Page 25 of The Keeper

“Care to elaborate?”

My eyes flicked to my dark phone screen. “It’s just?—”

“You’re with someone,” he guessed, nodding toward the device. “You keep checking it every five minutes, so I assume someone’s waiting for you back home.”

“Yes. Well, not exactly.” I shook my head and blew out a breath, frustrated by my inability to spit it out already. “It’s complicated.”

His grin widened. “And here I thought you were about to tell me you’re happily married. But complicated?” He leaned in, dragging his lips along my jaw before stopping at my ear, his voice taking on a low, sexy edge as he murmured, “I can work with complicated, darlin’.”

NINE

GHOST

Ivy & Piper’s Guide to Life Rule Number Five:

Be your own sugar daddy.

Instead of leaning into my touch, Piper pulled back as if she’d been burned. “It’s not that simple.”

“You trying to let me down gently?” I asked, rotating my whiskey glass in a slow circle against the bar top like my entire future didn’t hinge on what she said next.

She rubbed at her brow and crossed her legs before answering. “No, that’s not it.”

I made the mistake of lowering my gaze to the soft curves of her thighs, my mouth going dry as I imagined sinking my teeth into her tender flesh.

The muscles in her calves flexed and tightened as if it was taking everything in her to remain seated. “What do you want?”

Fuck, I wanted her.

I wanted to wrap her legs around my waist and bury myself so deep inside her tight cunt the crease between her brows faded, and she had no choice but to accept that she was mine.

But she was as skittish as a spooked horse—one wrong move and someone was getting kicked in the balls. Likely me.

“What do I want?” I repeated, trying to get myself under control before I fucked this up. “You, Piper. I want you.”

Her eyes flashed with something—longing, fear? I couldn’t tell. She pulled her plump bottom lip between her teeth, sending a jolt of pure need straight to my cock.

So much for talking it down.

“What does that even look like?” she asked warily.

I lowered my head to hers, inhaling her intoxicating scent. Fuck, she may have looked like sin in that dress, but she smelled like innocence.

“You know exactly what it looks like,” I murmured, my voice low and rough with want.

It looked like my ring on her finger. My last name. My baby growing in her belly.

Mine.

“It looks like you in my bed every night, screaming my name while I make you come so hard you see stars.” I brushed my lips against the curve of her jaw.

A shudder rippled through her, and her thighs clenched together. I’d barely touched her, and she was already so responsive, so desperate for it, just like our first night.

“You can’t say things like that. We barely know each other.”

“I know enough.” I skimmed my knuckles up her bare thigh, feeling the goosebumps pebbling her silky skin. “I know the sounds you make when you’re about to fall apart. I know how fucking perfect you feel around my dick.”

Piper made a soft, desperate sound and latched onto my kutte before catching herself. “Stop. We had one night together.”

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