Page 102 of The Two Last Moments

“You found him?” I ask.How? When?

“The three of us can talk alone,” Danny says. “My uncle has a lot to tell you.”

“But what about Nina?” I ask.

“He’s not here for her,” Danny growls, and Travis seems to bite down on whatever reply he might’ve made. Danny looks over at his friends. “Sorry to interrupt, everyone. Matteo, could you take my uncle to the living room? We’ll be right there.”

Quinn obviously has questions. Aiden’s watching with a thick brow slightly raised.

Danny takes my hand and leads me past the kitchen to the hallway at the back of the house, where there’s access to the garage and utility rooms. After a moment’s deliberation, he pushes into the laundry room and closes the door behind us.

Starla must’ve put a load in earlier, because the dryer is running. The minute we’re alone, Danny pulls me to him. “Fuck, that feels good. Holding you.”

It does. I melt into him, breathing in the scent of him, masculine with hints of leather and spice. “Where were you? You left without telling me.”

“I’m sorry, but I had to do it. You were so upset after what Z said to you.”

“Zander Richards.” I want to use an actual name for him, even if it might be fake. I need to prove I’m not afraid. That he doesn’t control me.

“Zander, yeah. That prick. The police are dealing with him, so we don’t have to. I left to talk to Cam. He gave me that journal he mentioned to you, and I found Travis’s address inside.” Danny cradles my face. “Lark, I don’t know yet what Travis is going to tell you. I explained that you’d lost your memory and filled in some of what’s happened to you. I wanted to wait to hear the rest when we’re together. But whatever he says, I need you to know—”

“That it doesn’t matter. It’s okay. I get it now. I talked everything over with Quinn, and even if I did things I hate in the past, that’s not who I am now.”

A sweet smile slowly rises on his face. “That’s all true. But that’s not what I was going to say. I need you to know that I love you.”

I gawk at him, staring into his ocean-and-sky eyes. “I’m…going to need you to repeat that.”

Danny presses our foreheads together. Nuzzles my nose with his. “I. Love. You.” Between each word, he drops a kiss onto my cheeks. And then he reaches my mouth, whispering the words against my lips. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” I brush a few strands of hair from his forehead. “I do need to know the truth. I won’t hide from it anymore. But no matter what, I’m going to stay here with you as long as I can.”

“Make that forever, and we’re agreed.”

We’re both smiling as we kiss. Slow meetings of lips, tongues dancing, teeth nibbling. He lifts me up and sets me on the dryer, which is warm and rumbling beneath me.

I’m so ready to get lost in him. The man I love. But there’s still a lot we need to talk about.

“Why did you say Travis isn’t here for Nina?” I ask. “Doesn’t he want to see her?”

Danny takes a long, deep breath. “He didn’t say that outright. But he chose to stay a stranger from us. He doesn’t deserve her forgiveness.”

“But Nina deserves the chance to offer it. I know it’s not really my place because she’s your grandmother—”

“No, Lark, it is your place. I value your opinion. I love you.”

Something bright and beautiful lights up inside me every time he says that. Like a flower blooming. “And I love you. But if you can forgive me for what I did, whatever that might be, maybe you can give your uncle the benefit of the doubt too.”

Danny’s lips press to my forehead. “You’re amazing, you know that? You fill up spaces in my heart I didn’t even know were empty.”

“Is that a yes?”

His smile flickers at the corners of his mouth. “When it comes to you, it’s always a yes from me.”

Our mouths draw together. His fingers thread into my hair, and mine into his. Need builds, stoked by the heat of our kisses and the friction of our bodies together and the vibrations of the dryer. I always need more of Danny.

This isn’t the time, though.

“Travis is waiting for us in the living room,” I say.

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