Page 42 of One Step Sideways

I was past words because Kane’s fingers wrapped around my cock, and that touch pushed me over the edge into heaven. I felt Kane stiffen underneath me, shouting something unintelligible, and more pleasure, so fast and so hot streaked through my body and fireworks went off in my brain. It went on and on for what seemed like forever until he let go, and I fell forward onto his chest, his still-hard cock slipping out of me. I concentrated on pulling what oxygen I could into my lungs, and I felt Kane doing the same even though I was sprawled on top of him, uncaring about the sticky mess between us.

“Fuck,” Kane whispered in awe, and I couldn’t help laughing.Yep.

Chapter Eighteen

Kane

The next day, Danny simply passed me a set of keys and said I was driving. I put down my fork after devouring the omelet Danny had made and looked at the keys as if they were going to bite.

“Drive where?” I asked, but still took them, though I didn’t let go of his hand and brought his fingers to my lips, sucking on the smallest digit, watching his blue eyes turn almost molten. Despite my worry about Shae, which had never really left me, yesterday had been the best day of my life. We hadn’t been able to keep our hands off each other, and while I wasn’t fooling myself into believing this was in any way long term, I was taking whatever Danny was offering for as long as he was offering it.

“Asheville,” he said, not trying to remove his hand.

“North Carolina? Why?” What was in North Carolina?

Danny smiled shyly, and I let his hand go. “My Mom and Dad.”

I gaped.“What?”

He chuckled. “Don’t worry. I know one night in no way implies it’s time to meet the parents. And it’s definitely nothing like that. It’s just it’s my dad’s birthday on Saturday and I promised I’d go.” He hesitated. “I missed the last three. First because I was in recovery, and second, well, I guess I chickened out. I should say they’ve met Sebastian, Gray’s hubby, and they love him, so they don’t care about that.”

I still couldn’t come up withanything to say.

“Full disclosure. My brother and sister will be there on Saturday, and I could really use someone to run interference for me.”

I stared at Danny for what seemed a very long minute, until his smile fell, and he glanced down. “It’s okay.” But I could feel the disappointment.

“Do they know who I am?” Ex-cons didn’t get taken to meet the family.

“They know you’re a new hire of Diesel’s. They know you’re a friend. Anything you tell them or don’t is your business, and if you run interference for me with my sister, I’ll do the same.”

“But what will I say if they ask what I’ve been doing with my life?” Because what the fuck would I say?

“We can come up with a backstory on the way. It’s a four-hour drive, and any time you’re uncomfortable, I promise we can leave.” Danny grinned when I looked skeptical. “So, we all have a text system we use that Jay set up. We send the numbers 104 to a group text. The first one to see it texts the number 9 to say they’re responding, and they call. We use it to get out of situations. Like I’ll pretend it’s a call from work asking for us to head back.” He rolled his eyes. “Jay uses it if a girl’s getting too clingy and he needs an excuse to leave.”

I huffed out a laugh. Sounded a little complicated, but I knew these guys had been a unit for a long time and had a system. Something else occurred to me and I squirmed a little inside. “Won’t, I mean, won’t Rawlings mind?”

“You visiting my mom or us fucking?” He tried to hold back a smile and failed. And hypocritically, I didn’t like that word on Danny’s lips. Very hypocritical, seeing as how the f-word figured in nearly every sentence I spoke, but it seemed wrong coming from him.

“Both.”

Danny shook his head. “He might be concerned if we went on jobs together, but we have different roles.” He rinsed our plates, obviously waiting for a reply. Did I dare?

I walked over to him and took the plate out of his hand and put it in the dishwasher, then turned him around. “I don’t need a babysitter here.” I had to know why he was asking me to go with him. I didn’t buy running interference as the main reason.

“Maybe I do,” Danny whispered, but then shook his head. “No, I didn’t mean that either.” He bit his lip, and I wanted to drag it away with my thumb, but I restrained myself. He met my gaze. “I want to spend more time with you. Once this weekend is over, whether we’ve found Shae or not, we still have the job to complete.” I was too hung up on Danny saying he wanted to spend more time with me to take in the rest of his words initially. “And I wasn’t kidding about my sister. I’m a charity project to her.”

Which was fucked up. Danny was no one’s charity. “You’re sure?” I pressed.

Danny nodded. “We have to walk around the corner to get the car. I keep it in storage.” I shrugged. It sounded weird to me, storage, not a garage. But I’d never had a car, so how would I know?

“Okay,” I said and cupped his cheek. He turned and brushed a kiss on my palm and fuck if my cock didn’t jump in reaction. And that was another thing. If I was meeting Danny’s mom, I was gonna have to clean up my language.

Forty minutes later, I stood holding Sadie’s leash and both our bags and gazed in awe at the car Danny had just pulled the sheet off. “I have a guy that comes once a week to run it to keep the battery up.”

“What is it?” I gasped, completely and utterly entranced.

And if I was honest, not just by the car.

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