KEIFER POV
1 month later
The situation with Yuri and Ella had escalated from shadows to direct threats. I'd intercepted two vehicles tailing my car last week, and Angelo had confirmed that Ella was actively trying to track Jay's doctor appointments.
I know I'm being an asshole by keeping her in the house, but it's for her own good. Every time I look at her growing belly, the fear of something happening to them paralyzes me. So, I did the only thing I knew how to do: I locked the world out.
But today, the pressure cooker finally blew.
"GET OUT!" Jay-Jay yelled, her voice echoing through our master suite. She threw a decorative pillow at me, which I caught easily, but the look in her eyes was sharper than any projectile.
"Jay, please. Just listen to me," I said, trying to keep my voice calm, but the exhaustion was starting to show. I hadn't slept more than four hours a night in weeks.
"I am sick of listening! I am sick of the guards! I am sick of you looking at me like I'm a porcelain doll that's about to shatter!" she screamed, her face flushed with anger. "I had a hearing today, Keifer! A hearing I worked months for! And you told my firm I was 'unwell' so I couldn't go? How dare you!"
"It wasn't safe, Jay. There was a security breach at the courthouse—"
"There is always a security breach according to you!" she stepped toward me, poking my chest with her finger. "You're not protecting me anymore, Keifer. You're smothering me. I feel like I can't even breathe in my own home."
"I'm doing this to keep you alive!" I barked back, my own temper finally flaring. "Do you think I enjoy being the villain? Do you think I like seeing you hate me? I'm doing this because if I let you walk out that door and someone touches you, I will burn this entire city to the ground, and it still won't bring back the peace we have right now!"
The room went silent. Jay stared at me, her chest heaving. The silence stretched between us, heavy and cold.
"Then go," she said, her voice dropping to a deadly, quiet whisper.
"Jay—"
"Go sleep in your office since you're so busy playing God," Jay yelled, pointing toward the door. "Go spend the night with your security monitors and your files. If you want to treat me like a prisoner, then you don't get to be my husband tonight."
"You're overreacting," I muttered, though I knew as soon as the words left my mouth that I had made a massive mistake.
"Overreacting?" She let out a dry, harsh laugh that sounded more like a sob of pure frustration. "Get. Out. Keifer. Before I start throwing things that aren't pillows."
"ENOUGH, JAY!" I yelled, the exhaustion finally winning.
I slammed my hand against the mahogany dresser, the sound echoing like a crack of thunder in the room. I wasn't just tired; I was frayed. My mind was a constant loop of worst-case scenarios—of Yuri's smug face, of Ella's obsession, of the blood I'd seen in files that I never wanted her to know existed.
"I am trying to keep you—and the life inside you—alive!" I roared, my breathing heavy. "Do you think I want to spend my days arguing with you? Do you think I want to be the person you hate? I haven't slept in four days because every time I close my eyes, I see someone hurting you. I see a car hitting yours. I see a shadow in the hallway. I am drowning in the responsibility of making sure nothing touches you!"
Jay-Jay flinched at the volume of my voice, her eyes wide with shock.
"I'm not a prisoner, Keifer! I'm your partner!" she screamed back, tears finally spilling over. "But you don't treat me like one! You treat me like an asset to be guarded! I'd rather be in danger with you than be safe and feel like I'm losing who I am!"
"You don't understand the danger!" I stepped closer, my shadow looming over her, but my hands were shaking. "If I lose you, Jay... there is nothing left. There is no me, there is no Section E, I am a monster when it comes to you because I have to be. So yes, you will stay in this house. You will follow the rules. And you will hate me if you have to, as long as you are breathing."
The silence that followed was suffocating. Jay-Jay looked at me like she didn't recognize me. The man standing in front of her was the same Keifer who used to protect her in high school, but the stakes had become so high that the protection had turned into a cage.
She didn't scream again. She didn't even look back at me. She just wiped her face with the back of her hand, her expression shifting from fire to ice—a cold, heartbreaking distance that was a thousand times worse than her anger.
She walked into the bedroom and shut the door. Not a slam this time. Just a quiet, final click that signaled she was locking me out of her heart.
I stood in the hall, my chest still heaving from the shouting, the silence of the house pressing in on me like a weight. I looked at the closed door, and suddenly, the adrenaline that had been fueling my anger drained away, leaving nothing but a hollow, sickening ache.
Realization hit me like a physical blow to the gut.
What have I done?
I looked at my hands, still shaking. I had just hovered over the woman I loved and screamed at her while she was carrying our child. I had used my power to silence her. I had become the very thing I always promised I wouldn't be—her fear rather than her comfort.
I couldn't leave it like this. I couldn't stay in that hallway while she was hurting.
I opened the door and walked inside the room. The lights were dimmed, and I saw her lying on her side, her back to me. Her shoulders were shaking with quiet, muffled sobs. The sound broke my heart right then and there.
I moved to the bed and lay down behind her, wrapping my arms firmly around her waist and pulling her small frame into me. I buried my face in her neck, breathing in the scent of her hair that always managed to calm my darkest thoughts.
She stiffened immediately. She began to struggle, trying to pry my arms off and push me away.
"Let go of me! Get out!" she yelled, her voice thick with hot tears. "Go back to your office!"
"I'm sorry," I whispered against her skin, tightening my grip just enough to keep her close without hurting her. "Jay-Jay, I am so, so sorry."
"You don't get to do that!" she sobbed, finally stopping her struggle as her strength gave out. She went limp in my arms, but the crying didn't stop. "You don't get to scream at me and treat me like I'm nothing, and then just come in here and hold me. I'm scared, too Keifer"
Hearing that felt like a knife to my chest.
"I know. I've been a monster," I said, my voice cracking. "I let my fear for you turn me into someone I hate. I thought if I kept you in the dark, you wouldn't feel the heat of the fire. But I only ended up burning you myself."
I turned her around in my arms so she was forced to look at me. Her eyes were red and swollen, and her face was wet with tears. I reached up, my thumb gently wiping away a stray drop.
"No more locked doors, Jay. No more hiding the files," I promised, my forehead resting against hers. "Tomorrow, I'm showing you everything. You're not a prisoner. You're my wife. You're the smartest person I know. If there's a war coming, we're going to plan our way through it together."
Jay-Jay looked at me, searching my eyes for the man she knew, the one who wasn't hiding behind security cameras and bodyguards.
"Do you mean it?" she whispered.
"I mean it. I'd rather have you mad at me for the truth than have you hate me because of a lie," I said. "Please. Just don't leave me alone in this. I can't do this without you."
She let out a long, shaky breath and finally buried her face in my chest, her hands clutching the front of my shirt. For a second, I thought the tenderness had won. I thought I was forgiven.
"ASSHOLE!" she suddenly screamed into my pec.
Before I could even blink, I felt a sharp, stinging pain right above my collarbone. She lunged forward and bit my neck with everything she had, her teeth sinking into my skin.
"OWWW! Jay! What are you, a vampire?!" I yelled, flinching and trying to pull back, but she held on tight, her small hands fisting in my shirt like she was trying to rip the fabric.
"That's for the last two weeks!" she mumbled against my skin before finally letting go. She pulled back, her eyes still red from crying but now sparking with that familiar, dangerous fire. "And that's for yelling at me! And for the 'overreacting' comment!"
I rubbed the spot on my neck, wincing. I could already feel the skin swelling; she'd definitely left a mark. "I think you actually drew blood, Jay-Jay. You're lethal."
"Good!" she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at me. "Maybe now the physical pain will match the headache you've been giving me. You deserve a lot worse than a bite, Keifer Watson."
I looked at her—tempestuous, stubborn, and completely terrifying—and I felt a wave of relief wash over me. The cold distance was gone. She was back. She was angry, she was violent, and she was mine.
"You're right," I murmured, reaching out to tentatively tuck a stray hair behind her ear. "I deserve a lot worse. I'll take a hundred bites if it means you're talking to me again."
"Don't try to be charming now," she snapped, though her lip endured a tiny quiver. "It's not going to work. I'm still mad. I'm staying mad until I see those files you promised."
"First thing tomorrow morning," I promised, leaning in until our noses touched, the tension between us shifting from anger to a heat that had been building for weeks.
I didn't wait for her to respond. I hooked my arms under her and pulled her firmly into my lap, her legs draping over mine. I captured her lips in a kiss that was hungrier and more passionate than any we'd shared since the lockdown started. It was a desperate apology and a claim all at once.
My lips traveled to her earlobe, grazing the sensitive skin there. I felt her shiver in my arms, her hands moving from my chest to tangle in the hair at the nape of my neck.
"Keifer…" she moaned, her voice breathy and vulnerable, all the fight from earlier melting away into the touch.
"Hmm," I rumbled against her skin, moving my lips down to her jawline, trailing fire wherever I touched.
The weight of the penthouse, the guards outside, and the threats from Yuri felt a million miles away.
I pulled back just an inch, my thumb tracing the red mark she'd left on my neck with her teeth earlier. I smirked, my eyes dark as they met hers.
"You're still mad, aren't you?" I whispered, my voice rough.
"So mad," she breathed, her voice a contradiction to the way she was fisted in my collar. She didn't wait for another word, crashing her lips against mine with a fire that told me she needed this just as much as I did.
I met her intensity, my tongue slipping past her lips to tangle with hers. Any restraint I had left snapped when a broken moan escaped her throat into my mouth. The weeks of frustration, fear, and forced distance ignited into pure, unadulterated need.
I shifted, pinning her gently but firmly to the bed, my body hovering over hers. The air in the room felt heavy and electric. I made quick work of my shirt and hers, wanting nothing between us.
"Keifer..." she moaned again, her head falling back as I moved my lips lower, tasting her skin. My hands and mouth worshipped her, lingering on the new curves of her body, showing her with every touch how much I still desired her, how much I loved the changes motherhood was bringing to her.
I knew if I didn't stop now, I wouldn't be able to stop at all, and as much as I wanted her, I could see the exhaustion finally catching up to her eyes. My hands lingered on the waistband of her pants for a heartbeat before I forced myself to pull back slightly.
"Let's stop right here," I rasped, my voice thick with the effort of self-control.
"Yeah..." Jay-Jay breathed out, her chest heaving as she tried to sit up, her hair a beautiful mess across the pillows.
She moved to get up, but I put my weight back over her, pinning her wrists gently beside her head. I wasn't quite ready to let the heat die down just yet.
"One more thing, though," I said, a dark, playful smirk tugging at the corner of my mouth.
Before she could ask what I meant, I dipped my head and took one of her breasts into my mouth, sucking firmly.
"Keifer!" she moaned, her back arching off the mattress as she gripped my shoulders, her eyes fluttering shut.
I lingered there for a long moment, making sure she was thoroughly breathless and reminded exactly who she belonged to, before I finally pulled away with a satisfied pop.
I rolled off her and lay on my back, staring at the ceiling and trying to get my heart rate under control. Jay-Jay curled into my side almost immediately, hiding her flushed face against my bare chest.
"You're a tease, Keifer Watson," she muttered, though she sounded much more relaxed than she had all month.
"And you're a vampire," I countered, rubbing the bite mark on my neck. "I think we're even."
I pulled the duvet over both of us, tucking her in close. No more shouting, no more distance. Just the quiet hum of the house and the steady rhythm of our hearts.
"Tomorrow," she whispered against my skin. "The files."
"Tomorrow," I promised, kissing the top of her head. "The files. And then, we finish this."
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