Chapter 25 #3
I stepped forward, propping Piera on my uninjured side when her weight became too unbearable against the wound from the bullet. Petting her back, my voice lowered with a warning. “If I hear one goddamn rumor about her loyalty to the Serpents, I’m coming for you.”
She gasped and paled further, the whites showing around her irises. “I swear, I didn’t mean nothing,” she whined, a couple tears shedding.
“Get. The fuck. Out.”
Sniveling, she spun on her heels and ran from the room, the front door slamming in her hasty retreat.
“I don’t like her, Daddy,” Piera stated flippantly, gazing at him as though she were disappointed at his choice while shaking her head.
We both snickered, the mood lifting.
“You don’t?” I asked, brushing her bangs aside.
“Mm mm.” She shook her head again, the pigtails brushing over her little shoulders.
“Why not?”
“Look what she did,” she snapped, pointing to her hair. “And she put me in a dress.” Her little eyes squinting and her button nose wrinkling, she whispered, “So I put pepper in her soup last night.”
“You did what?” Dash snorted, making all kinds of facial expressions from the agony.
“When she wasn’t looking, I poured a whole buncha pepper in her soup. She threw up.”
Though I laughed, Dash was seriously struggling.
I carefully set the little girl on the floor and went to his side, supporting his weight until he was resting into the pillows again.
Grunting a few times, I could tell he was still uncomfortable, so I cupped the back of his head, fluffed the pillow, and tenderly laid him back down.
When my eyes met his, I froze and my heart turned over.
He was staring at me like he had that night just before he bent me over the desk and shoved that magnificent cock inside my ass. Breathing quicker, my heartbeat grew more intense, my focus lingering at his mouth.
“Is Daddy okay?”
My eyelids fluttered closed with a muted curse. We were never going to have a proper moment. This was Billy all over; stolen, fleeting moments that never gave full satisfaction, leaving me always wanting more, feeling empty.
“Yes, acorn,” I croaked, finishing what I was doing.
“Then can I go change? Please?” she asked, dragging the word out.
I craned my neck to look over my bicep and chuckled at the skirt. “Yes, you can go change.”
“Thank god,” she whined and darted from the room.
Bringing my attention back to Dash, I startled that he’d never taken his eyes off me.
As I began to withdraw, he grabbed the back of my elbow to prevent it.
His chest heaving, I began to shake, my skin flushing.
At a slow pace, he searched every inch of my face, then tilted his head to roam lower, down my chest. Taking his time to return to my eyes, I broke out in goosebumps, my stomach coiling.
Bit by bit, he released his hold and let me stand upright.
My mouth ran dry, so I licked my lips, snatched my shirt, and yanked it back on, ignoring the pain it caused. Backing away from the bed, I was mesmerized, his eyes practically glowing as he stared at me with an intensity that had my core quivering.
My voice raspy, I croaked, “I’m gonna check on the acorn, see if she needs food.”
His sight instantly shot down to my crotch, the flames flickering brighter in his stare.
“Are…you hungry?”
Inching his focus back to mine, he was gazing at me through his lashes, a brow arching.
Jesus, the way he was fucking looking at me, it was like I was being hunted, all over again, but in an invigorating manner, one that had my muscles shaking and my stomach coiling with need.
I had a feeling, if not for our wounds and his daughter’s presence, he would absolutely ravish every inch of my body. So, fucking hot.
I gulped the knot in my throat and cautiously crept from the room, that stare warning he might just do it regardless.
My back bumping into the wall in the hallway, I stood there a moment, looking into the room.
Since the bed was situated just inside the door, all I could see was the bottom corner of the mattress, yet could almost still feel his scrutiny.
“Vinny?”
“What?” I shouted, banging against the wall at the intrusion of her squeaky, innocent voice. My jaw snatched to the side, my insides jittery.
She was hovering in the doorway of her room right beside me, holding the frame so she could lean. Her bottom lip puckering, she eyed me suspiciously. “I’m hungry. Janelle cooks nasty food. Can we order a pizza?”
Snatching my focus back into the master suite, I could now see Dash’s foot, meaning he had laid down. My head bobbing awkwardly, I swallowed and whispered, “Yeah, sure. L-Let’s…let’s go.”
“Yay!” she squealed, racing past me down the hallway toward the living room.
A palm pressed to my stomach, the insides shaking.
Pulling a deep breath into my lungs, I held it a moment and closed my eyelids, trying to compose myself.
The weakness in my knees faded so I pushed off the wall and strolled after Piera.
Never had Billy ever looked at me the way Dash just did.
I had definitely wasted years hanging on to something I should have let go long ago.
That stare, in itself, was an aphrodisiac like nothing else I’d ever felt.