by Fiona Cole
Finally, he hovered over my opening, his breath tickling my wet heat. “Since it’s your first time, I better make it memorable.”
“No problem the—” The first sweep of his tongue had my eyes rolling toward the back of my head. “Holy shit.”
Those were the last intelligible words to leave my mouth as Daniel did as he promised. He licked every single inch of me, inside and out. He sucked on my folds and played with my clit. He pushed me wide and fucked me, his thumb making tortuous circles around my bundle of nerves. I could feel the wetness tricking down, and I didn’t care.
My entire focus centered on Daniel’s tongue and the need to come. There was no room for anything else.
“Play with your tits, baby.”
Without hesitation, I did as told. I had no idea my nipples were so sensitive. I should’ve been ashamed of how much I liked the rough pinches and hard tugs, but nothing mattered right then. Daniel pushed his fingers into me and latched on to my clit, sucking hard, and that was it. Pleasure crashed over me, flinging me off a cliff, sending me into a free-fall I never wanted to come back from. I wanted to live in this feeling, this pleasure, this oblivion.
Instead of crashing back into my body, soft licks and strokes cradled me back to earth.
“Beautiful.”
His praise wrapped me in the comfort I’d come to associate just with him.
He sat back and wiped at the moisture coating his mouth and chin. I should’ve been ashamed, but my body still vibrated with aftershocks, distracting me too much to feel any embarrassment.
His cock tented his pants, and when he moved, he winced. I wasn’t ready for this experience to be over. Sitting up, I reached for him.
“Can I…?”
He held my hand before I could reach him, and brought it to his lips, kissing each knuckle, and groaned, “You’re killing me. The thought of those lips around me is enough to make a man insane. But tonight is about you.”
“Will you at least…get off again?”
He huffed a laugh. “I guess if I have to,” he said, making me laugh with him. “Lay back for me, baby.”
He swallowed and unfastened his pants. I liked the idea of him watching me to get off. I left my breasts out, and my thighs spread. I’d never felt sexier than I did in that moment with Daniel kneeling between my legs, gripping his hard length, and watching me to get off.
He dragged his palm across my wet pussy, making me jerk when he grazed my sensitive clit. Then, using my cum, he jerked himself off, barely taking his eyes from mine. His jaw clenched tight, and his arm moved faster.
Tension stretched between us, and without touching, the moment felt more intimate than if he were inside me.
He didn’t touch me at all, and I stood on the edge of the cliff again, ready to fall. Too soon, his eyes slid shut, and he cupped his free hand over his shaft and groaned. When he finished, I was squirming on the bed, desperate to fall.
“Fuck, you’re sexy,” he said. Without any hesitation, he fell between my thighs again and ate me like his last meal. There was no teasing or taking his time. He sucked my clit, flicking it with his tongue, and shoving me until I fell all over again.
By the time we’d both got our breathing back under control, he sprawled next to me on the bed, tugging me into his chest. Like the most natural thing in the world, I rested my head in the crook of his neck and wrapped my leg over his.
“This is nice,” he rumbled. “I usually skip the snuggle-sesh.”
A laugh broke free, loud in the quiet room. “Did you just say snuggle-sesh?”
“Yeah, all the cool kids say it,” he explained, smiling down at me.
“Who?” I challenged. “I’m in my twenties, and I’ve never heard anyone say that.”
“You’re just not in the loop,” he joked. “Geez, get with the program, Han-Han.”
And just like that, any heat that lingered froze like a block of ice. All of me froze, stiff and uncomfortable with the memories crashing through my mind like the Hawaiian punch man.
“Hey, are you okay?” Daniel’s voice permeated the memories, and I clung to it. “Hanna.”
“Sofia was the only person to call me Han-Han,” I explained against his chest.
He didn’t say anything. He didn’t apologize. He didn’t push for more. It was one of the main things I enjoyed about Daniel. He never pushed but was always open if I wanted to talk.
My head rose and fell with his deep breaths, and I sank into the feel of his arm around my back, into the way his palm rested over my smaller hand. His pinky pushed against my sleeve, inching it back enough to stroke the scars that still marred each wrist.
“Sometimes I forget,” he admitted quietly.
“I like that you forget.” Daniel never treated me like broken glass barely glued together. He treated me like a normal human being—a strong one. “I wish I could forget, too.”
“Do you still think about it a lot?”
I hesitated. It was the most direct question he’d ever asked me about being kidnapped and sold, but I found myself wanting to talk about it with him.
“Not usually. I can sometimes go a week or more without it crossing my mind. But I always think of Sofia.” He held me tighter, and I took a shuddering breath. “I had a hard time at first—when Erik first rescued us—me. They gave us drugs, and I struggled coming off of it. It left me with a lot of flashbacks. I’d panic, and they’d try to subdue me, but I couldn’t stand to be touched. It just made it worse.”
“Jesus, Hanna.” The words were so soft, they barely vibrated against my cheek, like he didn’t mean for them to slip out.
“The worst—the things that haunted me the most—were the moments I was too drugged to know what was happening to my body.” Tears burned the backs of my eyes. I’d never told anyone that outside of my therapist. We’d worked on it, but that fear still clung to me harder than any others. “Maybe you going down on me wasn’t the first time. Maybe I just don’t remember.”
Daniel moved then, no longer content to be a passive member of this conversation. He lay on his side, so I had no choice but to meet his gaze, the blue sparkling like ice in the sun. “This is all that matters,” he said, his words so intense they crushed through any doubt until I had no choice but believe they were real. “What you choose to give is all that matters.” His fingers lightly pinched my chin and held me in place. “Do you hear me?”
The tears I’d held at bay slipped, sliding onto the pillow. I managed to hold most of them back and nodded, unable to speak past the lump lodged in my throat. He held my hands and pressed soft lips to my forehead, not speaking again until my tears dried.
In that moment, I almost wanted to beg for him to forget the rules and press his lips to mine. Somehow, I held back.
When I offered a lame smile, awkward and unsure of how to move on from my confessions, he did it for us.
His brow rose high and arrogant, lips tipped with a cocky smile. “Besides, I’m all hyped up and alpha right now at being the first one to eat your pussy. Don’t take that from me.”
A shocked laugh broke free, knocking away any tears threatening to escape. “Oh, my god, Daniel.”
He lifted an arm and flexed, making faces and winking. The sadness washed away with each laugh he made me let loose.
I slapped his chest before gripping my sides. “Stop. I can’t take it anymore.”
“I’m too alpha, right?”
“Soooo alpha.” I poked him in the ribs and loved watching him jerk. “A ticklish alpha.”
“Every alpha has a weakness.”
“Thank you, Daniel,” I whispered.
He pulled me close into his chest and kissed the top of my head again, renewing the ache to feel his lips on mine. “Any time. Anything.”
“You mean that? Anything?”
He pulled back, his brows lowered over doubtful eyes. “Yes,” he answered slowly.
“How do you feel about being my date to the charity gala?”
“
Do I have to buy a corsage?”
I laughed. “Maybe.”
“Then I’m definitely in. I love a good flower accessory. How can I say no?”
15
Hanna
Turning this way and that, I examine the blue lace stretched too tight across my chest in the full-length mirror. I’d gone back and forth with how I felt about my cleavage. Boasted about it in high school, loving the attention. Then I hated it and would have done anything to have them gone. Then I’d pretended to be okay with them in the years after. But it wasn’t until our last night at Voyeur that I’d truly appreciated them.
I saw them through Daniel’s eyes. I saw them through my own. Another part of my body I reclaimed as mine.
“Let’s see it,” Olivia shouted from the other side of the curtain.
“I’m about to Incredible Hulk out of this dress.”
“Well, then you better hurry up. We promised to show everyone.”
I stepped out, and everyone oohed and aahed over the dress, but agreed it clung a little too tightly.
“Where’s Oaklyn?” I asked.
“Oaklyn, don’t make me drag you out,” Olivia threatened.
The curtain next to mine flung open, and the light-haired brunette stomped out, staring daggers at Olivia. I tried to purse my lips together to hold the laugh back, but one slipped out, and it broke everyone else down too. All of us were in a fit of giggles.
“It’s not that bad,” Olivia defended around her smile.
Oaklyn flung her hands up, the bulky floral fabric rustling around her wrists. “I look like I got my hand stuck in a bush.”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed again.
Oaklyn grumbled and made her way back behind the curtain.
“I like that one, Carina,” I said, watching her twist and turn. The black lace clung to her curvaceous body. “The long sleeves give it a demure look, but the off the shoulder is sexy.”
“Also, it clings to my ass like glue.” She bobbed her brows before turning to Audrey munching on Puffs in her stroller. “Yes, it does, baby girl. Not that you will have anything that clings to you. Nope. Not with your daddy.”
Audrey smiled a four-tooth smile and reach for Carina. “Ma-ma.”
Carina pressed a kiss to her fat cheek and went to get undressed.
“Next one,” Alex demanded. “This gray is washing me out.”
I shed the dress and put on my favorite, an emerald green gown. The sweetheart neckline pushed my breasts up but covered enough to remain decent. The top fitted me until it hit my waist, where the heavy satin flared out.
“You’ve been busy lately, Hanna,” Carina called from outside.
“Yeah. Work,” I answered lamely, opening the curtain. She held Audrey in her arms, giving me a deadpanned stare, unimpressed with my answer. “I’m taking a new self-defense class, too.”
Alex came out just in time to say, “With Daniel.”
Carina’s brows rose high.
“Daniel, Daniel? My Uncle Daniel?” Olivia asked, joining the group.
“Yeah. It’s nothing.”
“He’s her date to the charity gala,” Alex added, and I glared at her making a bigger deal about it than it was.
“Wow,” Oaklyn added. “Daniel doesn’t do dates.”
“We’re friends. It’s not a date. It’s nothing.”
Alex crossed her arms, and I did my best attempt at telepathy to not say anything else. She did one back and said tough shit.
“Why don’t you tell them what else he’s helping you with,” she suggested, smirking.
Olivia waved her hand like she was swatting a bug. “We already know about Voyeur. Duh. Old news.”
“Oh, it’s way more than that.”
I almost stomped my foot. Almost. “It’s not. It’s nothing.” Alex’s stare called bullshit. “I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Spill,” Carina demanded, looking way too good for a woman currently bouncing a baby chewing on her hair.
“It’s nothing,” I tried again. “He’s just a friend helping a friend.”
“With sex,” Alex added.
“I’m out,” Olivia said, throwing her hands up and turning back to her room. “He’s like my dad, and that’s nasty. Ugh. Now I know how he feels about Kent and me.”
Alex turned to Oaklyn, who looked stunning in a silver dress. “You know Daniel. Has he ever helped anyone?”
“I mean, yeah. He’s not a monster. He helps people, but they’re more like acquaintances. He doesn’t have many close friends.”
“What do you mean, ‘sex’?” Carina asked. “Are you sleeping with him?”
“Ew,” came from behind the curtain.
“No,” I said over Olivia’s gagging sounds.
“Not yet,” Alex muttered.
I grabbed the closest thing I could find, one of Audrey’s stuffed animals, and chucked it at Alex. She easily deflected the rabbit. “What? I said I wouldn’t tell Erik. It’s good to talk this stuff out with friends.”
“Yeah, and now Carina will tell Ian.”
“Not my monkeys, not my circus. My lips are sealed.”
The attendant snuck up on us all standing in a circle in a standoff. “More champagne, ladies?”
“Hell yes,” Carina said, pushing past me and grabbing the bottle the woman offered. Olivia and Oaklyn came out to perch on the couch, back in their jeans, at the sound of more alcohol.
Once the attendant walked away and more champagne was poured, I tried to calm the hoard. “Seriously, it’s nothing. The first time I went to a back room, I kind of panicked and bolted. I ran into Daniel and he took me to his office to calm down. We talked and he offered to help. I’m just comfortable around him, and I don’t have any men in my life I’m comfortable enough with to…to…try things.”
“Things?” Carina asked dryly.
Ignoring her, I continued. “We get along. We’re friends and we both understand what we want in our futures. Which isn’t a relationship.”
“Then why learn how to flirt and be okay with sex if you don’t want it,” Carina asked.
“I do want it. And I want to be able to have it. I want to be okay with my body. I just don’t want to commit to anyone.”
“Why?”
Carina’s pushing and narrowed eyes pricked at my irritation and had me standing taller, crossing my arms, and cocking my hip like an attitude would block her intrusive questions.
“Do you ask Daniel why he wants to be alone, or just me—a young woman who society thinks should be planning a husband and kids by now?”
Carina’s brows tried to merge with her hairline, and I knew I was in for it. She didn’t deserve for me to snap at her, but I’d felt cornered.
“First of all, calm down. I’m the queen of women empowerment. Two, yes I ask him, and he’s just as big of a pain in the ass about answering as you are.” She rolled her eyes. “He says he likes being alone. I think he’s full of shit.”
“Yeah,” Oaklyn chimed in. “I think he holds back. He’s not like Kent, who was the wilder one of them. Daniel’s a homebody.”
“So, why?” Carina asked, turning back to me.
The fight leaked out of me with a heavy sigh, my shoulders slouching in defeat. “I don’t want to find a future without Sofia. It’s not right that I get to go on and find my happily ever after, and she doesn’t. And I just don’t want to fall in love to lose someone.” Tears burned up my throat, and I dropped my gaze to the ground. “I can’t feel that loss again.”
My confession brought silence to the circle for the first time all night, and I could feel their stares—their judgment.
“Well, shit,” Carina finally said, shocking me. “Now I feel like an asshole.”
“Asth-ol,” Audrey imitated.
It was enough to break the tension, and we all laughed at the bad word and Carina’s resulting shock.
“No, baby. Don’t say that.”
“Asth-ol.”
�
�Ian’s not going to let me live this down.”
Conversation broke off into small groups, and Carina passed Audrey off before heading my way. “Just so you know, I think your reasoning is shit—just like his—but I won’t talk you out of it.”
“Thank you,” I said sincerely. I’d had enough pushing and confessing for the rest of the year. I appreciated her calling a truce.
Her full lips tipped into a smile that promised nothing good. “Now, let’s pick out a dress that makes your friend think you’re hot.”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t hold back the smile once I closed the curtain.
With no one else around, I had to admit, I liked the sound of that.
16
Daniel
“Wow, you look…stunning.” Hanna knocked me stupid, in her emerald dress, making words hard to think of. Not that stunning did her justice. I’d been waiting in the lobby of her apartment, wondering if going as her date tonight crossed boundaries of our friendship.
Watching her face light up at my compliment, I didn’t really care about boundaries.
She shoved her hands into the folds of her dress. “Thank you. It has pockets.”
“Well, shit. Best dress ever then.”
“You clean up pretty nice, too.”
My face didn’t light up like hers, but I may have beamed a little when she looked me up and down.
“Stop staring at my sister,” Erik growled, walking past me.
I laughed at Hanna’s eye roll but did stop staring. Hanna was my friend, and while I may know what her pussy tasted like—how rosy her nipples got when she came—I didn’t want to leer at her.
“Oh, my god, Erik. Shut up. People are allowed to say I’m pretty. It’s polite.”
Alex snickered, following behind Erik, her hand firmly planted in his. Erik glared at me like I was the reason the women were ganging up on him. I held my hands up in surrender, acting like an innocent man I knew I wasn’t.
If Erik knew what I’d done to his sister, he’d probably beat me to a pulp. It wouldn’t matter I was doing it to help her.
“Come on, caveman,” Alex said. “Our limo is waiting.”
