Chapter Seventeen #2
She opened her eyes, staring into the depths of his intense blue gaze. “Danny, please. I can’t…”
He lifted her knees, opening her even more to his body. The thrusts were deeper and harder, and Kenzie felt her breath catch in her chest. Then his thumb brushed over the sensitive nub where their bodies met. “Yes. Yes.”
The orgasm rocked her, and she pressed her fist to her mouth to keep from calling out as her back arched off the bed. She’d barely come back to earth when Danny’s breath quickened, and he groaned as he found his own release.
When he collapsed on top of her, Kenzie wrapped her arms around his shoulders to hold him close. He kissed her neck and her throat, then kissed the top of her breast, his breath still coming in quick, shallow pants.
Danny was heavy, but she didn’t mind the weight of him. She ran her fingers through his hair, over and over, and was delighted to learn his sounds of pleasure as they sounded a lot like a cat purring.
Too soon, he reached between them to hold the condom as he withdrew, and then he rolled off of her. She missed his heat immediately, but he kissed her forehead. “I’ll be right back.”
When he came out of the bathroom and climbed into the bed, she slid out her side to take her turn. She looked back before she reached the door and found him watching her. He looked sated, his mouth slightly curved into a sleepy smile.
“You like you’re about to fall asleep,” she said. “I’ll try not to wake you up when I come back to bed.”
“I’m not going to sleep. I’m recharging.” His eyes sparkled with promises of more to come, and that sleepy smile grew into a wicked grin. “I played sports when I was a kid. Trust me, I know how to make the most of a time-out.”
* * *
Danny woke early, surfacing from a deep sleep and squinting at the light streaming into his room. For a second, he thought he’d awakened because he forgot to pull the black-out shade before he crawled into bed.
Then, just as he became conscious that he couldn’t feel his right arm and there was a very warm body pressed up against his, memories of the reason he’d been so distracted he hadn’t pulled the shades he’d been pulling every night out of habit flooded his brain.
Kenzie, naked in his arms, her back arching as she moaned his name.
She stirred then, as though she was going to roll onto her back, but she stilled when she couldn’t because his naked body was there.
He ran his hand over her hip and kissed her hair, not caring that his arm was numb.
The alternative was Kenzie moving, and he didn’t want the use of his hand that much.
“Good morning,” she mumbled. Then her hand snaked out as though to grab her phone off the nightstand, but it wasn’t there. “I think we slept in.”
He’d been thinking it was too early to be awake, even without seeing a clock, but he also didn’t get up at four thirty every morning. “Maybe. I didn’t put my phone on the charger, so I don’t have a clock. Time doesn’t exist here.”
“I have to pee. And I need water.”
He didn’t want to let her go. Once she got out of this bed, she might not get back in it, and he wasn’t ready yet.
“I’ll be right back,” she continued, and when she snatched his T-shirt from the end of the bed where it must have landed and pulled it over her head, he smiled. She wasn’t getting dressed, so she was coming back.
He admired the way his T-shirt fell just to the bottom of her ass, hiding everything, but offering tantalizing glimpses as she walked.
Then he stretched, trying to get some blood flow back to his arm.
Once she was done in the en suite and headed downstairs—giving him a smile that promised she would definitely be back—he took a turn in the bathroom.
Neither of the phones turned up in the clothes littering the room, so he still didn’t know what time it was. They must have left them on the porch. He’d just pulled a pair of sweatpants out of the drawer so they’d be at hand for when they got out of bed for the second time when he heard talking.
He cocked his head, assuming Kenzie had found her phone and was talking to somebody—maybe Rhylee or her dad, checking in with her. But it really sounded like there were two distinctive voices, and he took a step toward the door, listening harder.
Oh, shit. That was his mother’s voice.
After almost falling over yanking the sweatpants on, he sprinted for his bedroom door, barely managing to avoid busting his toes on the heavy maple dresser. Then he almost learned the hard way why you shouldn’t race down polished wooden steps.
When he reached the kitchen, heart racing and slightly out of breath, Kenzie was on one side of the island and his parents were on the other.
Since Kenzie’s hair had that freshly tousled look and she had her arms folded over her chest because she literally wasn’t wearing anything but his T-shirt, he wasn’t surprised her eyes were wide with panic when she looked at him.
“Danny. Your parents are here.”
“I… You…” He ran his hand over his jaw, waiting for his brain to start sending coherent signals to his mouth. “You didn’t text or call or anything.”
“When we saw your truck, we decided to come in and say hi, but we were really quiet in case you were asleep,” his mom said.
“Okay, but why are you here so early?”
Mike gave him a stern look, but the twitching at the corners of his mouth gave away his amusement. “It’s not that early. And maybe you remember asking us to stop by and check on the place while you were away. I don’t remember you letting us know you were back.”
“This family sends an average of five hundred messages to the group chat every single day, but nobody mentioned I came home?”
“Maybe because you would have been the one mentioning it,” his mother pointed out.
That was a losing battle. “Whatever. Kenzie, these are my parents, Mike and Lisa Kowalski. This is Kenzie Pelletier.”
“Oh, we’ve met,” Kenzie said, her voice a little shaky. “About ten seconds after they walked through the door.”
There was no way for him to make this less awkward for her, but he could at least get her out of it as quickly as possible. He tried to give his parents a pointed look, but they were too busy smiling at Kenzie—no doubt thrilled their last single son might have a girlfriend—to notice him.
“How about you two turn around for a second?” he finally said, because they clearly weren’t going to get the hint. As soon as they faced away, Kenzie sprinted toward the stairs, and then he heard the guest bedroom door close with a lot of enthusiasm.
That was disappointing. Rather than running to his room and hiding under the covers to wait for him, she was getting dressed. He couldn’t really blame her, but a man could hope.
“Okay,” he said to his parents. “Do you want anything to drink or anything?”
“No, thank you,” Lisa said. “We can’t stay, actually. We just stopped in to check on the place—you know, like you asked us to.”
He forced a smile. “I appreciate it. I’m going back to the campground tomorrow, but then Brian will be going up for the long weekend, so I’ll probably come home Thursday night and then I’ll…be here, I guess.”
They both glanced toward the bedroom, and he could see the question forming on his mother’s lips. But where does that leave you and Kenzie? Thankfully, his dad nudged her foot with his and she didn’t ask it out loud.
“Since Siobhan’s not due until almost Thanksgiving,” Danny said to keep the conversation moving, “the campground will be buttoned-up for the winter and Brian will be home before it’s baby-watch time. Thanks for keeping an eye on the place, but I’m all set now.”
The words hung there in what Danny felt was an obvious sign they were free to go about their day. Of course they ignored it.
It didn’t matter at this point, anyway, he thought.
His plan for Kenzie to slide back into his bed, wearing only his T-shirt, was already wrecked because she was absolutely dressed by now.
Their time-out was coming to an end, and putting her clothes on was going to be part of the transition back to just friends.
The least he could do was make her a coffee after all this, so he went to the Keurig and started brewing her a cup. It had just finished when she came down the stairs, fully dressed with her hair in a ponytail and her cheeks slightly more flushed than usual.
“Your coffee’s ready,” Danny said, holding it out so she’d have something to focus on besides his very annoying parents.
“Thank you.” She took a sip of it before leaning against the counter. “So, I guess that would be an Introduction of Doom?”
Everybody laughed, easing the awkward tension immediately, and Danny was so thankful for Kenzie. She’d known just the right thing to say. And then his mom came in with the diversion, as he’d hoped.
“Danny told us you helped him with his book,” she said. “He always hits a rough patch, but we were starting to worry he wouldn’t be able to write his way out of this one.”
“I enjoyed being a part of the process,” Kenzie said, and then she gave him a smile. “Probably because I didn’t have a legal contract promising the bad kind of doom if I didn’t figure it out.”
They talked about the book and the campground for a few more minutes while he and Kenzie drank their much needed coffee, and then his parents had to run so Mike could drop Lisa at work.
As soon as the door closed behind them, Kenzie dissolved into a fit of giggles and had to set her mug on the counter to keep from spilling what was left of her coffee.
“I am so sorry about that,” he said, shaking his head. “I never thought to tell them I’d be home for one night.”
“It could have been worse. I could have skipped the T-shirt,” she said, and he must have looked horrified at the thought because she started giggling again.
“I should go find our phones and plug them in,” he said, and then he paused, looking at her. “And then…should I get dressed?”
After a moment’s consideration that felt like a year to him, she nodded. “Yeah, you should probably get dressed. I’m starving, and you promised me breakfast at your second favorite restaurant.”
“Their hash browns are amazing.”
“Noted. And we can take our time driving north without getting in late. My dad will want to tell me all about his trip. And I need to do laundry and some other chores.” She sighed. “And get up bright and early tomorrow morning for work after not getting enough sleep last night.”
He tried to look contrite, but failed. “I should probably apologize for that, but I’m not sure I can.”
“Oh, don’t be sorry.” Kenzie closed the distance between them, wrapping her arms around his waist. “One hundred percent worth it.”
He kissed her thoroughly, his hand cupping the back of her neck, until they were breathless and she felt liquid in his arms. “We could spare a little time.”
She laughed and pushed away from him. “Go get dressed. I’ll plug in the phones and then gather my stuff. Do you have a plastic bag I can drop that wet sweater into?”
Rummaging through his pantry for a sealable plastic bag big enough for the sweater gave Danny a minute to get his feelings under control. Besides the renewed physical desire the kiss had sparked, there was the disappointment he not only felt, but had seen in her eyes.
Neither of them wanted this time together to end.
Leaning his forehead against a pantry shelf for a moment, he closed his eyes, trying to picture a different path forward.
But all he could see was him giving up everything and turning his life upside down to be closer to a woman he’d get to see three afternoons a week.
There was a part of him desperate to take the leap.
But he was self-aware enough to know it wouldn’t work in the long run.
He wanted to do more than take walks and sleep in the same bed as Kenzie.
He’d want “weekend” getaways—even if they fell during the week—and it would be nice if she could travel with him if he did a book tour.
Maybe not the whole thing, but he would want to share that part of his life with her.
He had a big, close family, and they celebrated a lot of things on weekends.
He’d have to go alone because Kenzie would be working.
Eventually, he’d resent it. They’d start arguing about it. And they would grow increasingly unhappy together until the inevitable split broke their hearts.
It was better for both of them this way, he told himself sternly. They had their fun and now they’d go back to their real lives, where they were just friends.
Nothing more.