Page 39 of Piston

Nat agreed to three years of fucking; she never blew my phone up, demanding to know where I was or who I was with, though she would send me pictures of her adventures in clumsiness. Fuck, I still have the one of her pouting, sitting on the floor at the diner where she used to work, covered in ketchup. She tripped while carrying the refill jugs, and yeah, she wascovered.

She never gave me any reason not to trust her.

The image of Angel and Desiree hits me, and guilt overwhelms my emotions. Instead of actually fucking talking to her to seehow she was feeling because she looked scared shitless when she told me she was pregnant, I blew up at her.

We married without friends or loved ones—we didn’t even dress up. She never got the dream wedding a girl deserves, though I don’t think she ever wanted one.

All this time, I’ve blamed her for forcing a relationship on me when, in reality, I fucking forced it on us because of club laws, and instead of begging Steal to let us off, knowing the false positive was just an innocent mistake, I held fucking tight to the club law, and I’m beginning to believe my subconsciousness didn’t want to lose her.

What the fuck have I done?

How do I fix it?

I hold my wife as her sobs quiet, her body heavier, and light snores escape her. Even now, I don’t let her go as my mind goes around in circles, two things hitting me hard?—

I am madly and irrevocably in love with my wife.

Our pasts have both ruined us.

13

Natalie

Clanging noises echo through my house, and I swallow hard, trying to calm my nerves as I mark the English papers in front of me, kind of hating that a pipe burst at school and that we’ve been given the day off.

Being stuck in a house with the man who tore my heart to pieces is so goddamn difficult I’m struggling to concentrate.

Three days—that’s how long Piston has been here—seriously, he’s not left. Even when I went to work, I asked him if he was leaving, and all the idiot did was smirk and go into the kitchen, where he has been fixing everything that needs fixing.

It turns out Bulldozer's sister is the one who owns the house, so Piston informed himhe’llfix it up, and the man agreed.

I’ve only met Bulldozer twice, and both times, he was a sweet teddy bear, so it's kind of hard to want to hurt that man for thrusting Piston back into my daily life after trying to distance myself.

I keep picturing kneeing him in the balls, then I instantly feel bad.

“Fuck’s sake,” I hear Piston grumble, and I wince, before the clanging of metal can be heard again.

The bathroom sink has been blocked for two days, and the shower leaks continuously. He’s already fixed the garbage disposal, the dishwasher, the leaky tap, the five broken tiles around the stove, and the outdoor light.

The man has been on a mission since I woke up on the couch to hear him whispering and joking with Cooper while making pancakes and bacon. Since then, he’s been around, and I’m not sure what to make of it.

He hasn’t even been sleeping on the couch. I’ll fall asleep alone, cuddling the pillow, but I'll wake in the morning to the left side of the bed messy and warm.

The ass has been sneaking into my bed, and last night, I locked my door to try and keep him out, and again, the bed was warm when I woke after, probably, the best night's sleep in years.

I glared at him when I found him walking out of my shower in nothing but a towel, and all he did was smirk.

Jackass.

“Diamond, how in the fuck did you get a fucking plastic lid stuck in the drain?”Piston shouts from upstairs, making me look up the stairs with both eyebrows raised.

“Huh, so that’s where my deodorant lid went,” I mumble to myself, then shrug, and shout back innocently, “I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

I hear him curse, and I grin.

I like to think this is payback for him being such an ass to me; I mean, I didn’t exactly expect to fall pregnant, since we used condoms, and I certainly didn’t order him to marry me and give me his cut, his club did, so his anger has been misplaced for so fricking long.

I kept to our agreement; I only messaged him to tell him about the baby because I thought he had a right to know. I mean, how in the hell was I to know he was going to marry me out of obligation?

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