Ruin Me (25 page)

Shawn slides out of his desk chair without hesitation. “I think I’m going to go hang with Mandy for a while…” he says.

“Yeah,” Kai says. “Sounds good.”

He slips out of the room, but not without sneaking one last peek at me first. I hear him lock the door behind him, sealing the two of us inside.

“Pipes…”

I collapse forward and rest my head in my hands. “Oh,
fuck
…”

He reaches for me, but I pull away the second I feel his fingertips on my skin. “Piper—”

“It’s just a casual thing?!”
I repeat his words back to him and snap up to face him. “What the
fuck
were you thinking?!”

“There was no sense in lying to him,” he says. “He saw everything he needed to put it all together.”

“What the hell are they even doing here?!”

He squeezes his eyes closed and hesitates for a second. “It’s… parent’s weekend. They came here for that—”

My head throbs with a blinding pain. “And you didn’t think this was
vital information to pass on to me
?!”

“Behold the power of your cunt, Piper.”

I throw the sheet away from me and push off the bed. “Fucking hell, Kai…”

“Piper, calm down…”

“I have to get out of here…” I mutter the words. They fall from my lips as I frantically gather my clothes off the floor. “I have to find a cab and get to the nearest airport
right fucking now
—”

“Piper, stop!”

I keep moving, scanning the floor for my underwear. I drop to my knees and fish under the bedspread to find my red panties hidden beneath it. A wave of nausea strikes me cold. I can barely even feel Kai’s hands on me as I stand up. “Don’t touch me!” I shout.

He refuses to release me and pulls me closer to his naked skin. “Piper, think about this. If you leave now, it’ll just make things worse.”

“Not for me.” I try to jerk away, but it just makes him hold my arms tighter.

“What did you think would happen when you finally showed your face again, huh?” he asks. He slaps my clothes out of my hands and I drop them to the floor. “Did you think he’d just shrug it off and welcome you back with open arms? You
gutted him
, Piper. Of course, he’s pissed. We all are.”

“Then let me go!”

“So you can leave and never come back — for
real
this time?” He shakes his head. “No.” His arms wrap around my body and he holds me against him as he lifts me off the floor. I hang suspended in his arms, my toes just barely grazing the carpet.

“Knock it off, Kai!” I try to wiggle free, but he just squeezes me tighter. Once again, I’m weightless in his strong arms.

“Say you’ll stay and I will.”

“I’m not staying here forever.”

“I’m not asking you to,” he says, his voice steady and calm. “I’m just asking for another night.”

“And what good will that do?”

“You might not think so right now, Piper, but sooner or later, you’re going to need him—”

“Bullshit!” I shake in his arms, but his brute strength holds me there.

“And when you do, you’re going to be happy you made things right with him now.”

My lips tremble. “I can’t make things right with him, Kai. It’s too late.”

He shakes his head. “No, it’s not. Just look at us.”

I stare down into his eyes. “What about us?”

“Pipes…” he whispers. “If I can manage to be alone in a room with you without the intense urge to hang myself, then so can he.”

I relax my body in his arms and he loosens his grip on me. “This wasn’t just a casual thing, was it?” I ask.

He looks back at me and his smile slowly wanders from his lips. “I don’t want to answer that.”

I furrow my brow. “Why not?”

My toes touch the floor as he lowers me down and lets go of me. “Because,” he answers, “then you’ll
definitely
leave again.” He steps away from me and bends over to grab his jeans.

“That’s not true…” I say. I watch as he steps into them and slides them up his body. “Kai, stop.”

He pauses and looks back at me. “I tried to get over it, Piper, but…” His eyes travel down my body, still naked and free. “You were wrong. I can’t keep it casual with you. You may be able to… but I can’t.”

My heart races. “So it’s all or nothing then?” I ask.

He nods. “Yeah, I guess it is.” He reaches for his shirt. Deep, red marks lash up his back, laid by my own fingernails. “But I won’t be the guy that forces you to stay. It’s up to you.”

I bite my lip to keep from screaming. I’d do anything right now to go back in time and relive that perfect week we had together. Just the two of us against the world. A blissful moment in time before reality set in. But we can’t have that again. Lightning in a bottle, as they say.

Or was it?

“Okay,” I say.

He looks back at me with hesitation. “Okay what?” he asks.

“Okay,” I repeat. “I’m in.”

“Piper…” he sighs. “Don’t say that unless you mean it.”

I step forward. “I mean it.” I keep my voice firm and strong. “Kai, I will stay here with you.”

“Pipes… Are you sure?”

“Yes,” I smile and fall into his arms. He holds me close and his lips embrace mine.

All or nothing.

I jump up and wrap my legs around his body. The fires inside of me reignite as he carries me to the bed again. Kai kisses me, hard and fast. I pull his shirt off his body and toss it to the floor where it belongs. I can feel his hardness pressing against me, begging to be freed again from his jeans. His stamina makes me grin. It’s the perfect rival to my own. It was a silent game we played together in Europe. A fun battle every night to see who could wear the other out first.

I honestly don’t remember the score. In the end, it’s safe to say we were both winners.

I unzip his jeans and push my fingers inside to claim my prize.

Chapter 25

Kai

I watch her as she moves around the room. Piper Lynch. The alabaster bastard herself.

My
Piper Lynch.

She slides her red panties up her body then grabs her bra off the floor to put it back on, too. “Where are you going?” I ask her as I push my hands behind my head. I settle against them and enjoy the show as she bends over to retrieve her blouse.

She whips her head back to glance at me. “The ladies’ room,” she answers.

“Ahh…” I say.

She rolls her eyes at me. “Get that look off your face.”

“What look?” I grin.

“That
look
,” she says as she stands up. “That smug, satisfied smirk.”

“But I
am
smug and satisfied,” I say. “I deserve the right to smirk.”

She tilts her head and slides into her jeans. My cock twitches as she pulls them up over her perfect ass. It can’t possibly be ready to go again just yet, but my blood pumps towards it anyway.

“When I get back,” she says, “we should talk.”

I wince. “But
not
talking has worked out pretty well so far.”

She buttons her blouse to the top. “There will be plenty of time for not talking later, Kai,” she says, “but now, we should talk.”

She’s right. There’s no denying that. The logistics of this arrangement won’t be easy to figure out. I was just hoping we wouldn’t have to do it immediately. “All right,” I say. “I’ll get dressed.”

Piper smiles and drifts back over to the bed. “I’ll be right back.” She leans over and kisses me, long and soft. It takes every bit of self-control to keep myself from pulling her back into this bed with me.

She flashes a wink at me before exiting the room.

I sit up and a feeling of great dread attacks my chest.

Please, Pipes. Don’t let this be like last time.

I don’t think I can take losing her again, especially not so quickly after last time. A million scenarios play out in my head as I step back inside my jeans. What if she’s already gone? What if she’s bolting across the lawn outside right now, flagging down a cab? What if I just woke up from a pleasant, yet oddly nightmarish, dream and this entire day never even happened?

What if she’s serious and she really will be right back?

I pull my shirt over my head and the door opens quickly. It slams closed fast and I turn around to see Shawn standing in front of it.

“Dude.”
His eyes are wide and alert like he just saw a real-life dinosaur.

I hold up a hand. “Shawn…” I urge.

“What the fuck was
that
?” He’s not angry at all. His lips curl at both ends and his voice is laced with hilarity.

“That was…” I inhale deep and drop every lie from my words. “That was pretty much exactly what it looks like.”

“You’re fucking Piper Lynch?” He looks so full of pride, I can’t help but chuckle a little bit.

“Yeah.”

“Since
when
?”

“We got together the first time in Europe,” I answer. “I stayed behind to be with her… but she made me leave.”

“That’s what happened?”

“It’s the edited version,” I say. “But yeah, that’s about it.”

“So, what you’re telling me is…” he muses, “that you actually
won
our bet, but you pretended not to for her sake?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Dude.” He steps forward and slaps a hand on my shoulder. “That is romantic as fuck.”

I chuckle. “Okay, Shawn.”

“Do you want your car back? It’s only fair.”

I shake my head. “The car is yours, man.”

“All right,” he says, “but you get driving privileges — whenever you want.”

“Fair enough.”

“Wow…” he breathes. “You and Piper.”

“Me and Piper.”

“What are you guys going to do now?”

I shake my head. “She says she’s going to stay in the country.”

“I’m sensing a
but
there,” he says. “You don’t believe her?”

I tilt my head as a stream of thoughts clog my mind. “I’m… cautiously optimistic. Piper isn’t exactly the type to act on impulse. We’re supposed to talk about it when she gets back from the bathroom.”

“Piper’s not in the bathroom,” he says.

I furrow my brow. “What?”

“She’s in Mandy’s room,” he explains. “They kicked my ass out.”

I’d feel disappointed, but I’m actually not at all surprised. Mandy’s been a constant between us since the very beginning. It makes sense that Piper would run to her for guidance. Hell, it’s my first instinct, too.

“What are you going to do about your parents?” Shawn asks.

I flinch. I’d actually managed to go ten minutes without imagining Philip Lynch’s red eyes casting flames at me. Although, I’d rather bare witness to that over my mother’s awkward eyes, full of confusion and disappointment in me. “Fuck,” I breathe. “I don’t know.”

“Well, for what it’s worth…” Shawn stands up tall. “I support you, Kai.” He winks at me. Clearly, the only thing he supports about all of this is that now I’m finally getting laid again. It doesn’t matter that the girl is my stepsister.

“Thank you, Shawn,” I say. “You’re a true friend.”

He nods.

***

I give the girls ten minutes. A nervous flutter tickles my insides as I make my way down the hall to Mandy’s room. It’s oddly familiar to me and I flashback to those slow-motion moments on the train to Rome. She was hiding out in the bathroom and I stood outside of it, waiting for her to open up and let me in so I could kiss her. I wasn’t completely sure at the time if I was even going to go through with it, but when she opened the door and I saw that lust buried deep in her eyes, the same lust I had for her, the decision was made for me.

I gripped her pink cheeks and kissed those soft lips for the first time.