That First Kiss (29 page)

             
Shit, what was she thinking? She didn’t want anything from him.
Nothing
. “Let go of me,” she growled.

             
He didn’t. “Tell me, Piper. After what?”

             
She snapped. Just completely lost it. Jerking to free herself and finding it impossible to escape, Piper resorted to physical violence. In a fit of desperation, she slammed her fist into Tate’s chest. “After you were with me, you bastard. You left my bed and jumped right into another one with
her
!”

             
“I might be a lot of things, babe, but a cheater I am not. I never slept with Casey,” Tate implored, tugging her closer. “That I can promise you, but for argument’s sake let’s say that I had. Wouldn’t that be a little like calling the kettle black?”

             
Piper narrowed her eyes on him. “What are you suggesting?”

             
Tate leaned in, his blue eyes flashing dangerously. “You took that chef back to your room. Are you telling me you didn’t jump into bed with him the second the door clicked shut?”

             
Before she could process what was happening, Piper’s hand snapped out. She watched with detached fascination as her palm connected with the side of his face. “How dare you.”

             
Tate glared down at her, his jaw clenched tight. Already, she could see the red outline of her fingertips blooming across his cheek. “How dare I?”

             
“Yes, how dare you!” Piper seethed. “Tom is my friend, which is more than I can say for you. And what about all those other women? The ones you made me take back to your place. Don’t they count?”

             
“What is that supposed to mean? What are you even talking about? ” Tate demanded, his grip on her arm tightening. She glimpsed the pulse in his neck. It ticked wildly, informing her that she was treading in dangerous waters. “I haven’t been with anyone since you.
No one
.”

             
“Oh please,” she snorted. “Give me some credit, Tate. I’m not one of your floozies. You can’t feed me your lies and expect me to eat them up with a spoon.” Pushing onto her toes, Piper put her face right into his, heedless of the consequences. “You don’t give a damn about anybody. You don’t care who you hurt, just as long as you get what you want.”

             
“You’re wrong,” he insisted. “I never slept with those women. I called them a cab and sent them on their way. They never made it up to my apartment. And you’re wrong about another thing,” he continued, holding her in an unblinking stare so intense it penetrated all the way to her core. “I give a damn about
you
.” Tate’s entire body vibrated. Grabbing the back of her neck, he crushed his lips to hers.

             
His kiss was punishing, consuming. His fingers moved into Piper’s hair, gripping the heavy length in tight fists. Tilting her head back, Tate traced his tongue along the seam of her lips, and when she opened for him, he plunged inside, invading her body without censure.

             
Piper could do nothing but cling to him. She dug her fingers into his shoulders, holding him to her like she might never let him go. And maybe she wouldn’t. He felt so damn good. Had he really never slept with those women? Hope soared within her and she clung to him.

             
Easing away, Tate released his death grip on her hair and slid his hands around to cup her face. He rested his forehead against hers, his eyes closed tightly as they struggled to regain their breath.

             
“God, Piper, how did this get so fucked up,” he breathed, opening his eyes to look at her. Really look at her. Piper couldn’t look away, trapped in the pool of tenderness he laid before her. His thumbs smoothed lightly across her cheeks. Taking a deep breath, he rubbed the tip of his nose against hers, and then placed a small kiss there. “I never thought I would feel like this again,” he murmured.

His lips grazed lightly across her cheek and Piper closed her eyes as they gently touched her skin and made a slow path along her jaw to her mouth
. His breathing was heavy and ragged as he held her close, breathing her in. “I love you, Piper Donovan,” he whispered.

Piper’s breath came to a screeching halt and her heart bottomed out. Had
her ears deceived her, or had Tate just told her he loved her?

“I love you so damn much, and it scares the fucking shit out of me,” he confessed through gritted teeth, as if admitting that had cost him dearly.
“I know I’m an asshole, and I’m sure as hell not worthy of you, but if you give me a chance, I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to be.”

             
His hands trembled and Piper lifted hers to cover them. “Say it again,” she whispered as wetness spilled down her face. She needed to know she had heard him right. Needed to know that it wasn’t her mind playing tricks on her.

             
“I love you,” Tate he repeated. Sliding his hands out from under hers, he moved them into her hair once again and held on tight. He lowered his mouth to hers. “I love you. I didn’t think it was possible to fall in love again, but then you came along and changed my mind. I can’t imagine going a single day without you in my life, and I’m sorry it took me so long to figure that out. You’re everything to me, Piper. I love you, more than you know. I don’t want to lose you.” Tightening his grip on her hair, Tate pulled her mouth to his. “I love you,” he repeated, then slammed his mouth down over hers and kissed her again and again, pushing all his love, all his affection, into those three words.

             
“I love you, too,” Piper breathed, leaning into him and wrapping her arms around his shoulders. They got lost in each other, tasting and touching until they were forced to stop and catch their breath.

             
“And you didn’t fuck the chef?” Tate asked lightly, dipping his head down to run his tongue down her neck.

             
Despite his effort to act like it wasn’t a big deal, she could hear the note of insecurity in his voice, and it touched her all the way to her soul. “No.” She closed her eyes, sinking into his embrace as she worked to steady the wild beating of her heart. “And you didn’t screw your ex, or those other girls?”

             
“No.”

             
Thank. God. She squeezed him tighter.

             
“Thank God,” Tate said into her hair, echoing her thoughts. His fingers found the strip of exposed skin where her shirt rode high on her waist. He cursed softly, stroking his fingers across the smooth flesh. “I need to be inside you,” he growled. “I need to feel your naked curves beneath me.” He drew back. Taking her hand in his, he laced their fingers together. The look he gave her was pure sin.

             
“Are you sure you can make it back to Chicago first?”

             
He shook his head slowly from side to side. “With how badly I need you right now, I’ll be lucky if I make it to the car.”

             
Piper’s eyes widened and she looked around. They were in a corner of a small park. Not far off, children played, their parents decorating the benches surrounding the jungle gym. “Then we better get out of here before we give these kids an impromptu lesson on the birds and the bees.”

             
Tate’s expression sobered and he lifted his hand, running it down the side of her face. “You’re amazing. How did I get so damn lucky?”

             
Piper grinned, her insides brimming with delight. “Must be fate.” She slid her arms around his waist and peered up at him with a devilish smile. “But now that I have you in my clutches, I’m never letting you go.”

             
“Baby, you can trap me in your clutches any day.” Bending forward, Tate slanted his lips over hers, plunging his tongue past her lips and stealing the very breath from her lungs. Unwinding her hands from his hips, Tate wove their fingers together and brought her knuckles to his lips. “You ready to get laid, Ms. Donovan?”

             
Piper released a giggle as Tate broke into a jog, pulling her enthusiastically toward the car.

             
It was a moment of pure joy that she never thought possible. In all of her daydreams, Piper had never imagined that she would end up with this man. This beautiful, sexy man who pissed her off almost as much as he excited her. He was something else, something she never thought she wanted, but knew now she couldn’t live without.

He was her future.

He was her home.

Epilogue

“The final copy just arrived.” Piper strolled into the office and dropped the heavy book in the middle of the desk.

              Laying down his pen, Tate sat back in his seat and eyed the glossy black and red cover with his name printed on it. Almost a year of his life—filled with his dreams and forged from good old-fashioned blood, sweat and tears—sat before him. As was always true when he published a novel, it was surreal. But this one was different from all the others. This one was special, because as cliché at it sounded, none of it would have been possible without Piper by his side.

             
“Congratulations, Mr. Larson,” Piper said, coming around the desk and settling herself in his lap. She wrapped her slender arm around his neck and leaned in to place a kiss to his lips. As always happened when they kissed or touched in any way, passion consumed them, and by the time they pulled away, both of their breathing had turned heavy and erratic.

             
Tate shifted his straining erection. Dropping his head back against the seat, he stared down at the desk and took a moment to reflect on the journey his life had taken him since Piper entered his life.

             
Lightly tracing her fingertips over his lips, Piper asked, “What are you thinking?”

             
Tate smiled and lifted his head, placing his hand on the burgeoning swell of her barely there stomach where their child rested, safe and warm within his mother’s womb. Jesus, how his life had transformed—from playboy to husband and father in less than a year, and he wouldn’t change a thing.

             
Piper was his everything, the very air he breathed. Without her in his life, he would be nothing. When he looked back, he wasn’t sure how he had lived before her, except to say that he hadn’t.

Some men would have counted him lucky, a successful bachelor with a different woman on his arm and in his bed every night of the week. Now that he had something to compare it to,
he knew what an empty existence it truly was.

             
Having someone to love who loved him back was the most incredible feeling in the world. It made everything else pale in comparison.

             
In the past, he probably would have taken her head off and told her to mind her own business. Just thinking of what a total asshole he used to be made him want to punch himself in the face. He still didn’t understand what she saw in him, but whatever it was, he was grateful. Piper was an incredible woman, who made him happier than he ever thought possible. She made his life complete, filling in all the gaps he hadn’t known existed. Even now, carrying their child, she was giving him something he could never repay: happiness.

             
Piper touched his face, bringing his eyes up to rest on hers. “I was just thinking about how much I love you,” he told her sincerely. “Both of you.” Tate rubbed her stomach; looking forward to the day when he could finally meet the little person they had created. It was mind-boggling. To think they had come together and made a whole new person.

             
Piper placed her hand over his. “We love you, too,” she said, and discretely wiped her misty eyes with the back of her hand. But Tate caught it.

             
“Are you crying?” he asked incredulously, though he couldn’t keep his smile from forming. His wife cried over anything and everything these days. She blamed the hormones, but he really couldn’t understand why hormones would cause anyone to shed a tear over a diaper commercial. And why did she always cry when a Brittany song came on the radio? She said it was a happy memory, but, whatever. He was baffled.

             
Piper slapped his hand away. “Be quiet,” she sniffed. “You’re the one getting all sappy.”

             
Tate laughed, wrapping his arms around her hips and giving her a little squeeze. “And how am I doing that?”

             
“With all your talk of love and stuff,” she said shyly, dropping her eyes to his chest.

             
Tate dipped his head to catch her eyes. “Telling you I love you makes you cry?” She nodded, pursing her lips and looking away. Lifting her up, Tate twisted her around to face him and pulled her back down to his lap so she straddled him. Cupping her jaw in his palm, he brought her face up to his and kissed her soundly.