Chapter 363

My breath caught. I braced myself. I didn’t know what would happen next.

Nicholas had gone very still beside me. His arm around my waist tightened slightly. Then he removed it and stood.

“Nicholas,” I said.

He didn’t acknowledge me. He puffed out his chest and faced down his brother. He didn’t growl, didn’t make any sound, but his posture alone screamed Alpha.

Julian, meanwhile, just sighed. “You don’t have to do that. I know all about your feelings for Piper and hers for you, even if you two don’t recognize it yourselves. I know I will never be anything more than Piper’s friend. I’m no threat to you or your relationship.”

Nicholas marginally relaxed. His shoulders released some of their tension.

“You don’t have to worry about Piper, Nicholas,” Julian said. “She’s head over heels for you. My feelings are entirely one-sided.”

Nicholas lowered his head. He was quiet for a long moment, and Julian didn’t say anything else. Eventually, Nicholas lifted his head back up and said, “Thank you for telling me.”

Julian nodded. “Bridget wants us to fight.”

“We won’t,” Nicholas said. “I know better than anyone how wonderful Piper is. What kind of hypocrite would I be for blaming you for seeing those same traits in her that I do?”

“Thank you,” Julian said. He seemed genuinely relieved a moment, but then his gaze turned mischievous. “Don’t think you can relax, though. You better watch yourself and stay in line. If you mess anything up with Piper, I’ll be waiting in the wings, ready to swoop in and steal her.”

I blinked, startled speechless.

“I won’t forget,” Nicholas said, though he didn’t sound particularly angry about it.

“Good.” Julian glanced at me, then quickly darted his gaze away. “I’ll see you both ashore.” With that, Julian left us and headed for the dock.

Once Julian had left from earshot, Nicholas turned back to me. He held out his hand for me and then helped me stand up. When I was steady on my feet, he did not release my hand. Instead, he squeezed it tighter.

“You knew, didn’t you?” he asked.

“I did,” I said. “I’m sorry that I kept it from you.”

“No,” Nicholas said. He shook his head. “I haven’t given you reason enough to think I wouldn’t rip his head off. In fact, I’ve given you plenty of evidence to believe otherwise. I haven’t been kind to him or to you. I should have trusted that he wasn’t a threat to us.”

“Nicholas –”

“No, I was wrong, and I won’t hear otherwise. When it comes to you, sometimes, I feel like my emotions are too strong to control. My rage, my hope, my happiness… they all become tangled.”

I didn’t exactly like the sound of that. Did that mean that he wanted to back out of what we had? To reevaluate somehow?

He must have seen the sudden abject terror on my face. He immediately wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against the brick wall of his muscled chest.

“Stop whatever it is you are thinking,” Nicholas said. “I would never trade any of these feelings, no matter how much of an ass they sometimes make me appear. For all the anger, I also now feel deep passion and happiness too.”

“Nick…”

“When I didn’t have you, Piper, it felt like the world was black and white. I was missing something so crucial from my life. I was just going along with the motions, not really living.”

He leaned down and kissed me softly on the corner of my mouth.

“When you came back into my life, you brought me back to life,” he said.

Nicholas dragged his lips over to more fully center on mine and then he kissed me. The kiss started sweet, but quickly added more heat as his tongue swept over my bottom lip. I opened my mouth, allowing him access into my mouth.

He was demanding, his tongue insistent, his lips melding with mine. I clutched at his shoulders, holding on, as his hands traced long paths up and down the length of my back.

When we broke for air, I sighed against him. He laughed lightly as he kissed along my cheek to my ear.

“No more fears of what is between us,” he said. “Because I am truly alive because of you.”

“Oh, Nick…” I turned into him and sought out his lips this time.

After another kiss, and then another, we split far enough to rest our foreheads together. I closed my eyes, finding contentment here with him like this.

“Julian’s right,” Nicholas said, breaking the soft quiet between us.

I peeked open my eyes to look up at him.

“I have to treat you right, keep you happy, or I risk losing you. If not to Julian, then to someone else,” Nichols said. “You are precious, Piper. There are many people who would be ready and willing to scoop you up if I fumbled even once.”

I smiled and shook my head lightly. “You can’t think you would lose me so easily.”

“I would deserve to,” he said. “You should only know love and happiness.” He sighed as he looked away. “I fear I am already failing at keeping you safe.”

“None of this is your fault,” I told him, “and I refuse to hear anything else about it.”

He nodded a little. “You’re right. What we should be doing is getting you off this damned boat. I can’t wait to get you off this island.”

I couldn’t help but agree.

Nicholas stepped back, took my hand, and escorted me off the ship. The crew, probably having noticed our intimate moment had been courteous in letting us have a few moments alone above deck. They nodded at me now as we passed them. They each wore soft smiles. I wondered how much they saw and heard.

On shore, the others had moved onto the deck. There I found Elva. I rushed to her and held her. She seemed confused.

“What’s wrong, Mommy?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Why are you all wet? Did you go for a swim?”

Oh, God. I had forgotten I was still soaked through, and now I’d gotten Elva wet as well. I had just been so happy to see her.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“It’skay,” she said.

I kissed her cheek and sat beside her. She was still coloring in the coloring book pages. Now she was showing me her work. She was getting better at coloring in the lines.

“What a day,” Jessica said.

“Tell me about it,” Julian said. “I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m ready to go home.”

“Me, too,” Veronica said.

I agreed wholeheartedly, but it still hurt me to see everyone so down. I couldn’t help but feel responsible. Yes, I couldn’t exactly control that a sociopath wanted to kill me, but it still felt like my fault somehow.

“Why don’t we do something to lift our spirits?” I said.

Jessica, Veronica, Julian, Elva, and Nicholas all looked at me. Bridget probably would have too, but she had already gone inside.

“What?” Jessica asked.

“Uh. I don’t know. What about another volleyball game?” That had been kind of fun before, before Bridget’s wardrobe malfunction had ruined everything. Julian was a better man now, though, so that probably wouldn’t happen again.

The others glanced at each other.

“Sure,” Jessica said.

“Great,” I said, standing. “I’ll go tell –”

Before I could even finish my sentence, the sky opened up and rain began to pour down.