Choosing Us (Pierced Hearts Duet #1)(35)

What had always been there.

What would always be there.

It overpowered me.

She overpowered me.

I let it take control, and a huge part of me wanted to throw caution to the wind and just go with it.

I didn’t.

Because she deserved better.

She deserved it all.

And I would be the one to give it to her.

No one else, but me.

Enjoying the sensation of her lips against mine one last time, I pulled away and she instantly whimpered at the loss.

“Bailey,” I huskily groaned inches away from her mouth. Placing my forehead on hers with my hands still holding onto the sides of her face.

She immediately opened her dark, dilated eyes. Looking so fucking beautiful, so fucking innocent, so everything I ever needed and wanted.

“Aiden,” she panted back, luring me in again.

I softly pecked her lips, rubbing mine back and forth on hers. Gazing deep into her eyes, murmuring, “I love you. I love you so much it hurts,” saying it for the first time when I’d been wanting to express it all along. “You’re mine, Bailey, and don’t you ever forget that.”

Except, I was wrong…

Her Christmas gift to me wasn’t her reaction to my surprise or this kiss, her present to me was the second…

The moment…

The instant…

She revealed,



“I love you too.”



Making this the day, we became a couple.





Chapter 13


<>Camila<>

Now



__________




Sixty days.

Eight-and-a-half weeks.

Two whole months since I started working at the Pierce residence, and despite everything Jackson was still putting me through, nothing compared to the stunt he pulled on me today.

I grabbed my phone from my purse and dialed the first person who came to mind.

“Hola, chica, que paso, mamita?”

“Danté! Oh my God, I don’t know what to do! I have no idea how to get this smell out of the house!”

“Gurl, calm down. What’s goin’ on? You’re talkin’ in circles.”

“I’m so screwed! How am I going to explain this? There’s no way she’d believe me over him. Not about this!”

“Camila, where are you?”

“The Pierces,” I muttered, feeling at a loss.

“Text me the address. I’m on my way.”

“Thank you.”

“Always, mamita. I got you, gurl.”

I hung up and texted him the address immediately and waited on pins and needles for the next two hours for him to arrive. Killing time, keeping Journey busy outside in the backyard.

Meanwhile, trying to create a plan of action and figure out what the hell I was going to do next.

Jackson really screwed me this time.

As soon as my phone pinged with a new text message from Danté saying he was at the front door, I rushed inside with Journey in my arms.

With an amused expression on his face, he jerked back when he saw us standing there.

Imploring, “Why does that baby look like she belongs to Michael Jackson hangin’ out of a window, and not a rich ass white doctor who lives in the suburbs?” he questioned, taking in the surgical mask I put on her that I found in the kitchen drawer.

I didn’t hesitate in replying, “Because the house reeks of weed!”

“Gurl, since when you start tokin’?”

“Not funny!” I opened the door wider, nodding at him. “Come on, come inside.”

As soon as he stepped over the threshold, he breathed out, “Dayum…” Looking all over the foyer and into the rest of the house. The amazed expression on his face mirrored the one I had the first time I walked into this house as well. “Daddy Pierce got a lot of money,” he sang out loud, rocking his head side to side.

“Danté…” I coaxed, not having the patience to deal with him too. “I’m being serious. Can’t you smell that?”

“Gurl,” he countered with nothing but attitude in that Danté sort of way. “Ain’t no one here right now, but you, me, and baby Paris.”

“Her name is Journey.”

“Gah!” she added for good measure.

“Damn, gurl. I drove all this way to help you, the least you could do is let me live my best life for a few minutes.” He grabbed a picture of Dr. Pierce off the entry table, bringing it up to his face. “What do you think? We look good together?”

“Danté!”

“You know what they say … once you go black, you never go back. I could be his by Tuesday.”

“Oh my God.” I rubbed my face. “Why did I call you?” My eyes shifted toward him rushing away. “Where are you going?”

“To see how my future sugar daddy lives! Gurl, I got this! Now keep up!”

In a matter of a few seconds, I was chasing him around the house with Journey in my arms and it made it hard to keep up. He scurried around every room at warp speed, trying to take in as much as he could.

Singing, “I’m so fancy! Yes so, so fancy! In my new Barbie house! With my new Doctor Daddy!”