Page 23 of Toxic Devotion

“I love you,” he said, reaching up to cup Neil’s face.

“I love you,” Neil said and leaned in to press their lips together.

The kiss was short but oh so sweet and he wished they could stay in that moment forever.

“I’m here,” he said, smiling softly at Neil. “If you need help carrying your burdens, I’m here.”

“I don’t need that.” Neil wrapped his arms around Marco and tugged him closer until their noses brushed and their chest touched. “I just need you to love me.”

“Guess you’re in luck, then.”

Neil grinned before lowering his head and Marco met him halfway, lips brushing softly against Neil’s.

“I need to go,” Neil said against Marco’s lips, then gave him another quick peck before moving back.

“Call when you can?”

Neil nodded, hesitating for a second before he turned and walked away. That heartbeat of hesitance to leave did things to his heart he wasn’t sure he could even describe.

He left the room and walked to his bedroom. Hed closed the door behind him and leaned back against it with a wide smile on his lips.

Neil loved him. He loved Neil. All the pieces seemed to have fallen together perfectly. He couldn’t believe this was his life now. Neil sharing so much with him made him so damn happy. He didn’t like keeping secrets. Not from the people he loved. He knew it took more for Neil to share because of who and what he was, but he was floating on the trust the man had just shown him.

Movement had him snapping his head up. His sister was sitting on his bed, legs folded under her and her head down.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, stepping closer.

Alicia looked up slowly, her eyes red and her cheeks tearstained.

“Who do I need to kill?” he growled.

Alicia shook her head and showed him a blue pen, except it wasn’t a pen at all. It was a pregnancy test.

His heart skipped a painful beat. Confusion. Anger. Fear. A whole bunch of emotions hit him at once and he found it hard to breathe.

He raised his gaze from the pregnancy test.

“Who’s the father?”

“Really?” she snapped at him. “That’s what you ask?”

“I know you,” he said, walking to the bed to grab her hand, holding on when she tried to pull away. “I don’t have to ask to know you’re not okay. I also don’t have to tell you that youwillbe okay because you already know damn well I’ll make sure you will be.”

“No one can know,” she said with a shake of her head.

He closed his eyes for a second, then opened them and looked at his sister. Really looked. Behind that terror in her eyes, he saw something more. Something deeper and more vulnerable.

“We’ll figure it out. I can kill anyone who asks questions, or we can claim the father ran off.”

“How did you know?”

He arched a brow at her. “That you want to keep it? Like I said; I know you.”

A small wobbly smile spread on Alicia’s lips, and she nodded, sniffing and using her sleeve to dry a wayward tear.

“You might have to kill a lot of people,” she muttered.

Marco felt his jaw tick and tried to release at least some of the tension by taking a deep breath.