“That you wanted to leave me. Honestly, I thought you were going to say you couldn’t be with me, considering how your mom feels.”
“What!” she gasps.
I nod. “I’ve been thinking about your mom often today. I don’t want to be on bad terms with my girlfriend’s mother. But there’s something else.”
“What is it, Pearce?” she murmurs, her features softening, becoming less mistrustful.
“I’m not sure how to explain it.” I tighten my grip on her, letting her feel through touch alone who she belongs to. “When I was a cop, I’d get these niggles sometimes. Right at the corners of my mind. Like a mental itch. They often led me to things I’d overlooked before, things I’d seen without truly seeing. I got that this morning when I saw your mom. It was something about her bandana. I felt like I’d seen her before.”
“Weird,” Piper murmurs. “Where would you have seen her?”
“I have no idea,” I say. “I can’t make sense of it. I might be getting her confused with somebody else though.”
“Let me know if you remember anything. That’s really odd.”
“I will.”
She places her hand on my chest, digging her fingernails in. “And did you mean it, Pearce? You don’t care I’m a virgin?”
How the hell can I answer that without giving the truth away?
I’ve just won her back.
The last thing I want to do is risk what we have by scaring her off.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Piper
The events of the past few minutes leave me feeling like a strong current is pushing me this way and then that way, with no method in the direction.
First, there was the laughter, the certainty he was mocking me, and then he told me he was relieved, plus there was that weird spidey sense thing about my mom…
Now he stares down at me with his mouth set firm, his eyes intense and wolfish. I’m sure there’s something buried in there, connected to the way I feel, as though my body and his are communicating in pulsating need-speak.
“I think it’s special,” he says after a pause. “We both agreed something unique and amazing is happening here. So good. Let me be your first. I’ll claim you, I’ll take ownership of your body.”
Is this dirty talk, or is there something else? My core sizzles and sings out for it to be true.
“What does that mean?” I whisper.
His voice rises in my mind of what I want to hear.
It means I want to be with you and only you forever.
It means I’m never going to let you go.
It means we’re destined to get married, have kids, have a life.
Instead, he smirks, his hands teasing at the top of my ass. “What do you think it means, baby?”
For some reason, my body thrums when he calls me baby.
My man misses nothing. He brings his lips closer to mine, then across, hovering above my cheek and my ear. And when he speaks, it’s in a deep growl. Heat pools in my core at his next words.
“You’re a young inexperienced virgin,” he says huskily. “But you’re going to do what your man needs. Your little tight pussy is going to open for me, taking every. Fucking. Inch. You’re going to be so soaked for me baby, your pink pussy stretching as I hammer you hard.”
“I want it.” I shift against him, unable to stop myself. “But… But I think I need time.”
I push the words out, knowing I have to. Otherwise, he’ll try and have sex right here. There’s so much primal passion in him.
I can feel it.
“That makes sense,” he says, but I can still hear that tremor in his voice.
At the same time, his hands squeeze mine.
“I take it you’re not behind the idea?”
He smirks, capturing me in his gaze. And when he looks at me, it’s like nobody else exists. It’s the way I always dreamed of being looked at by the man of my dreams, except I never believed that man existed before I met Pearce.
“It’s difficult, I won’t lie,” he says with a sigh. “Every single instinct I possess is telling me to take you now. To take you hard. To make you mine in every single way. But I’m not a beast—”
I dig my fingernails deeper into his chest. “Are you sure about that?”
He laughs huskily. “Fair point. You turn me into an animal. But I’m not just a beast. I’m not going to force you into doing something before you’re ready for it.”
“It’s not that I’m not ready,” I whisper. “Or maybe I am. I don’t know.”
“Try and explain,” he asks.
He sits and drags me into his lap. Despite all his talk about not being an animal, I can feel his hardness through his pants, pressing against my ass. I shift a little, feeling his thick cock rub against me, savoring it.
He grunts and grabs onto my thigh. I can feel him, his need to slide his hand up my leg and in between my thighs. He wants to push against my sex. And I want it to, so freaking badly, want to grab his wrist and guide him up between my thighs, push against that warm wet place.