by Jillian Neal
“Ms. Styler is currently still using our sheets, and I intend to go back and join her. Perhaps you could come back later.” Dan commanded. Who did these people think they were?
The butler looked concerned.
“Mr. Nguyen has several activities planned for you today. She should get up.”
Before Dan could utter any of the phrases that pulsed acridly through his mind, Rainer slapped him on the shoulder consolingly.
“It’s barely seven o’clock, and Ms. Haydenshire is also still asleep. So, we’ll let them be. We’ll take the breakfast, which looks delicious, thank you. Then we’ll certainly be ready whenever Logan and Adeline are,” he mimicked the tone of voice that Dan used when he made a suggestion that was actually an order.
Dan smiled at him as the butler sighed and turned to leave.
“Very nice, Lawson,” Dan complimented.
“Hey, I’ve been paying attention,” Rainer teased as he set the large platter on the kitchen counter and moved back up the stairs. Dan followed him.
Fionna was exiting the bathroom when he returned.
“Was that Logan and Adeline? Is she ok?”
Dan gazed at her tenderly. Her love and caring for Adeline made his heart swell. He shook his head.
“No, it was yet another butler delivering breakfast, and informing us that perhaps we should get you up so he can change the sheets.”
Dan seated himself on the bed and then took Fionna’s hand and pulled her to him. “But I don’t want you to get up. I want to hold you up against me just like I was before we were so rudely interrupted,” the truthfulness of his vow perforated his tone.
Fionna beamed and immediately returned to bed.
Dan was woefully unable to take his eyes off of her gorgeous ass as she crawled in.
“Now, I’m cold and lonely,” she pulled her lush lips into a delicious pout.
“Can’t have that,” Dan husked as he joined her in the bed. He lay back on his side and scooted her closer. “Come here, baby. Let me keep you warm.”
“Dan,” she whispered, and he immediately felt her energy spin in nervous twists.
“What’s wrong, baby?”
“I did something kind of not nice, and I’m afraid you’ll be mad at me, or think I’m completely insane, which I probably am,” her confession had him trying to hide his chuckle.
“I don’t think you’re insane. Just tell me what you did. You’re so damn sweet it can’t be too bad. I assume by ‘kind of not nice’ that you don’t mean kind of illegal.”
Fionna giggled. Dan let the sound soothe his soul.
“No,” she shook her head and then got distracted momentarily. “But Garrett told me that, in the Non-Gifted Realm, it’s illegal to have oral sex or sex in general in Virginia if you’re not married. So, we might have to arrest each other.” She cracked herself up. Dan laughed at how cute she was.
“That so? Well, that’s good to know. If Officer Haydenshire really gets on my nerves, I’ll just arrest him, as I’m beyond certain that he’s been breaking those laws on a daily basis for, say, the last fifteen years or so.” He brought on another round of laughter from Fionna as she nodded her agreement.
Dan didn’t point out the fact that he certainly knew the laws on the books of both the Gifted and Non-Gifted Realms. Those particular laws existed so that arrests could be made and a person could be held on a fairly ridiculous charge while the police and Iodex looked for evidence on what they were really after.
“Tell me what’s got my girl so worried,” Dan guided her back to their original conversation.
“Promise you won’t be mad. I’ll get you more if you want me to.”
Whatever it was that she was going to get more of, it had devastation coursing through her veins.
The only thing Dan could come up with was that she must’ve spilled something on some of his clothes. He kissed her head sweetly.
“Honey, I’m not going to be mad. Just tell me.”
“Ok,” she forced herself to go on. Her body tensed and she coiled up into a tight ball. She hid her face, and Dan had to lean to hear her.
“Yesterday, while you were in the shower…” she began.
Dan set his shield over her. He tried to soothe her while wondering what on earth she might’ve ruined that had her reacting like this. She stopped talking abruptly.
“Yesterday, I was in the shower and you…?”
“And I kind of went crazy, and I don’t know what got into me,” she whimpered.
Dan had never seen her cheeks blaze crimson before that moment.
Now insanely curious, he tried to will patience. “Fi, honey, come on. It can’t be this bad.”
“I’m not a crazy, clingy, girlfriend, I swear; just please don’t freak.”
“Fionna, baby, I don’t mind your being clingy. I kind of like it, especially if you need me. Please just tell me,” Dan tried to force his tone off of the demanding plateau it had landed on.
“I threw away all of the condoms in your wallet,” she cringed. Her entire body braced for rejection. “I swear I didn’t look at anything else in there. I just pulled them out, nothing else. I’m so sorry,” she pled in absolute desperation.
Though he tried hard not to, Dan cracked up. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d laughed that hard, and his reaction shocked Fionna.
“Ok, so, now I’m an insane girlfriend, and you’re laughing at me.” Her face held a mixture of thorough embarrassment and bemused humor.
“Baby,” Dan choked back more laughter as he pulled her to him. “You’re not insane. You’re adorable, and I’m not upset at all. I’m really hoping I won’t need them any time soon.” He didn’t want to have that conversation just yet, so he moved on quickly. “And you’re welcome to go through my wallet any time you’d like, ok?”
She was drowning in a sea of confusion and insecurity. Dan’s laughter ended as soon as he felt the emotions flood through her. Maybe he needed to go on with at least some of the conversation he’d been piecing together in his mind since their flight to Sydney several days before.
“Fionna, just listen to me, and please really believe what I’m saying to you.”
She studied him and tried to manage her own emotions. Her rhythms tensed.
“I haven’t been in a serious relationship for a long, long time, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t understand the concept. I just didn’t want to have anything to do with them until I met you.” He cradled her face in his hands as she blinked back tears. He leaned and brushed a tender kiss on her forehead.
“I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this, Miss Styler, but things are moving kind of fast here. I just hadn’t gotten a chance to clean out my wallet, so you just took something off my to-do list for me.”
She grinned, but she stared down at the bed. She wouldn’t hold his gaze.
“Like I told you, I’m out of practice on some of the finer points of being a boyfriend, but the major concepts I have. I need you to know that I’m not going to hide things from you. If you are sure you want to keep this going at home, I would never cheat on you Fionna, ever.”
He brushed his thumb over her cheek and tried with all of his strength to read her mind at that moment. “I’m sorry I laughed, but your confession was adorable. You had me thinking for a minute that I was going to have to help you hide a body or something. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen something so cute, except maybe your informing me that the spider chased you.”
She giggled and rolled her eyes, but she quieted quickly. She was still studying him.
“What, baby?” He could see the doubt and the questions swirl in her beautiful sienna eyes.
“You won’t tell me why you got suspended, and there’re a lot of other things you just keep not telling me. I can feel it. You can’t lie to me,” the pain was evident in her tone.
Deep regret pierced through Dan. Of all the people who’d heard the story, he hadn’t told the one person who deserved the truth.
“Wel
l, I didn’t tell you about Germany because I was really trying to keep you from knowing just how much of a bastard I can be.”
“I kept telling myself that I could be better for you, and I know I keep saying that being with me will be complicated. You don’t really seem to respond. I don’t know what you’re thinking. That scares the shit out of me, because I’ve already fallen for you, and I just kind of wanted to have this one week to be together before we decide if we can make this work at home.”
“I don’t want you to be better for me, Dan. I want you to be you for me, and I can feel that you don’t want to talk about us yet. That’s why I don’t say anything. I keep trying to wait until you want to talk about it,” she shocked him yet again.
“And I don’t care what you did, or said or whatever, in Germany. I’m glad you did it. I think that everything happens for a reason and in its own time. If you hadn’t gotten in trouble, Governor Haydenshire wouldn’t have made you go to the Angels after-party, and I wouldn’t be sitting here in bed with you, naked,” she glanced down at her beautiful body. She was uncomfortable suddenly. She stood to find something to wear.
Dan caught her hands. “Please don’t get dressed yet,” he begged. “Please, I really do want to go back to bed with you. I just want to hold you, please.”
She settled back down beside him and waited patiently.
“I’ve always had a terrible temper,” he confessed with a regretful sigh. “After Amelia died, it only got worse.”
“Did it get worse, or did it just get direction?” The knowledge inside her question astounded him. She’d once again read him like a book. He nodded his admittance.
“When I tell you this story, just please promise you won’t be afraid of me, or think that I would ever hurt you or yell at you.” Terror filled his soul. This was why he didn’t want to tell her. Shame washed over him, and threatened to take him back to the drowning abyss that he’d barely existed in for the last decade.
How could he have used his hands to hurt people who didn’t deserve to be hurt, and then used them to make love with her? How could she ever accept him like that?
Fionna reached and grasped his arms.
“I’m not afraid of you, Dan. I don’t think I’ve ever felt safer in my whole life than when I’m wrapped up in your arms,” her words jerked his heart back to life.
The words formed on his tongue, but he couldn’t seem to make them reach his lips. Overwhelming love for her filled his entire being.
She smiled. Tears of joy pricked her eyes. She was holding his hands. She’d felt the love he couldn’t verbalize.
After allowing himself to draw from her, Dan swallowed.
“Wretchkinsides bribed the German Crown and the Governing board. He blackmailed them with photographs of the Crown and one of his many mistresses.”
Fionna shook her head in disgust. “What did he want?”
“His right-hand man, Candor Pendergrath, was up for parole. He wanted him released,” Dan shuddered involuntarily. “He helped Cascavel take Amelia,” he tried feebly to paint her the whole picture.
Fionna looked morose. She shook her head and blinked back tears.
“Anyway,” he made himself go on, “they released him, of course. And I let them know just what I thought of that. I cussed out the Crown and the board. I said some really vile, filthy things, and then I knocked out several court guards and a few members of the German Iodex before I fled the country. One of my best friends is the head of French Iodex, so I escaped to his house in Paris.” He stared at her, desperate to see how she was going to react.
“So, I hope that, first of all, you don’t want to break up with me now, and that if you decide to stick with me, that you don’t have a deep desire to, say, spend Christmas in Berlin. I’m fairly certain that I’ll never be allowed on German soil ever again,” he tried for a joke, though desperation filled his plea.
She chuckled, but concern was her predominant expression.
“Gosh, and Berlin is really where I had my heart set on going for this Christmas.”
Dan leaned and kissed her cheek. He needed to feel more of her.
“Governor Haydenshire made me call all of them and apologize,” he whined as Fionna wrinkled her nose adorably, “from his office, in front of him.” Dan felt the disgust he’d felt as he’d worked his way through the calls settle on him once again.
“Oh, Dan, that’s awful,” she shuddered.
“I guess I kind of deserved it.”
“Because it pissed you off that they set a kidnapping murderer free? I don’t think so,” Fionna defended his actions adamantly, and Dan was completely overwhelmed.
His heart beat disjointedly as he stared at the most beautiful angel in the world gazing up at him. She accepted him with all of his hideous, gaping flaws. She was sitting there telling him that it was going to be ok, because she was there now to pull him out of the cavernous pits of hell that had him ensnared.
“I, uh…” he tried. He fought with every fiber of his being. “Fionna, I…” he forced, but his mouth waged war against his mind.
She smiled at him sweetly as she crawled in his lap.
“Dan, I love you,” she whispered as he nodded.
“Me, too, so much,” he choked and blinked back tears.
“And I don’t think you did anything wrong. Like I said, I think everything happens for a reason. If you want to wait to talk about us at home, then I want to wait, too. I’m glad you got into trouble, because there is nowhere else on earth that I want to be other than right here, right now.”
To ice the cake of perfection she’s just created, she gave him a mischievous grin.
“Except, maybe underneath you while you feel me up,” she giggled and waggled her eyebrows.
With a delighted groan, Dan chuckled.
“If I weren’t such a tremendous coward, honey, I would’ve said it a million times just this morning,” he cradled her to him and turned her. He laid her back on the pillows and positioned himself over her as he slid his hands up her sides. He taunted her slightly. He wasn’t going to give her what she wanted just yet.
“So, why did the butler want to change the sheets? We’ve only slept here one night,” she quizzed off-handedly as she arched her back and pushed her breasts to his face. He gave her a hungry grin.
“He must know you like it dirty, honey.”
Her mouth fell open in mock surprise. Dan laughed.
“I do not.” That same mix of heat and embarrassment settled in her cheeks. He wasn’t letting her get away with her lie, however.
Dan leaned and swirled his tongue over her nipple. She gasped suddenly.
“Really,” he feigned heartbreak, “and here I was thinking you were perfect for me?”
She giggled as her blush became more pronounced.
“Ok, maybe I’m just a little bit dirty.”
“In all the best ways,” he winked at her as she beamed.
“But only for you.”
“Oh, it better only be for me, honey. Going back to my horrendous temper, I will kill any guy who tries to get you to be dirty for him.”
Fionna waggled her eyebrows as Dan let his hands slip to her breasts. He began to grope and ply them. He watched her nipples darken, pull taut, and pulsate for him. Her chest rose and fell in anticipation.
“Tell me what you want, sweetheart,” he commanded as she trembled. Fire lit in her eyes as she writhed underneath him.
“Make me wet,” she begged.
Dan growled as desire seared through his veins. It lit him on scorching fire that only she could put out.
“If I make you wet, baby, then I’m gonna make you take it hard and rough,” he informed her as her entire body shuddered in need. A loud moan echoed from the desperation and ardent desire between them.
“And I’m gonna mark you, honey, because you’re all mine, and I want everyone to know it.”
Her abdomen tensed, and she began begging for release. He slipped his fingers between her
folds. She didn’t need much. He knew; he could feel her rhythms as they craved him.
Dan leaned and pulled her left nipple into his mouth. He dragged his teeth over the puckered mound, and then moved up her chest. He halted at the delicate skin just under her collarbone. Dan sucked hard as she went wild.
“You swollen nice and wet for me now, baby doll? Because I’m about to take you for a ride.”
Fionna’s entire body rolled under his as she groaned out his name.
With that, Dan flipped to his back and continued his commands.
“Mount me,” he ordered as loud evulsive moans seared from her in desperate need. She straddled him as he separated her lips.
“I’m gonna fill you full, honey. You ready for me?” he warned as her head fell back in a heated pant, and liquid heat dripped over his length. He growled out his adamant approval.
“I want you to hold on tight, baby.”
Before he could thrust hard and penetrate her, a loud, invasive knock shook their bedroom door.
A loud string of expletives evulsed from Dan’s mouth as his eyes flashed in fury.
“Dan,” Fionna panicked. She tried to calm him down as she climbed off of him and threw on a robe. He pulled the basketball shorts back on. His acrimony made him lose the straining erection he’d just had.
“What!” he shouted in a boom of fury as he flung the door open.
“Dan, please don’t hit him,” Fionna begged as she pulled the robe up to her neck to cover the mark he’d left on her chest.
The same butler who had been informed, not a half-hour before, to go away, had returned and looked quite off-put. Fionna’s terror that the man might’ve seen the mark only added to Dan’s infuriated rage.
“What the hell do you want? I believe Officer Lawson told you to leave!”
Rainer was standing in the hallway. His jaw was clenched tightly, and his arms were folded over his chest. He looked just as furious and Dan.
“I knocked numerous times on the door downstairs, but no one answered,” the butler stated rather pompously.
“We were busy,” Rainer huffed furiously.
