Branded: You Own Me & The Virgin's Night Out
Page 25
And he was still naked as a damn jaybird.
“Um. Oops.” He started past Tyler. “Sorry. I…um…forgot.”
Tyler snorted. “Yeah, well, remember next time. Why don’t you give me the baby and I’ll take her to Sloane while you get some clothes on? Dani is probably hungry. I’m surprised…”
Boone paused near his door, shooting Tyler a look over his shoulder.
“Ah…”
Tyler’s eyes narrowed.
“Maybe you don’t need me to get Sloane.”
“Maybe I don’t.” Boone closed his hand around his doorknob and disappeared inside before Tyler could say anything else.
Dani made another one of those gurgling noises in her throat, her face bright with happiness. She waved her fists in the air, but there was no temper in the movement this time and when he touched her nose, she wrapped a fist around his finger and squeezed.
“Dani…”
Sloane’s sleepy voice had him tearing his attention away from the baby.
“She’s…um. She was crying. I changed her.”
Sloane sat up slowly, rubbing at one eye with a fist. There was something terribly young about the gesture, but then she lowered her hand and smiled, a sleepy, sated smile that all but turned his blood to lava.
Then she blinked, as if really taking notice of him.
“You’re naked.”
“Ah…yeah.” He settled on the edge of the bed, blushing furiously and hoping she couldn’t tell. Unable to think of anything to say, he just shrugged lamely. “Yeah.”
Sloane giggled and held out her arms. “She’s probably hungry. She usually…ah, where’s her sleeper?”
“Wet.” Feeling stupid now, he turned the small baby over to her mother. “I changed her, but the sleeper thing was wet and then Tyler came in and I forgot about grabbing her a new one…”
Sloane grinned at him. “He caught us, didn’t he?”
“More or less.” Fascinated, he watched as she quickly and
efficiently opened her nightgown. Dani made a demanding little bleat, as if sensing it was almost time to eat. A moment later, Sloane had her left breast bared and the baby latched on with avarice. “Ah…I’ll get some jeans on and grab her a sleeper. Give you some privacy.”
But when he went to stand, she caught his hand. “You can stay. Once she eats, I’ll have to put her back down—maybe change her again.”
Hesitating, he glanced from the baby’s downy head up to Sloane’s patient eyes.
She squeezed. “Stay.”
He nodded…and when she tried to pull her hand back, he tightened his fingers.
She shot him a quick look and then smiled.
As she fed the baby, they held hands and alternated between watching each other…and their daughter.
• • •
A half hour later, he awkwardly took the baby from her and watched as she adjusted her bra and nightgown. He rose from the bed—clad in a pair of jeans now—and settled the baby at his shoulder, patting her back.
Dani was asleep.
“Here. I’ll go settle her back down,” Sloane said, rising from the bed.
“Can…I can do it.”
She cocked her head and then nodded. “Come on. I’ll show you where everything is.”
Dani did indeed require another diaper change and he grimaced his way through cleaning her little butt as she squalled her way back into wakefulness. “Sorry, babydoll,” he said, shaking his head. “You went and…um…pooped. Can’t sleep in it, now can you?”
Dani just screamed louder.
“Am I hurting her?”
“No.” Sloane bent over the head of the changing table and kissed
Dani’s brow. “She just hates being woken up.”
She fussed, letting them both know her displeasure, as he put a new diaper on—it was easier the second time. And she continued to fuss at him as he struggled with the sleeper. The thing was tiny and his hands were big, he felt too awkward. Once he boosted her up, the furious cries changed to sniffles. “See there? Isn’t that better?” he murmured, patting her little butt as he paced.
Sloane had turned on a small lamp on the changing table and their eyes met as he turned around, made another trek across the floor. Dani lapsed into tired sniffles and by the fifth circuit up and down her floor, she was quiet. He chanced one look and saw that her face was slack, cheeks rosy and her little mouth puckered.
“Here.” Sloane’s voice was soft and he looked up, saw her waiting with her arms outstretched.
It was as he was placing the baby in her arms that he saw the framed print hanging over the changing table.
Danielle Pierce—
He reached up, touching the glass above the baby’s middle name. “You named her after Pierce.”
“Yes. You and Pierce.”
He froze.
His hand felt slackly to his side as he turned his head, gaping at her.
She cocked her head. “What?” Her voice was low and hushed.
He swallowed and then blindly, turned on one heel and walked out of the room.
He kept right on walking down the stairs and out into the night, pausing only long enough to disarm the alarm system by the back door.
Sloane was right behind him and he turned to stare at her with confused eyes.
“After me and Pierce?”
“Ah…yes?” She rubbed the heel of her hand over her chest. “Her name is Danielle. Your first name is Daniel.”
“I know what my first name is.” He never used it. It was a stupid
name. Daniel Boone. Seriously. His real name was Daniel Boone
Cassidy, Jr—yet another reason to hate his name, because it was his father’s name, too. His father had gone by the name Daniel and Boone had wanted no similarity between them, had even considered changing his name at one point, but decided the asshole wasn’t worth the effort or the money it would have cost. “But how did you know my name?”
“It was on the wedding program,” she said, shrugging. “Is…is there a problem?”
A knot settled in Boone’s chest.
“Why would you name her after me?” he asked, the words tight and rusty-sounding.
She crossed the porch to stand in front of him and then, as he stood there frozen and confused, she rose up onto her toes and pressed her lips to his. “The question is…why wouldn’t I?”
He wrapped his arms around her, hauling her against him. “Sloane,” he choked out.
She murmured his name and skimmed her hand up and down his neck, a soothing, gentle caress.
Hope and terror made a dangerous mix inside him and before he could let himself think about it, he set Sloane away. He started to pace, his long legs eating up the distance with quick, jerky strides. “I want this,” he said, the words tumbling out of him before he could think them through. “I want Dani and I want you and I want this place. I want…”
He stopped at her shaky gasp.
Jerking his head up, he stared at her. “I don’t want to rush you. I know it will take time, but I…I want this. I’ve never really thought much about being…I dunno…happy, but the thought of being here, with both of you…it makes my chest ache and I want it. I’ll do my best to make you happy, if you just give me a chance. I—”
Whatever else he was going to say was smothered against her lips.
She kissed him, on the lips, his cheeks, his nose, his lowered lids and then his lips again. “Yes.”
He caught her arms and forced her back.
She grinned at him, her eyes damp and sparkling.
“…yes?” And his voice cracked.
“Yes…you big idiot.” She shrugged his hands away and then moved in, throwing her arms around his neck. “I’ve been happy before…I know what it’s like. But I also know I’ll be happier with you. With us. I want—”
It was his turn to kiss her, cutting off the flow of words with his mouth.
Sloane sighed against his lips and curled her arms around him.
>
And for the first time in his life, Boone felt complete.
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More Titles by Shiloh Walker
Wrecked
Razed
Busted
Beg Me
Tempt Me
Every Last Fantasy
Beautiful Scars
Beautiful Girl
If You Hear Her
If You See Her
If You Know Her
Burn For Me
Break For Me
Long For Me
Deeper Than Need
Sweeter Than Sin
Darker Than Desire
Her Best Friend’s Lover
About
Shiloh Walker has been writing since she was a kid. She fell in love with vampires with the book Bunnicula and has worked her way up to the more…ah…serious works of fiction. She loves reading and writing anything paranormal, anything fantasy, and nearly every kind of romance. Once upon a time she worked as a nurse, but now she writes full time and lives with her family in the Midwest. She writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance, and urban fantasy under her penname, J.C. Daniels. Learn more about her work at her website, www.shilohwalker.com.