“What are we having for dinner?” I asked. I climbed onto a barstool at the counted and adjusted my dress so I didn’t accidentally flash Daniel too much leg. I wanted to be subtle in my seduction.
“We’re having scalloped portobello mushrooms, summer squash, mint, and pecorino pasta and a summer salad, chocolate mousse for dessert,” Daniel said.
“And you made all that?” I asked, impressed.
“Everything except the mousse. I’m not good with dessert,” Daniel said.
“Can you sense my disappointment in you?” I asked, grimacing for added effect.
The grin he shot my way made me feel all warm and gooey inside. I took a sip of my wine and asked him if he needed any help.
“Dinner’s going to be ready in a few minutes.”
“Oh, I meant to tell you, the Mayor’s daughter is getting married and I’m going to bake her cakes. I was their seventh choice, but whatever. This means if I can get my shit together, I can be number one again.”
“You are number one. You’re still the Cupcake Queen.”
I winced and almost spit out my wine. “Please don’t use that nickname. It’s cursed me. It sucked out all my creative juices.”
Daniel looked at me dubiously.
“It’s true. My problem started right after that article came out. It was supposed to be a good thing and look where it’s led me.”
Sometimes, I had this insane urge to call up the reporter and ask her if she had made a voodoo doll with my hair and was using it to ruin my business. Daniel turned off the stove and came around to stand in front of me.
“Eve, your problem sounds psychological. Is it possible you think you don’t deserve all the praise? It would make sense if you’re making your brain work against you.”
It was entirely possible and it was an option I had already examined. It was the most likely culprit. How did I convince myself that I deserved the praise all the while thinking I didn’t deserve it? Daniel pressed a kiss on my lips.
“Do you know you have the most amazing lips?” He asked.
“I do?”
Daniel brushed a thumb across my bottom lip.
“This bottom one is so soft and pouty. I think about kissing it all the time. It’s getting unhealthy.”
“I don’t mind. You can kiss me all the time,” I breathed.
“Yeah? It will be hard to go anywhere while being attached at the lips.”
His lips were hovering right over mine and god, I just wanted him to stop talking and kiss me again. I wanted him to do a lot more than just kiss me. We could always talk later.
“I think we’ll manage just fine,” I said, before firmly kissing him. His hands were on my thighs, warm on my bare skin. My spine tingled with desire and need and the feel of having Daniel so close.
“Daniel,” I breathed against his lips. “How dead set are you on the whole dinner and conversation thing? Because as much as I love that idea, I really, really want to have sex with you.”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
Chapter 23 – Eve
We fumbled our way up to his bedroom, refusing to stop kissing which made climbing the stairs and navigating down the hallway very difficult. Daniel pressed me against the wall of his bedroom, our bodies moving together, already imitating the act of sex even though we were still clothed.
My hands went to the buttons of Daniel’s shirt and I started popping them open. Daniel removed his mouth from mine and kissed along my jaw and down my neck. Being with him now, like this, was a lot different than I had imagined when I was lying awake at night in my bed thinking about this very moment. We were clumsy, excited, a bit like teenagers having sex for the first time, but our hands were sure, our moves confident if a little rushed. I hadn’t imagined Daniel’s fierce, desperate kisses, or my needy reactions to them. I hitched a leg around his waist, allowing him to grind his erection into my center.
“Fuck, Evelyn,” Daniel groaned against my mouth. I yanked his shirt out of his pants and pushed it off his shoulders. He helped me by taking it off the rest of the way and tossing it into the corner of the room. He had no idea how hot that move was, for someone like him who was organized to a fault, to just throw caution to the wind. This was his adventurous side coming out to play.
“How do you take this thing off?” Daniel demanded in frustration, looking for a zipper on the back of the dress and failing to find it.
“The zipper is on the side,” I said, laughing and raising my arm to show him. I would have helped but I was too busy splaying my hands over his body, kissing his neck, and tasting his skin. Daniel managed to unzip my dress and push the straps off my shoulder, letting the dress pool at my feet.
I expected him to move us to the bed. Instead, he took a step back. I frowned, my chest rising and falling as I breathed hard. Daniel licked his lips, his heated gaze moved along my body, touching me without touching me. I had the sudden urge to cross my arms and hide my body from his inspection. I wasn’t self-conscious of my body but standing in front of his bronze surfer god perfection made me realize it had been a very long time since I had worked out and my thighs and stomach were a lot softer than they used to be.
I shifted restlessly on my feet.
“How are you even more beautiful than I imagined?” He asked.
“That is a very good question and I would be willing to answer it, except the only thing I can think of is why you’re still half-dressed.”
He chuckled and I leaned down to take off my sandals. The move caused my equilibrium to shift and the next thing I knew I was falling right into Daniel. He tried to reach for me but he was entirely unprepared for it; we both went down.
Daniel let out a grunt, and not the sexy kind. I scrambled up his body and saw his eyes were scrunched closed and his lips were pursed in pain.
“Oh my god, are you okay?” I asked frantically. I palmed his cheek, turning his face towards me.
Daniel opened his eyes finally, the intense blueness of them making my heart stutter.
“Give me a minute, you knocked the breath out of me,” he groaned. I leaned in and kissed his neck, unable to resist the urge to giggle. I didn’t want to laugh when he was down. Oh, God, it was just so much fun to be with him. I kept thinking with anyone else, falling on top of him would be a total mood killer. I certainly haven’t laughed while I had been two pieces of clothing away from being completed naked and all because Daniel made me so comfortable.
“Are you laughing?” Daniel asked disbelievingly.
“No!” I choked out. I nipped at his ear and raised onto my elbow to stare down at him. Daniel placed a hand at the back of my head and brought my mouth down to his. I kissed him back, nipping and sucking on his bottom lip.
His other hand caressed my back, lowering down over the curve of my ass and coming to rest on my thigh. I pulled back immediately.
“Daniel, we don’t have to do this. You can be seriously injured,” I protested.
“I don’t think you understand how a man’s thought process works. Nothing trumps sex with a beautiful woman, not even an injury, which I don’t have.”
I snorted. “Daniel, seriously—”
He didn’t give me the chance to finish. He pushed me back and rolled over me in a heartbeat, proving that he wasn’t seriously hurt. My legs parted and his hips rested against mine, cradle by my thighs. The weight of his body over mine, our bare skin pressed together was the most erotic sensation in the world.
Daniel leaned down for a kiss, gently rocking his erection against my core. I gasped into his mouth.
“Do you have any idea how many times I’ve thought about this?” Daniel asked in a hoarse whisper. His elbows rested on either side of my head and he pushed up to look down at me. For this moment, Daniel was my everything, surrounding my senses. He was all I could see, touch, smell, hear, and taste. The star that shined so brightly it caused the other stars to pale in comparison.
I shook my head in reply to his question.
&
nbsp; “All the fucking time, Eve. I think about this all the fucking time. There are so many things I want to do with you, to you. I don’t know where to start. I want to touch you…” His one hand cupped my shoulder and caressed down to my breast, lowering the cup of my bra. He licked his lips, brushed his thumb across my peaked nipple, the action shooting straight to my core and making me rock my hips against his.
“I want to taste you…” Daniel shifted down and placed his hot mouth around the tip of my breast, sucking and biting. I cried out, winding my fingers through his hair to hold him in place. He lifted his mouth, pulled down the other bra cup, and flicked and licked the hardened peak of my breast.
My breath left me in a shaky exhale. I urged him back up and kissed him hard. My brain was short-circuiting with my need and his touch made me feel fiery.
“Daniel, now, please,” I breathed against his mouth.
“I love the way you say my name,” he said. “So needy.”
I shifted my hands from his back to his front, moving them down his chest to the waistband of his jeans. Unbuttoning it, I lowered the zipper, pushing a hand inside and gripping him through his underwear.
He hissed out a hard breath. ”Fuck, Eve!”
He set his teeth around my neck and bit gently. “Your skin is so soft. Makes me wonder if you’re soft everywhere.”
His hand was on my body, tracing down to that aching spot between my thighs where I needed him the most. He set his mouth on mine at the same time he slipped two fingers under the waistband of my panties. The feel of his rough fingers on such a sensitive part of my body had my hips arching with need.
I grabbed his arm, not sure if I was trying to stop him or urging him on.
“Daniel,” I gasped.
Finally, finally, he had mercy on me. I let him reach into his pocket and pull out a condom. I arched an eyebrow.
“Prepared, aren’t you? I thought tonight was just for dinner and conversation.”
Daniel grinned wickedly. “Sweetheart, a man is always hoping and is, therefore, always prepared.”
He brought the foil packet to his mouth, ripped it open. I felt the movement of his hand as he rolled on the condom. I took the moment to slide out of my panties. Just as I thought he was about to enter me, he stopped and stared down at me. The haze of lust seemed to disappear from his eyes, so they were clear and bright.
“You’re amazing,” he said, right before he pushed into me with a hard, forceful thrust. My stomach convulsed against his and our mouths met in a wet, hungry kiss.
He was everywhere, everything. I heard him whispering words in my ear—fuck, tight, so good, perfect—but they were disjointed and made my vision blur. I wasn’t a talker, but I wouldn’t have been able to stop my words even if I wanted to. I told him how good it was, how full I felt, that I was close, and that this was better than the fantasies because it was real.
And then I couldn’t talk because words didn’t exist. It was only him and me, and the sensations he was stoking inside me. Our bodies slick with sweat and sliding together, frantic and pulsing with need. My orgasm felt sudden, my body bowing off the ground. I cried out Daniel’s name as I saw entire galaxies behind my closed lids. And he was right there with me, his body shuddering beneath my hands before he went still, the muscles of his back bunched and his body coming to rest on top of mine.
A single thought occurred to me before I could stop it or even be aware of it.
For the first time in I didn’t remember how long, I felt utterly and completely safe.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said, later. Much, much later.
Daniel looked up at me, his eyes sparkling like jewels. He stood next to the stove, wearing navy blue sweats and the quiet, proud smile of a man who had managed to get his girlfriend off four times. And the night wasn’t even over yet.
“You wanted pancakes, I’m making you pancakes,” he said.
“I said that in passing. I didn’t mean for you to make me pancakes after you’d already made me dinner,” I protested. I shifted on the barstool, wincing at the soreness between my thighs.
After that first time on the floor, Daniel made me come on his fingers while whispering the filthiest things in my ear. Then he had shifted down my limp, exhausted body and made me come again, his tongue and that filthy mouth taking me to new heights of ecstasy. When he had finally entered me again, it had been harder, rougher, his hand grasping my thigh tightly, our harsh noises filling the room. I had the most intense orgasm and nearly passed out.
After our breathing had returned to normal, the only thing I could think of was that I wanted pancakes. I hadn’t realized that I had voiced it aloud because the next thing I knew, Daniel was lifting me and taking me to the bathroom so we could clean up. After which he wrapped me in his discarded shirt, put on a pair of sweats and here we were, in the kitchen, and he was making me pancakes at midnight.
I put my chin on my hand, watching him pour batter into a pan.
“How was your visit with your family?” I asked conversationally.
Daniel shrugged, without turning around to look at me.
“Fine.”
“That bad, huh?”
He looked at me over his shoulder. “I’m trying to not scare you away.”
“I can assure you that’s not going to happen. There’s something I would like to share with you. Something I have never shared with anyone before, other than the girls,” I said. Was it weird that I had made this decision while we were having sex? That my mind could form this idea during sex was no small feat. Or maybe, it made perfect sense that I had made this decision while we were naked and intimate. How much closer could you possibly get to a person? He had been open and honest with me since our first date, I could manage the same.
Daniel switched off the stove, moved the pan, and walked over to me. I turned to face him fully and he placed his hands on my arms, kissed my forehead.
“I hope you know there’s nothing you can tell me that will change the way I feel about you,” he said.
“It’s nothing as bad as that,” I said, laughing nervously. “I’m…adopted.”
Daniel blinked once, frowning slightly.
“Yes, that’s the end of it. And I know it doesn’t sound like it’s a big deal. It isn’t really. It’s just that I wanted you to know where my trust issues stem from and I hope it explains a lot about me.” I was rambling and I bit my lip to stop myself from saying anything else.
“That night, when you said your parents saved you?” Daniel said.
I nodded. “My adoptive parents. I was in foster care; it didn’t work out with any of the families. I was put in a group home and my mother came to visit one day; she was working on a case. According to her, it was love at first sight. I was twelve.”
“How long were you in foster care?”
“Two years.”
“What happened to your parents?”
“My mother died. I never knew my father. There’s no name on my birth certificate. My step-father ran away and wanted nothing to do with me.”
“And you have no other family?” Daniel asked, then winced. “I’m sorry, you don’t have to answer my questions.”
“No, I want to. That’s why I told you. I want to trust you; I do trust you. My mother had me when she was seventeen. She was a runaway. After she died, they searched for my next of kin. My grandparents were dead, there was no one else,” I said. I stopped to take a deep breath. “And even if there was, I don’t think they would want anything to do with me.”
“And I thought my family was messed up,” Daniel muttered.
I smirked. “At least none of you were abandoned.”
Daniel frowned at me. “You weren’t abandoned. Your people found you; they were just a little late.”
I smiled up at him, letting him pull me into a hug. He was warm, his skin soft, our scents mingling together on his skin and creating an intoxicating mix.
“Thank you for telling me,” Daniel breathed agains
t my neck. His breath stirred the hair at the nape of my neck causing goosebumps to rise along my skin. I felt light and airy like a giant weight had been lifted off my chest. If I had known how good it would feel just to say everything out loud, I would have done it months ago. Deep down, I knew the reason it was easy with Daniel was that he didn’t offer any solutions or ways to make it better. He just listened and accepted.
Daniel kissed my neck, once, twice, and my exhausted body stirred to life. I moaned, arching my neck to give him better access. I reached for the waistband of his sweats and he abruptly moved away, his face flushed with embarrassment as he raked a hand through his already messy hair.
“What?” I asked.
“We can’t. I’m out of condoms.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded. “What, like completely out or you have some upstairs?”
“Completely out.”
“What happened to a man always hoping and being prepared?”
“I was prepared. I’m thirty-three, not sixteen. I’m neither that optimistic nor that gullible.”
I pouted, and he kissed it away.
“I’ll be prepared next time.” Hmm, I was on the pill. I was about to mention that to him when he pinned me with a shrewd gaze. “And don’t think I didn’t see you wincing.”
He placed a smacking kiss on my cheek and moved back to the stove, telling me all about his workday and asking me about mine. Just like that, the conversation turned to lighter topics.
Later, lying in bed next to him, I watched him sleep for the longest time. My heartbeat was a staccato rhythm in my chest, thump, thump, thump, music just for Daniel. Lying there next to him, I knew that I was fooling myself thinking I was falling for him, when the truth was, I was already in love with him.
Chapter 24 – Daniel
With things between Eve and I settled and on solid ground, there was one other person I needed to talk to.
“You can’t make me talk to you. I’ll tell Dad,” Sienna said, as soon as I walked up to her outside the hospital. We stopped next to her car and she stared up at me defiantly.
Not My Type : Golden Girls 1 Page 19