Blue Lines: The Assassins Series: A Loveswept Contemporary Romance (10 page)

Not even if it was one with Piper Allen.

Oops, he meant Piper Titov.

With a heavy feeling in his chest, Erik left the courtroom to find Piper standing
in the parking lot with Phillip. Phillip hugged her tightly and something in Erik’s
chest twisted a little. He had no clue what that meant, but he knew he really didn’t
like Phillip touching Piper. They both turned as he approached. Piper still looked
sad and he could tell she had been crying. Again, his chest did that twisting thing,
and Erik started to become annoyed with it. He wasn’t supposed to care if she wanted
to hug his best friend, or even if she cried.

“Okay, so I’m going to go back to Phillip’s and pack my stuff, then I’ll be out to
your house in a couple of hours.”

Piper nodded. “Okay,” she said, and moved a step away from Phillip. She crossed her
arms across her chest, which made the dress she was wearing tighten, showing off the
evidence of their night together. Looking away, he heard her say, “I have work and
then I’ll be making dinner. Phillip, you’re more than welcome to come over for dinner,
if you’d like.”

Phillip smiled.

“No thanks, Piper, it’s you guys’ first night together. I think you need some time
to yourselves.”

Erik glanced back at Piper to see her looking at him.

“I don’t think you would have anything to worry about. It’s not like we’re going to
have a wedding night or anything.”

Phillip choked back a laugh as Erik held her gaze. With her little nose in the air,
she added, “It’s your choice, Phillip, and I’ll see you at home … honey.”

Erik looked over at Phillip to find him laughing.

“Oh, this is going to be great,” Phillip said.

“What do you mean?” Erik asked slowly; he had a bad feeling he knew the answer.

“I think your new missus is going to rock your world.”

Yup, that’s what he was thinking, too. Piper wasn’t going to make this easy for him.
And Erik was scared shitless.

* * *

Piper cried the whole way home.

Today was not at all what she’d imagined her wedding day would be like. She was supposed
to wear a beautiful gown, with her hair in an even more elegant updo. Her dad was
supposed to walk her down the aisle to the altar, where her two beautiful sisters
would have been waiting. Her mother would have sat in the front row, crying her eyes
out, and when her dad lifted her veil before giving her away, he would have said,
“I’ve never seen a bride as beautiful as you.”

She would then be given to the most amazing man in the world. The one who would love
her for the rest of her days, a man who would love to make children with her. Instead,
she stood in a little yellow dress with yellow flip-flops. Her hair was in a horrible
bun, she had no makeup on, and she hadn’t even told her parents. The only people there
were Erik’s agent and Phillip—oh, and Erik. Her groom, and now her husband.

What the hell was she thinking?

This was crazy. Who marries a guy who doesn’t even want to be with you? One who won’t
even kiss you after the vows are spoken? A guy who hasn’t talked to you, or even acted
like you are alive, for the past six months! Or even better, a man who doesn’t want
his child? Piper was plain stupid. That was the only explanation. This was by far
the biggest mistake she had ever made, and Lord knows she’d made a lot of them.

Piper felt like a zombie as she climbed out of her truck, then made her way into the
house and straight to her room. With a sob, she slowly lay down on the bed, snuggling
tight into her body pillow. Tears slid down her cheeks onto the bright green pillow
as she took in shuddering breaths. She never second-guessed herself; she was always
confident and knew what she was doing.

But this, this was purely an act of desperation. Deep down she was hoping that maybe
if Erik was around her and the baby, he might actually fall for them. He might want
to be a father, maybe even her husband.

But he wouldn’t even kiss her!

Plus, he asked her to sign a prenup. A prenup! She wanted nothing from him. She didn’t
need the flashy shit his money would bring. It was the little things that made her
happy.

Closing her eyes, Piper hoped and prayed that sleep would take over and she’d wake
up to a real marriage with someone who loved her. Her mind was going at a hundred
miles an hour, thinking of every scenario that could get her out of this mess. She
could call Erik and tell him she changed her mind, but that wasn’t right. She stood
by her word, her vow, and she would honor him until the end of the relationship.

Piper knew that she was being naïve but a part of her believed Erik when he said he
wouldn’t cheat on her. She could see in his eyes the need for this marriage to work.
He needed her, and the sick, stupid part of her loved it. She wanted to be needed
by Erik; she only wished that what he needed was to have her love, not to keep his
job.

With a huff, Piper rolled slowly out of bed and made her way to the living room and
her illustration desk. Piper was working on illustrations for a book by Emmaline Hayes,
a children’s author, who also was one of her really close friends. They had met in
college, when they were roommates. Emmaline was an English major and Piper wanted
to be a teacher. The two clicked instantly and became inseparable. But like everything
else Piper tried to do, the goal of being a teacher soon evolved into something else;
now she wanted to be a veterinarian—she never really stuck to one major. They kept
in close contact after college, and last year Emmaline had called Piper and asked
her to illustrate a children’s book for her.

Piper had always been an amazing artist. She had done the mural for Ally’s bedroom,
and in Elli’s twins’ room Piper had drawn a kid’s hockey rink on one of the walls;
all the art in Reese’s dance studio was hers, too. Piper loved what she did, and now
to get paid for it on top of that was badass, in her opinion. So for the past year
Piper worked hard on
The Piggy’s Pig
. It was a heartfelt tale of how Piggy lost his favorite stuffed pig. It was a
New York Times
bestseller, and kids loved it, although it was a difficult book to illustrate. Piper
hated the story, and that darn pig still haunted her dreams.

Luckily, though,
Mrs. Octopus’ Eight Tentacles
was a lot more fun to draw. The colors were magical and the story was actually really
good. It was a story about the eight things Mrs. Octopus couldn’t live without. It
was fun and fresh, and Piper was having a blast drawing the different scenes. She
had felt like things were finally clicking for her, but recent events had curbed her
creativity.

Picking up a bright blue pencil, Piper cleared her throat and got to work. She had
plenty of time until Erik would arrive. She wanted to get a page halfway done before
she began cooking dinner. She knew she was crazy to even care, but that didn’t stop
her from wanting to cook the most amazing meal he had ever eaten.

Shaking her head, Piper got back to work. A couple of hours had passed and she was
completely lost in the intricate detail of Mrs. Octopus’s third tentacle when the
doorbell sounded. Looking up, she could see that it was Erik, with his arms full of
stuff. She took in a deep breath, then let it out slowly before she got up and headed
for the door.

Well, here we go
.

She reached the door, and pulled it open to find not only her new husband, but also
a dog.

“What’s that?” she asked, pointing down at the dog.

It looked up at her with its big bug eyes and snorted.

Erik looked down and then back up at Piper before saying, “Stanley, my dog.”

“You didn’t tell me you had a dog,” she said, looking back down at Stanley. He had
his tongue out of his mouth and was still snorting fairly loud. “Is he sleeping?”

Erik chuckled. “Naw, that’s just the way he breathes. So yeah, is he a problem?”

Disgusted, Piper looked back up. “Does he always sound like that?”

Erik’s smile fell. “Yeah.”

Piper found herself looking back down at the dog. He was so ugly, he was kind of cute.
He was a light brown bulldog with white patches all over his body. He had the cutest
little nose, and was fatter than she thought a dog of that breed should be, but what
the hell did she know about bulldogs? Shrugging her shoulders, she moved out of the
way so that Erik could enter with his snorting dog.

“Thanks,” he mumbled back at her as he walked past. She shut the door behind him and
followed him down the hall to the living room, where he dropped his bags.

“So where is my room?”

Piper crossed her ankles, resting her hands on her stomach. It was becoming a habit,
resting her hands on her tummy, and she liked it, but she couldn’t think of that right
now because it just dawned on her that there was no place for Erik to sleep.

Looking everywhere but at Erik, she said, “Well, the couch will be your bed, and I
guess you can store your clothes and stuff in my office.”

“The couch?” he asked, deadpan.

“Yes,” she answered with a nod. “I need my office and besides, there is no room for
a bed in there. The other room is the baby’s nursery.”

“Okay, then I’ll sleep in your bed.”

Piper almost choked on her laughter. “Cold day in hell, Erik. You will never find
yourself in my bed, ever again.”

Erik’s eyes narrowed to the challenge of her comment before his mouth curved in a
devilish way.

“You think so?”

“Oh, I know so,” she scoffed. “I live every day with the constant reminder of what
happened the last time we slept together.”

Erik’s eyes fell to her stomach before looking back at her. His eyes held her in a
heated gaze before he looked away and nodded.

“Fine, I’ll sleep on the couch.”

Well, that was easier than she thought.

* * *

For the next hour, she and Stanley watched as Erik brought in all his stuff. He stored
most of his things in the office while leaving a box or two in the living room. She
wondered what was in the boxes and hoped that he planned to unpack them, since she
thought it was tacky to have brown boxes just lying around. Finally, after what seemed
like forever, Erik started to unload the boxes. From her desk, she watched as he proceeded
to set up the ultimate in gaming equipment. She was in awe at all the things he had
for his entertainment, and when he went out to his truck she almost snorted in laughter
when he came back into the house with a bright purple chair.

“So you’re a gamer?”

Erik glanced back at her and nodded. “Yeah.”

Wow, this marriage was getting better by the second. Her twenty-eight-year-old husband
was a gamer. Man, she really knew how to pick ’em, get pregnant by ’em, and then marry
’em. Shaking her head, she went into the kitchen to start dinner. The only sound in
the house was Stanley and his loud snorting. At least he was breathing, though.

Piper was transferring some chicken from the pan to the oven to finish cooking when
loud music started blaring through the house. Stanley went crazy, barking and trying
to catch his breath as Piper glared over at Erik.

“Excuse me!” she screamed.

He threw a hand up as if to say, “just a minute,” and then suddenly the noise was
gone. He then slid a pair of black headphones on and fell into his gamer chair. As
he started to play some sort of shooting game, she watched for a moment before turning
and shaking her head.

This was not happening.

Piper closed her eyes tight, hoping that when she opened them this would all turn
out to have been a dream, but when she opened her eyes, there Erik was: playing his
game with his huge dog sitting beside him.

What the hell had she done?

Feeling the urge to cry, Piper decided to try to distract herself with making a salad.
It was hard, though. Erik was screaming out obscenities every few seconds and it seemed
that Stanley was barking some of his own. It also bothered her that he hadn’t even
unpacked or put his clothes away. He had immediately fallen into his chair and started
playing. He sat that way the whole time she cooked, not even taking a break for a
drink or to use the bathroom.

It was mind-blowing.

After placing everything on the dining room table, she looked back over at him, unsure
if she should bother him. He had to be hungry and it would be rude to start eating
dinner without him. Why was this so hard? This must be why people dated before they
got married.

Clearing her throat, she yelled, “Erik, dinner is ready!”

“Cool,” he said over his shoulder.

Piper picked up a dish of asparagus and headed for the dining room, placing it next
to the chicken, grilled potatoes, salad, and biscuits. It was one of her favorite
dinners and she hoped he liked it. Sitting down at one end of the table, she waited
for him as he placed his controller and headphones down and made his way to the dining
room. When he didn’t sit down, Piper watched in awe and confusion as he proceeded
to make himself a plate.

Okay, that’s fine, he wasn’t used to her way of things. She always said grace before
serving herself, but he would learn; all she needed to do was say something. But before
she could even mutter a word, he grabbed a fork, gave her a nod, and said, “Looks
good,” then walked off
toward the living room.

That did not just happen.

“Um, excuse me?”

Erik turned the fork in his mouth and said, “What?”

“You’re not going to eat at the table with me?”

“No, I’m in the middle of a game.”

“Can’t you just quit so we can eat?” she asked patiently.

She had the urge to chuck her plate at him, but instead she decided that he knew no
better. He had been living as a bachelor; they probably ate off the carpet and thought
nothing was wrong with that.

Erik laughed and dropped down in his seat. “No way, but don’t worry, I can still eat
and play. I won’t make a mess.”