Page 21 of Sticking Out

Ignoring that inner voice, I quiver as her hot breath tickles my flesh. She snuggles in tight and exhales a contented sigh. Her body is warm pressed against mine, and as I think about all the sex we’re going to have, my damn dick starts getting hard again.

“Dani?”

“Hmmm?”

“Is it later?”

8

Dani

“Why are you looking at me like that?” As I sit on my big bus, I glance at Conner in the through my peripheral vision on the right. He’s in the first seat by the door, which is Trixie’s usual seat. Good thing I’m not picking her up today, or she’d probably bark her face off at him until he moved.

A cute grin curls up his lips as it taunts the well-sated but still hungry spot between my legs. “Like what?”

“I don’t know, like you’re amused by something.”

“Maybe I’m just in a good mood from last night.”

Now it’s my turn to grin as I think about all the sex we had, last night and again this morning. I’m almost afraid to look down because I think there might be flames between my legs. We were definitely burning it up between the sheets, having sex like we’d discovered something no one else in the world knew about.

It was crazy, fun and I’m far too happy that we get to do it again. I know what I’m asking of him is a bit crazy, but he’s going to be the best dad out there, and when he finds true love and gets married and has a family of his own, I know he’ll still be the best daddy to our child—and to his own. But thinking about him being married leaves a hollow in the pit of my stomach. It’s not like we can ever be more. He loves me like a best friend. Now, however, we’re best friends with benefits.

“So that’s it?” I ask and adjust the rearview mirror to see him better. “You’re in a good mood because we had sex.”

“Yeah, and you just look so damn cute driving this big-ass bus. It’s kind of making me hard.”

I laugh at his foolishness. “I think I handle big things just fine.” As soon as the words leave my mouth, Conner bursts out laughing and so do I. I have no idea where the hell that even came from. I don’t normally make jokes, and especially not sexual ones. Maybe all that sex dislodged something in my brain.

He grabs the pole and shifts in his seat, like he might actually be sporting a boner. “Who are you and what have you done with my Dani?”

My Dani.

It’s insane how much I like when he says things like that. Like when I fed him the mozzarella stick the night at the pub after the big win and he said at least someone loves me. I have no idea why I have this deep need to feel important. It’s one of the reasons I started dating Alec. To have a guy like that pay attention to me was such a huge ego boost for a girl who had no game and no boyfriends up to that point in life.

“I have to pick up Buster, and I always pick the dogs up in the bus.”

“It’s one dog, we could have taken the car.”

“No, he’s used to this and he’s under enough stress as it is, so I want to make sure he’s as comfortable as can be. Plus, he’s a St. Bernard coming in at around one hundred and fifty pounds.”

“That’s a big boy.”

“That he is,” I agree, although I’m not exactly talking about Buster. I really have no idea what’s come over me lately. Must be from the hormone injections.

Grinning back, Conner shakes his head and smiles at me. “You’re going to be a great mom.” My heart flutters at the thought and I almost want to make a quick stop at the drug store to pick up a pregnancy test, but it’s far too soon, and maybe there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to know. If I don’t know, we can keep on having sex. While that’s good for my libido, I’m honestly not sure how great that is for my heart. I can’t get involved emotionally with Conner. He told me long ago, with zero words, that we—us—were never going to happen.

“Wait,” he begins. “You love dogs, and take care of everyone else’s dog, but you don’t have one. I never thought about that before.”

“Yeah.” I flick on my signal and take a left at the lights.

“Want to elaborate?”

I shrug. “When Alec and I got married, and I got pregnant, I really wanted a dog but he didn’t want one.”

His muscles tighten and he gives me a look that suggests I have no idea who his brother is. He could be right. There were times in our marriage I wondered who he was too…and wondered where he was when he came home late, or didn’t come home at all.

“You could get one now.”

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