Dangerous to Know & Love

by Jane Harvey-Berrick

  She realized she still had a lot to learn about him – if he’d just let her in.

  With too many thoughts still whirling through her mind, her body ceded the battle against emotional exhaustion, and she drifted to sleep.

  She woke, shocked and disorientated, when she heard a noise in the room.

  “What?!”

  She saw Daniel silhouetted against the window. He’d opened the curtains and was staring out at the three-quarter moon.

  He turned to look at her, as the moon’s light cast shadows across his cheekbones, one corner of his mouth lifted in a smile.

  At first she thought he was naked, but as he moved toward her, she realized he was wearing a pair of dark boxer briefs.

  He put something on her bedside table, but he didn’t speak. She felt the bed move as his warm, hard body slid in next to her.

  “Daniel,” she breathed.

  His silence engulfed her and she realized he couldn’t see her lips, even with the moon’s faint light. She reached over to turn on the lamp, but he caught her hand and brought it to his lips. She thought he was going to kiss her, but instead he opened his mouth and sucked her fingers one by one, lazily wrapping his tongue around them.

  She was panting already, her body tingling for more of his touch.

  He released her pinky finger and leaned down toward her. Again she thought he was going to kiss her and she lifted her face eagerly toward him. Instead he licked the base of her throat, laying a trail of wet kisses down to her chest.

  She felt his hands pushing up the t-shirt until it was bunched above her breasts, and she gasped as his teeth fastened over her left nipple, and his hand stroked and squeezed the right.

  Her body automatically lifted toward him as she inhaled sharply. She felt her hips press into a hard bulge at the front of his boxer briefs.

  The silence deepened, and all she could hear was the nighttime concerto as the house settled to sleep, and the twinned breaths, spiraling out of their bodies.

  She dragged her nails down his back and heard his soft moan in response. He lifted his head from her breasts and kissed her languorously, his tongue insisting on dominating her mouth.

  She pulled him to her more tightly, winding her hands around his neck, feeling his hard weight pressing down on her.

  He leaned away from her and spoke quietly.

  “I can’t read your lips, baby doll. If you want me to stop, just… slap my shoulder or something – I’ll get the message.”

  She pushed him gently and he rolled away from her. She started to tug her t-shirt over her head, and he quickly reached up to help her.

  As soon as the material was removed, he pushed her back onto the bed, kissing and sucking her breasts, placing small bites between them, and circling his tongue around her nipples, teasing them until she wanted to cry out.

  She jammed her fist into her mouth, overwhelmed by the sensations and the knowledge that this was in her family home, in her bedroom, and that her parents were just yards away – and she was doing all the things her mother and father didn’t want to know she did.

  He’d reached her belly and was biting her hipbone, swirling his tongue around her belly button. Then his hands drifted lower, tugging at the lace on her panties. She took a deep breath and lifted her ass off of the bed, so he could slide the skimpy material away.

  She gasped when his head went still lower and she realized what he was going to do. Before she could say anything, she felt his warm mouth on her inner thigh and the prickle of his stubble, as he carefully parted her legs.

  She was mortified. Surely he wasn’t going to…? But this was Daniel – and he did. She stifled a cry as she felt his tongue pressing inside her. It was just so wrong – and it felt so good.

  His fingers were on her, too, circling, sliding, moving slowly in and out. She gasped again, and her hips bucked as her body bathed in pleasure, while her mind told her it wasn’t right.

  With the experience of weeks with Daniel, she realized her body was building toward orgasm. Part of her felt like she should stop it before she was dangerously out of control, and the other part had already given up, saturated with the feelings that he was creating.

  She jammed her pillow over her head as he opened her legs wider. It was up to her to muffle the sounds coming from her mouth – he would never know how much she wanted to scream his name.

  He couldn’t hear her but he could feel her, and knew that she was coming hard.

  He pulled the pillow away from her face, and swallowed her gasps with his lips and tongue.

  “You’ve fucked my face, baby doll; you’ve ridden my fingers; now you’re going to ride my dick,” he whispered.

  While her body still trembled, he reached over to her bedside table, picking up the packet he’d left there. As if from far away, she heard the rustle as he pulled out the foil packet and tore it open. Then he stood up, dropped his briefs and sat back on the bed, unfurling the condom over his erection.

  She was surprised and alarmed when he rolled her onto her stomach.

  “No!” she said horrified.

  He couldn’t hear her. Of course not.

  But it wasn’t what she thought, either. He pulled her up onto her knees and reached between her legs, positioning himself at her entrance.

  Relief, surprise, astonishment washed through her.

  For a moment she’d thought he was going to do something else entirely, but this was good. This was amazing – it felt so deep and he groaned softly, pushing in and out of her in long, filling strokes.

  His fingers gripped her hips tightly, and she could hear the slap of his skin against her body. It was strange not to be able to see him, but this new position felt raw and deep.

  She felt her body tremble. He felt it, too, and started to move faster, whispering words she couldn’t hear.

  His breathing started to become labored, and then she felt his fingers reaching around between her legs once more and she gasped, amazed that her body was responding again.

  Her legs and arms gave way as he shuddered into her and, for a moment, she was crushed by his weight.

  He pulled out of her carefully and peppered her back with soft kisses.

  “Lis, Lis, are you okay? Lis, baby?”

  She rolled onto her back, still gasping, and breathed her pleasure into his mouth, kissing him hard.

  A small sound escaped him as he kissed her back.

  She heard the faint snap as he pulled the condom off, and watched as he tied a knot in the end before dropping it onto the floor.

  Then he pulled her back into his chest and they fell into a deep sleep, his arms and legs entwined with hers, expressing with his body what he couldn’t say with words.

  * * *

  Daniel woke feeling deeply relaxed. Lisanne’s soft, silky skin was pressed against his, and a sense of calm filled him.

  He couldn’t explain why, but it had been important to him to have sex with her last night. Maybe it was something to do with making sure she still wanted him, even when she was back with her family, away from the heady rush of college independence.

  But it had been pretty damn good. There was still a lot more he wanted to try, experiences to explore with her, and he’d have given a case of Jack Daniels to be able to spend a whole day in bed doing just that. But he had high hopes for the future.

  He became aware that his usual morning boner was even harder than normal, pointing hopefully in the direction of her smooth, round ass. He groaned as the possibilities ran like a porn show through his mind, but one glance at her ugly Mickey Mouse clock told him that a morning fuck was out of the question, unless he really did want her parents to catch him boning their only daughter.

  Reluctantly, he sat up and saw her lips move as if she was saying something, but her eyes remained closed. Frowning, he looked at her mouth again, but he could tell she was deeply asleep, and her words were lost to him.

  Sighing, he pulled on his boxer briefs and walked quietly toward the door. W
ith one last look, he stepped out into the hallway and closed the door softly behind him.

  He made it back into Harry’s room without meeting anyone, and the kid was still asleep.

  Daniel scooped up his jeans and headed for the shower. The water was plentiful and hot and he took a few minutes to enjoy life’s simple pleasures, and jerk off.

  After he’d dried himself, he brushed his teeth and, swiping his hand across the steamed up mirror, decided he’d shave off the two day stubble.

  He’d forgotten to ask Lisanne what time her family got up in the morning, so he decided to head out to the backyard for a smoke and wait to see who was awake. But as he left the bathroom, still only wearing his jeans, he bumped into Monica in her robe and slippers.

  “Good morning, Daniel. You’re an early riser.” Then she gasped, her eyes fixed on his chest or, more specifically, his nipple rings. “My goodness!” she said, clearing her throat.

  “I hope I didn’t wake you,” he said, reining in a smirk as he watched her try to pull her eyes up to his.

  “Um, sorry, what?” she said, finally managing to snatch her gaze away from his chest, her face a little flushed. “Um, do come and have some breakfast whenever you like.”

  “Thanks, Monica. I’ll do that.”

  He returned to Harry’s room where the boy was lying on his back, eyes closed and mouth open.

  Daniel pulled on a t-shirt and a pair of sneakers, made sure he had his smokes in his pants’ pocket, and ran lightly down the stairs.

  Monica was standing in the kitchen waiting for a jug of coffee to percolate. She gave a slightly bashful smile as a fully dressed Daniel headed out to the back porch and had his first cigarette of the day.

  He was surprised when Monica came out to join him.

  She looked nervous and he wondered what she was going to say.

  “Um, I don’t suppose I could have one of those, could I?”

  Daniel blinked in surprise, then handed her the cigarette packet and lit one for her.

  “Thanks!” she said, a look of bliss on her face. “Don’t tell Lisanne, she’ll just start nagging. I’m supposed to have given up, but every now and then…”

  Daniel raised his eyebrows. “Hey, not my secret.”

  Monica smiled. “I’m surprised she hasn’t nagged you to give up.”

  He shook his head. “She’s never said anything. I didn’t think she minded.”

  Monica laughed in disbelief. “Really? She hates smoking. Always going on about what a horrible, antisocial habit it is. Oh well, you’re lucky not to have her nagging at you – she’s tenacious.”

  Daniel frowned. He wondered why she hadn’t said anything to him. Were there other things that she kept hidden? He suddenly felt like he didn’t know her as well as he thought, and the feeling bothered him.

  “Coffee?” Monica asked.

  He’d been looking the other way and hadn’t noticed that she’d spoken.

  She tapped him on the arm. “Coffee, Daniel?”

  “Yeah, that’d be great, thanks. Black, three sugars.”

  “Three sugars!” she huffed. “You’re so lucky to be able to get away with that.”

  She wandered inside, muttering to herself.

  He followed her in and gratefully accepted a cup of steaming hot coffee, as Lisanne staggered down the stairs looking tired and slightly disheveled. Girl really liked her sleep. He couldn’t help grinning at her and as she smiled back, he ran his tongue across his teeth, a knowing look highlighting the sexy smirk on his face.

  She blushed instantly and dropped her eyes, clearly reliving some of the things he’d done to her the night before.

  Harry wandered in, a useful decoy for Lisanne’s embarrassment, and helped himself to a bowl of cereal, mumbling something that may have been a greeting.

  Daniel sat down next to him, and Monica told him to help himself. He dug into a pile of toast, smearing it with butter and jelly.

  Food seemed to have perked Harry up and he challenged Daniel to a little one-on-one basketball. Daniel laughed and made some disparaging comment about Harry’s height, and they were off, playing aggressively on the makeshift court.

  Monica watched for a moment, a look of surprised pleasure on her face. Then she turned to her daughter.

  “Lisanne, how many, um, piercings does Daniel have?”

  Lisanne froze, with her spoon halfway to her mouth.

  “Mom!”

  Her mother looked embarrassed.

  “I just happened to see him coming out of the shower and he hadn’t put a shirt on. Well, I couldn’t help noticing his… his, um, jewelry.”

  “So, you’ve seen his nipple rings,” said Lisanne boldly, even as her cheeks reddened.

  “Yes, quite.”

  “And you want to know if he has more piercings?!”

  Monica’s face matched Lisanne’s by this point.

  “Forget I asked,” muttered Monica.

  That would take some doing.

  Her mother turned to the coffee pot, just for something to do.

  “Oh, I ran into Rachel Brandt at the store yesterday. Apparently she’s letting Sonia have a party there tonight. She said you should stop by. Daniel, too, of course.”

  Lisanne pulled a face.

  “I don’t know why Sonia would invite me – we were never friends at high school.”

  “Maybe not,” said Monica, firmly, “but Rachel and I are friends, so I’m sure you’d be very welcome. Besides,” she said, raising her eyebrows, “I’d have thought you and Daniel would like a reason to get away from the oldies for an evening.”

  It was a fair point. Although Lisanne would have gone some way to avoid Sonia Brandt, she knew Daniel would like a breather. A party could be just the thing. Then something else occurred to her: Sonia was one of the high school crowd who’d never given Lisanne the time of day, so turning up with a hot boyfriend… yeah, she really liked the idea of that.

  “Fine, we’ll go, mom, if Daniel wants to.”

  “He seems to be getting along with your brother.”

  “Yeah,” said Lisanne, smiling.

  It had been a surprise to her how responsive Harry was being. With the rest of the family he mostly just grunted, but Daniel seemed to encourage him to speak whole sentences. Which was almost unnerving.

  Ernie entered the kitchen and sniffed the air, his mouth twisting with disgust as he smelt the old cigarette smoke that lingered by the porch.

  Monica saw his reaction and made herself very busy putting more bread in the toaster.

  “Lisanne,” said Ernie, sharply, “I don’t want you to be alone in your room with him – with Daniel.”

  Both Lisanne and her mother looked up. Lisanne was crimson again.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Not at all. For no reason. Is that clear?”

  “Ernie!”

  “Someone needs to say it, Monica,” he snapped. “Lisanne: is that clear?”

  Feeling mutinous, Lisanne nodded curtly and left the room, furious and embarrassed.

  For fuck’s sake! She was nearly 19 and her dad was still telling her who she could or could not have in her room? He was such a hypocrite! He knew they were sleeping together, but he just didn’t want it to happen under his roof.

  Then Lisanne wondered if he’d heard something. She was instantly mortified – perhaps she hadn’t been as quiet as she’d thought. Oh God! Imagine if her father had heard! It didn’t bear thinking about. Did that make her the hypocrite?

  With her heart hammering, and her befuddled brain existing in a general state of denial, she hurried up the stairs but as she did so, she noticed a burning feeling between her thighs. Slightly panicked, she hurried into the bathroom and stripped off her clothes, examining herself in the mirror.

  Holy hell! The skin between her thighs was bright red – stubble burn from Daniel’s scruff – between her legs! Would the morning’s humiliation never end?

  Feeling miserable, she showered quickly and pulled on a pai
r of jeans, but then found they were far too uncomfortable. She rubbed baby lotion on her the inflamed patches and instantly felt soothed. Digging through her closet, she found a floaty, knee-length skirt that her mom had bought for her, which she’d never worn. She felt a little awkward, being unused to something so damn girly, but it was all she’d got. She matched it with chucks. Great. Sore and style free. Could this day get any worse? Then she thought of the party she’d agreed to go to, and groaned.

  Below her window, the sound of laughter drifted upwards, and her face softened as she looked out to see Daniel and Harry relaxed and enjoying themselves. Given the chance, she really believed Daniel could charm anyone. Given the chance, could he even charm her father? Her face fell – it didn’t seem likely.

  She headed downstairs and sent a long text message to Kirsty, while sitting on the porch watching Daniel and Harry. In truth, she could have watched Daniel play sport for hours, ogling the way his lean muscles moved under his t-shirt.

  They finished the game they’d been contesting, and Daniel came over to sit next to her, leaning in and kissing her neck.

  Harry rolled his eyes but said nothing. That was his sister.

  Daniel smiled at the revolted expression on Harry’s face and pulled Lisanne’s fingers to his lips.

  Harry shook his head as he stomped back into the kitchen. He had no idea why a cool guy like Daniel would like his sister, let alone want to kiss her.

  “So, what’s on the menu of today’s exciting events,” Daniel whispered into Lisanne’s hair.

  She turned to face him. “You gave me stubble rash!” she hissed.

  Daniel took a moment to understand what she’d said. He examined her face and neck, then raised his eyebrows.

  “Where’d I do that, baby doll?” he asked, although by the look on his face, he’d already guessed.

  Lisanne slapped his arm. “You know where!” she snapped.

  He smirked at her and ran his hand over his smooth cheeks. “Yeah? Well, I shaved this morning so we’re good to go again.”