I walked out. I fucking left her in my living room after showing her what I’ve been living with for two long years. The reason I can’t be with her. Not because I think she can’t love me the way I am, but because I can’t love me the way I am.

I don’t hear movement from the other room. She’s either still in shock or so disgusted with me, she can’t look me in the face. Scrubbing my hands over my face, I feel the frustration ebbing through me, flowing over every part of me. I know I had to do it, tell her the truth, but nothing could’ve prepared me for the way she watched me so silently.

Piper has always been feisty, sassy. Seeing her still in silence is something new that has my anxiety hitting hard, slamming into me. My head is still in my hands when a tentative knock on the door drags my attention to the entrance of my bedroom.

“Hey.” She smiles. Her sweetness is what I’ve always craved. The gentleness she possesses is so different from my harshness. Her light to my dark.

“Hey.”

“Can we talk?” She steps farther into the room, and her perfume wafts around me. The sweet scent of apples, reminding me of dessert. Of sweetness and happiness. As if it’s her own fragrance and no one else can wear it because no other woman I’ve been near has ever smelled like Piper.

“Yeah, sure.”

I don’t know what she’s going to say, or do, but she settles beside me on the mattress, not touching, but close enough for me to feel her heat. It’s as if there’s an electrical current traveling through me at her nearness. It’s always felt like this with her. As if I need to touch her. That if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to breathe.

“I was shocked back there,” she starts, gesturing to the living room with her small, delicate hand. “I’m so sorry you lived through that alone.”

“I wasn’t—”

“Let me finish.” Her eyes blaze, meeting mine in a standoff.

Lifting my hand, I gesture for her to continue. That’s another thing about her. She’s stubborn. She won’t listen to me if I tried to stop her now. Once she’s got her head set on something, the girl is relentless. I learned that a long time ago, and it’s just one of the things I love about her.

“I wish I'd been there for you. I know it’s stupid, but I wish I'd been the one beside you in the car because I would’ve stood right beside you as you healed, Ryder.” She says my name with so much love that it hits me hard in the chest making it difficult to breathe. “I love you. You may not think you’re worthy of me, or whatever the hell you think, but you’re wrong.”

“Piper, I—”

She rises, her hands on her hips as she glares me into silence. “Ryder, I never had a choice in my feelings for you. From the moment we met, there was something between us. Granted, I was far too young, but I knew I’d love you.” She sounds so sure, so confident in what she felt.

“You were too young, Piper. I kissed you and I shouldn’t have,” I tell her. “I should’ve been responsible, but all those times I looked at you, at your mouth, your eyes, everything about you, I knew I could never be the man who gives you what you want.”

“What do I want?” She folds her arms across her chest, her gaze blazing wildly in a challenge. She’s baiting me to see what I’ll say and somehow I think every answer I come up with will be wrong.

“You want a forever. You deserve a forever.”

“Why don’t you let me decide what I want?” This time, she places her hands on my chest, shoving me backward onto the bed. The sprite crawls up over me, her thighs on either side of my hips, and once more, her heat is right at my crotch, making it difficult to think straight. “I’ve waited for you, Ryder. For four long years I waited. And now,” she says, leaning in to nip at my neck, her lips sucking the flesh into her hot mouth, causing a groan to rumble deep in my throat. “Now all I want is this,” she whimpers, rolling her hips against my ever growing hard-on.

“Piper—”

“You made a promise to me, Ryder,” she moans, kissing my neck, trailing her way over the scruff on my jaw as she reaches my mouth.

Our lips hovering inches apart, if I lift my head, I’ll kiss her. Do I follow the rules I set for myself? Or do I claim the girl who’s always owned me?