In Too Deep (24 page)

“
What? You’re letting her move
back in?”

“
It’ll be easier for me to keep an
eye on him,” Claire said.

West was about to accuse his
father of not just losing his kidney function but his
goddamned
mind
, when Bill raised a bushy white eyebrow and said, “So,
what’s going on with you and the Harland girl, ay?”

West folded his arms and looked
down his nose, giving his brain a chance to catch up and his tongue
to unfreeze. “What has Piper got to do with anything?”

“
She’s living with you, isn’t
she?” Claire shifted in her seat to lean closer to Bill. He nudged
her with an elbow.

“
Piper’s temporarily staying in my
office—and we’re just friends.”

Bill snorted, rolling his head
toward Claire with a wink. “Friends. Is that what folks call it
now?”

West hooked a finger in the neck
of his tee shirt and pulled the strangling thing away from his
throat. “Don’t wink at her—there’s no ‘it’ to be calling—and even
if there were an ‘it’ between me and Piper, we were talking about
the completely different situation with you and Ma.”

Babbling like a woman.

Yeah, what an effective tool to
convince his parents he wasn’t making a complete fool of himself
over Piper. Jeez.

He ran a hand over the warm skin
of his face, cringed, and gathered up the container of cookies
sitting on the counter.

“
Ryan,” his mother said to his
back. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen you blush.”

Blushing? He wasn’t blushing. It
was summer and this kitchen had no air-conditioning. “I haven’t got
time for this. I’ve got work.”

With as much dignity as he could
muster, West tucked the container under one arm and exited the
kitchen. Unfortunately, the heat of his skin didn’t affect his ears
ability to pick up Bill’s chuckle and parting comment, “Yep, that
boy’s ass-over-tea-kettle for the Harland girl.”

And his mother’s thoughtful,
“Well, you never get over your first love, do you?”

Chapter 12

Piper’s face,
hot as slapped sunburn, wouldn’t return to normal.

She’d have to hide in her room
indefinitely, calculating dry dive statistics to keep her brain
from playing a visual loop of West’s naked body. Man, that
out-of-this-world orgasm must’ve ruptured a few brain cells,
because dive statistics just weren’t working.

Off-key singing drifted out of the
kitchen and the piercing trill of the phone was cut off by her
brother’s impatient, “Yep?”

How would she ever look Ben in the
eye without him guessing what she’d been up to with his best mate?
How could she ever look West in the eye? She’d thrown herself at
him, and if it weren’t for Ben’s terrible timing she’d be in West’s
bed right now.

Doing stuff.

Stuff that flamed her face again
when thinking about what stuff they could’ve been doing.

Incredible orgasm or not, her body
still ached for West’s touch. She was hollow, craving the sensation
of his body moving against hers,
inside
hers. But allowing
these desires to multiply did nothing to stem the cold little voice
asking,
Are you sure West wanted you? Or were you just a
convenient alternative to him jerking off in the bathroom
again?

Piper studied her distorted
reflection in the office window. Wild spiked hair, because she
hadn’t thought to run a comb through it yet. A pair of rumpled
knee-length shorts. Her tee shirt pulled over damp skin and
clinging to her half-an-apple-sized breasts.

She snatched her comb off the desk
and dragged it through her hair, the scratch of its teeth on her
scalp a welcome distraction from the sick feeling flooding her
stomach.

What had West thought when he’d
touched her breasts? Was she still too boyish and angular for him?
Had he compared her to the more well-endowed women he’d slept with?
Women who weren’t still shaped like a kid’s pencil-drawn stick
figure.

God. No wonder he’d made no effort
to get rid of Ben and had rushed from the house.

Two sharp taps on her
door.

“
Piper? You ever coming out?” The
words contained a smidgen of anxiety—a Ben-ish way of checking she
wasn’t hurt.

She opened the door. “I was
resting. My stomach’s still a bit sore.”

Ben leaned against the hallway
wall, keeping his weight on his good leg. “Gav’s not the most
popular guy around town at the moment.”

“
And West’s hailed as a hero,
righteously defending the poor city girl who took a tumble. I
could’ve dealt with the great dickless wonder once I’d caught my
breath.”

Ben’s unflinching brown-eyed gaze
nailed hers. “West’s actions weren’t about defending some random
girl on the opposite team.”

“
Sure they were.” Piper crossed
her arms up high, tucking her fingertips under her arms. “If it’d
been Shaye or one of the other women Gav had gone after, he
would’ve done the same.”

Ben snorted. “You see him lay into
Ford when he accidently tripped Holly? Or even Gav the first few
times he shoved Kezia?” Ben’s voice roughened on the last example,
an undercurrent in the tone of his words. “He went after Gav like a
psycho, because Gav hurt what he considers his.”

Her fingers curled into fists,
knuckles stabbing into her armpits. Oh Lord, Ben had picked up the
sexual tension throbbing between her and West after all. Surely he
hadn’t guessed everything though?

“
West has no claim on me and
vice-versa.” She angled herself to slip past him.

Ben moved forward, blocking her
exit with a hand on either side of the doorway. “Then perhaps you
should clarify that? Make sure he understands you’re still leaving
in less than a month’s time—that you’re only a temporary
distraction.”

Piper’s heart, only moments ago
leaping at the thought of West’s male possessiveness, plunged to
the floor, a leaden weight. “He knows. But thanks so much for your
concern.”

“
I am concerned—for both of you.
Tell me you’d give up your life in Wellington to stay here with
West in the ‘dead-zone’ as you called it, in the place where Dad
died—”

“
Dad’s got nothing to do with
this—”

“
No?” Ben’s bulk towered over her
in the doorway as her shoulders hunched. “Then why is it you’ve
been here almost three weeks and you’ve never once visited his
memorial.”

“
How do you know whether I’ve been
up there or not?”

“
Have you?”

She shook her head, blinking away
the image of an engraved plaque set in a rock pile at Oban’s
cemetery. River rocks, smooth and speckled grey, a cairn marking
empty ground because her father’s body had never been
recovered.

“
You’re right,” she said after a
strained moment passed. “But speculating about whether I could, or
would, live on Stewart Island again is irrelevant, because I am
only a temporary distraction for West. There’s nothing between us
except a knee-jerk attraction, no more serious than all the other
one-nighters I imagine you both indulge in.”

“
And if you think you deserve that
from West, it’s another reason you should keep your
distance.”

Piper stood in front of him,
drilled a sharp finger into his chest. “What if he’s a temporary
distraction for me, too? What if I just want hot, uncomplicated sex
with West to take my mind off the boredom of being
here?”

Ben recoiled with a grimace.
“Jeez, Stubby. Too much information.”

Pressing her advantage, she gently
shoved him so she could exit the room. “You brought it up. And get
over yourself—I’m not a twenty-seven-year-old virgin, and this
isn’t the Dark Ages. I can have sex with anyone I like.”

“
So, go have it with someone other
than West. There’s plenty of other guys in Oban.” He jerked back
and smacked his forehead. “What am I telling you? Just save
everyone the anxiety and keep your legs crossed until you’re back
in Wellington.”

“
Yeah, that’ll help.”

Ben sighed and leaned against the
wall again, tipping his head back until it thunked against it. “I’m
not telling you what to do and I’m not going all big-brother-ish on
your ass—well, maybe a little. But picking up where you and West
left off nine years ago is a ridiculous idea—and stop gawking, I’ve
always known you two have a history—so you’re fooling yourself if
you think you can do the friends-with-benefits thing and walk away
without one or both of you getting fucked up.”

Like she’d been left fucked up
last time. But if Ben knew it, who else did? Piper swallowed the
thorny lump in her throat. “You know, I think that’s the most
you’ve said to me in one conversation since I’ve been back. If you
weren’t so immune to genuine warm emotion, I’d think you actually
cared.”

“
Hmmph.” Their gazes clashed, but
Ben kept his lips tucked together in a hard line. Finally he pushed
himself away from the wall. “That was Mum on the phone before. She
wants you to stop up there and deliver a casserole to Bill and
Claire.”

“
Great. Another golden opportunity
to be given the third degree,” she grumbled.

“
It’s all part and parcel of being
in the Harland family. And like it or not, you’re part of this
family.”

“
It sure doesn’t feel like it most
days.”

“
Feelings have sweet stuff-all to
do with fact, as Dad would’ve said.” Ben limped away to the
kitchen, his voice drifting back out through the open doorway.
“Sucks to be on the other side of the two-way glass, ay, Constable
Harland? Wait till Mum hits her stride. You’ll beg for the
thumb-screws.”

Her brother spoke the God-honest
truth.

Piper tugged on her cap and headed
to her mother’s, ostensibly for the casserole but aka The Oban
Inquisition.

***

Piper knocked on the back door of
her mother’s house and entered to find her bustling around in her
kitchen.

“
Darling, I’ve told you, you don’t
need to knock.”

“
Habit, otherwise my mind starts
thinking it’s B and E.”

“
Breaking and entering? Ooh, did I
get it right?” Her mother rinsed a pile of peeled potatoes in the
sink. “I watch that reality police show sometimes. It’s so
exciting.”

If you didn’t take into account
the daily drudge of paperwork, drunks, verbal abuse, paperwork, the
mundaneness of checkpoints, juveniles who knew enough about their
rights to be a pain in the rear, and paperwork—yeah, it could
appear her life was full of car chases, drug busts, and foot races
with bad guys.

But why disillusion her mum? “You
got it—” she said with a quick smile. “B and E, breaking and
entering.”

“
This is your home too—you don’t
have to worry about
B
and
E
. You’re always welcome.”
Glenna sent a keen glance in her direction as she lined up the
washed potatoes next to the chopping board.

Piper moved further into her
mother’s lair, leaning on the island counter in front of her. “So,
the Westlakes’ casserole?”

“
All in due time. Take a seat.”
She nodded at the three bar stools by Piper’s legs. “I’ve got to
boil and mash these spuds for the cottage pie, then a quick bake in
the oven at three hundred and fifty—” Glenna caught Piper’s eyes
glazing over and chuckled. “Or gas mark 4 if you’re on The
Mollymawk.”

“
Still going on about it, are
you?” Piper slumped on one of the barstools. “I’ll never live it
down.”

“
Not likely.” Glenna slid a knife
from the rack and picked up a potato. “Luckily your knight in
shining armor saved the day, hmm?” She leveled a
you may as well
tell me now
stare at Piper and chopped the first potato in half
without glancing down.

How her mother could multi-task
interrogating while controlling a lethal instrument was a skill to
be envied. Unless she was the one being interrogated. But Piper had
experienced many variations of her mother’s fishing techniques
growing up, so she replied with a neutral, “Wasn’t it,
though?”

“
Ryan’s a good man.”

And would she disagree? Not a
chance.

Piper affixed a bland expression
on her face. “Yes. And it’s generous of him to help Ben
out.”

“
Hmmph.” Chop, chop. One potato
quartered. “Kind, also, to let you stay so long with
him.”

“
Very kind,” she
agreed.

Chop. “And you’re being a
thoughtful guest?”

“
Yep.”

“
You’re not leaving your stuff
around? No make-up cluttering the bathroom vanity or bras drying
over the towel rail?”

Chop. Chop.

Like Piper’s boring B-cup sports
bras would incite a lustful response from West. “No, Mum, I’m
keeping my underwear out of sight.”

Glenna’s mascara-slicked lashes
lowered as her gaze turned speculative.
Oh, here we go.
Bringing out the big guns from under her sweet apron with the
embroidered flowers on the pocket.