“I paid a bunch of people from the front of the museum to here, and those guys were not easy to bribe. It started with twenties, but I think I gave that last chick a few hundred.”
“Liar. Come here! You look great. Let me get a hug!” Hanna giggled and rose from her desk, coming around to hug me familiarly like a dear, old friend (and nothing more). She punched my shoulder playfully and grabbed a cardigan off a hook on the back of her office door. “You happen to have good timing,” she said.
“I timed it. Did I get it right? Is it about your lunchtime?”
“Lucky guess, and yes. Want to walk with me to the cafeteria?”
“How about you let me treat you to something a little better than cafeteria food. You want to take an extra hour off?”
She eyed me suspiciously but nodded, leading me out of the building and around to the parking lot, where her very memorable Rolls-Royce Wraith was parked.
“Not a dent or scratch on it. I’m impressed,” I joked.
“Ha! What are you implying? I can drive!”
“Why don’t you let me? For old time’s sake.” I smiled and held out my hand for the keys, which she dropped into my palm with a smirk, and ambled over to the passenger side. I climbed into the car I had driven the first night we had met, when I had taken her to a honky-tonk bar, got her drunk, and took her home. That night she had propositioned me, and I had done the honorable thing and turned her down.
I snuck a peek at the woman sitting next to me. She was a far cry from the girl I had met. She looked self-assured, poised, and in control of herself. She looked like she knew what she wanted out of life and where she was going, not like she was playing by someone else’s playbook.
“Last time I was out here, I ate at this cute bistro. I think it’s around nearby.”
“Is it Elliot’s?”
“That’s the one! How’d you know?”
“I know your taste in food. Make a left up there and hang a right.”
“Thanks, babe. Never would’ve found it. I was thinking it was a right and a right.”
A self-deprecating smile flashed across her lips, and I watched her study me out of the corner of my eye. I knew she had a million questions to ask, and I would answer them when I got the chance, but I just wanted to ride with her until it started to feel like I hadn’t flown all those miles for nothing. I wanted to sit next to her in the silence and pretend like she had hopped up from her desk back at the museum, like she had flown into my arms and clung around my neck, kissing my face like she was thrilled to see me. Because if I focused on the polite hug and the easy banter, the way she was treating me like she was pleasantly surprised to see me but not overjoyed, I might lose my nerve.
We pulled up the restaurant and I parallel parked, and into the bistro I led the woman who had plagued my dreams and captivated every waking thought that wasn’t tangled or twisted around work and my myriad problems. We sat at a table near the window and ordered something I couldn’t pronounce. Hanna rested her elbow on the table and her face on her hand, and stared at me.
“So, what brings you here?”
“I came to see you.”
“Why is that?” she asked. “I thought I made it clear. I don’t want to see you.”
“You do. ’Cause if you didn’t, you would’ve told me to leave.”
“I’m a polite person, Dane. Please don’t take my kindness for weakness.”
I ducked my head and took a bite of my sandwich. She stared at me another second and finally reached down for a fry. Her eyebrow arched over her hazel eyes at my silence. She said, “Get it all out. Say what you have to say so I can say what I have to say.” She crossed her arms.
I leaned across the table. “Don’t make it seem like I’m wasting my breath,” I replied.
“You are. You know these things.”
“Don’t.”
“Dane, say what you have to say!” She pushed her food away and forced her fingers through her hair, eyes darting sideways as if she were trying to keep her cool. I reached across the table and touched her hand.
“Babe. I didn’t come here to give you a hard time. I just wanted to tell you that I miss you and I want you back. I want you to come back to New York and give me a chance to make right the things I did wrong. You know, Hanna, better than anyone. You know me and who I am. You can separate the chaff from the grain and determine within yourself what parts of our former relationship were real and which parts might not have been. I’m asking you to do that for me, so that you can see that I’m putting it all on the line here. I’m putting it all out in the open. When I told you that I loved you, that was a milestone for me.”
“I applaud the fact that you’ve learned what love means.”
“Are you busting my balls just to bust my balls? Do you seriously not want to be with me?” I held up my hands. “Tell me that, and I will personally exit the fuck entirely out of your life and never bother you again. But if you can’t tell me that—“I pointed to her. “If you can’t tell me that, then don’t give me the rehearsed speech about how you made a decision not to be with me and yada yada yada. That’s bullshit, and you know it. We belong with each other, Hanna.”
She stared, dumbstruck. Her eyes were wide and her mouth open. I looked around and realized there were people in the bistro giving us their full attention. I dropped my head in embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “I didn’t mean to go off on you, but for once in our relationship can we please—can we both be honest to God real with each other?”
“I can be real with you,” she whispered. “I love you, Dane. I don’t know what to do without you, but I don’t know what to do with you either.”
“You can come back to New York with me and we can figure that part out,” I said. “You like this job? You want to be here?”
“I’m comfortable here,” she said with a shrug. “I’m content here.”
“Are you happy here?”
“Dane…why the fuck do you have to be so damn complicated?” She chuckled, covered her smile with the back of her hand, shook her head. “You expect me to give up this safe bet for a maybe? You want me to leave my job, my apartment. I’ve been here for nearly two months. I’m just now settling in. Your suggestion is that I leave all this behind and follow you on a maybe? Maybe we’ll be good together?”
“No, that’s not a maybe,” I whispered. “The one thing I’m sure of more than anything in this whole world is that you and I—we’ll be good together.”
CHAPTER 8
The apartment where Hanna was staying was a studio, quaint and small, in an attractive building in an affluent neighborhood. She stayed on the first floor, and her front window overlooked a striking view of the lush, green park across the street. She pointed out the window as we walked up to the front door of the lobby, where the doorman greeted us with a pleasant smile.
“You like it here?” I asked.
Hanna smiled shyly. She led me to her front door, pulled out her keys. “It’s going to take some getting used to, going back to live with Aunt Ettie.”
“You don’t have to.” I stilled her hand, slid my fingers around her wrist. I pulled her away from the door, not caring that we were standing in the middle of the hall. I grabbed her face and gingerly kissed her lips the way I had wanted to do from the moment I had seen her. Her mouth was sweet and spicy like anise, and her body was the pillowy softness I remembered. I pressed her to the doorframe, kisses shifting from her mouth to the side of her face, to her ear. “I want you to move in with me,” I whispered, nibbling her earlobe.
Hanna gasped, in pleasure or surprise or both. She put a hand to my chest and pushed me back. “What?”
“Move in with me. If you don’t like the penthouse or don’t like the manor, we can shop for another together. I need you with me. There are so many things going on in my life…I wish I could explain it all, but it’s all so convoluted in my head. I just—Hanna, I’m serious about you.”
She turned away from me a
nd opened the door. “Welcome to my, uh…my former place.” She grinned at me girlishly, biting her bottom lip. She gestured to the room, and I stepped inside and glanced around. It was all Hanna’s style. The walls were honey golden, and the sunlight streaming through the picture window made the room seem to glow. Her cast iron bed looked bohemian, piled high with many-patterned blankets and pillows. Plush, colorful rugs covered the hardwood floor, and the rest of the décor was a hodgepodge of eccentric furniture pieces.
Her television rested on an antique sewing table, the Singer iron flipped upside down and hanging underneath. Instead of a sofa, she had a blue and orange striped loveseat and two accent chairs that didn’t match, one blue and floral-printed and the other hot orange. A leather ottoman was in the center.
A chandelier hung over a mismatched dining room set, a table with four multicolored chairs. Every available surface was covered with books or flower vases. It was absolutely charming.
“You’ve really made yourself at home.”
“Home is where the heart is,” she said.
She tugged on my tie and I stepped closer. The door locked behind us blocked out the rest of the world and elevated us to a paradise others weren’t allowed to see. The look in her eyes promised sweet ripeness between her legs. I wanted to taste. I had waited over a month, given her space and time to herself, but the wait was over. She pulled me to the loveseat and fell back onto the cushions as I kneeled down on the floor, pulling her to the edge.
Her body was languid, drowsy. She had worked all morning, quit the job after lunch. That was tiresome stuff. My lips curled upward as I grabbed her sensible black shoes and peeled them off her feet, running my hand up her hosiery to rest at her knees. I inhaled, appreciating the rose and vanilla smell of her perfume. Eyes closed, I pretended like nothing wrong had ever happened between us. I wanted a clean slate with Hanna, just like I had requested with Sissy. In the case of my lover and me, I was the one who had done her wrong. Therefore, it was more important than ever.
“Clean slate,” I mumbled. I opened my eyes and her hazel orbs met mine. She leaned forward to kiss me, but I pushed her back. “I have some things I need to erase from your memory, darling.”
I eased down her stockings and pulled off her panties, laid her back comfortably on the love seat, slipped up between her legs. My face moved to her delectable pussy, and her ginger pubic curls tickled against my nose as I took the first taste. She whispered my name, hips moving restlessly upward. I slid hands beneath her bottom and squeezed. Her legs flowed open. Her petals parted for my questing tongue, and I stroked her inner walls with the tip, knowing there was no need to rush.
Feeling her inner thighs around my face, her ass tightening in my grasp, I groaned and pressed my mouth against her petals. While flicking and licking her clit, I heard her high-pitched assent. She cried yes, and she writhed. She propped her feet on my shoulders and strained forward for more, and I licked around in circles, around in circles until she gasped and moaned helplessly. The dripping tip of my tongue made the nub of flesh slick with moisture. I closed my lips and sucked. Her back arched up off the loveseat and she slid further down.
“Wait,” she moaned.
Pulling away from me, she seductively swayed her hips as she pulled off her skirt, and then she unbuttoned her blouse. I chuckled and sat back on the floor. “What are you doing?”
She wiggled and maneuvered, body rolling sensually. “I’m dancing for you.”
“Hmmm, I must admit, I’ve seen many a stripper, but never a striptease that turned me on quite like yours,” I said, laughing in pleasure. I loosened my tie and unbuttoned the top few buttons of my shirt, and I crawled over to the beautiful naked woman, pausing when my face met her dancing thighs. She reached down and grabbed my chin, drawing my gaze upward. Mouth open, I sucked at her mons playfully, and she giggled, pushing me away.
“Naughty boy,” she murmured sexily.
Chuckling, I repositioned myself on the floor and pulled her down to ride my face. She came like a colt learning how to walk on wobbly legs, and she settled down above me, bringing the perfection of her pussy back to my hungry lips. I quenched my thirst with the dewy moisture, lips moving side to side to seek more. I moaned in arousal as she started to turn away from me, turn around on top of me to give as good as she was receiving. Her nimble fingers undressed me of pants as she smoothly pushed them down my legs. I moaned loudly.
She freed my cock from my boxers and held the heavy, tumescent rod in her hands. Her bottom was in the air and her pussy was over my face, inviting me to taste. And I knew what she was about to do, which turned me on even more, making my staff tremble in her hands as she knelt forward and lowered herself. I lifted my mouth to her clit and sucked…just as she closed her lips around the head of my cock and sucked.
The both of us broke away, gasping in ecstasy. Hanna giggled, putting her mouth back to me. “One at a time,” she moaned against my skin.
I shook my head. “That defeats the purpose of a sixty-nine,” I said.
Slipping two fingers into her pussy, I stroked her, reveling in the feel of her mouth going up and down my hardness. My pelvis moved in tandem. My body strained forward to fill her mouth and feel the velvety touch of her tongue. Groaning and unable to resist, I started licking as I touched her and she sucked me. It was like a seesaw of ecstasy, she gave, and I returned, the volley of pleasure building to passionate pitch.
We collided and slid against each other feverishly on the floor, the textures of the rugs beneath my back adding to the sensations. I was wrapped up in desire that couldn’t be banked. With each tug of her lips, my dick threatened to spill. I growled, easing her away from me. She rolled over onto her back, and reached for me with eager hands. She tore at my shirt, and I shrugged it from my shoulders, anxiously wanting to move between her legs, and our breathless lips connected as I leaned back down.
Finally, we were skin to skin, naked, our bodies slick with perspiration from our exertions, and her musky, womanly scent appealed to the beast of my desire. I wanted to plunder and plow, to ravage. There was no softness when we came back together.
I thrust open her legs and rammed into her receptive sheath, grimacing in ecstasy at the shocking wet heat that closed around me. Gasping her name, I stroked inside, pulled out. My body rose and fell relentlessly, but she was as eager to have me as I was to give, and she locked her heels behind my thighs to rise against me. Harder, harder, I pounded. I wanted to find us on the other side, unscathed. I wanted to see us whole and untarnished by the things that had to hurt us.
Crying out, I planted my nose at her neck and whispered words of love that had been held in check by years of thinking I was above such emotions. Her breasts filled my hands. Her hands clutched my back. My pelvis pounded against hers.
“Oh, Hanna! Fuck!”
She commanded me to continue, and though the seed filled my loins, ready to be sown, I held back. Not yet. With gritted teeth, I marveled in how good it felt to stretch her body to my shaft, her pussy curving possessively around my dick. Her nails dug into my shoulder blades like sharp crescents, and she scraped downward, grabbing my ass to urge me on.
She quivered and trembled, her sultry moans filling the room. Her breathless pleas to keep going lit fire in my veins. I angled myself to give her what she needed. Her legs moved up my hips, up to my shoulders. I rose up and grabbed her by the waist so I could guide our passionate sprint to culmination, and suddenly the frenzy deescalated to slow, deep plunges that made her jerk and whine with pleasure.
I dragged my body out, pushed back in, staring down at her beautiful face as her red hair fanned out around her. She looked like home. She looked like the only place I wanted to be.
I whispered her name. I couldn’t hold back.
I pulled out of her body and lurched forward to rain down hotly upon her stomach. As I jerked off and shook with spasms of ecstasy, she touched herself and writhed in the grip of her own climax. When she started to come,
she grabbed me by the neck and pulled me to her. She wrapped her legs around me and throbbed against my body as she skated higher and higher with abandonment. Crying out my name, I held her as she came for me.
We weren’t done. We weren’t even close to finished. But I settled on the floor behind her and held her. I couldn’t move.
“How long do we have before you’re ready to leave?” she asked.
“I can stay for a week in DC, baby. After that…I want you where you belong.”
CHAPTER 9
“I have to take you to meet the reformed Sissy Griess.”
“Are you sure?” Hanna asked, fastening pearls around her neck.
“It’s time.”
She stood in front of the full-length mirror hanging from the back of my closet door, and she looked resplendent in a shimmering gold dress that sparked with light each time she turned. It fell to her ankles above gold sandals, and pearls graced her neck, wrist, and earlobe. Dinner would pale in comparison to my main course.
I pulled Hanna into my arms and sighed rapturously.
We were in New York. The weeklong furlough in DC had been a romantic escape highlighted by candlelit dinners and visiting tourist attractions, but we were back in the city of grit and grime I called home. She had been at my penthouse for merely a day, and I was already ready to get out of the house. I had the urge to get out and see the world with her at my side the way she was supposed to be, not under false pretenses. In the effort to reinvent myself, the hardest task would be undoing the façade and painting a clearer picture of who I really was.
Thus, we were going to dinner, although I had mixed feelings about the other dinner guests. I grabbed Hanna’s hand and strolled out of my apartment, to the elevators. Squeezing her warm fingers, I smiled at her encouragingly.
“I think you’ll be surprised by my mother when you meet her this time. She’s nothing like the woman from the yacht.”
“I believe you. When you told me you had moved her into your apartment complex, I was surprised. But Dane, honestly…do you think it’s wise that you invited your father to join us? I mean, do you really want me there? I have a feeling, from what you told me about their beginnings together, things could get a little dramatic.”
Dane - Book 3: A Foster Family Saga Page 7
