Perfect Pieces
Автор
Jen Cooper
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556K
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Taylor is determined to make senior year all about her—faster runs, healed heart, no drama. But life clearly didn’t get the memo. When her brother’s best friend, Pierce, and her ex, Niko, both step back into her orbit, Taylor’s plans start spinning. They’re fire and ice, chaos and comfort, temptation and trouble—everything she swore she’d avoid. Yet when they make an offer that turns all her “no’s” into very complicated “maybes,” she begins to wonder if love isn’t about choosing sides but finding balance in the in-between. In this playful, heated, and heart-tugging romance, healing comes with laughter, longing, and a double dose of temptation.
Chapter 1
TAYLOR
In through the nose. Out through the mouth.
Over and over again, my breaths drew in harshly, my trainers hitting the pavement with solid steps as I used everything in my body to propel forward along the track.
I raced past the bleachers, my body feeling every pull and ache of the strain. It was what I wanted. What I needed to drown out the day.
Music blasted in my ears, some random energy mix that kept me going. I was so close to the finish line, to hitting my daily track goal.
I checked my watch, pulling the blonde hair that whipped my face out of my way. I was going to make it; my personal best was only a few seconds away.
I pushed harder, my chest tightening, my stomach doing the same, my eyes narrowing on the finish line ahead of me.
I was so focused on the white line that I didn’t see the football come flying out of nowhere and smack me straight in the face.
I fell to the ground, my cheek stinging as the football rolled off the track. I clenched my jaw against the searing in my elbow that I had landed on and the ache in my ass.
“Shit, sorry, Taylor, your brother has no aim.” Pierce, the joker, my brother’s best friend and my main tormentor, laughed as he came over to me in his sweat shorts and trainers.
I glared up at him, squinting against the afternoon sun, hating that Pierce had for the millionth time decided not to wear a shirt because it meant I was momentarily distracted and found it even harder to be pissed at him.
I shoved my inconvenient libido aside then narrowed my gaze over at my twin brother who was looking the other way, laughing with his stupid football friends.
I held my cheek and went to stand up, refusing Pierce’s hand up. He had played that trick one too many times for me to fall for it.
The “it wasn’t me” trick that he was so fond of had gotten really old over the past couple of years, and not even his charming smile, bright green eyes, and single dimple could get me to believe it anymore.
Maybe once before, or a few hundred times before, but not since I had grown tits and he had made it very clear that he had noticed.
I got to my feet and brushed myself off.
“Yeah, I’m sure it was just an accident.” I looked over at my brother, Hayden, and flipped him off. He laughed harder and jogged over.
“Sorry, Tay. Pierce dared me to. I said I could kick any goal, he said moving target, and it spiraled from there.” Hayden tried to excuse his and Pierce’s asshole actions, but I wasn’t having it, rolling my eyes and moving away from them.
I grabbed the ball and rolled it between my fingers, looking over at the goal.
“Of course he did. Next time he dares you to do something, how about you use that tongue of yours and say no,” I snapped, then dropped the ball and kicked it over the goal. Hayden rolled his eyes.
“Show off.”
“Careful, H. Your green is showing,” I teased, and he mocked me, then went to get the ball. Pierce let out a low whistle and smirked at me.
“Is there a reason you’re still standing there not apologizing? Or is getting other people to do your dirty work your new form of torture I get to look forward to?” I asked, looking down at my grazed elbow and clenching my jaw.
“I said sorry. And I genuinely didn’t think your brother would be able to get you.”
“Whatever. See you round, Pierce.”
I shook my head, turning away from him, giving up on my record and tucking the pieces of hair that had escaped my tie behind my ears.
Every day, he found some new, imaginative way to fuck with me, and I was over it. No matter what I did, he never gave up.
This year was even worse than last year, but then again, I was under no illusions that senior year was going to be a craptastic time.
All I had to do was survive the rest of the year, and then I could make my escape, leaving high school and all the people in it behind.
“Don’t be like that, Tay. We’ve got a connection, it’s our thing. I annoy the shit out of you, you swear and flip me off, and then eventually you’ll be on your knees sucking my cock like a good girl so I can teach you some manners,” he taunted, his arm going around my shoulders as I walked toward the changing rooms.
I scoffed and pushed him away, his muscular frame and drool-worthy biceps feeling too good against my body for me to think more about his statement.
He was not the kind of guy that girls normally said no to, and I was guessing that’s why he was so transfixed on teasing me about it. The chase was all he cared about.
“Or, you can fuck off.”
“See, baby. Our connection.” He grinned, putting his arm back along my shoulders.
I sighed irritably and grabbed his arm, escaping from under it and opening the changing room door.
He stood at the entrance, leaning against the frame with that cocky smirk I hated to admit looked damn good on him.
“Never gonna happen, Pierce. Now go annoy your girlfriend with your cock. Maybe she’ll learn how to shut up for once.” I smiled then slammed the door in his face, leaning back against it with a heavy sigh.
He wound me up so tight, it was enough to drive me insane.
His girlfriend, Brooke Harding, was one of those girls who had everything easy in life and liked to rub that fact in everyone’s faces as often as possible.
She had money to burn, a picture-perfect family.
Not like me. I would never have that. Not since my parents had died in a car accident when I was younger.
I loved my grandmother and was so grateful for everything she had given up to give my siblings and me what she could, but my parents’ savings were running out, my grandmother’s too.
I just hoped I could get out of my grandmother’s hair before it was too late and she had to give up even more of her life for me, Hayden, and our younger sister, Tori.
Shaking my head off the thoughts that were constantly there, I headed for my locker. I got undressed and wrapped a towel around me, heading for the showers.
I loved running in the afternoon when everyone else had gone home, well except the ones that had sports. It meant if I left early enough, I got alone time in the shower.
That was few and far between, being at my small home and sharing a room with my sister, the fight for the bathroom was a never-ending one.
I let the spray wash away the sweat from my run and the blood from my graze, hissing as the sting got me.
I ignored it and washed my body then rinsed off, jumping as there was a clang on the lockers. I spun to the sound, but nothing was there. I frowned and switched off the shower.
“Hello?” I asked, but there was only a dark chuckle in return. I groaned out loud and leaned my head against the wall. Fucking high school, one nightmare after another.
“Don’t, Niko.” I almost begged, knowing what was coming.
His laugh grew deeper before the sound of drumsticks beat against the lockers. I snatched up the towel I had, right before he got to it.
He rounded a locker with a smirk, spinning a stick in his hand, leaning against the locker, chewing gum. It’s what made his tongue always taste like mint.
I scowled at him as he stepped closer, his ripped black jeans hanging low on his lean build.
He shoved his hand through his shoulder-length black and blue hair, his nose piercing glinting off the artificial lights that started flickering.
I sucked in a breath as I backed up against the shower wall.
He watched the movement before coming closer, his drumstick pulling apart my towel, separating the folds, slipping beneath the fabric, tracing over my skin.
My eyes fluttered closed before I could collect my thoughts.
“Niko…”
“Hey, Gorgeous,” he breathed against me, his overbearing scent keeping me stuck there. His drumstick moved over my belly button piercing, lowering down my stomach until it was way too close to my center.
But I didn’t move.
My breaths were short as I looked up at Niko, his deep brown eyes watching me blush. He had always enjoyed making me uncomfortable. Especially in bed.
“Get out.” I tried, but my voice wavered and his smirk widened.
“Hmm. Is that what you really want, little liar?” he teased, pressing his body against mine so his drumstick was between my thighs, pressing hard, teasing my clit until I had to bite on my lip to stop from moaning.
“We’re not together anymore. You made sure of that.”
He shrugged and leaned down, his breath on my neck.
I tried to stay strong, but it was so hard when I remembered every part of his body, the way he felt giving me the pleasure that took me out of my head for hours.
I almost trembled, but then I remembered the rest of it. The summer break that had been another nightmare.
Where he had partied and fucked with my ex-best friend, the vocalist in his band, the singer. What a fucking cliché. And they had gone behind my back for months.
It was enough of a reminder that I could find my backbone again. I put my hands on his chest and shoved him away. He went easily, smirking as he popped his gum.
“I miss you,” he said, and I shook my head at the lie. He missed my pussy, the sex on demand, the lie.
“Then you shouldn’t have fucked my friend who you said you were just ‘at band practice’ with. Fuck off, Niko,” I snarled and tightened my towel.
He scowled at that, and something that resembled regret flickered in his eyes, but it was gone so fast I wasn’t sure it had been there at all.
But the truth was, that hurt like a bitch, so I strode past him and went to my locker.
He didn’t say anything after that. Instead, he left, whistling before his chuckle echoed and the door to the changing rooms shut.
I realized a moment later what he had been laughing about when I went to get changed and found my clothes missing. Fuck him.
He didn’t get the right to harass me for breaking up with him after what he did. I slammed my locker shut, grabbed my empty bag. I had no choice but to go home in my towel.
I secured it tighter then left the changing room, glaring at Niko who was there waiting.
He snapped a picture with his fancy-ass camera he loved more than me just as I flipped him off. He winked before pulling his shirt off and chucking it at me.
“Wear it tonight when you touch yourself,” he teased, and pain lacerated my chest. I had done that for him once.
He walked away from me, and I refused to cry. I would wait until the house was quiet and I could climb out on my roof to let it all out.
I stormed over to Hayden’s car and climbed in, huffing as I tugged Niko’s shirt on, knowing the interrogation from Gram if I turned up in a towel was not worth my pride.
I pulled my books out of my bag and studied the mechanisms of muscles and bones for my paper on health and fitness, an assignment I needed to ace if I had any hope of getting into a decent college to study sports injuries and physical therapy.
It was my only hope of an escape from the hell that was high school and the bullies that occupied it. My bullies in particular.
One, a popular, nice guy when he wanted to be who was always around because of my brother and never gave up the chase, and the other, a dark musician who had broken my heart.
I hated that I was so affected by them, but they both came at me every day with a new way to remind me of everything I didn’t want to feel around them.
Like insatiable teenage lust and an intense frustration.
But that was my luck, constantly on edge, constantly wondering what they were going to do next, and constantly walking the fine line between giving in and staying strong.
