Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Gage stormed away, madder at himself for getting angry than he was at Dani for the way she felt.

Of course she would think he was deserving of being saved. She was a good person and didn’t know the half of what he had done, despite him spewing what he did for a living. Or had done. Things were different now that he worked for Black. He still killed people but these were men and women who threatened those he cared about. They deserved to die. Each one had hurt his friends in some way or another.

Gage stopped in his tracks and dropped his head back to look up at the sky. When the hell did he start allowing himself to care about his team?

If he were being honest with himself, he had since they started working together. But he wouldn’t let himself think or believe it until Dani came back into his life.

She changed everything.

Gage felt her presence before she cleared her throat.

“I’m sorry . . .” they both said at the same time, and it made him smile. He turned around and immediately wanted to kick himself. The hesitation and wariness in her eyes were a shot straight to the gut. And he better than anyone knew exactly how that felt. He only had himself to blame for putting that look on her face. She should never feel that way again.

Dani opened her mouth to speak but he placed his finger on her lips and pleaded with her to let him go first.

“You have nothing to apologize for. I still hold some resentment for the way things ended with the Army and I took that out on you. You don’t deserve to deal with that.”

It suddenly occurred to him that his teammates were right. He had a lot of anger to work through. It appeared the women in their lives had helped them, so maybe it was time for him to follow their example. It was his choice to hold on to that anger instead of letting it go. Was it worth letting it bother him at the risk of pushing Dani away?

That was an easy answer.

Hell no.

Dani tentatively reached out for him but he would have none of that. He pulled her so she was flush against his chest.

“I was apologizing for pushing you,” she said. “I don’t have the first clue what happened to you while we were apart, so it wasn’t fair of me to tell you how to feel about something, but I won’t apologize for wanting you to live. I didn’t spend the last fourteen months staying sober so that I could one day talk to you and then just lose you all over again.”

Damn she was going to be the death of him. She knew exactly the right thing to say when he needed it.

“You’re not going to lose me. The only way you’re getting rid of me at this point is if you walk away.”

Dani shook her head. “I’m not walking away again.”

He didn’t realize how much he needed to hear that and probably would for a little while. He would like to think he was secure in himself but that would be a lie. There was some lingering doubt that he wasn’t good enough, and one day she would realize that.

It might not be his biggest fear but it was still a fear he had. He wanted to be good enough that she stayed with him forever.

“I never stopped loving you,” he blurted out with zero fanfare or much forethought. He just knew that he needed her to know how he felt.

This time Dani’s eyes filled with tears.

“Please don’t cry.”

She sniffled and chuckled at the same time. “These are happy tears. I wanted more than anything to hear you say that to me over the years. I never thought I would get the chance to again and wasn’t sure I deserved it.”

He swiped the wayward tear off her cheek. “You most certainly deserve it.”

“A day didn’t go by that I ever stopped loving you as well. Even when I broke up with you, I broke my heart at the same time because I knew it was always yours. I wish I never had to do it but I’m a better person now for it.”

He would always wish they had more time together, but he understood now that life with him, while he was in the Army, would’ve been difficult. So many of the people he served with ended up with cheating spouses or divorced. Certainly not all, but that life wasn’t for the faint of heart. If Dani was confident she wouldn’t have been able to survive it, then he needed to trust her judgement. He was sure they would get their forever moving forward.

Gage rubbed his thumb along her cheek. Her skin was so soft and smelled like cherries. It wasn’t the same scent she had as a teenager and he found he preferred this new one.

“I never thought I would enjoy coming back here but I’m glad I did. It helped me put some of my demons to rest,” he admitted.

Dani leaned into his hand. “I know what you mean. Driving back through here was a way for me to prove to myself that I’m not the same person I was before I went to rehab. Getting arrested wasn’t part of the plan but I’m glad it happened. It brought me back to you sooner.”

He wondered if he would’ve been as understanding if she just showed up one day. He doubted it. If they hadn’t been forced to be alone together, there was the chance he would’ve used his team as an excuse to avoid her. Despite everything, this was the best outcome for them.

He tugged her hand and pulled her through the backyard.

“Where are we going?” Dani squeaked with excitement.

“To bed. I have every intention of having makeup sex with you. If I remember correctly, that was your favorite kind once upon a time.”

He heard the hitch in her breathing; sometimes she forgot that he knew everything about her. A day didn’t go by that he didn’t think about her and remember their time together. It didn’t matter that she broke his heart long ago. She was still on his mind each day. He would go to bed thinking about her.

He had mindless sex to forget about her but it never worked. All he did was compare those women to her and none of them ever came even close. What he and Dani had was once in a lifetime, and deep down he knew there would be no one for him but her. When she came back into his life, it was inevitable where things would go and maybe that’s why he flew to Pennsylvania. His subconscious knew what he refused to admit out loud.

Dani was his. Nothing would change that.

Gage dragged her into the bedroom and pinned her against the wall. His lips were crashing down on hers before she could make a peep. He knew how she liked it. Arguing made her horny. He knew if he slipped his fingers into her yoga pants, he would find her wet.

But Dani was one step ahead of him. She was shimmying out of her pants despite being up against the wall. She was moving her hips in a way that made his already erect cock painfully harder.

“Am I not moving fast enough for you?” he asked when he pulled his lips from hers.

“No, you’re not. You claim to know me so well and yet you’re taking your sweet time. I would’ve preferred to screw you in the grass outside.”

He grabbed her ass and picked her up, then spinning quickly, he marched straight for the bed and tossed her down. “Such sass from a little thing. Finish taking your pants off and show me what’s mine.”

Dani laughed at the same time her eyes sparked with heat. She liked when he told her what to do.

“That was my plan.” She continued to sass him as she shimmied out of her leggings and tossed them off to the side. Whether she was wearing panties or not he wouldn’t know since they were no longer on her body.

“I need to taste.”

He didn’t give her time to question him. He dropped to his knees, grabbing her legs on the way down, and managed to yank her with him so that he was eye level with her wet folds.

Just like he knew she would be, she was wet from their argument.

He ran his tongue up the length of her pussy and brought a moan from her lips. There was no time to waste. She was as needy for him as he was for her.

He licked, suckled, and used his teeth to graze her bundle of nerves until she was a thrashing mess and putty in his hands. He didn’t need to hold her down. She was too busy trying to catch her breath to do anything except claw at his biceps.

“Please, Gage.”

He knew what she wanted but he wasn’t ready to give it to her yet. This was his first time back between her legs and he would be damned if he let her rush him.

He wanted to taste. To savor. To coat his tongue with her scent so that it was embedded in his taste buds from now until forever.

There was no way he would let her deny him that.

When he finally got his fill, at least for now, he bit down on her clit and sucked until she flung herself off the cliff. Metaphorically speaking, but maybe not given the way her legs fell to the sides when he finally released them.

Gage licked his lips but didn’t bother removing her juices from his face or beard. He wanted to continue to smell her as he slipped into heaven.

Grabbing a condom from his wallet, he tossed the bifold onto the floor and unfastened his pants. He watched Dani watch him. Her lust-filled eyes were homed in on his hands as they pulled his erection out of his pants and slowly rolled the condom down. He hissed from how sensitive he was.

One pump from her hand was all it would take to bring him to completion but he refused to be that kind of chump. He needed to give her at least two more orgasms before he would even consider allowing himself to follow suit.

“You ready for me, baby?”

She nodded her head eagerly but didn’t move. Gage merely chuckled at the fact that she was still flying high from the first orgasm he gave her.

Fortunately for him, the second came as soon as he slammed into her. Her quivering walls clamped down on him and nearly had him ending this way too soon.

Biting down on his back molars, he took a few seconds to calm his shit down. If he had any hope of making this last longer than two seconds, he needed to get himself under control.

Alas, her pussy felt too good. It was made for him and he was reminded of that over and over again as he slowly withdrew and slammed back into her repeatedly.

Every moan, every whimper, every flutter of her walls brought him closer and closer.

“I want one more,” he growled.

Her heels dug into his ass and he couldn’t even switch positions; his pants were down around his ankles. He had been so eager to get inside her, he never took his clothes fully off.

“I don’t think I can.”

Like hell she couldn’t. He unhooked her legs and brought them up to his shoulders, so that she was practically bent in half, but it allowed him to hit her deeper. And with her next strangled moan, he knew she was close.

Gage pounded in with such force he was worried she wouldn’t be able to walk later but he couldn’t stop. He needed them to finish together. He wanted that intimacy.

“Finish, now, baby,” he urged between his gritted teeth and Dani listened. A second later they were falling together.

He filled the condom to the brim and never felt so content as he did when he slumped forward and braced his forearms on either side of Dani’s head.