Danny

 

 

The sand squishes between my toes, and I breathe in deep as the surf washes over me, cooling my skin as the wind whips at me. I’m on the same beach, a beach I never thought I would see again.

Yep, I am waiting, just as I planned, with Wolf, who promised to get his drunk-ass brother out of a bottle and get him down here. Honestly, the man is supposed to be some kind of big bad gangster, and he’s been drowning his sorrows for weeks.

So I ignored all his calls and the one time he showed up at my door I called the cops. He deserved it, and I wasn’t ready. I am now. I spent a week after Daddy dropped by letting myself think, really think and feel everything, and at the end, I had this epiphany.

Well, it was something. I don’t know what it was, since I still think I am a dumbass, but I came to a decision, and once made, it was made.

See, I love Bear Wylder. It’s not smart, and it’s definitely not rational, but there you have it. I love the damn nasty criminal—who, by the way, is not a criminal, lying ass.

And I want him. That’s all. But I have a few conditions. I need to know it all. Not what he wants to tell me because it suits him but everything from the beginning. Especially that part about how he was going to seduce me to use me against my dad and Uncle Jon.

That part was unforgivable! Use me to hurt my daddy, will he? I have spare toothbrushes, so…

I hear the crunch of sand behind me but stay facing the water. I can feel Wylder, physically, like a touch, and my whole body starts humming when he stops just behind me to my left and doesn’t move closer.

“Don’t,” I say, stalling him when I feel his hand sweep over my back in a ghostly caress.

I can’t let him touch me yet, not until I know I can forgive him and live with what happened. I think I can. God, I hope I can, but I’m not here all ready to throw myself at him and make love, not hate.

I’m here to get answers, and maybe, just maybe, I have enough of Mom in me to love him again.

I hear him breathe deeply, as if searching for strength, and then he moves up onto the dry sand and sits, patiently waiting for me to be ready. I look at him when I turn because I need to see him and show him that I am not afraid.

What I see shocks me. He’s lost weight, and his usually immaculate appearance is gone with a face full of stubble and dark circles beneath his eyes.

“Oh, gross, Wylder. Really? You flew all this way to talk to me, and you couldn’t even put some effort into it?” I grouch, sitting down gingerly, careful to leave a good foot of space between us.

My snark has him puffing out a chuckle, and I school my face when he rubs at his beard—it’s too long to be stubble, but I will throw him a bone since he looks so crappy.

“I haven’t cared about all that much lately, baby. Shaving hasn’t exactly mattered when I feel as if I’ve lost my life.”

Oh boohoo.

“What a copout! Do you think I felt great? No, I really do not, and yet look at me, Wylder. I look hot.”

His lips twitch at the insult I deliver him, and I roll my eyes. Stay on point, Danny. Geez.

“You’re stronger than I am, Danny. You always were, babe.”

“That is true. But I am not here to listen to you kiss my ass. I’m here to get that explanation you tried to give me at three in the morning, drunk off your ass.”

He winces, and I blush guiltily because Wolf told me he spent the night in a cell, sleeping it off. I don’t feel too guilty though, because I didn’t press charges. Check out the mercy, people.

“I love you.”

Oh, be still heart. No, really, you will not ruin his walking over coals for me by giving in too fast. Effort is required here.

“Yeah, I heard you the first time. And that time I called the cops on you. And all the times you called my machine before I smashed it into tiny pieces. You owe me a machine, by the way.”

“I love you. I’ll say it over and over again until you believe it, Daniella, because I could sit here and tell you how I never for one minute would have let you get hurt, that I made the best of what I had, that I regret it all, and yet all I have is that I love you. It’s the one thing I have to offer that may be enough, because if it isn’t, I got nothing else.”

I feel my heart contract at those words, and yeah, I’m totally won over, but I need more, just a little, because it hurt. It hurt so much when he took me down in his house and threw my love back at me. It hurt every time we were together and he snuck out of my bed. It hurt when he wouldn’t let me love him.

Most of all, it hurt that I had to come here and capitulate while he was drinking like a fish.

“If you had told me everything, told me about your dad and your plans, I would have helped you with it all. I’d have gone in there and done whatever it took to help you.”

My voice is just above a whisper, and I can’t look at him as the knowledge rolls over me. As I’ve already admitted, I don’t hate Wylder for what he did to get here. I’d have killed to help my father the way he did, and I’d have done it with no remorse.

Knowing that, that I am as capable of those things as the worst in society, isn’t comforting. It scares me. But I accept it, and I accept Wylder, just not his methods with regards to me.

He scared the hell out of me and hurt me enough that, for a brief moment, I would have given up because I felt hopeless. Bastard is lucky I’m too stubborn to die.

He takes my hand, and I go to pull away, but he uses the momentum to roll us and ends up pinning me to the sand, his smirking face hovering close to mine.

“I wouldn’t have let you. You’re pure and good and kind, even when you don’t want to be, and I never wanted any of this to touch you.”

“That’s bull, and you know it! What about all those time you threatened to kill me or send me back where I came from? What about the whole ‘love is not real, just a weakness’ speech? Oh, and let’s not forget how I am just a sex object there for your pleasure! And I don’t even think I will ever forget when you taunted me about loving you. That was just cruel,” I hiss into his face, not struggling, because it would be a waste of breath.

The man is way too big, and where he’s pressing against my sex, I’m feeling all kinds of good things. He looks down at me, the mischief going out of his eyes, and gives me a look that melts everything.

“I needed you to hate me just in case things went wrong and Ariston got the drop on me. I didn’t want you mourning me, baby, not when I didn’t deserve a moment of your time. I don’t deserve you. I know it, and yet I can tell you, now that I have nothing to wake up for in the morning, I need you. I need you to give my life meaning, Danny. Because I love you, and without you, nothing matters.”

I melt aaaaaall the way then and huff before leaning up to kiss him sweetly.

“Don’t hurt me ever again, Bear Wylder. Not ever again.”

“Never,” he swears, kissing me breathless right there in the sand with moonlight streaming over us. “It’s only pleasure from now on, and that’s a vow.”

I sigh when he starts stripping me and scream my pleasure when he takes me not long after, his love and that vow making it all better for now.

It won’t ever be just pleasure. It can’t be, because I am in love with a Wylder boy who will never be tamed.

That’s okay, because I’ve had tame and nice. Now, it’s time for naughty and absolutely wild.