Chapter 10
Rocco
I t took longer to get redressed than it did to purchase the motorcycle.
Wyatt actually looked excited for us, but I couldn’t tell if that was because he didn’t want to part with the Harley.
He helped me load it into the back space that I had designed just for the bike and waved us off as we headed back to the RV park.
Danni and I barely had the rig in park before we were pulling at each other’s clothes.
We didn’t even bother putting up the shades before I spread her open on the couch and devoured her with my mouth.
Another orgasm later, and she had me on my back on the small patch of flooring that was available without the slides being all the way open.
I held onto her tits as she rode my cock hard and fast. Both of us panting and sweaty as she collapsed over me as soon as she came.
We lay there for a moment until the floor got cold. I was able to pull myself together long enough to let the slides out and carry her back to the bedroom. After that, we spent the rest of the night making love.
I almost hadn’t wanted to leave this morning, but we were both due in Saddleback before the evening, and I had promised her I would get her there on time.
There was only about an hour left before we hit the city limits, and I was currently trying to come up with the best way to ask her about her hotel.
I had looked it up, and there was a bit of distance between where the rally was being held and where her sister was getting married.
I had no problem taking her back and forth, but I didn’t know if she would want to ride the motorcycle to such a big event.
Especially with the helmet. I also needed to get my motorcycle license, so I really shouldn’t be riding it all that much.
Not that I wouldn’t do it if she needed me to.
The sound of her phone ringing pulled me out of my thoughts. I looked over to see Danni look down with a nervous look on her face.
“Everything alright?” I didn’t like that the seats weren’t as close in the bus. I could still reach for her hand, but it wasn’t like I could put my hand on her leg or touch her as much as I could in a regular car.
“Yeah.” She put the phone to her ear and answered.
I listened quietly as she talked to the person on the other end. I gathered it was the bride by the few things that she said about when we would get there, and agreeing to pick up something for the rehearsal dinner. When she hung up, she kept fiddling with the side of the phone.
“Is she excited?” I held my hand toward her, but she didn’t take it.
“Uh, yeah.” She didn’t look in my direction.
“Are you excited?” She didn’t seem like it.
“Sure.” She gave me a quick smirk of a smile that didn’t look excited or happy. “Just tired.”
There was no way that I would apologize for that. She’d still be in bed if we were back home.
“You could come with me to the rally site and relax before doing whatever you need to do for the wedding.”
It was an excuse to get her to stay with me, but I remembered how chaotic my brother’s wedding had been. I knew firsthand that she wasn’t going to get much rest this weekend.
“In fact, you could stay with me instead of at the hotel.” I used the momentum of what I said before to ease my way into what I really wanted.
Her head shot up. “Why would I do that?”
I swallowed down my nerves. “Because it would give you some space from all the wedding madness,” I suggested. “And I want you to stay with me.” There, I said it.
“Rocco.” I didn’t like the way she said my name. Almost as if she felt sorry for me.
“I’m serious, Danni.” I glanced over real fast. “I want you to stay with me. Not just this weekend.” I breathed in and took the plunge. “I want you to stay with me for good.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I don’t want this to end,” I told her. Man, I wished I could hold her hand. I thought about pulling over so I could look her in the eye, but I was too scared of what I would see. Staring at the road made my confession easier.
“I...I...” Was I ready to tell her I loved her if I didn’t know how she felt?
“I really like you, Danielle.” I felt like an ass for settling. “I’ve always liked you, and I know I said I didn’t do relationships, but I want to give this a chance with you.”
She was quiet for so long that I worried I was in for another heartbreak. Finally, I heard her shift in her seat.
“You don’t have to do this.” Her voice was so quiet I had to strain to hear it over the engine.
“Do what?”
“Pretend you want something you don’t.” She replied. “I’m the one who changed things on you.”
“I’m not pretending.” I shook my head. “I mean it. I don’t want to let you go.”
“I don’t what to let you go, but that’s just about the sex.” I could see her shrug out of the corner of my eye. “It’s better this way. No one gets hurt, and no one loses anyone down the road.”
“Better for whom?” I didn’t mean to get angry. I understood her fear, but damn it, I was doing all I could here. “I thought you said you wanted more, and here I am offering it to you, and you don’t want it?”
“I don’t want you doing this out of guilt or your desire to keep fucking me.” She shot back. “I don’t need you to be someone you’re not.”
Her words cut through me. Someone I’m not. Did she honestly believe I couldn’t be a boyfriend? That I couldn’t be everything she needed? Had I only been fooling myself this week?
“I really care about you, Rocco, but it’s better if we just accept that this is over.” She waved her hand between us. “I’m sorry.”
I didn’t say anything. My mind and heart were far too tangled up to reply. She was scared and there was nothing more I could do but let her figure it out.
I WATCHED DANIELLE walk into the hotel and, in theory, out of my life.
Was this how things were going to be from now on?
I’d see her around town when she was showing a house or there for a chamber of commerce meeting.
Maybe we’d run into each other if we were both visiting Dermott and Daphne?
She’s start dating, and I’d have to see some other asshole with his hands on the woman I loved?
Fuck that.
I pulled up Dermott’s number and put the call on speaker as I drove off. I needed advice, and as much as I knew Seb would help, I had a feeling Dermott would be better.
“Hey man, did you get the motorcycle?” He answered.
“Yep, and she’s amazing.” I had flashes of Danni bent over the seat screaming my name, and I had to breathe out to stop myself from getting hard.
“Cool.”
“Yeah.” I jumped right in. “How did you know Daphne was it? I mean, I thought I knew before, but I was wrong, and I don’t want to be wrong again. I can’t be. Not this time.”
Silence, and then he let out the loudest laugh I’d ever heard, although that could have had something to do with the radio volume.
“I knew there was something going on between you and Danni.” He kept laughing. I turned down the radio so his voice wasn’t so loud. “Daphne bet me I was wrong, but I knew it. Thanks, man, I’m going to have fun collecting.”
“Don’t you have enough money?” I asked, like my family didn’t make silly bets every time we stepped into a bowling alley.
“We didn’t bet money.” He chuckled, and I realized I really didn’t want to know what he won.
New thoughts popped into my head of bowling games with Danielle and all kinds of sexy bets we could make. Not only bowling. I could see coming up with a lot of different moments where we could wager a lap dance or striptease. Small moments that would be perfect because they were with her.
“I fucked up and I don’t know how.” I admitted. “She said she wanted more. That she wanted a relationship, and I tried, but she’s scared. It’s either that or I wasn’t good enough. I’m never good enough.”
“That’s bullshit.” Dermott’s laughter died.
“What happened before wasn’t on you, man.
You know as well as I do that if old girl really cared about you the way she said she did, there’s no way she would have walked away when you needed her most.” I was glad that he stuck to my rule of never saying my ex’s name.
“Danni isn’t like that.” He kept going. “I don’t know her as well as Daph, or apparently you, but from what I’ve seen, she’s there for the people she loves.
I mean, the woman went all the way to Colorado to back up Ginger, and y’all are in Tennessee for a sister none of her friends really knew she had. That says a lot.”
“I don’t know how to get past how she feels.”
“You don’t give up,” he said. “If she wants a relationship, then you show her you want one too. You be the man she needs. I’m not saying be someone other than yourself, but I’ve seen you in a relationship, and I know you can do it. Where do you think I learned?”
“From me?” That felt weird.
He laughed again. “Not just you.” More laughter. “I learned from you, and Seb, and your father. It wasn’t as if I was going to get anything from mine.”
Dermott’s father was trash. I hated to say that about a human, but it was true. He’d turned over a new leaf now that he was older and had stopped drinking, but like Dermott, I couldn’t forget the way he treated him as a kid.
“My point is you know how to do this. You can do this, and if Danielle’s the one, then I know you will find a way.”
I nodded to myself. “You really think we can make this work?”
“Sure,” he said. “I mean you’ll probably fuck up a few more times, but overall I think you got this.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“I’m kidding. Sort of.” He was just full of laughter today. Maybe I should have called my brother.
“You got this. Just tell her how you feel,” he said.
“And if she doesn’t feel the same?”
“Then at least you know, and you can move on.”
He was right. If I was going to do this, then I couldn’t half ass it. I had to be honest.
“Thanks, man.”
“No, no. Thank you.” He lowered his voice. “It’s going to be a good night.” I didn’t want to think about the way he stressed the word good.
“Yeah, I’m done.” I shook my head.
“Have fun.”
“Back at ya.” I hung up.
I would give her space for now. Hopefully, that would be long enough for her to change her mind. I really didn’t want to ride home without her beside me.