Page 62 of Deserving Cora
“We’ll see what they discovered and go from there.”
Her gaze went distant again. “Right.”
“Look at me,” Pipe ordered.
Cora sighed, but complied.
“We’re going to get in there and find Lara.” He waited for a reaction, but didn’t get one. “I swear.”
“This sucks, Pipe. We’re so close, but just as far away as we’ve ever been in finding answers. I hate this.Hateit,” she said vehemently.
“We’re going to figure this out,” he told her, putting his hands on Cora’s shoulders.
She shrugged off his touch and stood, pacing the small area next to the bed. “We need to do somethingnow! Not sit around waiting for that asshole to hurt her even more. To possiblykillher, if he hasn’t already!”
Pipe was surprised at the sudden change from despondency to anger…but he was also glad to see it. He much preferred this Cora to the shell of the person he’d walked in on.
Standing, he approached her carefully.
“Don’t touch me,” she warned, holding up a hand.
Pipe ignored her words and the hand and pulled her roughly into his embrace. Cora struggled for just seconds before giving up and melting into him. Her arms went around him and she clung to him so tightly, Pipe wasn’t sure she would ever let him go. Which was perfectly all right with him. He walked backward toward the bed and managed to climb on with her still wrapped around him.
He rolled until she was under him and took her face in his palms. “She’s alive,” he said firmly.
“You don’t know that.”
“I do. If she wasn’t, why does Michaels have a bloody bodyguard answering the door for him? He needs her alive for some reason, probably to access her money. Tell me this—would her trust continue to pay out if she didn’t make contact with her family occasionally, or whoever is in charge of it?”
Cora frowned in surprise, as if she hadn’t considered that question before. “Actually, no. I don’t think so. She’s complained on more than one occasion that it’s a pain in the ass to call the man who releases the money into her account every month. Apparently, he’s a talker. She has a tough time getting off the phone.”
“Right,” Pipe said. “And if she wasn’t alive, I have a feeling Ridge would have no problem meeting with you himself. He’d simply tell you she left. He’d make up some story about how they got into a fight and she stormed off and he hasn’t seen her since. That’s what murderers do to try to get away with what they’ve done. She’s alive, Cora, I believe that with all my heart, and I’ll do whatever it takes to get her away from him.”
Cora stared at him for what seemed like minutes, but in reality, was probably only a few seconds.
Then she lunged upward, locking her lips to his.
She kissed him almost desperately. Grunting, Pipe rolled until she was on top. Cora lifted her head and stared down at him, breathing in harsh pants.
“I want you,” she stated baldly.
Every muscle in Pipe’s body tightened. He wanted her too. So bloody much it scared him. But there was no way he was going to take advantage of the current situation.
As if she could read his mind, she frowned. “Don’t,” she ordered.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t think that I don’t know what I’m saying. That I’m not in my right mind, or I’m influenced by grief or whatever. Every time I do something that should turn you off, should make you think, ‘wow, this woman is crazy, I need to get away from her,’ you actually do everything in your power to pull me closer. I’ve never known anyone like you, Pipe. And I’ve never felt this way before.”
“What way?” he couldn’t help but ask.
“Like if I don’t get you inside me, I’m going to explode into a million pieces. Like being around you grounds me, makes me feel as if I’m actually worthy of affection. Of…of being loved.”
“There’s no doubt about that,” he said firmly.
Cora shook her head. “You don’t get it,” she whispered. “My entire life, I’ve felt as if I’m on the outside looking in. Watching people find love, connect, feeling as if I’m missing the gene that allows me to do the same. But with you…from the second I saw you on that stage, something inside me just clicked. It was as if I was waiting for you.”
Pipe licked his lips. He’d felt exactly the same way. It was uncanny. He wasn’t a big believer in fate or love at first sight. But with this woman, everything he thought he knew was turned on its head. As if fate was laughing at him and saying, “See?”
