Page 43 of Kingpin's Secret Baby

“I’m not leaving you. We’re gonna get out of here alive.”

She takes a step forward, fists clenched. “You think I asked for your loyalty? You think I want to be your problem?”

She lifts her chin, her voice sharper now. “You should’ve taken the deal. You don’t owe me anything, Piers. You could still walk away.”

Something ugly claws its way up my throat. I turn fully to her, jaw tight, pulse hammering in my ears.

And then I snap.

“SHUT UP!” I boom, loud enough that the men outside can probably hear me. “Shut up. Not another goddamn word!”

Fantasia flinches.

My breath heaves, my pulse a violent drumbeat in my ears.

She swallows hard, eyes wide, but she doesn’t speak.

Chapter 21

Fantasia

I’m stunned into silence. In all the years I’ve known Piers, he’s never shouted at me like this.

He’s never looked so incandescently angry.

Piers storms toward me, and I’m so fascinated by the novelty of his rage that I don’t back away. His shadowed eyes are wide with fury, the sclera stark against his pupils, and his jaw creaks audibly as he grinds his teeth. The flush in his cheeks nearly matches his hair.

When he grabs my wrist and pulls me up the stairs to our room, I don’t try to fight him.

There’s something like anticipation building in my stomach as we mount the stairs, but I can’t even tell what I’m waiting for. Piers releases my wrist once we reach our room, slamming the door behind us. For a long moment, he keeps his back turned to me, as if I’ve at last disgusted him to the point that he can’t even look at me.

I don’t expect it to feel like a loss, but it does.

“Piers-”

“You keep trying to get rid of me,” he says to the door, “but that’s not going to happen, Fantasia. Not now, not ever.”

Despite my surprise, I feel myself bristle all over again. “Can’t you understand that I’m trying to save you, you idiot?!” I cry.

Piers whirls on me, his eyes glassy with rage. “Well you can’t!” he screams. “You can’t. Because where you go, I go. When you’re hurt, I’m hurt. When you die,Idie.”

He can’t mean that. He can’t be saying these things. I won’t listen to them. “You’re insane,” I spit, backing away from him. He follows, refusing to let me run from his own delusions. The backs of my legs hit the mattress, trapping me between him and where we’re both about to end up, no matter what blasphemy we’re speaking. “You’re willing to throw your entire life away for me-why?! What have I ever done-”

“You’veexisted,” Piers says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “You’vesmiled. You’ve looked up at the sky. You’ve licked blueberries off your lips. You’ve fallen asleep in my arms- straightened your shoulders so you won’t look afraid- I can’t explain it, Fantasia, because it justis. You live, and I love you.”

I shake my head, but I can’t look away from his open face, his wild eyes, the way he’s fisting his hands in his own hair. These words are being pulled out of him like teeth, but he means every one of them.

I live, and he loves me.

When he closes the distance between us, I don’t stop him. His mouth crashes into mine, his teeth dragging over my lower lip, but I’ve barely opened my mouth before he’s shoving me away. I fall backward onto the bed, and Piers climbs on top of me.

Outside our room… outside our sealed sanctuary, the stalemate goes on. But between the two of us, it feels like a battle is being won and lost at the same time.

Piers’s hands tug at my clothes, his fingers scalding every time they brush my skin. My spine softens, my back arching as my shirt is pulled up over my head and my bra is unfastened. Piers fits his mouth over my breast and licks up my naked skin. He pinches my nipple between his teeth, and I buck under his body, my hips pressing into his, his erection grinding between my legs. I moan, and Piers growls in response. His hands scoop beneath my body, his calluses scraping over my skin, and lighting fires in my veins.

“You’re an idiot,” I gasp, burying my fingers into Piers’s hair and holding on for dear life as he wraps me up in his arms. “You’re a masochist- ah!” His teeth sink into my breast again, scolding me, but I’m undeterred. “You only like me because I tried to kill you.”

“That definitely helped,” he murmurs against my skin. Piers's fingers tangle in my hair, yanking my head back as his mouth sears down my neck, nipping and sucking. “But you should’ve aimed for my heart, Fantasia. Because now I’ll spend forever proving this one still beats for you.”

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