Chapter 36
“Would you let go of me?” Danny asked with a heavy sigh.
“Will you forget what I just said?” Jodi asked, tightening her arms around the large man that she’d just foolishly admitted to being in love with because apparently, she was incredibly stupid.
He stilled. “Did you mean it?”
She stilled. “Why do you ask?”
He sighed, trying to step back, but all he managed to do was to pull her away from the hot water since she refused to let him go. “Are you going to let me go?”
“Not until you answer me,” Jodi said, tightening her hold as she buried her face against his chest in an attempt to save herself from further humiliation.
He sighed heavily as he leaned down and kissed the top of her head again, which she decided to take as a good sign that she hadn’t just scared him off.
“I’m not in love with you, Tink, and I can’t make myself say those words to make you feel better,” Danny said softly, trying to soften the words with another kiss as she stood there feeling like her heart was shattering into a million pieces.
It surprised her how much hearing that he didn’t love her actually hurt.
She hadn’t realized just how much she’d come to care about him until recently.
Of course, the first clue should have been the fact that she’d been willing to ask for time off, risk killing her credit card, and using up the small savings she’d been able to put away over the past couple of months to be with him.
She’d been working so hard to clear the debt she’d been stuck with, and this trip was going to set her back.
She didn’t want to do it, but she’d wanted to be with him.
Of course, she also didn’t want to stand here, naked in the shower, mortified beyond words, she tried to hide against his chest after she’d somehow confessed something that she was still getting used to either.
How she wished that she could turn around and walk away with some dignity…
and clothes, clothes and dignity would be really nice right about now.
“I am, however,” Danny said, pausing to kiss the top of her head as she stood there trying to figure a way out of this, “going to keep you.”
“Keep me?” Jodi asked, tilting her head slightly to the side so that she looked up at him as she frowned with disgust, “Like a puppy?”
Grinning, Danny leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose. “More like my own personal fairy,” he teased.
Glaring, she opened her mouth to tell him that she wasn’t a freaking fairy when he cut her off with another kiss on the tip of her nose and continued, “I’m not in love with you,” Danny said, apparently deciding that repeating that fun fact was the best way to continue this conversation, “but I am planning on spending the rest of my life with you, Tinkerbelle.”
“What?” Jodi asked, blinking up at him, sure that somewhere in there he’d said something that made sense.
“I might not be in love with you, Tinkerbelle, but I do know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” Danny said, smiling down at her.
“You are the best part of my day, Tink. You make me feel whole and happy and when I’m not with you, I’m thinking about you. I know that I can’t live without you.”
She opened her mouth to…well, she wasn’t sure what she was about to say because, at the moment, she was having a difficult time trying to figure out what he’d just said.
He didn’t love her, but he felt the same exact way about her that she felt about him.
The only difference? She knew that it was love.
And she knew that he loved her.
Smiling, she dropped her arms away and stepped back only to release an embarrassingly high squeal when Danny grabbed her, turned her around and pushed her up against the wall. “Now, while I’ve got your attention, why don’t I tell you about my game plan?”
“Game plan?” Jodi asked, trying to turn around, but he stopped her with a kiss to her shoulder and a hand.
“Mmmhmm,” Danny murmured, kissing her neck as he ran his fingertips down her arms. When he reached her hands, he wrapped his hands around hers, raised them and pressed them against the wall above her head.
“What exactly is this game plan for?” Jodi asked, licking her lips anxiously as she looked over her shoulder.
He leaned down and kissed her. “For you.”
“For me?” she asked against his lips.
“For you,” Danny said with a nod as he pulled away just far enough so that he could kiss her chin.
“Are you going to tell me about this game plan of yours?” Jodi asked, sounding breathless as he kissed his way across her jaw.
“In detail,” he promised as he kissed his way down to her shoulder. “The first part of my plan is very simple.”
“Oh, and what is it?” Jodi asked, closing her eyes and licking her lips as he traced the tips of his fingers back down her arms.
“Well, first,” Danny said, pausing long enough to lick a drop of water off her shoulder, “I thought we’d start off by answering a question that’s been bothering me for a while.”
“What’s that?” Jodi asked, sighing when he continued to run his fingertips over her shoulders and down her sides.
He cupped her hips as he leaned in until his mouth was close to her ear. “What feels better, fucking you with my fingers or my tongue.”
“Are you ready to find out?” Danny whispered as he used his hold on her hips to gently pull her back so that her back was arched.
“Yes,” Jodi heard herself whisper as she hungrily licked her lips, waiting to see what he would do next.
“Why don’t we start with my fingers?” he suggested in a sexy murmur as he used his leg to get her to spread her legs apart.
“Danny,” Jodi said, moaning his name as she felt the tips of his fingers run down her hip, over her bottom, and between her legs.
A startled gasp escaped her as he lightly traced her lips with his fingers. She could just barely feel it, but it was enough to have her spreading her legs wider, desperate for more.
“Do you like that?” Danny asked in a seductive whisper as he continued to lightly tease her.
“Yes.”
He kissed her shoulder as he continued to tease her slit, running his fingertips back and forth over her.
With each pass of his fingertips, the pressure increased until a shuddering breath escaped her.
His fingertips slid between her lips, teasing the sensitive bundle of nerves desperate for his touch.
“How’s that?”
“Better,” Jodi admitted, licking her lips as she pushed back, needing more, but the bastard refused to give it.
In fact, he pulled back just enough to make her reconsider her old plans to kill him with her bare hands.
“Danny!”
“What is it, Tink?” he asked, kissing her cheek as he continued teasing her.
“Please!”
“Please, what, sweetheart?” Danny asked as he kissed her jaw.
“Please don’t make me kill you!” Jodi snapped, so close to turning around and…and…and…
“Oh, God!” she gasped as he suddenly slid a finger inside her from behind.
It was a sensation that she’d experienced before and one that she was quickly falling in love with.
For the past month, they’d been pleasuring each other with their mouths and hands and although Danny had introduced her to a number of interesting and satisfying ways to pleasure each other, he’d never taken her like this.
It made her wonder just how good it would feel-
“Tonight,” Danny said, his voice strained as he slowly slid his finger inside her, “after I get my answer, I’m going to fuck you just like this.”
“Oh, God…” Jodi moaned because she knew that if he didn’t make good on his promise that she was going to end up needing that defense attorney by the end of the night.
Pressing one last kiss to her jaw, Danny leaned back so that he could watch what he was doing.
He watched as his finger disappeared inside her only to reappear, glistening with her juices.
Adding a second finger and wishing that it was the cock straining between his legs to get to her, he continued to thrust his hand between her legs.
He savored her moans as he worked his fingers between her legs. She felt so good and he knew that if he continued doing this that she’d come, but he wanted a fair comparison and to do that, he needed to move on to the next stage of his plans.
Licking his lips in anticipation of that sweet treat that he’d long ago become addicted to, he dropped to his knees. “Are you ready, Jodi?” Danny asked, pulling his fingers away before she could answer.
He leaned in and ran the tip of his tongue through her slit, groaning as her sweet syrup coated his tongue. She tasted so fucking good, better than anything he’d ever tasted before. Closing his eyes, Danny leaned in further, savoring her as he ran the tip of his tongue over her core.
He loved the way she moaned, but he loved it more when she moaned his name, so he made her do it again and again until he was forced to slap his hands against the tiled wall as his body trembled. He wanted her. God, how he fucking wanted her.
“Danny, please!” Jodi sobbed, pushing back against his tongue.
He could have let her come like this, but…
He needed to be inside her.
He gave her one last, long lick before he stood up. He shifted his legs, cupped her hip with one hand as he reached down and wrapped his hand around his cock, struggling to resist the urge to stroke himself as he quickly positioned the head of his cock at her slit.
“Which one did you like better?” Danny asked, simply to have something to distract himself with as he slowly pushed inside her.
“This,” Jodi said, reaching back and slapping her hand on his hip, “I like this.”
“I like this too, baby,” Danny said, pushing the rest of the way inside her.
He reached around her and cupped her neglected breast, gently squeezing it as he weighed her breast in his hand, loving the way her hard nipple felt against his palm.
He pulled back, groaning at the loss of her tight sheath, only to moan when he pushed back inside, loving the way her silk walls tightened around him in welcome.
It felt good.
It felt like he was coming home.
“You feel good, Jodi,” Danny growled as he leaned down and kissed her shoulder, her neck, wishing that he could kiss her properly, but she had her forehead pressed against the tiled wall, panting as he took her from behind. “So fucking good.”
He dropped his hand away from her hip and reached between her legs, needing to make this so good for her that it didn’t matter that he wasn’t in love with her.
He needed her to love this, to need it so badly that it made up for everything else.
He knew that it made him a selfish bastard, but he needed her to love him.