All Chapters of BILLIONAIRE'S FAKE FIANCÉE : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

41 Chapters

Chapter Twenty One

Paige.The ride home felt different, not because anything dramatic happened, but because nothing happened, Dante de Luca kept on surprising me. The city had been loud and full of flashes, but now the streets were quiet. The car hummed along smoothly, and for the first time in weeks, my mind didn’t feel like it was spinning out of control. It felt normal.Dante didn’t talk much, but he didn’t need to. His hand rested on the gear shift, and my fingers were tucked inside his, like they belonged there. His grip was gentle, not controlling. Like he wasn’t trying to prove anything to anyone.The peace of it made my heart beat faster, because I couldn’t trust it.I kept waiting for him to pull away. For him to ditch me like I was nothing. For him to suddenly remember that Keisha existed, and that she could destroy me in a single sentence. But he didn’t, he just drove.I stared out the window, watching the streetlights blur into lines of gold. My mind kept replaying the moment Keisha had

Chapter Twenty Two

Paige.The next morning, I woke up to the sound of a sizzling pan which was weird. I was suppose to be alone, Dante never came back home last night. At first I thought it was a dream, like my brain was trying to trick me into believing that the life I was living wasn’t real.But the smell hit me, the smell of bacon.Warm, greasy, heavenly bacon.The aroma floated through the air like a promise, slipping under my bedroom door and into my nostrils, pulling me out of sleep like a magnet.I blinked slowly, still half asleep, and for a moment I just lay there, letting the smell wash over me. My mouth watered.My heart, which had been heavy and tight for weeks, suddenly felt lighter. A small part of me even smiled, because it was impossible to be stressed when bacon existed.I sat up slowly, stretching, and realized I was still in my pajamas.I didn’t care about anything, not about Dante or where he was either. Today was the day I brought Kyla home and that's all that mattered to me. I sw

Chapter Twenty Three

Paige.Dante studied me for a moment really studied me and something in his expression softened.“You didn’t sleep at all, did you?,” he said as he poured a cup of coffee for me.“I did,” I lied immediately. “Just not well.”He accepted that without comment, sliding a mug towards me. I wrapped my hands around it more for the grounding than the caffeine.We ate breakfast mostly in silence. Not awkward silence, just heavy. Every clink of cutlery felt too loud, every second stretching thin with anticipation. I kept glancing at the clock, terrified of time moving too fast and not fast enough all at once.When it was finally time to leave, my nerves snapped.I stood by the front door, coat on, bag clutched to my chest, unable to move.Dante noticed immediately.“Paige,” he said quietly.“I’m scared,” I admitted, the words tumbling out before I could stop them. “What if something goes wrong? What if they change their minds? What if I mess this up somehow?”He stepped closer, lowering his v

Chapter Twenty Four

Paige.Dante just followed me to the nursery, he put the bag on the drawers and stood by the door, his hands in his pockets, just staring at me, Kyla slept against my chest, her tiny body warm and impossibly light, her breath puffing softly through parted lips. I could still smell the agency on her baby soap, something clean and unfamiliar, but beneath that was her. Familiar. Mine.The house felt different with her in it now, more fragile. Not quieter no, it was fuller, charged. Like the walls themselves were holding their breath, waiting to see what kind of home we were going to be.Dante shrugged out of his jacket, loosened his tie, and glanced at his phone.“I am going to step out for a while,” he said casually.The words didn’t land right away. They hovered between us, strange and wrong, like a note out of tune.“You are what?” I asked, I didn't even realize how high pitched my voice was until it came out.He didn’t look at me. He just slipped his phone into his pocket, already

Chapter Twenty Five

Dante. I heard the crying the moment I put my phone down. I moved to a sitting position in bed and swung my legs over the side, my feet planted on the carpet.Kyla was crying nonstop.I stood and walked out of my room, striding down the hall. I opened the door to the nursery, casting a sliver of light into the room. I saw Paige, sitting in the rocking chair, holding Kyla, rocking her, patting her back. She was crying still. And so was Paige. Glittery tracks down her cheeks.My first instinct was to turn away. To walk away from the scene as quickly as possible and go back to bed. Shut down the strange emotions that were rising up, pressing on my throat, instead I asked, “Is everything okay?”“No,” Paige said thickly. “She has been crying for an hour and she won’t stop. I have tried everything. I fed her, I changed her. I am holding her. I turned the light on, I turned it off. I don’t know what else to do.”“I’m sure it’s nothing you are doing wrong.”“What if it is?” she whispered, d

Chapter Twenty Six

Dante.I didn't even know why I had said that and now she was looking up at me, waiting for me to tell her. I had never shared this with anyone, not even Keisha, but suddenly I wanted to pour my heart out to her. "Never mind." I finally say shaking my head and walk over to the living room, I can hear her following me. "We can talk, you know that right?" she says, "it does not have to mean anything, but we are going to live in the same house for a while, we might as well get used to each other." She was not wrong, "It's just, having Kyla here, tonight hearing her cry so much reminded me of my mother." "Oooh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to." she starts but I immediately stop her. "It's okay, it's been a minute since I actually thought about her." i say suddenly feeling the shift in my mind, it was almost like I was back to that day, “Do you know what I remember about my mother?” i asked her like she was supposed to know.She blinked hard, her eyes glistening. She set her bowl and spoo

Chapter Twenty Seven

PaigeI pulled back from Dante, my heart beating so fast from the adrenaline, my hands shaking. What was I doing? I had just kissed Dante de Luca, my boss and the most sought after man in New York, and he had kissed me back. I didn’t know what i was thinking, if i was thinking at all. All I knew was that I wanted to feel something big. Something real and affirming. I wanted him to desire me, and deep down I knew I wanted him for all the wrong reasons, but I needed this tonight, I was feeling like a loser and I needed to win. I wanted Dante’s actions to confirm his words. I wanted to prove that i could want someone, and have them want me. That i wasn’t broken. That i wasn’t a joke. I wanted the unobtainable, beautiful man all for myself .I didn’t want happily ever after from him. I didn’t want love. And i didn’t want to thank him. It was something else, a need so deep and raw that i could hardly understand it.All I knew was that his touch would make things so much better. His kiss

Chapter Twenty Eight

Dante. Her lips are still on mine and she is kissing me back, and in that moment I don't try to overthink it I just kiss her, not holding back at all. I had kissed her before and she had let me, but this was different, everything about this kiss was different. It was more deliberate, her mouth moves against mine softly at first, hesitant, like she is giving me time to stop her. Like she expects me to but I don't. My hand finds her waist almost instinctively, my fingers curling against the soft fabric of her shirt. She inhales sharply, and that sound alone sends something hot and reckless straight through my chest.Paige tastes like vanilla ice cream and something sweeter underneath, something that feels too intimate for a fake marriage and a late night kitchen ice cream date.She tilts her head slightly, and the kiss deepens without either of us saying a word.Her hands slide up to my chest, resting there at first like she is steadying herself. I can feel the warmth of her palms ev

Chapter Twenty Nine

PaigeI sit on the back patio step with Kyla cradled against my chest, her tiny body tucked into the crook of my arm as she blinks slowly at the golden light spilling across the yard. The grass still glistens faintly with dew, and the air smells fresh, clean, like the world reset overnight, Unlike me, I barely slept.Every time I closed my eyes, I saw his face. Felt his hands on my body. Heard my own voice saying this is a mistake over and over again like it was the only thing keeping me grounded.Kyla lets out a soft coo, her small fingers curling around the edge of my shirt, completely unaware of the emotional hurricane currently living inside my chest. I glance down at her and force a small smile, brushing my thumb gently over her cheek.“Well,” I whisper softly, “at least one of us had a peaceful night.”She blinks up at me, her lips twitching slightly like she might smile, and something in my chest loosens just a little.Last night replays again in my head, the kitchen, us shari

Chapter Thirty

Dante. I don’t realize how hard I am holding the steering wheel until my knuckles start to ache, until the tension in my hands matches the pressure sitting heavy in my chest. The road ahead blurs past in streaks of gray and gold, morning light cutting across the windshield, but I barely see any of it.All I see is her face, her lips and how soft they were, her voice calling my name. Then I remember her saying it was a mistake. I exhale sharply through my nose, my jaw tightening.The word loops in my head like a broken record, each repetition digging deeper than the last. My fingers tighten around the wheel again as I switch lanes without thinking, the engine humming louder as I press harder on the accelerator.She kissed me back.That’s the part that refuses to leave my mind.She didn’t freeze when I kissed her, She didn’t hesitate, or push me away, she wanted all of it. And then, the second things started getting real, she pulled back and called it a mistake.A hollow laugh slips

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