by Opal Carew
He stood up, which only served to bring their bodies tighter together. Nooo! This couldn’t be happening. This was Trey’s sister.
“What the hell is going on here?”
Suzie pulled back and stared around at a very angry-looking Trey standing at the door, Danielle peering in from behind him.
Sixteen
Shock pummeled Danielle at the sight of Jake kissing Suzie. “Oh, Jake, how could you? She’s Trey’s sister.”
Suzie stepped back from Jake and turned toward Trey and Danielle. “If Jake and I want to—”
Trey’s fists clenched at his sides. “Suzie, don’t. You don’t know what you’re getting in the middle of here.”
She straightened her back. “So maybe you should tell me.”
“It’s not up to me.” He glared at Jake. “And it’s not the time. Tasha has an appointment in ten minutes and I thought you wanted to be a part of that.”
Suzie sighed. “Yes, of course.” She turned to Jake. “We can talk later?”
Jake nodded, knowing he’d have to set her straight.
She walked to the door.
“Tasha’s going to meet us there, but we’d better hurry.” Trey glanced around at Danielle, who still stood at the door. “Danielle, are you coming?”
“No, you go ahead. You don’t need me in the meeting. I was just going to shop around the bookstore a little more anyway.”
Trey glanced at her, then at Jake, and nodded his head.
Once they’d disappeared down the hall, she stepped into Jake’s office and closed the door.
“Danielle, it wasn’t what it looked like.”
“That’s a little clichéd, isn’t it?” She kept her voice light, despite the sick feeling in the depths of her stomach.
“Okay, sure, Suzie was kissing me . . . but I wasn’t kissing her back. She came here to tell me she thought there might be something between us. I told her there was someone else.”
“And so she decided to jump your bones?”
“No, she’s not like that. She asked if my relationship was serious and . . . I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation. Do you honestly think that with everything going on with you and Trey and me, I’d be sleazy enough to pull Trey’s kid sister into the mix? What do you take me for?”
“You’re right,” Danielle said. “I’m sorry. I saw you two together and . . . it freaked me out that you were ruining your chances with Trey.”
“Who are we kidding, Danielle? Wanting to get Trey and me back together again is more your idea than mine.”
“But . . . I thought . . .”
He stepped toward her and gently grasped her shoulders. “It’s driving me crazy seeing you and Trey as a couple . . . feeling totally outside the relationship.” He captured her lips in an intense kiss, then gazed at her with blazing navy blue eyes. “Damn it. What are we doing here, Danielle? You and I . . . and Trey? Where can it lead?” He drew her closer. “I want you.”
Her heart quivered, both with delight and fear at how this whole thing was flying out of control . . . and might leave all three of them an emotional mess.
“What about Trey?” she asked for a second time.
“Of course I have feelings for Trey, but . . . don’t you think if it was going to work out it would have by now? I think I’d be kidding myself to believe that we can pick it up again, and even if we did . . . there was always something missing between us.”
Staring into his intense blue eyes, she saw the vulnerability there. He stroked her hair behind her ear with a gentle brush of his fingers.
“But with you . . .” His hesitation left words unsaid. Words she wanted to hear him say.
Finally, he pulled her tight to his chest, his strong arms firm around her.
“God, I want you so much.”
Jake wanted to tell her he was falling in love with her . . . but he couldn’t do that. Not now. Not with things so messed up. But he did show her. He leaned in and kissed her, his mouth moving on hers with all the pent-up passion and desire pulsing through him.
She melted against him, her soft breasts crushed against his chest.
“I want you so badly,” he said as he held her tight against him, stroking her hair. And he didn’t mean physically, though his body was thrumming with painful need, his erection pushing tight against his confining jeans.
“Jake, I . . .” She gazed up at him with her wide emerald eyes. “I want you, too.”
He cupped her cheeks and kissed her. He could feel her hands moving along her blouse, and when he released her lips, he saw that she’d unfastened the buttons.
Opening to him. Inviting him.
Her sexy pink lace bra accentuated her lovely round breasts. He stroked over one and she smiled, then lifted her lips to his. He lifted her onto the desk and she drew her full skirt upward, revealing her pink lace panties.
He stroked up her silken thighs, then stepped between them. She ran her hand over his pulsing erection, then released his zipper and reached inside. He almost groaned at the feel of her delicate hand wrapping around his twitching near-to-bursting cock.
He wanted to ravage her breasts, to lean down and kiss her pussy until she reached the ultimate orgasm . . . but right now, he needed to be inside her.
Maintaining riveting eye contact, he pressed closer to her. She drew out his cock and pressed it against her pussy, pushing the crotch of her panties aside. He eased forward, slowly pressing himself into her. Her moist heat swallowed his cockhead. He pushed deeper, her hot depths swallowing him slowly, bit by bit.
It was like coming home. Warm. Welcoming.
Loving.
Her body embraced him as he eased inside her.
Once he was fully immersed, he continued to stare into her eyes. He saw a need there . . . as great as his own.
He kissed her, their lips bonding in intense passion. His tongue dipped inside her, diving deep. She answered with a swirl of her tongue.
His cock twitched and she murmured in pleasure. He pressed his hand to her lower back and pulled her tighter to him, pushing deeper still.
“Ohhh . . .” Her eyes darkened and she actually looked close. . . . Sure he was inside her, but he’d hardly done anything. Except kiss her.
She opened her legs wider and wrapped them around him, then arched against him.
His cock pushed impossibly deep into her wonderful heat. He groaned at the intensely erotic sensation.
She clung to his shoulders tightly, as though hovering on the edge, her gaze still locked on his.
He drew back, then glided forward. She tightened around him and arched forward again. Her breathing grew labored. He drew back again, and thrust forward.
“Ohh . . .” She gasped.
As he moved inside her, she moaned. Her eyelids dropped closed briefly—then, as he pulled back again, and dove deep . . . she lost it. Her eyelids fell closed and she moaned with abandon. He thrust and thrust again, watching her lovely face contort in sheer pleasure. His own pleasure built and his body tightened. He captured her lips and kissed her with intense passion. Then . . . he erupted into her in a mind-shattering orgasm.
By two o’clock, Danielle had finished her shopping and sat on a bench outside the bookstore waiting for Trey and his sisters.
“Hi, Danielle.” Suzie walked up and sat beside her. “Trey and Tasha will be along in a minute. Listen, I’m sorry about the kerfuffle earlier in Jake’s office. I didn’t mean to embarrass you or anything.”
“It’s okay.”
“Trey’s a bit overprotective and—oh, here they come.”
Danielle glanced up to see Tasha and Trey talking together as they walked along the tree-lined path across campus. She and Suzie stood up and joined them as they continued to the car. They made the short drive home in silence.
After dinner, Tasha went out to see her friends again. She’d asked to sleep over a couple of days and Suzie had agreed. Danielle made dinner, so Suzie and Trey insisted on doing the dishes. As Dani
elle sat in the living room reading, she could hear their conversation in the kitchen.
“I would think you’d be happy about me going out with one of your best friends. Isn’t that better than me going out with someone you don’t know anything about?”
Dishes clanked together as she dropped them into the water-filled sink with a little too much exuberance.
“He told you he’s going out with someone.”
“Sure, but he didn’t seem too confident about it.”
More dishes clanked.
“Look, Trey, I’ve been interested in Jake for a long time. He’s a great guy—you’ve said that yourself. He’s intelligent and interesting and sensitive . . . and on top of that, he’s exceptionally good-looking. What more could a girl want?”
What more indeed.
Cutlery clinked on the countertop.
“Suzie, I understand your point, but . . . you just don’t understand the whole situation.”
“Then enlighten me.”
There was a long pause.
“The situation with Jake and this woman is . . . a bit confusing . . . but I know he really cares about her.”
Danielle sucked in a breath at the raw emotions welling up in her. If Trey really believed that, then . . . what did he think of this whole situation?
“Confusing how? I don’t understand.”
“I can’t tell you how. It’s . . . personal stuff, but . . . Look, Suzie, the woman Jake is dating is . . . a friend of mine. If he throws her over for you . . . I don’t want to see her hurt.”
Silence hung in the air. Danielle stared at her book, but couldn’t concentrate on the words. Trey was being protective of her, and that touched her heart.
“You really like this woman?” Suzie asked.
“Yes.”
“More than me?”
Trey chuckled. “You know I don’t like anyone more than you, Suzie-Q.”
Suzie laughed, and from the muffled sound, Danielle bet they were hugging right about now.
“Okay, Trey. I’ll back off. But if he breaks up with this woman, I want you to phone me right away . . . and set us up!”
“I’ll call you, but you set up your own dates!”
“Deal!”
The next day, Danielle, Trey, and Suzie spent the hot sunny afternoon lying around the pool, with an occasional dip in the water to cool off, then enjoyed barbecued burgers and salad for dinner. Danielle enjoyed chatting with Suzie and Trey about the latest TV shows, movies, books, and current events. Suzie showed a great interest in how people felt about things. Their likes and dislikes. Their hopes and dreams. Not that Danielle revealed much about herself, but Suzie’s intense interest made her feel like the woman actually cared. It made her feel even more intensely how she’d love to have a sister.
Finally, once the sun set and the mosquitoes started biting, they gathered up their dishes and moved into the house. After they’d done the dishes, Trey went out back to put the pool cover on to keep the heat in overnight. Danielle and Suzie settled on the couch with a glass of wine.
“Danielle, I hope you don’t mind my asking, but how did you wind up in the foster care system?”
Danielle’s stomach clenched but she just shrugged. “My mother gave me up.”
Suzie sipped her wine. “Have you ever wondered what she was like?”
“No. I know exactly what she was like.” She kept her voice even, despite the turmoil thoughts of her mother elicited.
“You weren’t a baby when she gave you up?”
“No. I know a lot of women—especially teenagers—give up their babies when they have an unexpected pregnancy, but that’s not what happened with me.” A lump formed in her throat. “Those kids are lucky because . . . their mothers cared what happened to them . . . or at least gave some thought to it.” She picked up her glass and took a sip. “In my case, my mother just . . . didn’t care.”
“Honey, that’s probably not true.”
“Oh, it’s true.” She stared at her wine as she swirled it in the glass, not willing to allow Suzie to see the anger and hurt in her eyes. “One night when I was four years old, my mother just got sick of my crying and . . . shoved me outside and locked the door.”
Danielle remembered the absolute terror she’d felt standing outside the house . . . all alone. She had banged on the door and cried, pleading with her mother to let her back in, but the door had remained closed. Later, when she was old enough to understand these things, she’d discovered that her mother was an alcoholic, and if she hadn’t been totally plastered, she might have realized what a bad idea it had been to leave her young daughter outside where people could hear her screaming.
Danielle didn’t know how long she’d been out there, alone and crying. It had felt like forever.
Suzie shook her head in disbelief, staring at Danielle to assure herself this wasn’t some kind of strange joke.
“Oh, Danielle, I’m so sorry.” Suzie moved closer.
Knowing Suzie probably wanted to hug her, Danielle stood up and paced the room.
Suzie watched her. “How could she do such a thing?”
“Later, I heard that she’d been pretty drunk that night.”
“But that doesn’t explain how a mother could treat her child that way.” Suzie shook her head. “That was . . . inhuman.”
Danielle found herself blinking back tears. She’d lived with this a long time, thought that she was over it . . . or at least immune to the emotional turmoil remembering the event used to cause her. But clearly that wasn’t true.
“What happened?” Suzie asked. “Did she finally let you back in?”
Danielle shook her head. “After a while, a neighbor heard me. She came to see if I was okay.”
Danielle had backed away, screaming, when the woman had tried to approach her. The poor woman had been frantic to help this scared little girl. She kept saying she just wanted to help, but Danielle had been too frantic . . . too frightened.
“I guess she called someone. I don’t really remember.” She did remember that the woman had stood about twenty yards away, keeping an eye on her. “Not long after that, the police showed up.”
That had terrified her even more. She’d thought they’d come to arrest her and that they’d throw her into a dark jail cell.
“I don’t really remember much after that, except . . . when I finally saw my mother again . . . years later . . .” Danielle’s fists clenched by her sides. “She told me she was glad they took me away. I’d always been a pain in the ass to her and she was glad to be rid of me.”
“She actually said that?” Suzie asked, her eyes gleaming.
Danielle simply nodded, wondering why in hell she had revealed that.
Suzie stepped toward her and gathered Danielle in her arms.
“I can’t believe a mother would do that to a small child. That she would do that to you.”
Danielle stood stiffly in Suzie’s warm embrace. A part of her wanted to relax into the comforting warmth the woman offered her . . . but she couldn’t. Remembering her mother brought it all back. The reality was that she was alone in this life . . . and she had to remember that. It wasn’t safe to let anyone get close. She couldn’t let herself rely on anyone.
“I wish I had been there.” Suzie stroked Danielle’s back. “I wish I could have held you when you were that little child and told you how special you are.”
At those words, tears prickled at Danielle’s eyes again.
How different would her life have been if she’d had someone who’d really cared about her? If she’d had someone who would have held her when she’d cried? Who would have really cared when she’d been hurting?
Who would have loved her.
But she hadn’t, and there was no point crying over what she couldn’t change. She blinked back the tears.
“What’s going on?”
Seventeen
At Trey’s voice behind her, Danielle drew herself from Suzie’s arms. She carefully turned away from
Trey so he couldn’t see her expression nor the single tear that had escaped despite her resolve.
“Nothing.” She stroked her hair behind her ear, dashing away the tear in the process. “I’m going to head to bed now.” She strode to the hallway and escaped toward the bedroom.
“Trey.” Suzie’s voice stopped Trey as he started to follow Danielle.
Danielle slipped into the room and closed the door behind her.
She sat down on the bed and fought back the overwhelming emotions flooding through her at the unwelcome memories. Damn it, she’d thought she’d put all these feelings behind her.
A few moments later, a light tap sounded at the door.
“Danielle, it’s Trey. May I come in?”
Damn it. Why couldn’t he leave her alone?
“Danielle?”
She cleared her throat, knowing she’d have to answer him.
“Yes.” Thankfully, the word came out clearly . . . not a croak as she’d feared.
The door opened and Trey stepped inside, his expression one of concern. He closed the door and approached the bed.
“Suzie told me about your conversation.” He sat beside her, concern simmering in his warm brown eyes. “I knew you were in foster care but . . .” He rested his hand on her arm and she fought her instinctive reaction to pull it away. “I had no idea how your mother had . . .” He hesitated, watching her carefully, his expression sympathetic. “How difficult it was for you.”
She simply nodded in acknowledgment.
“I should have asked. I wish I had.” His lips pursed. “I just didn’t want to pry.”
“It’s okay.” Her voice came out hoarse.
“Not that I’m saying Suzie was prying,” he went on. “She just naturally asks questions. Because she cares.”
Danielle nodded again.
He curled his fingers around her hand. “Are you okay?”
She didn’t utter a word, needing all her attention to keep it together.
When she didn’t answer, he squeezed her hand, then kissed it. “Danielle? I wish you’d say something.”
She sucked in a deep breath, ready to assure him that everything was just fine.