Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Logan

She doesn’t have to tell me twice. I rush forward, water splashing around my ankles, and wrap her in a tight embrace. Her arms go around my shoulders, and it’s like our bodies were made to come together like this.

The moment my lips touch hers, I know I’m a goner. Kissing her harder than I did before, I don’t know how we’re going to stop. I’ve wanted to kiss Danielle since the first time I saw her. I’ve thought about it many times.

And this is better than anything I imagined.

I widen my legs and pull her closer, bending her back a bit as we kiss. My tongue goes in her mouth, and she slips one hand under my shirt, raking her nails over the skin on my back. Desire floods my veins, and I want nothing more than to pick her up and carry her back to our room.

“Hey, love birds!” someone shouts. “Time to eat!”

We should stop. Take a pause and come back to this. I’m still holding Danielle’s phone and my grip is slipping. It’s about to drop into the ocean, but I can’t move away from Danielle.

Finally, we break apart, needing to get some air. I put Danielle’s phone in my pocket before I accidentally drop it. My heart is racing, and I can’t catch my breath to save my life. The wind picks up, blowing Danielle’s damp hair around her face. I push it back and bring my lips to hers once more.

When I move away, she looks up at me and smiles. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I know this isn’t a game of pretend anymore. Not for me, and not for her.

“Now we really should go,” I tell her.

“Right.” She nods, looking at the table. Her arms are still around my neck, and she slowly drags them down, splaying her fingers over my chest. Her lips pull up into a smile. “I am really turned on right now.”

“Me too.”

She looks down at my semi-hard cock and bites her lip. Fuck, she’s hot. “Yeah, I can tell. And that’s making me even more turned on.”

“Knowing you’re getting even more turned on is turning me on even more.”

We both laugh, and Danielle lets out a deep breath. “Logan…I…I…”

“Danielle!” her mother calls. “We need to say grace. Please come to the table!”

“We’ll talk about it later.” I take her hand and take a deep breath, slowly letting it out to try and calm myself down. I’m so revved up I can hardly stand it. I’m getting turned on all over again just by looking at Danielle.

I pull her chair out for her at the table and then go around, taking my seat across from her. Something needs to be said about what just happened…doesn’t it? I can’t seem to form a coherent thought, and suddenly everything I thought I knew about dating goes out the window.

If Danielle had been any other woman I’d been pursuing, a kiss would signal taking things to the next level, and we wouldn’t sit down and discuss things until later on in the relationship when we were getting serious.

But Danielle and I are already serious, in a sense. She’s my best friend, but I don’t want to just be friends with benefits. I’m in love with her, and getting this close only to have her pull away will crush me.

Firelight from the tiki torches flickers over Danielle’s face. Her cheeks are red, and the flush goes down her neck and over her chest. Seeing her physically react to the kiss is making me get hard again. I shift my weight in my chair and pick up my glass of water. I chug half of it.

Danielle serves the appetizers onto both our plates. A new glass of red wine was delivered with the appetizer, and she goes right for it, taking a few big drinks before shuddering.

“That is so dry.”

Her face makes me laugh. “You drank half the glass before you realized that?”

“I swallowed it before I actually tasted it.” She lets out a snort of laughter. “Sorry, that sounded dirty in my head.”

“It kind of does sound dirty, which isn’t helping my situation right now.”

She squirms on her chair. “Mine neither.” She takes another drink of wine, and I catch her hand after she puts the glass down.

“Danielle,” I start, set on telling her the kiss means more to me than giving into physical needs.

“So, Logan,” her dad butts in, scooting his chair out a bit. “Tell me about this bar you own. Danielle says it’s profitable?”

Profits? What are profits? All I can think about right now are Danielle’s beautiful eyes and the way she makes me feel whenever we’re together.

“Dad,” Danielle says, seeming just as flustered. “Can we not drill Logan right now?” She brings her wine to her lips again.

“When would be a good time to drill him?”

She chokes on the wine. Coughing, she wipes her mouth with her napkin and sets the glass down.

“Twenty-eight years old, and you still don’t know how to handle liquids,” I quip, knowing she inhaled the wine because her mind went to the same place mine did. Well, assuming she was thinking a good time to drill me would be right fucking now.

Fuck. I’m going to have to dump my glass of ice water on myself soon.

Mr. Cross laughs. “All right. We can talk after dinner. No excuses this time, though.”

“Yeah, that, uh, that’s fine,” Danielle stammers.

“The men are having a drink after dinner,” Mr. Cross goes on. “Join us, and we can talk.”

I nod. “Sounds good, Mr. Cross.”

“Please, call me David. Or Dad,” he adds with a wink. “But really don’t.”

“I’m sorry.” Danielle goes for her water this time, taking a big drink.

“It’s fine,” I tell her. “It’s expected since we’re…we’re getting married.” The words have never sounded more contrived as they do right now. Something beautiful is starting between us, and talking like the beginning already happened seems wrong.

The couple next to us asks us about wedding dates and plans, and Danielle does her best to sidestep everything by saying we’re in no rush and don’t want anything big or fancy anyway.

Which is true.

Weston’s first wedding was pretty typical, I’d say. Dean and Kara’s was a bit extra because of Kara, and Quinn and Archer got married in Disney World. Wes and Scarlet’s wedding was more my style, something small with close family and friends. But if Danielle did want a big wedding, I’d—wait.

We just kissed for the first time a few minutes ago.

Now I’m reaching for my wine.

The rest of the night goes by in a similar fashion, and it’s so fucking weird to go from pretending to be a happy engaged couple who kiss and fuck and fight and make up all the time to pretending to be the same while ignoring the fact we finally kissed.

After dinner, Diana—who’s a little drunk—grabs Danielle’s arm and tells her she has to go to the bar near the pool and have a drink with her, celebrating her last night as a “single lady”.

“I don’t feel like drinking,” Danielle tells her sister.

Diana dramatically gasps. “Are you pregnant?”

Danielle rolls her eyes. “I’ve been drinking all night, and not drinking doesn’t mean someone is pregnant. That conclusion annoys me, actually.”

“Well, by the way you two were all over each other, I wouldn’t be surprised,” Diana laughs.

Danielle gently pulls her arms from her sister’s grasp. “Go get a drink and enjoy the night. We…we, uh, want to be all over each other again.” Danielle cringes as she talks, and I’m feeling the pressure even more to tell her this isn’t just some sort of no-strings hook-up. I don’t want her thinking that’s what I see this as.

I love her.

“Come on,” Diana pesters. “Just have one drink. And isn’t Logan having drinks with Dad and Peter? We’re all going to be family soon anyway.”

“It’s okay,” I tell Danielle, knowing part of her hesitation was so I wouldn’t have to suffer through fake conversation with her father.

“Fine. One drink,” Danielle tells Diana. She looks at me, and I can’t help but smile, feeling heat flood my veins, tingling the tip of my cock. Dammit. “And I’ll call you when we’re done, and we can meet back up.”

Diana pulls Danielle out of her seat, looping her arm through hers and leading her away from the table.

“Logan,” Peter calls as Danielle walks away. “You’re joining us, right?”

“Yeah. I am.”

*

I sit back, swirling whiskey around my glass before taking a drink. Never in my life did I think I could be sitting outside at a bar along the ocean, drinking top-shelf whiskey that I’m not even paying for, and want to leave.

For the last twenty minutes, David and Peter’s father have been complaining about how a country club back in Connecticut takes “any kind of people” nowadays “as long as they pay.” I’ve considered breaking my glass and using the shards to gouge my eyes out just so I can have a legitimate reason to leave this conversation, but then my mother’s voice rang loud in my head.

Country clubs and Ivy League schools are their thing. And that’s okay. I shouldn’t chastise them for having different interests as me. But this white-collar, keeping-up-with-the-Jones thing isn’t me.

And it isn’t Danielle either.

“Logan,” David starts, setting his glass on the bar top. He’s a man used to intimidating people, I can tell. It’ll piss him off when that shit doesn’t work on me. “We don’t know each other well yet, but we do have one thing in common.”

“We both care about Danielle and want her to be happy,” I supply, and he nods.

“Right you are. She’s my little girl, no matter how old she gets. You understand that, right?”

“I do. Making Danielle happy makes me happy.”

“Good, good.” He claps me on the back. “She’s smart and has so much potential. You might be the last one who can convince her to go back to grad school. Between you and me, I’ll be able to get her into a top-notch internship that will set her up for life.”

I shake my head. “Danielle doesn’t want to go back to grad school.”

“Of course she does! Grad school is hard, trust me, I know.” He looks at the others sitting around us and laughs, making sure everyone knows he went to grad school. “But the payoff is worth it. She’ll thank you when she has a good job.”

“I disagree.”

Everyone in our party stiffens.

“You disagree?”

“Danielle doesn’t want to go back to grad school,” I repeat. “She told me she doesn’t want to.”

“You haven’t known my daughter that long. Grad school has always been part of the plan. She’ll regret it if she doesn’t go. She needs it to get a good job and be successful.”

“She doesn’t think so.”

David slowly shakes his head. He’s not used to be questioned, and it’s taken him aback. “A good education, a solid, respectable job…how can you argue against that? It was our ten-year plan and the thing Danielle has wanted her whole life. She’s going through something, which is common, but she will regret it if she doesn’t get back on track and out of that town.”

“Have you even asked her what makes her happy?” I finish my whiskey and set the glass on the bar. “It’s not grad school or fancy jobs.” I lean toward David. “You say she’s going through something, but have you ever stopped to consider the pressure you put on her to follow a life she doesn’t want to live is the cause of all of that?”

“I…she…how dare you speak to me like that.”

Out of respect for Diana and Peter—though I don’t think that asshole deserves any—I leave it at that and get up and walk away before my temper gets the best of me. I don’t really know where I’m going, but I keep walking until I’m back in the lobby of the hotel. Stopping to get my phone from my pocket, I realize I still have Danielle’s phone too. Fuck. I don’t know where she went with her sister. Assuming they stayed at the resort, I head through the lobby to check out another bar.

Her sister is there, but Danielle isn’t. Diana thinks Danielle left to look for me, which means we probably just missed each other. This resort is huge, and each bar is on different ends. If I walk back, there’s a chance we’ll miss each other all over again.

I hang around the tiki bar with the bridesmaids for a bit, waiting to see if Danielle comes back. Ten minutes later, I head out to look for her, feeling drawn to the water for some reason.

I’m halfway to the other bar, walking outside, when I look out at the water. Danielle is standing on the shore, long hair blowing in the breeze behind her.

“Danielle,” I say, coming up behind her. She turns, and a smile breaks out on her face. I can’t get to her fast enough.

“Hey,” she says, turning. Her arms are crossed tightly over her chest, and goosebumps cover her arms. There’s a good chance things will be weird now that the moment has come and past.

“Are you cold?”

“Just a little chilled.”

I wrap my arms around her, pulling her close to my body. “Does this help?”

“Yeah, it does. Thank you.” She shuffles closer, resting her head against my chest. My eyes fall shut, and I rest my head against hers.

“I have your phone. I didn’t realize I still did until I went to call you.”

“I remembered after I frantically looked in my purse for it.” Her arms are pulled in, sandwiched between her body and mine, trying to stay warm.

“How are you cold?” I ask with a laugh. “It’s still hot outside.”

“The breeze coming in over the ocean is cool, but I like watching the waves at night. It’s hypnotic.”

“It is.” I run my hands up and down her arms, warming up her skin. Then I take her hand, lead her away from the damp sand, and sit on the beach. She sits between my legs, with her back to my chest. I wrap my arms around her, and she leans back, resting her head against me.

“This is nice,” she says quietly, tipping her head up to mine.

It’s better than nice. It’s perfect. Running my fingertips along her arm, I look down at her pretty face.

“The ocean’s so big.” Her voice is quiet, and her eyes are set on the dark water. “I know that sounds like an obvious statement, but when you think about it, it’s almost hard to fathom. It’s so big across and then so deep at the same time. It’s weird to think how we’re just up here on the surface and so much is going on deep below, isn’t it?”

“I’ve never really thought about it like that, but yeah, it is. There’s so much unknown in the ocean.”

“Right! That’s why it freaks me out,” she says with a laugh. “But I do kind of wish we had time to go snorkeling. Seems pretty safe.”

“I think so. We’ll add it to the list of things we want to do when we come back.”

She puts her hand over mine. “I’d like that.”

“Maybe we should just stay. Extend our vacation another week.”

“Or two.” She twists in my arms, looking into my eyes. “Can you imagine the fit Owen would throw if he found out we decided to just stay here a bit longer?”

I laugh. “I can because I’ve seen him throw a fit like that. And now staying is even more tempting.” I bring my head down, unable to help myself any longer. My lips got to her neck, and a soft moan escapes Danielle’s lips.

“It’s really…tempting.”

“Should we resist temptation?”

She spins in my arms, breaking out of my embrace. Brows furrowing, she locks eyes with me. I swallow hard, heart in my throat. We shared one epic kiss earlier, and I refuse to let that be our one and only. Each kiss will be better than the last.

My hands settle on her waist, directing her back to me. I straighten my legs and urge her forward. Danielle’s breath leaves in a huff as she straddles me, dress bunching up around her tight little ass.

Cock jumping from the feel of her on top of me, I push her hair back and cup her face in my hands.

“No,” she breathes. “We shouldn’t resist it.”