CHAPTER 18 DANNY
I can’t remember the last time I had brunch with a woman where it was just low key and fun.
Okay, truthfully, I can’t remember the last time I had brunch with a woman because apart from my mom and my sister, I’m not sure I ever have. And now this is twice with Alexis.
Brunch was always my favorite meal of the day, but it’s starting to become my favorite date, too.
I never really date. I take women back to my place, make them see stars, and send them on their way. But this is different. I want to impress her. I want to see her, to talk to her, to get to know her.
“So no coffee, no weed. What else have you never experienced?” I ask.
“That feels awfully deep for a brunch conversation with someone I just met.” She echoes my exact statement from our last brunch together. She tucks some of her long, wavy, dark brown locks behind her ear.
I chuckle. “Okay, then let’s get deep.” And then I can go deep into her. With my cock.
“You used that line on me when I asked you why you didn’t want more with the waitress,” she says.
I nod. “I also said something similar when I said I don’t like cheaters, and someone analyzing me might say the two are related.”
“You don’t want more because…you’ve been cheated on?” she guesses.
I shake my head. “I caught my dad cheating on my mom when I was a kid. I always felt like I ruined their marriage.”
“Oh, Danny,” she says softly, and fuck yeah, I’m planning to hear that again but when she’s naked and beneath me.
Maybe not today. But someday.
She reaches over and squeezes my hand, and I swear to God it does something to me.
It’s comforting and warm, but the touch is also fucking electric.
She pulls it back as if she felt the spark, too, and resumes eating and moaning over her bacon.
I clear my throat. “Twenty years after that, I walked in on my brother-in-law cheating on my sister. She’s going through a nasty divorce now.
” I shrug. “I got to watch my mom nurse her broken heart. And now my sister. I got to watch them each battle and fight for their kids. I guess it’s taught me from a young age that long-term relationships don’t really exist, and what happened with my sister just confirmed that. ”
“Do you really believe that?” she asks.
I nod. “My entire life, yes. I have. And then…”
Her brows dip as I avert my eyes down to my plate for a beat.
I draw in a fortifying breath, and when I glance up, my eyes meet hers.
They’re warm as they lock on mine, and they give me the courage to say what needs to be said.
“And then?” she prompts.
“And then I met you.”
She tilts her head and her eyes soften at the gravity of what that means, and she stands. She moves over to me, and she perches sideways on my lap. She links her arms around my neck, and goddamn, I’ve never felt so comfortable with a woman.
She’s not just any woman, though. She’s Alexis Bodega. Singer. Actress. Dancer. Songwriter. Role Model. My fucking Dream Woman.
And, I’m pretty sure…she’s the woman who’s about to kiss me.
She lowers her mouth to mine, but before she kisses me, she murmurs, “That’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.” Her lips brush mine, and I wrap one arm around her back since she’s sitting sideways, and my other hand comes up to cup her jawline as I deepen our kiss.
I open my mouth and brush my tongue against hers, and she’s sweet like the donut she just took a bite of. It’s fucking addictive—the taste of her and her mouth on mine.
Heat fires up my spine as I keep a slow pace with her. It doesn’t sound like she’s kissed many dudes in her time, and she’s tentative as she moves her tongue against mine…but something about that is hot as hell in its own right.
I love that she hasn’t been with many guys.
I love that I can be the one to teach her, to mold her, to corrupt her.
She lets out a soft moan like when she was eating the bacon, and Jesus, it causes this pulse inside me that I’m not used to feeling.
I’m used to acting on instinct when it comes to women, and that is how I know Alexis Bodega is something special. With her…I’m acting on feelings. Emotions.
Instinct has taken a backseat as I experience the thrill of kissing someone—really kissing her, because that quick one at my place didn’t count—for the first time.
This isn’t the sloppy, drunk sort of kiss I have with a woman I’m never going to see again.
This is slow. It’s luxurious. It’s full of heat and excitement, and even though I want it to lead to more, I also want to just stay right here and kiss the hell out of her for the rest of the day.
I mean…I can’t. I know this. We have a time limit here, and I have no idea when I’ll see her again between her schedule and mine.
And that’s why I deepen the kiss a little more. I need her to remember this kiss until we’re able to have another one.
I urge her leg over until she’s straddling me, and I thrust my hips up to meet hers as I give our slow, sensual kiss a little more urgency.
I wrap my arm around her waist to draw her into me, and my other hand moves up into her hair, that dark hair that’s wavy and long and gorgeous and smells sweet and sensual—like her.
It’s berries and flowers mixed together in some combination that’s alluring and romantic, and I feel the scent inside me as if it’s imprinting on my memory in a way that if I’m ever lucky enough to smell it again, I’ll recall this very moment in time.
She moans as I thrust again, as she feels the hard length of me between her legs, and I know it’s not the right moment for us for sex.
I don’t want a quick and dirty few minutes with her—at least not at first. I want to take her slowly, to taste every inch of her as I give her the sort of pleasure she truly deserves, and we don’t have enough time for that right now.
I’m also not ready to have that single taste only to be left unsure about when I can have another.
It’s not fair to either of us, but right now, with her leaving for tour and my season spread out before me, it’s not the right time for us.
It’s with that thought in mind that I slow the kiss back down, but I don’t let go of her. I hold her in place, and I pull back and stare into her eyes. Her cheeks are red. Her lips are swollen, and her eyes are hazy.
I feel the exact same way she looks.
I press my lips softly to hers again because I need another one even though I’m the one who ended the first one.
I draw back, and she leans forward for one more, too.
God, she’s fucking addicting. Already.
I never want to stop kissing her.
She does it one more time, and she stares into my eyes for a few beats before she hops off my lap and returns to her own chair.
But that look of eye on eye…something passed between us in that beat. Intimacy. Connection. A link was forged and it feels like a lasting one. A terrifying one.
She clears her throat and takes another bite of her donut as if I didn’t just kiss the life out of her, or maybe she kissed the life out of me, and I chuckle.
“What?” she demands as she chews that donut.
I shake my head. “How can you eat at a time like this?”
“This donut is freaking incredible.”
I laugh. “You are freaking incredible.”
“So was that kiss. But I knew if I sat on your lap a minute longer, there would be no turning back.”
“What if I’m already there?” I ask.
“Already where?”
“At the point of no return,” I say softly.
She clears her throat and fixes her eyes on her donut. “I’m leaving for a tour for the next half a year, Danny.” She glances up at me. “As much as I’d love to not return from that point with you, I can’t do that to you. Not when I know…well, what I know about you.”
“I told you, Lex. It’s different with you.”
“Or I’m a challenge, and I give in, and you got what you wanted, and then you grow bored of me.”
My brows dip and my chest aches at her words. “I hope you don’t really think that about me.”
“I don’t, but I also barely know you. I know we have a connection, and it’s strong, but I’m not real experienced when it comes to this type of thing, and as far as anyone knows, I’m with Brooks. We have to be careful how we navigate all this.”
I nod, and I reach over and grab her hand. “I know. But that’s the thing. I’ve never wanted to navigate something like this with anyone before. But with you…I do.”
“I do, too. But I want you to have the freedom you need while you’re in season.
I’m not going to tie you down when I can’t make any promises, and I don’t expect you to wait around for me.
Maybe we text, and we talk, and we get to know each other for now while we’re apart, and when the season’s over and my tour is done…
then we can have a chance to figure out what this is. ”
I know she’s right. That doesn’t make hearing it any easier.
“Ugh!” I emit some frustrated sound that seems to be a mix between a grunt and a growl. “I hate that you’re right about this.”
And I also know that this season isn’t going to look like any other I’ve ever played.
It was already unique in that it’s the first year of an expansion team.
But I won’t even be able to so much as look at another woman without comparing her to Alexis, and even though she’s giving me freedom, it’s not what I want.
I just hope she doesn’t forget about me by the time November rolls around.