Page 21 of Winter Ends
“I’m not your damn friend.” He jerked his hand back and punched me on the shoulder, then pushed me back onto the floor. His eyes were wide and wild above me. Little specks of gold danced in the brown and I really shouldn’t have been looking at what fucking color his eyes were when he was so close to decking me, but my hips rolled, dragging my hardening cock along his ass.
Those impossibly wide eyes widened further. He scrambled back, but not before I caught his wrist and held him in place.
“Is something wrong, Daniel?”
He was panting, worked up from our small fight, but he stopped trying to get away.
“Are you—are you... hard?”
I laughed. “Jesus. You’re squirming around on my lap and threatening me with a good time by trying to hit me.”
He scowled and tried to pull away again, but I didn’t let go of his wrists. “I swear to God, Shawn. Let me go or else.”
“Or else, what?”
It was at that moment that all the fight left Daniel. He sagged in defeat as his body went limp in my grasp. “I can’t—I can’t do this again.”
His words were enough to get me to release him. He rolled off me and slunk back to his room. He left the door wide open, but I could hear him moving around inside.
When I got off the floor and went to investigate, he was sitting on the edge of the bed, head in his hands. His shoulders shook and a small hiccup filled the air. Was he crying? Shit, I hadn’t meant to make him that upset. What did he mean he couldn’t do it again?
“Daniel?”
He looked up, those brown doe eyes red-rimmed. He wiped at them and his nose before lying on the bed and facing the wall. His usually shaggy hair was even more of a mess than usual.
This was dangerous, but he wasn’t telling me to leave him alone. Maybe I’d pushed him too hard. It was fun to push his buttons, but actually making him shut down had never been my intention.
My fingers itched. They wanted to run through his thick hair, to give him comfort, but I couldn’t tell if it would land us back to where we’d been in the living room, with me dodging fists. I’d done enough damage for now. As much as I wanted to find out what was happening, this was the time to give him the space he needed. I backed out of the room and shut the door behind me. Once it latched closed, I leaned against the wood and closed my eyes.
What the hell was that?
Bacon popped and sizzled in the pan as I pulled a carton of eggs from the fridge. There was enough food here to feed an army, but I was feeding two. Maybe one at this point.
Daniel hadn’t come back out of the room last night and I hadn’t attempted to pressure him to do it. That unsettled feeling still swirled in my gut. What had made him so upset? What had he been talking about? The more time I spent around Daniel Morgan, the more he became a puzzle that I wanted to solve. Little pieces were starting to form a fuller picture, but not enough to give me the final picture. I wanted to know his inner workings, what made him tick, and why he hid so much.
By the time I’d fried two eggs and debated putting the rest back in the fridge, his door opened. His dark, shaggy hair was still a wreck, but as he padded his way toward the kitchen in nothing but his boxers and a t-shirt, I couldn’t help but stare at the man who was becoming this strange obsession.
“How are you feeling this morning?” I asked, cracking open another egg over the hot pan.
Daniel didn’t answer at first. He just laid his head down on the cool kitchen counter as he sat on one of the stools. Maybe he wasn’t a morning person? As much as I wanted him to talk, after last night, I wasn’t going to push him again. Instead, I pulled two mugs from the cupboard and poured fresh steaming coffee from the pot I’d made. I set the cup in front of him and pulled thecreamer from the fridge and put it on the counter next to him. That got him to sit up and give me a small half-smile.
That little smile did something funny to my chest. Something fluttery and stupid that made me want to vomit. I didn’t do lovey-dovey shit. My experience with relationships was a quick fuck and maybe a repeat or two. There were no long-term commitments. But the way I wanted to dig deeper into his life, his world, and what was behind those chipped walls of his, made me question things. Why now? What made him stand out more than the others? What the hell made him so damn special?
I watched as he poured the French vanilla creamer into his mug and took a tentative sip. He hummed his approval before his gaze landed on me. “Any word on the pass?”
My heart sank. Of course he wanted out of here. Not that I could blame him. Daniel had made it more than clear that he wanted out.
When I said nothing, his face fell. I didn’t have good news for him. It had snowed even more during the night and it was still falling as we sat there getting ready to eat breakfast. If it didn’t stop soon, we’d be trapped here for a week. I would never trust a Seattle meteorologist again.
I plated up eggs and bacon and set them in front of Daniel. He was staring at the coffee in his mug and didn’t acknowledge the food. It stung a bit when he got up and walked to the window to look outside.
“Shit, it’s really coming down out there,” he mumbled so softly that I almost didn’t hear the words come out of his mouth.
“Daniel?”
He looked over at me, and at that moment, something shifted. His eyes were softer, the aggression and hostility from before replaced with something different and fragile. Whatever it was, I didn’t want to shatter it by opening my damn mouth and saying something stupid. Instead, I let whatever was going on happen.
Daniel made his way across the room, setting his coffee on the counter before he stood in front of me. His hand on my arm was like fire, but I didn’t move. The air around us was thick, permeated with tension and unanswered questions. His eyes locked with mine, and my throat ran dry. It was torture to not swallow and break whatever spell had come over us.
