Kat shot him a pointed glare. “
Danny
.”
“See?” He slammed his fist into the mattress. “See, right there? I’m insecure! And I always will be with you, Kat!”
“But none of that stuff bothers me. Not really.” She quirked a brow, lips curling. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was vaguely annoying when you assumed I was screwing Ben just because he was standing two feet from me in the lab, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.”
“And there’s nothing related to your MS
I
can’t handle!”
Kat’s smile faded. “That is nowhere close to being an equal comparison.” She studied him in thoughtful silence for a few seconds. “Do you have any idea what end stage MS looks like, Danny? Or even a moderate case? Do you have the slightest clue what my disease progressing would mean for the rest of your life?” She paused and Danny’s stomach twisted at stricken look on her face. “You really should do some research…you know, before we jump into anything, just so you’re sure-”
Danny was in front of her, gripping her shoulders gently before Kat knew what hit her.
She stared up at him with those big, hazel eyes as he yanked her to him. “You are not hearing me, Kat! None of it matters! I don’t have to look anything up, see pictures of anything, or listen to anything! Because none of it fucking matters! I choose
you
! I love
you
! No matter what! And that’s
it
!”
“Losing my mobility could be the least of it, Danny,” she whispered. Her hands came up to grip his biceps, fingers digging deep into his flesh – clinging to him, pulling him closer, even as she was trying to scare him away. “I could lose control of my bladder. My bowels. I could go blind. Deaf.” Tears coursed down both cheeks as she stared up into his eyes, the terror in hers gutting him. “I could lose the ability to speak, bathe myself, feed myself…how could I ask you to take that on?” Kat’s choked on a hard sob, more tears falling. “Then I would die, Danny. And what would happen to you? I can’t leave you alone like that, like my mother left my father! It nearly killed him, Danny, and I just can’t do it to you! I won’t! I love you too much!”
She threw herself against his chest, sobbing, still clinging onto him for dear life.
“
Oh, sweetheart…come here…
” Danny gently repositioned her until she was in his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly against him. “
I’ve got you
,” he whispered against the top of her head as she continued crying into his chest. “
I’ve got you, sweetheart…and I’m never going to let you go
.”
Danny’s eyes welled as he listened to Kat’s piteous, incoherent sobs and absorbed every convulsive shudder of her body against his. He’d never seen her lose her composure like this…had never heard her come undone this way.
It hurt like a fucking hell to listen to, watch, and feel, but a small part of Danny felt relieved that she trusted him enough to break apart in front of him. That she trusted him to take care of her during and maybe even trusted him to help her put herself back together after.
Kat spent a few more minutes crying and clinging to him before she slowly began to quiet and still in his arms.
Danny pulled an edge of the comforter over Kat’s bare legs and lowered his lips to her temple. He closed his eyes, inhaled her scent, and whispered, “If I tell you something, will you promise to believe me, Kat?”
She curled herself into a tighter ball in his lap and nuzzled his chest before exhaling a long, shuddering sigh. “
I’ll try
,” she rasped out against his left pec.
Danny cupped her chin and gently tilted her head back until their eyes locked. “Have I ever lied to you, sweetheart?” She shook her head. “Then, if tell you something, will you promise to believe me, Kat?” She nodded and the corner of his mouth ticked. “Say, ‘Yes, Danny, I promise to believe whatever you say.’”
“Yes, Danny. I promise.” At his quirked brow, Kat’s upper lip curled. “To believe whatever the hell you’re about to say.”
His lips tugged into a half-grin. “That’s my girl.”
As the seconds ticked by and their eyes remained firmly locked, Danny’s smile slowly faded.
He stared as deeply into the depths of her eyes as he could and whispered, “You are the best part of me, Katarina Ciaramitaro.”
“
Danny…
” Tears leaked out both corners of her eyes as she reached up and molded her palm along his jaw line.
“As much as I will hope and pray the MS doesn’t progress and that none of those horrible things happen…if they do, I need you to understand that it would be my honor – no, fuck that – my
privilege
to take care of you – in any way you needed. Because knowing you, loving you, and taking care of you are privileges I never thought in a million years I would ever have, privileges that I would have never dreamed of ever earning. And I fucking cherish them all.”
When her brows furrowed slightly, Danny searched her eyes, a slight smile tugging at his lips. “Don’t you know by now that you own me, Kat?”
“I own you?”
“Yeah, sweetheart, you sure as fuck do. Every twisted, filthy, insecure, broken, pain-in-the-ass piece of me is yours.” Danny lifted a shoulder. “To be honest, I don’t know why you’d want them – they’re nothing but trouble and aren’t worth a damn, but, if you’ll have me, I promise I’ll love you, protect you, and take care of you with every fucked up piece I’ve got. Forever. Because that’s what I
want
to do…what I
need
to do. Hell, it’s all I’ve thought about, planned for, and looked forward to since that very first time you said you loved me too.”
“
I do love you, Danny
,” Kat whispered back fervently. “So much that it scares me.”
Danny tightened his arms just a little more. “You never have to be scared again, sweetheart. Of anything. Not as long as I’m around.” He gave her a half-smile and wink. “I might not have a lot going for me, but protecting people is kinda my thing.” Danny’s smiled faded as he searched her eyes again. “And if I’m willing to put my life on the line every day for complete strangers, just think what I would do for the center of my universe.”
The man had
just melted her heart, stolen the last tiny bit of her soul she’d kept hidden away from the world, and broken down every bit of the remaining walls she’d had up. He’d pledged his undying love, devotion, and protection, all while managing to make her feel like the luckiest, most cherished woman in the world.
Now all Kat could think about was getting his lips on hers and her hands on the enormous erection that had been digging into her hip this entire time. She slid her hand between their bodies, loving the way Danny’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open.
Kat wrapped her hand around his erection, squeezed, and smiled up at him sweetly. “Wanna take a guess what the center of your universe wants you to do for her right now?”
Two seconds later, Danny had pulled his shirt off Kat’s body, flipped her flat on her back beneath him and positioned himself above her, capturing her mouth with his. She flung her arms around his neck, wrapped her legs around his waist, and groaned loudly into his mouth as their tongues collided.
After a few seconds of them sucking at each other’s tongues, nipping at each other’s lips, and then sliding their tongues back over each other, Danny pulled away, panting.
He buried his face into the crook of her neck. “
This isn’t gonna go how I want it to, Kat
…
at least not the first time
,” he breathed out. Danny nuzzled his scruffed-up face against the sensitive skin, then licked up the column of her throat until his teeth gently bit at the lobe of her ear. “I wanna go so slow with you, sweetheart,” he whispered into her ear, raising ripples of goose bumps across her bare flesh and sending a frisson of pleasure down her spine. “But I’m not gonna be able to…” Danny dipped his pelvis down until his erection brushed against her slick, swollen folds and they gasped in unison. “’Cause it’s been too damn long and I want you too damn bad, Kat.”
When he began undulating rhythmically against her, Kat lifted her pelvis to meet his and curled her fingertips into his flexed bicep muscles. “Danny, look at me,” she whispered and he lifted his head to meet her eyes. “Remember how I told you I was gonna fuck you like I’d never fucked you before? Like I’d never let myself fuck you before?”
Danny let out a strangled groan. “Hell yeah, I remember, Kat. Just about made me come on the spot when you said it and hearing you fucking repeat it has me on the edge of coming again.”
Danny went after her mouth, but Kat turned her head, laughing softly. “No coming…
yet.
” She faced him and lifted her pelvis – grinding Danny harder against her – and was rewarded with a throaty growl that set off flutters in her stomach.
“
Kat, I gotta fuck you, sweetheart
,” he gritted out, eyeing her lips. His gaze dropped to her breasts and Kat felt his erection jerk against her. Danny licked his lips and met her eyes again, his full of blazing lust and gut-wrenching longing. “Before I lose my mind…and before I explode all over you. And the damn sheets.”
Kat laughed again. “Oh, you’re going to be inside of me soon,
caro
, don’t worry about that.” She wrapped her hand around the back of his neck, pulling his mouth to hers and kissing him long and hard. Kat reared back just enough to meet his eyes, smiled, and whispered against his lips, “But first I want my ring back.”
Kat could only guess at the sudden storminess in Danny’s eyes, but it looked a whole lot like gratitude, longing, and love to her. And she was right there with him…Kat was so grateful, needy, and in love with him it hurt.
She smiled wryly. “I’m expecting you to do the gentlemanly thing and marry me, Danny. As soon as possible.” Kat lifted a shoulder. “It’s the least you can do, really, considering you’ve robbed me of my virginity, forced me to fall in love with you, and made it impossible for me to live without you.”
Without a word or warning, Danny got off of her and moved toward the edge of the bed.
Kat leaned over and grabbed a hold of his arm, stilling him. “Wait, where are you going?”
“You said you wanted to get married as soon as possible.” Danny made a hurry up gesture. “So let’s get dressed and go get married. Now.”
When he moved again, Kat tugged him back, laughing. “Danny, it’s Friday night in the Cleveland suburbs, not downtown Vegas. There’s nowhere for us to get married right now.”
Danny rubbed at his chin thoughtfully, the sound of his whiskers scraping against the rough skin of his palm sending more shivers down Kat’s spine.
He nodded slowly. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Danny reached for his cell phone on the nightstand.
“Now what the hell are you doing?”
“I’m booking us a flight to Vegas. Tonight.”
Kat almost laughed, but then she realized Danny wasn’t smiling. Or laughing. And when she leaned over, Kat saw the crazy man was actually on his phone, pulling up the Expedia app. She scooted over to join him on the edge of the bed, took the phone from him, and set it back on the nightstand.
Kat met his eyes. “Danny. We can’t fly to Vegas tonight, you know that, right?”
“Why the hell not?” he said, reaching for his phone again. “We’ll fuck real quick now, fuck on the airplane on our way to Vegas, get married, fuck in one of those gaudy hotel rooms, and then we’ll fly back tomorrow – of course, fucking in the plane on the way home.” Danny looked at her with total sincerity. “What’s the problem?”
Kat took the phone again and held it in her lap. “Daniel.” Her lips curled. “First of all, that is a lot of sex.”
Danny grinned. “Yeah, I know. Besides getting married, it’s my favorite part of the plan.”
“I bet,” Kat replied, laughing. “But aside from the almost physiologically-impossible sexual antics you have planned, there are other issues…namely my sisters would kill both of us – slowly and using various instruments of torture – if they weren’t there to see us get married.”
Danny ran a hand over his head, nodding. “Oh, yeah. I forgot you have a family that actually gives a shit about what you do.”
Kat reached over and gripped his chin gently. She turned his head until their eyes met. “
You
are my family now. And I am yours. And…” Her lips curled. “Unfortunately for you, so are
they
. And we all give a shit about what you do – we did before, we still do, and we always will.” Kat searched his eyes. “Got it?”
Danny swallowed hard, nodding. “Yeah, got it.”
“Good.” Kat pressed a quick kiss to his bicep. “Now go downstairs and get my ring, because I’ve felt completely naked with it.”
The longing in Danny’s eyes made her chest ache. “You have?”
Kat nodded. “Because I love it and it’s perfect and it’s mine. And because it belongs on my finger, forever. So go get it for me, okay, Danny?”
“It’s, uh…” Danny cleared his throat and gestured toward the nightstand. “It’s actually up here. In the drawer.” At Kat’s questioning look, he shrugged. “I might have taken it out and looked at it once or twice. Or all the damn time. Might’ve slept with it in my hand a few times too…” Danny met Kat’s eyes. “Just to feel closer to you.”
Kat fought the urge to clutch at her chest.
He shrugged again. “I know that makes me sound like a pathetic, pussy-whipped asshole, but that’s probably because I
am
a pathetic, pussy-whipped asshole when it comes to you, Kat. I always have been and I always will be.”
“I’ve been sleeping with one of your tee-shirts I wore home from your house last week. Well, actually, I haven’t been sleeping much, so mostly I just hugged it while I laid in bed crying for hours on end.” She smiled wryly. “So who’s got who beat in the nauseatingly pathetic arena now, huh?”
Danny paused, his voice lowering and tightening. “I can’t fucking stand thinking about you hurting like that, Kat…crying like that. It makes me want to break something.”
“Well, we’re never going to be apart again, so I’ll never cry like that again. So, no worries.” When Danny didn’t respond or move, Kat shot him a pointed look. “The ring, Danny. Please. So I can put it on and screw your brains out, remember?”