I glance at him as he switches on my car and pulls out of the parking space.
“Is that why you did it?” I ask.
“Did what?”
I take a deep breath. “Told them that we’re in love. Were you just giving them what they want?”
Keagan shakes his head and looks sideways at me, puzzled.
“No. I said it because that’s the truth.”
I shake my head. “Did you ask me?”
He blinks. “What?”
“Did you ask me if that was what I felt, or did you just decide for yourself?”
Keagan doesn’t hesitate. “I didn’t think I had to ask.”
“I would have liked it if you did. You can’t know what I’m thinking, or what I’m feeling.”
Keagan shakes his head. “I thought we knew what we felt for each other.”
I nod, looking out of the passenger window.
“I know what I feel for you, Keagan, but I would have liked the opportunity to tell you before you just took it as a given.”
“I don’t understand why you’re upset,” he says. “It’s not a big deal.”
I’m angry now. “It’s a big deal to me. It’s my heart we’re talking about here, and my emotions. Everything we’ve been doing has been behind closed doors, but this? I didn’t want you to just assume. I keep giving myself to you, again and again, but you don’t once ask me what I’m feeling.”
“Dana,” he starts, but I don’t let him finish. I shake my head.
“No more, Keagan,” I say. We stop at a traffic light, and I suddenly can’t stand being around him. Not if he will dictate who I should be. He doesn’t get to call the shots just because we fell into each other’s arms and each other’s laps.
I open the door and get out.
“What are you doing?” Keagan asks. “Get in the car.”
“This is how it is?” I ask. “You’re just going to tell me what to do?”
He’s angry now, too. I can see it on his face. His eyes blaze, and he’s clenching his jaw.
“I don’t need this shit from you,” he says. “It’s a big deal to me to sacrifice my reputation for you. And the moment I do, you get pissed at me?”
I slam the door shut, cutting him off. I don’t want to hear what he sacrificed for me. We’ve both made equal sacrifices. He’s not better than I am.
Keagan is pissed off that I cut off his sentence by closing the door.
“Fine!” he shouts, loud enough that I hear his muffled voice through the closed door. He floors it and speeds off into the night.
I’m alone in the middle of LA. It’s dark, and I don’t have anything with me other than my little handbag that matches the dress. I start walking in the direction of my parents’ studio. I can’t think where else to go. I can’t call my friends, and my parents’ place is the closest. I wrap my arms around myself and start shivering, even though I’m not cold.
Did I make a mistake?
Keagan
At first, after Dana got out of the car in the middle of nowhere, I was angry. She was being ridiculous, I told myself, and I didn’t want to deal with her drama. I didn’t like being cut off in the middle of my sentences, and I went through a lot to go public so that neither of us had to worry.
I expected she would come home with a cab or something.
When she didn’t come home at all, I started to worry. The next few days I tried to call her, but she wouldn’t answer.
Now, it’s Friday, and I don’t know where she is or what she’s doing. I just know that she wants nothing to do with me. At first, I was angry about that, too. She was just overreacting. The more I thought about it, the more I understood why she was angry.
All I want to do now is tell her that I’m sorry and make it right. But I don’t know where the hell she is.
Our photo was all over the news, but the thrill of it all, the rush of going public, was tainted. I don’t care now what we do, or what happens, as long as I can speak to her.
I keep running scenarios through my mind where something went wrong, and she’s not okay. I shouldn’t have left her alone in the streets in the middle of the night. But I was angry.
All that anger is gone now. All that’s left is regret and worry and the feeling that whatever I did before to make it work, it was all for nothing.
I leave work early because I can’t concentrate on my work. I keep checking my phone, but I know she won’t call me. Not if she’s not answering my calls. I haven’t spoken to anyone about what happened, not even Mason. Everyone is still talking about us going public. I can’t exactly tell them how short-lived our bliss was.
I decide to go talk to my dad. If someone can give me advice, it’s him. He’s not very happy about our relationship, but he’ll be straight with me, and right now, I am in desperate need of advice.
When I go the studio, it’s closed for the day. I frown and walk to the door that leads upstairs to their apartment above. I knock on the door. It clicks from the inside as someone unlocks it, and the door swings open.
Dana stands in front of me like a vision.
“God, Dana, I’ve been worried sick about you,” I say.
She doesn’t answer me. She just shrugs. She’s wearing track suit pants that belong to Susan and a t-shirt with a peace sign in flowers on it. Her hair hangs around her face, and she has dark circles beneath her eyes like she hasn’t slept very much.
“What do you want, Keagan?” she asks. She sounds as tired as she looks.
“I wanted advice from my dad, but now that you’re here, it’s so much better.”
She rolls her eyes, leaves the door open, and walks to the living room where she sits down on the couch. I sit down, too.
“Please talk to me,” I say.
“What do you want me to say?”
She doesn’t sound happy. I don’t blame her.
I shake my head. “You don’t have to say anything,” I say. “I’m the one that has to do the talking.”
She pulls her legs up so that her feet are on the couch, and she hugs her knees to her chest. She looks defensive and vulnerable. Large windows look out over the street, and I look at the view that she seems to be studying so intently.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
Dana looks at me. “I don’t want to be in this thing for you just to call the shots and tell me what to do.”
I nod. “I know. I was wrong. I should have talked to you about everything before I said anything to the press. But the truth is…” I hesitate because it’s not easy for me to talk about my emotions like this. I have to do it, though, if I want us to go anywhere. “I was scared.”
Dana blinks at me. “Of what?”
“Of telling you how I feel about you. I was scared that you might reject me. I didn’t want to ruin what we already had, and I was scared that it would hurt when I told you.”
“Tell me what?” she asks. Her voice is breathy, her eyes large, and she looks younger than usual, more fragile.
I take a deep breath. “That I love you.”
She stares at me for a moment, and I don’t know what to expect. Dana shakes her head back and forth, and her eyes slide back to the view. I move from my couch to hers and take her hand.
“I’m serious,” I say. “I love you. I should have told you before I told them. I was wrong. I’m sorry.”
Dana swallows. “I want to be angry at you,” she says. “But all I am is hurt.”
I nod. I understand.
“I made sacrifices, too, you know.”
I nod again. “I know. Your job. And going public. I realize it’s a bigger sacrifice for you than it is for me. I know I was wrong.”
I raise her hand to my lips and plant a kiss on her knuckles. She looks at me, and for a moment, I think she’s going to cry. She lets out a shuddering breath and nods.
“It’s okay,” she says in a soft voice. And I believe her. “I love you, too.”
The words are so soft from her lips I can barely hear them, but they’re there, a
nd they are real. I hesitate only a moment before I take her head in my hands and kiss her.
She kisses me back, carefully at first, but then the kiss intensifies, and suddenly, all I want to do is be inside her. It’s not about lust, either. I want to claim her as mine, to take her back into my personal space, to keep her safe and not let her go.
“Let’s move away from windows,” she says. I have a feeling she feels the same as I do, but I won’t assume again.
“What do you want to do?”
“I want to be with you,” she says, and the way she says it tells me exactly what she means.
I get up and hold my hand out to her. She takes my hand, and I pull her against me. I’m already hard for her, but I want to make this about her.
The only two places in the apartment with windows that allow for privacy is in the spare bedroom and the main bedroom. There’s no way I’m going to lead Dana to the main bedroom, so we walk to the spare, and I close the door.
“Where are they?” I ask Dana, only thinking to ask, now.
“They’re on some expedition. Chris said they’ll be all day.”
I smile at her. “Perfect.”
I step close to her, cup her face in my hands, and kiss her. I let my tongue slide into her mouth slowly and taste her as if it’s the first time. As if I haven’t tasted her before. The kiss is deep and sensual, drawn out and Dana melts against me.
I let my hands roam over her body, touching her everywhere, her breasts, her ribs, her stomach, her hips, her groin, her ass, her back. I slide my hands over her in one big caress. Her breathing gets harder as I do, and I can tell that she’s getting turned on by it. The urge grows inside me, but I don’t act on it. I want to keep this soft and sensual. I want to show her that I love her.
Slowly, I start to undress her. Piece by piece, I get rid of her clothing, and she does the same for me. When we’re both naked, I guide her back to lay on the bed. I crawl over her body and kiss her again. I make my way down her jawline and onto her neck, focusing on the delicate skin below her ear, the dip above her collarbone, and then her chest. I kiss a line between her two breasts and over her stomach. I shower her with kisses, worshipping her body.
She breathes harder and moves beneath my hands and lips, but I don’t touch her anywhere sexual. I want to kiss her, to love her, and to show her how beautiful she is. When my mouth reaches the dip above her hip bone, she shudders. I open her legs and work my way down her legs, kissing the insides of her thighs. I smell her scent with her legs open, and it damn near drives me crazy, but I’m not done.
I keep kissing her down one leg and then back up the other. I roll her over and do the same with the back of her body, crawling up from her feet. Every inch I kiss, I cover with my own body until I’m lying almost on top of her, keeping my weight off her body enough not to crush her beneath me.
“Keagan,” she breathes. I know I’m torturing her. “Please, I need more.”
I know she can feel my cock against her ass, the feel of my flesh thick and hard, resting against her ass cheek. Her skin is burning hot, and I want to take her, but I don’t want to do it for the sake of getting off.
Dana rolls over onto her back again. I kiss her on the mouth, my tongue playing with hers, and press the length of my body against hers. She sighs into my mouth. My body aches for her, but I am resolute. I want to take it slow, and I will control myself.
I kiss her again, showering her body with kisses. This time, I include her breasts. I take each nipple into my mouth in turn and suck gently on her. I knead her breasts and run my hands down her ribs and hips, feeling her, touching her. She’s petite in my hands, and being bigger and stronger than her makes me feel protective of her.
I won’t hurt her again, I tell myself. I will protect her, the way a man should do for his woman.
“Please,” she begs and her thighs fall open for me.
I nestle myself between them, and it takes a lot not to push into her, but I don’t want to do anything other than make love to her, and I’m going to draw it out as long as it’s necessary for her to realize how much I feel for her, and how much she means to me. It’s not just about sex with her, even though it’s mind-blowing sex. It’s about so much more.
She sighs when I rest between her hips, not pressing myself against her entrance. My skin touches hers, and that’s what I want. I can satisfy my hunger for her later. Right now, I want to make sure that everything is right between us.
Dana
He’s driving me mad. His kisses all over my body drive me crazy. He leaves a trail of fire behind wherever his mouth touches me, and he strategically avoids all my sexual areas so that I’m writhing with anticipation. The denial frustrates me, just as much as it turns me on.
I know he wants me. I can feel him, hard against my body when he presses himself against me. He wants me just as much as I want him, but he’s drawing it out. I can feel the love and the affection that he’s feeling with all the attention he’s paying me. At first, it was great to feel so loved. It was great to be treated like that, like he’d heard what I said and took it to heart.
Now, it’s just torture.
“Please, Keagan,” I beg for the third time. “I really need you to fuck me.”
He looks up at me, and his eyes are full of things I can’t decipher right now. I’m too horny. He smiles at me, and I don’t know if he’s going to torture me further or give me what I want.
I’m on my back again. He’s kissed every inch of my body except the parts that are aching for attention now.
Keagan runs his hands over my body, and it’s like my nerve endings are on fire. Every touch makes me shiver. I want him that badly. My lust, my eagerness for his body, curls inside me, and I need a release to ease of the tension that I’ve been dealing with the for the past three days.
His hands slide over my thighs, and I open my legs for him, putting myself on display, showing him what I want. I’m wet. I can feel it, and I know that he can see it when he looks down at my pussy because his eyes become dark with that hunger that fills men’s eyes when they look at a woman and they know for sure what’s going to happen. He dips his head, and I hold my breath, almost too nervous to hope for something more than the torture he’s been handing out.
Keagan closes his lips on my pussy, and I shiver. He sticks out his tongue and licks down the length of my slit and back up as if he’s tasting me. I can smell my own scent. I’m that aroused. I know that it must be driving him crazy, but he’s in absolute control today.
When he flicks his tongue over my clit, my body jerks and I moan. This is what I was waiting for. Keagan flicks his tongue back and forth a few times before he closes his lips over my clit and sucks.
I cry out. The sensation is so erotic, so charged with pleasure, and my body drinks it in after being made to wait so long for it. An orgasm builds almost immediately. I close my thighs around his head a little to keep him in place and buck my hips, mashing myself against his face, my body begging for more.
When he decides it’s enough, he stops. My body aches for him, and I don’t want him to stop, but Keagan rolls onto his back, next to me, and I climb onto him, straddling his hips with my legs. His cock is thick and hard along his lower stomach. I stroke it with the tips of my fingers, bend down, and suck on him once or twice to lube him up. Then I lean forward and guide him to my entrance.
The tip presses in, and I groan. Release from the intense horniness is finally on the horizon. Before I can sit down on him, he pushes down on the bed and moves away from me again, his thick flesh flopping back onto his stomach.
I pull a face at him, and he grins at me. I want him so badly, and he knows it, but he insists on making it hard for me to have him. He’s teasing me.
He rubs his hands over my arms, my stomach, and over my breasts. He tugs at my nipples, and I sigh in frustration.
“Okay,” he says and nods.
I reach for him and position myself onto him again, guiding him to my entrance. I
need to fuck him. When I start sliding down, his cock pushing into me, Keagan pulls me forward by my shoulders, and he can’t slide in any deeper. I’m about to cry out in frustration at his tactics to stop me from doing it.
He holds me in this angle and moves his hips forward and back, so that his tip slips in and out of me. It’s great. Just enough to make me want him more, but not nearly enough to be satisfying.
“Give me more, baby,” I say.
He grins when I call him a pet name. Until now, I’ve only called him by his real name.
“I like it when you beg,” he says. “Do it some more.”
I narrow my eyes at him. I know he likes it when I beg, and usually I don’t want to, but I’m aching for him, and I need him in a bad way.
“Please, let me fuck you,” I say. “I need you so badly.”
He smiles. His eyes are dark, the pupils dilated, and his grin is satisfied.
“I like your dirty mouth when we do this,” he says.
I smile at him. “For all the things you like about me, you don’t show it very well by denying me. Please, just give it to me.”
His grin widens, and I know I’m giving him what he wants. It’s endearing to see him this pleased, and I’m willing to give him what he wants from time to time. I smile at him, too.
He nods slowly, and I think I’m finally allowed to move things forward. I sit down on him slowly, to test the waters. He doesn’t stop me or pull me back, and he sinks into me until he’s deep inside of me. I groan. I will never get used to the orgasmic feel of him inside of me from the very moment he enters me. I close my eyes and move my hips from side to side a little, getting used to the feel of him. I lean forward and kiss him.
Keagan wraps his arms around my back, pinning my arms to my sides, and he starts bucking his hips underneath me, slamming his cock into my pussy. I cry out as he nails me hard from beneath me, and I drop my head onto his chest and let him take me like that. He fucks me like this for a while, holding me in place, completely in control, even though I’m on top of him.
I don’t mind. The feeling takes over, and I can’t think straight. I’m focused only on the sensation of being fucked, of his cock sliding in and out of me, of my body responding by clamping down on him, and the beautiful feeling of an orgasm building.
4 Men Of The House with correct Also By page Page 54