Sweetest Obsessions - Anthology

by Anthony, Jane

  “I was hoping for a repeat of the night this whole thing started, only instead of me walking away, I’d come in.”

  Dani’s eyes got wide before she said, “What are we waiting for then?”

  “We haven’t even danced yet?”

  Dani finished her drink and put the glass on the table. “Not sure about you, but I’d rather dance in private, if you know what I mean.”

  “Would you believe me if I said I wasn’t sure how to dance?” he asked the same question he had from that night so long ago.

  “Oh, Mr. Larson, you, my good sir, know how to dance, and I’ll enjoy dancing with you all night long.”

  Swallowing hard, Nate closed his eyes and counted to ten, hoping it’d help with the situation below. When he had himself under control, he opened them said, “I’ll go pay the tab.”

  He swore he heard Dani laughing as he walked away.

  The whole walk home Dani and Nate laughed. They laughed about anything and everything. It was the lightest their moods had been in a long time, and he was certain Dani felt the same way. It seemed like the worst was behind them. Even though they’d have their ups and downs, they’d overcome them all.

  “Do you remember that time right after Austin joined you guys, and you were on tour. It was his second I think,” Dani said as they walked hand in hand down the road. “He called me one night upset over Shelby. We talked for a bit, and he told me he hoped I’d find a guy someday who if they left me, my world would end. At the time I was mad because he was being a dick.”

  Nate squeezed her hand. “Because of Chris?”

  “No, I was pissed because while I missed Chris, my life continued without him. I didn’t feel like my world was ending. Sure I wished he was around, but I knew I would make it. It wasn’t anything like what Austin was going through with Shelby. I got over it, and that upset me. How could I feel that way about a guy who gave me one of the greatest gifts?”

  “Dani, you were young.”

  “That doesn’t work with me considering Austin and Shelby got together so young.”

  “They’re freaks of nature,” he told her with a smile.

  “This is true.”

  Nate wasn’t sure why Dani was taking this walk down memory lane, so he continued to walk in silence.

  Finally she spoke again. “I wanted to tell you all that because you’re that. If you were to leave me, my world would stop.”

  Nate sucked in a breath. This woman gutted him. She had trouble saying I love you, but this was so much better than that. “My world would end too.”

  Walking up on the porch, Dani grinned. “Well, here we are.”

  “I’m coming in tonight,” he told her.

  “Hell yes you are.”

  Dani opened the door and gasped when she looked in the room and took it in, lit up with electric candles and the soft music playing.

  “What? How?”

  “I told you, you shouldn’t leave your doors open. Strange people are bound to waltz in like they own the place.”

  Dani smacked him on the chest. “How’d you do this? I was here before I came to the bar, and it wasn’t like this.”

  “I had help,” Nate told her.

  “Help? Who?”

  “Your brother.”

  “Reagan? I didn’t figure he’d be good at all this.”

  “No, the other brother.”

  “Austin?”

  “You have more than two brothers?”

  Dani gave him a look.

  “Yeah, it was Austin. Who knew he was so romantic?”

  Nate pulled her into the middle of the room. Once they were there, he took a deep breath. It was now or never. The ring had been like a rock in his pocket all night.

  Sinking to one knee, he looked up at Dani. “You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. You have taken the world by storm, and I’m so honored you picked me. I’ve wanted to ask you to marry me so many times since you stole my thunder and asked me yourself, but then we got thrown a couple of curve balls. Now with it all behind us, here I am, on my knee, asking you to share your life with me. Let me be the man who stands by your side. I want to be your partner and friend. I think about us spending our lives together, and I see us raising Reece and any other kids we have even if it gets me punched in the face by your brother. What do you say? Will you marry me?”

  Falling to her knees in front of him, Dani let the tears fall unchecked down her face. “Yes, yes to all that.”

  “Will you let me take care of you?”

  “I might even let you take care of me,” she told him with a smile.

  Pulling the ring box from his pocket, Nate opened it, and plucked the ring from inside. When Dani placed her hand in his, he looked in her eyes and then slid the ring on her finger.

  Dani gasped, and Nate was sure he’d messed up in opting for the smaller ring. “If you don’t like it, we can get something else.”

  “Shut your dirty mouth. We will not. It’s perfect.”

  “You really like it?”

  Dani bit her lip and studied it. “No, I don’t like it. I love it, and I love you.”

  Nate pulled her into his arms, both still on their knees. “I love you too.”

  “Someone is getting lucky tonight,” she said into his neck.

  He already had, but he liked the way she thought.

  18

  One member of Innominate has been strangely quiet. Wil Harris is usually on social media every day talking with fans and posting about his life. In the past month, there hasn’t been much out of him. Fans are wondering what is going on. You’ve heard of Where’s Waldo? We want to know, Where’s Wil?

  * * *

  Dani looked down at the ring on her finger and tried to remember if this was how she thought she’d feel after someone asked her to marry them. Engaged. Sure she’d technically asked Nate to marry her, but both of them knew it wasn’t the real proposal. To be honest, Dani wondered if it was coming at all. She had thought he’d have done something pretty quick after they got back, but he never did. What he said about everything they had been going through made sense.

  “Are you sure you like the ring?” Nate asked as he came from the bathroom.

  Shocked that he had come into the room, Dani looked up and smiled. “Yes, I love it. I promise. It’s just that I’m still in shock. I had no idea you were going to propose tonight.”

  Sitting beside her on the bed, Nate grabbed her hand. “I wanted to propose to you a long time ago. I had hoped to in Chicago, and well, that didn’t work out how I’d planned. This whole thing hasn’t gone how I planned.”

  “Does anything ever goes as planned?” she asked as she moved to stand in front of him, resting her arms on his bare shoulders.

  “Oh, I sure hope they do right now.”

  Dani tilted her head to the side. “Why’s that?”

  “Because I’m sure you and I are both aware that there’s no child in the house, and we can do whatever we want.”

  “Those plans will never change,” she told him as she pulled the shirt from her body. Standing before Nate, she got an eyeful of the unmistakable bulge starting to form.

  “Are you ever disappointed that you weren’t my first too?” she asked him as she pushed her pants from her hips and let them fall.

  “No,” he answered. “We wouldn’t have Reece if things were different. And I don’t care that I’m not your first because I’ll be your last.”

  Nate picked her up by the hips and Dani wrapped her legs around his waist as their lips found each other. Nate turned them and laid her gently on the bed coming down on top of her. His lips moved from her mouth and over her jaw to her ear.

  “I love you so damn much.”

  “Yes,” she moaned.

  Dani’s fingernails dug into his back as she held on, embracing the feelings Nate brought out in her. Her hips ground against his, trying to get friction where she wanted it most, but she needed more.

  Nate reached between them, removing the
towel, and fell right back on top of her, his cock pushing against her over her underwear. As he rocked his hips over hers while they kissed frantically, Dani wondered if she would die from needing him.

  Moving a hand down, she circled his shaft and began to stroke.

  “You don’t know what you do to me,” he panted.

  “I think I know what I do to you,” she said as she doubled her efforts.

  Standing up, Nate removed first her bra and then her underwear, and looked down at her for so long she became self-conscious.

  “I could look at you all day,” he said.

  “I’d rather we did other things.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What’d you have in mind?”

  Dani smiled up at him. “Maybe we could play mommies and daddies.”

  Nate laughed. “Just don’t tell your brother, or I’ll end up with a black eye.”

  “Like he has any room to talk. Now come here.”

  Nate came down on her again and in a single thrust entered her. Dani moaned her pleasure as he took them higher and higher.

  “It’s always… perfect,” he said as he continued moving.

  Dani wrapped her legs around his and pushed up, meeting him thrust for thrust as they both drove themselves toward their end. Reaching between them, Nate stroked her until she was right there, ready to explode.

  “Let go,” he urged. “Let me feel you.”

  It went against everything for Dani to let go, but hearing Nate urging her on and feeling him take her there pushed her over the edge.

  “So good,” he said as he pushed into her one more time and stilled inside her. As he lay on top of her, Dani heard him breathing hard, and felt his heart beating.

  “I need to move,” Nate told her as he started to roll off her.

  Dani wrapped her arms around him. “No, stay,” she urged.

  “Aren’t I crushing you?”

  He wasn’t even putting all his weight on her. Wrapping an arm around his neck, Dani pulled him down, their lips crashing together. It was a slow kiss filled with promise and hope—all the things that Dani had not dared dream for before.

  “Thank you,” she murmured against his lips.

  “Did you just thank me for sex?” he asked with a smile.

  Laughing, Dani said, “No, well, sure. But that’s not what I was talking about this time. Thank you for not giving up on me. I know it would have been easy when I kept pushing you away, but you didn’t go anywhere. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  “You won’t have to find out.”

  Much later as they were lying in bed together, Dani was still thinking about what Nate had told her. She never would have believed those words until Nate. He gave her a life that was worth living—a life full of love and laughter. With Nate in her life there was hope that her daughter would see how a man should treat a woman and that she would have a father figure in her life.

  As she drifted off to sleep, she did so knowing that for the first time since she became a teen mom, she would finally get her happy ending.

  Nate woke early the next morning and watched as Dani slept. It was corny as hell, but everything in the world was falling into place. He knew the world would crash in on them sometime during the day, but he was going to lie here next to his fiancée for as long as he could.

  “How long have you been lying there like a creeper?” Dani asked, her voice still groggy from sleep.

  “Long enough. Want me to make you breakfast?”

  “If by breakfast you mean coffee, then yes. I’d love for you to make me breakfast.”

  Nate kissed her forehead and headed to make her a big cup of coffee. While he was waiting, he picked up a few things from the night before and found his phone on the table in the living room. Looking down he noticed Wil had been trying to get ahold of him.

  Wil: Yo!

  Wil: You busy?

  Wil: Must be busy.

  Wil: Are you really busy or just ignoring me?

  Wil: What if I told you there was an emergency?

  Wil: Geeze an hour and you’re still not checking to see if there really IS an emergency?

  Wil: There’s not, btw. At least not really.

  Nate looked at when the last message was sent. It had come in at four in the morning. He had been neglecting his friendship with Wil, and it bothered him. Nate was sure Wil understood because of everything going on, but it didn’t excuse the fact he wasn’t sure what was going on in his life, and by the sounds of it, it was big.

  Nate: Hey, sorry, didn’t have my phone on me last night. Everything okay?

  Nate hadn’t expected a reply, but one came almost immediately.

  Wil: I messed up.

  Nate: On a scale of one to I need bail money, how bad are we talking?

  Wil: *eyeroll* You really think I’d get put in jail? As if. Besides, we both know I’m too pretty to get put in jail. I wouldn’t last an hour. Nope, I gotta keep myself out so I don’t become someone’s bitch.

  Nate: Then what are we talking about?

  Wil: It’s a girl. I messed up with a girl.

  Nate: Girl?

  And now he felt even worse. He had been so wrapped up in his own stuff that he didn’t realize his friend was still struggling.

  Wil: Yeah, you know, THE girl.

  Nate: OH! The girl that doesn’t realize she’s talking to you?

  Wil: Yeah, well, there’s more to the story. It’s...complicated. This whole thing’s a mess.

  Nate: I told you it would come back to bite you.

  Wil: I don’t recall that.

  Nate: That’s because you never listen.

  Wil: Bullshit. Enough about my life, where the hell have you been?

  Nate: I’ve hit a nerve because you’re picking on me.

  Wil: I am.

  Nate: Guess I’ll ask Austin to be my best man if you won’t cut it out.

  Wil: Shut your dirty mouth, you will not!

  Nate: I won’t.

  Wil: So, are you going to ask?

  Nate: ??

  Wil: I’m a delicate man. You have to say the words.

  Nate: Delicate my ass.

  Wil: Okay so maybe more like… no, I got nothing. I just want you to stroke my ego.

  Nate: That’s what she said.

  Wil: HE CAN BE TAUGHT! OMG! Look at you cracking jokes.

  Nate: Hey, Wil?

  Wil: Yes, Nate?

  Nate: I gotta go. Coffee’s finished and my fiancée is waiting.

  Wil: Wait! You were going to ask me something!

  Nate: I’ll talk with you soon.

  Wil: No! Ask!

  Nate: Bye!

  Wil: We aren’t finished yet.

  Wil: Nate?

  Wil: NATE!

  Wil: I guess we’re finished.

  Wil: But I will get you to ask me. :p

  19

  Facebook Status — Dani King: I said yes!

  “You’re beautiful,” Austin said as he came into the room. Dani looked down at the dress she was wearing. There was no way this would have happened without her brother.

  As a girl she’d always imagined what her wedding day would be like. Her dad would be there, telling her how proud he was and making her feel like the greatest daughter ever. But Roger King was nowhere to be found, and he wouldn’t be attending Dani’s wedding either. In fact, there weren’t many people who would.

  When Dani and Nate announced to their family and friends they were getting married, things kind of took off from there. Dani was certain there would be a long engagement, but two weeks after Nate put a ring on it, here they were. She had suggested the court house or Vegas. Austin vetoed those ideas and told her he would take care of it.

  That’s how they all ended up on in the Caribbean. You wouldn’t know it from the past several years, but Dani was one of those girls who had planned out her wedding. She had the box of stuff and even had a book she put together. When the bridal magazines showed up, n
o one questioned her. They just let her do her thing.

  Not only had her mom saved all that, but Austin had found them. A couple of themes had always worked their way through on her dream wedding pages. Blue water, lots of flowers, and the beach. Growing up in Nebraska, her dream wedding would always be just a dream. That was until her brother made it happen.

  “I can’t believe you did all this for me,” she told him. “I would have been happy at home, but this is more than I ever imagined.”

  Austin pulled her into a hug. “I wanted to give you your dream. For so long I ran from the family. I was selfish. You’re the most giving person I know. If anyone deserves their dream, it’s you.”

  “Austin King, if you make me cry off my makeup, I’ll throat punch you.”

  “There’s the sister we all know and love.” Sobering up, Austin looked at her with a somber look and said, “Are you sure you want to do this? Just say the word and we’ll ditch this place. I don’t care how much money it cost or that I’m going to have to charter a plane. None of that matters. All I want is for you to be happy. If this won’t make you happy, you just have to tell me and we’ll run away. Right now.”

  Hearing her brother say that brought more tears to her eyes. She was so going to punch him now. “No, I don’t want to leave. That man out there makes me happy. He’s the best thing that’s happened to me. I love you for offering, but I just want to marry Nate today.”

  “Okay.” He nodded.

  As they were finishing up in the room, Reagan came in. Without a word, he crossed the room to Dani and gave her a big hug.

  “Everyone wants to get throat punched today.”

  “Huh?”

  Austin laughed. “She doesn’t mean it, bro.”

  “We’re never this huggie. Why now?”

  Reagan put an arm around her and pulled her close. “It’s not every day your big sis gets married.”

  Dani was certain that wasn’t all. Reagan had been so upset when Austin surprised them all one night showing up and getting married. He hadn’t even told them he was doing it. The boys had been close growing up, and when Austin left him out of his wedding plans, it really hurt Reagan’s feelings. When Austin took over Dani’s wedding, he made sure Reagan was by his side, and Dani did too.