by Kaye, Laura
The door flew open, and there Dani stood, a total knock-out in that little skirt and Converse. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Looking for you. Everyone’s leaving. You okay?” He studied her face. Beautiful as always, but something was off with her eyes, like she’d hung shutters in front of them and they didn’t shine quite as bright.
“Yeah, of course. Just hospital bullshit. Let me go say good-bye.”
Sean nodded and followed Dani back through the restaurant, but his internal bullshit alarm was blaring. He was, after all, the king of playing shit off. Like, if there was an Olympic event for playing shit off like it was nothing, he would be the all-time record holder. And he’d seen her phone.
Dani’s expression morphed into happiness again as she saw Tara and gave her and Jesse another hug. Promises were made to hang out and shop and look for gowns together. And Sean might’ve almost believed that he was reading the whole thing wrong until, out in the parking garage, Tara turned to Dani one last time.
“Oh, I was going to wait, but I can’t. Dani, will you be my maid of honor?”
Annnd there was that look in her eyes again—only darker. Her jaw dropped.
Lost in her excitement, Tara misinterpreted Dani’s silence as maybe surprise or hesitance. “I know it’s a lot to ask and that we’ve only known each other for a year but you know I love you and I can’t think of anyone I’d want standing beside me more than you.”
Dani blinked and pushed a smile onto her face. “Oh, my God, I can’t believe you’d want me. But of course, I’ll be your maid of honor. I’m stunned and honored.”
Another round of hugs and happy exclamations ensued. Meanwhile, Sean was nearly itchy to get Dani out of there before she burst and unleashed whatever her real reactions were to all this.
Finally, it was just the two of them. “Come on, I’ll drop you at home,” Dani said as she crossed the parking garage toward her car.
“Want me to drive?” he asked, probably taking his life into his own hands.
She made a face at him. “Why?”
He held up his hands. “Just offering.”
Sean eased into the car, expecting to hit his knees on the dash, but he found that the passenger seat was still pushed back from when he’d used it last week. He got hit with the sudden and fucking ridiculous feeling of fitting in to her life, even in this small way, which just showed how pathetic he was sometimes.
The ride back to his house was quiet, but not at all peaceful. Because he could feel Dani raging from where he sat. The car was nearly vibrating with her chaotic energy. Her knuckles were white where she gripped the steering wheel. Her jaw was clenched tight.
“What?” she bit out, glancing over to find him watching her.
“Just looking.”
“Well, don’t.”
“Why not?” He wasn’t sure why he was pushing her, but everything inside him wanted to—in every way he could.
“Because.”
If he laughed, she was going to legit fuck him up. So he remained serious. “Not good enough. I like looking at you.”
She huffed, but Sean was looking, so he didn’t miss the tint of pink that climbed up her high cheekbones. Dani liked him looking whether she admitted it or not.
His cock stirred and he shifted in his seat. And let himself look his fill. At the small swell of her breasts under that tight little shirt. At how high up the black denim skirt rode on her thighs. At how fuckin’ pretty she was.
Sean found himself wanting a thousand things as he took Daniela England in. He wanted to know why Jesse and Tara’s engagement had so bothered her. He wanted to make her feel better. He wanted to let her take all that pent-up anger or angst or whatever it was out on him. He wanted to hold her—a strange urge for someone who found hugs odd and unfamiliar.
He wanted to be inside her. And then fall asleep with her in his arms and wake up only to slide inside her again.
Fuck. What was all that about?
Dani could’ve dropped him off on the street in front of his house, but instead she pulled around into his back yard and parked with the engine idling. He wasn’t sure why she’d done that, but his cock thought it knew, apparently, which maybe explained why Sean was rock fuckin’ hard.
They sat there for a long second. Neither of them speaking or moving. And all Sean could think of was how the last time something had been on her mind she’d told him, “I just want to get out of my head…”
He knew how that was. So just in case that was where she was now, he needed her to know. “My offer stands.”
She looked at him, fierce and beautiful. “Your offer?”
“You can use me.”
“Fuck off, Sean.”
The ice in her tone hit him right in the chest. He was the one who’d pushed this seat back last week after all—there was no metaphor about life or invitation in that.
“All right, Dani.” He pushed the door open and heaved himself out. Without looking back, he made for the house. Whatever she needed, she clearly didn’t need it from him.
Sean wasn’t sure why he’d expected anything else. His firefighting abilities aside, he’d rarely been anyone’s solution to a problem. And once he’d even fucked firefighting up so thoroughly that all these years later he still dreamed about it like it happened yesterday.
Standing on his little back porch, he fished for his keys in his pocket, which was when he realized that he no longer heard the sound of Dani’s car. Except, he also hadn’t heard her back out.
Giving in to the pull between them, he looked back—and found her coming up the sidewalk. Straight for him.
Chapter Thirteen
As Dani watched Sean walk up the path to his house, guilt swamped her. She hadn’t meant to take the hurricane spinning inside her out on him. But she had—because he saw too much of her. Why did he have to see her the way he did? The real her. The one that was an utter mess inside. No one else had picked up on the way she’d freaked out at Tara and Jesse’s news, yet she had no doubt that Sean Riddick had.
Dani’s first reaction to her friends’ announcement had been happiness. She knew how hard Jesse and Tara had fought to be together, and she was thrilled that they’d found their happily ever after.
But a split second later, Dani had been absolutely blind-sided with a roiling mess of sadness, grief, guilt, and anger. Not to mention jealousy—and wasn’t that just awesome. Dani wasn’t sure how she’d managed to act normal for even a second after the storm of emotion had hit, destroying the walls she’d been trying to build around everything she felt about the upcoming anniversary. Apparently putting on masks and burying herself in routines and applying the force of sheer willpower weren’t enough to keep all that roiling emotion at bay.
It was just that, what Tara and Jesse were sharing…it was something she was never going to have again. Instead, all she had in front of her was a series of never-ending anniversaries marking all she’d lost. And the utter freaking finality and bleakness of that realization had nearly leveled Dani.
That she’d had even an iota of care for herself amid their wonderful news made her the shittiest of friends, and then she’d bitten Sean’s head off to boot. Dani sighed, but it didn’t take any of the weight off her shoulders.
Against the light of his back porch, Sean’s big silhouette stood out. Masculine. Strong. Sexy.
Steady.
That was something else Dani hadn’t realized about Sean Riddick. For all his smart-ass snarkiness, sarcasm, and joking around, Sean was steady. Dependable and reliable. There when you needed him. Willing to put others before himself. The first one to celebrate his friends’ accomplishments. Always genuinely happy for the good things that happened to other people. And in those ways, he was, once again, more than she’d given him credit for.
Without thinking, she’d killed the engine and gotten out of the car. Debated for no more than half a second. Sean stopped before opening the back door, and then Dani was operating all on instinct.
>
She went after him.
As if they were magnets, his gaze cut to her, making her feel seen again.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“You don’t owe me any apologies, D.” Sean jingled the ring of keys in his hand.
“I do.” She sighed.
“Wanna tell me what’s wrong?”
“Sometimes the past…” She hadn’t intended to stop there, but she got tangled up in not wanting to tell him the specifics but wanting to tell him something.
“Yeah. I know all about that,” he said, like she’d explained it in full detail.
Dani twisted the ring on her middle finger. “So anyway.”
“You comin’ in?” Sean pulled open the screen door and slid his key into the lock. The interior door swung inward. He flicked on the hall light.
Dani wanted to go in with him. She really wanted to. For all her what-were-they, should-she-be-doing-this back-and-forth, her desire for Sean was the one thing not in question. But she also didn’t want to take advantage of him. Or take his head off again.
“You want me to?” she asked.
Leaning against the door jamb, Sean held the screen door open with one big boot. He’d gone casual tonight in a pair of well-worn jeans and a white button down cuffed at his forearms—and he looked like the orgasm-giving god he was, especially when he slanted her a look. “Did you just ask me if I wanted you to come in, or if I wanted you, also?”
Frowning, Dani’s mouth dropped open and her brow cranked down. And then she realized what he was asking. Her words could’ve been interpreted either way: ‘you want me to?’ or ‘you want me, too?’. And, now that she thought about it, she was curious to know the answer to both of those questions. So she simply said, “Yes.”
Sean was in front of her in a second, dark eyes blazing. “Yes. I want you. And, yes, I want you to come in so I can show you how much.”
Dani’s heart was a sudden staccato drum beat in her chest. There was nothing casual about the tone in Sean’s voice—raw, determined, even a bit commanding. “Okay.”
He shook his head. “No. Give me more than that. You want me? Tonight? Now?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
His sudden intensity unleashed a shiver over her skin. God, he hadn’t even touched her and she was already on edge. “I want you inside me.”
“Oh, you better fucking believe I’m gonna get inside you, Daniela. I want to know how you want it.”
An image came to mind and she gave voice to it before she second-guessed herself. “Pull my skirt up and take me from behind.”
The next thing Dani knew, she was over Sean’s shoulder and being carried into the house. Up the stairs.
“Sean, put me down. You’re gonna hurt yourself, you big idiot!” She tried to twist out of his hold, but his arm was tight around the backs of her legs.
“I’m fuckin’ fine,” he said in a sexy growl. “And we both know you like getting held down, so don’t pretend that this isn’t making you wet.”
“Damn you,” she said, dizzy more from the force of her arousal than hanging upside down.
He let out a sexy chuckle as he started up the stairs to his second floor. Her thinking brain wanted her to tell him he was going to hurt himself again, but she surrendered to the baser part of herself. The part that knew Sean was right.
She was already wet.
He dropped her unceremoniously on his big bed. The gray-and-white-striped sheets were messy, and the hunter green comforter was folded back, all as if Sean had just rolled out of bed. It made it feel more intimate, somehow, like she was seeing into a part of his life that she wasn’t meant to see. She rolled to find Sean tearing the button-down off, exposing those muscled shoulders and ridged abdomen. His bruising wasn’t quite as dark now, and in places was turning yellow-green as it healed.
Dani’s gaze dropped down to the considerable bulge that filled out the front of his jeans. God, she wanted him to absolutely overwhelm her. And she knew he was one hundred percent capable of it, too.
From the nightstand, Sean withdrew a condom packet which he tossed on the edge of the bed. And then, as if he’d heard her thoughts, he proceeded to drive her right out of her mind.
Sean grasped her ankles and dragged her body toward him until she laid bent over the bed. And then he rucked up the soft denim of her mini-skirt, exposing her bare skin and the black lace of her thong.
“Fuck,” Sean bit out as one hand stroked up her thigh to squeeze her ass. “You fantasized about me seeing you like this, didn’t you? This gorgeous fuckin’ ass up in the air, this lace taunting me to shred it.”
“Yes,” she said, because it was true. She’d picked out this thong with that exact errant dirty thought in mind. It would absolutely fall apart in his hands—if he wanted it to.
The thud of boots and the shifting of clothing sounded out from behind her, but the next thing Dani felt was not what she expected. Sean’s big hands landed on her ass and spread her open, and then his mouth was all over every intimate part of her. Licking and tonguing her pussy, lapping at her clit, pushing into her rear and making her gasp and writhe. It’d been years since anyone had taken her there, but it had always driven her wild. And God but remembering how much she’d always loved being played with and fucked there ratcheted up her arousal, her lust, her need.
For Sean.
So damn quickly, Dani’s body was shaking and trembling, but she couldn’t do anything to drive herself closer to orgasm because his big arms had her thighs pinned to the side of the bed, and his hands held her ass right where he wanted it, right where he had full access to every secret part of her. “Sean.” She swallowed hard, so freaking needy. “Please.”
There was a click and then something cool at her rear entrance. His fingers swirled in the slickness before one pushed inside her ass. “Please, what?” he asked. Not that he waited for her answer, because his mouth was back between her legs, licking and sucking and fucking her pussy with his tongue as his finger gently slid deeper into her rear.
Her hands fisted in the sheets. “Oh, Jesus fuck. Please make me come.”
Teeth nipped at her ass. “Fuck, you beg so pretty.”
“You’ll not only say it, Dani. You’ll beg me for it.”
Dani groaned at the memory of his taunt and managed to rasp, “Don’t get used to it.”
Sean’s chuckle was full of smug sin, but she could hardly complain about that when one of his hands forced her back to arch more, tilting her ass further up and allowing him to work the hard suction of his mouth around her clit. As he sucked her off, he flicked his tongue against her clit in a fast, maddening rhythm that had her holding her breath and straining. But it was him fucking her ass with that finger in a sudden fast in-and-out that had her tensing, then coming and coming, releasing a muffled scream against his bed that left her dizzy and floating.
She’d barely come down from the exquisite soaring high of her orgasm before Sean was easing his finger from her. A wrapper crinkled, and then the head of his cock was at her pussy, teasing and tormenting her as he let his length slide through the wetness he’d worked out of her.
“I fuckin’ love the sound of you coming, Daniela. Makes me so hard.” His cock penetrated her, letting her feel just how hard he was. And so thick that not a single part of her felt empty. Not a single one. And she could’ve cried from the goodness of it.
The rightness of it.
The I’ve-missed-this-so-much of it.
And she could’ve kissed him when he didn’t give her a chance to think about those thoughts, because just then he grasped the now bunched-up mini-skirt around her waist and used it to pull her back to meet his demanding thrusts. Sean didn’t build up to fucking her. No. He fucked her like he somehow knew she needed to be fucked. Hard. Demanding. Deep. Overwhelming in the most perfect of ways. All Dani could do was moan at the sheer pleasure coursing through her.
“Hands at your lower back,” he growled, his hips slapping aga
inst her ass.
Electricity danced down Dani’s spine as she did what he said. Anticipation flooded through her as one of his big hands pinned her wrists. She was well and truly held down. Totally under Sean’s control. And it was freaking glorious.
Dani was the one using Sean, but she felt used in return. Not in a way that took advantage, but in a way that was about two people finding something they needed in someone else. Which was when Dani realized that she wanted Sean to find pleasure in her. Solace if he could. Distraction if that was what he needed.
All of it. She wanted him to find that in her. With her.
His thrusts filled her and rocked her body roughly against the messy covers, creating a delicious friction against her nipples and clit. She gave herself over to the pleasure and moaned at how good Sean felt. His hands at her wrists and using the skirt as if he was riding her. His big thighs colliding with the backs of her legs. His heat setting off a fire inside her.
When Dani could manage to think at all, she had flashes of their night. Of the way Sean had looked when he’d arrived at the restaurant. On the surface, he’d been his usual smiling, outgoing self. But exhaustion hung around his eyes. And he’d tuned so far out when they were ordering that he hadn’t heard three of them saying his name.
An hour ago, she’d felt like utter spiraling shit, and somehow he’d managed to make her laugh, bring her comfort and understanding, and help her escape all the mess. Making it so that all she felt now was euphoria. Sheer and complete.
“Aw, fuckin’ hell, Daniela,” Sean groaned, the deep rumble of it licking up her spine. God, she liked knowing that she wrecked him, too.
“You gonna come inside me, Sean?” she said, peering over her shoulder.
As soon as their gazes met, Sean fell forward on top of her, his strong arms shifting her up the bed so that she was lying flat on her stomach and he was covering her from face to toes. “Fuck, Dani, take everything I got,” he said, face to face with her. Eye to eye. Sensation tightened between her legs. But her reaction was even greater than that, because something in his words had her stomach fluttering, too. Like, maybe, he didn’t just mean his orgasm. Like he meant something more.
