Page 31 of Breakaway to You

His eyes immediately found mine before glancing behind me and landing on Jordan. His features hardened, and then he was looking back at me. He must have seen something on my face that told him I needed him, because his long strides were quickly closing the space between us.

I’d been caught up in my emotions earlier, but now I felt an onslaught of emotions pouring over me, each one hitting stronger than the last—relief, want, safety, need, desire. My veins were pumping with so many different feelings that I thought I might burst.

Zeke didn’t seem surprised when I threw my arms around him, pulling myself close while he simultaneously picked me up, my feet now a few inches off the ground.

And then our lips met, pressing together in the most hypnotizing way, and I lost myself in him.

Chapter12

Zeke

Iwasn’t sure who kissed first—maybe neither of us?—but it didn’t matter. All I cared about was that I was kissing Piper, and it was quickly becoming the best kiss I’d ever experienced.

Sure, it was all for show. She had obviously been upset, and I assumed it had to do with her jerkface ex. But as I continued to kiss her, holding her body against mine, I couldn’t find it in me to care if this kiss was real or fake. Not sure what that said about me, but it was the truth.

What I did know was that the longer I kissed Piper, the more I didn’t want to stop.

Her soft body pressed up against mine had me straining to hold in a moan. Her hands were tangled in my hair, my fingers digging into her waist as our slanted mouths continued their frenzied dance. Neither one of us was holding back, both of us putting our entire focus and attention into where our mouths connected. The way we matched each other’s rhythm made it feel like this wasn’t our first kiss. My mind kept chantingmore,more,more.

Soon, I realized it wasn’t so much my mind chanting as it was the crowd around us hooting and hollering.

Shoot. I’d gotten so lost in Piper that I’d momentarily forgotten we were making out in the middle of some bar in Chicago.

I reluctantly broke our kiss, catching Piper off-guard as she stared down at me with a dazed expression.

I searched her face. Her lips were slightly swollen, and an almost sleepy look covered her features. I wanted to carry her out of this bar, away from the onlookers, away from her ex. The look I’d seen on her face when she’d spotted me, equal parts relief and elation, like I was saving her, made me wonder if she really was okay.

I kept her in my arms as I quietly asked, “Are you okay?”

She blinked once, finally coming back to the present. “Oh, uh, yeah.” She nodded. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

A sense of pride went through me. That’s right. Piper wanted me here. She was glad I was here. I wanted to puff out my chest in satisfaction.

“You walked in at the perfect time. Jordan doesn’t want to take no for an answer. He doesn’t believe we’re actually a couple.” A smug grin lifted the corners of her mouth. “Looks like we just proved him wrong.”

Oh. Right. We were fake dating, and that was a fake kiss. I knew that. I did. I mean, it sure as heck didn’tfeelfake, but nevertheless, it had all been an act. An act I had set in motion when I had opened my dumb mouth and told him we were a couple.

I released my grip on her and slowly set her back down on her feet.

“Glad I could be of service.” I hoped she didn’t hear the slight annoyance in my voice.

I wasn’t upset with Piper. I was upset with myself. How had I gotten myself into this situation? This wasn’t my thing. I didn’t date. And I definitely didn’tfakedate.

I wished I could go back in time and let Piper handle things between her and Jordan. Because heaven knew she was capable of it. That was one of the things I liked about Piper. She wasn’t afraid to stick up for herself, and she had no problem giving you a piece of her mind.

But when I replayed that moment of Jordan continuing to ignore what she was telling him and how it didn’t seem like he was going to stop harassing her, I wanted to step in and be her fake boyfriend all over again.

Piper was messing with my head. And that had been true even before we’d kissed or pretended to be a couple. What was I going to do now that we’d added a very different kind of physical touch to our relationship?

“Areyouokay?” she asked, placing her hand on my arm. “And how did you end up here?”

She looked different from when I’d last seen her in the therapy room. Her scrubs had been replaced with jeans that accentuated her curves. The leather jacket she wore gave her a sexy edge, every guy in the room was checking her out.

“I’m good,” I lied. I was all kinds of messed up right now. “The guys wanted to go out somewhere, and I remembered Seth mentioning this place.”

“I can’t tell you how happy I was to see you walk through the door. I almost didn’t believe it. The timing was just so perfect.” She looped her arm through mine, walking us back to the table where she’d been standing. “Now you can be my Jordan repellent.”

Oh, yippee.

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