70

Adam

Undanceable

Everybody started talking at once.

Elijah demanded to know why we were there—like he could talk to Piper in that tone of voice and expect me not to hit him—Sloane started coming up with the most insane stories for why she'd conveniently found her way into Elijah Contractor's bedroom—and what happened to her clothes—and Piper had her hands over her ears, asking everyone to pretty, pretty, pretty please be quiet.

"Goddammit," I muttered, running a hand over my face. "Fucking today of all days."

Piper nodded vigorously. "Yeah…I drank too much…"

There goes the subtlety.

I grabbed her and tugged her halfway behind my back, like I was hiding a birthday surprise instead of a drunk, blonde college student. She kept trying to weasel her way out, but I kept her locked against me.

"I'm here to deliver a noise complaint," I said, with as much restraint as I could. "So shut the fuck up."

"Adam, please don't tell anybody," Sloane begged.

"What the hell are you doing giving noise complaints?" Elijah cocked his head to the side. "Did they kick you off the team already? You need a side hustle?"

Sloane smacked his shoulder. " Elijah! "

"Wait…I know her…" Elijah gazed at Piper, half-hidden behind me. "You're Adam's RA."

"I'm tired, " Piper whined.

"Is she…is she drunk?" Elijah asked, a grin on his face. "What kind of noise complaint is this?"

Piper tapped my back. "Adam…I'm going to throw up if I don't get a piggyback ride…"

"Alright, everybody shut up again," I snapped. Cursing under my breath, I reached down and hauled Piper on my back. "Elijah, I couldn't give less a shit what you're doing. Sloane, I don't care what zoo animal you're fucking. But we're going to make a pact. Nobody mentions any of this to anybody ever."

"Oh, blessings," Sloane breathed out.

"We weren't even—doing anything—" Elijah tried to scoff.

"If I took a UV light in there, I'd have to call in a clean-up crew. And then they'd burn it down for sanitary reasons," I snarled. "Shut the fuck up, Elijah. Shut up. Are we good?"

I knew the hockey player wanted to deck me, but all four of us were in a bind. They didn't want their weirdo secret fucking session going around and I didn't want Elijah opening his fat mouth to tell everybody from here to Oklahoma that Piper was on-call, drunk. Reluctantly, Elijah shut the door, and I walked over to the elevator.

"Guess where you're going?" I asked Piper while she squeezed my neck.

"Hm?" she murmured, resting against me.

"You're going to sleep."

"No…" But she yawned anyway.

Upstairs, I closed the door after us and breathed out a sigh of relief. Twenty minutes. That's all I was asking for, just time to get Piper in bed. The moment I set her down though, Piper had a frown on her face.

"I want to dance ."

"We're not dancing, Piper, you're going to sleep." I took her hand and lead her off towards the bedroom.

"But I want to dance ."

"Piper—"

She pulled her hand away from me and her bottom lip quivered. "That's part—part of the college experience I want—and I didn't get to at the conference—I didn't get to at the bar ." Piper took a struggling breath and her eyes shone with instant tears.

"What?" I stared at her, frozen. "Don't cry."

"What if nobody ever wants to dance with me ever and I have to live my life undanceable?"

"Woah, hey, that's not going to happen—"

"What—what if I'm undanceable?" Piper blubbered.

Panic bit me. Piper couldn't cry. How could I let her cry? Part of me knew they were just the ramblings of a drunk girl who desperately needed to close her eyes. But that didn't change the fact that I couldn't let her cry.

"You're not—Piper, we can dance later. Right now, you need to go to sleep ."

She took rapid breaths. "You don't even want to dance with me."

"No, I didn't say that—"

"You think I dance terribly—terribly—"

"I haven't even seen you dance ." I threw up my hands. "I never said anything like that!"

"I'm going—going to have to live my life and no one—no one's ever—"

"No, of course not—"

"You wouldn't even want to ever , not ever dance with me—"

"Piper. Goddammit, Piper. Yes, I want to dance with you but—"

"Okay." Piper nodded and wiped away the tears. "I'll dance with you."

For a long moment, I stared at her. What the fuck was that? Somehow, I got trapped in one of those Looney Tunes reruns and I found myself agreeing with the rabbit. I glanced back and forth between the bedroom and her, Piper, gazing up at me expectantly. I held my hand to argue but Piper raised her eyebrows, watching me.

"I—" I stopped myself. "What the hell was that?"

She tilted her head to the side. "One dance?"

"That is the most manipulative shit I have ever…what the hell?" I muttered to myself, slipping out my phone. I scrolled for playlists. Nothing in my library would work for romantic Piper. I finally found a list of classic songs to slow dance to, a playlist that looked just sentimental and mushy enough to be up Piper's alley. Glancing over my shoulder, I made sure Piper knew what we were bargaining for. "Piper, one dance."

She smiled at me.

"One dance and you go to bed, and you don't argue." I shook my head. "That is some devious shit."

It'd been a crazy day anyway, what was a dance added on to it? I clicked the playlist and walked over to Piper with my hand out. One dance and she could finally go to sleep. One dance and I'd get her dorm picked up and finish the online reports, which would be so much fun, considering I had to write them in the methodical way I knew Piper would've.

Slowly, Piper took my hand and crossed the space between us.

The music started, soft and low.

It was different with her so close to me. My fingers curled along her back and she wrapped her arms around my neck. Piper was so sleepy, she pressed her cheek to my chest and whispered something against me.

"What did you say?" I asked.

"Huh?" she murmured against my shirt, blinking blearily. "I didn't say anything."

Piper was the most out-of-it I'd ever seen anyone, ever. Usually, she had everything planned and put together, but there she was, quiet, with her body pressed against me. I swallowed and gazed at the wall behind her, tugging her closer. When would I get this chance again? To have her so close?

"Hey, Piper?" I cleared my throat. "There's a…uh…there's a banquet coming up."

"Mm-hmm…"

"It's for the end of spring training."

Piper just nodded against me, her cheek pressed against my chest.

"I was—uh—wondering…"

Fuck. How do people do this?

Gently stroking her hair, I curled a few strands around my finger. "You see, I was wondering if you—you know—wanted to go. With me."

I glanced down to see her reaction, but Piper just nodded, a little smile on her face, her eyes closed. She said yes. I asked her and she said yes.

How much of this is she going to remember tomorrow?

The song switched to the next one and Piper stumbled on her feet, barely able to keep her eyes open. She was literally falling asleep in my arms. It was time for the dance to end. Reaching down, I scooped her up and made my way to the bedroom.

My heart had never beat faster.

"You're going to sleep, okay?" I whispered and pulled back the blankets. As carefully as I could, I laid her down and brushed her blonde hair behind her, bringing the blankets up to her chin. Piper was so beautiful, it made me hurt just looking at her. But I couldn't stop. I kneeled beside the bed and she opened her eyes, smiling at me again with that breathtaking smile that haunted me.

"Hi," she whispered.

I'd do anything to make this moment last forever .

"Hey," I said, brushing back another strand of blonde hair from her face.

How much of this would I have to carry around with me?

"Piper?" I put my head in my hand and closed my eyes tight.

"Hm?"

"I'm falling in love with you," I said softly.

That's not all of it.

I took a deep breath. "You're the only thing I need. And I am a class act fuck-up." I fisted the blankets with my other hand. "I'm in love with you. And I don't know what to fucking do about it. I don't understand this stuff like you do. And you're the person I can't talk to about it. Fuck. You're never going to see me like how I see you. And it's fucking killing me, ice princess"

Nothing. No response.

I looked up and Piper was fast asleep, snoring softly on the pillow.

"Of course." I chuckled without humor. "Yeah. This isn't worse at all."

With about as much pride as I could muster, I pushed myself up to a standing position and checked Piper's phone. Nothing. No phone calls from the front desk, no emergencies I needed to respond to in five minutes about the dumbass athletes in the building doing dumb shit.

Peace and quiet.

Peace and quiet and the hurt that swelled up in my body with no regard for anything else. Peace and quiet and my own thoughts to wonder how long I'd get to keep Piper around.

How long can she stomach me?

The floorboard creaked when I reached the door and Piper stirred in the blankets.

"Sorry," I whispered.

"Adam?" Piper blinked again and held out her hand.

I frowned. "What?"

But she didn't stop holding out her hand until I came close and then, with the smallest gestures, she motioned back to the bed. Back to the bed with her.

Yeah, that couldn't happen.

Worse than sex, Piper wanted me to climb into the covers and hold her until she fell asleep.

Bad fucking idea.

Especially since I'd cuddled with exactly zero people in my life. It was my regular schtick to zip up my pants before whatever bleacher bunny and I could even have a full conversation, much less cuddling.

How do you even do it? Where do you put your arms?

"Uh…Piper…"

"I'm cold ." She fumbled for my hand, trying to bring me closer.

"See, I can…get you some blankets," I said, not meaning a fucking word of it.

No sex. Just two people in bed together. I uncovered the blankets and slipped in next to her. She was warm. And soft. And everything I wanted.

Piper shifted back against me. Right against my cock. Fuck me. But I had to keep still to have her close like this. Holding back a groan, I wrapped my arms around her, getting rid of all the distance between us.

If the phone rings, I'm breaking it in half.

This was self-destructive behavior that couldn't end. It was the knife buried in my side that I couldn't take out if I wanted to live.

"Goodnight," she murmured.

"Goodnight, ice princess," I muttered back and kissed her hair. "I love you."