A Mutually Beneficial Secret: A Spicy Secret Office Relationship RomCom (The Unexpected Book 3), page 13
Her honesty takes me by surprise and has my chest tightening. I reach over and set the items I’ve brought in down on the long entry table behind her.
When I step back to Piper, I pull her into my arms and squeeze. “Would it make you feel better to know that I changed clothes more than a few times?”
She nods against my shoulder. “It does, actually.” Then, she releases me. “Since you weren’t here long the first time, let me give you a tour. A real one. Not like the one you gave me. Not that there was anything wrong with yours. I mean… I’m going to shut up now.”
I chuckle as she tries to hide her rosy cheeks from me, then reach to intertwine her fingers with mine. “It’s okay, Piper. There are no expectations tonight.”
Okay, maybe I’m lying a little. There are definite hopes for how this evening ends, but there’s no pressure she needs to worry about. I hope she knows that.
She finally smiles up at me and squeezes our combined hands. “Thank you.”
We continue down the small hallway, and it opens up into a cozy living room with cream-colored walls and bright paintings hung up. Brown couches take up a lot of the floor space, then there’s a big screen on the wall above a propane fireplace.
Up ahead is the kitchen and a small yet tall pub table that has four chairs but is probably better suited for three.
“Snacks on the counter for whenever you’re hungry,” she says, then laughs. “This seems self-explanatory, but here’s the kitchen and we just passed the family room.”
I grin. “Very lovely. You’ve already made this home in just a few weeks.”
She shrugs, then pulls me along. We go back past the living room and through a shorter hallway. She points at the first door. “Bathroom there and a storage closet after that. Please don’t get them confused.”
A chuckle builds in my chest. “Has that happened in the short time you’ve lived here?”
She shakes her head and frowns. “No, but my friends will be here in two weeks, and I’m worried it might then, so I decided to make it a habit to remind people when I give the tours.”
“How many tours have you given?” I raise a brow and hope none recently.
Her grip tightens on my hand that she’s still holding. “Just Shannon and you.”
Well, that makes me feel better. Though, I wish I had been the first.
We continue to a set of stairs at the end of the hallway. They lead to a small landing with three more doors. She points to each one, beginning with the first on our right. “That’s my office-slash-guest room, then the bathroom that also has a door to lead into my room, which is on the left.”
Her office door is cracked open, and I nod toward it. “Do I get to see where you work when you’re not at Alliteration?”
She hesitates, then says, “Sure. It’s nothing special, given the lack of room I have here.”
I follow her into the space, and the first thing I notice is the bunk beds. “Interesting choice.”
“You’ll understand more when you meet Kenzie and Ella,” she says, then her face blanches. “I mean, this is if you still want to while they’re here.”
I jerk her toward me, placing our still combined hands against my chest. “I would love to meet the women you talk so much about.”
She smiles, and I can’t wait any longer. I lean forward, pressing my mouth to hers. Her tongue barely peeks out and I don’t miss the opportunity to part her lips with mine.
As much as I want to continue, with as distant as Piper has been all week, I force myself back, then glance at her desk. There are two monitors on a wooden surface that take up half of the surface, and I notice her laptop is missing from the docking station. In the middle is a keyboard that’s covered by printed chapter pages.
“I thought you stopped printing for edits,” I tease and reach for the sheets.
She smacks my hand away. “Those are, um, old. Come on. I need to cut the brownies before they, uh, get cold.”
Interesting. I thought it was better to cut them when they were cooler, but then again, I’m not a baker and don’t question her. Piper releases my hand and gives me a nudge back out the door and closes it behind her while I go down the stairs first.
I make my way to the kitchen and lean against the counter before grabbing one of the crackers and a slice of cheese. “Thanks for thinking of food.”
She nibbles at her lower lip and nods while pulling a knife from one of the drawers next to the oven.
Instead of letting the awkwardness from her office linger, I decide we need a distraction. “I’m going to go grab the games and get one set up. I have two card games: Never Have I Ever and Two Truths and a Lie. I also brought Monopoly and Sorry if you like longer games. Which one?”
Piper’s eyes don’t leave the brownies until she finally answers me. “Never Have I Ever.”
It isn’t until I’ve moved out of eyesight from her that I let the grin grow across my face. Tonight is going to be even better than I expected.
By the time I have the box opened and cards organized, Piper enters the living room with a plate between her hands that’s filled with a little of everything that she has out on the counter. “Do any of the drinks you brought need to go in the fridge?”
“Only the wine. I brought a red and white since I wasn’t sure what you preferred,” I answer, then add, “Or, you’re welcome to the whiskey I also brought.”
She reaches for the bag sitting next to me on the couch and takes it with her back to the kitchen. I expect her to return with a wine glass and whatever she has for my whiskey, but instead, she has two glass tumblers and the now-open bottle in hand.
I don’t comment on her drink choice. Instead, I begin to explain the rules of the game, adding a few of my own and tossing out the rule cards when they seem to complicate things more than I think tonight needs.
“So, we’ll take turns drawing cards from this stack. If you’ve done what’s on your card, then you lay it down in front of you and take a drink. Once you have ten guilty cards, then you win. No skips or pleading the fifth as you Americans like to say. If you really don’t want to answer, you drink anyway and I get to assume the answer. We’ll take turns drawing cards from the pile. And just to keep things interesting, if we’re both guilty, we both drink.”
While biting at the inside of her cheek, she glances at the whiskey, then at the stacks of cards.
“You can change to the wine if you’d rather,” I offer with a smile.
Her head shakes stiffly. “Honestly, I’m wishing I’d chosen Sorry, but no, this is good.”
“Are you sure? I can get the board game out.” I’m not about to push this divine woman away over a stupid card game.
She nods and meets my gaze. “Absolutely. I’ll go first.” She picks up a card, then snorts. There’s a spark in her eyes and a smile lifting on her lips. “Never have I ever bought tampons.”
A pout immediately lands on my face. “That is a horrible card.”
She takes the bottle and pours both of us a drink before lifting her glass toward those perfect lips of hers. “You bought the game. I just agreed to play.” Then, she takes a longer pull than I expect and doesn’t even cough when she sets the glass back down.
To say I’m shocked and even more intrigued is an understatement.
I grab the next card and laugh. “Never have I ever been skinny dipping.” My eyes watch her hand, and when she reaches for her glass, I tilt my head in interest while taking my own drink.
“Seriously. You’ll understand more in a couple weeks. Kenzie is a special breed,” Piper answers my unasked question. I merely nod while she goes again.
Her face goes pale, and I’m sure she’s about to bow out, but a few seconds later, she finally reads the card. “Never ever have I had sex with someone whose name I didn’t know.”
Piper’s green eyes watch my hand, but I don’t lift my glass. That’s something I’ve never done and don’t intend to do in the future either.
Then, I see her drink lift, and my mouth pops open. “Oh, do tell, and you can’t blame this one on your friend, either.”
She finishes the sip and shakes her head. “Nope. That’s not part of the game. I can admit to anything, but you don’t get the details.”
“Damn, I should have amended more of the rules,” I say with feigned hurt.
Piper’s smile lights up the room as I pull the next card. This is exactly what we needed, and I’m going to make sure we get through this whole deck before the night is over or the whiskey is gone.
Chapter Twenty-One
A LITTLE CROOKED
Piper
The whiskey bottle is nearly gone. My eyes can see that, but my brain doesn’t quite compute what that means. At least, not yet.
I’m having too much fun with Colin to care if I’m more than a little drunk. The only things that matter are that the room isn’t spinning and I don’t have the sudden need to run for the toilet.
The seemingly never-ending deck of Never Have I Ever cards is finally dwindling, but we seem to have stopped picking them up and have begun making up our questions.
“Never have I ever wore men’s underwear,” I say with a giggle, then hiccup as my laughter grows.
Colin glares at me. “You’re trying to purposefully get me sloshed, aren’t you?”
Using my pointer finger, I draw an imaginary halo around my head. “I’d never.”
His English accent is really coming out now, and it’s making him even hotter, but at this point, the sex is probably going to be drunk and sloppy and… Okay, maybe that’s not so bad.
“My turn,” he demands. “Never have I ever…um, shit, we’ve been playing this for too long to remember what’s already been done. Uh, never have I ever wanted to be anything other than an editor.”
His hand smacks his forehead, and he takes a small sip from the tumbler. “I clearly didn’t think that one through.”
I’m mid-sip and some of the whiskey dribbles down my chin. “No, you should have said never have I ever had a vagina.”
His face blanches, then he laughs so hard I’m not even sure he can breathe properly. “You said vagina.”
Now, it’s my turn to smack my forehead. “Yes, you know that part of me that your dick loves so much. I wouldn’t laugh too hard at that.”
He sobers quickly and winks at me. “Yes, ma’am. Let’s go back to my question. What did you want to be if not an editor? Let me guess. A princess.”
My head shakes, and then I groan from the action, pushing my glass further. I know when enough is enough. “Nope, not that. A writer—I mean. No, that’s not right. Um, a…I don’t know.”
Oh, God. I just told this man my darkest secret. The one not a single soul on this earth knows. Yeah, I’m definitely done drinking now.
Colin’s head cocks to the side, and his eyes squint at me. “A writer? You know when I first sat with you, I thought you had the passion for writing. Glad to see I was accurate in my observation. Have you written anything?”
I shake my finger at him since that’s safer than my head. “No, I didn’t say writer. I said raider like Tomb Raider. Totally wanted to be her when I grew up.”
Intoxicated brain for the win. I have no clue how I just pulled that one out of my ass.
“I don’t believe you, and I think it’s great you want to write.” He pauses, and it’s almost as if his light-gray eyes pierce my soul for the briefest second. “You shouldn’t be ashamed of your dreams. You should embrace them.”
Damn it. Why did he have to say that? Why does he have to make me feel so much with just his words and the way he looks at me? I can’t tell if it’s my inebriated state or how much I’m beginning to care about this man, but I suddenly have word vomit unlike ever before.
“I have embraced them. A lot, actually. Though, only privately, and I’ve never finished a full book. Only short fanfics or partial plots that I was too afraid to complete for fear that I might actually want to share them with anyone who could ruin the escape that my writing is for me. It’s a stress relief unlike anything I’ve ever done. A way to channel emotions that might not be acceptable to express otherwise.”
Colin reaches for me, giving my thigh a soft squeeze, and my already-racing heart feels like it’s about to rip from my chest. “Thank you for sharing that with me. With as badly as you’re shaking right now, I don’t imagine that was easy.”
I snort-laugh. “Being intoxicated helps, but I’ll probably regret this in the morning. No offense to you, it’s just I haven’t even told my best friends and now they’ll probably kill me for telling you first.”
He winks at me. “I’ll be sure to save you from any murderous attempts they plan to make on your life.”
I giggle and swoon dramatically, batting my lashes up at him and holding a hand to my chest. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Colin holds tighter to my leg, then grabs my waist with his other hand. I suddenly find myself moving over the cards. Before I can even get a squeal out, I’m sitting in his lap.
“Is that sarcasm I sense, Ms. Fitz?” he murmurs against my ear.
I smirk. “Maybe.”
“Maybe I need to show you my hidden talents, so you believe I’m capable of keeping you safe,” he says with a low growl in his voice.
Heat unfurls deep within me and spreads throughout my body as I shamelessly wiggle over his lap. “Or, you could just have your way with me, and we could pretend this conversation never happened.”
His responding grin makes my skin tingle, and I reach for his outstretched hand. When his fingers grip my wrist to help me up, he whispers, “No amount of whiskey could make me forget this night, Piper, but I will gladly have my way with you.”
Oh, God. What have I done? I don’t know and I don’t even think it’s a bad thing, but am I ready for this? Am I ready for the big feelings Colin evokes from me? I’m not sure, but I don’t want to stop our night.
I need him too much right now.
“Then, let’s go upstairs,” I say when I’m finally on two feet and leaning against his chest.
Now that we’re both standing, the alcohol seems to be hitting me harder. I sway more than I expect, but Colin uses the couch to help keep us upright and we carefully make our way to the stairs.
Between the two of us, we manage to turn off all the lights as we go, double-check the door is locked, and get upstairs with only one near-death episode while traversing the suddenly precarious steps.
By the time we get to my bedroom, all the previous seriousness is gone and we’re laughing our asses off when I ask how my shirt is somehow half off and why Colin’s pants are unbuttoned, barely staying up.
“What can I say? I’m desperate for naked time, love. I need to see your tits more than I need…water,” Colin says. I try not to allow my chest to tighten once again at his casual use of the pet name “love.”
Though, his mention of water does remind me that we both need to take something for our heads or we will be hating life when the sun rises.
“Hold those ‘tit’ thoughts.” Before he can stop me, I head into my bathroom and open the drawer, knowing I have pain medicine here for when my cramps aren’t playing nice.
I grab two pills for each of us and fill up the plastic cup I keep on my sink with tap water. Not the best, but it’s better than risking the stairs again.
I drink the whole cup while downing the pills then quickly refill when I can hear Colin grunting in the other room. Though, my rush is more out of curiosity than concern.
My brain can’t compute what my eyes are seeing when I get back into the bedroom. Colin’s arms are trapped in his shirt. His shoes are still on and stuck inside his jeans, and he’s bent over my mattress with his boxer-brief-covered ass in the air.
I have to cover my mouth to stifle the laughter bubbling inside me that only gets louder when he mutters, “Help a bloke out.”
“I’m not even sure where to start,” I choke out, my shoulders still shaking from the giggles.
His head turns sideways. “Are you laughing at me? I’m going to smack that sweet arse of yours when I get out of this mess.”
His voice is deep and hot, and the thinly veiled threat sobers me slightly.
My feet move of their own accord. After setting the glass and pills down, I work on his shirt first so that he can have his arms back. I’m not even sure where the holes are at this point, but I begin tugging with an enthusiasm I didn’t have moments ago.
“Someone’s a little eager to get spanked, aren’t they?” Colin takes a deep inhale. “I can smell you already.”
Oh, hell. Why does that turn me on even more?
“I thought I was going to have to ease you into some things, but maybe I was wrong to assume…” Colin adds, further making my task at hand much harder than it should be.
“Please, stop talking until we’re both naked,” I beg, my voice raspy and breathy.
The smirk on his face nearly makes me regret my words, but not quite. I finally get his arms free, and the shirt gets flung across the room. When my fingers attempt to yank on his jeans, my arms are pulled back up. Before I know what’s happening, Colin has me pinned against the bed.
The grin he’s giving me makes my pussy clench with anticipation unlike anything ever has. “How’s this for having my way with you? I’m going to tie your hands to that headboard while making you scream loud enough to make your neighbors jealous.”
His words cause a heavy wave of pleasure to douse me, and I swallow thickly. “Yes, please.”
Colin grabs my chin and kisses me hard before backing up and getting his pants off all on his own.
While he’s busy with that, I get naked quicker than ever, uncaring that my clothes are being tossed all over the room. I can clean tomorrow. Tonight is about getting fucked. Literally.
Once all of our clothes have been disbanded, Colin heads for my dresser. “Where are your scarfs, assuming you don’t have any silk ties lying around?”
I point to the third drawer. “There.”
He opens it and pulls out two of them. One bright red one and one black one. “These will work good enough for tonight.”
