Page 73 of The Keeper

Ivy & Piper’s Guide to Life Rule Number Twenty-One: Always pee after sex.

Piper yelped in surprise when I hauled her up over my shoulder and stalked toward the bedroom before tossing her onto the bed. I could feel her eyes on me as I pulled my sidearm from my holster and placed it on the dresser, her gaze burning into my back. When I turned around, she was spread out on the bed like a fucking feast, and I had to clench my fists to keep from pouncing.

I knew I needed to walk away and get my head on straight before I did something we’d both regret. But the storm raging inside me demanded release.

“What are you going to do?” she asked as I loomed over her, her tongue darting out to wet her lips.

I growled low in my throat, pressing my fists to the mattress on either side of her body. “What I should’ve done the moment I found out what that fucker did to you.”

My fingers tangled in her hair, freeing the strands from the tight bun before yanking her head back to expose the delicate column of herthroat. I dragged my teeth along her pulse point, feeling it race beneath my lips. Piper whimpered, her body arching into mine instinctively.

“Tell me to stop,” I rasped against her skin, tracing the bow of her plump pink lip with the pad of my thumb, my body shaking with restraint. “Tell me this isn’t what you want.”

Instead of pushing me away, the heels of her feet dug into my lower back, urging me closer. “Make me forget,” she pleaded. “Make it all go away.”

The last threads of my control snapped, and I crushed my mouth to hers in a raw, bruising kiss. My tongue invaded her mouth, claiming every inch as she moaned against my lips.

Her fingers clawed at my shoulders, nails biting through the fabric of my shirt. I ground my hips against hers, letting her feel how hard I was, how much I wanted her.

“Is this what you need, baby?” I growled, nipping at her earlobe. “You want me to prove you’re mine? Want me to fuck the pain away?”

Piper nodded frantically, her eyes wild with desperation. “Please, Dane. I need to feel something else. Anything else.”

I tugged at the drawstring of her pants and ripped them down her legs, leaving her in just the tank top and a pair of panties.

The bruises had faded to a greenish-yellow hue but seeing them was enough to put logic back in the driver’s seat instead of my dick.

If I took her now, in the fucked-up headspace I was in, I was liable to kill her. At the very least, I’d add to the growing list of emotional scars.

“Wait,” I said, rolling off her with a frustrated groan. “I can’t.”

“You can’t what?” she demanded, her voice cracking. “Can’t fuck me? Can’t stand to touch me now that I’m damaged goods?”

The rejection in her tone killed me. But I couldn’t let this go any further, not when we were both so fucked up.

“That’s not it,” I growled, running a hand over my face. “You have no idea how badly I fucking want you, but this isn’t right.”

Piper let out a bitter laugh. “Right? Nothing about this situation is right, Dane. I was assaulted in my own bakery. I’m trapped in this house like a prisoner. And now the one person I thought I could count on thinks I’m some fragile little doll who can’t make her own decisions.”

My cock wanted nothing more than to give her exactly what she was asking for—to lose myself in her body and make her forget everything else. But the monster inside me was too close to the surface. If I let it out now, I wasn’t sure I could control it.

“You don’t understand,” I said through clenched teeth. “If I touch you right now, I won’t be able to stop. And the things I want to do to you…”

Her eyes flashed defiantly. “Maybe I don’t want you to stop. Maybe I need you to lose control.”

“I don’t want you to regret this later.”

She planted her palms against my chest and shoved me back against the bed. My heart thumped painfully against my ribcage at the feel of her pussy grinding over the front of my jeans.

“You want to know what I regret?” she asked, moaning as she slipped her hand beneath the waistband of her panties. “I regret letting you decide what’s best for me.”

Goosebumps pebbled her soft skin and puckered her nipples into tight little points against the thin material of the tank top. “Piper…”

“What, Dane?” she challenged, her eyes locked on mine as she touched herself. “Oh, I forgot. You’re my jailer. You going to stop me? Maybe handcuff me to the bed like you threatened to earlier?”

The scent of her arousal filled the air, making the rational parts of my brain short-circuit. I gripped her hips tighter, torn between pulling her closer and pushing her away.

I clenched my jaw so hard I thought my teeth might crack. “You don’t want this. Not like this. Not with how fucked up things are right now. You’re not thinking clearly.”

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