“No, he didn’t touch me. But he knows about us. He knows that something has happened between us.”
“I know it’s not ideal that I wasn’t here when he showed up, but he was bound to find out eventually. I would’ve told him myself.”
“Would you have?”
“Of course.”
“Why?”
“Because I want you. It’s that simple, Piper. Iwantyou.”
“It’s not that simple, Christian, and you know it.”
I close the distance between us, my throat tight with frustration andheartbreak and every damn feeling I’ve been trying to bury since the day I realized I couldn’t stay away from her.
“Would we even be having this conversation if Travis hadn’t gotten into your head? Because ever since I left you this morning, all I could think about was coming home to you. I’ve been imagining us figuring this out together.” I take a shaky breath, steadying my words before they spill out too fast. “I’ll admit I was scared. Hell, I still am. But I was ready to have that conversation with you. The real one where we stop pretending this is just temporary. Where we quit hiding, like what we have is something we should be ashamed of. But it seems like you already made the decision about what we are, and the worst part is that you did it without me.”
“Christian,” she says softly, and when our eyes meet, there’s no fire there, just sadness and heartbreak. “The way I feel about you… God, I can’t even think about it right now because it hurts.” Her hand presses to her chest like she’s trying to keep herself from falling apart. “It physically hurts to know what I’m walking away from. But I also know, when all is said and done, that Travis is your son. And no matter what this is between us… no matter how real it feels… that relationship will always have to come first.”
“Are you asking me to choose?”
Her eyes go wide. “No. God, no. And I never would. You have to believe that.”
Of course I believe her.
I know she’s not standing here trying to back me into a corner or force some impossible choice. But that doesn’t mean she’s wrong about the situation we’re in.
“But Travis will make you choose,” she whispers as tears spill down her cheeks. “And I can’t be the reason you lose him. I won’t be that woman. You’re his father, Christian. And no matter what he’s said and done, he’s still your kid.” She swipes at her tears with the back of her hand. “And I know you. You’re too good a man, too good a father, to turn your back on him forever. But that’s what staying with me would mean. That’s what he told me himself—if we keep going, if this becomes something real, there’s no coming back from it. Not for him.”
“I made my choice the second I touched you, Piper. I knew exactlywhat crossing that line would cost me. I knew it could destroy my relationship with Travis, and I did it anyway. So what the hell does that tell you?”
“It tells me you’re a man who was thinking with the wrong damn brain.”
Chapter 21
Piper
The way Christianphysically recoils crushes me. It’s like I reached into his chest and tore out his heart with my bare hands. His body moves backward, just a single step, but it might as well be an entire continent, and I feel like I’m watching something fundamental between us shatter. His face is unreadable, his jaw locked tight, and his expression is frozen, like he’s doing everything he can not to feel what he’s feeling. But I see it in his eyes, the warmth that used to live there—the pull, the fire, the depth I could lose myself in—it’s gone, drained away like someone flipped a switch.
No, not someone.
Me.
I’ve done this.
I see the truth of what I mean to him blazing in his eyes. Christian’s feelings run deeper than desire. Every glance, every gentle touch screams it, and I know he’ll want to fight for us with everything he has. He’ll try to hold onto both Travis and me, and no matter how much he wants that to work, it never will. Travis won’t allow it. He won’t sit back and watch his dad choose me, pretending like it doesn’t destroy what little relationship they have left, and Christian deserves better than that.
He deserves the peace he’s spent years chasing, and if Travis was telling the truth—though it seems unlikely—what if one day he could actually build a relationship with Christian? Yes, what Travis did to me would require a mountain of forgiveness for Christian to move past, but people have been forgiven for worse.
“You think I’ve been sleeping with you because I can’t control my dick? Piper, I could walk into any damn bar in this town and find someone like Daisy Warren to spread her legs and scratch that itch if all I wanted was a warm body to lose myself in.” My breath catches in my throat, and his gaze finally lifts, colliding with mine. “You really think I’m that stupid? That I’d risk everything for a quick, meaningless fuck? Give me some goddamn credit.”
His fingers twitch at his side like he’s one second away from grabbing me and hauling me into him, and god, I want him to.
“What I feel for you is the kind of thing that makes men burn their whole world down just to taste it twice.” He’s close enough now that I can feel the heat rolling off his skin. “So don’t you ever reduce this to just sex again. Because this thing between us is why I can’t sleep. It’s why I wake up in the middle of the night reaching for you, and why my heart feels like it’s trying to claw its way out of my chest every time you walk into a room.”
My heart shatters, the pieces falling somewhere near my feet as I force the biggest lie of my life past my lips. “We got swept up in something that was always going to end, Christian. How could this ever work? Just look at us. Look at where we are.”
“You think I haven’t tortured myself with this exact fucking question? You think I don’t lie awake at night hating myself for betraying my own kid?” His hands rake through his hair. “Christ, Piper, I’m nearly twenty years older than you. You’ve got your whole damn life stretched out ahead of you, and by the time you’re my age, I’ll be some worn-out old bastard. Who in their right fucking mind would sign up for that?”
