Page 32 of Leave Me Broken

“How would you know what you’re meant to feel after sex?” I volley back, grinning to myself as I reach for the beans to plate our food. “Been a while since you had pussy, you probably don’t remember what it feels like.”

Luca argues something in Italian but I’m too busy to pay attention.

“Zio Luca is right, Papà. Nothing makes you happier than pussy.”

I whip my head to the side to eye Parker with a cocked eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

He only rolls his eyes and pushes from the counter. “I’m sixteen, Papà. Not a little boy.”

He might be sixteen but he’s only sixteen. There I go again, being a hypocrite. How can I be upset over Parker having sex at sixteen when a freshly seventeen-year-old girl lies in my bed full of my cum? I just don’t want the same fate for Parker, not mine with Payson but mine with his mum. “Are you safe when you have sex?”

Luca and Parker cringe and I can’t help but blow out a laugh. “I know that sounded like a dad, but I don’t want you to end up a father before you’re ready, Parker.”

“Like you?” he challenges.

My face drops to a stern frown. He doesn’t look genuinely upset but Parker isn’t the easiest person to read either. He’s more sarcastic than . . . well, than Payson.

“Yes,” I tell him honestly. I’ve been honest with Parker since the beginning. His mom might have wanted to keep him from me and told him crazy lies about his dad like he lives in a submarine and only came up every ten years, but I won’t do that. After we met, Bella and I were honest with him about the situation. “I don’t regret my decisions that caused me to father you, but I want you to think about it before you end up in the same situation as me. Do you want to be a Papà at the age of seventeen?”

“I wrap it, bene?”

I shrug and run a hand down my face. This is too much for five a.m. “Brilliant. Nothing to worry about, then.”

“Rubbers aren’t a hundred percent effective.”

Now it’s our turn to shoot Luca a look. He holds up his hands like a truce and the three of us go back to focusing on whatever we were doing before this conversation. Awkwardness has settled heavy over us like a blanket so I let out a sigh of relief when soft footsteps sound on the stairs.

The air shifts again when an eye-rubbing Payson steps into the room in nothing more than a t-shirt she must have grabbed from my closet. I want to take in everything about her, how cute she looks just waking up, the beautiful smile on her even prettier face—specifically for me. The awkward way she shifts, waiting for me to open my arms, and the fact my shirt has never looked better than it does on her. But I can’t appreciate any of that because I catch Parker out of the corner of my eye and the look of absolute horror on his face feels like a punch to the gut. He obviously was not aware the girl he’d heard last night was Payson.

I’ve never introduced him to anyone, and this is awkward. Especially when Payson pads across the room with a limp and nudges into my arms. I, of course wrap her in a hug because I can’t deny her, ever.

She pushes to her toes to kiss my jaw. Everything inside me calls to throw her on the counter and devour her bruised neck—but I don’t. I stand there with a steeled spine, hugging her, one arm around her waist and the other hand resting on her ass to make sure my shirt doesn’t lift too high.

“I’m sore.” Her voice is extra raspy in the morning. My body lights up when her lips brush my ear. “And you left me.”

She forces my eyes to hers without even touching me as she sinks back to flat feet. Her bottom lip is puffed out in a pout and my will power is crashing with every passing second.

I clear my throat and spin her in my arms. “You need to eat.”

Payson is probably wondering why I pushed her away without actually pushing when she steps to my side with her brows furrowed. Fuck. This is hard trying not to offend my son and keep my girlfriend happy at the same time.

“What’s for breakfast, chef?” Her voice is light. I’m thankful she has let it go, for now at least. Parker’s eyes are burning into my back, and I can’t focus on anything but that.

“Uh, toast and eggs.”

Payson smiles but it falls when she looks to the two plates sitting in front of us. “What the hell is on my toast?”

Luca chokes on a laugh behind us. Payson jumps, realizing we aren’t alone. Her eyes drop down her body, right to her exposed arms. I didn’t think much on it since Luca has seen her scars, but Parker hasn’t.

“Morning,” she squeaks over her shoulder. She looks at Luca first, then her eyes drift to Parker and once again she stiffens. Parker’s eyes drift down her body, his jaw clenched so tight his molars must be crying out for him to let up. I know mine are at watching them. Payson shuffles as she pulls her shirt down, but I see the longing on Parker’s face as he looks over her round ass, he’s a teenage boy. I can’t fault him for looking but it doesn’t mean I want to see it. “Hey,” she breathes out and it sounds weird even to my ears.

Thankfully Luca picks up on it as well and drags her attention to him. “Good morning, coniglietta. How did you sleep?”

Payson tries to get the information on the nickname, but Luca holds firm. I finish with our plates before sliding them across to the two empty stools.

“Why don’t you go get ready, son?”

He doesn’t move right away but he doesn’t argue. One more look down Payson’s stiff body and he shoves from the counter and stomps upstairs toward the hall bath and slams the door behind him.

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