Page 15 of Sticking Out

“You look beautiful.”

“Oh, this old thing.” It’s a lie. It’s new and if I had to guess, she bought it today. She does a weird swirly thing, and knowing she’s as nervous as I am, puts me at ease. As I feel a shift inside me, I realize I’m the one who’s going to have to take charge here. I’m the one who’s going to have to put her at ease, and make this good. With those thoughts racing around my brain, the last of my unease fades, and I lean into her and give her a kiss on the cheek, like I usually do. Later, however, it won’t be her cheek I’m kissing.

“You look nice too,” she murmurs.

“Oh, this old thing.” I mimic her swirl, and it pulls a laugh from her. Good. I want her relaxed, and hey, we might as well enjoy ourselves, right?

“Hungry?”

I rub my stomach. “Starved.”

She pouts before turning to head down the hall to her kitchen. “Sorry I couldn’t be there today. I really wanted to be, but we ended up calling in a vet for Buster. He wasn’t eating, and it turns out he has a bad tooth. I had to call his owners, who are on vacation in the Bahamas, and see if they wanted it pulled, and they did so I had to take him to the vet clinic and wait, and now he’s going to be staying the night the clinic, because there were a few complications.”

“Poor Buster.”

“I’ll check in tomorrow morning.”

“I’ll come with you.”

She opens her mouth like she’s going to protest, but aren’t we past this by now? She glances down, and I touch her chin and lift her eyes to mine. “Here’s the deal, Dani.” She frowns, and blinks dark lashes over even darker eyes. God, she’s so beautiful. “If we’re doing this, it’s you and me. No other men. No other women.” A grin tugs at the corner of her mouth. I realize she hasn’t been with a man in a long time and it’s not on her agenda, but I want her to know that the rules apply both ways and that if she put herself out there, men would be falling all over her. “No waving your cat all over the place. You know, like from that Queen song.” She bursts out laughing and I angle my head. “What’s so funny?”

“That’s not quite how the lyrics go and I don’t think they mean what you think they mean.”

“Really?”

“No, it’s kicking your can all over the place.”

I scratch my head. “What does that even mean?”

“I don’t really know.”

Wood. Dumb as a stump. I give her a cheeky grin and try to hide my insecurities with humor. “I never was the brightest bulb in the pack.”

“Don’t say that,” she snaps. “You just misunderstood the lyrics.”

“Anyway, no waving your cat. Neither one of us.”

“Okay, and if we’re still talking about the song, I guess what you’re trying to tell me is, you’re going to rock me.”

I slide my palm to the side of her face and dip my head. A little gasp sounds in her throat when I don’t speak, but instead press my lips to hers. Heaven. Holy fucking hell! A moan I have no control over crawls out of my throat as I taste her mouth. And her lips, Jesus, they’re so soft and pliable as I kiss her with a hunger that has been simmering for far too many years, letting me know that what we’re about to do later might be a little risky for my heart.

I break the kiss, and we’re both left a little shaken, as we stare at each other. “Okay, so that’s a yes,” she finally manages to say and I grin. “I uh, should get the steaks on.”

“One more thing.” I touch her arm, and she goes still. “I don’t know what is going to happen down the road. We can’t predict that, but I will always be in your life, and our child’s, okay? Tell me you’ll never take that away from me.”

“Never,” she answers quickly, with authority and confidence. She must have been thinking about this too. “You’re the best man I know, Conner. I want you involved if that’s what you want.”

Best man she knows. I could probably debate that, considering I’ve been lusting after my brother’s wife for years, from way before she was Alec’s wife, and I’m about to attempt to put a baby in her because her husband is no longer with us. She moves away, and I watch the sway of her dress as my gaze drops to take in her gorgeous, shapely legs. And now—fuck—now all I can think about is what they’re going to feel like wrapped around me.

6

Dani

I am so damn nervous I can barely eat. Not only is my mouth not working right, my stomach is so tight, it’s making it hard to keep anything down. But something tells me I’m going to need all my energy. Conner did, after all, tell me he was going to rock my world. Not that I would know what that’s like. I’ve only had one lover and that was my husband, and I don’t want to say anything negative about him, but my world…was never rocked.

I stab my fork into a cucumber, and as I bring it to my mouth, my gaze strays to the other side of the table. My God, just look at Conner. Chowing down on his steak with hunger and vigor, like we’re not about to go upstairs and have sex for the very first time. He’s calm, collected, totally in control of himself, like he knows exactly how to take care of me, and I think I might like that. Oh God, I do. I do like that.

I take a breath, and as I let it out, it releases a bit of the tension inside me. He puts his last bite of steak into his mouth and moans. The sound reverberates through my body, and I set my fork down. His eyes lift, meeting mine, and as they do, my sex quivers in heated anticipation.

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