Secret Crush Seduction, page 18
Piper couldn’t stop the bubble of hysterical laughter at her own joke. Steel for the son of the steel magnates. Seriously, she needed to get a grip or the speech she’d been working on was not going to come out the way she’d planned.
And that would piss her off more than anything.
Tonight might be Stone’s return to society and freedom, but it was also going to provide closure. The last piece she needed to fully put the past behind her.
Slowly, murmurs began. People shifted. And then someone pushed through the crowd to clap Stone on the back and welcome him home. Hands propelled him forward through the crowd. For the better part of an hour Piper kept to the edges, watching as he greeted people he’d known his entire life with a blank expression that never shifted. He didn’t smile or laugh. Stone was polite and confident, remote and untouched.
He was different and that was her fault.
However, that wasn’t going to stop her from asking the questions she’d been denied answers to for ten years.
Piper waited, watching and biding her time. She refused the cold, frosted glasses of champagne several circulating waiters tried to entice her with. The last thing she needed right now was to be even more off-kilter.
When Stone cut through the crowd for his mother, leaned down and whispered something into her ear before heading for the stairs, Piper knew it was now or never. Her mouth went dry and for a moment she regretted not having one of the flutes so she could at least take a tiny sip. What she was about to do would be difficult if she couldn’t find her voice.
With a deep breath, she skirted around the crowd, avoiding the main staircase Stone had used in favor of the smaller one tucked into the back of the room that the staff had been utilizing. Growing up, this house had been just as familiar as her own. Maybe more. She knew every nook and crevice. Had explored them with the man now trying to escape from the party thrown in his honor.
Escape her.
But Piper was done letting him ignore her.
The heavy wooden door at the top of the staircase opened onto the quiet hallway just in time for her to register the click of the library door closing at the far end. Of course he’d go there, the room where they’d spent so many hours together. The room filled with happiness and good memories.
As kids, they’d curl up on the rug in front of the massive fireplace and laugh as they read aloud to each other of wild and outlandish adventures. As teens, they’d lounged on the soft, tufted sofas, doing homework and philosophizing about the future.
Life had been so amazing, so wide-open with possibility.
And then it wasn’t.
But not even that painful memory could stop her from opening the door and following him inside. Words, long practiced, swirled in her brain as the door snicked quietly closed behind her. Piper pressed her back against it, needing the support of the solid surface.
A warm, muted glow from a series of wall sconces washed the entire room in golden light. At the other end, Stone stood in front of the huge, curved windows, his back to her. Without even turning he said, “I wondered how long you were going to wait.”
The heavy rumble of his voice scraped along all of her already jangling nerves. Electricity skipped across her skin. It was that simple and that complicated. Her reaction to this man had been a jumble of conflicting emotions for years.
Piper realized she was frozen like one of the ice swans that adorned the buffet downstairs when Stone twisted his neck, pinning her with a laser gaze. His remote expression was like a swift kick in the gut.
Asshole.
They’d been through too much for him to look at her with the same blank, dispassionate expression he’d given everyone else.
She deserved more from him, dammit.
Suddenly, she shot across the room, her long legs eating up ground as she raced toward him. All the words she’d practiced bubbled on her tongue, ready to spill out of her mouth.
Stone turned, his feet braced wide and his hands balled into the pockets of his perfectly tailored suit pants.
She wanted to slap him. To relish the sound of her hand cracking across that strong, stubborn jaw.
But she couldn’t do it. Even angry, she was still so relieved to finally see him.
Instead, the momentum she’d gathered drove her straight into him. Her arms wrapped around his broad frame, plastering her body against him. Warmth and happiness and a churning regret settled deep in her belly.
Piper’s eyes closed as a wave of yearning crashed over her.
It was so damn good to hold him.
And then she realized he hadn’t moved. Stone’s fists were still heavy balls tucked into the pockets of his pants. And his tall frame was as solid and unmoving as the wall behind them.
Embarrassment mixed with the anger that had initially propelled her forward.
She hadn’t come here to throw herself at him.
Pushing away, she tried to find some space. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I just watched two dozen people that don’t really give a damn fawn all over you like you’re the second coming of Christ, all while silently condemning them for being hypocritical and phony.”
For a flash of a second a twinkle sparkled deep in his warm, tawny eyes. But it only lasted a breath before it was snuffed out. “That makes two of us.”
“And I basically just did the same thing.”
“Hardly.”
Piper shook her head. “But it was either hug you or slap the hell out of you.”
Stone’s lush lips pulled down at the corners. “You’re mad at me.”
“Of course I’m mad at you, you nitwit.” Great, now she was calling him names. She was breaking all the rules tonight. Why wouldn’t she? She was dealing with Anderson Stone after all, the man known for thinking the rule book was nothing more than a suggestion.
“There’s no reason.”
Was he serious? “No reason? Stone, you refused to see or speak to me for ten years. And after killing my stepbrother in order to protect me.”
Sure, their relationship had been complicated back then, but they’d still been close. Best friends. And then he was just...gone.
When she’d needed him most.
But that wasn’t what she was still angry about. She’d come to terms with what had happened. She’d spent years in therapy, getting the help she needed to work through her own anger and guilt. What she hadn’t been able to let go of was the way he’d simply shut her out, refusing to let her protect him the way he’d always protected her.
“You didn’t give me a chance, Stone. To admit that Blaine had been intimidating and harassing me for years before things escalated.” Saying the words made the remnants of her own fury and regret spike. “You sacrificed everything, and then refused to talk to me.”
Piper was so wrapped up in her own irritation that she didn’t register the change in Stone’s posture and expression until his hands wrapped around her upper arms, pulling her onto the tips of her toes so she could look him eye to eye.
“Harassing you for years?” The words were deadly, right along with the murderous expression just inches from her face. Unease skittered down Piper’s spine and had her swallowing loudly in a useless attempt to get a grasp on the sudden turn of emotions.
Stone’s words were measured and deliberate. “That wasn’t the first time he’d hurt you?”
Slowly, Piper shook her head. “No. I mean, yes.”
A low rumble rolled up through his chest, reminding her of a caged beast. One about ready to break free. “Which is it?”
“No, he hadn’t sexually assaulted me before that night. But he’d hit me. Pinched me. Scared me. Once he cut me with a pair of scissors. But he pretended it was an accident and I couldn’t prove it wasn’t.”
That history with Blaine was part of the reason she’d kept silent when she should have spoken up. Not only had everything happened so quickly that she hadn’t really had time. But once she’d realized what Stone had done...she was afraid no one would believe her if she told the truth. Any evidence she’d had to support her claim against Blaine had been gone. She was afraid, hurt and lost. And uncertain that anything she had to say would make a difference.
Stone’s fingers flexed around her biceps. He carefully lowered her until her feet were back flat on the ground. With deliberate care, his fingers unwrapped from her body, one by one. His hands brushed down her arms sending a cascade of tingles racing across her skin.
The softness of his touch was in such stark contrast to the harsh expression on his face. Piper wanted to touch him again. Instead, it was her turn to ball her hands into fists.
Scooting her to the side, Stone strode away from her. Bewildered, Piper spun after him. “Where are you going?” They were far from done with this conversation.
Hands pressing into the ornate carvings on the door, Stone growled, “I want to dig up that asshole so I can pound his skull in again.”
Piper’s knees buckled. They just...failed her. One minute she was standing and the next she was a pile of arms and legs on the floor. Crap. Not exactly the picture of a powerful, successful woman she’d wanted to project.
She’d planned to show him she was strong now. Prove to herself, and him, that she was fine without him. Apparently, not true.
Stone’s beautiful golden eyes went wide. His powerful body eating up ground, so she barely had time to pull a deep breath into her lungs before she was moving through the air, the world wobbling around her. But it righted again when she stopped, cradled against Stone’s hard body.
The heady scent of him swirled around her. His warmth seeped into her skin, melting through her and making her already unsteady legs feel like jelly. Piper stared up at him, dazed and unsettled.
The harsh line of his mouth, pulled down at the corners, was so close. Right there. What was wrong with her that she wanted to close the miniscule gap between them and taste him?
It wasn’t the first time she’d had the urge, but it had been a long time. So much for thinking she had complete control of herself.
Settling her onto the nearest sofa, a big leather monstrosity that was a heck of a lot more comfortable than it looked, Stone crouched in front of her. He stared at her for several seconds, his face so familiar and yet so foreign. Before she would have known exactly what he was thinking. Not only because they’d been so close she could practically finish his sentences, but because his expression had been so open she could read his emotions like one of the books on the shelves behind him.
Now there was nothing. No hint of what he thought or felt.
And for the first time since she’d planned this confrontation she stopped long enough to really wonder how their reunion made him feel.
No, that wasn’t true. She’d thought about it and pushed away the only logical explanation she could come up with. He’d been so angry at her for what happened, for ruining his life—or so disgusted by what he’d seen that night—that he couldn’t stomach the sight of her.
What she didn’t understand was why he’d sacrificed his freedom and future for her if that was true?
Piper shook her head, unable to reconcile Stone’s actions any more now than she had then, or over the last ten years.
Stone was the first to break contact, settling his gaze on her shoulder. The sleeveless couture gown she was wearing had a high collar that wrapped around her throat and a subtly sexy keyhole that left a large part of her spine naked. His gaze followed the line of her arm that was draped across the curve of her hip.
The deep pink flat of his tongue slipped across his mouth as his gaze traveled down her body. His fingers followed, rough and warm when they ghosted over her shoulder and down the line of her arm. Barely there, the touch was a whisper and shouldn’t have been enough to ignite a flame deep inside.
But then her body had never responded right when Stone was around. At least, not since she was fifteen.
“Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
Piper shrugged. “What could I say? You know Blaine was a brat from the day I moved in.”
Stone’s face went hard again, shutting off in a way that made her fingers jerk with the need to touch him. Soothe him. But that wasn’t her right.
“There’s a huge difference between being a prick and physically harming you, Piper.” Stone’s voice dripped with irritation.
“I’m well aware of that, Stone,” she snapped. “It’s not like it was constant. Things would be okay, as okay as they ever could be with Blaine, and then out of the blue he’d just pass me in the hallway and punch me hard enough to leave a bruise. But never where anyone else would see.”
“You should have said something.”
She shrugged. “So you could do what? If I’d ever thought he’d go so far... I would have. But I was almost free. A couple more months and I would have been out of the house and away from him.”
She’d often wondered if that was what had set him off—changed things—that night. It was a question she’d never get the answer to.
Piper waved her hand, brushing the topic away. “There’s no point in rehashing any of that.” She’d spent years in therapy and had come to a sense of peace where Blaine was concerned.
What she needed now was closure with Stone. To move past the craving she’d spent years trying to convince herself didn’t exist.
She’d walked into this room angry with him—and herself—but underneath all of that had always lived a bubbling well of yearning and bewilderment. Now, staring into his golden eyes, she had the overwhelming urge to find some way to finally purge it.
“I’m sorry,” she said, the words out of her mouth before she even realized she wanted to say them.
“For what?”
For what? How could he not know? “For ruining your life.”
Copyright © 2020 by Kira Bazzel
Keep reading for an excerpt from Here to Stay by Adriana Herrera.
Here to Stay
by Adriana Herrera
Chapter One
Julia
If you assumed that being a grown-ass woman who paid her bills and lived ten states away from my Dominican mother meant she would not be all up in my business, you’d be wrong.
“Mamí, I gotta go. I need to go and see my boss. It’s important.” My stomach dipped, remembering how my boss pressed had sounded. Gail, who was usually cool as a cucumber, was pretty flustered when she’d asked to see me. Not that I blamed her. Things around here were getting more stressful by the minute. My new job, on paper, was a dream.
A job as program director for the Sturm Foundation. Not only did I get to do the work I was passionate about, but I was also employed by one of the most iconic high-end department stores in the world. There was also that seriously impressive employee discount.
Sample sales and meaningful work... I was living the dream.
Except as soon as I got to Dallas, the boyfriend I moved across the country for dumped me for his side-chick. And now six months later when I finally felt like I was settling in, things had taken a not-so-great turn at work. So arriving late to an important meeting with my boss was not the best move I’d ever made, and yet here I was in a hallway making a personal call. Because my family was my Kryptonite and they knew it.
“Okay, pero abuelita wants to say hi.” My mother was aware things at my job were stressful, but that did not keep her from laying on the guilt. “You know she gets worried about you down there by yourself.” You’d think instead of Dallas I’d relocated to the moon. I hoped my mother didn’t start with the guilt trip and demands to come back home. I was not in the mood and it was not the time.
I looked around the empty hallway to check if anyone was around and nodded like my mother could see me. “Fine, Mami, but just one minute.” Sturm’s headquarters was in a downtown Dallas building built in 1914. It was gorgeous inside and out but like only vintage architecture could be, but the halls were narrow and the ceilings low, so it wasn’t like I could go unnoticed while lurking in a corner. I wasn’t trying to get myself on the radar of anyone who could fire me, especially now that we seemed to be in a Code Red at the foundation. After just a couple of months into my new position, the higher-ups at Sturm’s had announced that the fashion empire was preparing to go public after almost sixty years as a private company. They’d hired a firm to help them in the process and in the last week they had deployed a team of men and women power that had been walking through the hallways looking like a wolf pack hunting for prey. They were very easy to spot in their dark and boring suits, a striking contrast to the Sturm’s workforce, who, no matter what shape or size, walked around looking runway ready.
Gail had warned me that our program—hell, the whole foundation—was on the team leader’s radar and very likely to end up on the chopping block. So, me chatting on my phone instead of sitting at my cube working was not likely to go over well. I winced, remembering I’d seen him walking around this morning.
“Lita, mija, are you still there?” I almost jumped three feet in the air when the voice of my grandmother startled me out of my anxious inner ramblings.
“Aqui estoy, Abue.”
“Your Mamí said you’re trying to meet strangers from the computer.” I cracked a smile at my grandmother’s suspicion for anything that happened via the internet.
“Abue, I am not meeting people from the computer. They all work here.” I could barely hold back a laugh as a round of tongue clicking ensued. “We’re just planning a meetup using an app, because the company is big and we don’t all know each other.” I tried to sound as reassuring as possible because neither my mother nor my grandmother were above getting on a plane and crashing my happy hour.
