“No.”
“Excuse me?”
“This is my room. I didn’t invite you. You got me out of the shower. I’m going to go get back in there when you leave. So, no, I’m not going to go put clothes on while you stand here and tell me not to be in love with you.”
“It’s really distracting.”
She looked surprised for a moment. Then, slowly, she smiled. A smile that made his heart thump and, at the same time, sent an uh-oh through his mind.
“Sorry,” she said again.
She was definitely not sorry about that either.
“I just don’t see why you want to be in love with me,” he told her, resolutely keeping his eyes on hers.
He really wanted to look down. But he had a feeling she knew that and if he did he would somehow be admitting something he didn’t want to admit.
“Well, I don’t see why you wouldn’t want me to be in love with you,” she told him in the same tone he’d used.
“Because, apparently, you can’t work for me and be in love with me. And I really need you to work for me.”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, Oliver, maybe you think that’s your choice because you’ve never really experienced me being in love with you.”
“So this is new?”
“Not really.”
“So I have experienced you being in love with me,” he said.
She lifted a brow. “I haven’t been acting on those feelings.”
“So keep doing that.”
She seemed to be considering that. Then she took a step closer. “No, I don’t think I will.”
He frowned down at her. Without her heels on, she was really short. The top of her head came to his chin. She usually seemed taller. Sure, it was probably the heels, but it was also just the way she presented herself. The way she walked, the way she stood, the way she talked and met everyone’s eyes directly and took care of everything.
Now she was in a freaking robe with her hair up in a towel. She seemed shorter.
And now, hearing her talk about being in love with him, it seemed a little less difficult to believe.
Dammit. What the hell was that?
“What’s that mean anyway?” he asked, feeling as grumpy as he sounded. “What do you mean you’re going to act on those feelings now? Quitting? Leaving me? That’s acting on being in love with me?”
She shook her head slowly and stepped closer.
He should step back. Part of his brain told him that. But a bigger part of him—like the entire rest of his body and brain—said don’t be a dumbass.
She took the front of his shirt in her fist and pulled him down. And he went. Like a dumbass.
“It means doing things like this,” she said softly.
Then she kissed him.
Ollie was shocked. Actually shocked. The idea of kissing Piper had never occurred to him before. The idea of Piper kissing him had never occurred to him.
But the shock was quickly replaced by thoughts like damn her lips are soft and she smells so fucking good, and, of course, she’s good at this too.
He figured as long as their lips were pressed together, he might as well enjoy it for a few minutes.
So he cupped the back of her head, tipped his head, and kissed her back.
He realized that he’d surprised her when she made a little squeaking sound as her towel fell from her head. But she didn’t pull back or reach to grab it. She grabbed the front of his shirt with her other hand in fact. And moved in closer.
The wet strands of her hair fell over the back of his hand, reminding him she’d just been in the shower, and he suddenly had to touch her robe.
He ran his hand from her shoulder down her arm to her wrist over the black silk. The warm black silk. Warm from her body underneath.
He really liked it. A lot. He moved his hand to her waist and stroked the warm silk there, back and forth over the dip. Then up and down over her hip.
Her hand ran up his chest to the back of his neck, pulling him even closer.
Well, okay. They’d already gone this far. It was going to be complicated when he let her go whether he backed her up against the door or not.
So he stepped forward.
She stepped back.
The door swung shut behind him and he turned her, putting her up against the wood. Both of his hands went to her hips and she rose on tiptoe with a little moan.
Oh, that was nice. He felt heat lick through him. He really wanted to put his nose against her neck. Did she smell the way she did because of her soap or her shampoo or some perfume she put on after her shower? If it was after the shower, then she wouldn’t smell that way now would she? But he swore it was just her. And he wanted to run his nose all over her body to be sure. And while his nose was there, his mouth would be there too…
But he didn’t want to release her mouth. Her lips were everything he’d never known he’d always wanted.
He tipped his head the other way, opening slightly.
She followed his lead. Enthusiastically.
Piper gripped the back of his head and stroked her tongue into his mouth, hungrily.
That little lick of heat in his veins intensified to a full-on punch to the gut and he felt himself press closer. His hand dropped from her waist to her thigh. Sure enough, her skin was as warm and silky as the material of her robe.
Her hands went to his lower back and she brought him against her. He pressed into her soft body and this time he was the one who groaned. His palm slid up her thigh and under the hem of her robe to the curve of her ass.
The naked curve of her ass.
He felt his body harden and tighten and he finally dragged his mouth to her neck, breathing deep as he squeezed the warm flesh.
Her breath rushed out as her head fell back against the door and he kissed down her neck to her collarbone as her robe gaped at the top.
Yep, she just smelled like this. This was just Piper. He was definitely willing to keep going to be sure, but he was convinced that her skin was just created to feel, taste, and smell like heaven.
“Ollie,” she said softly, her fingers curling into his hair.
“Yeah.”
“We need to stop.”
He did. His nose was still against her throat and his hand still cupped her ass, but he stopped moving. He just breathed for a second. She didn’t push him back but he felt her hands slide down his neck.
Finally, he lifted his head, leaving his hand right where it was under her robe.
She looked… mussed.
He’d never seen her look mussed. Her lips were pink. From his. Her hair was wet and curling around her shoulders. Her robe was falling off one shoulder, hinting at far more than the tease of cleavage he saw in her other dresses. If he tugged on the bottom of the robe that rested on the back of his wrist, he could expose one entire breast.
He wanted to do that so much it was shocking. Almost more shocking than the kissing in the first place.
But he didn’t feel the panic he would have expected.
He felt a desire that he’d never felt before.
This was Piper. Piper. Kissing her should have been really weird.
It hadn’t been.
“Why?” he asked.
“Because you don’t want me to be in love with you.”
Yeah, he really didn’t. That seemed complicated. And like he was sure to mess it all up.
“But you are. Shouldn’t you want this?” he asked.