Chapter 16

Joey

My dumbfuck brother has already left, and that’s fine by me.

I have Dani all to myself.

She’s too spent to fuck, and so am I. I’ll probably be chafed fucking raw tomorrow, but I don’t give a shit. Every second of her has been worth it. Even eating her while she clung to my brother. Even fucking her mouth while he did the same to her pussy.

I ignore the tide of jealousy at him touching her and stay crouched beside the sofa.

She cries into the cushions and shakes her head. “What have I done?”

“Nothing we didn’t want to do,” I say. “You wanted it, too, Dani. It’s okay.”

She lifts herself on her elbows and looks up at me, beautiful, watery-eyed. “It’s not okay. I’ve made you fight and I’ve—I don’t know what to do.”

“Roll over, baby. Roll over for me,” I say, tenderly as I can.

Dani rolls onto her back on the sofa, her full tits jiggling from the motion. Christ, could she be any more beautiful? I’ve just fucked any trace of innocence out of her, but she’s still so pure to me.

She cares. No one’s cared before.

Growing up, it was me and my brother. No mommy and daddy around to help us out. No woman to care.

And now her.

You can’t think about this shit now. Get your girl.

I slide my arm under the backs of her knees, the other around her shoulders, then lift her from the sofa, easily. She’s feather-light, and she wraps her arms around my neck and looks up at me.

“You should hate me,” she says, sagely. “I’ve pitted you against each other.”

“No, you haven’t. I was the one who brought you here. I was the one who tricked you and lied.” I walk her into the bathroom, then open the shower door and take her to the bench on its side. I set her down on it, sit her upright then cup her cheeks in my hands, smooth them over with my thumbs.

“I’m not a victim in this,” she replies, stiffly. “I make my own choices.”

“And soon, you will have to make one,” I say, just as sternly. “But not now. Not this second.” After our session, I tugged on my chinos, but I unzip them again and toss them out the open shower door.

She closes her eyes and rests her head on the tiles. “I don’t know what to think. I don’t know how to feel.”

“Like I said, not now, Dani. You don’t have to make any decisions now.”

She doesn’t reply.

I shut the glass shower door then switch on the water. Hot beads run down from above and crash against my skin and hers.

She gasps and opens her eyes again.

“Come here.” I lift her from the bench. I stand her up then grab the sponge and soap from the steel rack on the wall. I lather them up. “Spread your legs, baby.”

She widens her stance and watches me, her head tilted to one side. I can’t read her thoughts. I’d love to know what’s going on in her head.

“Talk to me,” I say. “About anything. About your hopes and dreams. About your family. Anything. Just talk.”

“Talk,” she says.

“Yeah. About anything but us.” Us. Fuck, if only that “us” meant me and her, rather than the fucked-up threesome we make right now. Bastard. Fucking bastard. But what if pleasing her means having my brother do the same?

Will I really turn down the opportunity to spend more time with this woman? Surely, every time wouldn’t be with Holden in the picture.

We’d have moments alone.

“My family,” she says, and the words spark something in her expression.

We move back in the water as one, and it plasters our hair to our skulls. Water runs down her lips, and she licks it off.

“Tell me about them.” I crouch in front of her, running the sponge up the inside of her leg, up her thigh, to that hot triangle of pleasure between her legs. She jerks but doesn’t move away.

Gently, I wash her pussy, part her lips and clean her. She shudders with each brush of the sponge, and I move down the inside of her other leg.

“I have four sisters,” she says. “All of them are married and settled down, two of them own their own businesses.”

“All older?”

“Yeah,” she replies. Her voice eases, and the pain and confusion lifts. “I’m the youngest. I think, and it’s pretty shitty of me to say, but I think I was my mother’s favorite because I was the last. I think I reminded her a lot of herself when she was little.”

“She’s gone?” I ask.

“She died. Terminal illness.” She swallows. “It was a long time ago, but I still think about her every day.”

“I’m sorry, Dani.” And the words mean something. Not in all the years I’ve said them, to women I’ve fucked and dumped, to people I’ve upset during party time, have I meant them. Now, I finally do.

“It’s OK. What about you?”

“Family?” I laugh, bitterly, then wash her hips, rise and focus on soaping her belly. I pull her from the water again and focus on her breasts. My dick hardens but I ignore it. “My family. I had a different type of family.”

“No mom and dad, I know.”

I don’t need to ask how she knows.

“No mom and dad,” I agree. “But a different type of family.” I turn her around and wash her back, sweep her hair aside and run the sponge down her spine. Foam creeps between her ass cheeks, and I watch it disappear.

“What do you mean?” she asks and looks back over her shoulder at me. Even in profile, she’s fucking perfect.

I’m in deep shit here. Deep, deep shit. A fucking T-rex just took a dump on my head.

“I was part of a crime family,” I say, easily.

She stiffens beneath my hands. “What?”

“Yeah, we both were. I was more into it than Holden, though. I was the bad boy,” I say, with a laugh. Bad boy is a relative term, of course. There’s bad and there’s evil and millions of hues of the same in between. “I did a lot of things I’m not proud of now, looking back on it.”

“What types of things?” She turns and we walk backward again, into the steaming rush of water from overhead. It patters down between us, reddens the skin of her breasts and flattens the smattering of hair on my chest.

“Bad things,” I reply. “I hurt people.”

“Did you kill anyone?” The question comes out strong. I can tell this would be a deal breaker for her, but I won’t lie to her regardless. I’m not big on lies.

This entire weekend has sat under my skin. Irritated me.

“No,” I reply. “Never. And neither has my brother. He pulled me out of it before it was too late. Holden had friends in places higher than the muck. He was always good at that type of thing. Talking to people, making them see sense. I was the hothead. Always flying off the handle. Not much has changed.”

“Hot and cold,” she mutters.

I sit on the cusp of asking her which she prefers, but don’t. Not tonight.

“So, that’s me. I had my family, and I left them behind.”

“And now?” Dani takes the sponge from me. She runs it down my abs and washes carefully but doesn’t look down. Her touch only makes my dick harder, but I ignore that.

He might be into it, but my mind is elsewhere. “What about now?”

“You still have family.”

“Kind of,” I reply. “But nothing solid. Nothing real. My brother’s family, but—”

“No ex-girlfriends? Ex-wives?” she asks.

“No,” I snort. “I’m not into that type of thing. I wasn’t.” That correction is necessary, because the more time I spend with Dani, the more I realize that it can change. All the partying, the fucking random chicks for the hell of it, can change.

It has changed.

We finish up in the shower in silence, and Dani seems happier now. She gets out by herself, but I wrap the towel around her then one around myself. I walk her through to the bedroom, and she sits down on the end of the bed, yawning.

“You should get some rest,” I say.

“You’re not going to stay with me?” she asks.

Fuck, isn’t that a killer? “No, I can’t. I have to go look for him. I can’t leave it like this.”

“Family,” she says and nods, with another yawn.

“Family.” I kiss her on the forehead, just a quick brush, because anything more and I’ll stay instead of leaving, and that won’t help lift the metric ton of shit wedged into place on top of me. “None of this is your fault. Don’t forget that. It’s mine.”

Dani doesn’t reply, but she probably doesn’t believe me either.

“Later,” I say, and that’s a god damn problem.

She nods and settles back against the cushions, still moist form her shower.

I leave before the sight of her like that glues me to the floor.