Chapter Nineteen Taryn
I ’d n ever seen Danny Chambers more serious in my life. Not once since I’d spotted him waiting for me outside Reed had he even cracked a smile. With a singular focus, he guided me to the lot near the practice fields where he’d parked his Mustang. In silence we drove over to Jock Street. Though he’d told me so much about his house and his roommates, this was the first time since he’d moved in with them that he’d invited me over.
As we pulled into the driveway of a pretty Victorian, I shot him a look. “This is where you live?”
He killed the engine and hopped out of the car, coming around to open my door for me.
“Why is this the first time you’ve invited me here?”
With his hand heating up the small of my back even through my jacket, he ushered me up the steps of the wraparound porch to the front door. After unlocking it he guided me inside. In the front foyer I noticed a row of very large shoes lined up along the wall. Automatically, Danny kicked his off and added them to the row, so I followed his lead. Then he took my hand and led me up a set of carpeted stairs that separated the foyer from the living room. I ran my hand along the lovely polished-wood banister until we reached the top.
We passed three rooms, one of which—the bathroom—was open. I assumed the other two must be his roommates’ bedrooms. Near the end of the hall on the right, he opened a door and tugged me inside. The king-size bed he’d been so excited about last summer took up most of the room. Cream-colored shades covered the window opposite the door—a pretty contrast to the forest-green walls. A TV sat on top of a chest of drawers at the foot of the bed, and a small desk and a chair had been pushed against the wall next to it. The space was pretty spartan, with nothing on the walls and the floor picked up. The anomaly was the mess of his bed, the sheets and blankets a tangled heap in the middle of it.
In two steps he was at the side of the bed, cursorily tugging the bedding into place.
I stood right inside the door and waited. When he’d finished sort of making his bed and turned to me, I asked again. “Why is this the first time you’ve invited me here?”
He sat hard on the mattress and patted the blanket next to him. I sat closer to the foot of the bed, putting plenty of space between us.
For the first time since I saw him waiting for me, a sliver of a smile tugged at his generous mouth. “You do own a mirror, right?”
My eyes spun around in my head. “Your point?”
“My roommates are football players—emphasis on ‘players.’ They’ll take one look and make a run at you. I like living in this house, so I thought I’d make sure I was well-established before I had to kick the shit out of one or all of my roommates.”
“Do you have even a tiny clue how ridiculous you sound?” I shook my head.
He inched incrementally closer. “I know what I see.” His gaze heated, sending a shiver through me. “And I know that as gorgeous as the wrapping is, what’s inside the Taryn Hamilton package is even more stunning.” Blowing out a breath, he said, “This conversation is long past due. I never wanted to be friends with you.”
His words landed like a series of blows to my solar plexus. Only by sheer force of will did I manage to remain upright. I swallowed hard and croaked out over the sudden lump in my throat, “Then why have we been friends?”
Closing the distance between us, he slid his arm behind me, his other hand coming up to cup my cheek. “I wanted so much more.” For a second his eyes dropped to my mouth then he brought them back to mine. “From even before we formally met, from the second I set eyes on you, I wanted everything.”
His gaze followed his thumb smoothing back and forth over my skin. Gripping my hands in my lap, I stayed utterly still as I tried to process his words.
“The trouble was, I was the new kid and a senior with one last chance to have a breakout football season that might land me a scholarship to play somewhere. Standing between me and that goal was Derek Watson’s obsession with you.”
All my problems with guys always came back to that jerk. I’d had his number from the second I met him freshman year—wealthy with daddy’s money, entitled, and zero class. The rumors about him never taking no for an answer from any of his dates had made it to my class even before I’d met him, yet girls still took their chances with him. His fancy Porsche, the money he flashed, and his cocky grin drew some girls to take a chance, I guess, but no one dated him for long.
I was the one girl who’d said no to dating him at all, and he’d gone out of his way to make my life hell even after he graduated with Danny a year before me. None of the guys in our high school would ask me out—not even guys who didn’t play sports. He bullied all of them. But I didn’t ever think he’d gotten to Danny too.
“I see.” Every muscle in my body ached with the effort to remain seated and listen to what other hurts Danny had planned for this conversation.
“No, you don’t see.” He smoothed his fingers through my hair, dislodging the scrunchie I’d used to hold my messy bun. “I decided I could play by Derek’s rules during the season, convince him I’d friend-zoned you, and catch every damn pass he tossed my way. When football ended, I was a free agent.” His expression darkened. “Then I asked you to go to Kaitlyn’s New Year’s Eve bash with me and fucked up in the worst possible way. I’d intended to take us out of the friend zone that night.”
Clearing my throat, I asked, “Then why did you go to her bedroom with her?”
“Because Derek made damn sure to put me in a situation where he knew I’d blow it. And I came through like a fucking champ.”
The disgust in his voice shocked me.
“You saw me come out of Kaitlyn’s room and stopped looking at me with your heart in your eyes. Fuck, T. The hurt on your face sobered me right up, but it was too late. After that night you made it as clear as glass we’d only be friends.” His hand found its way to my cheek again.
If he didn’t stop touching me—so gentle, so reverent—I was afraid I might shatter into a million pieces.
“When I didn’t score a football scholarship, I decided to take Uncle Sam up on the offer of a military option, which meant I couldn’t go after you, try to change your mind about me. I couldn’t ask you to wait for me.”
Yes you could have. I would have waited for you.
“I had to keep pretending friendship was enough and hope you’d still be free when I finished my tour.” A sardonic chuckle escaped him. “Which was a monumental fuckup considering what an incredible person you are. Why I thought other guys would miss that is a testament to my stupidity.”
The expression in his eyes was so soft, so warm, yet with an intensity that set a swarm of bees into a frenzy in my belly.
“Last fall when you started talking about some guy you’d met here, my whole world cratered. By Christmas I was pretty sure I’d lost you forever. I’d picked up the paperwork to extend my tour the same day you called in tears about how he’d walked out on you.”
I gasped. “You were going to reenlist? But what about college? And football?”
He shrugged. “Those things only mattered if I could share them with you. I damn sure didn’t want to come home to watch you be in love with someone else.”
“But you didn’t reenlist,” I whispered.
A smile ghosted over his mouth. “No, I didn’t.”
For the first time since that earth-shattering kiss behind Reed Hall, I relaxed. “You chose Mountain State because I’m here.”
The smile that always pulled me in threatened an appearance, but I had the idea Danny wasn’t quite ready to let it go. “Nailed it. The military pays regardless of where a guy wants to go to school, so I would have gone wherever you were.”
I smirked. “Even if the school didn’t offer football?”
That smile detoured from cocky to wry. “Let’s not go crazy, T. We both know you love football too. You wouldn’t have gone to a school without a team.”
After all our late-night conversations in the spring of his senior year of high school, I was positive the one attribute of the college I chose would be that it had a football team. Guess I was hoping he’d return home to give us a chance too.
“What now?” I asked, breathless.
“Now you believe that we’ve been dating all fall, that I’m not playing head games with you, that I haven’t kissed anyone but you since I was seventeen.”
I blinked. “But you like all the girls—”
“Before I met you that was true. Being a horny teenage boy, the new kid in school who couldn’t date the one girl he truly wanted, I was a man-whore fall semester after I started at Central Valley.” He stared deep into my eyes. “That all changed the night of Kaitlyn’s party.” His voice dropped. “You’ve been it for me for years. It was only a matter of timing.” Lowering his head, he brushed his lips over mine once, twice, and pulled back. “We’re so much more than friends.”
To this point he’d made all the moves, made his confession. Now it was my turn. The question was, did I have the courage to take the leap? What would happen if I had the same problem with Danny that I’d had with Aaron? Would our friendship survive it? I’d made it all this time holding my feelings in because his friendship was better than nothing at all. Taking the chance he was asking for risked losing him forever.
“T?”
The worry in his voice decided me. Maybe the problem I’d had with Aaron was that he wasn’t Danny. Maybe something inside me had recognized that and fixed it so I’d have to wait until the right person came into my life—or changed his status in it.
Leaning in, I pressed my mouth to his. After a beat Danny wrapped me in his arms and took over. When I opened for him, I released a tsunami. Both of us poured years of pent-up emotion into that kiss. Every nerve ending in my body tingled as electric heat sizzled through me. Danny dropped his big, warm hand to my hip and slid it along the underside of my thigh to my knee, coaxing me to straddle his lap. Without breaking the kiss that was slowly robbing me of my last brain cell, I rolled up onto him, my knees sinking into the mattress on either side of his hips as I wrapped my arms around his neck.
He tore his mouth from mine, and both of us panted in air as we stared into each other’s eyes. A slow smile turned up the corners of my mouth as I clocked the desire darkening his silver-gray eyes to black, and all the lost time melted away. A happy giggle escaped me before I leaned back in and set my mouth on his.
He banded one arm around me, anchoring me to him while plowing his other hand into my hair, holding the back of my head as he plundered my mouth. The chase and tangle of our tongues, the glorious pressure of his lips on mine, soon had me rocking against him. My needy clit was desperate for the friction that came from rubbing along the hard length I could feel growing between us. Danny’s hand dropped to my ass, squeezing and holding me closer, guiding me as I rode his lap.
Time disappeared as I reveled in kissing Danny Chambers, the reality so much sweeter, so much more intense, than all my fantasies. When at last I tuned in to the whimpers and moans echoing around the walls, embarrassment washed over me. I shifted on his lap, and he groaned as he kissed a trail down my neck, erasing my worry about my loud response to finally being with him the way I’d dreamed for so long. My nipples strained against the lace of my bra, and I feared I might have left a telltale circle in the crotch of my jeans. Yet the ache in my core left me helpless but to keep riding Danny’s fly.
Putting both hands on my ass, he stilled my movements. “Fuck, babe.” It took a second for his eyes to focus on mine as he lifted me up and down over him again then squeezed my cheeks and stilled me. “We do need to make up for lost time.” He grinned that grin that always wound me up. “But you have class, and I have practice, so it’s not going to happen today.”
“But—” My protest started as a whine.
“T, when we do this, it’s going to be right. Not rushed.” He gave my ass another squeeze. “And private.” A quick glance around his room. “This old house is cool, and I like living here, but the walls are thin.” Holding his thumb and forefinger together for emphasis, he continued. “Like, thin .” Cupping my face, he smiled again. “I love the sounds you make when all we’re doing is kissing. Honestly, I can’t wait to hear how you sound when I’m buried balls-deep inside you.”
I shivered at the thought, though I couldn’t be sure if it was from anticipation or fear.
“My roommates are great guys, but I don’t need to hear their commentary about us—and I damn sure don’t want you to hold back.”
Gazing over his shoulder at the size of his bed, I said, “Um, you should know I sleep on something substantially smaller than this.”
Dancing silver-gray eyes caught mine. “We could have an incredible time in a single. Just sayin’.”
My face flamed at his insinuation, but I kept my mouth shut. Didn’t matter. He smoothed his thumbs over my hot cheeks and toned his smile down to gentle.
“Truth time, Taryn. I’ve been lusting after you for all my adult life. I wanted our first real kiss to be special, memorable.” A rueful expression crossed his features. “Yesterday’s fuckup was memorable but definitely not special. That moment of selfishness at Christmas a couple of years ago doesn’t count either.”
I sucked in a breath. “That happened?”
Confusion furrowed his brow. “Me kissing you goodbye before I headed off to Germany? Yeah.” Confusion turned to hurt. “You forgot about it?”
With a shake of my head, I said, “I thought I dreamed it. Ever since that night, I’ve dreamed of that kiss, but you never said anything afterward. You acted exactly the same, as though it never happened, so I thought I’d made it up.”
Beneath my seat on his lap, I sensed him relax.
“Like I said. I had no business asking you to wait for me, so kissing you was a dick move. But you looked so beautiful in the falling snow that I couldn’t help myself.” He ran the pad of his finger over my lips. “Then I couldn’t stop thinking about how perfectly your mouth fit mine, as if you’d been made especially for me.” His expression darkened. “I lost my head that night and again yesterday afternoon. The one thing I wanted was to make our first kiss perfect because it would be both of our last first kisses.”
It was my turn to knit my brow. “But our first kiss was perfect. That’s probably why I thought it was a dream. Well, that and I couldn’t believe you were kissing me,” I added with a wry grin.
“That’s where the problem is. You didn’t see it coming. Hell, I didn’t see it coming.” He tensed. “Plus, it was my last first kiss, but it wasn’t yours.” His mouth turned down again. “You ended up dating the douchebag, so he was your last first kiss.”
My gaze followed my fingers as I rubbed away his frown lines. Closing my eyes, I pulled in a deep breath as I gathered myself. Then I cupped his face in my hands and stared deep into his silvery gaze. Taking the biggest chance of my life, I exposed myself to him.
“My experience, including you, is limited to three guys. The other two didn’t make me lose control.”
For a long minute we merely held each other’s eyes. Then he wrapped me in his arms and buried his face in my neck. I had no idea how long we stayed that way, each breathing the other in, but at last my thighs started to tremble.
“Danny.”
“I know, T.” Lifting his head, his expression more earnest than I’d ever seen it, he said, “I don’t fucking deserve you, but now that you’re mine, I’m never giving you up.”
Still holding me, he lay back on the mattress and rolled us onto our sides, where we stretched out facing each other. In silence we studied each other, cataloging features, sharing tiny intimate smiles, just being. Over the course of our friendship, we’d often left silences we didn’t need to fill. Somehow, this one felt more natural, easy.
Loud voices filling the foyer interrupted our moment. My brow went up. Danny sighed.
“Guess I’d better take you back to campus.”
Yet instead of rolling off the bed, he tangled his fingers in my hair and tugged me close. “You’ll always be my best friend, T.”
When he covered my mouth with his, he imprinted the promise of his words, and I heard what he didn’t say. It may have been a long time coming, but we were building this new stage of our relationship on something already firmly established. Something that would last.