Chapter Thirteen
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
T hat is a lot of condoms.”
Dan set me down on his mattress and crawled on top of me. He followed my line of sight to the open cardboard box in the corner of his bedroom that was filled with boxes of the condoms that he’d ordered. He chuckled and pressed a kiss to the space where my neck and shoulder met, just above my collarbone. “How long do you think that’s gonna last us?”
“Well, I’m not exactly sure, but we have a lot of lost time to make up for.” I giggled and Dan pulled his T-shirt over my head and brushed his lips on the sensitive skin between my breasts.
“I can’t be the only one naked here, Dan.”
“Right.” He stood next to the bed and quickly peeled himself out of his T-shirt and shorts before rejoining me in the bed. He stretched his long, lean body out next to mine, and he used his fingertips to smooth a curl out of my face and place it behind my ear.
“You are so fucking beautiful, Emma.” He placed a gentle kiss on my chin while he smoothed a hand over my naked body. He covered one of my breasts with his large, warm palm and ran his thumb over my nipple, causing it to pebble immediately. I let out a low moan. “Every inch of you is beautiful.” He sucked that nipple into his mouth and bit down gently before sucking on the delicate skin to soothe his bite mark. His lips and fingertips traveled across and down my body in a slow, sensual exploration that left me quivering and covered in a thin layer of sweat. The anticipation was killing me, and I needed to feel him filling me up from inside, in the ways I’d been imagining from the moment I laid eyes on him in the bathroom of the church all those weeks ago.
“I need you, Dan,” I whimpered. “Now. I need you right now.”
He grabbed a condom from the box and sheathed the beautiful dick that I’d become so well-acquainted with before placing a kiss on my stomach, right over my belly button, making my stomach contract and the muscles between my thighs clench. He brushed his thumb over my still-sensitive clit before he parted my thighs and leaned forward.
“I love you, Emma,” he whispered right before I felt the thick head of his cock push into me.
“Mm,” I moaned. My body welcomed him in one long stroke until our hips met. My eyes fluttered closed as he blanketed my body with his own, enveloping me with the heat of his embrace.
“I knew you’d be perfect, Emma,” he murmured in my ear. “I knew you’d be perfect.” We lay still in that moment, simply holding each other and letting the blissful reality of the moment we’d both been longing for wash over us. Then Dan began to move.
He was slow at first, rhythmically sheathing and unsheathing himself in my body while he gazed into my eyes with an expression of ecstasy and concern.
“All right, Emma?” he breathed. “God, you feel amazing. I just…” His words died away as I wrapped my legs around his waist and squeezed, flexing my hips to match his rhythm.
“I’m amazing, baby,” I responded, and I noticed his eyes flash and his pupils dilate when I called him baby . “You feel so good. I want more.” I tucked my bottom lip between my teeth and raised my eyebrows.
“Emma.” He whispered my name like a warning and paused momentarily. “I want… I don’t want to hurt you. It’s our first time and—”
I smoothed my palm over his cheek and pressed my thumb against his lips.
“We will have plenty of time for slow and gentle lovemaking.”
“All the time in the world, if I can help it.” He smiled at me and brushed away the beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
“But right now”—I smiled—“I don’t want slow and gentle.” He tried to protest. “And you love me too much to hurt me. You always say how tough I am. Don’t you want to find out?”
“Fuck, Emma…” he whispered before pressing his nose into the crook of my neck and grazing my shoulder with his teeth. “Fucking hell.” He withdrew himself from me and I watched him adjust the condom before plunging into me again. The force of his thrust made me cry out in pain and pleasure. Before I could catch my breath, he thrust into me again and again. Dan’s eyes found mine and his gaze was so intense it made me shiver.
“I love you, Emma,” he panted between heaving breaths. “You’re mine, Emma.” His pace quickened and his rhythm became erratic as he sheathed and unsheathed himself in my heat. “Mine,” he grunted a final time between clenched teeth as I felt his muscles contract.
His body blanketed mine for long moment that felt too brief before he pressed a kiss to my forehead, rolled off me, and stood. He snapped off the condom, tied it in a knot, and tossed it in the trash. He lifted his head to meet my gaze. “Don’t you worry, love.” He retrieved a strip of condoms from the box on the floor. My belly did a little flip, and I couldn’t stop the grin from overtaking my face. “I’m nowhere close to being done with you.” I was relieved because, after so much anticipation, I was nowhere close to being done with him.
Over three hours passed before Dan and I were done with each other. We lay tangled in his sheets in a sweaty embrace at the foot of his bed.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for this, Emma. Are you sure this is what you want?” Dan pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead.
I blinked and stared up at him. “Of course, this is what I want. Isn’t this what you want?”
“This isn’t just sex for me, Emma.”
“This isn’t just sex for me, either.”
“When I left the UK, a relationship was the last thing on my mind. And then I met you, and we started growing closer, and now I can’t imagine my life without you in it.” He blinked and I felt my eyes welling with tears.
“I love you, too, Dan.” I smiled and pressed our lips together.
“Are you sure, Emma? Because I don’t think my heart is strong enough to get broken twice. You just got out of a very long relationship, and I would understand if you didn’t want to jump into something else right away, but—”
I cut him off with another kiss. “Dan, I told you in the greenhouse, you are not a rebound. You’re the most extraordinary man that I’ve ever met, and I can’t believe how lucky I am to have met you. You met me at one of the craziest times in my life, and there’s no one else I would rather have navigated it with. You helped me when you didn’t have to, and I know I didn’t make it easy.”
He chuckled. “No, love. You didn’t.”
“You were there for me when no one else in my life was, and I love you for that.”
“But how can you be sure that this isn’t some sort of trauma bond?”
“What? Trauma bond? No, this is not a trauma bond. At least I’m pretty sure it isn’t.” I chuckled. “But could we discuss it when I’m not naked in your bed in a room with a box containing every condom in the state?” I draped my arm over his chest and hugged him closer.
“How do you know I’m not the rebound?” I picked up my head to narrow my eyes at him. It was definitely meant to be a joke to lighten the mood, but a small part of me wondered.
“Emma, I’ve been in this town for over two years. If I wanted a meaningless shag, I’ve had plenty of time and opportunity.”
“Um… is that supposed to make me feel better?” I slapped him playfully on the arm and felt his chest vibrate with laughter against my body.
“I thought I just spent the better part of an evening making you feel better,” he crooned in a deep voice.
“Yes.” I picked my head up again to kiss him. “You certainly did.” We laughed and I resumed my position, tucked into the crook of his arm with my head resting on his chest. The room was silent except for the sound of our breathing. A question was nagging at me, and though this moment felt perfect, I couldn’t stop myself from satisfying my curiosity.
“So how did you end up here?” I asked quietly, absently dragging my fingernails through the thick black curls on his chest.
“I’ve already told you. I met your grandparents at a nursery, they hired me, and—”
“No,” I interrupted him, “I meant here, in the US. Why did you leave London?” He heaved a deep sigh and dragged his fingernails across my shoulder.
“That is a very long story, love,” he murmured.
“Well, I’m not going anywhere.” I let out a small chuckle. “But I understand if you don’t feel like sharing…” A long silence followed before he spoke.
“So you already know that Alice taught me how to care for and nurture plants.”
“And fed you contraband jerk chicken?” I added.
“Yes,” he said with a chuckle. “In her garden was where I decided plants would become my life’s work.”
“You decided all this when you were ten?” I picked up my head to look at him with raised eyebrows.
“Yeah, about that. Sometimes when you know, you know.” He winked at me and leaned his head forward for a kiss. I closed the distance, pressing our lips together before resuming my place on his chest. “So fast-forward to university, and I majored in botany and plant sciences.”
“How did your parents take that?”
“They definitely weren’t excited about it, but they were supportive, and I suspect secretly hoping I would change my mind. Wasn’t gonna happen, though. With every day that passed, I knew that I was exactly where I wanted to be.”
“So what happened?”
“For my last two summers of school, I’d worked as an intern with Wesley Manfield, back in the UK.” He paused as if I should have known who that was. “He’s a very famous horticulturist, known for his prize-winning roses. He’s had a weekly television show on BBC Three for decades. He was my idol. Working for him was like a dream come true.” He let out a deep sigh before he continued. “So once I graduated, he offered me a job at his greenhouse and I jumped at the chance. About six months after I started my job at Manfield’s, I met Melanie Manfield, and a few months later, we began dating. Then—”
“Wait. Melanie Manfield?” I picked my head up.
“Yes.” He gently lowered my head back to his chest. “Wesley’s daughter. She also worked at Manfield’s. We saw each other every day. A friendship bloomed—no pun intended—and then we fell in love.”
“The boss’s daughter, huh?”
“Yup.”
“How did he feel about that?”
“Actually, he loved it. As the years went on and I rose in the ranks of his organization, he would often hint at Melanie and me getting married and carrying on the family legacy. It all felt so perfect. My whole life was laid out ahead of me, and it felt like everything I’d ever wanted.”
There was a spark of recognition in Dan’s words. That was exactly how I’d felt with Teddy. I understood the pressure of dating someone with a strong family legacy and the feeling of perfection with unease bubbling underneath the surface.
“Did you want to marry Melanie?” I’m not sure why I asked the question. That’s a lie. A small, insecure part of me still wondered if I was, in fact, a rebound; but as soon as the words left my mouth, I wondered if my penchant for saying exactly what I was thinking was appropriate in this particular instance.
“We definitely weren’t ready to get married, even though we’d been together for years, but…” He sighed. “I always assumed… you know. I’m not sure, really. I do know I loved her. I loved her very much.”
“Why did you break up?”
“She chose her father over me. I mean, I should’ve expected it, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt like hell. Especially along with everything else that happened.”
“What are you… what do you mean?”
“Have you never Googled me?” He lifted his head to meet my eye.
“No, I…” I had to think. It never actually occurred to me to Google Dan, which felt strange because internet sleuthing to get a full picture of a person’s public image was a very large part of my job. At this point, it was almost an instinct. With Dan, I’d never had a reason to. He was always so open and honest with me, even now as we lay in his bed, nude and holding each other. “I never even thought about it.”
“Well, I guess I’m glad you’ll get to hear it from me.” He relaxed into the mattress and rubbed my back. “Every year in Europe, there is an annual flower competition. Manfield’s competed every year for decades and usually won at least half of the top prizes. You’ve probably never heard of it, but it’s a really big competition—millions of dollars in sponsors, televised broadcast, prize money, prestige. Usually, Wesley worked on competition plants himself. He was always very private and particular about them, which wasn’t odd. The man was a perfectionist. Three years ago, he finally trusted me enough to have me assist him.” Dan grew silent. I shifted in his arms and placed a kiss on his chest, listening to him breathe.
“In order to take the top prize, best overall in the rose category, your plants have to be completely free of artificial growth aids. You also have to document every fertilizer used and submit soil samples for testing.”
“Whoa,” I breathed. “For a flower competition?” I asked incredulously.
“Yes, love.” He chuckled. “Flowers are serious business. I won’t bore you with the details, but I discovered that was the reason Wesley was so protective about his competition roses.”
“He was cheating,” I blurted out knowingly.
“Yeah,” Dan confirmed. “I confronted him about it, and at first, he denied it, but I kept pressing and he finally admitted it. It was one of the worst days of my life. It was like finding out Father Christmas was your dad the whole time and he’d been lying to you your entire childhood.”
I was tempted to ask Dan if his family celebrated Christmas, but this was definitely the wrong time to ask.
“Hindus don’t celebrate Christmas, Emma,” he said, correctly reading my mind. “But I did grow up in London. It’s a little hard to escape.”
“So… what? Did he withdraw the roses from the competition?”
“No. He told me that he would, but months went by with no result. Finally, I told him that I wanted to resign, that I couldn’t be a part of his deception… kind of ironic, given what I do now.” He huffed out a mirthless chuckle.
“No.” I picked up my head again. “That’s completely different. What you do here is important and it helps people. You’re not cheating to steal prize money or keep an ill-gotten reputation intact.”
“Thank you, love.” He sighed. “But sometimes I’m not sure…”
“Well, I am. That’s fucked up. What did Melanie say when you told her what her father was doing?” I was met with more silence. “You didn’t tell her?”
“Wesley begged me not to. I’ve wondered what would have happened if I’d gone to her right away, but I didn’t want to ruin her perfect image of her dad. He was going to make an excuse, withdraw from the competition, and no one was ever supposed to know.”
“He never withdrew, did he?”
“No, he didn’t.” Dan’s muscles tightened and his voice grew dark. “He won best overall and threatened me when I told him I planned to tell his daughter the truth.”
“So what happened?”
“I didn’t have to tell her. Some contest officials grew suspicious and several of the top prize winners were retested. Wesley tried to protest, but it wasn’t any use.”
“Oh my God.” I gasped. “That must have been awful for you.”
“Yeah, it was. Especially when he shifted the blame to me.”
My heart stopped and I bolted upright in the bed.
“What?!” I shouted.
“Yeah. He blamed me for using a chemical fertilizer, falsifying records, and sending the committee false soil samples to be tested.”
“Did you tell everyone that you were innocent?”
“Of course, I did. But whom do you think they were going to believe: a legend in the horticultural community, or his unknown protégé?”
“What about Melanie? She believed you, didn’t she?”
His silence told me everything I needed to know. He simply let out a deep sigh and held me closer.
His words from earlier echoed in my head.
She chose her father over me.
“Good morning, beautiful.”
I opened my eyes to find Dan gazing at me. Beautiful isn’t the word I would have used to describe the way I was feeling. After Dan told me the reason why he’d left the UK, we made love again. I drifted off to sleep in his arms, sweaty, sleepy, and satiated, but I also hadn’t tied up my hair.
“Hey,” I whispered and tried to smooth my hair away from my face. He tightened his grip on my body, bringing our faces closer. “No, don’t, I look a mess.” I clapped a palm over my face.
“You look like an angel, love.” He gently pulled my hand away as I giggled and pressed our lips together. He parted my lips with his tongue before he slid a knee between my thighs, parting those, too.
“Morning sex?” I asked when I separated our mouths with a soft pop.
“Yes, please.” He grinned and held up a condom. His lips painted my body with featherlight kisses as he made his way down my torso until I felt his beard tickling my inner thighs.
Less than twenty minutes after I’d woken up, I was in the middle of the throes of an intense orgasm sponsored by the skilled lips and tongue of a man I was falling more and more in love with every minute. Before I had a chance to catch my breath, Dan entered me again, plunging me into ecstasy.
“You feel so good, Emma,” Dan breathed into my neck. “I could make love to you forever.” I grabbed the sides of his face and brought our lips together again. We spent the rest of the morning kissing while we slowly made love.
“Thank you, Emma.” Dan carefully lowered himself onto his mattress before setting down the tray laden with tea and biscuits, which confused me for a moment before I realized that for Dan, biscuits were actually cookies. He pulled on a pair of boxer briefs and I wrapped his bedsheet around my chest, tucking it under my arms.
“Are you thanking me for sex?” I asked with a mouthful of cookie, giving him a skeptical look.
“Not at all.” He laughed and squeezed my knee beneath the sheet. “As lovely as that is.” He waggled his eyebrows at me. “I’m thanking you for listening to me last night. That was the first time I’ve spoken about it since I came to the States and… the first time I’ve ever told anyone the full story.”
“Not even your family?” I asked, and he shook his head.
“I told them that I was innocent, and I’m pretty sure they believed me—”
“Of course they believed you,” I interrupted. He gave me a smile and squeezed my knee again.
“—but I didn’t tell them everything. I was lost for a while. I’d lost my job, my home—Melanie and I lived together—” he quickly added, sensing my question. “My career was over. Plus, I was angry. I was so fucking angry. Part of the reason I took the job when George offered it to me was the opportunity to work on my rose. I felt like I had to prove myself, clear my name somehow…”
“And now you can do that.” I grinned at him, and he answered me with an adoring smile that made my belly do a little flip.
“But I don’t want to, Emma.” He brought his teacup to his lips.
“What?” I spluttered, almost choking on my tea. “What do you mean, you don’t want to? This is your life, and you’re so fucking good at it. I don’t think I’ve loved anything as much as you love plants.”
“I won’t take offense to that.” Dan raised an eyebrow.
“Come on.” I shook my head and lowered my teacup. “You know what I mean. People deserve to know the truth, and you deserve better.”
“I disagree,” he responded, and I scrunched up my face. “Maybe all this shit happened for me to end up exactly where I am.” He slid the tea tray to the other end of the mattress. “I’ve already got the best sitting in my bed, wrapped in a bedsheet and scowling at me.” He leaned forward and kissed my nose. My face relaxed but I still glared at him. “Emma, finishing the rose is enough for me. Life on the farm and in this town is enough for me. Spending every day with you”—he kissed my lips—“is enough for me… too much sometimes.” I grabbed a pillow and hit him with it. “Violence, Miss Walters?! I’m gonna make you pay for that.”
He growled and leaped on top of me, making me squeal, before exquisitely torturing me until he had to leave to do some work on the farm.
An hour later, I was freshly showered, dressed, and craving something more substantial than cookies. I packed up my laptop and decided to head to Erica’s early so I could get some work done before my shift, and also for waffles.
There was no more work to be done on festival planning for the day, and by the time I finished my waffle, I still had over half an hour before the start of my shift at the diner. I stared at the screen of my laptop, wondering if, for once, I should ignore my curiosity for the greater good instead of giving in.
I gave in.
The first hit on the search for Dan’s name was an article from the paper that we’d lovingly called in the office the Daily Fail . My heart leaped into my throat as I read the scathing assassination of Dan’s character. It didn’t even sound like they were talking about the person I’d spent the last two months falling in love with. They even managed to turn his family’s defense of their son into something sordid. There were unflattering photos of his parents and brother, interviews with Dan’s classmates. The part that enraged me the most was the interview with Wesley Manfield himself, talking about how much he’d loved and trusted Dan.
“He was like a son to me and the love of my daughter’s life. We’re both absolutely heartbroken.”
There were photos of Melanie leaving her apartment, attempting to cover her face, juxtaposed with photos of her with Dan “during happier times, before his betrayal,” as the caption read. Melanie was a tall, slightly curvy woman with long, brown hair. And yes, she was beautiful. They looked like they were happy. I scoured the interview for a quote from her, but there wasn’t one. How could she ever have claimed to love someone as wonderful as Dan and not have said even a word in his defense?
I slammed my laptop shut and took three calming breaths. Hit pieces were not new territory for me. Combatting their negative effects was a huge part of my job—or at least, it had been. Despite Dan’s adorable declaration in bed this morning, he did deserve better. Maybe in the past he was used to having girlfriends who didn’t fight for him, but that was no longer the case. If Dan wasn’t gonna work to restore his reputation, then I was going to do it for him. I swiped to open my phone and sent Max a text message asking for a list of her UK media contacts. A satisfying smile spread on my face as I scrolled through Max’s almost-dozen replies.
“When are you going to be finished?” Dan growled into my neck with the cutest hint of a whine.
“I am so close.” I giggled and tried to focus on the stack of permits on the kitchen table.
“You are not even close to being close,” he whispered into my ear, making me shiver.
“You didn’t get enough last night?” I put down my highlighter and turned to face him. He shook his head with a mischievous grin. “Or this morning?” I dropped my voice to a low whisper.
“No,” he replied before he scooped me out of my chair and deposited me onto the table so I could wrap my legs around his waist. “I’m addicted, I’m afraid.” He pressed our lips together before he pulled my T-shirt over my head.
“Dan, the permits!” I squealed when he pressed his face between my breasts, gently dragging his teeth over the flesh exposed by my bra. He slammed the file shut and tossed it on the countertop before pulling his shirt over his head and letting it drop on the floor. He wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me into him. His erection caressed my sensitive folds through the thin fabric of my leggings. His warm, giant palm pressed into my chest, gently easing me back until I was fully reclined against the cool wooden surface.
“Here?” I asked. “On the kitchen table?” Dan’s fingertips dug into the skin of my waist as he tugged my panties and leggings over my hips.
“I can’t think of a better place to enjoy my favorite meal.” He swiped a finger between the slick folds of my sex and tucked it between his lips. “Can you?” He raised an eyebrow.
“We’re gonna have to disinfect this table when we’re—” My sentence was cut short by Dan swiping his tongue between my legs and sucking my clit between his lips. My body went rigid and I let out a loud moan.
Disinfectant was the last thing on my mind.
“I bet you would look beautiful in a sari.” Dan had his head propped up on his palm and elbow, and he was gazing at me with a big smile on his face.
“I’ve never worn a sari, but I’d be inclined to agree with you.” I smiled and leaned forward to kiss him. We were curled up on the living room floor, mostly nude and wrapped in a giant quilt Dan had retrieved from the hall closet. “What made you say that?”
“You know my brother is getting married soon.”
“I do.”
“You should come to the wedding with me.” His grin was still firmly in place, but I felt the smile slide off my face.
“You want me to come with you to your brother’s wedding?”
“Yes.” He stroked his fingertips up and down my arm. “I do.”
“And meet your family?”
“Yeah.” He chuckled. “They’ll be a bit hard to avoid since there’ll be about four hundred of us.”
My jaw dropped open.
“Four hundred?” I repeated.
Dan tilted his head from side to side. “Give or take. It’s family members and basically anyone my or Madhumita’s parents have said hello to since the beginning of time.”
“Madhumita?”
“My brother’s fiancée. She’s an amazing woman. She and Sanjeet starting dating in medical school, and she must have the patience of a saint if she puts up with my git of a brother.” He chuckled. “I think you would like her.”
“You don’t think it’s too soon to meet your family?” My stomach was doing flips. I couldn’t even imagine subjecting Dan to a meeting with my parents, but he actually seemed to have a great relationship with his family.
“Emma”—his face grew serious and he took my chin between his thumb and forefinger, turning my face until our eyes met—“before you showed up in that men’s toilet, I was dead inside. Life was just a repetitive set of motions with occasional bits of fleeting happiness. I never thought I would ever find someone who makes me feel the way you do. I can’t ever remember being this happy. So no, it’s not too soon to introduce my family to the woman who brought me back to life.” He stroked my cheek and stared deep into my eyes. “So, Emma Walters, will you come with me to London to attend my brother’s wedding?” My heart stopped; at least, it felt like it did. It felt like the world stopped moving. It wasn’t the invitation that terrified me. I would follow Dan Pednekar into a hurricane, but the idea of meeting his family felt more dangerous.
“I haven’t been to a wedding in years.” I couldn’t think of anything better to say.
“It will be just like any other wedding you’ve been to, except four days long, with lots of ceremonies and parties, even more food…”
“Four days?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Give or take.” He nodded.
“What if your family doesn’t like me?”
“Impossible,” he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “If my mum asks, you’re an excellent cook who wants to have lots of babies.” I threw my head back and laughed. “And my dad will want to hear all about your Ivy League education.”
“Both of my parents are surgeons.”
“They are?” he asked with a furrowed brow, and I nodded.
“Well, definitely tell him that.” He hugged me closer and kissed my forehead. “So I take it you’ve decided to come, yeah?”
“Yes.” I tilted my chin up to kiss him. “Now take me to bed.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Dan disentangled himself from the sheet before scooping me into his arms and making his way upstairs.
“Dan, when you said ‘lots of babies,’” I asked as he carried me past my bedroom on the way to his apartment, “exactly how many babies were you talking about?”
“Enough to have our own cricket team,” he said with a shrug.
I thought for a second before my eyes went wide and I let out a small gasp. “Eleven?!”
“Glad to hear you’ve been paying attention.” His face was serious until I saw his beard twitch. My eyes narrowed and I shook my head at him.