Page 83 of Breaking Free

Or most of it.

Piper recalled the break-in and sitting on Tristan’s couch at 4 a.m. trying to make sense of what the detective was saying, but nothing after that. Not how she got to bed or into Tristan’s shirt, or anything else that happened in his enormous bed with tangled sheets. The image of him carrying her up the stairs, like in a romantic movie, then tending to her, replaced the heaviness in her mind and limbs, leaving her with the warm and fuzzies.

The shower shut off, and, not long after, Tristan emerged from the bathroom, a towel slung low on his hips with beads of water still on his shoulders. Piper watched the way his muscles rippled beneath his skin as he moved, a mesmerizing display of strength and grace.

Seeing her awake, he stopped. “Go back to sleep. It’s still early.”

No way could she do that until she figured this out, much less with him in the room half naked. “The last thing I remember is sitting on your couch.”

“You fell asleep midsentence,” he said, walking toward her. “You looked so peaceful—and exhausted—I carried you up.”

“Why are you awake already?” she asked, her voice rough from sleep.

“I have to get to work.”

He sat on the edge of the bed next to her, in only the towel. The warmth of the shower emanated from him, and thescent of him and his body wash filled her senses—both freaking delicious.

“Christian will be here any minute to relieve me.”

She frowned, not knowing anyone by that name. “Who’s that?”

“He’s been with Rossi longer than I have. He’s also a former Navy SEAL. You can trust him to keep you safe.”

“Why can’t you stay? Or Axyl?” Her heavy head returned, along with a wave of anxiety. She didn’t want someone she didn’t know following her around.

“I have several loose ends to tie up on a case I’ve been working. After that, you’ve got me at night and Axyl during the day. He’ll take over starting tomorrow, but it was almost 5 a.m. when he left, and he needed to get some shut-eye.”

He couldn’t have slept more than two hours. “You don’t need sleep?”

“I’ve never needed much, but I’ll try to grab a couple of hours this afternoon after I get stuff done.”

Piper nodded, looking down at her hands, still unhappy with the situation. She had worried she was falling for him, but that wasn’t true. Like the old oak behind their house during a thunderstorm when she was two, she’d already fallen—roots and all—and didn’t want him to leave.

He caught her chin and tipped her face up to his. “I know this is a stressful time, but we’re going to do everything we can to keep you safe while we track down this mother fu–Uh, whack job.”

He’d mistaken her dour mood for worry. Lucky for her. Especially after the ballsy claims she’d made about being a big girl and knowing what she was doing.

“You don’t have to hold back when it comes to this creep,” she assured him. “I know I haven’t.”

“You dropped an F-bomb?” he asked, clearly skeptical.

“I’ve dropped it lots of times,” she confessed. “In my head.”

His enigmatic eyes turned a truer shade of blue with his amusement. “Yeah. That’s what I thought.”

Before Piper could say more, Tristan leaned in and kissed her. The spark between them instantly ignited. She melted into him, her head falling back as she clung to his still-damp shoulders. At the same time, his fingers sank into her sleep-tousled hair, and he deepened the kiss.

He had just lowered her onto the pillows when the doorbell rang.

“Don’t go,” she whispered when he pulled away.

“That’s Christian. I have to let him in. Go back to sleep. It’s just past seven, and you don’t have to be at the studio until later, right?”

Like a disappointed child denied the lollipop she wanted, she was the grumpy one for a change. “There’s a table read today, but it isn’t until one o’clock.”

“Perfect. You have the morning to catch up on your sleep.”

He leaned forward again, but instead of reclaiming her lips, he kissed her forehead. Then he was up and striding to his dresser. He dropped his towel, revealing an ass and thighs as muscular as the rest of him, before pulling on snug boxer briefs and stepping into a pair of faded jeans.

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