Page 81 of Kisses and Paperclips

“Let me fix a plate for me and my baby—”

“No.”

Marquis paused, fork hovering midair. “No? All that food-”

“No. Take her out. Now. Before you wake my lady up.”

The words left before I could catch them. But once they were out, I didn’t take them back.

Marquis raised a brow, grin sliding wider. “Oh damn. She’s your lady now?”

I cut him a look. “Go.”

He raised his hands in mock surrender and backed toward the door, muttered something under his breath about love and whipped men, and shut the door behind him. Silence.

But the word still echoed in the room.

My lady…

It wasn’t a title I took lightly; it was a fact.

I thought about how she looked last night, laid out in my bed like she belonged there.

Not just her body.

Her energy.

The way she took up space without asking.

But what stuck with me most…was how she made me feel.

Like a man.

Not because of the sex. It was in the way she looked at me, like she saw the weight I carry and didn’t flinch.

Maybe, even admired it.

Her eyes see the cracks in my foundation…

and she doesn’t see them as flaws.

She sees them as doorways.

And now I want to tear the whole damn thing down,

to prove her right.

I didn’t want anyone else waking her up.

Not today.

Not while I was still trying to figure out what last night meant, what she meant.

I sat by the window, scrolling through my phone, pretending not to listen for her footsteps down the hall.

But I was.

When I finally heard those quiet, cautious steps, I didn’t look up right away.

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