Chapter Thirty-One Taryn
T he Wildcats fought hard, but the Bison were on home turf, and they’d made it this deep into the playoffs each of the past seven years. Their advantages were on full display while our boys struggled to find their rhythm. Though the final score was close, the outcome favored the home team. Even through the TV screen, Wildcats fans could feel the team’s dejection. I couldn’t remember a game I was sadder about losing, and I wasn’t even on the field.
The next day was Christmas Eve, and I knew Danny was in transit to North Carolina. Still, I texted.
Me: Proud of you. My whole family was proud of you.
Danny: This one stings. But thank you.
Me: At least tonight you can play Santa for Devyn.
Danny: Yeah. I’m arriving after his bedtime. Hope he still likes me after we lost.
Me: He’s probably going to insist you teach him how to run routes.
Danny: You always know the exact right thing to say. Merry Christmas.
Me: Merry Christmas.
Danny: Miss you.
Me: Miss you more.
A heart emoji ended the conversation, so I knew he was boarding the plane.
As usual, my grandparents spent the holiday with us. As I’d threatened at Thanksgiving, I insisted Tina play Scrabble, yet my connivingly lucky little sister came perilously close to beating me at my best game. Even though it was Christmas, I didn’t hesitate to remind her she’d always been a menace. She chose the next game and resoundingly beat the entire family in seven-hand rummy. I decided she was a witch when it came to cards.
The rest of the week passed with no drama, which was strange. It was the first time that Derek Watson hadn’t made an appearance at someplace I was, even on the one night Tally talked me into going to the Sportsman to hang out with kids who’d graduated from Central Valley. But I should have known it was too good to last.
A couple of days before New Year’s Eve, Kaitlyn Frost started posting on social media about the big bash she’d planned. This year’s theme was football heroes, and Danny Chambers was going to be the guest of honor. It was déjà vu all over again. A New Year’s Eve football party at Kaitlyn’s house with all the “old gang” in attendance. I couldn’t think of anywhere I’d rather not be. Then Danny texted.
Danny: We’re invited to a party at Kaitlyn’s for New Year’s.
Me: I saw on social media that she was hosting something.
Danny: Not what I said. We’re invited.
Me: She hasn’t said a word to me, but she’s made a big deal about you.
Danny: It’s only a party, T.
Me: I’m gonna pass. But you go if you want.
Me: I’m being straight up here. No hidden agenda. Go and have a good time.
Danny: We’ll talk about it when I get back.
As it turned out, we didn’t talk about it at all. Sheila called the day before New Year’s Eve in a panic. Hailey—who lived in town for crying out loud—had bailed on her shifts over the holiday. Though my boss knew she was asking a massive favor, she promised to pay me a bonus the size of working a week of shifts if I’d cover New Year’s Eve and the day following New Year’s Day. Since I was planning to head back to campus the day after New Year’s anyway, leaving a couple of days early for the kind of money she was offering sounded like a good idea.
Plus, it got me out of that awful party at Kaitlyn’s.
I was sitting on my couch with a massive bowl of popcorn watching Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve when I about stuck myself to the ceiling at the loud pounding on my door. After picking up the popcorn kernels that had jumped from the bowl and landed on the blanket covering my lap, I stood and walked over to the door. Through the peephole I saw Danny scowling back at me.
“It’s cold as fuck out here, T. What took you so long to answer the door?” he asked as he dropped his duffel bag on the floor and stomped snow from his boots on the rug.
“It’s almost midnight. What are you doing here?”
The incredulous expression he leveled on me had me taking a step back. “I asked you to go to Kaitlyn’s party with me.” His coat followed his boots. “Imagine my surprise when I rolled up to your house to pick you up only to discover you’d left yesterday.” He stalked toward me. “Why didn’t you tell me what Derek did at Thanksgiving?”
“I took care of it.” I wrapped my arms around myself. “Well, Tina and Dad did most of the talking, but Derek left me alone. I didn’t see him at all when I was home this time.”
“Yeah, well, that was what I wanted when I accepted Kaitlyn’s invitation for us.”
My brows went up.
“I wanted a do-over of the night you stuck me in the friend zone. My plan before I fucked it up was to take you out of the friend zone. If not for Kaitlyn and Derek—and my own stupidity—I might have succeeded. This time I wanted to make it clear to both of them that we are together.” He stalked toward me, and I backed up at his glare. “Instead I find out from Tina that Derek’s been harassing you for years . Why didn’t you say something?”
I found my way back to the couch and tugged my pillow over my lap, hugging it to my chest. “It’s nothing new. He made himself clear to you way back when.”
Danny flexed his left hand and rubbed his right hand over the knuckles. That’s when I noticed the swelling.
“What did you do?” I asked, my voice vibrating with fear and anger. How dare he mess up his hands on such a worthless person as Derek Watson?
“I went to Kaitlyn’s party and made myself clear to him.”
As I processed what he was truly telling me, I put my pillow aside and went to the freezer. “I don’t have any ice, but this should help.” I handed him a bag of frozen berries wrapped in a paper towel and sat back on the couch.
“Derek Watson is a POS who will probably only apply tonight’s lesson to you. As long as he stays away from you, I’m good.”
“He’s not worth the risk to your football career, babe.”
“You are worth far more than football.”
Loud noise from the TV interrupted our conversation. “Three, two, one—Happy New Year!”
Danny looked at me with sparks in his eyes. “Happy New Year, T.” He leaned over and fused his mouth to mine, the kiss starting at scorching and arcing to molten in about a second and a half. Somewhere in there the bag of frozen berries hit the coffee table as he kissed a trail from my jaw to my ear, and my body caught fire. Jesus, I’m so hot .
Chuckling against my skin, he said, “You’ll get no arguments about that from me.”
“What?” I asked, dazed from the way his kisses lit me up.
“You are the hottest girl I’ve ever met.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “I said that out loud?”
A puff of air on my skin told me he was laughing.
“I meant hot as in heated . I feel like a furnace.”
“We can fix that.”
Pushing up onto his knees, he pulled his hoodie over his head, closely followed by his T-shirt, both landing somewhere on the floor beside the couch. If I hadn’t been overheating before, the sight of his sculpted shoulders, biceps, and pecs fired my core into a raging conflagration. But before I could skim my hands over all that male beauty, he cocked a brow and said, “Your turn.”
“My turn?” I blinked.
He fisted the hem of my sweatshirt and headed north with it.
“Oh.” I lifted my arms above my head, and then my clothes joined his on the floor.
Danny’s silver-gray eyes blazed as he stared at me in my camisole. His gaze was glued to my breasts where my achingly hard nipples tried to poke through the thin satin. “I’ve jerked off to visions of you in this top more times than I’m willing to admit. Are you wearing the matching panties?”
“There’s one way to find out.” I had no idea who the flirty girl coming out of my mouth was, but he went all in with her.
Standing, he reached his uninjured hand to me. When he pulled me to my feet, he didn’t stop. Instead, he scooped me high into his arms and headed to the bedroom.
“You know what they say about who you kiss on New Year’s Eve,” he said conversationally as he maneuvered me to slide down his front until my feet hit the carpet.
“What do they say?” My question came out breathy, but he felt so good pressed to me, I couldn’t care.
“The person you kiss on New Year’s is who you’ll be kissing all year.” Punctuating his pronouncement, he lowered his head and put his lips on mine, gifting me a slow, burning kiss that curled my toes. “I’m looking forward to this year.”
The sensation of calloused fingertips on my skin alerted me to his intention of divesting me of my camisole. When it caught on my breasts, his raised brows asked the question. I answered it by raising my arms, and then both of us were naked from the waist up.
His big hands covered my chest as he plumped and played with me, his thumbs finding my hard nipples until I moaned.
“You are so perfect.” Lifting his gaze to mine, his words came out on a hoarse croak. “I want you so much.”
“Then have me.” A shiver stole over me as I committed to what he’d been waiting so patiently for me to give.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“I wanted to be your first, but I’m good with being your last, too.” He dropped to his knees and tugged my leggings down to my ankles.
“You’re both,” I whispered.
His gaze flew to mine. “ Fuck , T.” Palming my calves, he urged me to lift my feet, and then he tossed my leggings to the side. “I’ve had wet dreams about this lace.”
He leaned close and kissed my center before going back to exploring the contours of my legs with his eyes and his hands. My skin pebbled beneath his talented touch, and liquid heat flooded my core.
“You know what I’m dying for right now?”
I shook my head.
Slipping his fingers beneath the waistband of my lacy panties, he said, “I’m dying for a taste of you. May I?”
“Yes.” The word came out in a ragged whisper.
In a blink I was standing naked in front of him. Then he was there, his lips and tongue doing wicked, wonderful things to my clit. I widened my stance and he slipped a finger inside my pussy. Moaning, I plowed my hands into his hair and hung on as waves of pleasure built low in my belly. Then he added a finger, stretching me in a delicious way that made my knees wobbly. When he increased the rhythms of his fingers in time with the hard suckling he gave my clit, all those building waves of pleasure crashed over me at once. My knees buckled as I screamed his name.
Slowly, he pulled out of me. With an expression of pure naughtiness, he gazed into my eyes and stuck his fingers in his mouth, licking my juices from them. “Exactly as I thought,” he said. “You’re delicious.”
He hopped up to his feet and dropped his jeans and boxers. The sight of his erection filled me with equal parts excitement and trepidation. Though I’d gotten him off with my hands and my mouth, both of which I’d loved, we were moving on to something I hadn’t been able to do with Aaron. More than anything, I didn’t want to disappoint Danny. Not Danny. Please, Lord, not Danny.
Tipping my chin up with his finger, he said, “Hey, where’d you go?”
I reached for him. “Thinking about the last time I touched you.”
“Mmm, I love your hands... your mouth on me.” He clamped his fingers around my wrist. “But tonight it’s all about you.”
Slowly, he lowered me to the bed and climbed over me, nibbling and kissing my jaw, down my neck, across my collarbone. His lips left a trail of fire wherever they touched. His hands on my body left me writhing beneath him, my body begging for what I instinctively knew he could give. I clutched his shoulders and whimpered.
“All in good time, babe. I want to savor this. Savor you.”
I’d never felt so cherished in my life.
He lavished attention on my breasts to the point I thought I’d come again. He must have sensed my response because dark laughter rumbled from his throat. When he kissed his way back to my lips, our mouths doing together what our bodies longed to do, I couldn’t stop myself from rubbing my center up and down his length.
“Wait, babe.” He panted. “I need to suit up first.” Reluctantly, and with several extra drugging kisses, he rolled off the bed in search of his jeans.
Retrieving a foil packet, he tore it open and rolled the condom over himself. When he came back to bed, reflexively my thighs clamped together, my entire body going rigid. Tears sprang to my eyes as reality flooded in. Not Danny , my mind screamed even as I fisted the sheets and tears rolled down my temples into my hair.
“Taryn? T? What’s wrong?”
“I-I don’t know,” I stuttered. The concern on his handsome face ruined me, and I shut my eyes tight.
The bed sagged under his weight. Then I felt the featherlight touch of his fingertip smoothing over my brow. “Hey. Look at me.”
The confusion in his eyes wrecked me.
“Talk to me, T. We can figure this out if you talk to me.”
Since he was kneeling on the covers, I crossed my arms over my chest and rolled away from him into a tight little ball. “I-I th-thought it w-would be different with you.” It took everything I had to hold back the sobs scraping the back of my throat raw. “But Aaron was right. I’m frigid.” Swallowing hard, I whispered, “Will you even want to stay my friend?”
Behind me, the bed shifted again as he left it. I heard him in the bathroom, water running, and I shoved my fist into my mouth to keep from crying out. He was leaving. Of course he was leaving. I’d led him on as if we were going to reach the natural progression of our relationship at last, and then I wrecked it right at the pivotal moment. Why would he want anything to do with me after that?
Behind me, the bed sagged again. Then he was there, spooning me, his arm wrapped around my middle like he’d never let go. The dam broke then. Sobs wracked me as I absorbed as much of the feel of him into me as I could, knowing this was Danny saying goodbye.
I cried for him and what I couldn’t give him. I cried for me and what I’d wanted so much with him but now knew I’d never have. Most of all, I cried for the friendship we’d built over years of pent-up longing—a friendship that had meant everything.
After I’d spent my tears, he rubbed his palm up and down my arm, over my hip, down my thigh, and back before wrapping his arm back around me.
“Are you done, now? All cried out?”
I nodded.
“You aren’t frigid, T. No one as passionate as you are when we’re having sex could ever be frigid.”
Half-turning, I blinked at him. “We haven’t had sex because the second you put on a condom, I froze solid.”
Chuckling, he leaned in and brushed a soft kiss over my shoulder. “Taryn, we haven’t experienced penetration—yet—but we’ve damn sure had some great sex.” Sobering, he said, “I don’t think you have a problem with any of it. From the way you’ve jacked and blown me, it’s pretty obvious you like my cock.” He grinned. “And from the way you like my tongue and fingers inside you, penetration isn’t the problem either.”
“But—”
“I’ve been playing it over in my head, and you went rigid the second I suited up.” He brushed another kiss over my shoulder. “The military rejects recruits with latex allergies. Did you know that?”
I shook my head.
“If we’re in a combat situation and someone needs medical attention, the military can’t risk that person having wound complications because a medic used latex gloves when treating them. Everyone gets tested for latex allergies.”
“What does that have to do with me freaking out about penetration?”
“Are you on birth control?”
Wrinkling my nose at him, I said, “Weird question considering there’s no doubt I’m a virgin. But as a matter of fact, I use it to keep my periods regular. Why?”
“The Air Force regularly tested for STIs. My last test was right before my EAOS, and I’m clean. I haven’t been with anyone but you since.” He fingered a lock of my hair. Then his eyes found mine. “Do you trust me?”
A ghost of a laugh slipped out. “Silly question.”
“Taryn.”
“Yes.”
Tugging me onto my back, he leaned up on his elbow and traced the pad of his finger from the divot in my collarbone, down the center of my chest, and over my stomach, stopping to lightly circle my belly button. At his touch sensations of desire started low in my core. When I shifted, my body softening under his talented finger, he continued his trip south until he found my clit.
“Oh!” I cried out as he lightly rubbed his finger over me.
“We’ll try again, okay? You up for that?”
He increased the pressure in the way that always felt so good when he put his hands on me.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Oh!” My eyes rolled back in my head as he slipped his finger inside me.
“Very,” he rumbled as he took my nipple in his mouth.
In seconds, it seemed, I’d gone from a blubbering mess to a writhing, out-of-control beggar as he worked me with his hands and mouth. When he kissed his way down my body so his lips and tongue could add to the pleasure of his fingers, I didn’t think—I just let my knees fall open, giving him access.
“That’s it, T. Enjoy it,” he praised me.
His teasing tongue on my sensitive nub had me clutching the sheets as I writhed and moaned at his touch. When he added a second finger inside me, the walls of my pussy spasmed and clamped down on him, my hips doing their own thing, chasing the rhythm he set. The orgasm started low in my belly, radiating outward until sparks of electricity flashed out from my center to the tips of my fingers, out the ends of my toes and the top of my head.
While I tried to catch my breath, Danny kissed his way back up my body until his hard length was rubbing up and down between my folds.
“You still okay?” he whispered, his voice rough.
“Yes.”
“Do you feel where I am?”
Of their own volition, my hips moved with his. “Yes.”
“I want to be inside you so bad, but if you’re still not ready you tell me.”
He stopped moving, and I think I growled in frustration.
A strained laugh escaped him, but still, he said, “Words, T.”
“You feel so good. I don’t want to stop.”
“Thank fuck,” he breathed as he reached between us and positioned himself at my entrance.
Then he was easing inside of me. Sweat beaded his forehead as he slowly stretched me. His arms trembled as he held himself above me while he took forever pushing inside me. Since he’d brought me to orgasm with his talented tongue and fingers, my body was soft and slick. Still, he was a big man, and I worked to relax and let him all the way in. When he was seated to the hilt, he stared down at me with eyes desire-darkened almost to black, with only a ring of silver-gray around his pupils.
“Oh, fuck, T. You feel like heaven. Are you okay?”
“I think so.” Experimentally, I shifted my hips, the movement pushing my clit against him. “Mmm.”
His eyes blazed as they held mine captive. Then he pulled almost all the way out.
“No! Please. Don’t leave,” I pleaded as I hooked my ankles together around his waist.
“Not going anywhere,” he grunted. “But it’s been so long, and you feel so incredible, I have to move.”
Gritting his teeth, he slowly pumped inside me. My body reacted to each thrust with more and more need. The walls of my pussy involuntarily closed around him, sending a bolt of pleasure through me. So I clamped down on him again on purpose. This time the carnal sensations rippling through me sent my hips meeting his thrust for thrust.
“Damn, T, you are a quick learner.” He panted. “If you keep doing that I’m not going to last.”
“You don’t like it?” I attempted to stop the pulsing of my body around his and discovered it to be an impossibility.
“Babe, it feels fucking wonderful, which is why I’m losing control,” he said through gritted teeth.
Running my hands up his arms and over his shoulders, I tugged him down for a kiss. Against his mouth I said, “You feel wonderful. I had no idea.” When I kissed him, he started moving, his hard thrusts coming too fast for my hips to keep up, so I locked my legs around him and hung on.
“Taryn! I’m gonna come! Fuuuck.” The tendons in his neck stretched as he shouted his pleasure, his body rigid for a second before he thrust a couple more times then collapsed on top of me.
I pulsed around him, a contented glow radiating from where we remained joined, as I lazily ran my fingertips up and down his broad back.
“I wanted you to come,” he mumbled into the pillow. “But I lost it.”
“Danny,” I whispered. “I had it right. You were the one.” I savored being this close to him, our skin touching everywhere from our necks to our knees. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d have him like this, our bodies fused together, absorbing each other.
When his breathing evened out, he rolled off me and pulled me onto my side, facing him. I couldn’t help but smile.
“That was amazing.”
He grinned back. “Next time I’ll make you come. Then you can tell me about mind-blowing.”
“Whenever you touch me, my whole body tingles and fizzes. It’s like my blood bubbles into champagne or something.”
Tangling his fingers in my hair, he tugged me in for a kiss. “You are the best part of my life, T. In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m wildly in love with you.”
Slipping my arm around his waist, I pressed my body to his. “I’ve loved you for so long.” I lost myself in the silver of his eyes. “When you didn’t leave tonight, when you let me cry and had the patience to figure out what was happening to me—I’m so lucky.” The deep intensity of the closed-mouth kiss we shared solidified our words.
He lay on his back, my head on his shoulder, our arms around each other. I thought he’d fallen asleep, but he said, “When you hooked up with that douchebag Aaron, I came within a day of re-upping.”
I lifted my head, blinking into his eyes.
“Then you called me in the middle of the night sobbing, and I wanted to wrap you in my arms so bad.” He followed the contours of my cheeks with his fingertips. “And maybe punch a certain asshole through a wall.”
I put my hand on his chest, and he settled back down into the pillows. “Easy there Ace. It’s ancient history now.” Smoothing my hand over the light dusting of hair on his pecs, I said, “If I’d had a clue I was ever going to leave the friend zone, I probably wouldn’t have dated him at all.”
He tipped his head up to shoot me an incredulous stare. “What do you mean, if you’d had a clue? I kissed you goodbye before I left for my tour in Germany. How much of a clue did you need?”
“I didn’t know what that was, Danny,” I said, quietly. “Nothing in our relationship at that time said anything about us ever being more than friends.”
He covered my hand with his. “Of course you’d think that way.” Sighing, he added, “I never gave you any reason to think otherwise. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I ever let that other asshole get in the way of our happiness.” Entwining our fingers together, he said, “We let other people dictate too much for us, but that’s over. No matter what happens, I love you. That’s real and solid and forever.”
My body sang with his words, and I cuddled closer to him. “I love you so much, Danny Chambers. For always.”