Blue Lines: The Assassins Series: A Loveswept Contemporary Romance (11 page)

“That’s not my point,” she snapped back.

He glanced back at her annoyed. “What is your point?”

She took in a deep breath, annoyance written all over her face as she said, “My point
is that we should eat at the table as a family would.”

He turned back to the TV, then with a low voice added, “We aren’t a family, Piper.
Don’t forget that.”

She didn’t understand why that hurt, but it did. She wanted to start screaming at
him, but she knew that would not make their situation any better. With a heavy heart,
Piper bowed her head. She began her prayer, asking for patience and even for Erik
to see that maybe they could be a family. Even if he was an asshole, she did care
for him. She knew it was stupid to hope for that, or even to pray for it, but it didn’t
stop her from doing it anyway.

As she reached for the asparagus her phone started to ring. Piper got up just as Erik
started screaming more obscenities. Finding her phone on the counter, she noticed
that it was Harper.

She probably shouldn’t answer, but she knew she had to or else Harper would jump in
the car and drive out to her house. That was the last thing Piper wanted.

“Hello?”

“Hey, you’re still coming tomorrow right? For Alla and Cooper?”

She nodded even though Harper couldn’t see her.

“Yeah. I’ll be there.”

“Okay. How are you feeling?”

“Okay. I’ve had an interesting day,” she said, leaning on the counter watching Erik’s
back.

“Really? How so?”

“Well, my baby’s daddy decided he wanted to be in the baby’s life.”

Harper paused, then asked, “Why are you saying that so nonchalantly? You are acting
as if you’re baking a cake. This is huge. I thought this guy was an ass.”

Oh, he is
, she wanted to say, but instead she said, “Ah, ya know, I was angry, and hurt. We
are working things out. We are coming tomorrow.”

“Who is it?” Harper asked. Piper could tell she was stunned.

“You’ll see tomorrow.”

“Do I know him?”

Piper replied, “Maybe?”

“Tell me.”

“No, just wait. He’ll be with me tomorrow.”

“I don’t like this,” Harper said in warning.

“I know, but it’ll be okay.”

“Are you happy with him?”

Piper glanced back at Erik. She hated that she was about to lie to her sister. She
guessed she had better get used to it because the next three months would be full
of lies. Just then Erik let out another slew of cuss words and threw his controller
across the room at the wall, then screamed even more obscenities.

Gritting her teeth, she said, “Oh, I’m ecstatic.”

Piper hadn’t said two words to Erik.

He was beginning to think this was the way the next three months would be. If she
continued with the silent treatment it would be that much easier to end this charade
when the time came. He should be happy about that, but he wasn’t. What the hell had
he done? Why was she so quiet? He knew he’d probably pissed her off already.

Glancing over at her, he couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she was. She had dressed
up to meet his parents and she looked beautiful. She had on some short shorts that
were hot as hell and her hair was loose and curly; he loved it when she wore her hair
like that. Piper’s hair was so long it just passed her ass, and what a great ass she
had.

“What’s wrong?” he found himself asking. They were in the car on the way to Jakob’s
so she had to talk to him or else be rude, and Piper didn’t “do” rude.

She glanced over at him with a surprised look on her face.

“What?” she asked.

“I asked what was wrong. You haven’t spoken to me since yesterday,” he said, feeling
extremely stupid. Why did he care if she was mad, hurt, or upset with him? He had
more important things to worry about, such as the fact that he was about to walk into
his brother’s house and face two sets of parents that might very much want to kill
him. Nervousness pulsed through him, but in a way, this conversation was thankfully
a good distraction.

“Oh, well you’re an asshole and I have nothing to say to you.”

A smiled pulled at his lips as he shook his head. God he loved her sass.

“I’m pretty sure you have a lot to say to me, Piper, and I get that. Remember I told
you a very long time ago that I wasn’t the nicest guy, so don’t say I never told you.”

“Whatever. You’re a poser, that’s what you are. You think that if you’re an asshole
that makes you hard, but let me tell you something, it doesn’t. It just makes you
a jerk.”

Erik had to laugh at that. She was a little spitfire.

“I thought you had nothing to say to me.”

“You poked the tiger and now I have a lot to say, so listen up, bub,” she said, turning
in
the car seat to look at him. The hairs on his arms stood to attention, and of course
so did the muscle in his pants. She turned him on and that was bad, very bad, because
if she turned him on when she was bitching him out, there was no telling what would
happen if she said something sweet to him. “First of all, I am not some gold-digging
ho, so I don’t understand why you felt the need for a prenup!”

“You’re still mad about that? I thought it was because I wouldn’t eat with you last
night,” he said with a laugh. “Piper, I have to protect myself. Besides, that was
more my agent and lawyer’s suggestion. You think I’d think of that shit?”

“That’s fine, and understandable, but you could have talked to me about it. Instead
you just throw the damn thing on the table and say sign this. Oh, and the dinner thing:
You are lucky I didn’t stab you with my fork. I am beyond pissed about that,” she
shrieked. “It is common courtesy to eat dinner with your housemate.”

“I’m not eating at the table, so if you want to get a gamer chair and pull it up beside
me so we can eat together, more power to you, and I am sorry if my delivery of the
prenup wasn’t what you expected, but I think your delivery of the news of our child
wasn’t that great, either, so we’ll chalk both those up as a loss and move forward.”

He glanced over at her and swore she was about to jump across the gear shift and gouge
out his eyes. Looking back at the road, he listened to her labored breathing and wished
like hell she did not want to continue this conversation, because all it was doing
was making him want to smother her with kisses. How in the world did it make sense
that he wanted her when she was shrieking about him being an asshole?

He needed help, he already knew this, but this moment in the car with his new wife
proved it.

“There is no arguing with you. You sit there with this arrogance about you. As if
you are the hottest thing since fire! It’s so frustrating because I know you are not
this person that you portray! Where is the person I went home with six months ago?
The man who held me until the sun came up, the man who told me he saw me and wanted
only me?”

Feeling like she had stabbed him in the chest, he looked over and saw that she was
getting ready to cry. He was an asshole, but he had to be. He couldn’t let her in
any more than he already had.

In a low, cold voice, he said what he needed to say: “It was a lie.”

“You think you’re good at lying, huh? Well, let me tell you, you aren’t! You think
you’re good enough to make both our families believe
this
is real? Because I don’t. You wouldn’t even kiss me yesterday! How the hell are you
going to make anyone believe this stupid freaking lie of a marriage?”

“I made you believe that I cared for you that night, didn’t I? When all I really wanted
from you was to get laid.”

Erik didn’t mean to say that but she was getting too close to the truth of it all
and he felt like his back was up against the wall. He couldn’t dare look at her; he
knew he had just fucked up royally. He considered himself to be very levelheaded,
and he usually thought things out before doing them. He didn’t understand the effect
she had on him, but it was obvious when he said and did stupid things—Piper was dangerous.

“No,” she pursued. “I don’t believe that for one second. I see right through you and
I know in my heart you are not this person. If you want me to stay around and carry
out this deception, then you better treat me with some respect.”

Erik nodded as he pulled up to the curb of Jakob’s house. Putting the car in park,
he turned to face her.

“I have no problem treating you with respect, Piper; just remember where the lines
are.”

“Oh, I know where the lines are, Erik, and I know about your walls, too, and you’ve
had them up since the beginning. You need to remember who needs who here. I don’t
need you. I was fine before you ever stepped one foot into my life.”

“Same here, babe,” he said, grabbing the keys and throwing the door open to get out
of the car.

Great, he was pissed now, and that was the last thing he wanted. Being nervous and
pissed all at one time wasn’t a good combination, and he hated it. Taking in a deep
breath, he walked around the car to find Piper still sitting in the front seat. She
was wiping her eyes and fixing her makeup, which was good. He needed a moment to breathe.

This whole thing wasn’t going to be easy at all. He liked things to be easy. Being
on the ice was a different story: He wanted to work hard there. But off the ice he
didn’t want outspoken and spunky and that was Piper. Unfortunately, even though she
could piss him off there was still an attraction between them that was hard to ignore.

Shaking his head, he watched as she got out of the car and shut the door. Fixing the
bottom of her short shorts, which showed off her gorgeous tanned legs, she glanced
up at him before looking at the house. Erik followed her gaze and let out another
long breath. He wasn’t sure what was about to happen, but he knew it wasn’t going
to be easy. She was right when she said they needed to be believable if they were
going to deceive everyone in their family. As much as it hurt him to lie to Alla,
Cooper, and Jakob, there was no choice. He needed everyone to believe he loved this
woman and that the child she carried was the greatest gift in the world. They might
not like each other right now, but they needed to act like they did. Looking back
at Piper, he met her soft blue eyes.

Smiling, he said, “No more fighting, okay?”

“Do I have a choice?” she asked sadly, and his smile fell.

He didn’t want her to feel trapped; that was the last thing he wanted. He knew she
wouldn’t be happy about this, but couldn’t they just get along?

“You do; you can leave at any time, but I hope you don’t. I need your help. I’m sorry
for everything—the prenup, not kissing you, and the dinner thing—but this is who I
am. I don’t want you to get confused and do something like fall for me. I want this
to be an easy break after the baby’s born. I want us to be friends. I want to try
to be a good father at the end of this even though being a father is the last thing
I ever wanted. I know it’s a lot to ask but I need you to help me out, too.”

She glared as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I’d rather stab you in the eye
with a broken hockey stick.”

He held his hand out to her.

“God, I’m so glad I married you; now come here, sweetheart.”

She didn’t move. She only shook her head and snapped, “Don’t call me that.”

Taken aback, he asked, “Why? It’s what husbands call their wives.”

Piper looked away.

“It’s what you called me that night, and I don’t ever want to hear that word come
out of your mouth ever again unless you truly mean it. So call me something else,
if you must.”

Erik had to look away as he cursed himself for this. He never had pet names for females,
and the only reason he had called her sweetheart was because Cooper called Alla that.
He didn’t even realize he had called her that before.

Closing his eyes, he took hold of her hand and brought her to him.

“Darling,” he said softly as he opened his eyes to her wide ones.

Her stomach pressed against his groin and he wished he hadn’t pulled her to him. The
simple touch had his body on fire, and he wondered if she felt the same. The way she
was glaring at him made him think she didn’t.

“We are going to be okay. We are going to make it through this.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

“I know so. We just have to work together on this,” he said, his arms tightening around
her waist.

It was as if he wasn’t even in control of his body. He wanted to push her against
the car and ravish her, but he knew he couldn’t. Plus, he was pretty sure she might
try to kick him in the balls if he tried. Her eyes were searching his, and his mouth
itched to be pressed against hers. She made him want to do the naughtiest things imaginable.

Oh, this was so bad.

“Okay, can you let me go now?”

Looking up from her mouth into her eyes, he nodded, moving away from her. She started
walking up the drive, and he followed close behind to Jakob’s house. Their driveway
was filled with cars, making Erik wonder if they were late. Piper reached the porch
and waited for him as he climbed the steps. Simultaneously they each took in a deep
breath as Piper reached for the doorknob. Looking back at him, she opened the door
and entered the house.

Erik only hoped that he made it out alive.

* * *

Piper was still rattled from her spat with Erik, but her rapid heartbeat wasn’t from
the fight; it was from how close he held her. It had been so long since she had been
in his arms like that, and seeing the lusty look in his eyes didn’t help any, either.
She wasn’t sure if she was imagining it, but either way her heartbeat was erratic
and her panties were drenched with want for him.

Which was another thing that made no damn sense!

“Erik,” Alla gushed as she wrapped her arms around him.

Piper watched as he closed his eyes and embraced his adoptive mother. Seeing him with
his family was how she knew he wasn’t the guy he was trying to portray. For the last
two years
they’d been at family gatherings together and Erik had never been like what the tabloids
said he was. He loved these people and he loved Ally, their niece. Time and time again
she’d seen who the real Erik was, so why the façade? What was he trying so hard to
hide? Because the more he tried, the more it wasn’t working and it would only be a
matter of time before everyone else saw, too.