71

Piper

That's What You Remember

I woke up with a headache that was personally trying to kill me.

"Oh my god…" I mumbled. Did I hit my head or something? Nothing made sense. Not the dull throbbing behind my eyes or the dull ache between my legs.

What happened last night?

My hand slipped down, and I breathed out in relief. Half of me was convinced I was still asleep, in a weird, lucid sex dream and the other half wondered if I'd just woken up from a sex dream.

What was I dreaming about?

Adam.

Sitting on that couch together in the blue room, I could still see him, touching my face. Ooo…that was it. My fingers drifted down, and I stroked my panties, not even touching myself yet. I just wanted to picture him again…his reddish-brown hair swept back, the lofty smile on his lips…oh god …

And I could just imagine him pressed up against me. His arms around me, all muscle, holding me tight. And the more I pictured it, the more real it became. The feeling of his biceps, the warmth of his body…his hard cock, throbbing against me as I stroked my panties.

I could feel it.

A whimper escaped me, my fingers quickened. Oh my god and Adam's cock, pulsing for me, hard and thick and—

"Ice princess, if you keep rubbing up against me like that, I'm coming in my boxers."

What the fuck?!

With a yelp, I scrambled forward and almost fell off the bed. A hand reached out for my waist and tugged me back just in time. But I had no idea who broke into my bedroom. I jerked up into a sitting position. Oh my god, Adam? In my bed .

I yanked on the string for the lamp and the light flickered over the room. Adam gazed back at me, exhausted.

My mouth fell open. " Adam? "

"Yeah. Hey." He nodded, leaning back against the pillow.

There were dark circles that looked like they'd been drawn under his eyes. He had a full five o'clock shadow on his face and he blinked slowly at the ceiling, bleary beyond words.

I never realized how often he moved around until he was completely still next to me. I was in the middle of panicking, but Adam didn't budge once. He was that tired.

"Adam—what—?" I sucked in a breath. "My shift! "

This was a living, breathing nightmare. I spent all semester working towards Roman Hall. Hot embarrassment flushed through me. A literal nightmare.

"I'm taking care of it," he croaked and looked up at me with bloodshot eyes. "I probably woke you up. Sorry. I just got back from another lockout."

"Lockout?" I blinked and shifted back on the bed. "What…?"

"You drank some of Kassie's peach lemonade," he said, rubbing his temples. "It's all my fault. I forgot to tell you not to touch those. It's like downing a whole bottle of vodka in one of those little pink cans. They're a fucking menace."

"Oh my god…"

"Yeah."

"But…my shift…?"

"I've been handling the shift. I turned in the paperwork before three."

I couldn't believe it.

No. I did believe it.

There were these little things that Adam did, all the time. Each of them added up more and more, becoming this unbalanced equation between us, but he didn't care about that. It never bothered him. He bought me coffee, helped me with my door decorations, held the door open for me, changed his radio station to my audiobooks, all of these little things were active choices for him and he never held those against me.

My heart squeezed and I gazed at him. "What happened?"

"You don't remember," Adam said, not as a question, but a blank statement.

"I…remember…?" I wracked my brain, thinking about the study session. "I remember the event and June helping me out. And Thomas…called. And I turned off my phone."

"I know."

"You know?"

"Yeah." Adam shrugged, gazing back up at the ceiling. "He called about as much as the goddamn desk assistants and I told him if he didn't want to stay overnight at a hospital, he'd stop calling."

I could barely believe what I was hearing. "You…you did?"

"Uh-huh."

"Oh." I swallowed. "You didn't have to do that."

Adam sighed and pushed himself from the mattress. "Okay, I'm up."

"Wait, Adam?" I didn't know what to say. My head was still swimming, and I was pretty sure I was still a little out of it. But Adam walked towards the door and I had to stumble to catch up with him. I grabbed his arm. "Adam?"

"Woah, slow down."

"Thank you," I said softly.

A warm feeling took over me. I wish I could've remembered the phone call too. Only bits and pieces were coming back, not enough to put a whole picture together. I could see the residents' faces and something about Adam's hair? For some reason, that kept coming back to me. But nothing concrete beyond that.

"You really don't remember?" Adam said again, giving me a long look. His face twisted. I didn't recognize the look. "Like, nothing?"

"Um…Sloane and Elijah…why do I remember them?"

A laugh escaped him. "Got it. That's what you remember."

"Did something happen?"

He hesitated for a moment and opened the door. "We yelled at them. And at a bunch of residents."

"We did?" I smiled and followed him at about the speed you expect from someone with a nasty hangover. All my bones protested. Ugh. What a horrible way to wake up. I reached for Adam's arm again and led him to the elevators. "I'll buy you coffee."

"We can't leave the building."

"I'll just order it," I said, fishing for my phone. But I didn't have it, Adam did. He held it away from me and shook his head. "Adam, give me my phone."

"Ice princess, I'll buy the coffee."

"You've done too much already."

He shrugged and hid my phone in his pocket. "If I get sick before a football game, you can just jump in with a helmet and take my place. We'll call it square."

The elevator ride was quiet downstairs, and I finally got my phone back from Adam to check up on my messages. It was exactly what I was dreading. Everyone wanted to know why I went quiet. I scrolled through and came to a few from my parents.

"There's actually coffee in your room," Adam sighed, heading to the lockbox with me. "It's in your fridge. It's not fresh. I ordered it a couple of hours ago. It was the only thing that kept me from ripping heads off during the noise complaints."

I chuckled. "That bad, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Funny how you actually did the lockouts though," I mused, scanning over the messages. "Because I remember a time when you said you just wouldn't bother…"

"See, I should've done that. Maybe I was drunk too."

"Adam?" I stopped him and held up my phone. "Hey…you got it?"

He led me over to the cubbies and pulled out the folders that he'd finished for the night. "Got what?"

I held up my phone again. "You got the care package?"

"Huh?" Adam stood up from digging in the file cabinets underneath and a wide smile crossed his face. Slowly, he nodded. "You asked them to send it."

I bit my lip. "Um…see…"

"You're trying to do a Piper-Truth but you can't Piper-Truth out of this," he warned. Before I could ask, he raised an eyebrow. "It's where you give a half-truth and call it good for the day."

I sighed.

"Got you." He grinned.

"Okay, maybe I did. I thought it'd be nice. Is that a crime?"

"No." He bumped my shoulder with his, walking past me. "I've never gotten one before. It means a lot to me. Thank you."

Oh.

Blood rose to my face for absolutely no reason, and I ducked to hide the blush. I took my place next to him, pleased. "So, good night?"

"One of the freshmen fell in the bathroom, a bowling guy," Adam rolled his eyes. "Tried to tell me he wasn't drunk with a split lip and a missing tooth. Blood fucking everywhere in the hallway. Scared the shit out of me."

"Wow." I giggled. "Bowlers, hard partiers."

"Hard athletes, you mean. If you don't bleed, you don't lead," Adam quoted his high school coach with another laugh. "Can't tell you how many times I heard my dad say that."

"I hate those sayings," I murmured.

Adam chuckled and leaned a little closer, finishing up stacking the outdoor keys for the morning shift, one of the last things on the schedule.

Some days, the cologne he wore made him smell like crisp pine, but this was a different scent. Huskier. Manlier. Adam, who just rolled out of bed, with his five o'clock shadow and a rumpled shirt. Delicious.

I breathed him in without even realizing it. Could he tell?

His eyes flickered back to mine in the quiet space between us.

But…something was wrong.

I frowned, thinking back to his words.

My head wasn't working right, the lack of sleep, the alcohol, waking up pressed up to Adam's body, none of that meant I could think properly. But I dug down into what he just said, trying to piece together why it didn't sound right.

"What did you say?" I asked, my voice quiet.

Adam chuckled. "If you don't bleed, you don't lead?"

"No…" I drew a slow breath. "You said your dad said that."

"Yep."

"Adam…you told me your high school coach said that."