Do not take.
Do not want.
But fuck me, I’m desperate for a taste. More than a taste. I want the whole goddamn feast—every moan, every breath, every part of her she’s never let anyone else touch.
But it’s not just her body I’m starving for.
I want a life with her.
Travis hauled his ass back to Silverpine yesterday, and I’ve been keeping my distance from Callan’s place ever since, knowing damn well the shitstorm that’s about to hit when my brother finds out what he did to Piper.
The drive to Cal’s doesn’t take long, not when these ranch roads are as familiar as breathing. Dust fans out behind my truck in the rearview, catching the morning sun as it spills across the land in soft gold. That light always does something to these fields. It turns the grasslands into something close to magic, making it look like the earth itself is glowing.
The world outside is still waking up, with a stillness that usually brings me peace. But there’s no peace for me today, not when I’m about to walk straight into a fight.
I don’t knock when I reach Callan’s. I never have. Callan’s place has always been more of a second home than somewhere you ask permission to enter. I push through the door and head straight inside, finding my brother exactly where I expected him to be—sitting at the kitchen table with his dark hair falling loose around his face instead of pulled back like usual. Both hands are wrapped around his coffee mug, gripping it like it’s the only thing keeping him steady for the conversation we both know is coming.
“Morning,” I say, dragging out a chair and sinking into it across from him.
“Talk to me, brother.”
I exhale hard, rubbing a hand down my face. “What did Travis tell you when he showed up here?”
“Just that Piper rearranged his face. Then he went straight to the spare room before I could ask why.”
“Yeah, well, if you’d known why she left him bleeding, you’d have finished what she started.” My brother slowly sets his mug down, and I can see he’s fighting the urge to launch it across the room.
“If you’re about to tell me he hurt her, and I let him sleep under my roof, I’m gonna break your fucking legs to match his face.”
I keep my mouth shut and just take whatever he wants to throw atme because he’s right to be pissed, and I should’ve known better than to put him in that position.
“I don’t tolerate that shit, Christian. You know that.”
“I just needed him out of my sight, and in the state he was in, he needed somewhere close where he could crash and think about the kind of asshole he’s turned into.”
The rage rolling off Callan matches the fury still burning in my gut, the kind that makes you taste blood and see red.
“Cal, I’m sorry. I know how you feel, and I’m right there with you. But I wasn’t exactly thinking straight. All I could focus on was making sure Piper was safe and that I didn’t commit fucking murder. Because, I swear to god, I was one breath away from putting him in the ground.”
Raking a hand through his dark hair, he exhales with the intensity of a bull about to charge. “Walk me through exactly what happened.”
“She’s been pretty quiet about it. Just said she ended things.”
“So he hurt her?” I nod, and his fist meets the table with a crack that makes the coffee spill over the rim of his mug.
I let him feel every bit of that rage because we’ve both lived through watching good women get destroyed by worthless men. Sure, Piper probably broke Travis’s nose, but that doesn’t make us any less protective of her. It takes a few minutes, but eventually, I watch my brother pull himself back from the edge.
“I mean, she said she was gonna end things, but come on—you’d have to be fucking blind if you couldn’t see that he wasn’t the Crawford she wanted.” Callan tilts his head, watching me with those eyes that feel way too much like looking in a mirror. “And you’re about as subtle as she is when you’re in the same room.”
“I shouldn’t go there, Cal.”
“Why not? Because of your loyalty to the kid who treats you like a fucking sperm donor and puts his hands on the woman you’re crazy about?” The words hit like bullets, precise and painful.
My fists clench on instinct, the memory of finding her at that kitchen table, Travis’s blood everywhere… Fuck, I can’t keep reliving that moment.
“It’s more complicated than that. You know it is.”
“Doesn’t have to be,” he says, and I exhale hard, yanking my hat off and slapping it onto the table. “I just want to see you happy, even if it’s just for a little while.”
