Blue Lines: The Assassins Series: A Loveswept Contemporary Romance (8 page)

How sad was that?

With a sigh, Piper had moved to the kitchen to pour herself some sweet tea when a
knock sounded at the front door. Placing the glass back down on the counter, Piper
made her way down the hall that held pictures of her and her family and friends. When
she came to the foyer, she thought about how she’d like to redecorate this, too—yep,
she needed to let Elli know she definitely was ready to buy this place. The entryway
was still black and purple from when Elli had her Assassins shrine. Yeah, Piper definitely
needed to change that.

Opening the door, she found Erik on the other side, looking down at his phone.

And of course, he looked freaking scrumptious.

His hair was combed to the side and he was wearing preppy shorts and a shirt with
a hot pair of black sunglasses that covered his sexy eyes. When he glanced up at her,
he smiled, sending happy little tingles to the spot between her thighs.

God, he was sexy.

“Hey,” he said.

Piper hesitated, then smiled and moved out of the way for him to enter.

“Hey, come on in.”

“This is a nice place. Really secluded, though,” he said as he walked past her and
into the house. Piper shut the door.

“Yeah, I like it that way. Let’s go into the kitchen, which is straight ahead, then
right,” she said, then followed him down the hall, watching his butt move as he walked.
He had such a fine ass. Solid with muscle, and man, her mouth was starting to water.

Look away, Piper, look away!

Piper shook her head as she glanced up at the ceiling.

“Would you like something to drink?”

“Sure, beer?”

She met his eyes and glared. “I’m pregnant. Why would I have beer?”

Erik looked around awkwardly. “So, no beer?”

She wanted to scream, but instead she said, “No, would you like some tea?”

“Sweet?”

She blinked a few times before saying, “I’m southern. Is there any other kind?”

“I was just making sure you weren’t a weirdo that drank unsweetened tea,” Erik said,
laughing, “but yeah, can I get some of that?”

Piper made her way to the refrigerator and got out the pitcher of fresh sweet sun
tea. It was her favorite, and she hated that she had to watch her caffeine intake
during the pregnancy since too much would not be good for the baby. Pouring a glass
for him and topping her glass off, she suggested they go out on the patio to talk.
The living room was too confining and it wasn’t good to be too close to him. She had
too many memories of being on her couch with Mr. Titov.

Turning with the glasses in her hands, she found Erik watching her with a nervous
look on his face. She paused as their eyes met. It blew her mind that she still had
the same insane feelings for him. Her heart was beating at an erratic pace while her
palms felt sweaty. Her mouth felt dry, but the spot between her thighs was slick and
wet. The worst part about it all was that she swore he could see everything she was
feeling. His eyes were dark with lust as he held her gaze. He was looking at her like
it was a hundred degrees out and she was the sweet sun tea and he was dying of thirst.
She felt like throwing their glasses of tea over her shoulders and attacking him.
Not good.

Suddenly his eyes brightened with knowing, and his lips curved in a mischievous little
grin before he said, “I think we should get married.”

What the …?

* * *

Piper was only blinking at him, and it was making him nervous.

Erik had a whole speech planned. It was going to be amazing and he knew he was going
to be able to convince her to marry him with no problem. But that all changed when
she opened the door to her house. There she stood in superhot shorts that looked like
underwear and a sexy shirt that was falling off her shoulders, giving him a good enough
view to know there was no bra underneath. Her hair was wet and was dripping down the
back of her shirt. She looked playful and gorgeous, and he liked that combination.
He also liked that she was being so spunky.

Their night together all those months ago was hot, hot, soooo fucking hot his dick
was stiff just thinking about it. Or maybe it was seeing her gray couch. They had
done the naughtiest things on that couch and seeing it again reminded him of that
night. He got so lost on that couch with Piper that he had even thought he could be
a different man when he was in her arms.

But then he went back on the road and slept with three different women just to bleach
his brain of any thoughts of Piper. He knew that he couldn’t be the man that she needed,
and he struggled to get her out of his mind. No sense thinking about something you
could never have. He knew he had hurt her, and he did regret the pain he’d caused
her, but it was for the best. She and that couch needed to be out of his life. Things
weren’t safe when he was wrapped in her arms. Words came out of his mouth that he’d
never uttered to anyone. Thoughts of being the man that Cooper was came to mind, and
God knows that would never happen with Piper or anyone. How could it, with the godawful
childhood he had had?

Erik had accepted he would never know what a woman’s love would feel like. He had
the love of his brother, his mom and dad, and he was fine with just that. He had to
be because he would never allow himself to have anything more. When he had first met
Piper he knew she was a “love you forever” kind of girl. When she pinned him with
those baby blues, he was taken in. He had never felt such a jolt and he knew then
she could be trouble, because she could be someone he could love, forever—if only
he would have been wired to be able to do that. It wasn’t as though she had a perfect
smile, with the gap between her teeth and all. He usually liked his women very made-up,
in virtual physical perfection, but something about Piper was different. She could
walk into a room wearing a brown paper bag and he would still think she was the hottest
thing next to the sun.

Now here he was, asking her to marry him.

And all she was doing was blinking at him like her brain had totally short-circuited.

“Excuse me?”

Erik cleared his throat and looked down as he dug into his pocket, pulling out the
small
ring he had picked up before coming to her house. It was nothing spectacular, just
a small diamond. He didn’t want her to get the wrong idea, like he cared or something … even
though he sort of did.

Swallowing loudly, he held the ring out to her and said, “I think we should get married.”

Never in his life did he think he would ever utter those words.

Erik expected her to start yelling, but the next thing he knew, the glasses she held
busted at their feet. He looked down in surprise at the shattered glass scattered
everywhere before glancing back up at her. She just stood there, her eyes wide as
quarters as her chest rose and fell in rhythm with his heart. She reached out to hold
on to the counter as she took in a big gulp of air.

“Surely, I am hearing you wrong,” she finally blurted. “Because I swear you just asked
me to marry you.”

Erik nodded. Feeling the need to do something, he bent over to pick up the shards
of glass. “I did.”

“Why?” she squeaked. “You don’t love me.”

“I know that,” he said as he stood, throwing the glass in a nearby trash can. “But
I’m in trouble and you put me there. So I need your help.”

Erik glanced over his shoulder to catch the hurt look on Piper’s face.

“You told Elli about us, and in doing so, you fucked me. Elli is threatening to kick
me off the team because she considers me a man-whore and I am tainting the image of
the team.”

Piper could not believe what he was saying. Elli wouldn’t do that. Could he be serious?

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope, and since I’ve had quite a few women blame their recent pregnancies on me,
it has really pissed Elli off.”

“So why marry me? Marry one of them.”

Erik gave her a deadpan look.

“Well, first of all, none of those other pregnancies were mine; DNA proved that. The
rest is obvious, don’t you think? Elli knows your baby is mine, and I know she is
watching my every move. I have to show her that I am not the guy she thinks I am.”

“But you
are
,” she interjected. “A man-whore, that is.”

“Just because I like having sex with multiple women, that does not mean I’m a whore,”
he said with a glare. “And at least I’m not a liar,” he added, receiving one hell
of a death look.

“I am—not—a—liar.”

“I think you are. You lied to me for six months about our baby. In those six months
we could have worked something out.”

What that something could have been, he had no clue, but she didn’t need to know that.
“I was protecting myself,” she argued.

“While fucking me in the process. I am walking on eggshells right now on the team,
and when this hits the media and I don’t deny that the baby is mine, I’d better be
ready to fix things or I’ll be off the team—Elli is not kidding around. I need your
help, Piper.”

“I just don’t understand how marrying me is going to help you,” she said, still flabbergasted
that he would even consider marriage as an option.

“It will make me look like a stand-up guy. Everyone knows how I am,” he stressed.
“They know I like the ladies, but if I can show that I can be a family man, then maybe
I have a chance to stay on this team. Or any team for that matter; word does get around.”

Piper only shook her head, and Erik knew she was still unconvinced. “Plus, we have
the issue of our families. My parents will freak when they find out. Yours will, too.
It doesn’t matter that we are adults and that not everyone gets married when a woman
gets pregnant today. Not everyone’s families are tangled up the way ours are.”

Letting out a sound of distress, Piper looked up at him.

“You don’t want this. I’m not so sure I do, either.”

“Of course I don’t. None of it. I like my life, but you threw a wrench in it. That’s
why you gotta help me.”

She looked away and he could see her eyes filling with tears.

“So, what, we’ll be married and then get divorced in a month?”

Erik shook his head.

“No, we would wait until after the baby is born. We’ll be like most couples that marry
because of a kid—no one is going to expect us to succeed. We just need to make Elli
believe that we tried. So we act like this is real for a few months to a year, and
then end it after we both get what we want.”

When Piper turned her head to look at him, a tear had escaped her right eye. That
sign of emotion affected him; it was like taking a puck to his chest. Erik hated when
girls cried; that was
one of the reasons he didn’t get emotionally involved.

“Why do you need to stay on this team? Go somewhere else.”

“No,” he said without even thinking. Not only did he not want to leave his brother,
but Jakob’s words played hard on his mind.

What kind of man does that to their child?

It bothered him, and as much as he would love the chance to leave and never see Piper
again, he knew he couldn’t do that if he wanted to play on the Assassins and, ultimately,
be able to live life the way he wanted to—that is, once all this was over with.

Instead of admitting that, he said, “I don’t have those options now—like I said, word
gets around. I’ve fucked up, and this pregnancy is only going to make it worse.”

She bit down on her lip and shook her head.

“No one will believe that we wanted to get married. We hate each other. Neither of
us is that good at playacting.”

Erik was a little taken aback by her comment.

“I don’t hate you, Piper. Not at all. I just hate how you have handled things.”

“Like you’ve given me a choice. It’s not like you were being the doting boyfriend;
you were off fucking anything with legs—”

“I’m done with that conversation,” Erik said, interrupting her. He paused for a moment
as she crossed her arms, her beautiful mouth set in a straight line. “The main thing
is our future. We have to stop with the blame and the fighting about what I should
have done or what you should have done. I need your help, okay, and I think marrying
me is the least you could do.”

“Really? Are you fucking kidding me?! The least you could have done was not fucking
break my heart! You don’t get to come into someone’s life and then check out. Only
to later expect them to help you!”

Her eyes were clouded with tears and he could see that she was doing everything to
hold them in. He didn’t want to yell at her, but he had no choice. She had to do this.

“I never meant to hurt you and I told you that! You kept this from me, giving me no
time to figure things out! You owe me this!”

“I owe you nothing!” she screeched. “Nothing!”

Shaking his head, feeling like this was going nowhere, Erik closed his eyes and turned
his face up toward the ceiling. When he glanced down, Piper was leaning against the
counter, her
forehead on the surface, her breathing labored.

“Okay, maybe you don’t owe me, Piper, but I need your help. I love my life here, and
I don’t want to leave my brother and Ally. And now our baby.” Not a total lie, but
definitely another approach he was hoping would convince her.

“You don’t care about our child,” she whispered, shaking her head against the counter.

“I do,” Erik said, taking a step forward. He placed his hand on her shoulder, causing
her to glance up at him.

“So you want us to play house,” she whispered. “Live as if we are the happiest, most
in-love couple, expecting their little bundle of joy.”

Erik nodded. “Yes.”

She shook her head as the tears began to fall.

“You can’t cheat on me. I will already look like an idiot for marrying you.”

“What? So you want me to go without sex?” he asked in shock. “I gotta have sex, Piper.
I’m a man.”

“I don’t care. You promise me right now that you will not cheat on me, or I’m not
even going to consider this ridiculous proposal. I have my pride and reputation, too,
and I will not have you ruin it with your man-whoring.”