He closed the last bit of distance between them and towered over her. All big, rough, and sexy. “You want me to be your dirty little secret?”

She shook her head. “There isn’t really anything little about you. And you’re not particularly dirty. Though a few of things you said last night were…fun, in a naughty way.”

His dark eyes narrowed even more. “You’re not going to make me laugh so that I’ll stop being pissed at you. You might be the only fucking person who can make me laugh most days, but it’s not working today.”

She could make him laugh? Well, yes, now that she thought about it, he did have a tendency to laugh more when he was with her. When he wasn’t snapping, anyway.

“Ben will fucking know. The whole world will fucking know.” He leaned in closer. “Because I don’t want anything about our relationship secret.”

“We…have a relationship? I thought it was just one night of sex?”

He wasn’t laughing, and she hadn’t meant her questions to be any kind of joke. Piper was truly confused. What did he want from her?

A muscle flexed along his clenched jaw.

“You don’t have relationships,” she whispered. “You have lovers that you never stay with. Women who come in and out of your life. You focus on work. You don’t look for anything lasting.”

“How the hell do you know that?”

She licked her lips. His gaze dropped straight to her mouth and lingered. “Ben.”

A hot fury lit his dark stare. “He told you things about me?”

“He just…mentioned you weren’t the kind of guy to ever get serious. That you weren’t looking for a commitment.” She straightened her shoulders. “And I’m not either. That’s the last thing I want, so you don’t need to worry that I’m going to pull some stage seven cling routine this morning. I don’t want commitment. Commitments don’t last.” She’d learned that bitter truth when she’d been a teenager. “I like to live in the moment.” That was where she flourished. If she looked to the past, it hurt too much. And if she looked to the future, it was way too uncertain. Her mother had thought her whole life was mapped out. The husband. The family. The happily ever after.

Then everything had burned to ash around her.

“Don’t plan on forever.” Those had been her mother’s words on the very night she died. Slurred words. Piper had tried to get her mother’s keys. She’d tried to stop her mother from going to yet another bar. But…

Stop it, Piper. Don’t look to the past.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

And felt a hand brush over her cheek. “Baby, you’re crying.”