Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
DANI
“I need to taste you,” Wade growled against my skin.
I was already building toward climax, everything in my body hanging on the precipice, with pleasure spinning in wild eddies. The ache at my core was almost unbearable.
“Wade!” I cried, almost in dismay when he drew his fingers out from between my thighs.
I was beyond shame, beyond caring I had allowed myself to give in to this. All I knew was what I needed, and I needed it now. “Don’t you dare stop,” I ordered as I felt his hand press on my thigh, my own juices trailing over my skin as his hand moved down slightly.
Wade’s eyes were dark when he looked up at me, a grin kicking up one corner of his mouth. “Oh, I won’t stop, darlin’. I just need you to come on my tongue.”
His blunt words sent a blast of heat through me. Then, he was pushing my thighs further apart and leaning forward to bring his mouth against me.
Oh. My. God. This was a decadent, delicious torture I had never experienced.
Wade licked into my core, swirling his tongue around my clit and then stretching my pussy open with his fingers again.
It had been a while, such a while that I was tight and the feel of him stretching me open was so intense, I could hardly take it.
My fingers threaded into his hair and I held on as he fucked me with his mouth and fingers.
I had no sense of time, but my orgasm was abrupt and overpowering.
It hit me so hard I heard the rough shout of his name, the pleasure acute.
It spun tight and then snapped loose again, splitting me wide open as it wracked my body with bone-deep shudders.
I barely recognized myself as I slowly came to. I was limp, and the only thing holding me up was Wade as he slid a hand around my back, steadying me as I started to fall back on the desk.
I almost cried out again when he slowly straightened. Unabashed, he reached for a tissue from the box on my desk and wiped it over his mouth, only after sliding his tongue lazily across his lips, his eyes on mine the entire time.
The following evening, I strode through the restaurant, menus in hand as I led another group to a large table in the corner. As I set the menus down and rounded the table to fill waters, my eyes were snagged by motion just to the side of the view through the windows out front.
Even from a distance, where the two men walking together certainly weren’t visible beyond a distant outline, I knew the man on the right was Wade.
He walked with an easy strength and confidence.
I wouldn’t quite call it swagger because that would imply arrogance.
The chasm between arrogance and the type of assurance Wade had was significant.
Wade’s confidence was elemental. He had nothing to prove. It was all raw strength. And so fucking sexy, it took my breath away.
A flush suffused my entire body at nothing more than the distant sight of him. Given the time of day, I presumed he was just finishing up from the construction he, Lucas, and a few of the other guys had been working on with the addition of more guest cabins over in that area.
My mind flashed to the look in his eyes last night after he had brought me to the most intense climax of my life. It was fair to say our previous heated kisses in high school and our single sexual encounter beyond kisses had come a long way.
I was so distracted that I gave a start when a customer repeated my name. Swinging my head away from the windows, I looked over at the friendly elderly woman smiling at me. “Dani Love, right?”
“Yes,” I replied.
The woman nodded. “So good to see you,” she said. She was definitely familiar, but I couldn’t place why.
“Can I go ahead and take your drink order?” I asked, pulling out the small computer tablets we used for ordering. “Your waitress will be here shortly to go over specials and the like, but I can certainly get you started with drinks if you know what you’d like.”
“That would be great,” a man in the group replied. “You carry the Lost Deer brewery line, correct?”
“We sure do. What can I get for you?”
I quickly entered their orders and hurried off to deal with the next group of customers waiting up front. I was relieved for how busy my job was. I didn’t need time to dwell on what I had allowed to happen last night in my office. I’d lost my freaking mind.
Even worse, Wade filled every corner of it. Whenever there was a moment to breathe, any time where I wasn’t entirely focused, my thoughts squirreled around him. My body, my traitorous body, kept replaying our encounter. The reverberations of how it felt to be with him again were visceral.
Here and there, as I hurried around the restaurant helping bus tables, checking in with the wait staff in the kitchen, and cycling new groups of customers to the tables in an endless rotation, my eyes kept traveling to that woman who appeared to know who I was.
That, in itself, wasn’t out of the ordinary.
Stolen Hearts Valley was a sprawling area in the Blue Ridge Mountains, but most of the long-term residents usually knew of each other, even if only in passing.
But with that woman, something kept nudging the back of my mind. It was slightly uncomfortable. Not her, per se, but however I knew her.
I happened to be crossing the guest parking lot out back at one point later in the evening.
The kitchen was hopping so quickly, I’d snagged the overflowing garbage near the dishwashing station to take it out myself.
Little things like that were what I did all day when we had busy times out front.
Our dishwasher needed to focus on moving those dishes through and not worry about dealing with the trash.
Not to mention, I needed the fresh air. I was hot. Nights like tonight kept me on my feet and moving. Whenever I told myself I could use a little trim down and that I should sign up for a gym, I had a night like tonight and remembered running a restaurant was one hell of a workout.
The woman who seemed to know me happened to be standing by her car as one of the couples in their party was saying good night. “Night, Mom,” a younger woman said. She gave a little wave before walking across the parking lot to climb into a car.
I lifted the lid to the dumpster and tossed the bag in, savoring the chilly air chasing over my skin.
Christmas was only three and a half weeks away now.
Although it wasn’t technically winter yet, it was cold and my breath misted in the air.
I wondered if we’d have a white Christmas this year.
The Southern mountains certainly got snow, but it wasn’t like up North, or out West. We had snow and icy, winding roads, but we were never guaranteed a white Christmas.
I loved the snow in the wintertime here.
It was such a contrast to the languid, hot summers.
I smiled politely at the woman as I passed by her car. She was pulling out her keys and paused, turning toward me. “You don’t recognize me, do you?” she asked.
Stopping at the back of her car, I shook my head. “I don’t. I’m sorry. You do seem familiar, but I can’t quite place you. Care to refresh my memory?”
She was quiet for a few beats, her gaze thoughtful. “Well, it might be an awkward subject, but I was the head nurse on duty when you came to the hospital when you were in high school.”
In a blinding second, my memory sharpened. I remembered her warm brown gaze. She was the nicest person there, at least to me, and had been there for me during several hours where I felt more alone than I ever had in my life.
Swallowing, I nodded slowly. “Oh, now I recognize you.”
Her return smile held a tinge of sadness. “Every so often, I wonder how people I’ve seen in the hospital are doing. I never forgot you. I’m glad to see you’re doing okay.”
Life could be strange, so very strange. This woman, who had been present for nothing more than a few hours of my life, had seen me stripped to my emotional bones. She took a few steps. “You take care, dear.”
I felt numb, my fingers tingling and my head buzzing. “I will,” I managed. “Have a good night.” Manners shaped my words by force of pure habit.
I stood there as she climbed in her car, the sound of the door closing with a click finally galvanizing me.
The engine to her car rumbled to life just as I looked up to see Wade standing a few cars away.
His eyes were dark, and his gaze inscrutable.
I had no idea what he was thinking, but I knew he’d just heard that interaction.
A sense of panic clawed at me.
“Dani!” The sound of my name broke through the panic, tightening like a vise around me. Snapping my head to the side, I saw Evie leaning out the door from the back kitchen.
Without a word to Wade, I turned and strode across the parking lot. “Sorry,” I said, as I reached Evie still waiting at the door. “I got sidetracked by a customer.”
Evie looked past me. “Wade is a customer?” she teased.
Flustered, I shook my head as I looked back at him. “No, that woman,” I said, pointing to the car now backing up.
“Got it,” Evie replied, looking doubtful. Given the look on Wade’s face—I still wasn’t quite sure how to interpret it—I sensed Evie didn’t believe me.
We didn’t have time for this. “Anyway,” I said, stepping past her, “what’s up?”
“Oh, a little dispute up front over reservations. We need your touch to resolve this one.”
On most long days, I didn’t leap at the chance to deal with annoyed customers.
Oh, I managed them with a deft touch, but it wasn’t my preferred part of this job.
Tonight, however, I would gladly step in and mediate a dispute over reservations.
That was a million times easier than even thinking about the nurse from the hospital and what Wade overheard.