Blue Lines: The Assassins Series: A Loveswept Contemporary Romance (20 page)

It was so small, but protruding at the same time. He had only gotten a glimpse of
it on the dock, but seeing it now, out in the open, made all of this so much more
real. He wanted to walk
up to her, press her against the wall, and cradle her stomach, just to feel what she
felt every day. He had this unbelievable need to just hold her, and tell her she was
beautiful.

“We’ll do it one more time, girls, and then I want y’all to come up here and do it,”
Reese said, but Erik’s eyes never left Piper.

When she glanced over at him, she looked shocked that he was there. He gave her an
awkward little wave and then slid down the wall, leaning forward on his knees so he
could watch. She broke her gaze with him when the music started. Piper and Reese started
to move so fluidly and in sync, it was mind-blowing. Watching them dance was like
watching two of the same person. The steps they choreographed for the song were perfect,
and when Piper took her solo, doing what seemed like a million little turns before
kicking her leg up into her arm and falling back to where her head almost hit the
ground, Erik almost flew up to help her, but she had it. A dance move he would bet
most pregnant woman would never be able to do.

She was on fire.

Erik had never seen anything so beautiful and it started to piss him off when Reese
took over the dance. It should have been Piper; she was wickedly awesome. Once the
song was over, the girls who sat against the mirrors started to clap as they stood.
They couldn’t have been eighteen, and if Erik remembered correctly, he remembered
seeing them dance solos at Ally’s last recital. They were damn good, but nothing like
Reese and Piper. Reese started teaching the girls as Piper walked toward him. He stood,
smoothing out his shirt as she approached.

“Whatcha think?” she asked with a grin.

She was breathing hard, and it made him want to have sex with her, which did not help
the raging hard-on in his pants.

“You don’t want to know,” he said with a laugh.

She laughed along as she said, “I do! Did I look like a whale? I know I messed up
that fallout.”

“Whales are the last thing on my mind, Piper. You didn’t mess up anything; you outdanced
your sister,” he said without looking at her.

When she didn’t say anything, he looked over at her to find her biting her lip as
she looked at him.

“That’s really sweet.”

“No, it’s not. It’s the truth.”

Piper smiled and shook her head.

“I’m gonna go shower and raid Reese’s closet.”

“I’m right behind you.”

Piper eyed him suspiciously. “You aren’t taking a shower with me.”

Erik gave her a playful smile.

“But isn’t that what husbands and wives do?”

“We are not real, remember?” she said with a little bit of what he thought was sadness
in her voice.

He hated when she got that look on her face. To lighten up the situation, he joked,
“Maybe we could try doing the fun stuff of marriage, the sex.”

She paused on the stairs and turned to look at him. Her belly was inches from his
face, and if he bent down just a little, her sweet, juicy pussy would be inches from
his mouth. But then she started talking, distracting him from the prize in those little
black shorts.

“Are you proposing a sexual relationship with me, Mr. Titov?”

Erik gave her a lopsided grin.

“Depends, what would you say?”

She didn’t even hesitate.

“No way.”

“Then no, I am not. I don’t do well with rejection.”

She gave him the same sad eyes again and said, “Neither do I. Let’s just drop that
subject, okay?”

Well, that sure did backfire.

“Okay,” he said with a long breath as he followed her up the stairs.

Piper opened the door to a light beige–colored room that held all the necessities
of life—bed, kitchen, couch, TV, and a bathroom.

“I didn’t know Reese lived up here.”

Piper looked back at him and smiled as she crossed the room for what looked like a
huge closet.

“Yup, that’s why she bought the building, because it had living quarters upstairs.
She loves this place. I do, too. It suits her.”

“It’s nice.”

“So you’ve never been up here?”

Erik turned to look at her back, his eyes dropping down to her sweet little perky
ass. Man, what he would give to get his hands on her again.

“Nope, why would I?”

He watched as she shrugged her shoulder, pulling out different dresses from Reese’s
closet.

“No reason.”

Erik didn’t like that answer, and soon he was making his way across the room to her
side and said, “No, there is a reason. What is it?”

She wouldn’t look at him as she asked, “Do you like this dress?”

He looked down at the burgundy dress and made a face.

“No, it’s hideous, all of them are. They aren’t you; go buy something new.”

She looked away again as she muttered, “No, I don’t have the money to go blow on a
brand-new dress.”

“How do you not have the money when you are married to me?”

“I’m not spending your money,” she said, offended.

“It’s part of the deal. I need you to look smokin’ beside me, so buy a new dress in
Vegas. Go take a shower so we can get to the airport, but first answer me.”

“Whoa, Mr. Titov, you aren’t going to tell me what to do. I’m not spending your money.”

“Fine, I’ll buy you something,” he said, his anger getting the best of him. “I don’t
know what the big deal is. If you are going to help my image, then these dresses are
not going to cut it. We are walking the red carpet of the NHL awards, with news reporters
and bloggers all over the place. We both have to look like a million bucks, so please,
just let me buy you a new dress.”

She paused, looking down at the dress in her hand before looking back up at him.

“I’ll pay you back when I get my second advance from Emmaline.”

Erik shook his head, his eyes glued to hers as he said, “No, I want to buy you the
dress, okay? And we need to discuss the living expenses, too. I’ll start helping out.”

“You don’t have to do that,” she muttered, putting the dress back in the closet.

“I want to.”

“Okay,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “Fine.”

“Now, why did you ask if I have ever been up here before?”

She looked up at him with an annoyed look. “I told you, no reason.”

“And I know there is a reason, so come on, what is it?”

She looked away, chewing at her lip as he waited.

Finally she looked at him and asked, “Did you sleep with Reese?”

This time he was the one not hesitating as he said, “Hell no.”

A smile pulled at her lips as she looked away. “Okay.”

“That’s it? Okay?”

She nodded. “Okay, I believe you.”

“Good, because your sister was never the one I wanted.”

Piper smiled over at him as she made her way to the bathroom, those delectable shorts
and itty-bitty bra screaming his name.

“I thought you didn’t want any female.”

With that she closed the bathroom door behind her.

He wanted to laugh. She was such a sassy little thing, and man, did she drive him
crazy. He wanted to chalk up his need for her to the fact that he was horny as hell,
but it wasn’t just that. It was more.

Piper walked behind Erik as they got off the plane. The commercial flight was only
a couple of hours but seemed to take forever, probably because she was sitting next
to him as he was radiating sex hormones. It just pissed her off that she still had
the hots for him. Ugh. As they walked through the airport she checked her email to
see if anything was abuzz, made a few comments to friends on Facebook, and then heard
a ruckus. What was up? Dropping her phone into her Juicy Couture satchel she looked
up to see flashing lights as people called out Erik’s name. Piper glanced up at him,
surprised as he took her hand in his, squeezing tightly before leading her through
the paparazzi and journalists over to a group of fans who wore the famous purple Nashville
Assassins jerseys.

Erik took a Sharpie from one girl and started signing jerseys while Piper waited,
feeling very uncomfortable. People were staring at her, while others took pictures
and then someone yelled out, “Who’s that, Erik?”

Erik smiled as he looked back at her. Pulling her to his side before planting a kiss
at her temple, he said, “This is my wife, Piper.”

If Piper thought there was a disruption before it was nothing like now. People started
yelling and lights were flashing; everything went crazy. Piper was beginning to feel
lightheaded, but thankfully, before she could tell Erik, he grabbed her arm and they
began walking away. One woman did grab her, taking a picture of them both—what the
hell was that all about? Erik quickly knocked the woman’s camera arm out of their
way as they continued to wind through the crowd.

He wrapped his arm around Piper’s shoulders and smiled down at her.

“Crazy, huh?”

“Uh, yeah? Why the hell did she want a picture with me?”

“ ’Cause you are a part of me.”

“I wish I would have dressed a little nicer. I did not expect all this attention.
You should have told me,” she said, looking down at her yoga pants and cute Pink!
T-shirt hanging off her shoulder.

“I think you look great, no worries,” he said, hugging her tighter. “It’s going to
be like this all week. Fans will be everywhere; you are now officially warned.”

Piper nodded. “Fantastic.”

And he wasn’t joking. The hotel was infested with Assassins followers, and it was
a little intimidating listening to the girls cry all over Erik. They acted as if their
lives would be over if Erik didn’t take a picture with them and give them an autograph.
Piper was shocked when one girl started to hysterically cry when Erik announced that
Piper was his wife.

On the cab ride to the hotel neither of them mentioned the welcome. After checking
in and running into another crowd that had waited for Erik, he did his duty before
heading to their room.

Looking over at her, he said, “It is a lot of people. I forget how big a crowd the
awards ceremony draws.”

“It’s insane. They know things about you that I didn’t even know.”

Erik’s eyebrow arched. “Like what?”

“I didn’t know you played under Metruis Obtucki in Buffalo. I didn’t even know you
lived in Buffalo!”

Erik laughed. “Yeah, Cooper and Alla moved us there so I could play for him. He trained
me.”

“It’s just weird that these fans know all that stuff,” she proclaimed as the doors
to the elevator opened.

“Oh, you just wait; they’ll know everything about you in a week’s time. I can guarantee
you that.”

Piper looked up at him. “How?”

“They’ll google you, so let’s hope there aren’t any naughty pictures of you on the
Web.”

“Eeek! I modeled when I was nineteen in New York! I was naked with peas glued to my
body!”

“Peas?”

Piper laughed. “It was art.”

Erik shook his head. “You modeled, too?”

“Yeah, I had to make money. I made a thousand bucks for the peas but sometimes I don’t
think it was worth it because I swear I was finding peas in spots they shouldn’t have
been in.”

Erik closed his eyes, with his hand on his chest as he shook his head. Piper giggled,
“What?”

Erik shook his head again as they got off the elevator and walked down the hall. Opening
the door with his room key he said, “You don’t want to know what I am thinking right
now, but do know that I am impressed by your many talents. Peas included.”

Piper laughed as she followed him into the suite and then suddenly she became very
quiet. The corner room was spectacular. It was done in soft browns, and there were
only two walls because the other two were glass, giving them a perfect view of the
Las Vegas skyline. A king-sized bed sat in the middle of the room, with the living
and dining areas off to the sides. Piper had never been in a hotel room so posh.

“Wow.”

“It’s not the room I wanted. Shea beat me to the other one. Ass,” Erik joked as he
put their bags on luggage stands. He went to the bar while Piper explored the rest
of the suite. It was classy with marble-top counters and a huge marble shower and
tub. After the long flight a bath sounded divine so she stripped down as the tub filled
with bubble bath and hot water. Looking around the vanity area she found a ponytail
holder among the complimentary lotions and shampoos and threw her hair up before submerging
her tired body into the bath.

As she lay there in the water, up to her chin, she thought she really shouldn’t help
Reese with choreography anymore. Being pregnant and on your feet all day and dancing
on top of it all, she found her body was aching in every spot imaginable. She wouldn’t
say it was painful, but she sure felt all of her muscles talking to her. She thought
maybe this glorious bath was what she needed. With a sigh, she hit the jet button
on the tub and as the force of the water hit her sore spots she sat back and smiled.

This was the life.

* * *

The next day was jam-packed with events. It turned out Erik donated money to a lot
of good causes, which honestly surprised her. They had already gone to three benefits,
at which they were treated like royalty. One was for disadvantaged kids who wanted
to play hockey, another was for homeless children, and the last was for abused children.
That was the other thing that
amazed her: Each of his charities was for kids. When she tried to comment on it, he
shrugged his shoulders and said it wasn’t a big deal. But Piper thought otherwise.

They got back to the hotel two hours before they had to leave for the awards, just
enough time for a quick nap. Piper fell onto the bed and closed her eyes, letting
exhaustion overtake her. Erik chuckled as he fell onto the other side before turning
the TV on. She was surprised he had lain down beside her since he had slept on the
couch the night before. Instead of analyzing the situation, she cuddled deeper into
the sheets; she was too tired to think about it anyway.