The Writers' Circle

CHAPTER 3

Piper removed her dress mindlessly, dropping it on the bathroom floor. She felt like an old rug that had been jerked off the comfortable wooden porch and beat senselessly against the brick of the house. Stepping into the shower, she turned her face up into the soothing waterfall and sighed as it coursed over her body. Then she shuddered with revulsion at the memory of Blaine's hands on her. Again and again she scrubbed, seeking to remove the taint of Blaine's touch from her body. She only wished the emotional cuts he'd left on her psyche could be eradicated so easily.    
Piper sunk slowly down the shower wall, drawing her legs up to her chest and laying her head on her knees. The water raining down on her head stole her tears and washed them silently away. Afterwards she sat there empty and motionless while the water continued to give her warmth. She had no idea how long she sat there, but eventually she got out and blew her hair dry. Then she put on the hotel robe hanging behind the door and walked out into her room feeling exhausted, empty and very alone. As if on cue, Niklas knocked on the adjoining door. 
"Come in."	
Piper was sitting on the bed with her hair freshly washed and dried and it lay in wild disarray about her shoulders. She looked beautiful. But her eyes were flat and lifeless when she turned her head and looked at him. It made his chest ache to see her so shattered; she'd been so vibrant and full of life in the short time he'd known her. 
Niklas silently crossed the room. "Piper, how are you feeling? A little more relaxed, perhaps? Would you like a shoulder rub?"
 The minute the words left his mouth Niklas groaned silently. He reached out slowly and pushed her hair away from her face.
"I'm sorry. The last thing you want is a ."
"Yes, I would like a shoulder rub-a new memory to replace the vile memory of his fingers digging into my shoulders."
Piper scooted over on the bed and patted the mattress beside her. She jerked in pain when he massaged her left shoulder.  
Niklas pulled the robe off her shoulder just far enough to gently massage her neck and shoulders, being careful to avoid the purple finger prints already flaunting there presence.  
Piper's voice was soft and hesitant when she began to talk. "I know Blaine from three years ago.."
"Piper, don't feel you have to tell me this if you don't want to."
 She turned and held his gaze unflinchingly. "I want to," she said in a low determined voice.
"You humble me. Thank you for your trust."
  She turned away from him once more and she winced as he continued trying to undo the knots Blaine had tortuously tied in her muscles. 
"I was working as a financial analyst at Wallace and Dunn."
 "Very well known; you must have been excellent at what you did."
 "I am-I was." Piper took a deep breath. It was now or never.
 "I was working with Blaine getting ready for a big internal audit. The numbers wouldn't jive. There was one and a half million dollars missing. I worked for a month day and night trying to figure out where it was. I just knew it was going to be something so simple that we had just overlooked it. Do you know what I mean?"
"Yes meus tigre, I do." Niklas could feel her starting to tremble. 
"How about if you sit between my legs so you can relax against me. Yes?"
"Yes." Piper gave him an uncertain smile. She wanted to feel his warmth surround her, but was afraid of suddenly feeling nervous of him.
Niklas made sure the robe he was wearing was pulled across his lap. When she snuggled up against him and leaned back, he sighed. She smelled of honeysuckle and her scent seduced him every night in his dreams. "Go on," he urged her softly.
 "A week before the audit was to be completed we were working late. It was after nine and even the cleaning crews had gone. Blaine left the room to get some papers he'd left in the conference room earlier. My pen stopped writing and I opened one of the drawers in his desk looking for another one. Sitting in front of me was an overseas bank account statement showing a deposit three months prior of one and a half million dollars."
 She shook her head violently as if to erase a picture from her mind. 
 "I was shocked and I didn't hear him come back in until it was too late," she said huskily. Piper felt ice spreading through her veins. She sat up straighter and rubbed her arms vigorously in an attempt to get warm. Niklas pulled his robe around her and nestled her more securely into the heat of his body and rubbed her arms briskly through the fluffy robe. She closed her eyes for a moment- hadn't the therapist said it would help to talk to someone about it? She took a deep breath.
  "I tried to get away and I almost did; I broke free but tripped when my heel caught on the rug as I ran for the door." She glanced at Niklas and licked her lips nervously.  His eyes were blazing with cold, dead anger, but when he spoke his voice was encouraging.
 "Go on."
 The guy might as well be dead as far as Niklas was concerned. He reached his arms around her and laid his hands on her top of hers. Piper reached around and intertwined their fingers and held on tight.
  Her voice when she continued was a raw whisper.
"When I tripped, he climbed on me and rolled me on my back. He forced my hands above my head and jammed his knee into my stomach." 
Piper stopped to swallow the bile that had risen in her throat. 
"He enjoyed inflicting pain on me- it made him more excited," she explained raggedly. "He made me beg," she finished hoarsely and she broke down in racking sobs. Twisting around in Niklas' arms, she desperately clung to him as she buried her face against the heat of his chest. 
"Piper, meus pouco uma." Niklas had one hand in Piper's hair soothing her, while his other hand had the sheet bunched in a death grip. "You are safe and I will protect you."
 "I will get him Piper. He will not continue to go free," Niklas ground out.
 Piper stopped crying and pulled back from him with a jerk.
"No, you mustn't," she said urgently. "He broke into my condo and poisoned my cat-I'd had her for eleven years- to show me that he meant business about saying a word about the money or .anything else." Her fingers picked frantically at the blanket.
"He said he would make it look like I took the money and he would press charges himself. He has the power in the company to do it, too. He threatened someone in my family this time."
"He's a coward. I will get him Piper." 
His voice, though quiet, had an ominous quality. Panic filled her as her mind jumped on what Blaine would do if he found out Niklas was out to ruin him. "No- you must promise me you will leave him alone Niklas."
 Piper wished she could let him take care of Blaine. She knew in her heart she wasn't the first woman Blaine done this too-and she wouldn't be the last. 
Niklas wrapped his arms gently around the bundle of robes that was Piper. "I will guarantee not to be personally involved in his downfall, but I can't promise he won't fall by some other unrelated way. That's all I can say." 
"Please be careful he doesn't connect it to me."
"He won't, I promise you. It's time for you to get some rest Piper. You have been through hell today."
"Yes I have." Piper paused and then asked softly, "Will you stay with me Niklas?" 
Her lips trembled as she met his warm gaze with a glassy eyed one of her own. 
Niklas shook his head. "I don't think that's a good idea, Piper. The last thing you need in your bed tonight-even for comfort-is a man." 
"Please Niklas. I don't want to be alone. I'm afraid I'll dream about it again like I used too." She quivered in his arms. "Please-just hold me and keep the nightmares at bay."
Hell had just given him a job he couldn't refuse-not when she put it like that. Niklas swore he heard laughing. It was going to be one very long night.  
"Scoot over and make room for me."
 Niklas turned off the light and left his robe on. It was too warm, but it was one more barrier between them and right now a steel door seemed penetrable. He slid in quickly, lying on his back and putting his arm around her shoulders. Piper snuggled closer and laid her head on his chest. She was out faster than a pilot when the cabin pressure failed. Ten seconds max. 
He however, was not. He laid there staring into the darkness listening to her soft breathing and trying not to imagine what her breasts looked like under her robe. He bet they would taste almost as sweet as what lay between those long luscious thighs of hers..
 He was now harder than a steel reinforced wall.
 And his frustration taunted him unmercifully through the night as it chased him from one dream to the next.