Branded: You Own Me & The Virgin's Night Out (27 page)

She squeezed. “Stay.”

He nodded…and when she tried to pull her hand back, he tightened his fingers.

She shot him a quick look and then smiled.

As she fed the baby, they held hands and alternated between watching each other…and their daughter.

• • •

A half hour later, he awkwardly took the baby from her and watched as she adjusted her bra and nightgown. He rose from the bed—clad in a pair of jeans now—and settled the baby at his shoulder, patting her back.

Dani was asleep.

“Here. I’ll go settle her back down,” Sloane said, rising from the bed.

“Can…I can do it.”

She cocked her head and then nodded. “Come on. I’ll show you where everything is.”

Dani did indeed require another diaper change and he grimaced his way through cleaning her little butt as she squalled her way back into wakefulness. “Sorry, babydoll,” he said, shaking his head. “You went and…um…pooped. Can’t sleep in it, now can you?”

Dani just screamed louder.

“Am I hurting her?”

“No.” Sloane bent over the head of the changing table and kissed

Dani’s brow. “She just hates being woken up.”

She fussed, letting them both know her displeasure, as he put a new diaper on—it was easier the second time. And she continued to fuss at him as he struggled with the sleeper. The thing was tiny and his hands were big, he felt too awkward. Once he boosted her up, the furious cries changed to sniffles. “See there? Isn’t that better?” he murmured, patting her little butt as he paced.

Sloane had turned on a small lamp on the changing table and their eyes met as he turned around, made another trek across the floor. Dani lapsed into tired sniffles and by the fifth circuit up and down her floor, she was quiet. He chanced one look and saw that her face was slack, cheeks rosy and her little mouth puckered.

“Here.” Sloane’s voice was soft and he looked up, saw her waiting with her arms outstretched.

It was as he was placing the baby in her arms that he saw the framed print hanging over the changing table.

Danielle Pierce
—

He reached up, touching the glass above the baby’s middle name. “You named her after Pierce.”

“Yes. You and Pierce.”

He froze.

His hand felt slackly to his side as he turned his head, gaping at her.

She cocked her head. “What?” Her voice was low and hushed.

He swallowed and then blindly, turned on one heel and walked out of the room.

He kept right on walking down the stairs and out into the night, pausing only long enough to disarm the alarm system by the back door.

Sloane was right behind him and he turned to stare at her with confused eyes.

“After me and Pierce?”

“Ah…yes?” She rubbed the heel of her hand over her chest. “Her name is Danielle. Your first name is Daniel.”

“I know what my first name is.” He never used it. It was a stupid

name.
Daniel Boone
. Seriously. His real name was Daniel Boone

Cassidy, Jr—yet another reason to hate his name, because it was his father’s name, too. His father had gone by the name Daniel and Boone had wanted no similarity between them, had even considered changing his name at one point, but decided the asshole wasn’t worth the effort or the money it would have cost. “But how did you know my name?”

“It was on the wedding program,” she said, shrugging. “Is…is there a problem?”

A knot settled in Boone’s chest.

“Why would you name her after me?” he asked, the words tight and rusty-sounding.

She crossed the porch to stand in front of him and then, as he stood there frozen and confused, she rose up onto her toes and pressed her lips to his. “The question is…why wouldn’t I?”

He wrapped his arms around her, hauling her against him. “Sloane,” he choked out.

She murmured his name and skimmed her hand up and down his neck, a soothing, gentle caress.

Hope and terror made a dangerous mix inside him and before he could let himself think about it, he set Sloane away. He started to pace, his long legs eating up the distance with quick, jerky strides. “I want this,” he said, the words tumbling out of him before he could think them through. “I want Dani and I want you and I want this place. I want…”

He stopped at her shaky gasp.

Jerking his head up, he stared at her. “I don’t want to rush you. I know it will take time, but I…I want this. I’ve never really thought much about being…I dunno…
happy
, but the thought of being here, with both of you…it makes my chest ache and I want it. I’ll do my best to make you happy, if you just give me a chance. I—”

Whatever else he was going to say was smothered against her lips.

She kissed him, on the lips, his cheeks, his nose, his lowered lids and then his lips again. “Yes.”

He caught her arms and forced her back.

She grinned at him, her eyes damp and sparkling.

“…yes?” And his voice
cracked
.

“Yes…you big idiot.” She shrugged his hands away and then moved in, throwing her arms around his neck. “I’ve been happy before…I know what it’s like. But I also know I’ll be happier with you. With us. I want—”

It was his turn to kiss her, cutting off the flow of words with his mouth.

Sloane sighed against his lips and curled her arms around him.

And for the first time in his life, Boone felt complete.

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More Titles by Shiloh Walker

Wrecked

Razed

Busted

Beg Me

Tempt Me

Every Last Fantasy

Beautiful Scars

Beautiful Girl

If You Hear Her

If You See Her

If You Know Her

Burn For Me

Break For Me

Long For Me

Deeper Than Need

Sweeter Than Sin

Darker Than Desire

Her Best Friend’s Lover

About

Shiloh Walker has been writing since she was a kid. She fell in love with vampires with the book Bunnicula and has worked her way up to the more…ah…serious works of fiction. She loves reading and writing anything paranormal, anything fantasy, and nearly every kind of romance. Once upon a time she worked as a nurse, but now she writes full time and lives with her family in the Midwest. She writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance, and urban fantasy under her penname, J.C. Daniels. Learn more about her work at her website, www.shilohwalker.com.