Finding Dandelion (Dearest #2) (20 page)

But before I can reconsider if watching a movie I suspect will terrify Dani is such a smart move, the room darkens as the first scene begins.

In forty-five minutes, she’s moved from her side of the couch to mine. And with twenty minutes left of the film, she’s practically in my lap. I have my arm around her, and her head is tucked into my chest.

“I can’t look, Jax,” she mumbles into my shirt. She’s warm and soft against me, and fuck if she doesn’t smell amazing.

“Open your eyes.”

“No!”

I chuckle, and she swats me. “Don’t laugh. This is really scary. I’m going to have nightmares.”

“I thought you said you liked scary movies.” I can’t help the laughter that spills out around those words.

“Zombies aren’t realistic.
This
is realistic. They’re rock climbers and—”

“They’re spelunkers.”

“Whatever.”

She opens her eyes just in time to see one of the girls in the movie get pulled down into a river of gore. After an ear-piercing shriek, Dani seems content to clutch my chest and hide, which is fine by me.

As the credits roll, the room is dark, illuminated only by the flickering light of the letters on the screen. She’s clinging to me as though her life depends on it. I stroke her hair. “Dandelion? You okay?”

“Is the bloodbath over?” She peeks up at the screen and sighs. “Sorry, I’m not usually such a spaz.” She wrinkles her nose. Goddamn, she’s cute.

When she turns to face me, we’re so close her breath fans against my skin, and my eyes dip to her lips, which are slightly parted.

I still have her in my arms, and her head tilts just slightly to the right, and mine tilts just slightly to the left.

“Dani?”

“Yeah.” Her voice is sexy and soft.

“So you’re really not seeing that guy Brady?”

She shakes her head slowly, her eyes never leaving mine.

“And… you’re not seeing anyone else?” Because that would suck.

“No, Jax, I’m not.” Her eyes dart away briefly and then shift back and pin me down. “But maybe the better question is, are
you
seeing anyone?”

 “No, Danielle. I haven’t really dated much all semester.”

She stiffens in my arms, her breathing erratic.

When she doesn’t say anything, I add, “I haven’t gone out with anyone in at least a month.”

In the silence that follows, I start to worry she’s going to come to her senses and realize I’m not worth her time.

She leans toward me slightly. “Really?” Her voice sounds hopeful, and that spurs me on to say more.

“I know what you’ve probably heard from my sister, but I’m not really the man-whore she thinks I am. Anymore, at least. I know you’ve seen me with girls, but they haven’t meant anything.” I swallow, trying to say what’s really on my mind. “I mean, why waste your time on someone if she’s not who you really want?”

We stare at each other, and in the seconds that pass, there’s an unspoken conversation about need and desire, and her eyes darken. I slowly close the distance, my lips brushing against hers. It takes a second to process that this is actually happening. That this girl I’ve kissed dozens of times in my dreams is here in my arms.

Scooping her up, I drape her across my lap, making sure to put down her injured leg gently.

Her tongue is tentative, flirty, dipping and stroking against mine in a way that has my heart pounding. All I can smell is the scent of her shampoo, her skin and the sweetness of popcorn on her breath. My hands roam her soft curves, and when she wiggles in my lap, my dick roars to life. Trying not to ravage her, I slow the pace, nibbling on her lip and jaw before I make a descent down her neck, which feels so familiar, I stop and grip her to me.

“Jax,” she whispers.

That’s all it takes. Her voice in my ear.

My mouth opens and I bite down on the smooth skin of her neck. Her head tilts back as a moan escapes her lips. Her fingers tangle in my hair, and she arches into me. This position sucks since she can’t straddle me with that leg brace, so I lift her up and set her down on the couch, swinging my legs around and shifting us so we’re lying down side by side.

I pause, worried that she’s uncomfortable, but then her other leg wraps around my thigh, and she presses herself against me. Her hands tug my shirt up, and I rip it off. Then she struggles to pull up her shirt, but I still her.

“No, let me.”

Her breath catches, and she nods and lies back. I prop my head up on my arm and stare down at her. I brush my thumb against her smooth cheek.

“You’re so beautiful, Danielle.” Even without makeup, I haven’t been able to stop staring at her for the past two days.

Her dark hair is spread out beneath her, and she looks like my erotic fantasy come true. I even love the pink streaks that peek out from beneath the darker strands. I run my nose against her jaw as her fingers thread through my hair. I don’t know what’s happened between us this week, but I feel like she’s infected me, like she runs through my veins.

I kiss her, slowly at first, because part of me feels like I’ve waited a long time for this moment, and I want to sear it into my brain.

When I deepen the kiss, her leg tightens around me, but I can’t nestle between her legs the way I want or I could injure her. I close my eyes and pause, resolving to not rush this. The last thing I want is to hurt her.

I pull away, and she stills. I look in her eyes.

“Danielle, can I touch you?” She licks her lips and nods, and my heart hammers in my chest. “Baby, do you have any idea what you do to me?”

It’s not really a question, and I don’t expect a response except she whispers, “I want you too, Jax.”

So far, I’ve kept my hands in safe places—her back, her hips, her shoulders—but spurred by her words, my hand grips her perfect ass, grinding her up against my cock until we both moan.

I will not have sex with her tonight. I will not take it that far. She’s not the kind of girl I fuck like that.

The words are still knocking around in my head when she tilts her hips and presses against my length again.

“Fuck, Dani.”

She pulls back to run her hands over my chest and stomach, tilting her fingers just enough to scratch lightly down my skin, leaving a trail of fire.

I reach down and pull off her shirt, and the sight of her sheer lacy bra has me zeroing in on the one thing my brain hasn’t stopped thinking about since that shower last night—those piercings.

I look to her first, and she nods before my hands race to unlatch the snap in front. The second it’s off, her nipples tighten on her lush, perky breasts, and the small hoops glimmer in the darkness. Her hands pull my head down to her until my mouth is wrapped around her skin. My tongue flicks at the metal, and she moans.

Her breath quickens, her chest rising and falling beneath me. I’m just about to lose my mind when a loud knock on the door startles us both.

“Jax! It’s Hannah. I have cookies. Open up.”

Goddamn it to motherfucking hell.

Dani stills and the look on her face says it all. She thinks another girl is here to see me.

“Babe, it’s just my neighbor. The one with the little girl.”

I kiss her, and she relaxes against my mouth. A second later, I pull away and yell, “Hang on! I’m coming,” while we scramble to put our clothes on.

Actually, I’m not
coming
. And that sucks. But Dani is here, and that makes everything right in the world.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

- Dani -

A pint-sized princess, complete with a tiara, sparkling shoes and a pink cape, comes charging in behind her mom and attaches herself to Jax’s leg. He laughs, picks her up and swings her around.

Oh my God.
Jax with a kid.
My insides flutter, and I have to fight to clear the images taking root in my mind: Jax with a family. With a daughter. With
our
daughter.

Shut the fuck up, Danielle!

If I could punch myself in the face right now, I would. I only met Jax three months ago. We’ve had two hot hookups, one of which he doesn’t even remember, and I’m sitting here in crazy-land.

He points to the plate her mom is holding. “Chloe, did you make these cookies all by yourself?”

Her mom sighs and shakes her head as Chloe giggles. “Mommy helped. But I did the fwosting.”

Blonde curls bob on her little head, and when she spots me, she kicks out of Jax’s hold and beelines over to the couch. She looks at me sideways, appraising me. “You’re pwetty. Are you Jax’s gulfwend?’

My mouth drops open, and I wish she weren’t so cute so I could toss her back into the hallway, but her mom comes to the rescue.

“Honey, not every girl you meet here is Jax’s girlfriend,” Hannah says.

Ouch.
Lest I forget about the hordes of other women milling about in his life.

She turns to me. “Sorry, she’s going through this weird stage where she thinks every female is a mom or girlfriend.”

Plastering on a smile, I shrug like it’s no big deal. I wonder how many times this has happened—Hannah coming over while there’s some random girl on Jax’s couch with rumpled clothes. My heart squeezes in my chest.

While I understand what Jax told me, that he wasn’t seeing anyone, I don’t know if that means the same in his screw-everything-with-two-legs world as it does in mine. Does this mean he’s not having sex with anyone now or that he only messes around a little?

Because I get that he doesn’t do the girlfriend thing. It’s not as though those sexts have stopped coming. His stupid phone lights up every couple of hours with messages from a different girl. He ignores them all, but still.

Hannah’s eyes pass over me, a small smile tilting up her lips.

God, I can only imagine what I look like right now. I quickly run my hand over my head trying to smooth down the just-fucked hair. Not that we did the deed or even came close, but I know how my face looks when I’m worked up.

She lifts her daughter into her arms and turns back to me.

“Hi, I’m Hannah. I’ll just introduce myself since Jax is too rude to do it himself.”

I laugh softly, the kind of laugh you do when you’re trying to be casual and pretend you’re not dying, and Jax shrugs as he takes a huge bite out of a cookie. With a mouthful of food, he says, “Hannah, this is Dani. Dani, Hannah.”

Hannah snorts. “Boys.” She rolls her eyes. “I was surprised to see your cars here. I thought you were going skiing. It’s all you’ve talked about for the last month.”

Crap. I caused him to miss out on his big weekend.
Maybe… but at least he’s not running around with those boobalicious girls from last weekend.

Jax swallows his bite and motions toward me. “I hit her with my car and had to take her to the hospital. She decided not to kill me, so here we are, watching scary movies.” He says it so casually that it almost sounds normal.

Hannah turns to me, gaping. Yes, apparently I’m gape-worthy.

I shake my head. “I’m his sister’s roommate. Jax and I know each other. I’m not some random girl off the street he decided to mow down.”

Yeah, I’m not a random girl who just took off her shirt and let him feel her up. I’m someone he knows. Someone his sister knows.

Oh, holy crap.

When he told me he got a concussion on his birthday, I was euphoric that he hadn’t forgotten me because he was in some alcohol-induced haze—that it was because of some freak accident—and every emotion I had worked so hard to shut off this fall came rushing back. Then that stupid movie had me crawling up his body like a damn spider monkey.

Hannah’s still staring at me. “What did he hit you with? The BMW or the Jeep?”

“BMW.” He and I say it in unison, and then I turn to him and ask, “Why do you need two cars? This is Boston. There is such a thing as public transportation.”

“Babe, the Jeep is for all things extracurricular.” He takes another bite, and I can’t help but wonder if he’s talking about activities that involve sex, nakedness and jumbo-sized breasts. My stomach sinks a little more, but then he says, “The guys and I go camping and hiking, and I need to be able to pack shit on the roof rack, but it gets terrible mileage, so I use the BMW for driving in the city.”

Chloe claps her hands over her ears and stares at her mom, who gives Jax a look that tells me they’ve encountered this situation before.

“Sorry, Chloe,” Jax says, admonishing himself for cursing. “Here, have a cookie.”

Chloe takes the snack and pauses when it’s halfway to her mouth. “Where’s Nick? He likes my cookies too.”

I almost forgot Jax has a roommate.

“Went skiing. He’ll be back tomorrow.”

Hannah’s eyebrows lift. “Not if the weather keeps up. We’re supposed to get twelve inches tonight and tomorrow. What have you been doing all day that you don’t know this?”