I hear loud sobs under the covers, and for once, I really do take pity on Piper. Even though I’m aching for her to suck my cock in this position, I lift her up, undo her restraints and even regretfully remove the butt plug.
She falls against my chest, sobbing loudly, and I grit my teeth, realizing I have only myself to blame for my blue balls. That’s forgotten under the pang of remorse that I feel for the first time as she cries uncontrollably. I guess that shot must have scared her.
“What the fuck was that, Quill?” she shrieks. “What the fuck?”
“Relax, cricket,” I breathe against her. “I didn’t kill him. See? It was just to scare him away.”
“You shot at him,” she accuses, looking at me as if she doesn’t even know me. “You’ve killed people, Quill! You didn’t even show any sadness talking about that guy who got shot in the head!”
She pulls away from me to smack my chest, and even though that would annoy me at any other time, I realize I need to soothe her now.
I need to soothe myself too, because it’s freaking me the fuck out, the way she’s looking at me like I’m a stranger to her.
“Everything’s okay, little cricket,” I murmur, stroking her back. “Look on the bright side.”
“What bride side?” she gulps, tears and snot running down her face.
“You got to come. I wasn’t going to let you, you know.”
One look at her face, and I realize that was definitely not the right thing to say.
“Screw you, Quill!” She’s back to hitting my chest. “You’re a monster!”
“Yes, I am.” I pull her toward me, not even wincing at the continued blows on my already bruised chest. I guess I deserve them. “Yourmonster.”
Okay. Those were the right words.
I breathe easier as she sags against me, still crying loudly, but clinging to me, too.
“Why are you crying, little cricket?” I ask, though I realize any normal person would know.
And the way she stares up at me, her glasses foggy and also, very haphazardly angled on her face, tells me she thinks I should know too.
“You didn’t want me to touch you while you were under the covers,” I guess. “You didn’t want to come.”
An uneasy lump rises in my throat. As much as I get off on feeling like I’m forcing her, on feeling like she has no choice, the truth is, I’m fully aware she likes it all just as much as me. I don’t want toactuallyforce her. If I ever realized that I had accidentally gone too far, I would never be able to forgive myself.
So I exhale in relief when she admits, “Ididwant to come. But Ididn’twant you to shoot your dad at the same time. Couldn’t you at least have waited a minute?”
Her mouth twitches at her own joke, and I kiss that shadow of a smile until it splits into a real one.
“I shotnextto my dad,” I correct her, and she rolls her eyes. “I would definitely have waited a minute, otherwise. I’m notthatbad.”
The last of my uneasiness is gone as I hug her to me. I haven’t lost her after all. She realizes the depths of my monstrosity, and she still wants me.
In fact, she’s more than a little monstrous herself, making a joke about me nearly killing my dad less than five minutes after the fact.
My own little monster.
“Seriously, though, Quill, I’m scared,” she whimpers against my neck. “You’re in danger.”
“I can take care of myself.”
My arms are like bands of steel, holding her to me, drinking in the delicious sensation of her body folded into mine. This feels almost as good as sex.
No. Better.
“You’re killing people,” she whispers in my ear, “and if you fuck up, you could get shot. Like that man… Aaron.”
