She was quiet.

She had been quiet ever since last night, ever since her parents had left. The fight between them…

Closing my eyes, I wondered if there was now a rift between them so big it might never be repaired.

I hoped not.

They were overbearing – assholes, really.

But I could tell they loved her, and I know she loved them.

I felt guilty for my part in all of this, and that part was huge, but at the same time, I was…amazed. Nobody had ever stood up for me like that, had ever fought for me. I was the one who went to bat for people.

I know my parents would have had my back, if they’d lived. But they’d been gone a long time. It was like a different life.

For too long, it had just been me and my sister, and I was always the one carrying the weight.

Now, I had someone who had stood next to me and stood up for me.

I didn’t know how to handle it.

Finally, unable to handle all the chaos inside me, I looked over at Piety. She was sipping from a glass of club soda, staring down at the book on her lap.

She hadn’t turned the page in ten minutes.

I reached over and took her hand. She started, and the club soda sloshed over the rim.

“Lost in thought?” I asked, reaching for a napkin to clean up the spill.

“I guess.” She smiled up at me.

“I…” Blowing out a breath, I tried to think of the right way to say what I needed to say. “I’m sorry for the problems I’ve caused between you and your parents.”

“You didn’t. The problems were already there. You just helped bring them to the surface.” She sighed and put her book down, shifting around in the seat to face me. “My parents love me. I know that. But I have no doubt that their love comes with…” She bit her bottom lip and considered her words.

“Strings?” I offered.

Her smile was sad. “Yeah. Always conditional. And they don’t understand me. They never have. And they’ve never stood up for me the way you have. You think I’ve got a big heart, but they think I’m an alien for just…caring about people.”

She lifted my hand to her lips, kissed the back of it.

“You do have a big heart.” I crooked a grin at her. “So big, I sometimes think you might be an alien.”

“Stop it.” She tipped her head back, laughing.

Some of the tension in the air dissolved, and I stroked my thumb over the inside of her wrist. “I can’t tell you how many times I wished my parents were still here, still around to deal with this mess with Camry. But then I look back and realize how lucky I was to have had nthem for as long as I did. They always had my back. They supported me. That’s worth…a lot.”

“More than gold, I think,” Piety said, her voice sad.

“Yeah. I bet it is.”

She turned her head back to me, and we stared at each other.

“I haven’t had anybody stand by my side the way you did since they passed away. It means a lot. Thank you.”

She squeezed my hand. “Nobody has ever stood by me like you have, other than Astra. So…same goes.”

We lapsed into silence for a long time, then she laid her head against my shoulder and opened her book. As she read, I thought about how much things had changed since the morning I woke up in her bed.

* * *

“The bed,” I said against her mouth.

Piety laughed. “Who needs a bed?” She pushed my shirt up and scraped her nails down my sides.

I gasped and caught her hands. “No.”

She giggled. “You’re ticklish. I love it.”

“Bed,” I said again.

Instead, she twisted out of my grip and curled her arms around my neck, pressing her mouth to my chin. “No. Too far. Way too far.”

She shot a look at the bed, and I had to agree. She was right. That bed was too far away. The whole other side of the suite. In a different room entirely.

“Okay, you’re right. Right here.”

I boosted her up into my arms and carried her the few steps into the dining room, laid her out on the formal table. In my wildest dreams, I never would have imagined a hotel with a formal dining room. In my wildest dreams, I never would have imagined Piety.

I caught the hem of her flirty little skirt and pushed it up to her hip, leaving her bare from the waist down. Hooking my fingers in the silken scrap of her panties, I slid them down her legs. “I want to…”

“Then do it.” She caught my hair and tugged me closer, arching her hips up.

I smiled at her, then licked her, opening her folds.

She gasped, lashes fluttering down.

Pressing my mouth to her cunt, I caught the nub of her clitoris and sucked on it. She moaned, and when I twisted two fingers inside her slick heat, she began to move up against me.

I did everything I knew would make her moan and sigh, those little sounds I loved to hear.

Rising, I freed myself from my jeans. As I came down over her, I said, “I don’t even remember what it’s like not to want you. I don’t want to.”

“Come here,” she said, the words both a plea and a demand.

I did, spreading her thighs and settling between them. Wrapping a hand around my cock, I passed back and forth over the heat of her.

“Stop teasing me.”

“But it’s so much fun.”

“Keep it up, and I’ll go without panties for the next two days, and you won’t get to so much as touch me.” She gave me a wicked smile.

“Oh, now that’s playing mean.” I guided the head of my cock to her entrance, and when I thrust inside, both of us shuddered. I groaned, and she cried out.

“I need this,” she said. “All the time.”

I needed her – all the time. I was starting to wonder how I’d even existed without her.