Dannika Dark: Seven Years

“Whatever you felt for me was just instinct. We’re alike, and you were drawn to me for that reason.”

I shook my head. “No. You’re wrong.” I was about to remove the filter and say what I’d kept bottled up inside me for a lifetime—something I’d always wanted to admit but never had the courage. “I’ve loved you since I was five years old. Longer than I can even remember. You were always in my life, and I looked up to you. It had nothing to do with this whole alpha wolf thing. It was you , Austin. It was the way you laughed at my jokes and stood up for me. You winked at me whenever I was feeling down, and I loved that you pulled over on a busy road and took that injured dog to the vet when anyone else would have driven by. I’ve always seen the goodness in you. I’ve always loved you, and it made me crazy you didn’t feel the same.”

He inched his face in closer and settled his body over mine to keep me still.

“You’re right, Lexi. I haven’t loved you since I was five. I’m not going to sit here and lie to you about it.”

My stomach knotted and I felt a stabbing pain in my chest.

“You were a stubborn and odd little girl who liked to catch butterflies and release them in your house. You seem to have forgotten you used to call me Elastic Man when I hit a growth spurt at age nine.” His breath was on my face and I froze as he continued. “You also had a knack for dating every guy who didn’t pass my test, and if it were my decision, you wouldn’t have gone out with any of them. No, Lexi, I’m not going to tell you I’ve loved you since I was five, because it’s not true. I can’t lie to you.”

My heart sank, and he let go of my wrists and stroked his fingers through my hair.

“In fact, I remember the exact moment I fell in love with you. It was June seventeenth, the summer before your senior year in high school. We went camping with a bunch of friends and I sat next to you by the lake while you hummed a Fleetwood Mac song, watching the moonlight shine on the water and wearing a silly pair of pajamas. We didn’t talk, but that’s the first time I really saw you as the woman you would someday become. You probably don’t even remember it, but I do. I always will.”

Somehow, all the air in the room managed to disappear and I could scarcely breathe.

Austin bit his lip and turned his head away, his pale blue eyes glittering beneath inky lashes. It was the look of regret—one that inevitably came with something you wished you hadn’t revealed.

An avalanche of emotion took over, and tears welled in my eyes, rolling quietly across my ears and into my hair.

He slanted his eyes toward me and saw me crying. “Shit,” he breathed. “I’m sorry, Lexi.” His fingers wiped my tears and I shook my head. He just didn’t understand.

“I’ve waited my entire life for you to say that to me, Austin.”

His lips twitched and his voice softened to the growly, bedroom one I liked. “Then why are you crying?”

“Because I don’t know if you still do. Did I blow it?”

All humor in his face evaporated. Austin tilted his head down and brushed his lips against mine. I’d never been kissed in the slow and reverent way that Austin delivered. Each kiss barely pressed against my lips. Sometimes they stuck together a little, and small wet sounds filled the quiet room. But beneath such a simple gesture, sparks ignited between us, and all my doubts melted away. I could taste him, smell him, and feel his warmth on my mouth and body.

I used to watch shows about unsolved mysteries and spontaneous human combustion. I had an idea what the cause could have been because I felt like a box of explosives.

His rough hands cupped my cheeks, and his lips moved their way around my face, kissing the curve of my jaw, my eyelids, and the tip of my nose, before returning to my mouth.

The tension multiplied between us when I caught his bottom lip between my teeth and gave it a tug. He slid his body up just a fraction and I felt the weight of him everywhere. I bent my knee and he fit against me like a piece of a puzzle locking into place.

Being in heat had nothing on a kiss delivered by Austin Cole. It was intricate and reckless all at once.

“Don’t be so gentle,” I encouraged.

A spark flickered in his eyes and his mouth came down on mine, tongue pushing in as his hips did a swivel. I moaned and ran my hand along his jaw, scraping my fingers just a little bit so I could hear the scratchy hiss of his stubble. He lifted his head and awareness burned in those crystalline depths. I loved his eyes—the way the black rims made it seem like they framed an ocean in his gaze.

Austin stared into the depth of me as he pulled the ends of my shirt over my head. When he dragged his gaze down to my chest, he froze.

“What’s wrong?”

When he didn’t answer, I got irritated. “B-cup not enough for you?”

His left hand firmly covered my mouth. “Will you be quiet for a moment while I drink you in? I’ve fantasized about this moment for the last seven years, so give me a minute. I’m not going to rush the first time I get to see your body beneath mine. That okay?”

I stitched my lips together and let him make love to me with his salacious eyes while my fingers memorized his broad, inked shoulders and firm biceps. His skin was sticky and taut beneath my hands and I wanted to taste him as he slid down the length of my body.

Austin’s lips skimmed across the flat of my stomach and I sucked in, stretching my arms up. Then it occurred to me I’d waited too long to just lie around while he took his time exploring territory he had recently vacationed to. I grabbed a fistful of hair and yanked him up, kissing him hard on the mouth.

He ran his hand over the lace of my white bra and dragged his mouth to the soft curve of my neck. My heart thundered like the hooves of a hundred stallions.

“Seven years,” I whispered. “We’re almost strangers.”

Austin quit fumbling with my bra, grabbed both cups, and pulled it apart. With a snap, it gave way. His mouth sucked ravenously on my nipple while his left hand curved around and squeezed, sending a bolt of pleasure all through my body. “Then let’s get to know each other. Favorite band?” he murmured.

“Mumford & Sons. You?”

His mouth journeyed lower until his tongue leisurely circled around my belly button. I whimpered a soft moan and loosened my grip on his hair.

“Kings of Leon,” he said, pinching my nipples with his warm fingers.

“They have like two songs I’ve ever heard.”

“Yeah, but they’re good songs.” Then he swung his eyes up to mine and slowly sang the opening verse of “Sex on Fire.”

Oh God, I melted listening to his lush, raspy voice. Austin had a singing voice he rarely used, but when he did, it was a force of nature on my body.

“How many girls have you dated?”

He took his sweet time sliding my shorts down, kissing the soft skin surrounding my panties. “Five,” he murmured.

“Five?” I almost shouted. “Jeez, you make me feel like a slut.”

“How many?” he asked, pulling my shorts away from my ankles. He knelt at my feet, staring up the length of my body.

I bit my lip. “Nine. But only two were serious.”

Austin cracked a smile. “Not serious enough. None of them matter.”

Then he fell over me and the clash of our heated bodies intensified the tension building between us. I was swimming in a pool of desire and close to drowning in the deep end.

“You still own those brown cowboy boots?” he asked, kissing my neck roughly. Then his hips took on a life of their own as he rocked them against me.

I moaned some kind of desperate sound, struggling to pay attention as his tongue moved in slow circles between the sucking. “No, the heel broke.”