But she loves
you
. She wants
you
. She chose
you
. And she just promised to always love, want, and choose you – over everyone else. For forever.
Danny took a few more deep breaths, unfurled his fists, and wiped them on his shirtfront.
You know she meant it. You know everything is going to okay. Just let this shit go…before it destroys the exact thing you are trying to desperately to hold onto…
Kat isn’t your biological parents. She isn’t all those foster parents. She isn’t all those women who floated in and out of your life…
She isn’t going to abandon you.
Ever.
So stop acting like the fucked-up, insecure little foster kid you were and start acting like the grown-ass,
married
man you are.
Danny got a fucking grip, manned the hell up, and walked over to where Ben and Kat were sitting.
And the wary looks Ben and Kat gave him as he approached made him feel like the biggest, stupidest, craziest asshole who’d ever lived.
Ben looked like he was mentally prepared for some hand-to-hand combat and the way Kat scooted to the end of her chair made it look like she was prepping to jump between them.
Danny stopped in front of the table, forced a tight smile, and extended his hand to Ben. “Hey, man. Glad you could make it.”
Ben eyed him for a second before getting to his feet and reaching over to take Danny’s hand, gripping it firmly as they shook. “Congratulations.” Ben’s eyes crinkled a little as the corner of his mouth turned up wryly. “And thanks for inviting me.”
Danny nodded, his own lips curling. “You know you were number one on my list when the invitations were sent out.”
Ben barked out a hard laugh. “Yeah, I bet.”
Danny shoved his into his front pockets and rocked back on his heels for a few seconds before clearing his throat. “Listen, Ben…I’m sorry about all that shit I pulled before.” He lifted a shoulder. “I don’t have any excuse other than I am a really stupid, really blind motherfucker sometimes. I’m sorry for getting in your face like that.” Danny cleared his throat again and forced himself to add, “And thank you for taking such good care of my girl. I’m not happy she handled it the way she did, but I’m glad you were such a good friend to her. So…thanks for that.”
“Not that it matters now, but I want you to know I never would have asked her out – even as a friend – if I’d known something was going on with you two,” Ben replied, his gaze direct and his tone serious. “I also want you to know I told her
repeatedly
to call you the night she fell. I felt like shit doing that behind your back, man, but she refused to call you and, if that was my girl, I’d want someone to take care of her if I couldn’t.”
Danny nodded. “I appreciate that, I really do. It’s not your fault she was being such a stubborn, little troublemaker.”
“Uh…” Kat huffed softly. “Did you guys forget
her
and
she
is right here?” When both men turned to look at her, she gave a little wave. “Hi. Hello. Remember me? Just innocently hanging around while you discuss me like I’m not even here.”
Danny and Ben snorted in unison.
“Innocent, my ass,” Danny said as Ben muttered something under his breath about women Kat was quite certain was not flattering to her or her gender as a whole.
All-of-a-sudden, the music stopped and the DJ took to his mic.
“Okay, ladies and gentlemen! The groom wants to dedicate this song to his bride before they…” The DJ grinned as he shrugged. “Well, as he put it – ‘get the hell out of here, already.’”
Bursts of laughter broke out across the room as Kat shot Danny another wary look.
“Danny wants a bunch of you to join them on the dance floor so Kat doesn’t feel self-conscious…”
Kat’s wariness flipped to downright aggravation and Danny grinned, already walking toward her, hand extended.
“So everyone please grab a partner and get on the dance floor to share Mr. and Mrs. MacDonough’s final dance tonight!”
The first chords of “I’m Yours” by The Script began playing and Kat’s expression immediately softened.
“Oh, Danny…” she said as she took his hand and let him help her up and lead her onto the dance floor.
They’d spent a lot of time sifting through their – and everyone else’s – iTunes accounts picking out music for the ceremony and the reception. Danny had stumbled on this song on Stella’s playlist and played it for Kat, telling her it perfectly summed up exactly how he felt about her and their relationship – and he’d been surprised how much that had touched her and how emotional she’d gotten listening to the lyrics with him.
Danny pulled Kat into his embrace in a darkened corner of the dance floor, lips curling at the memory of what had happened afterwards…
Them having passionate, drawn-out, amazing sex on the living room rug while this song played on repeat over his docking station speakers. And then Danny had had the pleasure of carrying Kat up to their new bed…in their bedroom… where they’d made love again before falling asleep, naked and wrapped in each other’s arms.
It had been the perfect night. Danny still couldn’t believe Kat was his and that night could happen anytime they wanted, as often as they wanted…forever.
“Well, this certainly brings back some good memories,” she said with a smile, wrapping her arms around him and resting her cheek against his chest as he gathered her closer.
“Fuck yeah, it does,” Danny whispered against her hair, lips curling. “The second it started, it turned the semi I’ve been lugging around all day into one of those raging boners you’re so fond of.”
Kat laughed softly. “Yeah, I can feel that.”
Danny began stroking the silky skin of her bare back, slowly skating his fingertips up and down her spine and gently tracing the outlines of her shoulder blades, before coming up to caress the tops of her shoulders.
“And you really are a witchy, little tease for picking a dress like this, Kat…” He lowered his lips to where his fingers had just been and pressed several kisses to her skin. “You knew exactly what it was going to do to me, didn’t you?” He dragged his lips and tongue across her collarbone, smiling against her when he felt Kat shudder and her fingers dig into his back. “You knew exactly how out of my fucking mind it was going to drive me…” Danny nipped at her collarbone a few times and kissed up the column of her throat until his lips were just behind her ear. He kissed and licked at the skin before adding, “How impossible it was going to make it for me to control myself…”
She curled her fingers into the fabric of his tux shirt and wiggled against him, rubbing his erection harder into her lower stomach.
At Danny’s sharp, strangled inhalation, Kat pulled back to meet his eyes with a sly smile. “That’s exactly why I picked it. All I could I think about during all of those tedious fittings was how much seeing me in it was going to arouse you, Danny…about how I couldn’t wait to see the look on your face when you watched me move in it all night.” Kat slid her hands down to his ass and squeezed as she licked at, then bit, her lower lip – which made his dick throb, twitch, and grow impossibly harder. “But mostly I thought about how I couldn’t wait for you to take it off of me tonight.” Her expression softened as she searched his eyes. “About how desperately I want to make love to you as your wife…and how desperately I want to take you inside of me as my husband.”
Danny wasn’t sure how it was possible, but she’d just managed to break his heart in an amazing way and make him almost come in his pants at the same fucking time.
And it snapped the last tenuous strings of his patience and self-control.
“Okay. Yep. That’s it,” he muttered as he lifted her up into his arms with a soft whoosh and loud gasp from her. “Time to go, sweetheart.”
She clung to him, giggling against his neck, as Danny bounded toward the exit.
“Hey! Wait! Where are you going?” Gigi called out, trailing after them. “Don’t you want to say good-bye to everyone?”
Danny whipped around with a shit-eating grin on his face and waved at the entire room at large. “Bye, everyone! Thanks for coming! Kat and I really appreciate it, but right now, we’ve got a lot of husband and wife things to do! I’m sure you all understand, right?
Loud whoops and clapping filled the room.
Stella climbed on a chair, put her two fingers her mouth, and let out one hell of whistle. She cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled, “Don’t do anything Nathan and I wouldn’t do!” Stella paused, grinning, and lifted a shoulder. “Which isn’t much-”
Danny, and the rest of the room, busted out laughing when a very stern-faced Nathan reached up and quickly pulled a laughing Stella off the chair and into his lap. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard, which he allowed – obviously finding it the lesser of Stella’s two evils.
“We better call Nathan and Stella later to make sure one of them hasn’t finally done the other in,” Kat murmured against his shirt, head buried in Danny’s shoulder to avoid the knowing looks, grins, and thumbs-ups Danny was getting – and returning – as he all but jogged through the lobby toward the elevators.
“Trust me, they’re gonna be too busy to answer the phone,” Danny replied, stepping into the elevator and pressing the button. As the doors whirred shut, Kat finally lifted her head from his shoulder and he leveled a hard, hot gaze on her. “And I’m gonna turn you so inside out you won’t remember how to use your fucking phone…gonna wear you out so hard you won’t be able to walk to go get it, either, so it works out just fucking perfect for us all, huh?”
Kat stared up at him, eyes wide and lips parted. “Promise?” she asked softly. Danny laughed. “Oh, I promise, sweetheart.”
When the elevator doors whirred back open, Danny stepped into the hallway and headed for their suite.
“Dammit, I really should have put that into the vows: ‘I promise to thoroughly and frequently fuck your gorgeous brains out for all the rest of our days.’” Danny halted, mid-hallway, lips curling as looked down to meet Kat’s eyes. “Actually, maybe I should head back down and announce that part to everyone – you know, informally. Just to make it perfectly clear.”
Kat smiled wryly. “I think that part was implied, Danny. No need for clarification on that one. Not with you.” She quirked a brow. “And they’ve been watching you stare at me like a starving man would eye a Porterhouse for almost two years. I’m pretty sure they can imagine the crazy sex you have in store for me.”
Danny stared into her beautiful face, at that smart mouth he couldn’t wait to listen to for the rest of his life and began shaking his head ruefully. “Oh, sweetheart…they couldn’t possibly know.” Her smile faded as Danny dug out the key card and slipped it into the door. He got it unlocked, kicked it open, and carried her through – a huge, lascivious grin on his face. “And neither could you.”
Kat gasped softly
when she caught sight of the cozy, candlelit room he was carrying her into. “
Danny…
” He lowered her feet to the floor, but kept his arms wrapped around her waist as Kat turned to take it all in. “What did you do?”
Danny had requested to choose the room they’d spend this night in and Kat had been more than willing to let him surprise her.
And she
was
surprised at the beautiful, thoughtful scene surrounding her: two nightstands flanking the king-sized bed covered in red and white rose petals and tea light candles, a large stone fireplace across from the bed with a roaring fire already going, and last, but certainly not least, a huge, corner Jacuzzi tub – edges covered with more rose petals and tea light candles.
“I knew it would freak you out having some stranger set it up, so I had Stella run up and do it a little while ago.” Danny pulled her up tighter against him and nuzzled her neck. “Do you like it, sweetheart?” he murmured against her throat. “You know I wanted it to be perfect for you.”
“This is…” She stepped forward and Danny let his arms drop so she could walk farther into the room. Kat shook her head slowly, her throat tightening up at yet another incredible Danny display of romantic thoughtfulness. “This
is
just perfect, Danny. As usual. Thank you.”
She turned back to face him and her breath caught…
Because Danny was always hot, sexy, and
too-gorgeous-for-his-and-everyone-else’s-good
, but standing there in the soft candlelight – sleeves rolled up and hands shoved into his tux pants’ pockets and looking back at her with that hungry, adoring, grateful gaze of his…
Kat was suddenly having a very difficult time reconciling that he was truly hers. That she was now legally
married
to this kind, loving, intelligent, maddening, crazy, beautiful man. That she – despite her best attempts to push him away, screw everything up, and live out her life in self-imposed, controlled loneliness – was actually allowed to have him. Forever.
That she could accept his love without conditions. That she could love him without restriction. And that she could, without guilt or second thoughts, allow herself to plan a future with him, knowing he wasn’t going anywhere, because he wanted to be with her no matter what. That Danny would always choose her –
them
– over anyone and everything else, regardless of her baggage.
She walked toward him, right into his outstretched arms, and cradled his face in her hands. Kat searched all of it as she tried hard to put her feelings – maybe even some lingering fears – into words.
“I really get to keep you, right? For always?” she whispered, eyes welling as his expression softened even more and his arms tightened around her. “Because, all-of-a-sudden, this seems too good to be true, Danny. Like…like the last few months have all been a dream that I’ll inevitably wake up from. And you’ll be living your life and I’ll be living mine and none of this actually happened. That we’ll be strangers again.” Kat shook her head again, weird panicky feelings rising up out of nowhere. “It’s not rational and those kinds of worries make no kind of logical sense. Obviously I know that, but just the thought of not having you – not getting to keep you forever…” Her voice caught. “I don’t know if it’s because I am so overwhelmed with it all or maybe because I am emotional because of today.” Kat clung to him with all the strength remaining in her shaky muscles. “I don’t know why, but suddenly I am just so terrified, Danny, I’m sorry!”