“But…” her lips moved but no words seemed to come out for a solid minute. Finally, she let out a long breath. “Daniel, in light of the way things have gone between you and I, it’s probably not the best idea for me to stay with you.”
He was afraid she’d say that, so he had to think fast.
“Josie, we’re both adults,” he reasoned. “And since you’re marrying my brother, we’re going to have to get used to being around each other without…stuff happening. It was a one-time thing and…”
“Twice.”
“What?”
“Twice. You kissed me twice,” she countered, still looking uncomfortable. “Well, three times if you count the night I kissed you.”
And it would be rude to remind her that she was an active participant in all those kisses, so he let that comment go.
“I promise it won’t happen again.”
Unless you want it to…
“I don’t know…I guess I could call my parents…”
It was on the tip of his tongue to comment that she was pretty much naming everyone except her fiancé, but he opted to keep that to himself too.
“Do you really want to worry your folks like that? Think about it. If they’re anything like mine, they’ll freak out and insist on coming over all the time to check on you.”
“True,” she muttered, shifting on her feet and Daniel knew he was starting to win her over.
“My guest room has a queen size bed, a 50-inch TV, and its own bathroom. You’d be very comfortable.”
With a chuckle, she said, “And you promise no kissing?”
It would kill him, but...he nodded. “No kissing.”
“I do hate to bother my parents. Or Lea and Brody. She was pretty psyched to have the night off.”
“See? This is the logical solution.” Stepping around her, he opened her front door. “Come on. Go pack and I’m going to look around so I can get a feel for what kind of system to install and where everything should go.”
For a moment, she didn’t move, she simply looked at him and Daniel found himself holding his breath. Finally, she took a step forward and whispered, “Thank you,” before walking inside and going directly up the stairs.
One hurdle down, he thought, and only another dozen or so to go.
Her place had the identical floorplan as his so it didn’t take long for him to know what to do. While Josie packed, he sent a text to Xander telling him exactly what he was going to need and to meet him here tomorrow morning at eight. Even though he wasn’t sure what her schedule was normally like, he figured she’d appreciate him getting everything in place as soon as possible.
Fifteen minutes later, her house was locked up and they walked across to his. Once inside, he realized just how sparsely furnished it was compared to hers.
“It’s just a rental,” he said a little defensively. “I haven’t done much to it yet. Plus, I’ve only been here a month, so…”
Laughing softly, Josie put her bag down at the foot of the stairs. “Relax. I didn’t say a word!”
“Yeah, well…after seeing your place, I realize how much mine is lacking.”
She shrugged. “I’ve been there for much longer and I tend to go full throttle with projects. I had the entire place painted and decorated before I moved in.” Looking at him over her shoulder, she smiled. “The thought of living in a place that wasn’t done would have made me very twitchy. My OCD would have killed me.”
That made him laugh. “I don’t have that problem. I spent a lot of years sleeping in tents and barracks and subs with like a hundred other guys and trust me, there was no decor to be had. Like I said, this all seemed fine until about thirty minutes ago.”
“Sorry.” She continued to walk around and began offering decorating advice. He didn’t mind listening, and he figured maybe she needed something to do to help her relax so…he let her talk. He followed her into the kitchen and she paused. “What in the world?”
Rubbing his hand along the back of his neck, he cringed at what she was seeing. “Yeah, so…I don’t cook.”
Her laugh was loud and a little infectious. There were empty pizza boxes littering the countertops and the trash was slightly overflowing with other takeout containers. “And apparently you don’t clean either,” she said in between fits of laughter. “Oh my goodness, Daniel! How do you live like this?”
“I have a cleaning woman who comes in once a week and she’s gotten used to it.” He stood back and watched as Josie began walking around picking things up. Finding the box of trash bags that was sitting on the counter, she pulled one out and began tossing stuff into it. “Josie, come on. Stop.”
“Oh no. There is no way I’ll even be able to sleep tonight just knowing this room is like this!” She shook her head and finally stopped laughing. “Daniel, you’re a military man! You should be a little more disciplined than this!”
That was true, but…since he’d moved in, he’d gotten a little lazy and it hadn’t bothered him because no one ever came over.
Until tonight.
Then he remembered how his brother had spent the night several days ago and had to stop from laughing at the absurdity of it all. Josie and Tyler weren’t sleeping together, and yet as of tonight, they’ve slept in the same bed.
It was ridiculous.
Stop thinking about their sex life.
Or lack thereof…
“So,” he said a little too loudly. “Have you eaten dinner? Do you want me to order something?”
Josie was wiping down the countertop as she considered his words. “I did eat a little something after our event today, but I could probably go for something. You know, if you’re ordering for yourself.”
“As you can tell, pizza is my go-to. Is that okay with you?”
“Pepperoni and mushrooms are my faves,” she mentioned as she continued to clean.
“Could you please stop with the cleaning? You’re freaking me out.” Pulling his phone out, he waited for her to do what he asked.
“And I’m telling you that my OCD is making me twitchy just looking at this room so…consider this my thank you for letting me stay here tonight.”
It was pointless to argue, so he nodded and placed their pizza order. When he was done, he excused himself to go up and make sure the guest room wasn’t going to cause her to twitch. His brother straightened it up before he left the other morning, so Daniel moved on to put fresh towels in the bathroom for her.
And wiped everything down in there–just in case.
By the time he was walking back down the stairs, their dinner had arrived.
Josie was in the kitchen–which was practically sparkling clean now–and looking around for plates.
“Just paper,” he told her as he picked up the pizza box. “Come on, just grab some napkins and we’ll eat in the living room. We’ll find something to watch while we eat.” It was the safest way for him to get through the next hour or so without things getting too personal.
Plus, he usually watched TV while he ate.
“Oh, um…okay.”
It didn’t take them long to find something to watch because they had the same taste in TV and movies. While he started them up on a season of Arrested Development, Josie served them each a couple of slices of pizza.
“You know what stinks?” she asked.
“No, what?”
“Okay, promise not to laugh,” she warned with a small smile.
“I promise.” But he was pretty sure he was lying.
“There are a million choices of things to watch,” she explained. “Between all the streaming services and cable, there is literally something for everyone to watch, right?”
Taking a bite of pizza, he nodded.
“And considering that I live alone, I should have no problem watching whatever I want.” Pausing, she picked up her slice. “But every time I sit down to watch TV, I ignore what I really want to watch and end up watching what I think I should be watching.” Now she took a bite of her pizza.
With a shrug, she said, “Sometimes, I’d like to kick back and watch a Disney movie–you know, the classic animated ones.”
That was definitely not what he was expecting.
“Do you have a favorite?” he asked.
“Oh my goodness, yes!” Tossing her pizza onto the napkin, she twisted to face him. Daniel watched how expressive her face was and how young she looked with her hair pulled back into a ponytail and he realized his mistake immediately.
I should be looking at the TV! Not her!
He stuffed half the slice in his mouth to keep him from saying anything.
“I would love to watch Aladdin or The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King,” she told him with a big smile. “I know I’d still sing along to every single song and love every second of it, but I’d feel ridiculous doing it!”
He finished the rest of the slice and took his time chewing before responding. “Why would you feel ridiculous? Especially in your own home?”
“I don’t know. I guess it just seems…silly. Like there’s something wrong with me because I want to watch cartoons or something.”
Without giving it much thought, Daniel immediately turned off the show they were watching and began searching through all his channels.
“What are you doing?” she asked around another bite of pizza.
“Aladdin is a personal favorite of mine and I haven’t seen it in years,” he said casually, purposely not looking at her. “I’m just not sure where we can watch it.”
“Here, give me the remote,” she told him and then went about adding some Disney app to his TV and five minutes later, the opening credits were playing. Smiling at him, she handed the remote back. “If you’re nice, I’ll share my username and password so you can watch it again when I’m not here.”
Yeah, he was sure that wasn’t going to happen, but she looked so happy that all he could do was nod.
They finished eating and leaned back to get comfortable–him at one end of the large sofa and Josie at the other–and it was crazy how he ended up singing along with her. Her entire face lit up as they sang along with the genie and Daniel knew he was fighting a losing battle here. The more time they spent together, the more he found he liked about her. And if anyone would have told him he’d be sitting home on a Sunday night with a beautiful woman and singing along to old Disney movies he would have told them they were crazy.
And yet, here they were.
At one point, he got up to refresh their drinks and when he sat back down, he moved a little closer to her. Then she got up a few minutes later because he mentioned there was ice cream in the freezer, and when she sat back down, she moved closer.
Interesting.
When the movie ended, Daniel volunteered to watch another movie with her, and they agreed on switching things up and watching Toy Story. “Can I let you in on a little secret?” he asked, playfully nudging her shoulder.
“Of course.” Those big brown eyes told him just how much she wanted to know.
“There were times over the years while I was in the service where…” He paused and couldn’t believe he was admitting this.
“Where…?”
“Where we’d sort of hang out and watch…you know…movies that you wouldn’t think guys like us would watch,” he murmured, shaking his head.
Her lips twitched. “You mean like…cartoons?”
He shook his head.
“Chick flicks?”
“Sometimes.”
Her eyes went wide again. “No way! I was just joking! But…like what? Which ones were your favorite?” She asked excitedly.
“I didn’t say I had any favorites; I’m just saying that we would watch movies like that to sort of lighten the mood.”
She eyed him suspiciously even as she tried not to smile. “Admit it. You have a favorite.”
“I’m a little partial to Legally Blonde,” he admitted. “And we had a couple of weekends where we binged on Pixar movies.”
“I love this!” Bouncing on the couch, Josie finally let herself smile. “Oh my goodness, this is awesome!”
He didn’t think it was that entertaining–and there was no way he was going to tell her how much he enjoyed While You Were Sleeping–but he had to admit he was enjoying the moment as a whole. “Yeah, well…you know the old saying, desperate times call for desperate measures…”
“Still, it gives me a whole new view of you big, tough military guys,” she teased before getting comfortable beside him.
And by comfortable, he meant closer.
They were shoulder to shoulder now and by halfway through the movie, her head was resting on his shoulder. Daniel knew it was getting late but there was no way he was going to ask her if she wanted to go to bed.
Especially alone.
It was after eleven when Toy Story ended, and when prompted to watch Toy Story 2, he automatically hit yes. There was a total of five minutes in between where they each got up to stretch and Josie raced upstairs to change into her pajamas. When she came back down, she was dressed in a pair of loose pink pajama pants and a white tank top and had the comforter from the guestroom bed in her arms. When they sat back down, she was right beside him, covering them both.
Because…yeah…this is completely appropriate behavior to be doing with your fiancé’s brother…
But rather than say anything, he simply settled in beside her.
As they watched the movie, they talked about favorite childhood movies and toys, and before Daniel knew it, his arm was around her and Josie was curled up beside him.
In his mind, he imagined how much more comfortable they’d be watching TV in bed, but that was beyond inappropriate, so he forced his mind away from that thought.
They were both quiet for several minutes and he took that to mean she was absorbed in the movie. But then he felt her hand rest on his thigh and he began to wonder what he had done in a previous life to be tortured like this.
Her hand flexed as she snuggled closer and Daniel tried his hardest to keep his eyes trained forward on the TV.
Then she sleepily whispered his name and he had no choice but to look at her.
Big mistake.
The room was already a little dim and they were incredibly close and she was every temptation he’d ever known. Twisting slightly, he caressed her cheek as her eyes drifted shut. He swallowed hard before he gruffly said her name. “I promised I wouldn’t kiss you,” he reminded her.
Slowly, her eyes opened and she gave him a small smile. “Then I guess I’ll have to be the one to kiss you.” Her lips pressed to his and Daniel was torn. The last thing he wanted was for things to get even more awkward between them, but it was also important to him that she trust him.
And kissing her would definitely prove that she couldn’t.
But then her tongue gently teased the seam of his lips and he figured they’d deal with the aftermath later.
Much later.
He never had a chance to resist her because Josie crawled into his lap and raked her hands up into his hair and he had no idea how they had gotten to this place. One minute they were watching a damn cartoon and now she was straddling him and pressed up against him in all the right places.
She tasted sweet and savory–just like everything they’d eaten tonight–and something that was so completely Josie. She was addictive. His hands reached up and cupped her face as he took the kiss deeper. Her hands and her body were in constant motion and this was no leisurely seduction–this was wild heat and need and he was afraid to do or say the wrong thing. Hell, he was even afraid to stop to breathe.
Over and over, their tongues tangled, their breath mingled, as their lips refused to leave each other. It was madness and his chest hurt with the need for air, but he fought it. He was a Navy SEAL, for crying out loud. He could hold his breath for two solid minutes in any set of circumstances, and yet having Josie Sullivan in his arms was going to break him.
&n
bsp; But it broke her first.
She lifted her head, panting for breath, and rested her forehead against him. His hands smoothed down her back and settled at her waist as her name came out like a plea.
“This is crazy,” she said quietly, even as her body continued to slowly rub against his. He was hard as a rock and wanted nothing more than to tear her little sleep pants right off her and peel the tank top up and over her head with his teeth. Her own hands moved down to rest on his chest and he willed her to say something.
“Josie,” he whispered. “What is going on?”
He watched as her tongue slowly licked across her lips, but she didn’t move away. “I know this is wrong, but…I can’t seem to stay away from you.”
Thank God he wasn’t the only one.
“Something’s got to give here,” he said and waited for the fallout. “You’re engaged to my brother, but you’re here with me like this. It makes no sense.” Slowly, he pulled back so he could see her whole face. “Help me understand.”
Her dark eyes scanned his face and he knew right then and there that she had no intention of explaining anything. Maybe she didn’t want to or maybe there was no explanation, and it did nothing to help his own internal battle. He wasn’t the kind of man who went after someone else’s girl–never had been–and yet from the moment he laid eyes on her, he’d been completely helpless to stay away.
“This isn’t right,” he prompted. “Tell me you don’t love him. Tell me you’re not someone who does this sort of thing.” He reached up and grasped her face. “Just tell me something.”
Her expression turned a little sad. “I…I can’t, Daniel. You have to believe me that…it’s complicated. All I know is that…I want you. More than I’ve ever wanted anyone in my life.”
She was killing him.
It would be easy to just pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist and take her up to his bed and make love to her all night long.
But he wouldn’t.
He shouldn’t even be here on the sofa like this, but there was no way he was going to let her go. Maybe just one night–even one that didn’t end in the most physically pleasing of ways–wouldn’t be the worst thing.
“What do you want from me?” he asked roughly.
You May Kiss the Groomsman Page 11