Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 147

My mouth is still hanging open when I see Kent's dark head and broad shoulders ducking through the I'm still staring when he turns to glare at me.

"Are you happy now, Fay?" Kent asks, stern and clearly pissed off.

And that makes me snap my mouth shut as I narrow my eyes at him.

"Do I look happy, Kent?" I ask, waving a hand at myself - at my tear-stained cheeks, my messy hair.

And, well, my cozy pajamas, my book, and my reading light might not be adding to the picture of mise "Fay," he sighs. "Why didn't you come downstairs? I want to talk to you."

"Because, Kent," I answer softly. "You already gave me your answer."

"To what question?" he snaps, looking up at me and clearly working hard to contain his temper. "To...whether or not you want me in your life."

"What?" Kent breathes, appalled, leaning forward a little to stare at me like I'm crazy.

"I said," I explain, starting to get pissed now because I am very aware of what happened downstairs an your life. And you made it very clear that you don't trust me! So!" I spread my arms wide, inviting him "Fay," Kent groans, tilting his head back. "I trust you - it's just -"

"Clearly you don't!" I declare, crossing my arms, my voice getting unconsciously louder. "Or else you would "Fay!" Kent hisses, slicing a hand through the air in an attempt to silence me and glaring towards the I roll my eyes, sinking back into my pillows, sick of being told what to do and when to do it and having

I turn to stare at the wall across from me, not wanting to look at him right now. Because I know that if And continue to treat me like his mistress.

And I...I can't do that. Not anymore.

I hear Kent sigh and I know that he's looking at me again. I go tense under his gaze.

door of my tiny wardrobe.

nt him to see at the moment, but I think he gets the point because Kent sighs and presses the bridge of his nose between his fingers.

akes me insane that he either wasn't paying attention or is playing dumb now, "that if you don't trust me, that I have to rethink my place in the world and in re the rest out himself.

have told me what the hell you're getting up to that's going to cost all of these human lives!" Lower your voice! Someone will hear you!"

ep quiet in my own bedroom - the one space where I'm supposed to be able to expect to have a little privacy - just to adhere to his rules. e's just going to work his wiles on me and convince me to forgive him.

"Please," he says, a real plea in his voice. But I still don't look at him. "Fay, please," he tries again, and I hear him take another step towards me.

Still, I don't move. "Fay, I'm sorry -"

"You already said that tonight," I snap, still staring at the wall, not letting myself turn towards him even though every molecule in my body wants to. "And then, at the first test of it, you repeated the exact thing that hurt me most the first time you said it." "Fay, I didn't -" "You did!" I snap. "You -"

"Would you let me finish a god damn sentence, Fay?" Kent growls and I snap my head to him then, glaring with every bit of strength I have, forcing myself to hate him when I know I feel precisely the opposite.

"Not if it means letting you off the hook for treating me like I'm just the girl you're fucking, Kent," I say slowly, cruelly, in response. "And not something more. Which we both know I am."

It's a gamble, those words. Because he's never said more - has never told me, explicitly, that he feels anything more for me than just the mistress he signed up for with that stupid contract.

But I know. I know it in my bones.

And right now? He's either going to admit it, or he's going to lose me. Because I can't do it anymore - not when I have it on good authority that someone is coming to kill us all sometime this week. The time for playing coy is over. He either trusts me or he doesn't. We're either in this together?

Or I'm leaving.

I'm not getting killed for someone who doesn't trust me and can't even admit he cares about me.

And as I glare up at him, and he glares back, I know that Kent understands all of it.

We stay in that deadlock for a long time, staring at each other, each waiting for the other to break. But neither does.

Until, to my surprise, Kent shifts his position and looks down at his feet, stepping his right foot on the heel of his left shoe and starting to step out of it.

"What?" I ask, confused, realizing that Kent's...taking off his shoes? "What are you doing?"

"I'm coming to bed, Fay," he snaps, looking up at me and renewing his little glare.

"What?" I ask again, still baffled as he shrugs off his suit jacket and hangs it neatly up on a spare hanger in the wardrobe.

But he doesn't answer me this time, just sighs as he peels back the covers on the other side of the bed - Daniel's side of the bed, technically - and sits down on the mattress, leaning back against the pile of floral pillows against my headboard. "Turn off the light," he says, nodding to my reading light.

But I hesitate, glaring at him a little and grabbing a pillow that I plant staunchly between us like a little wall. Kent glances down at it.

"What's that for?" he asks.

"So you can't seduce me," I grumble, "into being nice to you after you've been so mean to me -"

"Is that all it will take to get you to stop being mad at me?" Kent asks, raising an eyebrow at me. "Just, sex?"

"Well, probably!" I answer too quickly, and then bite my lip as I see Kent's mouth quirk up into the start of a smile. Unable to look at him, I bury my face in my hand as I mumble my reply. "You're...hard to resist, Kent. And we both know you use s*x to manipulate me." Kent laughs a dark little laugh then. "Manipulate might be too strong a word, Fay," he murmurs softly. I feel him trace his fingers over my knee then and I angrily swat his hand away.

"No touching," I murmur, frustrated. Because - damn it, I'm trying so hard to hold onto my convictions - but I'm so happy he's here - so pleased that he swallowed his own pride and made himself go all the way through the passage, to climb that stupid winding staircase - made himself make the trek he usually makes me take every night to be by his side.

But still. It's not an apology. It's not a sigh of trust. I steel myself and try to be newly determined to stay strong. Because my self-worth is worth more than what he's offering. Especially now that I know just how much more I want.

"The light, Fay," Kent says and I pull my hand away from my face to frown at him a little, confused.

"Why?"

"Because," he says, giving me a little shrug. "If I'm going to confess all of my darkest secrets to you, it feels....more appropriate to do it with the lights off."