Page 7 of Playing With Piper

“You do,” he says, but it’s not a question. I pull away from him. He looks at me with an emotion I can’t quite place. I gnaw at my bottom lip nervously. Reaching up slowly to touch his mask, my hands tremble. His hand catches my wrist, and we stare at each other silently. There’s desperation in the way he looks at me, and my stomach turns at the realization. My world is about to crumble further than it already has, and I’m incapable of stopping it. I’ve resigned to the fact that I’m a pawn for the universe to use when she sees fit. If this is one of those times, then I can only hope that I’ll feel a sense of closure regardless of the outcome.

It’s my own actions that feel like torture. In a daze, I drag his mask down his nose. Freckles are barely visible in the dim lighting, but they make myheart race anyway. The fabric slips down his face completely, and relief washes over me. His face looks nearly identical to the last time I saw him aside from the small nose ring sitting in his skin and the faint scar on his lip. Even with the new features, he’s still mine. Still Blade. My expression drops. Still… alive?

“No,” I whisper dejectedly, tilting my head to the side. None of this is real, I decide. Blade died. They told me so. Every doctor in that godforsaken shithole had to force me to leave. I had been causing too much of a disturbance, they said. My best fucking friend had just died. What did they expect? Blade is dead. He’s dead. I watched the bullet bite into him and watched the asshole in the car drive off. His blood covered my hands when the ambulance got there nine minutes later. I sat in the aftermath of his death for four hours until I lost my shit and started tearing the waiting room apart. The hospital staff finally called the cops when I threatened the nurse who told me.

I’m so sorry for your loss.Six words ruined my life. It’s all she said before she walked away. Six lousy words was all I got when my fucking lifeline ceased, and somehow, I was the bad guy.

“No?” the man asks. The single word pulls me from the memory, and I grimace as I look at him.

“You’re not real. You died on me. I don’t get you anymore,” I tell him sadly. He pulls back to look at me better.

“What the fuck did you just say?” he snaps. Anger and confusion radiate off him, and I’m too distraught to put any type of guard back up. Not that there ever was a guard up against him. I think I grew content with the fact that he could put me out of my misery if that’s what he intended when he broke into my house. Maybe that’s why I still haven’t woken up yet.

“Seriously, Piper, what the fuck are you talking about? You thought I was dead?” Blade asks again, angrier now. I nod slowly. My fingers skim against every inch of him I can reach, and I wish he’d touch me back. If this is the first time I’ve dreamt of him in years, then I need him all over me.

“You are dead. Lucid dreaming is a wonderful thing, I think,” I mumble, running my hands through his hair. He’s mesmerizing, really. Even in my dreams, he’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

“I’m right here, Piper. I’m alive and well. I’m so fucking well now that I have you. Who the fuck told you I was dead, baby?” Blade speaks so roughly, but the way he’s pulling my hand into his own is the exact opposite.

“The lady. That fucking nurse. She told me she wassorry for my loss, Blade.Youwere my loss. You were mine to lose, and I did because the universe loves to hate me. I’ve spent the last six years pretending like you never existed because I didn’t know how to live without you. I still don’t because I don’t want to livewithout you,” I stammered. Blade runs a soothing thumb over my cheek causing my head to spin. There’s a stark contrast between the version I had of him earlier in the night and this one. Earlier, I had been consumed with lust and wanted him buried inside me. I still do, but I have the innate desire to be buried between his ribs. I need to live in his heart the way he’s lived in mine from the moment I met him.

“I woke up the next day asking for you. They told me nobody had showed up for me, Piper,” Blade tells me. I shake my head. The reality of the situation makes me wanna scream. I sob instead, and Blade pulls my bare body tighter against him. I cry into his shoulder, gripping his hoodie so hard that it makes my fingers cramp. I had lost six years with him because of a fucking miscommunication. I lost part of myself six years ago and haven’t been able to find her since. I spent months trying to create a version of me that was half the girl I used to be, and it amounted to nothing.

“I tried to find you. I couldn’t find a death notice or a single news article about the shooting. You disappeared. I thought you were someone I made up for no other reason than self-sabotage,” I confess. Pity controls Blade’s face, and his gaze softens. He rubs soothing shapes into the skin of my thighs.

“I’m right here, Piper. I’m real, and I’m with you,” Blade coos, leaning in close. His lips brush against the shell of my ear, breath fanning down my neck. I whimper.

“How long have you been back?” I whisper the question with closed eyes. Blade kisses my ear, my jaw, then my neck. I let out a shaky breath when he nips at my collarbone.

“I never left, baby,” Blade confesses. I tense, shoving his shoulders until he disconnects from me.

“What?” I demand angrily, hot tears still rolling down my cheeks. Blade stares at me with hazy eyes, and it only makes me angrier because he looks so goddamn fuckable right now.

“I couldn’t leave my girl, even if she left me first. I wasn’t gonna let you get away that easily, Piper,” Blade says smoothly. His voice sends heat swirling between my legs, and his words make the desire stronger.

“You never came back for me. Why didn’t you come back home to me?” I ask, hostility lacing my tone. Blade’s gaze darkens and his hand slips down to my throat, squeezing slightly. I whine, eyes fluttering.

“How the fuck was I supposed to know that you’dwantme home, Piper. Hm? Just fucking told you that I woke up, and you were gone. Looked pretty clear to me,” Blade snaps harshly.

“You could’ve talked to me! You obviously knew thatIwas still around! You should’ve come back even if it was just to yell at me. This is the epitome of miscommunication, Blade!” I screech. I want to be angry at him for this, but I can’t. Not really. How could I be mad at him for staying away under the pretensethat I didn’t want him? How would he have known that I was still waiting for him even when I thought he was dead? He didn’t evenknowthat I thought he was dead. I sigh, sliding my hand to touch his arm that’s still holding my throat.

“I’m sorry. Let me make it up to you,” I say quietly. Blade sighs, loosening his grip. His touch is light as he caresses my neck with his thumb. Blade’s clothing rubs against my skin as I slip down his body.

“Piper-” Blade interjects, but I’m already slipping my hands under his hoodie and tugging it off. Blade pulls his shirt off next, and I mewl at the sight of his muscles flexing. The wings tattooed on his back slip down to his elbows, and I squeeze my thighs together at the sight. Blade’s looks are deceptive. The wings make him look like an angel, but the depravity in his soul is gonna send him straight to hell. I’ll be right there burning alongside him.

I pop the button of his jeans, and Blade hums when I slip them down. His underwear is discarded next, and I swallow hard, meeting his gaze through my lashes.

“Thank you for keeping me safe, Blade. And protecting me. Making sure I was taken care of,” I tell him seductively as I lower myself closer to his twitching cock.

“Let me take care of you, now.”

Chapter Seven

Blade

“Fuck, Piper,” I groan. Her lips slip over my throbbing cock easily like her mouth was made just for me. Every fucking inch of Piper was made for me. To use. To protect. To love. To fucking ruin. And I will ruin her. It’s in my nature to destroy everything I care about, and Piper is the center of it all. Not that she’d mind. Piper would gladly let me corrupt her, inch by inch, until she’s nothing more than the other half of my soul. A constant reminder that I’d be nothing without her. That Iwasnothing without her.

My hands tangle into her hair when she moans against me. My cock throbs in her mouth, twitching against her tongue as she swirls it over my tip. Piper looks up at me with wide eyes, and I almost decide to go easy on her. I twirl her hair betweenmy fingers, playing with her dark strands. My head drops back, a groan echoing from my throat. Piper bobs her head slowly, hollowing out her cheeks.

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