Page 81 of Under My Skin

“What can I say? Turns out I was just waiting for someone special,” I said, turning to kiss Dani’s temple.

“Aww. How’d you two meet?”

“My best friend is Morgan Hill, Malachi Houston’s girlfriend,” Dani supplied. “Braden and I met through her a few months ago, and we’ve just been enjoying getting to know each other since then.”

I gave her a reassuring squeeze, silently praising her for keeping her composure and sticking to the story we’d come up with in the car on the way over here. It wasn’t a complete lie, just not the whole truth either.

“Yeah, until he gets bored with you,” a whiny female voice said from behind me. “Then he’ll just shove a hundred bucks in your hand like you’re a whore and toss you to the curb like he did with me.”

I could hear my pulse hammering in my ears as I turned to face this woman, whose name I now remembered was Leslie Greer. She was a sports journalist for Orlando’s local newspaper, so what in the actual fuck she was doinghere, at a documentary premiere four hours away, I had no idea.

I wished like hell that I could take this bitch’s head off. Remind her that I’d made it crystal clear up front that our “romantic” encounter would be nothing more than one night of sex between consenting adults. But I couldn’t do that. Not here. Not now. I couldn’t fuck tonight up for Kyler by causing a scene.

“I’m sorry your feelings were hurt,” Daniela said quietly as she threaded her fingers through mine and gave my hand a gentle squeeze. “But that’s not the kind of relationship we have.”

“Whatever,” Leslie scoffed. “If you want my sloppy seconds, have at it. I’ve had way better anyway.”

My hand was gripping Dani’s so tightly that my knuckles were turning white as pure rage coursed through my veins. It was taking every ounce of self-control I possessed to keep my mouth shut and not fly off the handle.

Why was this woman doing this? What did she hope to accomplish here? Was she just trying to humiliate me the way she’d been humiliated that morning? Was she trying to shake Dani’s faith in me and drive a wedge between us? Or was she trying to turn my friends against me by painting me as a hypocrite while I was here, at a premiere for a documentary about sexual violence?

Somehow, Dani read me like a book. And she saved me from making this godawful, uncomfortable situation worse than it already was.

“This interview’s over,” she said, calm but firm. “If you can’t be respectful to Braden – not to mention to Kyler, who’s the reason we’re all here – then we have nothing more to say to you. Come on, B.”

With that, she gave my hand a gentle tug and guided me toward the doors of the theater, away from the screaming reporters. Once we were inside, she glanced around before leading me down a quiet-looking hallway.

“Dani, I?—”

Spinning around, she cut me off with a kiss, immediately licking at the seam of my lips. I happily granted her entrance, plunging my tongue into her mouth and massaging hers with slow, purposeful strokes. Her fingers tangled in the hairs at the nape of my neck as she kissed me like I was cold water andshe was dying of thirst. And finally, I felt my heartrate return to normal as I just poured everything into the connection and lost myself in the woman I loved more than life itself.

“You don’t have to say anything, B,” she breathed when she finally pulled back. “It’s in the past. I know that.”

I nodded as I cradled her face in my hands and rested my forehead against hers. “Itisin the past. I promise you that. Even back then, though… That day isn’t one I’m proud of. It was the day I got arrested. I got woken up by a phone call from my mom telling me I’d missed my uncle’s funeral, and I wassoupset. So angry. All I wanted was to be alone. I was just trying to pay for Leslie’s Uber and breakfast and get her out of my hair. But I can see why she felt the way she did about it. I wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy when I gave her the money.”

One of her hands found its way to my face, her thumb softly stroking my cheekbone. “Everyone’s allowed to have bad days, mi amor. And you’ve grown somuch since then. I see it every day. In the way you love me, in the way you love Isaac, and even in the way you handled yourself out there just now. You didn’t lose your temper or attack her. You kept your cool, even though it took everything you had. But you’re human, and humans make mistakes. No one’s perfect.”

Smiling, I turned my head to kiss her palm. “I’m trying. So hard. I want to be the kind of partner you can be proud of. The kind of father Isaac can be proud of. I’m fighting every day to become the man you deserve. Because for the first time in my life, I have something worth fighting for.”

“You can stop fighting now,” she whispered, leaning up to feather her lips over mine. “You’ve already won the battle. A long time ago. I know exactly who you are, Braden Hicks, and I couldn’t be prouder to call you mine.”

Unable to find a single word, I just pulled her back into my arms and crashed my lips against hers. I had no idea howshe saw me that way after everything I’d put her through. After all the heartache and suffering and exhaustion she’d endured because of that week I’d spent with her sister. Because honestly, Istillcouldn’t get past it, and I wasn’t sure I ever really would.

But one thing I did know? I would never stop trying to be that man – the one she saw – for as long as I lived.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

DANIELA

Taking Braden's hand,I led him in the direction all the arrows were pointing, which steered us toward the main screen in the theater. We’d already gotten our pictures taken, so there was no reason for us to go back out there and be subjected to more ridicule.

As we walked inside, I noticed a cordoned-off area in the center of the theater…where Bailey Knight and her husband, Finn Davies from the band Beyond Mercury, were sitting off to one side. A few other random people had found seats closer to the front, but the reserved section was empty other than the two of them.

I froze for a few seconds as it really hit me: I was at a red carpet event. With real-life celebrities. Yes, I knew Braden and Malachi were public figures – and so were Ian and Kyler – but they didn’tfeellike celebrities to me. Not really. Braden was the man I loved. Malachi was one of my closest friends. And Ian and Kyler were friends now too.

Bailey Knight, though? She was one of my favorite musicians. So was her husband, for that matter. And they were sitting just a few yards away from me.

Just a few months ago, I’d been wondering how the hell I was going to take care of Isaac. Now I was at a movie premiere wearing a three-thousand-dollar dress, on the arm of one of the most recognizable football players in the country. How was this my life?

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