Page 38 of Captivated

“What is it with loud noises interrupting us?” My annoyance with being interrupted is short-lived as Piper chuckles in my arms.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think my heart can take it anymore,” she replies just as her head shifts around mine and she squints at something behind me. “Hey. What’s that?” Moving towards whatever she’s set her sights on, I follow her attentively, knowing at this point I’d follow her anywhere as the crunch of leaves beneath our feet becomes the only sound around us.

“Oh, wow,” she exclaims as we stop in front of a part of the chain-link fence that separates the park from other businesses. As I make my way around her, the vision of hundreds of locks secured to the metal shine in the lights from the buildings on the other side.

“Damn. I didn’t even know this was here.”

“This is incredible. Look! They have names on them,” Piper says as she gets closer, inspecting the inscriptions on dozens of the locks. Combination locks, old-fashioned key locks, and locks of every color are bound together on the chain-link fence, symbolizing a connection between lovers, both past and present. The smile on Piper’s face is mesmerizing as she admires the intricacy of each link, her eyes brightening up as well from the reflection of light from behind the fence. “What an amazing way to declare your devotion to someone.”

“That’s a pretty bold statement, for sure,” I say, shoving my hands in my pockets while I ask myself if I would ever be willing to put a lock on the fence for someone. It doesn’t take me long to realize that Piper would probably be the only person I could see myself doing that with someday in the future.

Future. Fuck, this woman is making me expand my relationship vocabulary. I don’t think I’ve ever thought about a future with a woman, except in terms of minutes and how long it would be between meeting her and fucking her.

But with Piper, I see days ahead—weekends lounging in bed, dates months from now, sex with her repeatedly because I know that one time with her will not be enough.

“I’ve heard of places like this is various cities. There was actually one in Denver when…” she cuts herself off, instant worry apparent on her face, pulling me from the emotional spiral I was just sliding down.

“Denver, huh?”

“Uh, yeah. When I was driving out to Emerson Falls, I stopped in Denver for a few days. There was fence like this in a part of the city with hundreds more locks than this one, obviously,” she fidgets nervously, playing with her hair. “I know there’s a fence like this in Paris too. It must be a thing,” she shrugs. But this is not the first time I’ve noticed her acting strange when she spoke of her life before Oregon—and I can’t help the inkling in my mind that something doesn’t quite add up.

Shaking off my intuition, I decide to focus on ending the night on a high note. Once I get Piper back to the main part of the park, I order an Uber to take us back to her apartment, and then me to my house. Maintaining my gentlemanly ways, I open the door for Piper and help her out of the car, asking the driver to stay put while we say our goodbyes.

“Well, Cash… I just want you to know how impressed I am with your ability to roll with the punches tonight. I know tonight didn’t go according to your plan, but regardless, I loved it,” she smiles up at me when we arrive at her door, and that million-dollar smile makes me feel like the richest man on Earth.

“So, did I impress you enough to secure a second date then?” I ask, knowing that a second date with Piper would be the only second date I’ve ever agreed to.

Piper tips her head back and forth, like she’s weighing her decision. “I don’t know. I mean, you did tease me about my obsession with ketchup.”

“Hey, if I can’t tease you about your quirks, then this will never work.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“So what do you say? Are you willing to give me more of your time?” I search her eyes for an answer as she stares intensely back at me, desperate for more of her—any part she’s willing to give me. If the sweat that has finally dried on my back and the finally calm beat of my heart is any indication, I’d say I made it through the date and lived to tell the tale, despite my intense reservation about how it would all pan out.

“I think I’d be okay with that,” she smirks.

“Good.” I wait a few moments before my desire takes over and I crush my mouth to hers, backing us up against her door and ravishing her lips with my own. We’re a mess of frantic hands searching out flesh to touch, tongues seeking each other in a heated dance, lips pressed so tightly together, no air could escape or break in between the seal of our mouths.

Piper’s hands find the back of my head, her fingernails scratching across my neck and scalp, making me groan at the feeling and fueling my hard-on even more. My hands move down from her hips to that luscious ass that has been taunting me since the first time I saw it, grabbing both handfuls of her flesh and squeezing hard. One of her legs lifts up and wraps around my waist, giving me the perfect opening to press our bodies together so I can grind my dick against the heat in between her legs.

“Cash,” she moans through a break in our kiss, the sound of my name coming off of her tongue fueling me even further.

“Fuck, Piper.” I dive deeper into her mouth this time, so deep I feel I might be digging for her tonsils at this point. But no matter how intense the kiss grows, no matter how hot and wet and noisy we get, I feel like it could never be enough.

Fighting my own desire, I push back from her in a flash, our heavy breathing filtering between us.

“Cash,” Piper sighs, her chest heaving as we both struggle to gain our composure.

“I can’t fight what you do to me, Piper. But I know that I need to walk away right now before we both go too far. I want you, there’s no doubt about that. But not tonight. Soon though,” I reach up and caress her cheek with my thumb as she leans her head into my palm. “Soon.”

“Good night, Cash,” she whispers, pressing a kiss to my palm before turning to unlock her door and scurrying inside.

Stomping down the sidewalk back to the Uber, I try to adjust my dick in my jeans, frustrated that yet again my hand will be my company tonight as I release the pent up need I’ve been harboring for over a month now. But after tonight, I know without a doubt—when the time comes to get Piper naked beneath me, it will be explosive. And it won’t just be about the physical connection, because true to my intuition, Piper and I are connected on an entirely different level too.

Chapter 15

Piper

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