Chains (14 page)

She gave me a sinful smile and looked up at me with lusty, hooded eyes. “I’ve wanted this for as long as I knew what sex was, Tyler.” She ran her hands up my thighs. “I wanted this to take away what I didn’t want. To replace it with you. Someone who cared. Someone safe.”

I lowered to my elbows and kissed her deeply. She grasped my t-shirt and tugged it over my head. “Roll over,” she said, unbuttoning my shorts. “I want to know every inch of you.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, but it came out weak as I landed on my back and she pulled my stiff cock out of my pants.

“Are you making me do this?” She asked, running her lips down my shaft, making all thoughts of being slow and careful with her evaporate.

I groaned.

“That’s what I thought,” she said, and took my full length in her hot little mouth.

I hit the back of her throat and she kept going. “Fuck.”

She took me in and out of her mouth, sucking and stroking with her lips covering her teeth.

All I could think of was getting her shorts off and shoving my face between her thighs. I reached down with one hand and unfastened them, pushing the waistband down. She stripped them the rest of the way off with her underwear, barely taking her mouth off of me for more than a second.

I hooked my arm around her leg and slid her around, grabbed her waist and lifted her over my face, setting her knees on either side. I gripped her ass and pulled her down to me, sinking my mouth against her. She whimpered and took me into her throat again, moaning.

My Danny. Jesus she was sweet and wet. Ripe for me. I pushed my tongue inside her, spreading her lips and running my fingers through her folds. She rocked against me, making the most amazing sounds as she sucked me.

I licked her front to back and tucked two fingers inside, rubbing and pressing as I sucked the tip of her little nub. She pushed up on her hands and threw her head back rocking faster and faster against my mouth, letting out breathy pants and whimpers until she cried out and throbbed around my fingers.

When she’d rode out her orgasm, I flipped her over and nestled my cock between her thighs. “That was fucking beautiful,” I said, lifting her shirt over her head and unhooking her bra. “I want to see it again.” I flicked her rock-hard nipple with my tongue then tugged it with my lips.

“I want you,” she said, wrapping her legs around me and reaching down to place me at her entrance. She put her hands above her head and gripped the headboard, raising her hips up and digging her heels into my ass. The head of my cock breached her pussy, and I strangled a sob of pure fucking joy.

I lowered onto her, sinking all the way in, and I swear to Christ I heard fucking angels singing. I’d never actually known any of the women I’d been with, but I knew Danny like I knew my own soul. She was my soul.

I’d never been one for believing in soul mates or twin souls that had to find each other and all that bullshit, but lying there inside her, thrusting in and out with her body under my hands and wrapped around me—I believed it all. I never wanted to take my dick out of her. I could live inside her.

She pushed my shoulders and struggled against me. “On top,” she said. “I need on top.” It hit me like a brick to the head—her need for control, to be on top, to have me on my back. It was what he did to her, how he broke her and how she put herself back together.

I rolled over, cradling her against my chest. “I’m yours, Danny. However you need me,” I whispered, gripping her chin and kissing her hard. She needed to understand me—to know I was in her head. I was right there with her, remembering what it was like back then, back when I was powerless to help her.

She sat up and pressed her palms against my chest, letting out a sigh as her eyelids fluttered shut and she sank down onto me. Her mouth parted. Her head tilted back, and she rode me, slow and sensual at first, back and forth, not up and down, making me crazy, making me want to take her by her hips and fuck her fast and hard. She leaned forward and circled her hips, rubbing her clit against me. I dug my heels in and lifted my hips, thrusting in and pulling out as she grinded against me.

Her breath came faster and heavier. Her brow knit in concentration. She wanted to get off and was driven by her heat. I put my hand on her breast and squeezed, kneading it as I gently pushed her upright. “Lean back,” I said. “Put your hands on my thighs.” She did and I bucked my hips, bouncing her up and down on me. She found my pace and rose and fell with me. I plucked her nipples with one hand and pressed my other against her lower stomach, finding her clit with my thumb. I rubbed her fast, and her hands came up to her face as her mouth dropped open in ecstasy. She threw her head back and started whispering, “Yes. God, yes. Oh God yes.” Her hand pressed over mine, rubbing with me.

That did it. The sight of her—the sound and smell of her—the feel of her hand rubbing her pussy with mine—I couldn’t take it. My cock was on fire and throbbed like a fucking volcano about to blow. “Come with me, princess,” I said, thrusting even faster.

She cried out. Her body convulsed. I exploded with a bolt of blinding white lightning filing my head. Every muscle contracted. Blood boiled. Flesh burned to ash.

And then she collapsed on my chest. I took a breath and opened my eyes. There she was, her blond head rising and falling with every pant for breath I inhaled and exhaled. I was still inside her and felt the aftershocks ripple through her on small spasms gripping me. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

Home, Danny. We’re home.

NINE

I woke up three hours later and she was gone. After pulling my clothes back on, I padded downstairs and found her out on the patio with Alex. They looked like they were in the middle of a serious conversation, so I didn’t go out. But the sliding door wasn’t closed all the way, and it was too tempting to sit at the table and listen.

I grabbed the newspaper off the counter where Alex tossed it that morning and spread the sports page out on the table.

“I’m not in any danger,” Alex said, “so you don’t need to worry about me.”

“I’m always worried about you,” Danny said. “You and Ty are all I have. I don’t want him fighting, and I don’t want you dealing. Don’t you think we had enough darkness in our lives growing up? Do you need to be around people who won’t hesitate to shot your head off just so you can drive a BMW?”

She didn’t want me to fight. It kept coming up, over and over. I knew she wanted me to have a safe, normal life—Alex, too—but normal really wasn’t our thing.

“I’m telling you, I’m not going to get my head shot off, okay?” Alex reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “What about you? What are you going to do with your life?”

“Keep running from Striker,” she said, making me clench the newspaper in my fists.

“No you won’t,” Alex said. “Forget him. What do you want to be when you grow up?”

“When I grow up?” She smiled and laughed. “Am I supposed to grow up now, too? I don’t know. A teacher? A nurse? A firefighter? I haven’t gotten that far. I’m still escaping the evil baron, Alex. You can say forget him, but I can’t. I can’t think about anything like getting my GED or picking my dream job. I just want to get to tomorrow.”

“Danny, Tyler and I are taking care of Striker. I want you to start planning your future.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her shaking her head.

“Listen,” Alex said. “I’m telling you. It’s time to think about what you want to do. If you stay straight, you can live here. You and Ty both. We’ll help you get your GED and you can go to college. Hell, Danny, you can be a fucking physicist if you want.”

Live here? I had a place. In Detroit. A job. In Detroit. This was a layover on my way to going pro. I had fights to win and figured Danny would come home with me. We couldn’t stay here in Carson City with Alex.

But Danny’s face lit like a fucking Christmas tree. “All three of us here?” she said. “That would be…” She couldn’t speak to finish her sentence. Happy tears fell down her cheeks.

She couldn’t stay here in this house where there were drugs. It wasn’t like they were lying around on the coffee table, but I didn’t think it would take much effort to find some. Not to mention the target that would be on her back living with a drug dealer. She’d jump right out of the pan into the fire. From Striker to Alex.

Shit, Alex was a good guy, and he’d take care of her as long as she stayed clean, but there was no way in hell I’d leave her here. I wasn’t leaving her anywhere. She was coming with me.

Danny got up and came inside, stopping short when she saw me sitting at the table. “You’re awake,” she said, wiping her cheeks, still grinning from ear-to-ear.

“I am.” I scooted the chair back and reached for her, guiding her onto my lap. “I woke up and you were gone. I was hoping there would be a round two.”

She slipped her hand around my neck, he fingernails tickling my hairline. “I can last more than two rounds with you, Grave Digger,” she said, brushing her lips against mine.

“So it finally happened,” Alex said, striding through the door. “The official hook up? Have you picked your couple name? Tanny? Danler?”

I smacked him in the leg as he walked by, smirking. “What do you mean, finally?”

“It was inevitable,” he said, pulling the refrigerator door open. “You two have always been unnaturally close.”

“Unnaturally close?” Danny said. “What’s unnatural about it?”

“Other than being foster siblings? Nothing. Nothing at all.”

“Shut the fuck up,” I said. “You know there was nothing natural about our situation, so it can’t be unnatural that we were close.”

“Yeah, I’m just screwing with you.” He shut the fridge and handed me a bottle of beer.

“Want one?” I asked Danny.

She held up a hand and shook her head, like it made her sick just thinking about it. “I’ll stick with chicken broth for now.”

A faint ringing came from upstairs. Danny tensed on my lap. “I think that’s my phone,” she said. “Be right back.”

She got up and darted from the kitchen. Alex and I watched her go then he turned to me. “Wonder who that could be?” he said.

“I don’t know.” I took a long, cold drink of beer as real life came rushing back in. I hadn’t been with her in four years. I didn’t know her friends. I didn’t know who she was with in Reno or any day before then. I didn’t know who could be on the phone.

There was no bridge from the day I walked down the driveway away from her and now, only rocky, rough terrain she hiked on her own. The only way I’d know about the time I’d missed is if she walked be back through it, but we hadn’t had time for that. There was getting her sober, then Striker, and getting away and coming here.

The person I knew the best in the world was someone I didn’t know at all anymore.

“I’m going to see if she needs anything,” I said, tossing my empty bottle in the bin on my way through the kitchen.

“Ty?” Alex stopped me with a hand on my arm. “Take it slow.”

I nodded. “You know I wouldn’t hurt her.”

“Yeah. I know. I’m just not as sure about her hurting you.”

I shook him off and headed down the hall. What the hell did he think? That I was some fucking pussy whipped kid?

Even denying his insinuation, something in the back of my mind prodded me to admit the truth. This was Danny. She abso-fucking-lutely had the power to destroy me.

Wasn’t going to happen. Her phone call woke me from the post-sex brain haze.

I hit the top step and heard her say, “I’m not doing it again,” and I froze. “I don’t care. Find out without my help. I don’t want any part of it.”

Feeling like a creeper, I knocked and gave her a second before going into the room. When she saw me, she lowered her head and wouldn’t look at me. “You have my answer,” she said, and hung up.

“Who was that?” I asked, stepping closer.

“Nobody.” She looked up and rolled her eyes. “Just a bill collector.”

“A bill collector?” Why was she lying to me?

“Yeah,” she said, tossing her phone on the nightstand. “No big deal. I owe a couple hundred bucks on my Visa and it’s past due.”

“Do you need money?” Was she in some kind of trouble? Did she borrow money from some douchebag who wanted her to repay it one way or another? “I’ll give you money if you need it.”