Make It Right (5 page)

“Yes.” His answer came with no hesitation at all.

“Your dick stays in your pants in Detroit, which includes Allison.” She wasn't sure where the words had come from. Apparently grief destroyed the barrier between the brain and mouth. Amelia felt her hands start to shake at the mere sound of the woman's name.

“I'm not fucking Allison.”

“I don't need you to say that to make me feel better. I figure there's plenty of women here that you've slept with since you got out. Nothing I can do is going to change that. I can deal with it, but I can't deal with you having anything going with her.”

“Didn't I just tell you I'm not sleeping with her? Just so we're clear, I slept with her once while I was on the road. That's the time that you found out about when she came here. I didn't tell her to come here. I didn't want her to come here.”

“She's still here now.”

“And she's a pass-around,” he replied. “She works at Missy's salon during the day and takes all comers at night. I haven't been one of the comers.”

“Okay.” Amelia let out a deep breath. “Can we just get out of here?”

“You want to go home?”

“I want to go to your house,” Amelia didn't think she'd ever step foot into the house she'd grown up in again.

“That's where I was talking about.” Danny pressed his lips to her forehead. “Are you going to be able to ride?”

“Let's go.”

#<#<#

Amelia closed her eyes and let the warmth of the water surround her. The scent of the bubbles, something vaguely tropical, helped her feel a little calmer. Danny had whisked her out of the bar without her having to deal with anyone. As soon as they were back in the house he'd ushered her into the bathroom.

She'd been soaking for a while; she didn't know how long, but she heard Danny in the kitchen. The scent of bacon filled the air. He was cooking for her. He didn't cook as a rule, but when he tried, he got good results.

It was probably wrong of her to be thinking about what sort of sandwich Danny could be making her with the bacon when Fiona and Taylor were in a morgue somewhere, but she needed to point her mind in another direction or she'd surely go mad. So she focused on the scent of the bacon and the warmth of the water.

She let her mind linger on Danny. The way that he made her feel with the simplest of touches had always amazed her. Amelia hadn't lost any of the wonder. It didn't have to be a sexual touch, him simply putting his hand on her skin was enough to distract from whatever was running rampant through her mind. When he was near her it felt like them against the world, and for a long time, it had been.

Her parents hadn't been thrilled that she'd taken up with an older guy, a biker at that, but she'd been 18 and headstrong. They laid down ultimatums, and she'd responded by cutting them out of her life and moving in with Danny. It wasn't long after that they'd gone to City Hall and married, and too soon after he was heading to jail. Then the sky fell; it was her alone against the world.

Amelia knew that the world had won. For the first two years after she'd left Detroit the only time she'd been pulled together and smiling had been on her return to visit her family. Every other day it was either she managed to drag herself out of bed or she didn't. When she did, she'd sought work at temporary agencies that paid well for jobs no one wanted to do. It didn't matter that all she could afford was a shitty rent by the week room.

Eventually she'd worked her way up to a shitty rented by the month apartment where she could actually keep food because it wasn't infested with anything. She'd found a job at a thrift store, the owner happy to pay her to sit around so that he didn't have to. The job was gone now; she hadn't even thought to call until two days after she'd left. Ed had been sympathetic, wished her the best with her family but had decided to close the store.

Her landlord would clean her place out the first day that her rent was late, and she didn't have the money to send. She'd burned through what she had to spend, and her savings, to pay for the gas to get to Detroit and the cleaning supplies she'd bought for Fiona's house. Once again, the sky was falling.

“You drown in there or what?” Danny pushed open the door without knocking. His gaze went immediately to the bubbles on the top of the water. “Where'd you get bubble bath from?”

“The corner store when I had to pick up toilet paper.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. I've been meaning to go to the store. I did however manage to make you something to eat. Well, I'm mostly done. I don't want to make the grilled cheese until we're ready to eat.

“Grilled cheese?” Amelia felt the smile spread across her face. “And tomato soup?”

“Straight out of the can,” Danny confirmed with a laugh. “And I fried a ton of bacon to go on
the grilled cheese.”

“My favorite sick food.” It was the meal he'd made for her every time that she'd felt sick or was just sad.

“Come on, don't cry.” His alarm was obvious. “I was trying to cheer you up.”

“You did. You have.” Amelia looked up at him. “Thank you.”

“No sweat. You need anything else in here? You want a beer?”

“Beer would be nice.” Amelia felt her heart speed up. She forced herself to speak before she could chicken out. “Some company would be nice, too.” She smiled wider as she saw shock cross his face. It had been three nights since she ended up in his house, in his bed, and he'd been a gentleman the entire time. He'd slept on the couch, despite her telling him she'd fit there better.

“Maybe I don't want to smell like a chick.” He was teasing, and she knew it because he was starting to undress. He had already taken off his cut; it hung in a place of honor just inside the door so he didn't have to much to take off, an old faded tee shirt, his equally faded jeans and socks which had seen better days. She really needed to get him some new ones.

The surprisingly domestic thought threw her off guard; her mind wandered but soon her attention returned to Danny as he walked towards the tub. “You forgot the beer.” Amelia teased as her eyes devoured him. He'd always had a good build, but now, well, now it was hard to control herself from wanting to crawl out of the tub and run her tongue along the pronounced V of his hips.

“Two seconds.” He was halfway out the bathroom door as he spoke, as naked as the day he was born and seemingly not giving a shit even though she knew that his blinds were open. Anyone looking in at that exact moment was going to be given one hell of a show.

Danny returned as fast as he'd promised, two beers in hand. He handed one to her with a smile. “Scoot up a little so that I can get behind you.”

“If I had a dollar for every time you've said that to me, I'd have a lot of dollars.” Amelia felt arousal surge threw her as he laughed, really laughed. It changed his entire face and made him even more handsome, which shouldn't have been possible.

She realized that the water had been too high the minute that Danny sank down in the water behind her. Bubbles cascaded over the edge, water soaked the floor. “Shit.” Amelia moved; her first thought was to try and soak it up with his few threadbare towels, but his hands settled on her hips.

“I'll clean it up. Sit back. Relax. Or relax as best you can while we slowly boil to death. It's hot enough to cook a lobster in here.”

“No, it's not. This water isn't boiling or even close to it.” Amelia leaned back against his chest, smiled at the old argument. It was almost as if no time had passed between them. If she could just somehow forget the last seven years and her family was still alive it would be a perfect world. They soaked in silence, only the sound of the water dripping from the faucet into the tub broke the silence.

She was all too aware that they were both naked and the tub, while spacious, didn't give them much room to not be pressed against each other. Amelia could feel the hardness of his length pressed against her ass. This was the most intimate they'd been since the night she'd returned, the night he'd gotten her off before being called away.

The memory of it stirred something deep inside of her, something that had been dormant and forgotten until that night. There was no one who set her on fire the way that Danny did. Amelia let the fire spread, she could feel a tingle between her submerged thighs. Even when she shifted her body, his hands remained on her hips, even though he grew harder against her. Amelia expected that he would try something. Disappointment and doubt dug into her stomach. Suddenly the comfortable silence felt awkward.

“You okay?” Danny's lips brushed against her exposed shoulder.

“I'm fine.”

“Don't seem fine. All of a sudden you went tense.” His lips pressed against her shoulder again.

“I was just thinking.”

“About?” His fingers began to move on her hips, traced slow circles against her slick skin.

There was no power in the universe that would make her tell him she'd been wondering if he wanted her. There were only a few things she could do to piss him off; expressing self doubt was in the top two. “Everything, I guess.” Amelia said instead. Before she could allow herself to overthink what she was about to do, she shifted her body in the water.

Danny let out a low grunt as she straddled him. “Amelia.”

“Danny.” She could see that he was being cautious, no matter how aroused he was, he was thinking of her first. Likely worried that she was going to regret what she was doing. It was knowing that he'd put her before himself that let her know she'd have no regret.

Before he could say anything else, she leaned in and kissed him. His hands found her hips once again and dug in. Amelia flexed her body in response and moaned at the feeling of him against her core. It had been seven years since they'd been together. Seven years since she'd been with a man. Danny thrust his hips against her. She should have told him to go slow but she didn't want slow. She wanted him more than anything.

His hands moved in from her hips, fingers trailing roughly over her thighs. Amelia whimpered, the sensation had sent what felt like a shock straight to her clit. It spread through her, filled her with a need she'd long forgotten. Danny bit down on her bottom lip, held on and tugged. She gasped and then cried out as his calloused finger tip found her clit.

“Yes. Yes. Yes.” Amelia tore her mouth from his, threw her head back and got a good grip on his shoulders. “Right there. Oh. Oh.” The strength of the orgasm took her breath away. She was slowly coming down from the rush when Danny sat up. Her legs slipped around him, and then he was inside of her.

They both remained still for a moment and then he began to move. Amelia had expected hard deep thrusts. He was as deep in her as he could be, but his movements were slow and gentle. His mouth found hers and she gave control over to him willingly.

Pleasure built inside of her, grew higher and higher. Amelia made no attempt to quiet the cries spilling from her lips as she held on tight to him. “Harder.” She panted out the word, so close to the edge that she couldn't catch her breath.

Danny grunted and tightened his grip on her hips. He moved her body up and down his length. Amelia released her grip on him and leaned back. She braced her hands on his thighs, the move exposing her sensitive clit to the cool air above the warm water.

Amelia looked down at Danny, watched him watching her, and the look on his face was enough to send her screaming over the edge. Her body was still trembling when he sat all the way up. “Danny!” Amelia could barely hold on to him as his thrusts sped up.

He came buried as deep inside of her as he could go. Amelia pressed herself against his body and his hand moved soothingly over her back. “Water is getting cold.” He pressed his lips against her shoulder.

“What water is left,” Amelia realized they were only in a few inches of water. “We made a mess.”

“It'll be here in the morning. Come on, we're going to eat and go to bed.” Danny told her, his hand still moving over her back.

The neat freak in Amelia wanted to protest, but she realized how ridiculous it was to want to clean up a bathroom floor instead of eating gooey grilled cheese. “That sounds perfect.”

<#<#<#

“I still don't think this is a good idea.” Danny looked towards the swinging doors which led to the Medical Examiner's office and morgue. “Are you sure that...”

“I'm sure, Danny. I'm as sure as sure can be. If you don't want to come with me, you don't have to.” Except Amelia would really rather that he did. She didn't want to face the shells of her family alone, but would if she had to. This was something that she wasn't going to back down from.

“You're not doing this alone.” He stood up straighter. “I'm just worried that you're not going to be able to see them any other way. Do you remember after your parents died?”

“Yes.” Amelia sighed. He was right; she'd never been able to see her parents any other way than laid out in their caskets. The car accident that had claimed their lives had been a pretty bad wreck. Fiona had been the one to identify them, and Amelia's first glance at them had come before the wake. “I remember. Like I said, you don't have to come with me.” Amelia had expected that Royal would be there as well, but when she asked Danny he'd just shrugged his shoulders. It pissed her off some that he wasn't paying his respects, but everyone grieved in a different way.