Good intentions on wrong lips

She didn’t give him time to think.

Piper crossed the space between them like something had snapped loose inside her.

Her movement was fast and reckless, driven by the sound of custody being threatened and two little lives hanging in the balance.

“Thomas!” The name tore out of her a second time.

Before he was prepared, before he could even comprehend, she was already there.

Her hands came up instinctively, fingers curling into the cotton fabric of his shirt as if the ground had tilted beneath her feet and he was the only solid thing left standing. She surged, pulling his face down towards hers, breath colliding with his.

Thomas inhaled sharply.

The scent of her hit him first, before his mind could catch up, her mouth planted softly on his.

Her lips pressed to his with a trembling insistence that betrayed everything she never said. The kiss lingered a second too long—or so it seemed—long enough for her breath to shudder against him, long enough for the room to feel it.

Thomas froze.

His eyes flew open in pure disbelief.

Every muscle in his body locked as if a current had been forced through him. His spine stiffened, shoulders drawn tight, hands hanging uselessly at his sides.

This wasn’t part of the plan.

His mouth parted on instinct, shock stealing the air from his lungs. Heat surged where her lips touched him, unfamiliar and invasive, carrying with it the brutal awareness of how real this was—how public, how irreversible.

For a split second, his mind went utterly blank.

Then everything rushed in at once.

The pressure of her grip.

The faint tremor in her mouth.

The way she leaned into him—not seductively, but desperately, like someone bracing against a collapse.

He didn’t kiss her back.

But he didn’t push her away either.

The room seemed to suspend itself around them.

Mildred stopped mid-step.

Her hand remained on her handbag strap, posture rigid, disappointment already etched into the sharp line of her mouth—then her gaze narrowed.

She watched closely now. Not the act itself, but the details.

Piper's shoulders were tense. Her breath uneven. Her mouth shook slightly against his, as though holding herself together required effort. There was no calculation in her, only raw desperation and fear bleeding through skin and bone.

That was what convinced Mildred.

Not the kiss itself.

The need behind it.

Mildred exhaled grudgingly, a thin sound of reluctant concession. Her shoulders relaxed a fraction.

The blade of suspicion dulled, though it didn’t disappear.

“Well,” she said coolly, turning back around. “That will do.”

The words sliced the moment apart.

Piper pulled away at once, as if burned. Her hands dropped from his shirt, fingers curling into themselves as she stumbled back half a step. Her breathing was shallow now, chest rising too fast, eyes wide with the horror of what she’d just done.

Thomas remained still.

Too still.

His heart slammed violently against his ribs, not with desire, but with a mix of fury, shock, and a sharp, unwelcome awareness that she had crossed a line he had never opened for her.

His jaw locked, teeth grinding painfully against eachother.

Mildred turned once more, her gaze lingering on him—long, assessing. “You should be more careful, Thomas. Optics work both ways.”

Her eyes flicked briefly to Piper. Measuring. Cold. But no longer dismissive.

“For the children’s sake," she paused. "expect  me again." Mildred added, already moving toward the door.

Her heels clicked away.

The front door closed with a quiet, decisive finality.

And then—

Everything detonated.

Thomas turned on Piper so fast she staggered.

“What the hell did you just do?”

His voice dragged out slowly, rumbling with a deep reverberating roar.

Piper’s chest heaved. “I was trying to—”

“Shut up! Do not open your mouth while I'm still speaking,” he cut in sharply, feeling the weight of furi rock through his body.

“I warned you never to touch me with your filthy hands! You do not get to touch me. Ever!" The words shot out like bullets from Thomas's mouth. If he had a gun right there, it seemed like he would shoot her.

Piper flinched.

“I’m sorry, Thomas, it was—” her words tangled, breath coming uneven, like she’d run straight into a wall she hadn’t seen.

“Sorry?”

His lips curled in a reflex of contempt. His eyes narrowing as if he were seeing her clearly for the first time. Disbelief hardened that stare.

“You absolute fool.”

He stepped back from her, like her nearness burned. “You thought throwing yourself at me in front of Mildred would pass for loyalty?”

His voice dropped, cold and cutting. “Have you no shame at all?”

The words struck her square in the chest.

Her breathing stuttered.

No… I wasn’t,” she said, the denial breaking as it left her mouth. Her voice shook now, fear clawing its way up her throat.

“I didn’t have a choice.”

Her fingers clenched and unclenched at her side, knuckles whitening. “She was going to take the boys—”

“They are my children!” Thomas’s voice thundered, filling the room with heat.

“You were frozen,” she said, voice trembling, sharp edges of fear and defiance mingling. “I had to do this—for the children.”

Thomas’s eyes narrowed, his stare slicing into her, cold and unflinching. “Oh—don’t you dare pretend this was about my kids,” he hissed,

“It was not your decision to make! But you always like to jump in trains not going your way." His jaw tightened, muscles in his face jumping as he leaned in, towering, cold eyes burning into her.

“You embarrassed me. You crossed a boundary I never gave you permission to approach. And you will pay"

Her lips parted, eyes brimming with humiliating tears and exhaustion. “I—I was..." She choked on the words. "I was protecting them.”

“You were performing,” he snapped. “And I'll ensure you never do that again.”