Paying Their Piper with Passion and Love [Loving in Silver 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (2 page)

“Lady, I sure wish you’d listened to me,” the man told her in a vicious voice.

As she stumbled weakly to her feet, strong hands grabbed her, lifting her high. A second later her life took a turn for the worse when she was tossed over into the pen with the bull the cowboy had been abusing.

“I told you not to go in there!” he shouted, sounding truly horrified, but obviously not for her benefit.

It was the last thing Piper heard. The last thing she saw was the beautiful red brindle bull with the stumpy horns coming at her as she pushed herself up off her stomach.

* * * *

“Do you have to stand so close to me?” Piper asked in weary tones. It had been three months since she’d been attacked by the man and the bull. Her father would no longer allow her to go anywhere alone. So she stood there with her sign out in front of the arena, protesting the use of bulls as entertainment.

“Yes, ma’am, I do. It’s one of the orders from your father.”

Piper knew that. She’d heard it a hundred times, both from the man behind her and the man claiming to be her father. He might be her father, but he treated her just as he would treat everyone he employed. Sighing, she turned back toward the street, hating her dismal thoughts.

It was hard to keep her mind on what she was doing. The man standing behind her, her official bodyguard, was hot as hell. Probably about as hot as the damned cowboy she couldn’t forget. Neither man was for her, of course. One thought she was a total joke, the other saw her as a job.

But thinking about them naked, in a bed, and making love to her, was about as perfect a fantasy as she could ever get her fevered brain to form. Even now she could feel her body warming to the idea. She could close her eyes and see it so very clearly.

Piper jumped when a car horn blared in either agreement to what was on her sign or as a protest for her being out there to begin with. She straightened her sagging body and sign and scowled at nothing in particular. It didn’t do any good to have fantasies and dreams. Her father would squash them all.

Not for the first time Piper wondered what it would be like to be ordinary, without the billionaire father, without the shadows following her around to pick up after her, to feed her, to be certain the bathroom tissue never was less than half on the roll.

She wasn’t stupid, however. There hadn’t been a moment of her life when she didn’t have the best of everything. It was the only life she knew. She even had a top-notch education she wasn’t allowed to use. Nope, her father wanted her to do nothing. The only thing he allowed her was her little “missions” to try to make people aware of animal cruelty. It was all rather patronizing, but it was better than nothing. She would take it since it gave her a very small measure of life outside the walls of her parents’ estate.

The man whom had attacked her had been dealt with. If he hadn’t thrown her in with the bull she could almost feel sorry that he had to face her father’s wrath. If she had met him before speaking with Mr. Merck Rushton, the stock contractor, she wouldn’t have believed a word Rushton had said to her. Sure, he seemed to have bulls which were treated right. They were in good weight with healthy coats, but not everyone played by the rules. She had learned that.

Piper had watched as Merck’s animals had been moved back and forth between the pens and the arena and none had been abused. He had shown her the ropes the cowboys used as they left the arena, had helped her inspect everything she had wanted. She had found nothing to indicate the bulls were reacting to any stimulus other than wanting to rid their back of a man having the audacity to get on it. That and the rope winding beneath him, pulled tight in front of its hips. That couldn’t be comfortable, but the more she learned about the value of the bulls it was unlikely that the majority of the men and women providing these animals for rodeos would put them at risk. If she knew about anything, it was business.

After packing up her sign and getting in the car her shadow called for, Piper stared out the window with unseeing eyes. She shouldn’t have one complaint about her life. How many people had every material thing they could possibly want? How many had a father who gave them more money for an allowance a month than most people made in a year? Tabloids had labeled her the “Pampered Princess.” They had followed her around for years, making her absolutely miserable. Unlike a few others she could think of, she didn’t want the attention. The worst time had been when she’d been in college, her very first taste of freedom. It had taken an entire year to convince her father to allow her to attend school on the opposite end of the country.

When all she wanted to do was study, there was always someone hanging around with a camera. She could never understand it. She was a nobody in the scheme of things. It was her father who was Mr. High-tech, the man who created wondrous gadgets to fascinate and drain hard-earned money from people led to believe they needed the latest technology.

Ironically, when Piper had begun her activist work, everyone seemed to lose interest in her. She wasn’t interesting enough when she actually needed the exposure.

Sighing, she turned from the window to look at the man sitting beside her. He was the size of a football player. Tall, broad-shouldered, with muscles popping out all over the place, the man’s sheer size was intimidating. It was a fucking turn-on. Being held by him would make her feel protected. And he smelled damned good, too.

Piper’s father had told her he was ex-military and that he had worked for private security contractors. Yeah, she could see that. He must be trustworthy, she thought, because her father would have had his past checked out all the way back to conception.

“I would like to stop at Reggie’s for fries and a sandwich.”

The other thing she didn’t like about having a shadow was that this one was in charge. They were always in charge, but this one was unyielding.

The man shook his head. “I’m afraid not, Miss Barrows. Your father gave strict instructions that you were to be home by five. There are guests coming at six-thirty.”

Piper didn’t even argue with him. What was the point? Even if she could overrule or overpower him, she still had the driver to contend with. He was another man completely loyal to her father. A weary sigh escaped her as she leaned her head against the window. Why did people always treat her as if she had no brain? No voice? And was completely without choices? She was twenty-six-years old and had no future. Her gaze was drawn outside the window again as a little bit more of her soul withered and died.

Supper in the Barrows household was a formal affair. She wasn’t always required to attend, but when she did it was only to fill a chair. It wasn’t as if her father wanted the contact with her. Beyond a greeting, he said little to her. Her mother was slightly warmer, but the two of them had never been close. It was regrettable, but she was years beyond feeling sorry for herself. She analyzed it all now, seeing the weak and strong points to her relationship with her parents.

As soon as she was excused by a nod from her father, Piper made her escape. Yanking off her shoes as soon as she left the house, she ran across the manicured lawn to the house her father had built for her.

If the house had been anywhere else she would have loved it dearly. Someone had snooped through her room and found her dream scrapbook. In it were several photos of a French country manor house, among many other photos of things she liked.

The building of the house had brought her no joy, however. A tear had fallen with each brick laid. She had watched the progress from her bedroom in the main house, watching as her future unfolded before her. This was all she would ever have if she didn’t do something about it. She was kept in a gilded prison. Even her dreams were kept prisoner within the wrought iron fence surrounding the property.

Knowing Jace, the ever-present bodyguard was following behind her, Piper didn’t bother to close the door. She went straight to her room, closing and locking the door. As soon as she turned on the lights her three pets greeted her.

The little spotted pig popped up from its fuzzy bed and ran across the carpeted floor. The cat, a much pampered Ragdoll, leapt from the top of the armoire. And the most spoiled dog on the planet tippy-toed until she reached her mistress. The pig and the dog had been rescues, given up or taken away from people who wanted “cute” until they realized every animal needed care. The cat had been a gift from her mother.

“Hello, sweetie,” Piper said with a smile, picking up the dog and tucking her against her chest. A tiny tongue licked her throat. “We’ll go out in a second. Just let me change.”

The pets were used to the routine. They waited patiently as she stripped down to her skin and pulled on a pair of worn shorts and a bright pink T-shirt.

Sparkle the pig trotted after her. Mindy the toy poodle snuggled in her arms and Charm the cat ran ahead. It didn’t take long to get to the backyard. She wasn’t surprised to see Jace standing on the stone patio waiting for her.

It irritated her as it always did. Other than the time in her bedroom, she was never alone. Piper didn’t bother asking him if he would give her time alone. He wouldn’t. He had orders to watch her at all times.

Walking across the lush carpet of grass she waited as Mindy and Sparkle relieved themselves. She almost smiled as she recalled the man’s astonishment when he discovered her tiny pig was housebroken. She had her own litter to use in the house, but she rarely did so. Piper was never gone long enough for the animals to get that desperate.

Once they were finished the three oddball pets played as she watched. As Piper did so, she wondered just how much more of this she could take. There was a whole world out there to be explored. While she had traveled the same world extensively with her parents, she wanted the freedom to just hop in a car and go. She wanted to be able to stop for fries whenever the mood struck her. She wanted to eat a TV dinner on her couch while in her pajamas without worrying how she looked in the eyes of her parents and their guests. She wanted to do so many things without having to ask for permission, without a bodyguard, without feeling like she was going to be crushed by the weight of the chains binding her mentally.

Sitting cross-legged on the ground, she smiled as Sparkle began running circles around her. “You’re a funny pig,” Piper laughed, reaching out to tickle the pig’s back. Sparkle grunted and ran off as fast as her little legs could carry her, made a wide arc, before returning. Mindy barked at the pig from her lap, poking at her with a tiny paw. Sparkle gave her a piggy kiss before running off again. Charm sat beside her, bushy tail swishing, waiting for the right moment to pounce.

As Piper sat there playing with her pets her mind was going a mile-a-minute. Though she recognized every advantage she possessed as the daughter of a very wealthy man, and was not ungrateful for what she had, she knew she couldn’t go on like she was for much longer. Being at the mercy of a furious bull had made her start looking at everything from a new perspective. While she had simply been going along with her father’s every whim, she now questioned why she did so. She was a grown woman. She was educated.

She had choices. She wasn’t a prisoner.

Well, she was, but if she gave it enough thought, she should be able to plan an escape.

Piper could feel her spirit die a little more with each passing day she remained under her father’s thumb. Tears burned her eyes suddenly. Tears? A Barrows never cried. They didn’t feel sorry for themselves.

“You forgot the treats,” a deep voice said from above her.

Tilting her head back Piper looked up the length of Jace’s big body. She wondered idly if he would strip down if she asked him to. She laughed humorously as she took the small box from his hand and thanked him. She couldn’t even get the guy to stop for fries. She really doubted he would strip down to his skin so she could admire what she suspected was a gloriously sculpted male body.

There was no surprise when Sparkle ran up, wanting a treat. Piper smiled and shook the box, which about made the tiny pig lose her mind. Piggy lips smacked as treats were crunched noisily.

As she got Sparkle to do one trick after another, she wished Jace would talk to her. But he had made it clear the first day that his job description didn’t include conversation with the boss’s daughter. It was rather disappointing to learn the man didn’t have enough balls to ignore one little command from her father.

Once Piper’s little pig had finished her repertoire of tricks, she stood and brushed off her backside. As she did so a tiny red glow from beneath the canopy of trees caught her eye. Her heart pounded heavily in her chest. No! No! No! her mind screamed in protest. She swallowed hard against the tears, the anger, and the frustration which were welling up inside her.

Her father even had cameras watching her in her own backyard? The idea of losing that precious little piece of privacy she’d thought she had was all she could take.

Without giving away her new knowledge, Piper gathered up her pets and headed for the house. She waited until they’d washed their treats down with a drink of water, and then walked through the house without even acknowledging the bodyguard, something she had never done before.

Until today she was nothing if not polite. Unlike her father, she recognized people for what they did, their contributions to her life and their hard work. Though she didn’t like having a bodyguard, she wasn’t going to treat him like he was less than nothing.