Page 74 of Love Beyond the Illusion
I rub my chin with two fingers, retrieving the canned response I’ve been telling people for months. “It’s been tough, but I’m getting through it. It’s nice to be back here again. It makes me feel closer to him, you know?”
After he passed, I took two weeks off of work to fly up here. I spent the entire time aimlessly wandering around the property. Memories from my childhood of long afternoons running wild all over the land with my dad came rushing back.
“Yes. I completely understand that,” he says. “Well, we’re happy you’re back, and I’m sure your mom is too.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that.”
Leslie flashes me a quick half-smile from across the table. “I wondered why you went all the way to Arizona for school, and then I wondered even more why you didn’t return once it was complete, but after meeting this lovely woman,”—she grins at Piper—“I fully understand now.”
I turn to Piper, squeezing her thigh. “Yeah, you could say that.”
“Thank you. It’s been great meeting everyone out here. I love how warm this community is.” Her eyes flicker, and her face flushes when she speaks.
Leslie dabs her face with a cloth napkin. “We do take pride in that.”
The dinner conversation flows, and I could not be more grateful to have Piper here. She is a natural when speaking to people. She’s unapologetically herself. I noticed that during the networking event at our villas a few nights ago. It’s like she can easily read people’s emotions passing through their words. It’s alluring and explains how she got me to propose marriage after only speaking to her for less than twelve hours.
The wine continues to flow as the dinner courses change. The later into the night we get, Piper gets more friendly, and her voice starts to turn into this high-pitched version of her real voice. It’s fucking hilarious.
We’ve stayed a lot later than I initially wanted to, but I catch myself alternating between cutting her off and laughing at how adorable she is. It isn’t until other guests leave for the night that I take it as my cue to get out of here. The more wine she has, the more flirty she gets. And I know exactly what she wants every time she shoots methatlook.
“Hey.” Piper flips her hair around, and I’m hit with the delicious scent of lavender. “We should tell them what we did in Vegas a few weeks ago,” casually mentions while in a conversation with the Dueling Hills Winery owner, who happens to be sitting on the other side of her.
Shit.
“Okay!” I urgently interrupt Piper’s sentence. “It’s time to go.” I stand and hook an arm around her shoulders. If the other guests leaving wasn’t a reason to leave—this is.
Piper gives me an over-the-top frown, pushing out her plump, glossy lips. All I can think of is slipping my cock back into that tight, wet mouth of hers.
“Oh no! But we’re having so much fun.”
“I can see that.” I nudge her to a stand, then turn to face the few guests sitting near us. “It was wonderful to see all of you. Have a lovely evening.”
“Bye—”
I whisk her away under my arm. She insists on saying goodbye to every person we pass on the way out of the building—except Preston and Sophia for obvious reasons. A little unstable on her feet, we head to my car.
I slide into the driver’s seat next to her a minute later. Piper talks my ear off on the ride back to our villa. In truedrunk Piperform, she insists on telling me who she liked and didn’t like at dinner. In a passionate speech about the various food options that were served, she practices detailed descriptions of the wine’s unique adjectives and metaphors people used to describe them.
I drive along the dark highway in silence, listening to her chattering. By the time we pull up to the villa, it looks like all the other guests went to sleep because there is no light except for my car’s headlights. I shut off the ignition and then turn to Piper in the passenger seat. “Okay, my lovely wife, who will not stop talking. Let’s get you to bed.”
She pouts and crosses her arms to her chest. “But I’m not tired.”
“You’re going to be hurting in the morning if you don’t get some sleep.”
A quick movement from the passenger seat catches my eye. “What are you doing?” I chuckle while Piper crawls over the center console onto my lap.
“Fuck me.”
My mouth falls open. “What?”
With her arms around my neck, she plays with the hair on the back of my head. “You heard me.”
That has to be one of the hottest things a woman has ever said to me. It’s so simple, yet fucking sexy. She demands to have my dick, and that’s what she’s going to get. “You got it.” I grip her hips, moving her slightly to the side, then make quick work of unclasping my belt. While I’m unzipping my pants, Piper gathers her dress, pulling it up around her waist.
As soon as my zipper is down, my dick pops out. “I’ve been so fucking hard for you all night.”
Piper sucks in a breath, still hovering over me. “I cravedyouall night,” she croons, then moves her panties to the side and lowers herself on top of me.
