Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

KYLE

A s soon as I kick the door closed behind me, I'm on Dani, snaking one arm around her waist and the other around her chest, pulling her into me from behind. "You can pretend all you want, but you want me."

"You talk too much," Dani says, gasping as I start kissing the side of her neck. "I don't need your mouth making noise."

"Then tell me where you need my mouth," I growl, amused by her bravado.

When Nick opened the door, turning the interior light on his car, I saw the surprise in her eyes. I also watched it morph into relief before I turned my attention to him. She was glad I came, even though she said she was fine. And I saw her step between Nick and me when he tried to threaten me. I sure as shit didn't need her to come to my defense, but she did, sending him away and me inside.

So yeah, I'm not being arrogant when I say she wants me. She does, maybe even half as much as I want her.

Especially today. I need the distraction she brings, the focus her mouth and her body give me because my mind is a clusterfuck of epic proportions. But this… Dani… here with her, I know what to do, what we both need.

"You want my mouth here?" I run my fingertip over her collarbone, hating that Nick even got to lay eyes on it in this shirt I've never seen before.

"No," she spits out, still sounding mad.

"Or here?" I tease down over the slope of her breast.

"No." She's not less fiery, but a different type of fire is overtaking her.

I press my palm to her belly, sliding it down her body to between her legs, where I grip her pussy firmly. "Or here?"

She arches her hips back to give me better access, and I can't help but grin ferally. "I can feel your heat through your jeans. Don't try to tell me that's for Nick because we both know it's not. It's for me, isn't it?"

"You're still talking." It sounds like she's aiming for sassy, but the breathiness in her words says I'm closer to the truth than she wants to admit.

"You want it here, in the living room?"

She shakes her head, pulling away long enough to take my hand and lead me down the short hallway to her bedroom. I don't take the time to look around much, but I get the sense of a small bed covered in a brightly colored comforter, a dresser, and a blue chair in the corner of the white room.

She turns, wrapping her arms around my neck and finally… finally … I'm kissing her again.

Her mouth is exactly what I need, washing away the jumble of thoughts I've had while I sat on her porch—thoughts of my family, my life, and of why the fuck Dani was on a date after telling me that she doesn't want that. Even with everything else, that stood out starkly, maybe because it's so fresh, or maybe because I didn't think Dani would do anything she didn't want to do and it hurt that she was with another guy.

"You don't need a guy like that," I whisper hotly, pushing her chin up so I can kiss that spot beneath her ear and nibble down the tendon in her neck.

"Who?" she moans.

"Nick."

I don't know why I'm even reminding her of his name because she's never going to see him again. Not if I have anything to do with it. Hell, she said as much when she told him to leave, but it still irritates me that she spent hours with him tonight after blowing me off.

She laughs. "I don't need a nice guy who doesn't fight first, ask questions later?" She needling me on purpose, winding me up tighter and tighter just to watch me spin out, but if I'm going, I'm taking her with me into the chaos.

"A guy who would either let you walk all over him because he doesn't know what to do with your fire or who would break your spirit because he's not strong enough to stand at your side when you're at your best."

I feel her stiffen in my arms as she pulls back to look at me. "You think you're strong enough?"

I look deep into her eyes and tell her the truth. "I think I'm strong enough to put up with your bullshit and see it for what it is—fear."

She frowns hard, jutting her chin out defiantly. "I'm not scared of anything."

It's my turn to laugh. "You're scared shitless to let people get close to you because if they get through your tough exterior, then they'll just be one more person to take advantage of you. I know, because I do the same damn thing."

Her eyes scan my face, looking for any sign that I'm fucking with her. She won't find it because one thing I'm coming to realize is that Dani and I are two peas in the same damn pod.

"Are you gonna shut up and fuck me or keep talking?" she bites out after a long moment.

I get it. Being seen is terrifying. I don't like it either, so I let her hide behind sex. I take her shirt off, throwing it toward the chair, where it lands haphazardly. I do the same with my shirt, and Dani's palms are on my chest before it hits the chair beside hers. Her fingers tease and pull on my piercings, and my nipples harden from the attention. Fighting fire with fire, I make quick work of her bra and then cup her breasts in my hands, pinching and rolling her nipples.

Her moan makes my cock ache to feel the vibration of it around my length, and I reach down, cupping myself hard, but it's not enough. "Jesus, fuck. Take your jeans off, Dani. Now."

I've lost all control. Or she's stolen it. I'm not sure which. I'm not sure I care right this minute, either.

Clothes and shoes fall left and right, and in seconds, we're both nude and she's back in my arms. Her skin feels like hot silk, and I want to touch her everywhere at once, but I focus on where she needs me most. Wrapping my arm around the middle of her back to support her, I slip my fingers through the wetness of her pussy, spreading the slickness up to her clit as I take her nipple into my mouth and suck hard. I don't tease, instead working her fast and rough because I need her to come quickly this first time. I use the flats of my fingers, blurring them across her clit and adding a little smacking love tap dead center that makes her cry out every time. The sounds she's making and the wet sounds of her pussy have precum steadily leaking down my shaft, and I have to fight my cock's own urges in favor of her pleasure.

Her entire body goes tight, her head falling back and her breath hitching, and then she spasms in my arms. I hold her up, not stopping until I feel the gush of her juices over my hand.

"Yes," she pants, holding onto me for balance because it seems her quivering knees are threatening to give way.

She reaches down to grip my cock, giving me a few strokes, but I have to stop her.

"I'm not coming like this. I want in that pussy this time," I growl.

She nods but moves away from me to reach into the top drawer of her dresser. When she holds up a foil packet, I take it from her, rolling the condom over my length. She watches me hungrily, and I give myself a loose stroke. "Get on the bed."

She crawls onto the small surface, her ass upturned as she looks back over her shoulder at me. I step behind her, gripping her hips and pulling her pussy toward my cock. Without warning, I slam into her in one deep stroke that has her hissing out a curse and planting her hands more solidly on the bed, curling her fingers into the comforter. I feel her body clench at the invasion, and then a single stroke later, she relaxes and begins to buck back, fucking me.

"Fuck, you feel so good wrapped around me," I grit out.

A devilish smirk slashes across her lips and her eyes flash. "Not good enough if you're still talking and I can still speak."

I drive into her hard and deep, watching her face for any sign that it's more than she can take, but I find nothing other than challenge. My lips lift into an answering evil grin. "You want me to make you shut up and take this dick like a good girl." It's not a question. I can see it plain as day in her eyes. She wants me to make everything beyond this moment disappear. I want the same fucking thing.

Her brows furrow in pleasure, and her pussy clamps down on me. I can feel her getting wetter with every punishing thrust. "You think you can make me?" She sounds excited at the prospect, and I'd be willing to bet my bike that no one's ever truly made Dani do a damn thing in her life.

"Daniela." I say her name roughly, pausing with barely my tip inside her because I want her to hear me loud and clear. "I think you should be careful what you ask for."

It's all the warning I give her before I unleash on her, trusting that she can take it and knowing she'll tell me if she reaches her limit.

I grip her hips, my fingertips digging into her flesh, and hold her in place while I slam into her, each pounding stroke sending shockwaves through her thighs and ass. Her arms give way, and she collapses to the bed, turning her head so that her cheek presses to the comforter. She reaches back for me, her hands finding mine where I've got a hold of her hips, and her short nails score across my skin as she looks for something to hold on to. Instead, I gather both her hands in one of mine and pin them at her lower back.

She's at my mercy, but only because she allows it, and fuck, she's enjoying it, given the way she's panting and moaning as I take her, my hips slapping against her again and again. I lift my hand, bringing it down in a sharp smack on her ass, and the pink on her skin is instant. She gasps, and I do it again, timing it with a stroke that bottoms out deep inside her pussy.

"You look so pretty with my handprint marking your ass," I grit out through clenched teeth, needing to tell her even though my brain is a constant roaring of white noise.

"Fucking asshole." Her answer is stuttered around my thrusts.

I suck my thumb into my mouth, messily coating it with saliva, and then press it right over her puckered hole. "If you say so." I don't slam into her there, but I press gently, adding more to the onslaught of her pussy. Her eyes fly open in surprise, and then she moans and wiggles beneath me as the tip of my thumb passes through her tight ring.

"Yes, don't stop."

I feel her ass clench around my thumb as her pussy begins to throb. And it's too much for me too. I'm going to come at the same time she does no matter how much I try to hold back.

I feel her body go tight and roar as my release overwhelms me, the pulses of my cum filling the condom as Dani shatters on my cock. I'm lost to the waves of pleasure, her cries echoing in my ears while my vision goes black. I keep riding her hard, drawing it out for both of us, until I'm panting, breathless from how hard I came.

Blinking, I force my eyes to refocus on the gorgeous sight before me. Dani is boneless against the bed, the only thing holding her hips up is me, and while her eyes are closed, her mouth is open and smiling. I'll remember this look on her face forever. It's that beautiful.

But as I start to pull out, keeping hold of the condom, her lashes flutter and she cuts her eyes to me. "You spanked me and stuck your finger in my ass." The accusation is meant to be harsh but sounds half-assed at best, no pun intended.

So I smack her once more. "Yep, and you liked it." Instead of waiting for her to argue, because I know she's going to, I add, "Let me get you a towel." I step into the hall, assuming one of the other doors must be a bathroom. When I find the small room, I dispose of the condom in the trash and take a washrag from a basket beneath the sink. I wet it and wring out, and reflexively, I glance up at myself in the mirror.

I look shell-shocked.

Hell, I am. As much by how amazing fucking Dani was as everything else.

Back in her room, she's laid down on her stomach, so I swipe the rag between her legs for her. "What are you doing?" she says, popping up to peek over her shoulder at me.

"Cleaning us up," I say as if it's obvious. But given the look on Dani's face that matches my own in the mirror, I don't think anyone's ever done that for her.

The thought leaves me cold.

This amazing woman should have someone take care of her, especially with how much she does for everyone else. I understand that she doesn't want that or doesn't think she needs it, but a small kindness shouldn't be such a big deal. She deserves better.

I toss the rag in the bathroom sink and then return to her once again. Pulling the comforter back, I make a spot for myself and then say, "Come here."

Dani seems surprised, but she does, climbing beneath the comforter and cuddling into my side when I open my arm for her. She's quiet for several minutes, her fingers dancing over my chest and down my abs, and I can nearly hear her mind whirling. But I twirl a length of hair that's come loose from her decidedly extra-messy bun through my fingers and wait while she gets her thoughts together because the noise is starting to come back in my brain too.

"I'm glad you were here when I got home," she says finally. But then she corrects herself. "I didn't need you to rescue me, but I'm glad you were here."

It's a big admission from her, so I give her one right back.

"I didn't come here to rescue you. I was on the verge of blowing up my whole life and thought you could save me. I didn't know where else to go."

She lifts up, her dark eyes scanning mine uncertainly. "What happened?"

I don't want to talk about it. Talking about what I heard earlier is the absolute last thing I want to do, but I think I need to, and I sure as shit can't talk to my brothers or sister about it. Dani's safe, outside of that whole world, though she doesn't know how far outside of it she is.

I sigh heavily, putting my other arm behind my head as I stare at the ceiling.

"Family shit I wasn't expecting," I say, making it sound lighter than it actually is.

She laughs, lying back down on my chest. "Are we talking about me or you?"

"Fair point. Both. You go first."

I'm stalling and we both know it, so she gives me the shortest answer imaginable. "Mom lied. Set me up, and I couldn't tell her no. Another shitty date with some guy I'll never see again. Your turn."

That's pretty much what she said on the phone too, but hearing it again does soothe some of the hurt I felt when I heard her say she was on a date with someone else.

I wish I could give her that type of short answer, but my family issue is a bit more complicated than that.

"My dad texted, asking me to come over. When I got there, he was being nice… and that's not how he is, not with me, so I was suspicious from the get-go. He's got a pool project that he wants my help with, but I turned him down. I don't need him or a pity contract."

"Is it a good opportunity for you?"

"Wouldn't matter if it was," I say dismissively, and she makes a sound of surprise. "If, after ripping the restaurant away from you, your dad came to you and said ‘I'll set you up in a restaurant now', would you do it?" I feel the small shake of her head. "Right, because at this point, you could do it yourself if you wanted to. So his suddenly coming in like that, after proving you can do fine on your own, is just shitty."

"So you turned him down," she surmises.

"Yeah. He was pissed, but that's nothing new. I kinda got a kick out of that, to be honest. But when I was leaving, I overheard my mom talking to someone on the phone. I know it's wrong, but she was talking about me so I couldn't help but listen." I swallow, not wanting to give air to what I'm thinking, what's been running through my mind all day and night, nearly sending me to the bottom of a bottle of whisky and ultimately, sending me to Dani's porch in desperation.

"She was telling someone about how when Cole and Kayla were kids, my dad was traveling all the time for work, and she needed help. So they hired someone. A guy named Anders. Shortly after that, surprise… here I come."

Dani lifts up again, her eyes suspicious when they land on me. "Are you saying you think your dad's not your dad?"

I swallow. "I don't know. Maybe."

Even that much of an acknowledgement opens a hole in my gut that I'm not sure I can recover from. I've been considering it, trying to look at it from another angle… any other angle that might make it not true. But it makes so much sense.

Dani sits upright, turning around to face me and crossing her legs. Her right knee rests on my side, and the sheet puddles in her lap where she pulls it around herself. Her eyes are dark, filled with the sympathy I don't want or need. "I'm so sorry, Kyle."

"Me too," I say, laying my hand on her knee. Slowly, I add, "I've always felt like I was a mistake baby. My parents had my brothers, boy after boy after boy, and then they finally got their girl with Kayla, so why have another kid? I'm the living proof of diminishing returns." I laugh bitterly as I tell her, "That's something Dad would say. Don't invest more when less will net the same or better result."

My whole childhood plays out in flashes in my mind as I hollowly tell her, "I guess now I know why he's never given a shit about me the way he did the older kids. I hear them talk about Dad going to their games and helping with their homework… like he did ‘Dad stuff' with them when they were little, which is why they're closer, I guess. Cameron is basically his right-hand man, like a mini-version of Dad, and the rest of my brothers—other than Cole—and Kayla are like Dad in a lot of ways, so they talk business and stuff. I just never got that with him. By the time I was born, he was too busy at work to do any of that stuff with me." An even darker thought comes rushing forward, at the ready from my teen years of angry rebelliousness and loneliness. "Or at least that's what I always told myself because the alternatives—that he didn't love me, that I wasn't good enough, that I wasn't worth his time—were worse than his having a packed schedule. Guess work wasn't the reason after all."

"You think he knows?"

I draw nonsense shapes on her leg as I think, the words tumbling off my tongue before I can even make sense of them. "I don't always understand him, and definitely don't always like him, but my dad is a man of pride, of morals and ethics, who expects nothing less than the best from everyone. If he knew I wasn't his, I can't imagine him reacting with anything less than nuclear fallout. But that hasn't happened, which makes me think he doesn't know. But then there's the way he's always treated me, which makes me think he does." I shake my head. "I don't know. I'm lost."

I meet her eyes, which are dark with concern. I feel like mine must be full of the confusion I feel because either option is awful. If Dad knows and treated me like shit because I'm not his, I selfishly wish he would've just bombed our family and set me free. If he doesn't know and still treated me like shit, then all those teenage thoughts get louder and there's some other reason he doesn't love me the way he does my siblings. Like maybe I'm just unlovable.

I'm someone people use to serve their own needs, someone good for a laugh or a bit of fun, or a good fuck. Not someone worth more… worth loving.

"My parents love each other, like love each other. They're not perfect, but even when I've been furious at Dad, cursing his existence, raging about my own existence, and damning the entirety of the world, there's one thing I've always known without a doubt. He loves my mom. It's like his one redeeming quality because if she can see something good in him, it must be there, even if it's not there for me, you know? But I can't help thinking it'd explain a lot of how he treats me."

"What are you going to do?"

"That's the million-dollar question that I don't have an answer to. I can't ask my mom, sure as fuck can't ask my dad. Cameron's the oldest and might remember something, but he would protect my parents at any cost, even mine. Kayla's probably my best bet because she somehow always knows everything about everything, but she's as tight-lipped as they come, especially if telling me the truth wouldn't serve the greater good, as in the family's greater good, not mine." I close my eyes, sighing heavily. "I don't think I can just live in la-la-land, though, not knowing the truth."

"What about doing a DNA test? Swipe a hair or something from your dad and send it off for a paternity thing."

"It's not a Maury Povich ‘you are not the father' moment," I joke dryly, but it falls flat. And when she glares at me ruthlessly, I concede, "I might have to do that."

"Family shit sucks," she says finally.

I gather her back to me, and she lies against me, throwing her leg over mine. "Feeling better about your forced date now?" I tease.

"Is it awful if I say yes? I mean, the worst part was that after I almost fell asleep because he was droning on and on about himself, he thought we were actually going out again."

"He probably thought you were a good listener." My heart stutters. "And fuck, I just did the same thing, didn't I?"

She squeezes me with her leg and the arm she's laid on my chest, keeping me from running away at that thought. "No, not the same thing at all. I want to hear about you, even the messed-up stuff. I did not want to hear about Nick's plans for upgrading his SUV after he's making manager-level money."

"Don't say his name when you're lying in bed with me." A beat later, I correct, "Scratch that, don't ever say his name."

"Whose name?" she teases, and I can hear the smile in her voice. "Nick's, the guy who took me on a date tonight?"

I pull her on top of me until we're nose to nose. "And who was the guy after that, the one who had you coming so hard you forgot everyone's name but his?"

"Hmm," she hums, her eyes bright as she taps her lip. "I forget. Maybe I need another reminder?"

"Jesus fuck, Dani. Get on my dick then," I say on a fake sigh, already lifting her hips and guiding her back onto my hardening cock.

The feel of her pussy teasing over my tip raw for a moment is all the distraction I need, and by the time she hops up to grab another condom, all thoughts are wiped from my mind except for one…

Daniela.