He chuckled a little. “Yep, I guess that about sums it up. I’m still going to call him though. Marcel indirectly made a threat and that shits me.”
“I’m not happy about it, either, I just want him out of my life.” I was about to launch into a whole other rant about Marcel.
He yawned and I looked at the time. It was almost four am his time.
“Go to bed, Dane. You must be exhausted.”
He yawned again. “I am but there was no way I was going to sleep without talking to you first.”
There was a long pause and we just seemed to be looking at each other through the screens.
“Thank you…” I finally managed.
“Don’t thank me. I’m with you because I want to be. We’re equals here, Ari. By thanking me, it makes me feel as if you’re somehow putting yourself as the lesser party. You screwed up this time. I’ll probably be the one who screws up next time. It’s life. I don’t love you less because of it, I just…” He quit what he was saying and sighed.
“What?”
His face scowled. “What?” I demanded again.
“It’s going to sound condescending and probably piss you off.”
“Just say it will you? You’ve been far more understanding than I deserve.”
He closed his eyes for a couple of long seconds as if gathering himself. “Just don’t do it again. I couldn’t stand it, if you got in serious trouble.”
I nodded my agreement. “I won’t be going back. I guess I’d better get serious about looking for a full-time job for next year.”
“Stop worrying about money. We’ll sort it all out when I get back.” That sounded so tempting. Although a part of me still wanted to argue it with him.
“When are you getting back?” He’d been a little unsure about their plans.
“I’ll see what I can do about getting a flight home tomorrow.”
My heart leapt at the thought of having him home.
“Let me know.”
‘You’ll be the first, baby.” He gave me that look and I knew what that meant.
“Go to bed, Dane.” He nodded reluctantly.
“I love you.” I meant every single word of it—so much.
“Love you, too.”
An hour ago, I didn’t think I would hear those three words again. It was ironic, really, I had Marcel to thank for that. My greatest source of hurt had inadvertently led me to Dane.
Chapter 25
Dane
Why was Australia so bloody far away from the rest of the world? I had asked myself that question at least five hundred times in the last two weeks and I was asking myself the same question now.
“Cabin crew—prepare the aircraft for landing.” The captain’s voice finally came through the speakers in the plane. Would it be wrong to get up and cheer and fist pump the air? That’s how I felt.
Twenty minutes later the rubber squealed in protest as it kissed the tarmac at 260km an hour. I knew this useless fact because I’d been doing anything and everything to kill the boredom. Movies couldn’t hold my attention. Nothing seemed to work. There was only one thing I needed and wanted and that was my sexy, little brunette, Ari.
An arrogant looking middle-aged dude pushed in front of me at the customs line with his trolley full of suitcases. It took everything I had not to flatten him. Ari was waiting just a few hundred feet from me.
She was right through the doors and this dickhead was pushing in front of me. The customs officer gave me a sympathetic look, obviously having witnessed it all.
I passed her my customs declaration card.
“Anything to declare, Sir?”
“No.”
She motioned to the lane she wanted me to take, which just happened to be the one that sent me straight through to the outside world. I glanced to the side and my arrogant friend was now having his luggage searched. There was some justice in that!
I lengthened my stride and headed to the exit doors.
The urge to run was high and I thought about the feasibility of it while dragging a suitcase on wheels.
As soon as I cleared the heavy swinging doors, I started looking for her.
It didn’t take me long to find her.
She was standing towards the back, away from the ten deep crowd at the railing. As soon as she spotted me, her face lit up in a big smile and my heart skipped a beat. This was what those airports scenes in all those movies were about.
Ari moved off to her right and I made a beeline for her. A couple of seconds later, I grabbed her around the waist and lifted her up.
In perfect synchronisation, her arms closed around my neck, her legs went around my waist and finally her lips locked to mine.
I was home and there was nowhere I’d rather be.
Her tongue teased with mine and I wanted nothing more than to back her against the closest solid surface and devour her whole. It was so good to have her in my arms again. It had only been two weeks; it just seemed an eternity—one I never wanted to go through again.
Somehow, we separated enough so we could make our way back to my truck. My woman loved my truck! I’d left it at her place and told her to enjoy it before I went away.
“You want to drive?” she offered me the keys in an outstretched hand. I hesitated, trying to decide what to do. “What’s up?”
I looked down into her face and answered, “Well beside my very unhappy dick, I’m just trying to figure if it’s better if you drive or if I do. I want you so bad, Miss. I’m thinking I might behave better if you’re driving.”
She closed her fingers around the keys and bolted to the driver’s door. “Get in. You’re wasting time!” Her voice was light and full of playfulness. It was a look that really suited her. Arianne could be the serious type.
A few minutes later, she had us out on the motorway and heading for her place. Less than thirty minutes later, I was unlocking her front door. Twenty seconds after that, I was naked and had the shower running.
“What are you waiting for, Miss?” I turned to her with one foot in the shower and the other on the bathroom tiles. “You coming?”
“I thought that was what we were about to do…?” She gave me a sassy, but confused look.
Oh, my Arianne was a wicked combination of serious, playful and naughty. She’d had way too much serious in her life for years. I was hell bent on bringing out the playful and naughty.
“Get your butt in here, Miss. There’s no way I’m going to fuck you until I’ve had a shower. You smell all fresh and clean, me like worn gym socks. Twenty-four hours in transit—that’s even too gross for a guy. It’s a good thing Isaac is at school today, because once I get started, I’m not stopping until I can’t get it up anymore.”
“We’re going to be here a while then…” She was stripping off clothes as the water hit my back. I grabbed the soap and quickly started to lather the important bits, all the time my eyes never left her.
“Finally, she gets the picture…” I mumbled more to myself.
“Really?” Ari gave me a cheeky little What the fuck? sort of grin as she peeled the fitted T-shirt over her head. Her luscious tits caught my attention and I felt my dick smack into my stomach as I washed under my arm.
God, she was so hot and she didn’t even realise it.
She undid the button and zipper on her respectable length denim shorts and pushed them down her thighs. The shorts and T-shirt might have been respectable, but what she had on underneath certainly wasn’t.
It was all kinds of wicked, naughty and oh so sexy. My fingertips itched to get underneath the fine black lace. I knew she’d be all wet and hot, waiting for me to come claim what was mine.
A low growl escaped my throat and I realised then that my hand had slipped to my cock and was stoking it hard.
Her eyebrows rose at me in question. “Am I invited or is this a private party?”
“Get your arse in here, woman. I need you now.” As soon as she’d unhooked the bra and kicked off the G-String, I grabbed her wrist and pull
ed her across the threshold of the shower.
I caught her in my arms to steady her on the slippery floor and I immediately felt better when her naked body was against mine.
Her hand wrapped around my hard cock and I groaned at the feeling. It took everything I had to keep myself from coming right then.
“Fuck that feels good.” I pulled her in tighter to me and slipped my hands down her back to her bum. She wriggled against me; the water between us made it slippery and even more of a turn on.
I slipped my hands lower and bent my knees. “Get up here, Miss,” I growled out as I lifted her high enough for her pussy to meet my hips.
Just like I knew, she wrapped her arms and legs around me tight. My woman was the human equivalent of a spider monkey when it came to clinging to me and I fucking loved it.
My fingers slipped into the slick crack between her legs and got to work.
She was so wet. The silky feel of her slippery flesh was too much temptation. I couldn’t stand it anymore.
I had to be buried deep in her.
I took a step back and braced the top of my shoulders against the tile wall. The shock of the cool between my shoulder blades was enough to engage my brain for a moment. Then I remembered what my anxious friend, libido, had forgotten. I leant my forehead against hers in frustration.
“What’s the matter?”
“No condoms in here.” I could have kicked myself, the temptation to just say to hell with it was high. The thought of a little girl with Ari’s gorgeous eyes melted my heart even further—that might have been getting just a little too far ahead of myself.
“I sorted it. I got an IUD fitted last week.”
I kissed her hard. “God, you’re brilliant.”
Ari giggled and started rubbing her pussy all over the head of my cock again. She hadn’t told me, but then again last week was crazy with training, time zones and the fight and well everything else...
Somehow, I managed to hold back a fraction. “Anything I need to know?” I’d never been inside a woman with an IUD.
“Nope, should feel just the same apparently. Well hopefully better, without the latex between us. Doctor said to let him know if it doesn’t.”
I wondered if that should be reassuring or concerning for a split second. Fuck it. Only one way to find out! I brought her down hard on my erection and we both groaned at the feel.
Yep—pure heaven just as I knew it would be.
“Ah Dane…so good.” She was slowly sliding up and down my body, her knees tucked tight to my flanks. Her head was thrown back and I licked and nipped at her neck. She shot a hand out and pushed the showerhead to the side. The water felt good on your body, but not so much on your face.
All the while her hips never stopped the rolling rhythm she’d started.
I was so deep inside her, it felt like we were fused together and I never wanted it to end. The feeling of her walls caressing my naked cock was too much—the ultimate pleasure.
She sat up abruptly and her fingers clamped onto my shoulders. Ten little points of pain or was it pleasure? It all felt so good. I’d gladly take either as long as it was with Ari.
Ari let out a low moan and ground herself harder onto me. “Harder, Dane,” she panted and I curled my hips upward.
“Oh yeah, right there. Just like that.”
The muscles in my backside screamed, but I couldn’t have cared less. Somehow, I’d hold this position as long as she needed. Her body went tense in my arms and I knew she was very close.
The tingle was running down my spine and into my balls. There was no way I was going to last and I didn’t have a spare hand to help her just at the moment. I went with what I had and knew would work—my voice.
“Work my cock, Miss. Take me deep. Own it. Fuck me hard,” I growled out. Her panting breath became a strangled cry and then she locked tight to me. Her body stiffened and she came undone in my arms. The epicentre of the eruption was wrapped around my cock and squeezing the life out of me.
It started slow, the first wave of the orgasm kind of rolled then petered out, but the next one was rogue. I braced against the wall the best I could and let it batter me. The pleasure of having her in my arms, wrapped around my body was beyond words and any rational thought.
Feeling—it was all about the feelings and sensations.
But it was more than that. It was a connection, a pure deep need to be together and locked as one in the ride.
Ari collapsed against me and it took all my sapped strength to hold the pair of us up right.
“We need a bed, Miss.”
“Why do you always call me that when you’re in bedroom mode?” she asked in a muffled voice that sounded almost drugged.
“Bedroom mode.” I couldn’t contain the chuckle. “Because, Ari you…are…a total chameleon. There’s this super proper good girl shell, then there’s this bad arse chick that tangles with the law and finally the red hot supernova that fucks me so good. Yeah babe, you’re definitely a little Miss. My Miss, plus I’ve told you about my wicked teacher fantasies...one day…”
“Whatever handsome. You said something about fucking me until you couldn’t get it up anymore. Prove it,” she taunted with a sexy smile and a tilt of that pert little chin of hers.
“Oh Miss, you are in so much trouble. I’ve dreamed about coming home to you since the moment I left…”
Her soft giggles filled the air as I stepped carefully from the shower.
Arianne
“So tell me all about Vegas. What did you get up to?” I was right where I wanted to be, snuggled into Dane’s side with my head on his chest. I’d lost count of how many times I’d come for him. It got hard to tell when they all kind of rolled together. The man was a verifiable stud.
“You’ve been, it’s full of casinos.” I had been and yes I had gambled a lot there. Isaac had been not much more than a baby and we’d done a stint of a couple of months over there.
“I know the casinos there, but I didn’t see anything else. Not even the Grand Canyon and the local sites. How pitiful is that? I was either gambling or back in our room.”
“Well Ari, I didn’t see much more. I was either training, eating or sleeping. Reed worked us insanely hard. Then we had all the craziness of Xander’s fight promo. Fuck, those people were sharks.” His voice trailed off.
“I saw a little on the net. They were really nasty to Eden.”
“Yeah, she’s really lovely. Perfect for Xan. She gets him on a level that no one else does.” There was a wistfulness, pain in his voice.
“Not even you?”
“Not even me. I tried to reach him, I really did. She did it. I think it’s something to do with what she went through. Somehow they just seemed to connect over that and well, they’re married now.”
“What?” I shrieked.
He looked at me a little absently. “They turned up for breakfast yesterday or was it the day before? This traveling across time zones confuses the hell out of me. Anyway, as calm as you like, they announced they were doing the Vegas wedding thing straight away.”
“Wow. That’s going all in.” I was impressed by their bravery.
“I know. But that’s Xan, balls to the wall, just get it done when he decides something. The day turned out great.”
“Do I get to meet them when they get home? I kind of feel like you’ve been hiding me.” I knew he wasn’t ashamed of me. That wasn’t Dane at all. However, no woman wanted to be her boyfriend’s secret girlfriend.
“As soon as they get home we’ll do a dinner or a BBQ or something.” Then I felt him stiffen.
“What?”
I saw his throat work and immediately I knew he had something else he was keeping from me. “Just tell me. It can’t be any worse than me getting busted by the cops and almost being arrested. God…I can’t believe that actually happened.” I shook my head in disbelief. “If the memory of the fear wasn’t so real, I’d almost think I dreamed the whole thing.”
He pulled me
tightly into his side and kissed my head. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you needed me.” Dane’s voice was quiet and serious—I knew he meant every word of it.
“And I’m sorry I went there. Please believe me; I just wanted to pay you back.”
“I know, baby. You need to trust that we’ll be fine.” Instinct told me to say more—to protest. But where did that get me in the past?
Finally, the words came but they were different. “I don’t want to screw up again, Dane.”
“You won’t, Ari. You know now. It’ll feel weird for a while I guess—you’ll get used to it.” He was talking about being a couple, relying on each other, sharing our problems and our successes.
“I hope so. I’m still stunned you’re still here with me after well…you know.”
He sat up a little, taking me with him. “I’m not going anywhere, Ari. Relationships are not just about the good. They’re about the whole deal. It’s a damned shallow type of love if one of us takes off at the first speed bump. God knows I’ve seen my parents go through all sorts of crap. Financial shit, sickness, death of close relatives, and never once have they faltered or turned on each other. Sure, they fight but they love bigger. That’s what I want, Ari. We can do this if we don’t doubt each other and keep talking, keep believing in what we’re building.”
He may not have said it, but he was talking about the long haul. Dane was talking about a forever with him.
It scared the hell out of me and excited me at the same time.
I could really see myself making a family with him—having more kids and growing old with him.
The more I thought about it, the more it comforted me rather than scared me. The little time I’d spent with Cathy and Gary had shown me the magic of having a relationship like theirs. That’s what he’d been brought up with. That was his normal and ordinary. I wanted that normal and ordinary, too. Could I really have that with Dane?
“Sounds good, Dane. I’ve not had that before. I didn’t know that relationships could even be like that.” And I didn’t. My experience with relationships had been so much different. They were almost chattel arrangements. “Be patient with me. I’m learning and trying, but I’m also terrified I’m going to screw up and push you away, particularly with all the stuff that’s about to come.”
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