Fullepub 
Chapter Nine
CHAPTER NINE
Striding into her previous place of work with Larkin—who’d offered to come along, since Knox had returned home and relieved her of bodyguard duty—Levi scanned his surroundings. This studio had nothing on Urban Ink. It was too plain, and it lacked character. Aside from the equipment, nothing about it said ‘tattoo shop.’
The slender blonde behind the small reception desk gave Levi a quick once-over and then smiled. “Hi, do you have an—”
“We need to speak with Kelvin.” Levi flicked a look at him. The male was hunched over a customer, a buzzing tattoo gun in hand. The mere sight of him made Levi’s demon curl its upper lip.
“It’s gonna be at least an hour before he’s done,” said the blonde.
“Then he’ll need to take a break, because we won’t be leaving until we’ve spoken with him.”
“I’m sorry, it’s just not—”
“Either you tell him we’re here,” began Larkin, “or we’ll tell him we’re here.”
The blonde’s lips tightened. “Fine, but he’ll probably ask you to come back later.” She strutted—yeah, literally strutted—over to Kelvin’s station and flirtatiously danced her fingertips along the side of his arm. Whatever she said into his ear had his head whipping around to face Levi and Larkin.
Kelvin seemed to mutter something under his breath. He placed down the tattoo gun, spoke briefly with his client, and then crossed to the reception area. He wore a strained smile. “Trinity said you wanted to talk to me,” he said, his voice low.
Deciding to dive straight to the point, Levi said, “I’m sure you heard Piper was attacked at the deli.”
Kelvin’s expression sobered. “I did. I tried calling to check she was fine, but she never answered.” His gaze darted from Levi to Larkin. “She’s okay, right?”
“She is,” Levi confirmed. “I’m sure you’re aware that she’s my anchor.”
Kelvin nodded.
“So then you’ll also be aware that I’m not going to take kindly to the attack, or to the other things that have happened around Piper lately.”
Kelvin’s brows dipped. “What other things?”
“Incidences of vandalism. All four of her car tires were slashed—and on the very same day you showed up at her house, funnily enough.”
Kelvin’s back snapped straight. “Wait, you’re thinking I might be responsible?”
“He’s quick,” muttered Larkin.
Kelvin’s mouth fell open. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
“Where were you at lunch time yesterday?” Levi asked him.
The male did a slow blink. “You can’t honestly suspect me.”
“I honestly can. Prove I’m wrong to do so, and tell me where you were during the time of Piper’s attack.”
“I was …” Kelvin trailed off and cursed.
“It would have been smart of you to have your story straight on the off-chance that someone would question you,” said Larkin.
“It’s not a story, it’s the truth,” Kelvin insisted. “But if it gets out, it could cause a good woman some problems.”
Larkin tilted her head. “What woman?”
“A harbinger from another lair. We’ve been seeing each other but keeping it quiet. She has a boyfriend. He’s away on a business trip right now. I was at her house yesterday. It was my day off.”
“And she’ll verify that?”
“If you don’t ask in front of her boyfriend, yes.” He reeled off the name and address of the harbinger. “I wouldn’t hurt Piper.”
Levi hummed. “You must have at least liked the thought of hurting her, or you wouldn’t have fucked your receptionist on Piper’s chair.”
Larkin’s brow hiked up. “You did that? Classy.”
Kelvin’s face reddened.
“You know, Piper thinks you’re good with the breakup,” Levi told him. “I don’t. I think you went along with it because your bruised ego wouldn’t allow you to speak up and admit the truth. It has to be frustrating that you lost her in every sense. She has no interest in even keeping you as a friend. More, you don’t even have a work relationship with her. She works at Urban Ink now.”
Kelvin’s jaw tightened for a mere moment. “I didn’t hurt Piper. Talk to the harbinger. She’ll tell you I was with her yesterday. And no, I didn’t slash Piper’s tires. I’m not into petty shit like that. I’ll bet even she doesn’t believe I did it.”
“She doesn’t,” Levi confirmed. “But she also wouldn’t have believed you’d nail your assistant on her chair, and look what happened there.”
Kelvin flinched. “Point taken. But you’re knocking on the wrong door. I get that you won’t easily dismiss a suspect when Piper’s safety is on the line, but I hope that means you’ll concentrate on other suspects, too. For her sake, don’t focus too much on me out of jealousy.”
Levi’s brow inched up. “Jealousy?”
“I’m her ex. You’re her anchor. You’re naturally going to dislike the idea of her with other men until your possessiveness settles. Personally, I don’t think you’re the type to let your emotions cloud your judgment. But all demons can be irrational when it comes to their psi-mates.”
“True. But by the same token, the partners and exes of demons who’ve found their anchor can be jealous and irrational.”
“They can, but that isn’t the case with me.”
Levi’s demon snorted. It was more than obvious that the guy didn’t like knowing Piper had another male in her life—one who had more rights to her than Kelvin ever had. “For your sake, you’d better be telling the truth.” He turned, dismissing him, and walked out of the shop with Larkin. He arched a brow at her. “Your verdict?”
She pursed her lips. “I don’t believe he personally attacked her. After all, he’d know we’d question him; he’d look to get himself a solid alibi in advance so he could prove he wasn’t at the deli. Spending that time with a woman who may lie about his whereabouts to hide their affair from her boyfriend would therefore be stupid.”
Levi gave a slow nod as they began walking along the strip. “I had the same thought. So if he did attack Piper, he didn’t plan it well. And that doesn’t fit with someone who owns a business. He could have hired someone, sure. But, much like Piper, I don’t see why he’d want her dead.”
“Same here,” said Larkin. “He could have still been responsible for the vandalism, but my gut says that those acts were committed by the same person who tried to kill her.”
“My gut agrees with yours. The only thing I believe he lied about was his claim that he’s not hosting the green-eyed monster.”
“He wasn’t as good at hiding his jealousy as he seems to think.” Larkin slid Levi a sideways glance. “You’re much better at it.”
Levi rolled his shoulders. “I fucking loathe feeling jealous of that pathetic little prick, but the thought of him with Piper makes my damn skin crawl.”
“The intensity of your territorialism will fade over time. It might not seem like it now, but look at Teague and Khloë. He wasn’t a jealous asshole when she mated Keenan.”
“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure that was because he was relieved to have some help keeping Khloë out of trouble.”
Larkin inclined her head. “Probably. On another note, you up for visiting the harbinger to see if Kelvin’s alibi checks out just on the off-chance that our guts are wrong?”
“That was my plan.”
“Do I get to play with her if she needs a little motivation to talk?”
“If you mean can you and your demon scare the living shit out of her, yes. But not to the point where she’s too terrified to do anything but curl up in a ball and disappear into her own mind. We need answers.”
Larkin frowned. “What do you take me for, an amateur?”
“No, but your bratty demon doesn’t like to stop playing when told.” He shook his head. “It’s like dealing with a sadistic, psychopathic child. And its giggles creep me the fuck out.”
She grinned. “Which absolutely delights it.”
His demon thought her entity was a fucking blast. There was a reason the staff at the orphanage had very rarely provoked Larkin, and it wasn’t solely because she’d essentially had four honorary protective brothers. It was because her inner demon was one scary, callous motherfucker that wasn’t bothered by threats, punishments, or displays of authority. But if you were respectful or, at the very least, let Larkin be, it wouldn’t concern itself with you. The staff had been mindful of that.
“Just don’t let your demon go too far—that’s all I ask,” he said.
“It’ll be on its best behavior.”
Levi grunted, not as reassured as she seemed to think he’d be. But her entity was cooperative enough during the visit they paid to the harbinger, so they managed to make the woman part with her truths—those being that she was in fact sleeping with Kelvin and he had in fact spent the previous day with her.
Leaving the harbinger’s house, Larkin said, “Well I’d say the guy’s no longer a suspect. Which means you have some good news to give Piper. Of course, any such news you give her would be overshadowed by hearing another of our lair was murdered, but still.”
Levi nodded. “It doesn’t help that I’ll have to tell her about Celeste’s earlier stunt.”
Larkin winced. “Yeah, that ain’t gonna go down well.”
At Levi’s words, Piper jerked to a halt right in the middle of her living room. Slanting her head, she slowly turned, irritation fluttering through her. “She did what?”
Levi raised his hands. “It’s not worth getting worked up over.”
“I’ll be the judge of that when I know why she was lingering near Knox’s office like a weirdo. What did she say?”
“She claimed she’s sorry for how she reacted to our announcement—as if I’d ever believe there was a drop of sincerity in the apology.”
“And?”
He hesitated. “And that she hopes she and I can ‘try again.’”
Piper felt her gut roll. “What did you tell her?”
“That her hopes will come to nothing, of course. I also made it clear that I could see through all the bullshit she was spewing, and I warned her that I wouldn’t allow her to use you as her whipping girl anymore.”
Piper folded her arms. “I did tell you that she’d try to win you back.”
“And I knew you were probably right. Anyone else would think they didn’t stand a chance, given the crap she pulled after the fling ended, but Celeste … she’s convinced herself that I cared for her, so she therefore concludes that the post-relationship drama won’t matter to me.”
“I only heard the gist of said ‘drama.’ What exactly happened?”
He hesitated again. “I don’t particularly want to talk about my history with her.”
Neither did Piper, but … “We’re not. We’re talking about the aftermath.”
Sighing, he shrugged. “About a week after she unceremoniously dumped me, she started sending me ‘I made a mistake texts’ and leaving lengthy voicemails on my cell that were pretty much elaborations of those messages. I never responded. And when her attempts to contact me nonetheless continued, I blocked her number.”
Piper winced. “She will have hated that.”
“A few days later, she came to me swearing she was being stalked. She looked appropriately terrified and begged to be assigned a bodyguard. I didn’t buy her little tale, but I said I’d have one of the Force look into it and that he’d act as a bodyguard if necessary. She protested, saying I was the only person she’d trust to protect her so she needed me at her side.”
Oh, the woman had no shame.
“I told her I couldn’t act as her personal guard. She started crying and accused me of not believing her; of dismissing her fears because I wanted to get back at her for ending the fling. She sobbed a bunch of other things before finally realizing the emotional blackmail was having no effect. She called me cold and cruel and then marched off. I thought that would be the end of it.”
Piper shot him a look of disappointment. “Such naivety.”
Amusement flashed in his eyes. “I learned that the following weekend, when I was at a bar with a group of people. Some guy strode up to me and accused me of texting and calling ‘his girl’ all the time. He had a bunch of people at his back, including Celeste. She acted like she was trying to calm him down when, really, it was obvious to me that she’d got him all stirred up in the first place.”
“I heard a little about this. A fight broke out, right?” At his nod, Piper added, “She claimed you got jealous seeing her with another guy, lost your shit, and picked a fight with him.”
Levi snorted. “She lied. In truth, I tried reasoning with him. But he was too smashed, too wound up—he was looking for a fight, and the guys with him were egging him on. He jumped me. His male friends jumped mine. It got ugly fast, but he and his crew soon found themselves on their asses.”
“I heard you and your friends came out on top. Celeste didn’t escape unscathed.” To be exact, she’d had a broken nose, a split lip, a bruised cheekbone, and scratch marks on her face. “Is it true that one of the women in your group pounced on her?”
“Yes. Paloma takes no shit. It took two of her mates to drag her away from Celeste.”
Piper blinked. “Really? I don’t know who this Paloma is, but I feel like we could be BFFs for life. And she has more than one mate? Lucky her.”
“One of the other women, Ella, was so pissed I had to talk her down from hexing Celeste.”
“Hexing?”
“Ella is an incantor, she’s an expert at wielding magick. She’s also very eager to meet you. She heard I’d found my psi-mate and called up to not only congratulate me but badger me to introduce you to her.”
“So you two are close?”
“I wouldn’t say we’re close, but I consider her a good friend. And no, there’s never been anything between us other than friendship.”
“I wasn’t going to ask if there was.”
“But you were wondering.”
She was, dammit. “Did Celeste pull anything else after that scene at the bar?”
“No. I suspect it’s partly because she got her ass kicked, and partly because Knox paid her a visit. He gave her a verbal reaming and threatened to have her detained if she didn’t back off. He didn’t want me to do it myself because it would have rewarded her games with my attention. He evidently got through to her, because she barely spoke to me right up until you and I made our announcement to her, Whitney, and Joe.”
Piper bit the inside of her cheek. “It must be annoying that you’ll have to shake her off all over again.”
Levi scoffed. “Celeste is nothing but a pesky fly.” The woman wouldn’t be on his radar at all if it wasn’t for the mere fact that her behavior affected his anchor. “I’m done talking about her—she’s not important. I want to talk about you.”
“What about me?”
“You were attacked yesterday,” he gently reminded her. “I didn’t press you to talk about it last night because I wanted you to rest.”
“What is there to say? I’m still mightily pissed and struggling to understand why I’m suddenly the target of someone with rather murderous intentions.”
“And?” he prodded. “Come on, you can do better than all of one sentence.”
She sighed. “Fine. On top of livid and confused, I’m raring to fucking kill someone. Namely him. But I don’t have his name. It’s seriously bugging my demon that we don’t know who we’re up against so can’t even go hunting—”
“You won’t need to, I will do the hunting for you.” His demon growled its agreement. “That bastard takes up enough of your mental space as it is—that’s as much as he’s getting. It fucking offends me that he’s on your mind at all. I hate it.”
“So do I. Jesus, it was annoying enough when he was vandalizing my shit. I thought he’d get bored and back off. Even if I’d expected him to escalate, I never would have thought he’d escalate to this extent. But he did. And now we’re both stuck dealing with it instead of being able to focus on getting to know each other. Add in Celeste’s stunts and it’s just one massive clusterfuck. Him I can’t presently do anything about. But her? I’ll call her and—”
“No. I get that you want to make it clear you won’t stand for her seeking me out. But she’s counting on that, Piper. She knows I’m right in that you and I being anchors has nothing to do with her. So she’s trying to make herself relevant to us. She’s trying to get our attention in the only way she knows how. You call or confront her, you’re playing into her hands.”
Piper rubbed at the back of her head. “I know. But it’s grating on my last nerve that she won’t just leave you alone. It has to be driving you nuts. A lot of your time and attention is already being taken up by all the crap going on around me. She’s only going to make it worse.”
“She won’t run me off, Piper.”
Unhappy he’d sensed the worry she’d hoped to hide, she shot him an annoyed frown.
He closed the small distance between them, loosely cuffing her arms with his hands before she could even think to take a step back. “She might think she has that power, but she doesn’t. No one and nothing does. Not even you.” The silken warning ghosted down her spine.
She swallowed, her mouth drying up at having him loom over her, his eyes glittering with something she couldn’t quite name. The compelling bastard could fluster her without any damn effort. “I’m not trying to chase you off.”
“Not anymore, no. But you’re still holding back from the bond. From me.”
“You said you’d give me time.”
“And I am.” Levi slid his hands up to settle on her shoulders, and his thumbs dug into her skin just right as he began a light massage, almost pulling a moan out of her. “That doesn’t mean I like it.”
She needed to pull back because, dammit, his touch felt a little too good, and it affected her a little too much. Especially now that sexual restlessness simmered low in her belly courtesy of that freaking kiss. It didn’t help matters that the potent, testosterone-laden pheromones he gave off were a distinct threat to her composure. Or that her demon was ushering her to pounce on him.
“I’m supposed to strengthen you, center you, mark you as mine, but I can’t do any of those things yet—that eats at me,” he went on. “I’m not trying to guilt you into giving me what I want. I’m simply explaining why it’s hard to grant you time.”
She bit back a groan as he moved his hands a little closer to her neck, his fingers still kneading and gliding. “Are you thinking I’m doing it so you’ll get fed up and walk away?” It was kind of hard to follow what he was saying when he was touching her this way.
“No.” Levi dipped his head, and his warm lips grazed her cheek. “By now, you know better than to think I’d ever give you up.” He left a trail of barely-there kisses along her face as he moved his mouth to her ear. “Don’t you?”
She shivered, her skin prickling as goosebumps rose on her flesh at the feel of his breath whispering over her ear, stirring the little hairs there. The air became thick, hot, electric. The rising tension made her pulse quicken and her breathing speed up.
Teeth scraped her earlobe. “Don’t you?” he repeated.
She squeezed her eyes shut, letting out a groan of frustration. “I’m trying to friend-zone you, Levi. You’re making it hard.”
A low chuckle rumbled out of him. “That doesn’t have a prayer of working.” He brushed his mouth over hers. “You and me … there’s something between us. The kind of something you can’t ignore. The kind that needs to be explored. So we’ll do that.”
She eyed him warily. “I’m not sure I want us crossing those sorts of lines.”
“We’ve already crossed them. I know your taste now. You know mine. There’s no undoing that.” He splayed one hand over her throat and let out a pleased hum. “Your pupils just swallowed the color of your eyes.”
“Levi—”
“I would have taken you last night in your kitchen, but I knew I’d be rough the first time. You needed to heal,” he added, sliding his other hand up the back of her neck and into her hair. He caught a fistful and tugged, snatching her head back. The slight pain tightened her nipples, and there was no repressing a moan this time.
She grabbed his shoulders, her body easily curving into his like it had done it a thousand times before. “This isn’t a good idea. We’re anchors—”
“Which means you can trust that I’d never hurt you. Not physically, not emotionally. I’m careful with what’s mine.” His grip on her throat flexed. “You’re safe with me on every level. I’m the one person you’ll never have to worry will let you down. You know it. Your demon knows it.”
Piper did know it. The knowledge was comforting. Steadying. Emboldening. Her resolve fractured … and that weakness in her defenses seemed to call to the predator in him somehow, because a low growl built in his throat and he slammed his mouth down on hers.
The kiss … God, it was everything she needed. Hungry. Urgent. Aggressive.
The six years of wanting and waiting and craving just exploded between them. They pulled and dragged at each other’s clothes, skimming their hands over whatever flesh they bared. His skin was sleek and hot, and feeling it against her own sent her nerve-endings buzzing.
Piper greedily gripped, scratched, and stroked as she explored the bulk of his shoulders and the dips and curves of his solid chest. Moving her hand lower, she fisted his cock. He grunted into her mouth, digging his fingertips hard into the globes of her ass. She pumped, moaning as he kissed her harder and deeper, every slide of his tongue against her own dragging her further under his spell.
He tore his mouth from hers as he palmed her breasts. “Something about knowing I own you makes me want you even more.”
Then his dick was abruptly gone from her hand … and she honestly wasn’t sure how she ended up flat on her back on the floor—he set her down so smoothly and quickly that she didn’t even feel herself tilt. She just felt the cool tiles against her back as he settled his body over hers, caging her as he kept on licking into her mouth.
His fingers plunged deep inside her, shocking a gasp from her. Piper scratched at his shoulders as those fingers worked her hard while his free hand teased her breasts and his mouth left trails of bites and kisses all over her neck. Those lips and hands knew exactly what they were doing, knew—
A purring wash of telekinetic power brushed over her skin and clamped down on her wrists. Piper gasped as her hands were dragged from his shoulders and pressed firmly against the floor above her head.
The fuck?
It wasn’t like having hands hold her down. It was sheer power, but it felt almost … sentient in the way it pulsed and flexed and tightened. Well this was new.
“My demon wants you this way,” Levi told her, withdrawing his fingers from her incredibly tight pussy—she’d truly feel every inch of him for sure. “It wants you spread out beneath it, helpless and under its power when it fucks you. And it will fuck you. We both will.”
He punched his hips forward, gliding his cock over her clit, and gently bit her nipple. “There are so many things I want to do to you, but they’ll have to wait.” He reached down and lodged the head of his cock in her pussy. “Remember, it’s going to be rough.” He slowly sank inch after inch of his dick inside her, loving the sight of it disappearing into her body, loving the stretch and squeeze of her hot, slick inner walls.
Her brow furrowed in discomfort, but she didn’t ask him to stop or pull back. Instead, she tried impaling herself on him, hissing in annoyance when she failed. “You said it’d be rough.”
“Oh, it will. But I want to savor the first time I feel your pussy sucking my dick inside you.” There would be other times. There was no way he’d only have her once.
Finally balls-deep in her body, Levi got to his knees and lifted her hips from the floor. “Six years I’ve waited for this. And now here you are. Wet and needy and helpless.” He lazily reared back. “Be warned, Piper. Me and my demon … we’re not just going to fuck you. We’re going to rule you. We’re going to shatter you and exhaust you and use you all up. Because you’re ours, and you need to fucking feel ours.”
Levi drilled his cock into her pussy, every forward slam of his hips unapologetically violent. Feral. Unrestrained.
He couldn’t slow down. Couldn’t fight the drive to take her this way. It wasn’t simply about the promise he’d just made her, or even about the years of pent-up need now escaping his system. It was the frustration he felt at being held at an emotional distance.
She had too many walls between them, too many boundaries. She might have acknowledged him as her anchor, but she hadn’t properly acknowledged just what place that gave him in her life. He hated not feeling as important to her as she was to him. Time he could give her. But all this distance? No, that had to go.
Her hands balled up into fists, she arched into his thrusts, letting out these smoky fucking moans that squeezed his balls. “Levi.”
“You need to come already, don’t you?”
Her only response was a deep groan of assent. Moments later, she fractured beneath him. The force of her orgasm seemed to wrench at her spine, making it curve like a bow. She screamed, her inner muscles clenching him so goddamn tight.
Levi didn’t ease up on his thrusts. He kept on powering into her, focused on ravaging and destroying her so completely that all her barriers would drop; so completely that she’d feel mastered, owned, consumed.
She soon came again, violent tremors wracking her body. And that was when his demon decided it wanted its turn.
Piper hissed in pain as power grabbed a handful of her hair and snatched up her head just as the air cooled. Fucking ow. She saw then that Levi’s eyes had bled to black—his entity had taken the wheel. She swallowed at the sheer coldness in that inhuman gaze.
Moments earlier, she’d felt sapped of energy. Her orgasms—so intense and devastating—had pretty much drained her. But finding herself facing his demon snapped her back to full alertness. Her own entity stirred, watching it closely, liking the power it exuded.
“Yes, take a good, long look at who you belong to, little nightmare,” it said, its voice empty of emotion. “Accept that you are mine. His.”
She felt her brow crease. “I already have.”
“There is acknowledgment, and there is acceptance. You will give us both.”
She blinked as the invisible weight lifted from her wrists. “Is—”
The demon withdrew its cock, telekinetically flipped her onto her stomach, yanked her to her knees, and slammed back inside her.
The breath gusted out of her lungs. “Fuck.”
Power pressed down on the spot between her shoulder blades, holding her still. Then the demon was jackhammering into her, its thrusts so savage and animalistic and impersonal they were almost cruel. Perverse as it might be, she freaking loved it.
Levi had been rough, but there was something almost unnerving about how aggressively the demon pounded into her. Like it was poised on the brink of exploding into violence. Which her entity totally dug.
The demon’s hands slid under her body and grabbed her breasts. They weren’t gentle. Nor were the teeth that trailed bites along her upper back. The burning stings of pain pushed all kinds of hot buttons, and she soon came with yet another scream.
The entity didn’t stop. It kept on fucking in and out of her, even as she pretty much went limp in its grip. Sometimes Levi took over, but then the demon would be back. Both boldly rammed into her body like it was there purely for their use.
She hadn’t thought she could come again, but she did. The explosive orgasm wrecked her from the inside out, shattering her into a billion pieces, sending her defenses crumbling into rubble. It was only then that Levi slammed his cock home one last time and emptied himself inside her.
She slumped to the floor, shuddering and fighting for breath, her brain clapping out. She barely registered Levi rearranging them both so that he lay on his back with her inelegantly sprawled over his chest.
He traced the bumps of her spine with his fingertips. “No more distance.”
Her eyelids fluttered open as she remembered his demon’s words …
There is acknowledgment, and there is acceptance.
And Piper realized the entity was right. She hadn’t fully accepted either Levi or his demon into her life. Not in an emotional sense. She’d thought she had, but she’d been wrong.
It was one thing to temporarily hold back from the bond, it was another to hold her own anchor at an emotional arm’s length. “No more distance,” she agreed.
His hand gave her hip a little squeeze. “Good. And no freaking out because we had sex. We’re anchors, we’re adults, we enjoyed each other. Nothing wrong with that.”
She’d known plenty of psi-mates who’d slept together once. Sometimes only for comfort, sometimes out of an attraction they thought it dumb to spend the rest of their lives fighting when they could instead burn it out at the beginning. It hadn’t ruined their anchor relationship, because they hadn’t made a big deal out of it. She could be just as mature about this. She could.
Should it have felt weird that she’d slept with someone who—gag—had … known her stepsister intimately? Probably. But Levi had never belonged to Celeste. On the other hand, he’d always been Piper’s, she simply hadn’t always known it. And that made all the difference.
He’d once said he didn’t see Piper in terms of who she was to Celeste. That worked both ways now. Piper didn’t view him as her stepsister’s ex anymore, she viewed him as hers.
“No freaking out,” Piper assured him, which earned her another hip-squeeze.
Was it disappointing that this would be a one-off? Yeah. But it would also be for the best. It was a damn shame that the ‘best’ in this instance kind of sucked.
