She sat up, not bothering to cover herself with a sheet. He loved that she was so comfortable with him. With a curious smile she checked the contents of the bag.
“You bought me trainers?” Her smile became a teasing laugh.
He nodded, unashamed. “Checked your size in those boots. You have sweat pants, right?”
She nodded but a wary expression had dulled the brilliance of her eyes. “Don’t you usually run with Xander and Logan?”
Usually. Not recently. And today he wanted to run with her. “They’re busy.”
“Okay.”
Ten minutes later he watched his breath cloud in front of him, watched her laughing as she determinedly huffed out a bigger cloud.
“Mine’s bigger,” she declared.
“I thought size didn’t matter?”
She turned and jogged backwards to flutter her lashes at him. “Oh it matters.”
“There speaks the expert,” he snorted.
She blew him a kiss on a cloud.
He’d known she’d like it. She was like her brothers, long limbed, strong, a natural athlete. And she’d grown up in a sporting playground. For all her bookworm status, she was equally at home stretching out and pushing her body to its limits.
Yeah, to his delight he’d learned that already.
The snowfall was light, pretty. Freezing.
“You have snow bling,” she teased, ruffling his hair with her hand as they walked the last few paces into the hotel.
It wasn’t the snow making his life sparkle.
He showered with her and reluctantly headed downstairs. He hadn’t had a vacation from his hotel ever. He’d lived and breathed the place since it had been nothing more than a spark of an idea. But he really wanted a break. He wanted to enjoy all of every day he had with Dani before she left him.
He was like a man feasting before the famine he knew was looming. And she threw herself into it with equal abandon, like an escaped prisoner who knew she’d be flung back into solitary the second she was captured.
But on the Friday, when he went to sneak a late lunch hour with her, she wasn’t in her usual place on the sofa. She stood stiffly by the window, looking down on the busy street.
He hesitated, clocking her tense stance and feeling his own apprehension grow. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She turned and smiled, but it was strained.
“You’ve been out?” He noticed her light make-up, her smarter clothing, her neatly-swept back hair.
“Checking out job prospects.”
His heart skidded. “How’d that go?”
“Okay,” she pulled a face. “It’s tough out there for the unfinished arts student.”
He’d give her a job in a second if she wanted him to. But that might change the dynamic between them and he didn’t want her feeling that she owed him anything—staying with him was probably enough as it was. She wanted independence. He just hoped she didn’t want to leave to do it.
But he had to stand back and let her do as she desired. He couldn’t try to influence her when she was only just escaping her parents’ control. He of all people understood the need to take charge of your own life. To make your own success.
“Hunter’s back.” She rubbed her fingers up and down the outside seam of her black jeans. “I saw him in the lobby when I came in just before.” She glanced up at him anxiously. “But don’t worry, he didn’t see me.”
There was no way Hunter, super-freaking security specialist and borderline mercenary, hadn’t seen her.
Dani gnawed on her lower lip. “I won’t tell.”
He watched her swallow, hating that she was so worried about his reaction. Did she think he’d be angry? Did she think he’d break this off immediately?
He didn’t want her to feel like she was his dirty secret or that he was ashamed of her.
Because he wasn’t. He wanted to walk down the street holding her hand. Proclaim to the world that she was with him. He wanted her to know that—because it was clear now that she didn’t.
“Don’t worry about it,” he answered.
But he worried. Hunter would have seen. Hunter, as tight-lipped as he could be, would talk. If not to Logan, then definitely to Rocco. So what was Rocco going to say back when he did?
Logan hadn’t called again since that first night. Rocco knew his friend was going through some issues of his own, but it was no excuse not to have checked on her. He should be more concerned about his sister.
She deserved more care than that.
His muscles tightened. He cared more than that. He cared more about her, and her happiness, than anything. Or anyone else.
Certainty settled into his bones. It was time for a pre-emptive strike.
No matter what the outcome might be, she needed to know the truth of how he felt.
She was worth it.
The next morning he took his time to wake her. Torment her. He roused her to orgasm again, then again, not fulfilling her breathless plea for him to fuck her. This was so much more than a fuck. This was intense pleasure. An act that made his heart fill to bursting.
Only when he was shaking with the strain, only when she was a ball of fire and energy, her hands all over him in frantic demand, only then did he finally thrust hard inside.
Dani.
He grabbed her hands, laced and locked his fingers with hers, and looked into her beautiful eyes.
So close.
He wanted it to last forever.
But it couldn’t. In that vulnerable corner of his soul, he knew it wouldn’t.
“Come downstairs with me,” he said after they’d showered and dressed.
“You don’t have boring paperwork to do?”
“I always have boring paperwork.” But he also had a plan he had to see through.
She accompanied him down to the ground floor. His heart thudding, he led her towards the private meeting suites.
He laced his fingers in hers again, drawing her closer as they went down the corridor towards the door at the end. The one that was open.
“What are you doing?” She glanced at him as he stroked his thumb over the back of her hand.
“Enjoying your company.” He lifted her hand and kissed it.
She actually darted a look to ensure no one was in the corridor to see. “Have you been drinking?”
“You insult me. And yourself.” He tugged on her hand so she stumbled into him.
Laughing, she lifted her face. His to kiss. And he would. It might be his last chance before—
“What the fuck’s going on?”
His lips still pressed to hers, Rocco watched her eyes flash open. Saw the horror slice into them as she registered who’d spoken. She jerked back.
But Rocco held her hand hard. He turned to face his friend.
Logan looked from Rocco to Dani. To their linked hands. And at Rocco again.
Dani tried to tug her hand out of his. He didn’t let her.
He’d always known this time with her couldn’t last forever. But he wanted to let her know he was here for her—proud to be with her—for as long as she wanted.
“Are you...?” Logan paused and audibly inhaled a huge breath. “Are you...?”
“Yes.” Rocco took a slight step ahead of Danielle bracing himself for the punch he deserved.
At least Logan would never know just how bad it was. That Rocco had taken her virginity in a deliberate marathon. Taken her every which way at least four times a day since. But actually, Rocco had long since decided the sex wasn’t relevant to this. What was relevant was everything else about her.
Logan tensed, clearly winding up. “Is this why you called me here? There was me thinking I could—”
“It’s my fault.” Danielle interrupted.
“Oh I bet it is.” Logan lurched to face her.
Rocco read the identical expressions on the siblings faces and knew war was imminent.
“For heaven’s sake, come in here.” Rocco marched forward, taking Dani with
him, into the private room he’d booked.
“My god,” Logan pressed a fist to his forehead. “Of all the fucking things to have to deal with right now.”
“There’s nothing for you to deal with,” Danielle said coolly.
Rocco could feel her trembling. She tried to tug her hand free of his again. He knew she wanted to bolt. But she didn’t. And he didn’t release her.
“It’s none of your business,” she said, glaring at her brother.
“You’re wrong.” Logan glared at her. “It is my business. He’s my best friend. You’re my sister.”
“Logan, you don’t understand.” Rocco said. He’d spent all night awake, planning what he’d say, it was time to get it said. “I’m not going to—”
“Don’t hurt him.” Logan ignored him and kept glaring at Dani.
“What?” she asked.
“What?” Rocco didn’t think he’d heard right.
Logan turned to him. “I know you. What you’ve lost. What you’ve fought for.” He took a quick breath and visibly tried to ease his aggressive stance. “For you to risk this—us—tells me how much you care about her. I know this is special for you.”
For a second Rocco just stared at him. Then the wave of relief hit. He breathed out, struggling to cope as the surge of adrenalin ebbed. He’d been preparing to fight. Hard.
But he wasn’t going to have to. His best friend understood. He would never have touched Dani unless it meant a lot.
But not even Rocco had realized just how much it meant.
He was so shocked he didn’t realize Dani had extricated her hand from his death grip. Now she stepped further away.
“But you?” Logan’s eyes narrowed on his sister. “Modelling one minute, not modelling the next? Is this another whim? A fancy? Are you going to flit off the second another idea pops into your head?”
Rocco froze, struggling to get his head around Logan’s reaction. This just wasn’t going down the way he’d imagined it would.
Dani’s face paled, her eyes widened and focused on her brother.
“What the hell are you playing at now?” Logan lashed out at her.
“The modelling was a desperate plan,” she answered in a harsh voice. “How else was I to get out of there? It worked for you.”
“It didn’t work. It wasn’t good for me and it’d be worse for you.” Logan snapped back at her. “And like you’d survive five minutes on a shoot?” He rolled his eyes. “You never last anywhere for long.”
Rocco stiffened, his protective instinct surging. She’d grown up in a house devoid of love and laughter and then was packed off to a posh school where there was nothing but study and isolation. It was a wonder she hadn’t been searching for love in all the wrong places. In so many ways she was so fucking together.
But now he saw it. That moment of vulnerability as she recoiled.
She was beautiful inside and out. But she didn’t believe it. Didn’t believe anyone truly wanted her. Believed in her. Not even him.
She was bared to him in that moment. And dangerously close to broken. He wasn’t going to let that happen. Because he understood exactly how she felt.
Rocco stepped forward. “Logan—”
“You’re so spoilt.” Logan ignored him, his voice rising as he berated his sister. “You just want your own way and you’ll consider anything to get it. You want out from our father’s grip.”
“Can you of all people, blame me for that?” she asked.
Rocco suddenly felt like he’d been hollowed out. Suddenly it wasn’t just Dani he needed to protect, but himself.
“I don’t blame you, but I don’t like your way of doing it,” Logan growled at Dani. “You better be very sure you’re not using Rocco to get out.”
She was silenced. Rocco saw the shock on her face. The naked moment of—what?
Truth?
Anger flashed. He scowled at Logan, furious with him for suggesting that—even though in his heart, he knew his friend was probably right.
Rocco was her escape route?
Yeah. He could see that. But even as he realized it, he also knew he didn’t care. His stupid heart could just get over it. She was never going to be his for long. He’d always suspected that. She was too young, too beautiful... ultimately out of his league.
But he’d be here as long as she wanted him.
He turned his gaze back to her. But it was too late. In the pin-drop, pained silence, it wasn’t Logan she was looking at with heartbreak in her eyes.
It was him.
Horror mixed with hot shame at the reproach he read in her expression. His skin burned. She’d seen his doubt. That he believed what Logan had said.
“Rocco.”
Her voice was so sad, it almost broke him.
“It seems two people in the room love you,” she said quietly. “The question is whether you’re going to let both of them.”
Not for the first time, she rendered him speechless.
Dani looked from Rocco’s dark seriousness to Logan’s cut-glass, cold blue eyes. Her heart raced so fast she thought she was going to pass out.
Not happening.
Because she had a fight on her hands and it wasn’t with Logan. Her brother could think what he liked. Maybe he was justified in thinking it.
But she’d changed and it was time to prove it. No more running away.
“You don’t have faith in me,” she said to Logan. It wasn’t a question, just a quiet statement of fact.
Her brother looked back at her, his silence his answer.
“You don’t believe in me. You never have.” She squared her shoulders. “Which just shows that you don’t really know me. So there’s nothing I can say to change your mind. I get your view but you can go away now. This fight isn’t anything to do with you.”
Logan’s eyebrows pulled together as he looked at her. Really looked at her. He was silent a long, long moment.
“Logan, please leave.” Her voice hitched.
She needed him to get out of there before she lost it. She needed to talk to Rocco before she lost it. And she needed space to be able to do that.
But Logan didn’t leave. He stepped closer to her, his expression suddenly bitter. “Recently it’s been brought to my attention, that I don’t have faith in myself.” He shifted on his feet, like he was itching to walk. “But you’re not me. Maybe it wasn’t fair of me to project my faithlessness onto you.” He broke off.
His stern expression dropped, revealing that old self-mocking expression. “Maybe even I’m not as bad as I think I am. I’m working on it,” he suddenly confessed. “I need to work on it. We don’t have to be like him.”
Dani looked up at her handsome, tormented brother. “You’ve never been like him.”
For all his tabloid dramas, Logan was a far better man than their father.
“No?” A pained look crossed his face. “I just was.”
Chapter Thirteen
DANI SAID NOTHING as her brother swiftly left the room and closed the door behind him without a backwards glance.
Rocco said nothing either.
Finally, when the silence built up enough to be screaming at her, she looked at him.
“I’m not running away,” she said, forcing her chin high. “I want to. I so badly want to.”
He took a step towards her. “Dani—”
She put a hand up and he stopped. They both knew she’d seen it in him.
“You think it too. I saw it on your face. You think I’ll leave you,” she breathed out shakily. “Sooner rather than later.”
Rocco’s face whitened.
“They all think I’m flighty. Selfish. That I can’t settle to anything. That I’ll hurt you. But they don’t get it. You’re what I want. Who I want. The person I’ve wanted for a long time. And okay, maybe that started as a crush. As lust. But I know you. I know your loyalty. Courage. Strength. Humor...” she trailed off, her anger building because she’d been forced to admit this sooner than she’d wanted to.
That she was so exposed. And scared.
“Don’t you dare give up on me before we’ve begun,” she growled. “I’m fighting for you. And for me.”
“Dani.” He looked wistful. “I know you think you mean it. But you’re young. You’ll grow and change and one day you’ll wake up and you’ll want something else. Something more. And that’s okay.”
She shook her head and only just held back from stamping her foot, furious that she wasn’t getting through to him. It wasn’t okay. And it wasn’t happening.
“And you’re all grown up? You’re never going to grow and change anymore?” she scoffed. “I hate to break it to you, but you’re not that old. We all keep growing, don’t we? Adapting? Can’t we grow together? Change direction, sure, but go along that new path together?”
She broke off. He was staring at her so intently, like he desperately wanted to believe her. Yet that doubt was still there, like a somber shadow lurking.
“How can you think I’m flighty about this? About us?” She shook her head. “Hell, stupid me for wanting you for so long. For not screwing around with other guys...”
That earned her a small smile. It flashed on his face—and then flashed off.
“Dani.” Sighing, he leaned against the wall, his arms folded across his chest. “Sometimes, when you get something you’ve wanted for a long time... once you’ve had it... you move on. You don’t want it any more.”
“You said you’ve wanted me for a while,” she said.
“Longer than it’s right for me to say.”
“And...” A horrible thought hit her. “Do you not want me anymore?” Shit, was that what this was? He was trying to let her down in a weird way—putting it on her?
His lashes lowered, hiding his troubled eyes from her. “I want you.” Raw, low, honesty.
Relief touched down for only a second. “Then why do you think it’s any different for me?” She walked up to him, needing to see him better, to understand. To make him understand. “The more I have of you, the more I want. It’s not enough. Never enough. It’s like you’ve opened up this huge hole in me and it can’t be filled.”
He bent his head. Hiding his expression from her.
“Have Logan or Connor ever let you down?” she asked softly.
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