Chapter Twenty
CHAPTER TWENTY
M om was having dinner with Mrs. Lee. Becks and Max were gone. Dan was home, and I was freshly showered, sitting in his lap, and holding a cup of tea.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered with my head resting on his chest, inhaling his delicious scent.
“I know, love,” he whispered. “I’m sorry, too.” I picked my head up and looked at him.
“Why are you sorry?” I asked. He cupped my chin in his hand and brought our lips together.
“I shouldn’t have left the way I did.”
“Well, I forgive you.” I smiled and he kissed me. “You came back. That’s all I care about. So were you responsible for the greenhouse?” I smiled and narrowed my eyes.
“Guilty.”
“How?” I shook my head in disbelief. “Where did it all go?”
“Well, Ernesto called me and told me what was going on. And in the very wee hours of the morning, a bunch of us moved the whole lot into a semitruck parked outside of town.”
“Did you come back in the wee hours of the morning because Ernesto called you?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I was already at the airport.”
“You were?”
“I was.”
“But you weren’t supposed to come back until next week.” I grinned.
“Well, I wanted to get back here and make sure you hadn’t burned the place down trying to make coffee.”
I giggled and snuggled into his chest.
“And my cricket bat is here.”
“How was Sanjeet’s wedding?”
“Beautiful. I’m so proud of him. Mita is amazing. I’m happy for him. Of course, the wedding would have been better if you were with me. But I’m sure they’ll be having a big Indian baby shower within the next year. You can make it all up to me by being on my arm for it.”
“It’s a date.” My smile turned mischievous. “By the way, I saw your Instagram post.”
“You did, huh?” One corner of his beard twitched.
“You couldn’t find any formidable chess opponents in London?”
“None as good as my queen.” Dan turned me in his lap so I was straddling him and opened my robe. I was completely naked underneath. “No one is better than you, Emma. You came into my life and turned everything upside down, and I love you so much for it.” He wrapped a palm around one of my breasts and smoothed his thumb over my nipple, making me gasp.
“I love you, too.” I leaned forward and brushed my lips over his. “I couldn’t even imagine my life without you in it.”
“I hope you never have to,” he whispered before standing with my legs wrapped around his waist and carrying me up the stairs to his bed.
“I really missed you, Emma,” Dan whispered as he lowered me onto his mattress.
“Oh, really?” I said with a coy smile and scooted up the mattress. “What did you miss the most?”
“Too many to choose from, love.” He undid the buckle of his belt, and I watched his jeans slide down his legs into a pile of denim at his feet before he stepped out of them.
“Try.” I slipped a finger into my mouth and pulled it out slowly while he watched me hungrily. Dan had pulled himself out of his boxer briefs and was stroking his length as his eyes followed the path of my finger down my body, between my breasts and over my belly. My eyelids fluttered closed, and I let my head fall, sliding my fingers over my clit while Dan watched.
“I missed the sexy little cat noises you make when I nibble on your inner thigh,” he whispered, and I felt the mattress dip when he joined me on the bed. I paused midstroke and opened my eyes to glare at him.
“I do not make cat noises.” I shot him a lazy grin and shook my head.
“Oh, yes, you do.” He knelt between my legs before wrapping his arms around my thighs and yanking me toward the edge of the bed so quickly I let out a squeal of surprise. “See? You’re starting already.” My chuckle was cut short by Dan swiping his tongue between my legs. My back arched away from the mattress as Dan used his powerful arms to hold me in place as I jerked and squirmed. Unintelligible sounds—though I wouldn’t call them cat noises—emanated from my mouth, mixed with expletives and cries of Dan’s name as I tangled my fingers in his hair and rode his face to ecstasy.
If Dan hadn’t told me himself that he missed me, I would’ve known from the way he was devouring me. Every pucker of his lips and swipe of his tongue felt desperate and needy as he left no inch of my sex untouched or unexplored. He kissed, licked, and nibbled me past the point of sanity until I couldn’t take any more and pushed his head away, drowning in a heady euphoria that only multiple orgasms can cause. My chest was heaving and I was covered in sweat when my insatiable lover kissed a trail from my thigh to my lips and whispered, “Cat noises.”
After I returned the favor, Dan retrieved one of the hundreds of condoms from the cardboard box in the closet of his bedroom and proceeded to make love to me in every corner of his flat as we desperately tried to make up for the two weeks of time we’d lost. At my lowest point, I’d often wondered if I’d ever have moments like this with Dan again. Now that we were back together, I was desperate to enjoy every kiss and embrace.
“I don’t think it’s fair,” he mused as his fingers hovered over one of his pawns.
“What’s not fair?” I asked, nibbling on a piece of chikki from one of Dan’s mother’s care packages.
“How am I supposed to concentrate on my game when there are so many… distractions?” He tipped his chin at my bare chest.
“Are you really trying to insinuate that you’re losing because I’m naked?” I giggled and sat up straighter on his sitting room floor, arching my back and capturing all of his focus before I leaned in for a kiss.
“Darling, Garry Kasparov wouldn’t be able to focus with those on display.” He finally moved his bishop and reached for the tin, planting a kiss on my lips. “If I’d known you’d like my mum’s chikki so much, I would have asked her to send more.”
“It’s so good!” I said with a mouthful. “I can’t believe your mom makes this.”
“Almost every week when we were kids,” he said. I held out a piece and he leaned forward and bit off a corner with a loud crunch.
“You talked to your mom about me?” I paused with my hand halfway to the board. “Did you tell her that I was the reason the press was camped outside her house?”
“Of course.” He shrugged and took another bite before winking at me. “Well, to tell the truth, she already knew.”
“Explain.” I used my queen to take his knight.
“Well, there’s really not much to explain.” He shrugged. “I was miserable. Then three months ago, you showed up, and I was happy. When I showed up to Sanjeet’s wedding without you, miserable again, it was pretty easy to figure out… according to her, anyway.”
I smiled and stroked his face.
“She also didn’t try to set me up with any of her friends’ daughters at the wedding, so that was a giveaway.”
“Was she upset about what I… what I did?”
“She said I was a fool for running away from you.”
“She did?” I asked. Dan’s mother raised an amazing son, made delicious peanut candy from scratch, and took my side in arguments. I’d never met her, but I loved her already.
“Yeah, she said that it was obvious that you really cared about me, and, though you may have done the wrong thing, you did it for all the right reasons.” He moved one of his pawns to block my bishop.
“I did.” I sighed. “I never meant to cause you or your family any pain, and I didn’t think it through. I was just so angry and I—”
“You were protecting your king?” He raised an eyebrow with a smirk.
“Yeah.” I huffed out a small chuckle. “I was.” I leaned forward and kissed him. “And speaking of protecting your king… checkmate.”
“Damn those delicious nipples.” Dan swept all of the pieces off the board before grabbing me around the waist and rolling me underneath him.
“She was right. I overreacted. I shouldn’t have left you like that. To tell the truth, I was scared.”
“Scared?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “From one runaway to another, I was afraid to face all of that again. I was hoping I’d never have to, but, thanks to you”—he planted a kiss on the side of my head—“I didn’t have a choice. And it turned out to be a good thing.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ah, well, I guess you don’t get the UK papers here, and you may have been a little preoccupied these past two weeks…” He shot me a sardonic smile. “Let me show you.” He tried to stand and I pressed my hand to his chest.
“No, I don’t want you to move. Just tell me.”
“All right.” He chuckled, settled back onto the floor, and wrapped his arms around my waist.
“Wesley is dying, and when the media contacted him about my story, he decided to do an interview confessing everything.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “He did. He also asked to see me.”
“Did you go?”
“I did.”
“Did you get closure?”
“I did.”
“I’m happy for you. You deserve for the world to know how amazing you are.”
“Thank you, but in the future—”
“I promise not to go behind your back and use my PR powers.”
“Well, your PR powers had another unintended consequence.”
“What’s that?”
“I sold the rose.”
“Seriously?!” I squealed and sat up.
He nodded and kissed me. “Well, I haven’t signed anything, but I’m fairly optimistic.”
“I’m so proud of you.”
“I’m so proud of you.” He kissed me. “You came up with this plan and rallied the whole town behind you. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a statue of you in the town square this time next week.”
“Well.” I stroked his face. “I didn’t do it alone. I had help.” Dan raised an eyebrow. “I actually had a lot of help.”
“Emma Walters accepted help.”
“I’m just as surprised as you are.” I gave him a sarcastic smirk and fluttered my eyelashes. “But a very wise man with a cute butt told me that asking for help when I need it is a good thing.”
“Sounds like you should listen to this wise man with a cute butt more often.” He kissed me and his smile faded a bit. “So I saw your mum for a bit before she left. How’s that going?”
“I’ll be honest, I have a lot of feelings. I’m happy. I’m angry. I’m grateful. I’m sad. I’m extremely confused.” I chuckled. “But most of all, I’m hopeful. I mean, if you knew my mother, you would know it took a lot for her to come here today, but she did. She did it for me.” I felt a tear spring to my eye. “I know today barely scratches the surface, and we have years of therapy to look forward to, but yeah, I’m hopeful.”
We lay on the floor wrapped in a sheet and each other’s arms for a long moment, enjoying the peace.
“So what do you want to do now?” I asked. Dan looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
“Calm down, lover boy.” I chuckled. “I’m gonna need a little more recovery time.”
Dan picked up a discarded rook and held it out to me. “Rematch?”
“I guess I could beat you again before we go to sleep.” I grinned and started scooping up the pieces.
“Are you planning to put some clothes on?”
“Well, I wasn’t planning to, but if you insist.” I tried to stand, and Dan caught my wrist and pulled me back down to the floor.
“I’ll take my chances.”