Chapter Fourteen
“Senator Strickland isn’t pleased that you hung up on him,” Ryder said when Danny called to check in after he and Bella returned to her home. “And he’s threatening to sue The Charlotte Times reporter.”
Danny pinched the bridge of his nose as a headache threatened.
He’d closed himself in Bella’s guest bedroom so she didn’t overhear what he knew would be a tense series of conversations, first with his boss, then with her father.
“Bella wasn’t in any frame of mind to deal with the senator.”
Through the blinds, he watched two boys tear down the sidewalk in swim trunks, their towels flapping behind them like superhero capes.
“As for the reporter,” he continued, “everything she wrote was reported after Bella’s kidnapping—I checked. What I’d like to know is how she knew to look for it and why.”
Something he intended to follow up on Monday when Olivia got back into town.
“I’ll call the senator and apologize.”
“No need.” Ryder’s voice contained a hint of steel. “I reminded him he specifically asked for you, and he needs to let you do your job as you see fit.”
A chuckle escaped Danny’s lips. “I’ll bet he loved hearing that.”
“He’s upset. Understandably so. The note on Isabella’s car plus the news article have him and his wife quite concerned. He was relieved to hear that you’ll be staying with her from now on.”
Danny’s chest tightened. The senator wouldn’t be relieved if he knew how hard Danny had to work to maintain a professional distance from Bella.
He didn’t simply want to keep her safe. He wanted to touch her. Replace the fear shadowing her eyes with pleasure. Her laugh reminded him of the notes in the upper octaves of a piano. Light and airy.
His Bella didn’t laugh enough.
When this job was over, maybe he’d come back to visit—if she let him. There was an amusement park nearby with some fun-looking roller coasters. He’d talk her into going on at least one of them.
Maybe he’d even work her up to jumping out of an airplane with him.
A grin creased his cheeks.
He didn’t know what it was, but the idea of getting Bella to push past her carefully ordered boundaries and try new things was like a shot of tequila straight to his brain—liquid fire that morphed into a smooth, mellow high.
He wanted to be the one to topple those carefully constructed walls and set her free.
The grin faded.
Bella had spent years building a life around certainty and control. She deserved a man who’d be there when she came home at night, not one constantly chasing the next assignment.
A man who’d be steady.
Stable.
That man wasn’t him.
And wanting her didn’t change that—no matter how much he wished it did.
Tonight we chill. Have some fun.
Isabella’s brain kept circling Danny’s words as she spent the afternoon avoiding texts and phone calls from friends and colleagues who’d seen The Charlotte Times article.
She’d even managed to avoid her parents, firing off a text echoing what Danny had told her father—she was okay, they’d deal with the reporter, and it would all be forgotten by the time the gala took place.
Not that she believed any of it.
Olivia Flores had reopened a wound she’d spent years trying to ignore.
By the time Danny knocked on her door and asked if she was ready for pizza and a movie, her nerves were shot, and she was desperate for a distraction.
And Danny was one hell of a distraction.
It didn’t help that he’d changed into faded jeans that sat low on his hips and a ridiculous dinosaur-print shirt that somehow emphasized the breadth of his shoulders and the muscle beneath. Combined with his bare feet, the look was pure California beach boy—and entirely too sexy.
She picked a movie that had just moved to streaming, and they settled onto the couch with plates of pizza, a glass of wine for her, and a beer for him.
The movie held her attention—barely. Enough to keep her from staring at Danny, seated beside her.
But not enough to dull her awareness of him. His aftershave teased her senses, and his sheer size made her feel petite and feminine.
A second glass of wine might be necessary.
When the movie ended, Danny rose, gathering their plates to take them to the kitchen.
She wasn’t ready to be alone. “How about a game?”
He turned from where he was loading the dishwasher, a mischievous gleam in his eyes. “Truth or Dare?”
Maybe it was the wine, but she really wanted to ask him questions she couldn’t ask during a regular conversation. “Why not? I’ll go first.”
Another beer in hand, Danny dropped onto the couch beside her. “Okay. Fire away.”
She shifted so that she faced him. “In all your travels, what’s the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen?”
“Hmm.” Danny thought for a minute. “I’d have to say the Grand Canyon’s at the top of the list. It’s like staring into a painting—it almost doesn’t seem real. And you feel insignificant standing at the rim, trying to take it all in.”
“I’ve heard it’s breathtaking.” The admission came with a twinge of embarrassment. “I’ve never been.”
“You should go,” Danny said. “What about you? Favorite travel destination?”
She searched her brain for an answer but couldn’t come up with one. “I usually travel for work, and honestly, I don’t see much outside of the hotel and convention halls.”
He frowned. “You don’t check out the sights?”
Tension gathered in her shoulders. “I’m working while I’m there.”
The snap in her tone made his lashes flicker.
Crap. That came out defensive.
She gnawed on her lip, thinking, then tried again. “I liked what I saw of Greece. Before…”
The unfinished sentence lingered heavily between them.
Isabella pushed forward with another question before Danny decided to call it a night.
“What did you like best about being a Navy SEAL?”
“Finding out what my limits were and pushing past them. My teammates.”
“What did you not like?”
It was his turn to ask a question, but he didn’t call her on it. He’d been out of her life for thirteen years. She wanted—no—needed to know what had made him the man he was now.
His expression blanked, as if he’d drawn the shade down over his emotions.
He took a measured sip of his beer before answering. “Losing friends. Realizing your teammates know more about your life than anyone else because after all those deployments, you don’t have anyone else.”
She glanced at him from beneath her lashes. “Then who was Consuela?”
And how important was she to you?
Danny groaned. “I met her in a bar. She was…” He searched for a word. “Adventurous. It was fun, but nothing serious.”
Adventurous.
Isabella’s nails dug into her palm.
“If you named your car after someone you weren’t serious about, then has there been anyone you actually fell in love with?” Her pulse pounded in her throat, dreading the answer.
He grimaced. “It’s my turn to ask a question.”
“Humor me.”
Danny leaned into the sofa. Propped his feet on her coffee table. Didn’t meet her eyes.
“The Teams don’t exactly make having a relationship easy.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
He toyed with the label on his bottle of beer. “There might have been someone once I could have loved.”
Jealousy roiled her stomach. “It didn’t work out?”
Something shifted in his expression. His voice roughened. “No. Bad timing. What about you?”
“There was one man.”
A boy, actually.
He studied her for a long moment, whatever he was thinking hidden. “And?”
She swallowed the emotion threatening to close her throat. “Same. Bad timing.”
Danny rolled the bottle between his palms. “Bella, if you could live your life with no barriers, no fear, what would you do?”
What would she do?
The dreams that came to mind felt ridiculous, lifted straight from the pages of a novel instead of real life.
“Go to space? Be a spy?” she threw out. Her voice quieted. “I don’t know. I wish I was brave, like you.”
She started at the feel of his palm against her cheek.
“You are one of the bravest people I know, Bella. Most people who’ve been through what you have would have retreated from the world. You’ve forged your own life, your own career on your terms.”
“You’re wrong,” she breathed, though a traitorous part of her wanted desperately to believe him.
She covered his hand with hers, trapping his warmth against her skin.
His eyes darkened.
If she could live her life with no fear, what would she do?
The answer sat right in front of her.
Bracing a shaky palm on his shoulder, she leaned in. Pressed her lips to his.
Soft.
Masculine.
When he didn’t move but didn’t push her away, she summoned the courage to trace the seam of his lips with her tongue.
He let out a soft grunt and opened for her.
Emboldened, she explored his mouth, tasting beer and a trace of mint he must have popped into his mouth after the pizza.
His fingers slid beneath her shirt, pulling her against him. He joined the kiss, using his tongue and lips to steal her soul.
Danny kissed like it was his favorite thing to do in life, and he’d studied the art extensively. She’d hoped youth and inexperience had colored her memories, but no one had come close to making her this needy with just a kiss.
Her grip on his shoulder tightened as she cupped his jaw and swung a leg over his thighs, straddling him.
He shifted beneath her, the hard length of him pressing into the vee between her legs.
Liquid heat flooded her sex.
She moaned.
The sound seemed to snap Danny’s restraint. Strong arms wrapped around her, and suddenly she was beneath him, pressed into the couch cushions. His mouth traced her jaw and neck, alternating between gentle kisses and sharp little bites that made her shiver.
A hand closed over her breast.
Need filled her. She arched, rubbing herself against him, uncaring that she was violating her own boundaries where he was concerned.
Danny tore his mouth from hers.
“Bella.” His voice was a guttural rasp in her ear. “If we don’t stop now, I’m going to fuck you, right here on this couch.”
Her nipples tightened beneath his palms.
He could make her forget everything but the rush of pleasure she knew only he could give her.
Then he stilled. His head lifted.
Guilt.
Regret.
The emotions tangled in his expression doused her libido like a bucket of cold water.
She wouldn’t be his regret.
Not again.
With a strength she didn’t realize she possessed, she shoved at his chest.
Danny scrambled to his feet, his fingers tunneling through his hair.
“I’m sorry.”
Isabella’s temper flared.
“If you apologize one more time for touching me, I swear to God, I will stab you with a kitchen knife.”
Danny’s eyes widened.
She brushed past him before she made good on her threat and stomped up the stairs. “I’m going to bed.”
“Bella.”
Feet poised on the landing, she peered over her shoulder at him.
Arms crossed, expression unreadable, it was as if he hadn’t just had his hands and mouth all over her. “Tomorrow morning, we start self-defense. Be ready.”
A simple nod. Easier than confessing the truth—she didn’t just want to learn how to protect herself from danger.
She wanted to learn how to protect herself from wanting him.