She's All In: Club 3, Book 1 (18 page)

“Hey, Shawna,” he said. “How are you?”

The two exchanged a one-armed hug, still walking. Daisy tugged her hand free of Dack’s, her smile set on her face. Well, wasn’t this fun.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Shawna exclaimed. “I told Mom that’s Dack Humboldt over there, and she said it is not, and I said it is so, and I’ll prove it.”

She and Dack laughed together. Ha, ha, that was really funny.

“Your mom’s here, huh?” he asked.

“Yeah, with Missy.” She turned and pointed, and Dack waved to someone. “You know she had that bout with the big C last winter, so we never miss a chance to do a fund-raiser, but what are you doing here, Dack?”

“Same thing you are,” he returned amiably. “Shawna, this is Daisy. Daisy, Shawna and I went to school together in Hood River.”

“I figured,” Daisy said, upping the wattage on her smile. “Hi, Shawna, nice to meet you.”

The other woman checked Daisy out avidly. “Same here, Daisy.” She looked from Daisy to Dack, her eyes sparkling. “Well,” she said, giving Dack another hug, her arm lingering this time. “Wait ’til I tell Josh that you were here walking the track. Ha! Maybe he can get his butt out here for once.”

Dack smiled down at her. “How’s he doing?”

Hmm, this sounded promising. Maybe the Hugger was married. Daisy listened hard, although she looked around as if scanning the area was all that was on her mind.

Shawna began a lengthy description of the absent Josh’s latest business venture. Daisy looked at the big clock as they passed. Nine o’clock. Mom, Dana and the girls should be here. Turning, she walked backwards for a moment, scanning the crowd.

Dack and Shawna were laughing over Josh’s first attempts to turn some old Hood River landmark into a viable business. Daisy spotted her mother’s favorite pink sun hat and sighed with mingled relief and regret.

She waved and saw Dana notice her and point, showing her mother where Daisy was.

“Back in a minute,” Daisy said to Dack. “Nice meeting you, Shawna.”

Dack looked down at her, the corners of his mouth pulling in. In regret, irritation—hard to tell with him. He nodded. “See you in a few.”

Daisy ducked around a big group of walkers and jogged over to greet her family with hugs and kisses for her two nieces, who were attired in matching pink ball caps and T-shirts.

“Who was that you were walking with?” Dana asked.

“Oh, he’s…a friend,” Daisy said. “You can meet him in a little bit. You guys ready to walk?”

She watched her mother and sister exchange a quick look, but neither said anything.

“I am,” Cora agreed, bouncing excitedly. “Daddy signed my pledge sheet.”

“Mine too,” Zoe told her. “He said if we walk for an hour, he’ll take us out for ice cream at the Pink Elephant. They have every kind of sprinkle you ever heard of.”

“And they pile them all on together,” her sister added under her breath. She and Daisy shuddered together.

The morning was still pleasant, but Daisy glugged some of her water as she walked back out onto the track. She scanned the walkers without turning her head and found Dack on the other side, just waving good-bye to Shawna.

He looked around, and she watched him spot her. She waved, and he nodded, then lengthened his stride. Her heart sped up with him. He’d catch up with her and her family in a few moments.

Hoo-boy. Then what?
Hey, Mom, Dana, girls, this is the guy I had kinky sex with at a club. A club which he owns, by the way.
Okay that was beyond ridiculous, but geez. It didn’t matter where or how, this stage of dating or whatever they were doing, was just awkward.

But he had said they were on a date. So that was good, right? Unless he had more old girlfriends waiting to spring out of the trees.

She turned to look behind her, and there he was. He held out his hand, and she slowed to wait for him, putting her hand in his without thinking.

“Is that your family?” he asked, looking at Dana and her mother, who had turned to look back. The girls were way ahead, race-walking each other around the track.

“Yup. Mom and Dana, my oldest sister. Come and meet them.”

“Yeah? Okay.”

She looked up at him, surprised. He hadn’t been sure she’d want to introduce him. Did that mean—oh crap. Better get this out in the open. “If you want to,” she said.

“Yeah, I want to.” He looked down at her and smiled crookedly. “Now that we’re dating, I think I should meet your folks.”

“Oh, you.” She swatted his arm with her free hand, but she was smiling inside and out as they hastened to catch up with her mother and sister.

Her mom and Dana checked Dack out thoroughly, but they did it with such charm and ease that Daisy didn’t mind—much. Introductions over, Dana asked him what he did for a living.

“I own a—”

Daisy’s heart nearly stopped. “He’s in construction,” she blurted.

Dana looked at her oddly. Dack’s eyebrows drew together over his sunglasses. “Yeah, and I own a club with two partners,” he said, his hand tightening on hers. “A fitness center.”

Daisy put one hand on her chest. Holy crap, she needed to go lie down. For one terrible instant, she’d thought he was going to admit he owned a sex club.

“Oh, is that how you two met?” Dana asked. “I know Daisy works out regularly.”

“Yeah,” Dack agreed, squeezing her hand again. “She likes a good workout.”

Blushing furiously, Daisy told them about joining Big Iron with Carlie and Sara, and Dana asked Dack a question about abdominal workouts. Daisy’s mother fell back to walk with the girls, who had caught up and wanted to tell all about their lap.

Sara arrived soon afterward and joined their group. If she was surprised to see Dack, she concealed it well. Very well. Daisy was not thrilled with the hug Dack gave the diminutive redhead or the way she smiled up at him.

But then Sara moved to Daisy’s other side to walk and gave her an enthusiastic thumbs-up, and Daisy forgave her.

The morning grew hotter. More of Daisy’s acquaintances arrived, women she’d met at treatments and classes, and some of the oncology nurses. They broke for lunch, boxed lunches eaten on the lawn in the shade of the trees.

Daisy’s mother said good-bye, her fair skin flushed with heat, and soon after Dana took the girls off for a swim. Sara saw another group of women she knew and went to join them for lunch. Daisy put on her long-sleeved shirt, and Dack sprayed her with cool water. Then she got to do the same for him, enjoying the sight of his wet shirt sticking to his powerful muscles.

Leaning back on his elbows in the cool grass, he watched with interest as she smoothed sunscreen on her legs. “Damn, wish I could help with that,” he muttered. “Since I didn’t get to do any first aid. Always liked playing doctor.”

She smiled teasingly. “You can do my sunscreen if you take me out to the river sometime.”

He nodded. “Frenchman’s Bar? Deal.” Then he sat up and looked away, arms braced on his upraised knees.

“What?” she asked.

“Don’t interrupt me,” he growled. “I’m reciting baseball stats.”

She blushed as comprehension dawned. That was what guys did when they wanted to distract themselves from their arousal. “So, how’s that working for you?”

He gave her a look. “Be careful, or you’ll find out…sub.”

And just like that, Daisy remembered the bed at the club, with him behind her, holding her while he pounded into her. She dropped the tube of sunscreen. It landed on the grass, a sploosh of liquid squirting onto her ankle.

He gave her a wicked grin and levered himself to his feet, holding one hand down to her. “Yeah, works both ways, doesn’t it, Petal?”

Daisy looked up at him, which was a mistake, because there she was, crouched at his feet like a supplicating harem girl—which made her pussy throb with need.

She nodded, because he was waiting for an answer. Then she busied herself tucking the sunscreen into her bag, before taking his hand and letting him pull her to her feet.

Sara caught up and walked with them again for a while. Dack headed off to use the portable restrooms, and Sara grinned at Daisy. “So you two made up, huh?”

“I guess we did,” Daisy said. She told Sara about his calling this their first date.

Sara made the face women usually reserved for puppies, kittens and babies. “Aww, that is so sweet. You know, if he wasn’t into kinky stuff, I’d say he was a keeper.”

Daisy stared at her. “You think the two are mutually exclusive? I mean, kinky sex and a long-term relationship?”

Sara opened her mouth and then closed it. “What do I know?” she said finally. “I married a vanilla guy, and he turned out to be the opposite of a keeper.”

Daisy shrugged off the odd melancholy Sara’s remark had brought. “We’re not looking for that anyway, remember?”

She nudged Sara with her elbow. “We just want—”

“Good sex,” they finished together. They were laughing together as Dack rejoined them.

“Do I get to know what the joke is?” he asked good-naturedly.

“No,” they said in unison.

It was a hot afternoon. By the end of the last lap, Daisy was ready to melt into a puddle of sunscreen and sweat.

“Oh,” she moaned as she stopped to let one of the volunteers spray her with cool water. “God, I’m glad that’s over.”

“Me too.” Dack mimicked her whine. “I’m hot.”

The teenaged volunteer giggled.

Daisy glared at him. He was damp with perspiration, but he looked as relaxed and full of energy as he had in the morning. “You’re used to it. I get more brownie points than you.”

“Hah,” he said. “Bet I got more pledges than you did, Daisy Petal.”

“You got a lot of pledges?” He’d said so, but she’d assumed just a few dollars here and there.

He looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. Then he spread his arms. “Well, that is what we’re here for, isn’t it?” He looked around, playing the crowd.

“Yeah, you tell ’em, cowboy,” called one of the white-haired women seated in the shade nearby. The Camo Grammas again.

He pulled a folded sheet of paper from his pocket and handed it to Daisy. She opened it and studied the amounts. Her heart nearly stopped.

“You…you made two thousand dollars in pledges today,” she said incredulously.

A chorus of triumphant whoops filled the hot air as everyone around them applauded. Dack merely grinned at her. Daisy stood there, her hot, sweaty misery forgotten as she smiled at him. Good thing she was wearing sunglasses herself, as she had to blink away tears.

It was definitely the best fund-raising walk ever, she decided as Dack put her into her car in the crowded parking lot. She had her new T-shirt in hand, a feminine rib knit with a stiletto sandal on the front and the words Kick Cancer Out. Dack had cheerfully accepted his own pink T-shirt, in a men’s extra-large. Daisy couldn’t wait to see him wear it.

“Since this is our first date, do I get a kiss?” she asked him, only half teasing.

He looked down at her and then shook his head, closing her car door. “Nope. Remember what I told you that night at the club?”

Daisy froze. She remembered all right, every dirty word he’d murmured while he held her naked in his arms.

He smiled at her, a slow, teasing grin. “You been doing what I told you, Petal? Touching yourself when you think about being with me at the club?”

Yes, she had, but she’d sit here and fry in her own juices before she’d admit it—which could happen, because her pussy was contracting with need, and her panties were soaked with more than perspiration after spending the day with him.

He chuckled, and she realized she didn’t have to say a word—he knew. “That’s good, Petal. That’s real good. Yeah, I wanna kiss you. But when I do, I want it all. So me kissing you right now…not a good idea. Unless you wanna head over to the club?”

She wanted nothing more than to follow him anywhere he commanded, but not only was she all sweaty and gross from a day in the sun, she also had a pile of reading to do for class. She shook her head reluctantly. “I can’t.”

“Well.” He tapped the top of her car and straightened. “I guess I’ll see you around, then. Oh, by the way, where do you get your mail? Your apartment or a post office box?”

“My apartment.” She stared at him, puzzled.

He merely nodded and gave her a last grin as he stepped away.

“All right. Drive safe.”

Well, that was mysterious. But she was smiling to herself as she drove away, windows rolled up and air-conditioning blasting.

It had been a hot day in more ways than one. And the air-conditioning couldn’t touch the heat that he generated inside her.
 

Chapter Eleven

Saturday evening, Daisy dealt with the sunburn she’d gotten on her legs that day despite all her sunscreen. She buckled down to her studies and went doggedly back to them on Sunday morning, although she did head over to her parents’ home in the afternoon to do a couple of loads of laundry, play in their pool and have supper with them.

Her mother greeted her with her usual anxious once-over and then smiled. “I love that hairdo on you, honey. I think you should keep it short like that. You have such a pretty neck.”