by Jillian Neal
Doubling over with laughter, Dan nodded. “Oh, I like Nana.”
She continued to giggle as she went on, “And she said to tell you that she taught me all of my moves.”
“Mmm, have to send Nana a Christmas present,” Dan drawled, only making her laugh harder.
Suddenly, he was overcome with the love he felt for her, and the way she’d illuminated everything in his dark and terrifying world. She soothed every strain and nursed every wound back to health. He stared into her beautiful eyes as she gazed up at him. Their laughter ebbed in light of their love.
He leaned in as she arched her back. Their lips met passionately in the middle. He was soft and tender with her this time. He moved his right hand to her cheek, kissing her slowly and softly. He guided her mouth with his own.
She trembled in his arms. Overwhelmed with the need to tend to her, he reclined her on his bed and moved over her. Slowly he traced her bottom lip with his tongue, until she parted her lips and took him in. He needed to taste her, to explore her, to pull the energy from her as he supplied her with his own. She was so damn sweet and soft in his arms, small and helpless under his rippling muscles and his towering height.
Their tongues moved in syncopation. Her energy seeped into his mouth, and gathered slowly in the emanating heat between her legs.
Desperate for more of her, he slipped his hand under her sweater and drew from her now-exposed side. Desire defeated her trepidation. She wanted more of him, too, it seemed. Her hand slid down his chest and she worked it into his trousers. A shocked, guttural groan tensed from low in his abdomen.
She gasped as she felt how hard he was strained. Insatiable, she wrapped her hand around him and drew his own hunger and need straight from its source. The responses of his body to hers ignited a blaze through her veins. Aware that he was holding a heavenly fire in his arms, Dan longed to be consumed.
Continuing his ascension up her, Dan removed the barrier. Nothing would ever stand in the way of having her in his hands. He lowered the cup of her bra so he could feel the heavy, fevered flesh.
Working with gentle care, he felt her nipples begin to beg his palms for the nurturing they craved. They pulsated in a directive he had no choice but to obey. He lowered his mouth to her right breast. Her breath caught, her body shuddered, as he began to suckle.
“Mother, are you crazy?” Dan heard Kara reprimand loudly.
He jerked away, gasping for breath as he eased Fionna’s bra back over her swollen breasts, careful not to hurt her as he’d just made her quite tender. He heard his mother’s contentious rap on his door.
“Daniel, we’d like to go on with the gifts. Is everything all right?” Fionna released his erection, and he attempted to will it away.
“Be there in a minute, Mom.” Dan prayed he didn’t sound as turned on as he was. At least she didn’t just barge in this time. Dan shut that thought down as he recalled what he’d been doing the last time his mother had thrown open the door on him and Amelia.
He forced himself to sit up so that Fionna could regain her composure as well. Her face glowed enticingly. Her lips were kiss-swollen, her cheeks flushed just like they were when he brought her, and she couldn’t steady her breath. Dan knew that the expression on his face, dark and ravenous, was doing nothing to help douse her heat.
Unable to help herself, she laced her fingers in the back of Dan’s hair and grasped the knot of his tie with her other hand. She lowered his head back to hers and, without need for anymore provoking than that, he began devouring her mouth again.
“God, I want you. I need to be with you. Please, just let me take you home and make you mine.”
Her body gave a rapid shiver and her breaths gasped in her desire.
“I hurt.” She whispered as she fluttered her fingers up his length again. “I ache for you. I need you inside of me. I feel empty, and I’m scared.”
Consuming devotion to protect her surged through his entire body. He lay back over her and groaned as she spread her legs for him. They encircled the steel-like pressure against her mound. “I’m not gonna let you hurt, sweetheart. Never be afraid. I’ll take it all away. I’m right here, and I’m going to make everything feel better. He rocked his body against her.”
“Yes,” she panted as he consumed her mouth again.
Another hesitant tap sounded on the door. “Dan, I’m so sorry, but Mom’s getting all flustered.” Kara pled.
Several key curse words flew from his mouth as Dan moved away.
“We’re coming, Care Bear.” He swallowed down the desperate need that permeated his entire being.
With her face set in a mix of frustration and sadness, Fionna stood from the bed and eased into the bathroom that the Governor had added, between Dan and Lindley’s room.
She splashed water on her cheeks, trying to return them to their original color. She smoothed her hair and drew measured, steadying breaths.
“Come on. Let’s just go give my parents their present, and then we’ll go home.” Dan followed her into the bathroom as soon as he was able to walk. He was careful not to touch her. The temptation was far too enticing. Their energy was still desperate to be joined. Fionna grinned at him sweetly. “Dan, we have to stay until everyone’s ready to leave.”
Despite the cool water, her face was still flushed, her lips swollen, and her eyes hungry. Damn, but she was too much. He’d never get enough.
He cupped her backside and rubbed his hands over the silky pants.
“Fine, but when I get you home, baby, I hope you’re ready, because I’m going to own you.”
“Dan, stop; I just got calmed down.”
His body jerked from the order.
She gave him a sultry, seductive grin. “Besides, you haven’t seen the present I want you to open tonight,” she breathed the words in his face; her eyes turned ravenous. He panted as he backed her up to the sink, and pinned her between it and his hardened body.
“The only thing I want to open tonight, honey, is that tight little pussy.” He squeezed a handful of her backside greedily as she moaned. Her pulse raced against him. “So tight, so hot and wet, you feel like heaven.” His erection was back as soon as he was within ten feet of her. He pressed himself into the soft, heated skin of her stomach.
“Daniel!” shrieked Mrs. Vindico as she pounded on the door. Dan’s eyes bulged in fury as he marched out of his bathroom and flung open the door.
“Damn it, mother; I am thirty-two years old, and I told you we will be down there in a few minutes! Could you back the hell off?”
“If there is nothing wrong, Daniel, then there is no need for you and Fionna to be up here alone. Where is Fionna?”
“She’s using the bathroom, Mother. Is that all right?” Dan sneered furiously.
“Well, then there is no reason for you to be up here at all.”
Dan bit back all of the hateful comments that clambered in his brain. The most prominent was that he and Fionna lived together, that they shared a bathroom, and a bed. He clenched his jaw shut tightly, telling himself that his diatribe might embarrass Fionna.
Gliding hesitantly from the bathroom, Fionna took Dan’s hand and led him back down the stairs, following his mother.
Dan wrapped his arm around Fionna on the sofa, as she explained that her grandmother had been quite sick and that she’d wanted to wish Fionna a merry Christmas.
“I don’t get to talk to her very often. She’s been so tired lately.”
Dan couldn’t help but revel in the guilt-ridden expression on his mother’s face.
“Well, Mom, why don’t you and Dad open yours? Fi picked it out,” biting fury flowed openly into his tone.
Fionna elbowed him discreetly, trying to get him to be nice. As that was not an option in Dan’s book, he ignored the jab.
Governor Vindico gave Dan a look that said he’d better tone it down as he handed the box to his wife. Dan rolled his eyes and then narrowed them at his mother. He was not a child and wouldn’t be ordered around by
his parents.
Mrs. Vindico pulled the brochures from the small box Fionna had wrapped.
She smiled. “Oh, this is lovely.”
Fionna beamed at Dan as the Governor began studying the gift.
“You can go whenever you and Mom want. Just call the number there and book your trip. It’s all paid for.” The defiant anger never left his intonation.
“You shouldn’t have spent so much,” Mrs. Vindico looked truly touched by the weekend getaway to Biltmore Estates. Fionna had suggested it and, as Dan wasn’t much with gifts for anyone but her, he’d quickly agreed. His dad could golf to his heart’s content, and his mother could visit the spa, and shop and relax for several days.
“This is really thoughtful,” Governor Vindico offered a pleading gaze to Dan. Though he disapproved of Dan’s yelling at his mother, he seemed to be asking for peace.
They began planning when to take the trip, which thoroughly delighted Fionna.
Oliver had his thumb in his mouth and was sound asleep on Tim’s shoulder. Olivia was cradling her doll and sitting near her stroller, but she was yawning constantly. Her blinks were extending in length.
Meredith scooped her up. “I think we better go home and get in bed before Santa comes.”
Olivia nodded her agreement. “With my princess crown?” She begged through a deep yawn.
Dan and Fionna chuckled as they watched Dan’s adorable niece.
“With your princess crown,” Meredith assured her. Tim stood and kept Oliver cradled closely on his shoulder. He grinned at his wife and little girl.
For all of Tim’s annoying hypochondria, he was a good dad.
Lindley’s presents stood in a pile on the hearth. Everyone tried not to see them as the wind picked up outside.
“We’re leaving, as well,” Dan informed his parents. He offered Fionna his hand and then helped her with her coat.
Defeat lurked in the Governor’s eyes, but he saw them to the door.
Fionna gazed out the windows at the Christmas lights in the neighborhood as Dan steered the car through the first few snowflakes.
He drove slowly, careful of ice. When he noted her blinking rapidly and trying to discreetly wipe her eyes, he panicked.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart? I’m sorry about all of that. I don’t know why I keep going over there.”
She managed a smile and shook her head.
“It’s not your family, Dan, and even though they drive you crazy don’t ever take them for granted.”
Understanding fettered his chest. She rolled the pearl pendant between her fingers nervously. “I’m sorry, baby. I know how much you miss her.”
Sensing that she didn’t want to discuss her mother, Dan offered her his hand. The luminous green glow of his shield pulsed there for her. She smiled and laced her fingers through his. Her immediate draw sped his heart.
“Take everything you need, baby. It’s all for you.”
She continued her draws for several long minutes. It was astounding. His energy permeated her. He calmed her and restored her. In that moment, he allowed himself to believe that he could be everything she needed him to be.
The heady satisfaction drove away the plague of unease as he watched the snow gather in the medians. If he focused only on Fionna, he could push away the guilt over Lindley being in Felsink under his orders, in weather like this.
Perfection
“You know I don’t think I’ve ever made out with a Boy Scout before.” Fionna giggled, as Dan slowly drove home. The wind howled as the snow gathered on the windshield out of the wipers’ reach.
“Yeah, you have.” Dan laughed. “Will was in my pack.”
She grinned and then gazed up at him in the light of the streetlamps that reflected off of the swirling snow. “I love you.”
The whispered vow took Dan’s breath away.
“Me, too, sweetheart; so much.”
She was quiet for several minutes, gazing at the snowflakes whipping and whirling in the crisp, night air.
“Will you tell me about the gun? You were so excited when you opened it.”
Dan chuckled, only mildly embarrassed that she’d picked up on his joy. “It’s a Colt .38 Special. It was one of the only pistols used by police and Iodex for years.” He swallowed down the memories. “My grandpa was an Elite officer, as well, so it means a lot to me, I guess. He taught me to shoot.”
“I saw all of those marksmanship awards in your office. I didn’t know you were a sniper. He must’ve been some teacher.”
Dan scoffed. “Never a sniper; just, uh, qualified to be one.” Fionna was the one person he didn’t want to brag to. Something about the way she accepted him made all of his commendations and accolades unnecessary.
I’ve never shot a gun, or even held one,” her tone was introspective, with a note of concern.
“Ever?”
“They kind of scare me, I guess.”
“If you want to learn, I’ll teach you.” Fionna looked pained as she nodded her understanding. “I wasn’t finished, baby. Just listen. If you don’t ever want to touch one, that’s perfectly fine with me. I will keep you safe. I just want you to be the phenomenal woman that you are. I know a lot of people try to change you, honey. You don’t have to change one thing for me.”
A soft smile formed on her lips. Relief flooded her rhythms. He focused on the road ahead of him as the snow began falling in heavier clumps.
“Looks like some storm,” he felt a deep pang of regret permeate his heart. Fionna immediately picked up on his concern.
“Dan, I’ll ride out there with you to go get her.”
He shook his head as he summoned and raised the garage door. “No; it’s fine,” he lied. “Maybe tomorrow. She’s got to grow up. She’s going to end up dead if she keeps this up, and the drugs she’s buying are just getting harder and harder. It used to only be weed.”
“If you change your mind, we can go.”
Dan nodded. He didn’t want to think about Lindley any more. He didn’t want to think about his mother, or the Richmonds, or anything at all except for her. The inflicted wounds from the past few days were chafed and raw. Dan longed to hold her in his arms and to erase everything that had come between them. He sought to rectify every insecurity he could feel plaguing her soul.
Meeting her at the door, he pulled her into him and kissed her heatedly. He was strung so tightly that he had to force himself to soften the demanding kiss. He needed to work slowly, paying careful attention to every lesion on her soul. She needed thorough attention to heal the anguish that set a storm of worry in her eyes.
She pulled away with a slight shiver. Her need was fractured with heat, and desire, and a nervous tension that he had yet to alleviate.
Dan followed her into the now-warm, inviting home, all due to her presence. With a deep breath, he brought her scent into his lungs and clarity into his mind. Tonight he needed to worship her body, bring peace to her mind, and make certain that she knew that she held his heart forever.
He set their gifts on the kitchen counter and watched her shrug out of her coat. She turned back to him and swallowed down what appeared to be an insistent case of nerves. Uncertain if it was his mother, Bridgette, Lindley, desperately missing her own mother, her island, or her grandmother that had made her so uneasy, he reached for her hands and drew her against his chest. He wrapped his massive arms around her and offered her sanctuary from the world.
He was never going anywhere. He would take care of her always, and he would show with his body what he couldn’t seem to vocalize.
Trying to exercise authority over herself, though it took a great deal of effort, she pulled away and began. “So, the gift that you get to open first… isn’t nearly as special or as beautiful as what you gave me….” Her hand nervously smoothed a lock of her hair and then stopped at the necklace as a touchstone.
“Fi, stop,” he shook his head as he guided her back into his arms. Her mind battled her body. She’d had a plan, but the des
ire held more of her fight. The desire to be cradled and worshipped, to be tended to, gently this time, to be shown the endless bounds of his love, tensed in her fluctuating rhythms.
“But I was gonna…” she pointed to the stairs. She didn’t have the energy to put on the show she’d planned. The evening had drained her, and what she needed was to be filled with his reassurances, his love, and his energy.
“Yeah, baby, I know,” he cradled her face in his powerful right hand. Tenderly, he brushed his thumb along her cheekbone and watched her long eyelashes flutter from his caress. “You were gonna go put on something so damn skimpy and sexy I’d be done before I got in the room. You were gonna put on show, all for me; make me hard as a damn railroad spike, lose all sense of control, and take you fast and furiously, because I can’t ever seem to maintain any self-discipline when it comes to you.”
She grinned at that admission, but the fatigue lingered in her eyes.
“You’re an amazing woman, Fionna, but that’s not what you need right now, and it’s not what I want. I want to take care of you, baby. I want you under me, in my arms, safe, and warm. I want to spend hours making certain you know what you mean to me. I want you naked, unadorned. I love you in lingerie, baby, but tonight I just want you. I want us, together, slow, and constant. I want to stare into the most beautiful eyes in the entire world. I want to look into your soul. That’s what I want to see in you tonight. I want to bring you over and over again; just me and you, nothing else.”
Her body shivered from his words. A small nod showed her acceptance to his plans. He lifted her into his arms and felt her body relax against him.
“That’s it, baby doll. Just let me take care of you.”
He carried her up the stairs, stood her beside their bed, and kissed her again. Trying to leash his lust for her was no small task. He ordered himself to slow it down. Softer. He traced her bottom lip with his tongue as his hands moved to the lower hem of her sweater.
Desperate to touch some piece of her silky skin, he slipped his right hand under her sweater. He hesitated at her bra strap but moved his hand to her left shoulder blade, keeping her in his substantial embrace.
