His smile was the very definition of smug. “I thought so.”
God, the man was just infuriating. She threw up her hands, torn between strangling him and strangling herself. “Have you been listening to a single thing I’ve been saying?”
“Yeah. I did you wrong—in more than one way. I know I can’t make up for that shit, or ever really lay it to rest because it’s always going to occupy space between us, but I can start by doing right by you from here on out.”
He kept saying that. Do right by you. It was like he thought this baby represented a chance to balance out his karmic debt. Which was all well and good for him, but she wasn’t a debt and she didn’t want to be with a man who saw her as his burden to bear. “I swear to God, if you propose to me, I’m going to punch you in the face.”
Daniel stood and offered her his hand. “I lose my head around you. What we had…it was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. So forgive the fuck out of me if I’m more than willing to play dirty to get you to stay. I know I’m screwing up, but I’m trying my damnedest.”
All she wanted to do was walk away. It hurt being with him, like a knife twisting in her stomach over and over again. But there was more than her to think about now. It didn’t matter how complicated their history was—her baby would know his or her father. Daniel will be a good father. She’d always known that, and apparently she was going to get a chance to see it in real time.
Hope inhaled deeply and took his hand. “Tone down the possessive crap—starting now.”
“I’ll try.”
It wasn’t much of a promise, but it wasn’t like she was an innocent in this, either. She’d known things between them were too intense, full of too much potential to blow up in her face, and she’d still had sex with him. More than once.
Truth be told, she kind of wanted to go there again.
And, damn it, he knew. Daniel’s smile made her stomach do a slow flip. “You’ve got that look in your eye, darling. I’ve been an asshole. Let me make it up to you.”
Even though she knew better, she followed him back into the house. “You’ve set a pretty high bar for yourself if you’re going to try to fix every fight we have with sex.”
“Believe me—I’m more than up for the challenge.”
Chapter Ten
Hope kept a hold of Daniel as he led her into his bedroom, feeling like she was in the middle of the storm and he was the only thing keeping her from being swept away. Ironic, since he was the one responsible for the storm in the first place. But with him looking over his shoulder at her with those dark eyes, and his calluses rubbing against the palm of her hand, she couldn’t think of a good reason to put a stop to this once and for all.
It’s too late. There’s no stopping it now, no matter what I do.
She touched her stomach with her free hand, wondering how so much could have changed and yet nothing at all. They’d barely crossed the threshold when he swept her into his arms. In the back of her mind, she knew it was because he wanted her to be careful with her knee, but her pride had nothing on the feeling of being this close to him. This is really happening. She couldn’t blame this on hormones getting the better of her, or on an impulse she had too little self-control to resist.
She was making the choice to have sex with Daniel Rodriguez.
He set her on her feet and stripped her shirt off. She could barely comprehend the way he looked at her, like he’d never seen anything so beautiful in his life. He used to look at you like that. Yeah, before. She closed her eyes and tipped her head back, silently demanding a kiss he seemed all too ready to deliver. His hands sifted through her hair to cup the back of her head and his lips brushed against hers, teasing her mouth open. She opened for him. She was helpless to do anything else.
His skin was so damn warm beneath her hands. She cautiously slid them up his sides to his chest, not pushing him away, not pulling him closer, just relishing the ability to touch him to her heart’s delight. Daniel made a sound that was damn near a growl at her nails dragging over his skin, so she did it again.
“We’ll go slow this time.”
She barely had a chance to register the words when he toppled them back onto the bed, twisting just enough that she didn’t take his full weight. She could have told him it didn’t matter. She wanted everything he could give her, wanted to lose herself in the feel of him, wanted to just stop thinking for one fucking second and enjoy this.
Of course, he knew. He always knew. Daniel shifted to kiss along her jaw. “Turn off that beautiful brain of yours, darling. We’ll figure it out. I promise. But right now I’m more concerned with getting you out of these pants.”
Fear, cold and irrational, rose to close her throat. Taking off her pants meant baring her scar to him and being forced to witness that horrible guilt on his face. Then she wouldn’t be the only person thinking too much. She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
He kissed her again, his hands going to the waistband of her pants and underwear, and she lifted her hips to allow him to slide them down her legs. His movement hitched when his fingers made contact with the top of her scar, but it was such a small hesitation, she wouldn’t have noticed it if every fiber of her being wasn’t focused on him. Daniel tossed the clothing aside, quickly followed by her bra. “Tell me about the tattoo. An anchor.”
“Its whole purpose is to remain in place, no matter how strong the currents or how fierce the storm.”
As usual, his dark eyes saw too much. “You always were strong, darling.”
She didn’t feel the least bit strong right now. She hadn’t since she walked back into his life. She felt like a leaf being thrown around by the wind, free-falling in one direction and then tossed to the side, then falling all over again until she wasn’t sure which way was up and which way was down. But she didn’t want to talk about that right now. She didn’t want to talk about anything. “Kiss me, Danny.”
He did. He just didn’t kiss her lips.
Daniel pressed a kiss to one hip bone and then the other, shifting to settle between her thighs. One big hand pressed lightly down on her lower stomach, and he met her gaze. There was so much left unsaid between them, but now wasn’t the time. He drew his tongue over her center, a long, savoring lick that made her squirm. He kept her pinned in place, though, the feeling only heightening the sensation of pleasure as he licked her again. “You always were my favorite flavor.”
I don’t know what to say to that.
He circled her clit with his tongue, taking away the need to say anything at all. She reached over her head and grabbed the bottom of the headboard, needing something solid to hang onto while he drove her relentlessly to oblivion. Daniel never quite let her take the final plunge, though. He teased her, drawing ever closer to the edge, and then gentling his touches to prevent her from coming.
The third time, she cried out in frustration. “You are a horrible man.”
“Mmm-hmm.” He pushed a finger into her, the shock of penetration making her eyes fly open. “And you’re almost ready for me, darling.”
Almost ready for… She lifted her head. “Then stop teasing me and get up here.”
“When you put it like that…” He crawled up her body and settled between her legs. A wild thought rolled over her that they’d been in this exact position too many times to count when they were teenagers in the back of his truck. She pressed her lips together to keep the hysterical giggle inside. Daniel raised his eyebrows. “What?”
“I feel like an idiot teenager again.”
He went still, and she kicked herself for saying anything to bring them back to those days. To that day. But it was something that would come up again and again. If they didn’t find a way to work through it, they were destined for a future filled to the brim with misery and fights and just plain awful times. We have to figure it out before the baby gets here or he or she will be visiting him every other weekend like Jessica’s parents forced her to do. The thought beat back the desire coursing through he
r body, her mind kicking into high gear again.
Daniel shook his head. “Later.”
His cock notched in her entrance and then he was inside her again, that slow, sensuous slide filling her and making her feel whole. She locked her ankles at the small of his back, allowing him that extra depth that made her back arch. “Danny.”
“I’ve missed the way you say my name when I’m inside you.” He rolled his hips, sliding one arm beneath her back to seal them as close as two people could be. His lips brushed her ear with each word, sending shivers through her body in time with his short thrusts. He kissed her, and that was all it took. She clung to him as she came, her entire world narrowing down to the feeling of Daniel on top of her, beneath her, inside her. His cock filling her, his taste in her mouth.
She came down from her orgasm to realize he was still hard inside her. Hope blinked at him, and Daniel gave her a grin that made her heart skip a beat. “I set a high bar, remember?”
She didn’t remember much of anything right now.
He pushed off her, adjusting their angle until her ankles were propped on his shoulders and he was on his knees. The new position nearly made her eyes roll back in her head, his cock impossibly deep inside her. He thrust, pulling out of her almost all the way and slamming home, drawing a cry from her mouth. Daniel eyed her, adjusted his angle, and did it again.
“Oh my God.” There was nothing to do but hang onto the headboard, riding out the waves of pleasure radiating through her.
She was vaguely aware of his strokes becoming irregular and hurried and him growling her name as he came, but she was too busy floating on a cloud of bliss to do much more than unclench her hands from the headboard and reach up to stroke them down his back where he’d collapsed on top of her. She pressed a kiss to his shoulder. “Okay, maybe you can fix most problems with sex.”