Chapter 11
Daniel
Her skin tastes like lake water and sunshine.
We’re on the shore, still damp, and I’ve got the truck doors open so the radio can reach us.
Some old country song my mom used to love, the kind with a slow fiddle and lyrics about forever.
I didn’t plan this part—the dancing—but when the song came on and Delaney was standing there with the sun turning her hair to silk, I couldn’t help myself.
I pulled her in. She came willingly.
“I didn’t know you could dance,” she murmurs against my shoulder, her body swaying with mine like we’ve done this a thousand times.
“My mom taught me.” The words come easier than I expected. “When I was a kid, I used to stand on her feet while she danced around the kitchen. She said a man who can dance is a man who knows how to listen to his partner.”
Delaney pulls back enough to look at my face. Her eyes are soft. Searching. “She sounds wonderful.”
“She was.” I spin her out, pull her back in, and she laughs with surprise at the move. “She used to bring me here, to this lake. Said it was the only place in the world where she could hear herself think. After she died, I couldn’t come back for years. It hurt too much.”
“When did you start coming back?”
“After I got home from my last deployment.” I swallow against the tightness in my throat.
“I was in a bad place. Couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t breathe in enclosed spaces.
Couldn’t stop seeing—” I cut myself off.
“I came here because I didn’t know where else to go.
I sat on that shore, and I swear I could feel her.
Like she was telling me it was okay to fall apart, as long as I put myself back together after. ”
Delaney’s hand tightens on my shoulder. She doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t offer platitudes or empty comfort. Just holds on.
“I’ve never brought anyone here before,” I tell her. “Not my brothers. Not my dad. No one.”
“Why me?”
The question is barely a whisper.
“Because you’re the first person who’s made me want to share it.” I stop moving, cupping her face in my hands so she has to look at me. “This place is where I come to remember who I am. And I want you to be part of that. I want you to be part of everything.”
Her breath catches. Her eyes go bright with something that looks like tears.
“Daniel—”
“I know it’s fast. I know we’re doing this backward and sideways and probably wrong by everyone else’s standards.
” My thumb traces her cheekbone. “But I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.
You’re it for me, Delaney. You’re the one I want standing next to me when everything goes to hell.
You’re the one I want to wake up to when the sun comes up. You’re—”
She kisses me.
It’s not soft. It’s not tentative. It’s the kind of kiss that says I hear you and I feel it too and stop talking and show me. Her fingers fist in my hair, pulling me closer, and the slow dance becomes something else entirely.
Heat. Want. The electricity that’s been building between us for weeks finally catching fire.
I walk her backward toward the blanket without breaking the kiss, my hands sliding down her sides, learning the curves I’ve been dreaming about. She tugs at my swim trunks before we even hit the ground, and I love her impatience, love that she wants this as badly as I do.
“Slow down.” I catch her wrists, pinning them gently above her head as I lower her onto the blanket. “I’ve been thinking about this for weeks. I’m not rushing it.”
“Daniel—”
“I’m going to take my time with you.” I drag my mouth down her throat, feeling her pulse hammer against my lips.
“Going to learn every inch of this body. Going to make you come so many times you forget your own name.” I bite down gently on her collarbone, and she gasps.
“And then I’m going to bury myself so deep inside you that you feel me for days. ”
Her whole body shudders. “God—”
“Not God, sweetheart.” I peel the wet swimsuit strap off her shoulder, pressing my lips to the skin beneath. “Just me.”
I take my time unwrapping her. That’s what it feels like—unwrapping a gift I’ve been waiting my whole life to open.
Every inch of skin I reveal gets my full attention.
The freckle on her collarbone that I’ve been wanting to taste.
The soft curve of her breasts, nipples already peaked and begging for my mouth.
The scar on her hip that she’s never explained.
I kiss it without asking because her past is part of her, and I want all of it.
“You’re so fucking beautiful.” I drag my tongue across one nipple, slow and deliberate, and watch her back arch off the blanket. “Been dreaming about these tits. About getting my mouth on them while you make those sounds.”
“What sounds?”
I suck her nipple into my mouth, hard, and she moans—a broken, desperate noise that goes straight to my cock.
“Those sounds.”
I work my way down her body, kissing and licking and biting, mapping every response. She’s writhing by the time I reach her hips, her fingers clutching at my shoulders like she needs something to hold on to.
“Daniel, please—”
“Please, what?” I press a kiss to her inner thigh, so close to where she wants me but not quite there. “Tell me what you need.”
“You know what I need.”
“I want to hear you say it.”
She makes a frustrated sound that’s half growl, half whimper. “I need your mouth on me. I need you to stop teasing and—”
I spread her open with my thumbs and drag my tongue through her folds. Whatever she was going to say dissolves into a cry that echoes off the mountains.
Christ, she tastes good. Sweet and musky and absolutely addictive.
I’ve been thinking about this since the night of the storm, when I got my first taste and had to stop before I was ready.
Now there’s nothing stopping me. No interruptions.
No excuses. Just her pussy and my mouth and all the time in the world.
“So wet for me.” I circle her clit with my tongue, feeling her thighs tremble on either side of my head. “This pretty pussy’s been waiting, hasn’t it? Been aching for me to take care of it.”
“Yes! God, yes! Only you.”
Sliding two fingers inside her, I curl them to find the spot that makes her keen.
I work her with my mouth until she’s thrashing against the blanket.
Her hands find my hair, pulling hard enough to sting.
I groan against her because I love it. Love that she’s losing control.
Love that I’m the one making her fall apart.
“That’s it, sweetheart. Ride my face. Take what you need.”
Her hips buck against me, chasing the pressure. I give her everything. Faster. Harder. My fingers pump while my tongue works her clit in tight circles. She’s close—I can feel it in the way she tightens around my fingers, the way her breath comes in sharp little sobs.
“Come for me,” I growl against her. “Let go. Want to feel this pussy squeeze my fingers while you scream my name.”
“Daniel!”
She shatters.
Her whole body arches off the blanket, her cry ringing out across the water. I work her through it with my mouth and my hands until she’s shaking and gasping and pushing weakly at my head.
“Too much—I can’t—”
“You can.” I press a soft kiss to her oversensitive clit, making her jolt. “And you will. But this time, I want to feel you come apart around my cock.”
I kiss my way back up her body, letting her taste herself on my tongue when I claim her mouth. She moans into the kiss, her hands sliding down my back to shove at my swim trunks.
“Need you inside me.” She’s breathless, desperate, her nails raking down my spine. “Now, Daniel. Please.”
I kick off the trunks and settle between her thighs, my cock so hard it aches. The head nudges against her entrance, and we both go still.
“Look at me.”
Her eyes find mine. Hazy with pleasure but present. Here. With me.
“I love you.” The words come out raw, unplanned, ripped from somewhere deep in my chest. “I know I shouldn’t say it yet. I know it’s too fast. But I can’t be inside you without you knowing—”
“I love you too.”
My heart stops. Restarts. Slams against my ribs.
“Say it again.”
“I love you.” Her hands come up to cup my face, her thumbs tracing my cheekbones. “I love you, Daniel. I should’ve said it during the storm. I was just scared.”
“And now?”
“Still scared.” She pulls me down for a kiss, soft and sweet and full of promise. “But I’m done letting fear make my decisions.”
I push inside her.
We both groan at the sensation—her tight heat gripping me, pulling me deeper, like her body was made to take me. I hold still for a moment, breathing through the overwhelming urge to move, to take, to claim.
“You okay?”
“More than okay, but”—she huffs out a breath—“give me a minute.”
Every muscle locks as my forehead drops to hers. “Of course.” My thumb brushes her cheek, slow and grounding. “We’ve got all the time you need.”
She nods, breath shaky but steadying, fingers curling into my shoulders like she’s anchoring herself. I stay exactly where I am, letting her feel me there without asking anything more.
“Okay,” she whispers after a moment. She wraps her legs around my waist, her heels digging into my ass. “Move. Please.”
I move.
Slow at first. Long, deep strokes that let her feel every inch of me, that let me feel every flutter and clench of her pussy around my cock. She’s so wet, so hot, so fucking perfect that I have to grit my teeth against the urge to come right then.
“Faster.” She’s panting now, her nails scoring my back. “Harder. I need—”
“I know what you need.”
I hitch her leg higher, changing the angle, and drive into her with enough force to make her cry out. Better. Deeper. I can feel myself hitting that spot inside her, the one that makes her eyes roll back and her pussy clench.
“That’s it,” I growl, barely recognizing my voice. “Take it. Take all of me.”
“Yes—God, yes—”