16. Flynn
Chapter Sixteen
FLYNN
Late the following night, I drove through the darkness, watching as the moon rose above the mountains across the water. I’d taken an unplanned trip to Anchorage to pick up some plane engine parts after one of ours had some problems.
I figured that by the time I got back to the resort, everybody would be asleep. Although I hadn’t necessarily wanted to take the extra trip, I’d been relieved for the change of pace. Last night, Nora had told me Daphne’s story. I thought I was a hardened man. Seven years in the Air Force and two tours of active duty had taken me on some difficult journeys, yet nothing I’d faced felt as personally brutal as what Daphne went through.
This morning, I’d looked at her across the kitchen as she efficiently made breakfast for all of our guests and seamlessly multitasked while she prepped the upcoming meals for lunch and dinner. She’d lost her son and experienced a painful betrayal, and she was carrying on with that stubborn spark of cheer of hers. Like sunshine slipping through the cracks.
Somehow, knowing her history made me savor the nickname I’d given her. She did have that princess vibe. She’d gotten enough sass and spirit back to let it show.
When she turned and her stunning green eyes collided with mine across the room, my memory clicked onto that night of pure insanity. I didn’t need to start feeling things about Daphne. So I hurried off, claiming I needed to check on two of our planes. I could always check on our planes, but the timing turned out right because one of them did have a problem.
We needed the rest of the planes for tourist trips, so I’d taken my trusty truck through the mountain pass to Anchorage. It was past midnight now as I turned off the highway onto the road that would lead me home. When I parked, I was surprised to see the lights on in the kitchen, but I figured someone had just left them on. The rest of the resort was quiet, and the motion sensor lights came on when my truck set them off.
My boots crunched in the gravel as I pocketed my keys. I ascended the steps quietly. After making my way through the back hallway into the entrance to my family’s private quarters, I dropped my keys in the bowl on the table by the door. Nora had moved into a small house nearby last year, and Grant bounced between here and whoever’s bed he happened to be warming. It was just Cat and me now. Cat’s light was still on, so I reached in and flicked it off, looking over to see she’d fallen asleep while reading. I crossed the room and lifted the book off her chest, sliding her bookmark in and then leaving it on her bedside table.
I aimed for the kitchen to turn off the lights. When I opened the door, I was surprised to see Daphne hard at work. In the weeks that had passed since I hired her impulsively, I’d discovered she was a relentlessly hard worker. She was usually up well before anyone else, making an array of baked goods for breakfast and usually worked until past dinner.
I took a moment to absorb her presence. Her hair was twisted into a messy knot on top of her head with tendrils hanging down around her neck. She wore an apron over a T-shirt and a pair of leggings. My eyes lingered on the curve of her hips and the dip at her waist.
My mouth watered at the thought of crossing the kitchen and dipping my head to drag my tongue along the side of her neck. Because I knew she tasted sweet. I also knew she smelled like sugar.
In an effort to distract myself, I called over, “Do you usually bake at night after the rest of us go to bed?”
Daphne jumped slightly and spun around, her hand flying to her chest. “Oh my God, you scared me!”
My common sense immediately forfeited in the battle with my need to be closer to her. I crossed the room, stopping only a few feet away from her.
“Sorry,” I said, meaning it. “I didn’t mean to scare you. But do you really work this late usually? Because I don’t think I’m paying you enough as it is.”
A wash of pink crested on her cheeks. She wrinkled her nose before shrugging lightly. “Sometimes. You don’t need to pay me more. I like to bake.”
“Do you like to sleep? Because you’re up every day by five or so as far as I can tell.”
I was teasing, but then I saw a flicker of something in Daphne’s eyes. Before I could say anything else, she replied, “I’m not the best sleeper. When I can’t sleep, I come down here and bake.”
I wasn’t thinking, or perhaps it was more that I’d thought too much about what Nora told me. Knowing she didn’t sleep well, all I could think was that life had been far too brutally unfair to Daphne. My words got ahead of my brain. “I’m sorry about your son.”
I knew something about sleepless nights just because of life. I could only imagine sleep was an elusive devil in the aftermath of what she’d gone through.
Daphne’s eyes widened, and her breath came out in a startled puff. Watching her, I could almost see her metaphoric cloak of steel armor come down.
“Nora talked to you,” she said, each word careful and measured.
“She did. I shouldn’t have said anything.” I didn’t know how to step back from this and felt I’d walked into an intensely private moment without meaning to.
Daphne shook her head just barely, and her chin lifted incrementally. “I didn’t ask her to keep it private. It’s not a secret. It’s just my messy life.”
We stared at each other, and I contemplated the full picture of what Nora had shared with me—that after Daphne’s son was diagnosed with an apparently god-awful type of cancer, she learned her husband was having an affair with her friend. What a fucking asshole. I wanted to personally slay her dragons.
Since she had, in a way, given me permission, I took a step closer. Because somehow, I needed her to know this. “Life sucks sometimes, and I’m so sorry. Your ex was stupid and an asshole. He didn’t deserve you. You know that, right?”
Daphne’s gorgeous eyes widened, her cheeks flushing a deep pink again. Her nostrils flared as she took a breath. “It doesn’t really matter. It’s the past.”
It felt as if Daphne was trying to convince herself as much as me. I couldn’t say why, but I couldn’t bear that someone had treated her so carelessly and cruelly.
Closing the distance between us in one long stride, I lifted a hand and caught a wayward lock of hair falling along her cheek. I brushed it back to tuck behind her ear.
“There’s a reason I call you princess,” I murmured.
Daphne’s tongue darted out, swiping across her bottom lip before she asked, “There is?”
Just like that night, weeks ago now, it felt as if this moment was out of place and time. A moment set aside to forget all the reasons I shouldn’t want Daphne with a need that rattled me to my bones.
“Because you are, to me, and you should be treated like one.”
Daphne stared back at me. As I brushed my knuckles along the downy skin of her neck, I felt the wild flutter of her pulse.
“Oh,” she said.
Because it seemed the only course of action in this particular moment, I dipped my head and brushed my lips over hers. Electricity sizzled between us, zinging through my body in a fiery path.
In an instant, what had started as almost a test—testing if the fire burned as hot as I remembered, testing if Daphne wanted this as fiercely as I did—shifted into something much more real. I brushed my lips over hers. When I heard a little catch in her throat and felt her hand slide up around my neck, with her fingers teasing in the ends of my hair, I stepped closer. This entire moment felt liquid, like warm honey dripping from a spoon. On an exhale, I angled her head to the side as I delved into her mouth with my tongue.
The second her tongue slid against mine, our kiss became a mad dash. I heard my growl, and then I was pulling her flush against me as her tongue dueled with mine in silky, sensual strokes.
As if the gates holding me back had been blown to pieces, I fumbled to pull her closer. Daphne was pure octane poured on a fire already burning solely for her.
I felt the press of her nails as her hand slid down my back in a hurried stroke, and then her palm was warm on my skin when she pushed my shirt up.
When I tore my mouth roughly from hers and blazed a damp trail down her neck with my lips and teeth, she gasped, “Flynn!”
I was heedless of everything but Daphne and the need whipping through me. I shoved her T-shirt up with one hand, groaning aloud when my palm made contact with her silky soft skin. I cupped a breast roughly, lightly pinching her nipple and letting out a growl of satisfaction when it pebbled to a tight peak under my touch.
Pushing her shirt up farther, I brought my mouth over her nipple as I tugged her bra down, and her breast plumped up. I needed to touch her, to have her. Her hand gripped my hair as my mouth closed over her nipple roughly, too roughly. But I couldn’t think; I couldn’t slow this down.
Daphne was just as frantic as me. Her hands were busy yanking at the buttons on my jeans while I shoved her leggings down around her hips. I pushed her panties out of the way to discover her slick, hot, and ready. Her head fell into the crook of my neck, and I felt the warm gust of her breath across my collarbone as she shuddered when I sank two fingers into her channel.
I needed more. I needed all of her this time. She cried out when I drew my fingers away, but I lifted her in my arms, murmuring, “I have you. Just let me take care of you.”
My mind was hazed with lust and need with an intense protectiveness tangling inside of that. Spinning around, I slid her hips on the counter and then yanked her leggings and panties free where they fell to the floor.
When I stepped between her legs, Daphne shimmied her hand into my open fly, stroking over my cock once through my boxers before she pushed them down, and it bounced free. Everything was a rush as our bodies communicated without words.
I need you.
Now.
Can’t wait
Hurry.
Then my crown was at her slick entrance, and her legs were curling around my waist. The slow glide into her slick sheath was beyond intoxicating. Our heads bowed together as we breathed raggedly. Our hearts felt as if they were beating to their own metronome.