Page 24 of Burning Bridges

He doesn’t hesitate to pull the silk scarf from my eyes. Tears threaten to break free. At first, he's blurry, but then his face comes clear into view, and I have never been so grateful to see him. “Piper, what’s wrong, did I hurt you?” His worried eyes reach mine, and my breathing starts to slow.

It’s just Leo, Piper, you're safe with him, I try telling myself. And I know I am. I might have said I didn’t trust him earlier, but really, I do. I feel safe in his presence. I know he hates my family, and his hatred has spilled over to me, but I also know that deep down this man still has some of the boy I fell for inside of him, and right now I see him staring back at me.

“No, I just… I just need to see you.” I can’t tell him the real reason I’m freaking out. No one knows about that except for Tony. “I’m okay now,” I try and convince him.

He loosens the restraint on my wrists so I can pull them free, then he lies down beside me, his eyes searching me for answers. Answers I can’t give him. “Piper—”

“I’m okay, really,” I try to assure him, feeling much more in control than thirty seconds ago.

“I don’t believe you, but if you won’t tell me what’s wrong, I’m not pushing you for it,” he snaps, sounding defeated. And for the first time in a long time, I wish I could open up and let someone else in, but Leo can never be that man for me. Sharing my body with him is dangerous enough. If I let him know what is going on inside my mind as well, there would be no stopping him from destroying me the first chance he got. I would be making it easy for him.

I brush my fingers through his hair then let them trail down the stubble on his face. He’s really worried about me. The thought that someone actually cares about me melts my heart. It also makes me wish things were different—but they're not. I don’t live in a world of rainbows and butterflies, and right now I need a good dose of reality to bring me back down to my living hell.

“Sometimes it’s better if you don’t know everything,” I tell him, kissing his lips to distract him from my panic attack. He’s reluctant to kiss me back, but I curl my leg over him and push him back to the bed so I’m straddling him. I run my pussy along his hard cock as our kiss intensifies. It doesn’t take long for his body to take over, his hands running down my sides to my ass as he grabs me, grinding me into him harder. This is better, this I can handle. I have some control back, and that’s what I need. I let my wetness slide over his cock, showing him I’m ready for him and just how much I want him.

My fingers find his hardened length and stroke him. He passes me a condom, and I roll it on. I go to position him at my entrance, and he stops me. “Piper. Are you sure about this?”

“Yes,” I purr. I’m surer about this than I have been about anything in my life. He has no idea what I've been through, not really. But right now, I need him to erase all of that, even if I am just using him to get what I want. I rock my hips toward him, showing him how ready I am.

His eyes intensify, and I see that look of determination. He’s fighting his own demons tonight. We're just two fucked-up lost souls using each other to our own gain. I’m not sure what he’s getting out of this yet, but by how conflicted he is, it’s something more than a good screw, and I’m okay with that.

He pushes into me, and our bodies take over, moving together like they were made for each other. I rock my hips, and he thrusts into me. His hands feel like they’re everywhere, and he pulls me closer to him so he can kiss me over and over again. It’s heavenly, just how I imagined it would be with him. His tough exterior has given way to the real Leo. He’s intense. Like this, we're not at war anymore. We are one.

I pull away from him so I can sit up and ride him. I want to see his face so I can remember every second of how it felt to be with him like this. His hands come to my tits, and he plays with my nipples, sending chills over my body as his rough hands slide over my sensitive flesh. He plucks them, causing me to moan out in pleasure. Then he pulls himself up to sitting, with my legs curling around his back. We move slowly together as we kiss each other's necks. He sucks one nipple, then the other. My body is trembling with every new sensation.

I find his gaze again, and for a moment I get lost in his eyes as our bodies move together. This is so much more intimate than I ever expected. I knew it would be hot with him, kinky even. But this, I didn’t expect this. It's something else, something I didn’t even have with Axel, and I was married to him. I suddenly get the urge to burst into tears, and I have no idea why. I kiss him again because I don’t know what else to do, but I need his lips on me.

This is just sex, it’s not anything more, I tell myself on repeat, trying to get my emotions in check.

As if sensing it as well, he breaks away from me. Moving our bodies so I’m on all fours, he pushes into me again. His hands come to my tits, and he holds me as he really lets me have it. I moan into the pillow below, ripples of pleasure taking over. “Come for me, Piper,” he growls into my ear, then sinks his teeth into my shoulder.

“Fuck, Leo,” I curse out as my body gives into his request, a mix of pleasure and pain sending me over the edge, my pussy pulsing around his cock.

He continues to pump into me with force. It’s rough and hard, and I love it. The room echoes with the sound of our bodies slapping together until he grunts out his own release. He doesn’t pull out straight away. For a second, he just holds me, our bodies as close as they have ever been. So close I can feel his erratic heart thumping in his chest. He places one more kiss to the side of my face, then he pulls out, and I fall to the bed in an exhausted sweaty heap.

Tonight has been so different than I thought it would be when I decided to come here. I let my eyes shut for a second as I try to catch my breath and work through all the emotions it brought up. I don’t even know how I’m supposed to look at him again after the intensity of what we just shared. It was too much. I hear the zip of his pants, and my eyes shoot open in time to see him dressing already.

His back is turned to me, and I get a strange sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. He throws his shirt over his back. “You can find your own way out,” he mutters dryly before taking off for the door, not even bothering to look back at me.

My chest aches with a pain I don’t recognize. I feel like a fool. I let him in more than I wanted. I can’t believe I gave him so much control. I should have stuck to my plan, used him so he couldn’t do it to me. I knew what this was. He said it was a one-time thing, and I was here for my own reasons. But that’s not what it felt like. It felt like something else entirely. At least it did to me.

Chapter 15

LEO

Istareintomycoffee, trying to pull my head together. It’s early morning, and since sleep was almost impossible last night, I find myself out on our patio watching old surveillance videos of Piper's salon on my laptop. We know it was a Kings member, but I’m hoping to find who the cocky asshole was that had the balls to drop off the images and note to her in broad daylight.

I hit pause when I see him. A big guy in a Kings jacket walks in the place without a care in the world. Like we don’t have an agreement, keeping them in their town. I zoom in to see if I can get a reading on his face. Unfortunately for me, the camera isn’t pointing in the right direction to capture it. I forward the video to Jett anyway, hoping he can do something with it. Whoever this guy is, I want words with him.

I take another sip of my now-cold coffee. I can still smell her on me. I didn’t shower when I came home, not wanting to wash her scent away. As soon as I slid my cock inside of her, I knew there was no turning back. Who am I kidding? From the moment I closed the door, locking the two of us inside together, I knew. She’s now mine. In truth, she always has been. Whatever lies I told myself in the past, about her being my worst enemy because of her family, have disappeared, and I knew I would do just about anything to have her again. Every day for the rest of my life if it were possible. That’s why I left her there alone, still in an orgasm-induced haze after what we just shared. Because in this world, a happily ever after isn't possible. And she and I both need to know it.

I rake a hand through my hair, irritated with myself for falling headfirst into her trap. One fucking night with her, less than an hour, and I would throw away everything my brothers and I have worked so hard for. Years of sacrifice. The worst part is I know she was there to manipulate me, and I still fell under her spell. She’s a witch, I’m sure of it. No other woman has ever had any power over me. I can fuck them then leave them, no problem at all. But Piper is different, and I should have known better.

But I can’t shake this feeling that I am something more to her, and it would only take a little more pushing to find out exactly what it is. Inside that room with me, she was letting down her guard. She let herself lose control a little, even if it was only for a second, and showed me a vulnerable side to her I’ve never seen. As soon as that blindfold went on, she started to panic. I used it to distance us emotionally because every time she looked at me, I was falling deeper under her spell. It wasn’t supposed to scare her or make her panic, just be a barrier between us. But it did scare her, and I see only one explanation for that. Someone hurt her. I didn’t need her to tell me details to know it’s true, and if I ever find out who it was, there will be hell to pay.

I find my packet of cigarettes and light one up, needing something to ease this uncomfortable feeling coursing through my body. “Kobe, get out here,” I call to my brother when I see him walk into our kitchen. He’s dripping with sweat from an early-morning training session in our home gym and stops to pour himself a cold glass of water from the fridge before meeting me on the patio.

“What’s up?” He looks me over. “Having regrets about your party for two at the club last night?” he coos cheekily, chugging the glass and placing it on the glass table before taking a seat beside me. “Or did you think me and Jett wouldn’t work out what you were up to?”

---