrow.”
“Okay.” She took his hand, his fingers warm and strong around her own. “Well, the next chance you’ve got.”
“Why waste a perfectly good opportunity? Let’s start right here. Right now.”
She laughed. “Okay, I’m game. Where to?”
He winked, a dark promise in the shadowed night. “Who says we need to go anywhere? This is a pretty significant spot, I’d say.”
Piper looked around at the dark, deserted street. The high street was up ahead, but there was nothing remarkable about where they stood.
“I don’t get it,” she whispered, but from the look on his face she wanted to get it. This sounded good. Weird, but it wouldn’t be the first time Piper had fallen for weird. It would be the first time that weird could pass for Captain America.
“This spot?” He tugged her close. “This is the site of our first kiss.”
— THREE —
“This is the site of our first kiss.”
It should have sounded like an awful line, but Piper only felt relief that he knew exactly what she wanted, and then a rush of excitement. Every bit of her hummed in anticipation, her palms itching to press into his broad chest, her hips aching to lean against his. He slid his gaze over her face—slowly, carefully. Hungrily. Was he looking for permission? Piper could taste her desire, sharpness flooding her mouth. Her lips parted, and he closed the gap. With a sharp intake of breath, he lifted his hands to her face and slid his lips over and between hers. He tasted like beer and salt. Peanuts. Bar snacks had never been erotic before, but Piper wanted to cover Miles’s naked torso in peanuts and nibble them off one by one. She slid her tongue across his bottom lip as his hands raked into her hair. He nipped at her lower lip, eliciting a quiet groan of pleasure that doubled as his tongue moved against hers. Piper shivered, and Miles pulled back in concern.
“You’re cold.” He looked her up and down—she was wearing a black cotton wrap-around shirt and faded jeans, which had been fine for the walk to work at midday—and shrugged out of his blazer. “Here, put this on.”
“Now you’re going to be cold.”
“Not a chance.” He wrapped his arms around her waist under the jacket and pulled her close again, curving his upper body so their heads were close. “Where were we?”
Piper pressed her lips against his, then to his jaw and around to his ear. “Don’t get me wrong, I could do this all night, but maybe we should continue this when it’s not so dark and cold. I don’t have any plans for tomorrow, just sayin’.”
Miles took a ragged breath, pulled back slightly and kissed Piper’s forehead. “I need to tell you something.”
“What?” Piper slid her hands up his sides, wanting to explore all of him. She couldn’t quite reach the hard planes of his back, so she smoothed her palms flat against his equally hard chest. A muscle twisted under her fingers, and she craned her head to better see his face. “Miles, what is it?”
“I’m heading back to work tomorrow afternoon. If there was any way to change my flight, I would, but…”
“You’re going back to the States?”
He pressed his lips together. “No. Different direction.”
She paused her hands, forgetting their original path as she frowned. “That’s cryptic.”
“That’s my job.”
“In the other direction.”
“Yep.”
“Are you coming back this direction any time soon?”
“I’m going to be busy for a few months.”
And she’d be long gone, anyway. A few weeks here, then Paris, then Prague, and Greece… “And then?” Maybe they could meet up again.
“More work. I’m sorry.”
Her fingers shook and she grabbed the bottom of Miles’s t-shirt, wanting to hold on to him even as the delicious heat that had been building in her core disappeared and a cold stiffness filled her body. “So tonight… This was what?”
Miles’s fingers moved again between his jacket and Piper’s shirt, up and down, his thumbs rubbing from the bottom edge of her rib cage to her hips and back. “I don’t know. This was the night we met.”
“That’s…poetic. So I’ll be a bittersweet memory?”
“You’re mad.”
No, she had no right to be mad. He was a stranger who tasted like beer and peanuts and wrapped her in his blazer, turned her on and made her want more…but stranger. She sighed. “You don’t think you should have mentioned you were leaving in the morning before kissing me?”
“I didn’t mean to trick you, Piper. But I’m glad I didn’t say anything if that was the only way I got a taste of you.”
“A taste?”
“Yeah.” He smiled tentatively. “Delicious taste, in fact.”
As she looked at Miles’s face, half in shadow, she realized he was as nervous as she was sad. She stared at him for a moment and then let her gaze drift over his shoulder to the dark building across the street. A few hours ago she wouldn’t have cared. She still shouldn’t. Her mother’s voice rang loud in her head. You’re such a dreamer, Piper. You get swept away by hope. Success comes from good planning and hard work. This trip might be an unusual path to success, but Piper knew she needed to find herself before she could go home. Maybe it was for the best that whatever this was between her and Miles end before it could snowball into something messy, something that would take over her life.
“Miles, I just got here. I’ve saved for this trip for four years, and I’m planning on traveling around Europe for the next year. Falling—” Piper cut herself off, horrified. What was about to come out of her mouth? Had she not learned anything from the first twenty-four years of her life? It was time for Piper to be her own first priority. Her only priority. Romantic delusions about
Norse gods needed to be shut down. “And since your work seems to keep you busy, and our paths aren’t likely to cross again, we should probably say goodnight soon and go our separate ways.”
“Soon, or now?” He nuzzled her cheek, but she sensed he was holding back now. “There’s no pressure here, Piper. But I think we should stop at my aunt’s house, grab some warm sweaters and go sit on the beach for a bit.”
She relaxed against his chest and nodded despite herself. She wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet. Because beer and peanuts. He brushed a quick kiss across the top her head and they eased into a stroll, his arm slung around her shoulders, hers tucked around his waist. He explained that Sue’s house was on a side street just one block up. When they got there, Piper was reluctant to disentangle from Miles’s warm, hard body, but she really didn’t want to be the topic of gossip at the pub on Monday, so she let Miles go up the steps ahead of her.
“I’ll wait here.”
“Come on. I’m sure my aunt’s in bed. The lights are all off. I’ll just be a second, but you should wait inside where it’s warm.”
Piper tiptoed into the foyer of the narrow row house and watched as Miles climbed the stairs. The entry was lit by a small lamp, and her eyes strained to take in the details of the darkened rooms beyond. The house smelled like books and beeswax, and she could see the outline of a fireplace on the far wall, surrounded by floor-to-ceiling shelves stuffed to bursting with books. Immediately to her left in front of the window, a sofa was flanked by more piles of books, these mostly hardcovers and oversized reference books.
The floor above her creaked, and Piper jumped, but in the next second Miles reappeared on the stairs in front of her.
“Your aunt has a lot of books.”
“She doesn’t have a TV, never has, but she has pretty much any book you could name. She’ll read anything.”
“I’m the same way! I tried to get my parents to ditch their cable service a couple of times, but my brother can’t live without football and my mom is addicted to the home-decorating channels.”
Miles handed her a thick, oatmeal-colored wool sweater that must have been his aunt’s because it was snug on Piper. He pulled on a thinner light blue cashmere sweater himself and topped it again with his blazer. Piper made a small noise of appreciation, and Miles’s face reddened. She was happy to see he wasn’t always totally cool.
He quietly closed the door behind them and they set out at a quick pace for the center of town, holding hands. Miles asked a few questions about her family, and Piper told him about her dad’s new model-train hobby and her mom’s antique shop.
“Um, what else… My brother is a contractor, and my sister is in medical school. She got the brains, he got the brawn. I’m not sure what I got. Middle-kid problems, right?” Piper shivered as they stepped on to the boardwalk, and Miles turned his body to protect her from the wind. She couldn’t make out his expression exactly, but as she pressed her hand to his chest, she could feel his heartbeat pick up. “You don’t really want to hear about my family, I guess.”
Miles chuckled and slid his hand under Piper’s shirt, warming the small of her back. “I do. Later.”
They moved their faces at the same time, cold noses touching before mouths found each other and then the heat was everywhere again. Piper found Miles’s skin under his shirt, and they were moving together, being inside each other’s clothes because they knew it was all they could have. Miles’s left palm settled at the bottom curve of Piper’s breast, his other hand trailing licks of fire up and down her spine. He was being too damn gentle, Piper thought, arching toward him. She wanted to imprint all of him onto all of her, the feel of his much taller body curving around and over hers, the smell of his soap, the feel of his smooth, warm skin stretched over what felt like a very impressive set of abdominal muscles.
Stumbling, Miles backed into a wooden railing. Piper swayed against him and he groaned. He jerked them down to the ground and pulled her into his lap. “You’re driving me mad.”
Burying her head in his neck, she breathed in. Beneath the beer and peanuts, his skin smelled like mint and man. Miles was going to feature heavily in her fantasies over the next year, and she only had one night to fill in the details. She kissed the apex of his neck and shoulder and the tendon flexed.
“Do you like that?” Piper nipped in the same spot with her teeth, then rubbed it with the tip of her tongue.
“I like everything you do, Piper.” Miles took a deep breath. “I like you way too much for having just met.”
Same, she wanted to say, but what was the point?
“Hey,” he said gently. “Ignore me. Tell me where you’re going next on your travels.”
“Paris next month.”
“Nice.”
“Have you been?”
“To Paris? Never.”
“Where have you been?” And where are you going?
“My job takes me to the ugly parts of the world. I’d rather be in Paris.”
“I’ve probably romanticized it, but I can’t wait.” She curled into the warmth of his torso as he stroked her arm.
“Don’t go falling for a French man.” He said it so quietly, she almost didn’t hear it. But she did, and the impossible promise in the words was something she couldn’t un-hear.
“I’m not planning to fall for anyone,” she whispered.
He made a sound, halfway between a groan and a growl, and pulled her in for a rough, hungry kiss. “Neither was I.”
— FOUR —
“I’m not planning to fall for anyone.”
“Neither was I.”
Piper stilled, her face pressed into Miles’s neck. Had she heard him right? What were they doing? There was no future here, and leading Miles on would be cruel if he was the type to fall hard and fast. She’d clearly read him all wrong. He looked like such an alpha male on the outside, but inside he had feelings. Which made him a great guy for dating. Totally the wrong guy to make out with.
“Miles, I…” Why did it feel like she was breaking up with him? And why did that feel wrong? You always worry about other people, Piper. That’s why you’re twenty-four and have no idea what you are doing with your life. Stick to the plan. “You’re amazing. This was amazing. But it’s late, and you’re leaving tomorrow. We should probably cool it before we do something we’d regret.”
— —
Miles watched in disbelief as Piper shuttered her physical reaction and stood. He had just been dumped. One hour, that was probably a record for the world’s shortest relationship. It wasn’t a relationship, dumbass, and the fact that’s where your mind went is probably why Piper’s running scared. You are scaring her. He raked his hands through his hair and nodded. Pressing too hard would guarantee tonight was a one-off.
He rolled his eyes at himself as he stood to join her, shoving his hands in his pockets to keep them to himself. He’d lost sight of the truth that tonight couldn’t be anything but a one-off. Because he was heading to Iraq for another three months.
Nodding, he gave in. “For the record, I could never regret anything with you, but you’re right, it’s late. Let’s head back.”
Relief flooded her face, and his gut pinched. What was going on in her head? This wasn’t just a vacation for her—this time abroad was obviously a mission. She’d come in search of space to sort out whatever was on her mind.
But she was from San Diego. Maybe when she got back, if he wasn’t overseas again…
God, that was tempting. All he needed was a connection. Something casual. He took a deep breath and offered a laidback smirk. “I’ve never been to Paris. Will you email me with updates on your adventure?”
She hesitated, a response frozen just behind her lips.
Hesitation was good. It wasn’t a straight-up no, which meant there was a part of her that wanted to say yes.
He leaned in slightly. “Look, if we were back home, I’d ask for your number. This is just like that, no pressure.”
“And if we live
d in the same place, I’d give it you. You’re a great guy, Miles.” Piper sighed and fixed her gaze on a point in the distance. “But honestly, I’m glad that’s a moot point, because the last thing I want right now is a relationship. This is the year of Piper.”
— —
Miles pressed his lips together, like he wanted to ask a third time, but was holding himself back.
He needed to hold that line, because she was close to giving in. He was just so cute. No, not cute—he was more than that. Bigger, stronger, more noble than cute entailed. He was like a high-school quarterback, all grown up.
She took a deep breath that did nothing to quell her nerves. The last thing she wanted to do was say goodbye to Miles. But she didn’t want to hook her heart on a sailing ship, either. She owed it to herself to be fully present on this adventure, not wishing for something that couldn’t be. This needed to end now. Tension was rolling off Miles’s body beside her, and she ached to turn and soothe him. Not your problem, Piper.
His voice tight, he asked what she sensed was one last question. “If we lived in the same place, you’d feel differently?”
Yes, yes, a million times yes. “No,” she lied. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m not looking for a relationship right now.”
Miles started talking again, but they were almost at the hostel, and he cut himself off. “Okay, I’m sorry. Look, I promise that I’m not a crazy stalker, and I’m not going to harass you, but I’d really like to get periodic updates. I’d love to see Paris through your eyes.”
She couldn’t say no to that. She nodded. “I’ll get your email address from your aunt. But don’t get your hopes up, I’m not really a computer person.”
“That’s okay. I don’t always have Internet access at work. But when I do get online, if there was a message from you, that would make my day.”
“Where the heck are you going?”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said quietly, stepping close and brushing his thumb against her lips. His fingertips lingered on her cheek for just a second, but it sent shivers down her spine. “I’m doing what’s got to be done, and I’m fine out there.”
