When We Fall (Take the Fall, #2)(18)



If I drive, then I won’t have her in my arms anymore, and I f*cking love the feel of her.

Seth rolls his eyes. “I’ll get her purse, and drive y’all home. God forbid you put her down for the minute it would take to get there.”

Piper snuggles into me and lets out a little sigh. “Jase?” Her lashes flutter open.

“I’m here to take you home, kitten.”

“Okay.” Immediately, her eyes close. She is so trusting that my heart actually begins to ache. Unfortunately, the feel of her makes other parts of me begin to ache, too.

“Ready to go?” I ask, impatient to get her home. Having her this close is almost unbearable.

“Dude, I have to get my shoes on. The gravel hurts like a motherf*cker,” he says.

Who knew that a big bad Marine could be so sensitive about his feet? Then again, it is Seth and he’s attuned to his feminine side, which is why my sister is a goner for him.

He listens to what I have to say, she likes to tell me over and over again. Like really listens, not just listens so he can get some.

“Move your ass, solider,” I say, just to piss him off. Marines f*cking hate being called soldiers, but I’m the closest thing Rowan has for a dad, so I consider it my duty to give Seth a hard time whenever I can.

“Say that on base, motherf*cker,” Seth warns.

“You sure are sensitive.”

“You’re a pain in my ass.”

“Aw, you missing your battle buddy?” I ask with a smirk. Yeah, it is my patriotic duty to give him a hard time.

Seth rolls his eyes. “Let’s go.”

It takes less than two minutes to get to my house. Piper doesn’t wake up during the ride and I don’t let her out of my arms. I figure self-inflicted punishment is what I need in order to pay penance for hurting her today.

Seth loops the strap of her purse over my head. “Don’t forget this. Her meds are in there.”

“Thanks.” I manage to open the door and get out of Seth’s truck without much trouble and then head inside, but not before pressing in a code to the keypad I had installed a few months back.

When I first got out of prison, I went on a bender of sex, drugs, and alcohol as I tried to fit seven years of abstinence into a space of two months. Luckily, I got my shit together and my head on straight—thanks in part to my parole officer and Emmett. Manwhore with questionable morals he might be, but the dude is legit serious about getting and staying clean.

In any case, things had gotten so bad with me that I was letting anyone roam in and out of my house at all hours. Some shit had gotten stolen and that had pissed me the hell off, so I’d asked another buddy of mine to help me out. Now that Piper’s living with me, I feel even better about my decision to keep out the riffraff.

Slightly adjusting her in my arms, I carefully make my way upstairs and to her bedroom. It already smells like her and I smile. Moonlight shines through the beveled glass at the top of the windows, illuminating the room, so I don’t bother turning on the lights.

Gently, I lay her down in bed and take her purse off from around my neck, placing it on the nightstand. “Night, baby.”

She rolls to one side and suddenly sits up. “Where am I?” she asks.

“In your bed,” I say, attempting to edge away from her and go to my room.

She slumps over, not saying another word.

“Piper?” Panic grips me and I grab her shoulders, shaking her lightly. “Baby, are you okay?”

Her head lolls to one side. “Stop shaking me,” she orders and I let go long enough for her to flop back on the bed. “Get in bed, Rowan. Mother doesn’t know you’re here, by the way. I’ll tell her in the morning.”

“I’m not—”

“Please. I hate it when you sleep on the floor.” She sticks out her bottom lip, pouting. “It hurts my feelings.”

My sister slept on the floor at Piper’s? That’s odd.

“If you don’t, then I’ll be forced to join you again.”

“Piper, honey—”

“Shut up and get in bed, or no new shoes for you,” she says in the bossiest, most adorable voice I’ve ever heard. “I’ll tell your brother about you and Seth, too, if you don’t.”

The thought of sleeping with her is so tempting that I can taste it. Of their own accord my legs and feet move me closer to her.

“Pretty please. You know I have bad dreams after Mother and I argue,” she pleads.

Her admission is my undoing. Unlacing my boots, I toe them and my socks off, before pulling my shirt up and over my head. Automatically, my fingers go to the button fly of my jeans, working at the opening. I get the fly half open before my hands freeze. I can’t climb into bed with Piper wearing only boxer briefs, even if she’s fully dressed.

She thinks I’m Rowan, for God’s sake.

Piper rolls to one side again, drawing her shapely legs up. Her skirt rides up nearly to her waist, exposing rather modest white panties that stretch over the most perfect ass I’ve ever seen. My dick gets hard, so hard that I have to squeeze it to get rid of the pressure.

I let out an inaudible groan.

Yeah…I’m keeping my pants on.

Slowly, I climb into bed with the woman of my dreams and lay carefully beside her. That seems to settle her down, until she rolls to my side of the bed and slaps me in the face with her arm. Then she kicks me in the thigh and tries to dig her toes into my skin through the material of my jeans.

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