She spotted him at the window. Daniel’s shoulders blocked out the sunlight. So wide. So strong. She bit her lip, recalling how hard and hot his skin felt beneath her hands when he plunged inside her. He made her feel wicked and sexy and wonderful. Most of all, he made her feel loved.
Daniel must have felt her eyes on him. Slowly he turned to face her. His arms were folded over his chest. His expression neutral. Guarded. Maybe he’d lied to her and it wasn’t good for him. Maybe she’d done something wrong. She wasn’t even sure if he…finished.
Dread slithered over her flesh, icy and slick. Her heart fell into her stomach, heavy like lead. He looked dispassionate, removed. He looked at her like she didn’t matter. He’d closed himself off from her.
The heavy feeling weighed her down but his eyes didn’t leave her face. He didn’t want her, didn’t feel the same, and she had nowhere to hide from him.
Amelia bit the inside of her lip so hard she tasted blood. Her neck was so stiff it ached. Tears pricked at her eyes. How could she have made such a monumental mistake?
“Love? What’s wrong?” Daniel sat on the bed. He reached for her.
Scooting to the other end of the bed, Amelia put distance between them. She didn’t need his pity. Didn’t want his pity.
Quick as she could, Amelia made a beeline for the bathroom and shut the door behind her. She looked to the shower. Yes, a shower might help. A little. Not really. She could pretend though; Amelia had gotten quite good at pretending.
Turning the taps on, she waited until the temperature was perfect, then turned it warmer and stepped into the tub. Hot water streamed from above, soaking her hair, but even water couldn’t wash away the burning shame clutching at her heart.
She brought a soap-covered hand to her chest and held it there just as she heard the door click open. Had she forgotten to lock it?
“Amelia, did I do something wrong?”
She stood stock-still, water pouring down on her, holding her breath. The swish of the shower curtain alerted her to his presence but she didn’t dare turn around and face him. She wasn’t sure she could handle the look in his eyes again.
Daniel stepped into the shower and took her in his arms, crushing her back to his chest. “I have,” he whispered, kissing her neck. “I’ve done something wrong. Tell me what it is so I can fix it.”
When she didn’t immediately respond, he said, “I don’t regret what happened, if that’s what you’re thinking. Not even a little. I might not deserve you, love, and I won’t pretend you’re not so far out of my galaxy we’re not even in the same universe, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting you. Caring for you.”
His words were the opposite of those she’d expect if he pitied her. She turned her head and met his gaze – this time a storm of uncertainty. He searched her eyes, then her face, until he landed at her lips.
The press of his erection against her backside warned her of his intentions. “If you don’t want me, Amelia, you’d best tell me now, because in no less than five seconds you’re going to be against those tiles and I’ll be buried deep inside you.”
The words shocked her system and forced her into a state of need she didn’t think possible.
“Five…”
He was giving her a chance to back out.
“Four…”
His hand slid down the slippery slopes of her body until he reached her folds.
“Th-three…”
He didn’t pity her!
“Two…”
His fingers swirled around her clit and one slipped inside her. Daniel’s breath was hot on the back of her neck. His teeth scraped over her shoulder where it met her neck.
“One…”
Daniel spun her in his strong arms, wedged a knee between her thighs, and plundered her mouth with his tongue. Possessive swipes mimicked the rocking of his thigh between her legs. The roughness coupled with his thumb swirling over her clit sent her over the edge. Shamelessly she bucked and writhed, doused in the flames of an orgasm unlike the others. This one came on and crashed into her like a freight train. Primal.
His leg vanished but Daniel curled her legs around his waist, the head of his cock prodding at her entrance. His eyes sought hers. “You want this, Amelia, right? Tell me you want this.”
“I want you, Daniel,” she cried, arching into him.
Amelia’s blunt honesty shredded the last of his control. With her thighs around his hips, he guided his erection to the entrance to her folds and drove inside. Right here, right now, she was everything he needed. Everything he never knew he wanted. Hell, she was everything he didn’t deserve. But he had her in his arms and he was damned well going to live for this moment.
Desire blinded him, gave him tunnel vision. He saw and felt and heard only Amelia. The wide blue-black of her eyes staring up at him. Her snug channel milking him with the tremors of her impending orgasm. Keening cries and panted breaths. And her hands clutched his shoulders, nails marring his skin.
Daniel steeled himself and thrust into her. The hold around his hips tightened. Her breath stuttered. Damn he needed to hold on a little longer. His release threatened to unravel. Daniel slid a hand between their bodies to play in her curls, searching for…ah, there it was. He pushed and swirled and pinched, driving into her harder and faster. She gasped, rocking her hips, taking what she needed from him.
He couldn’t hold back much longer. Couldn’t keep from speeding toward the light at the end of this intense tunnel of desire. Amelia shouted his name, her body trembling on his arms. Seconds later, he called hers, drowning out their cries with a kiss meant to worship those soft, plump lips and hopefully steal her heart.
Was it possible to love someone after only a few days? Did it make sense that he wanted to spend every day with her and only her for as long as she’d have him, and afterwards, he’d be nothing more than a husk of the man she made him become?
Daniel didn’t have any answers to his questions. Asking her wouldn’t help either. He’d have to take what little Amelia gave him and treasure these moments when she eventually left the country to go back home to her own life. Without him.
God the thought was like a knife through his chest. Though his lust was sated, his heart burned; wanting and needing things it wasn’t worthy of receiving. Especially not form a woman like Amelia. She had better things to do than keep him.
“Daniel?” She kissed a path from his chest to his throat. “Why do you keep pulling away from me?”
“Well I–”
“That’s what you did earlier, isn’t it?” The grip her legs had around his hips tightened. “When I woke up and you were standing by the window. I thought…” Her breath stuttered “…I thought maybe you regretted being with me.”
“No,” he said, raining a thousand kisses from her hairline to her throat. He kissed the furrowed knot between her brows until she relaxed; kissed away the worry from her eyes; smoothed his lips over the smooth expanse of her cheekbones. Daniel kissed her and each time his lips touched her face he soothed away the doubt.
“No, lass. No. Never.” He sighed, resting his chin on the top of her head.
It was a lie though. He had regrets, just not about being with her.
Daniel regretted the future he’d have without her. He regretted that he wasn’t enough for her. He regretted that he couldn’t give her more. Regretted that he hadn’t told her the truth about his past.
But being with her, never. He’d live out the rest of his days with the memories they made together to sustain him. Memories would have to make due. They’d have to be enough. Because hell, he wasn’t good enough for her.
“You’re amazing, Amelia,” he told her, reluctantly pulling out from her body, breaking the intense connection. “If I live to be a million years old, you’d be the only lass in my heart.”
For a moment he could believe he’d said the words out loud. Couldn’t believe he’d been such a fool to admit his feelings when he wasn’t sure of hers. How much of an eejit di
d that make him? Daniel sighed, cursing himself to the ends of the earth and back.
Until…
“Oh, Daniel.” Amelia trembled at his chest, her legs still wrapped tight around his waist, and she pressed a string of feverish kisses to his slippery skin.
She found her way to his mouth and latched on, thrusting her tongue alongside his. Right there in the shower beneath the hot spray, Daniel lost the battle to keep his heart intact. Regardless of the future, he knew his heart belonged to the lass in his arms, and that would never change.
After showering, Amelia called the front desk and inquired about meals. Thankfully the kitchen was open and the chef had no problem whipping up a few menu selections – especially when she offered a big tip for his efforts.
Speaking of efforts…it took a lot on her part to keep her shirt and jeans on, and not jump Daniel while they waited. She couldn’t even sit on the bed with him. Being close to the man did something to her. He turned her inside out. Made her experience sensations unlike any she’d ever dreamed of. Daniel didn’t just touch her body; he reached inside her heart, filled her with a sense of belonging she’d never known.
A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts. Amelia answered, admitting the two young women, close to her age she estimated. They placed their trays down on the small table and left, smiling too long at Daniel for her liking. Yeah, he was flipping gorgeous, but they were obviously together! She knew she was so far out of his league that they didn’t even share the same air. These girls were just being rude.
She glared until they left, then excused herself to the restroom, needing a minute to compose herself. What she really wanted was to slap those girls, to see the red in their cheeks from her hand, at their audacity.
“Are you all right in there?”
“Yeah,” she answered quickly. Too quickly.
Shaking off the jealous monster, Amelia rinsed her hands under the tap, dried them on a fluffy towel, and stepped back into the room. Daniel had taken the silver covers off the trays, revealing an assortment of breakfast and lunch foods. And, she noted, a grin creeping across her face, her new favourite dish. Chips and curry sauce.
The moment she got settled, she’d have to start working out again. No getting out of it – she needed to work off some of these excess carbohydrates.
For now though, Amelia spotted a stack of fluffy pancakes with her name on it, enjoying every bit. No doubt she’d work off some of the calories with Daniel a little later, but she also didn’t want to end up like her mother, overweight and with type II diabetes. Both her parents were young, compared to her friends’ parents, but neither was in very good health. Mom’s only form of exercise was walking through the mall while Dad preferred to spend his weekends training for the gold medal in beer guzzling.
She loved them both but hoped they’d take better care of themselves. In light of what happened to Poppa, she hoped it would act as the catalyst to force them to take better care of themselves. Only time would tell.
She stuffed the last bite of a curry sauce covered chip into her mouth and swallowed. “So much food…” Amelia groaned, pushing her plate away.
Deep, grumbling laughter vibrated from the man next to her. “I’ve never seen anyone put away what you just did. It’s like you’re planning on hibernating or something.”
“You ate just as much as me,” she said in her defense.
“Aye, I did.” Sliding an arm around her waist, Daniel pulled her flush to his side and planted a soft kiss to her temple. “Ah lass,” he sighed. His hand stroked up her bare skin, stopping beneath her breast.
She moaned. Then slapped a hand over her mouth. Half embarrassed, Amelia hid beneath the covers. They needed to get dressed and get on the road but since their shower earlier, she and Daniel couldn’t get enough of one another. She lost her heart to him and didn’t know if he felt the same. She might just be a stepping stone to him…the only woman available to give him his first tastes of freedom.
Her knee was almost heeled, too. Putting pressure on the joint hurt less now that it did when she first injured herself. Mostly, Amelia pretended, just so he’d stay with her. If he thought she didn’t need his help driving any longer he might want to part ways. Where would he go? What would he do? And how would she pick up the pieces of her heart?
She swallowed, holding her hands over her stomach. She felt ill enough to vomit, but not from over-indulging in the items they ordered from the kitchen. All the money in her bank account couldn’t keep Daniel in her life. She’d give it all away if he’d stay with her, all the way to Malin Head and beyond. But hoping for a future with Daniel meant hoping he’d give up whatever dreams he had.
“You’ve gone awfully quiet, love.”
Avoiding his penetrating stare, Amelia curled against the solid wall of his chest, sliding her arms around him. “We should get moving,” she whispered.
Errant fingers crept beneath the blanket she covered her bare form with, teasing her nipple to a stiff, aching bud. “Aye, I suppose we should…” He pinched and rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger “…or we could stay another night.”
With his hands on her, Amelia lost the ability to think. She surrendered to his touch. At some point he called the desk and booked them for another night, but Amelia couldn’t say exactly when. He swept her up in a torrent of need so powerful she ceased to exist as a singular entity and became one with Daniel.
And she knew, although lust played a big part, her heart felt just as much as her body with each moment of surrender to his touch.
The next morning Daniel and Amelia had breakfast in the small dining room. She drank her coffee while he sipped his tea and he considered their differences. Despite her shy exterior, Amelia had a deep well of strength. She impressed him at every turn, even called him out on his dumb arse behaviour yesterday.
He wanted her with a force that stunned him, and he feared he’d been too rough. Not even considering how perfect she was, and that he didn’t deserve her. God above he knew it was the truth, but resisting Amelia was the equivalent of denying himself food, water, even oxygen. Nothing mattered but Amelia. He knew without a doubt that he loved her, and he didn’t even know her last name.
“You okay?” She set her mug down on the table, her head cocked to one side, giving him an odd sideways glance.
“Fine.”
“You don’t look fine. I…I mean, you do, but you…” Amelia shook her head. “That came out wrong.”
The lovely crimson flush spreading over her ivory cheeks moved lower, covering her collar bone and, he imagined, her breasts. Last night he watched her blush during his descent from her throat to the soft, wet folds at the apex of her thighs.
Tension between them thickened. An entity in itself.
“What I meant to say is you look like there’s something important on your mind.” She reached a hesitant hand across the table, resting it over his. Her fingers curled around his fist. “And if you want, you can talk to me about it. About anything.”
He’d already tried to tell her about his past but she’d shut him down. She might think it didn’t matter, but she didn’t know. If he told her, that might change things between them. No, not might. Telling Amelia where he spent the past fifteen years would be the knife to cut the cord between them.
Studying him, she popped the last bite of toast in her mouth, smiling like she had a secret. She didn’t know…couldn’t know.
Or did she?
Daniel scowled into his mug, chugging down the hot tea. Bloody useless shite, that’s what he was. Good for nothing and no one. But damn it, she invaded his senses and made him want things he’d never thought possible. Not until Amelia.
She hummed the tune to a song he’d heard over a hundred times but couldn’t recall all the words, twirling a strand of her dark hair around a finger, looking for all the world like she hadn’t a single worry on her mind. Her smiles were free and easy. But the look she gave him was hot enough to melt the polar ice caps
. She made him burn for her.
“Should we get going?” Amelia asked.
“Aye.” Sure, right when his trouser snake wanted to make an escape from its denim prison, she wanted to get up and walk through a country inn.
Finished with breakfast, they checked out and got on the road but Daniel had trouble concentrating. Thoughts of Amelia with nothing on filled his mind, and those thoughts turned wicked. Man, he needed to focus! The reason for her trip wasn’t to have constant, explosive sex with a man she found on the side of the road. She had a purpose.
But was he standing in her way?
Daniel scowled, giving the road his full attention.
At least, he tried.
Each day passed much like the one before. The trepidation of reaching Dublin left behind, they carried on along the coast, spending their days out in the warming summer sun and light sprinkles of sweet rain, walking along the beaches. Making memories and sharing in the task of spreading her loved one’s remains.
Once the sun drifted behind the shadows of the sea and the moon rose high in the sky, framed by sparkling stars and wisps of cloud, Daniel ate his tea with Amelia while a storm of desire whipped inside him, threatening to break free and consume them both.
At night, once they were alone, Daniel stripped away the layers of clothing they both wore and kissed every inch of her bare flesh. He worshipped her like she deserved, used his hands and mouth and body to show her what his voice lacked the ability to tell her. And each time he sunk between her thighs, skin on skin, he fell deeper. Love bloomed in his chest with every thrust; the trusting look she gave him and her sweet whispered words spurring him on.
Today, however, she was uncharacteristically quiet, sitting in the passenger seat of her rental while he drove along the River Shannon, heading into Limerick. She’d pulled out her tablet thing half an hour ago, read something – he’d paid too close attention to the road to be spying, to see exactly what – and then shut herself off.
How he wanted to ask her what thoughts filled her head and made her look so pensive. Instead he focused on the road and snuck surreptitious glances in her direction. At a stop in traffic, Daniel studied her for clues. He saw tension in the set of her jaw, stiffness in her shoulders. Behind this though he noted her quiet determination. Strength in her resolve. She must have felt his eyes on her and yet Amelia kept her gaze centred.
Where the Streets have no Name Page 10