Coming Home (30 page)

“Really?” he asked.

N’SYNC: No Strings Attached.

She folded her arms as she looked up at him. “I didn’t buy them all yesterday.”

“I don’t care when you bought it,” he said with a laugh. “There’s no excuse for this.”

“I Thought She Knew.”

“You thought
who
knew?”

“No.” Leah laughed. “That’s the name of the song that landed that one a spot on the shelf. ‘I Thought She Knew.’ It’s an a cappella song. Really pretty lyrics.”

Danny looked down at the CD case, turning it over to read the back.

“Plus, hot guys sing it, so.”

He glanced up with a smirk before he shook his head. “They’re not objects, Leah. They’re real men with feelings and debatable talents.”

She pressed her lips together, fighting a smile as he turned to slide the case back on the shelf, and then he reached up and pulled another one down.

“If you’re gonna make fun of every CD I have up there, I’m kicking you out of this room.”

He laughed to himself before he turned to face her, the case sandwiched between his two hands.

“Which one do you have?” she asked, craning her neck to see, and he turned his body, shielding it from her as he shook his head.

“You’ll see in a second,” he said, walking the few steps over to her stereo and hitting the button to turn it on. Leah watched as he placed the CD into the machine, and then he skipped forward a few tracks before hitting play.

The opening chords to Ray LaMontagne’s “Hold You In My Arms” filled the room, and Leah immediately closed her eyes. When she opened them a few seconds later, he was leaned up against the wall, watching her.

“I love this song.”

“Me too,” he said, pushing off the wall as he walked toward her. “I guess your taste in music isn’t so shitty after all.”

She laughed lightly, looking up at him as he came to stand in front of her.

“Dance with me,” he said, extending his hand.

“Dance with you?”

He nodded. “It’s my birthday, so you really can’t say no.”

“Hey now. Your birthday’s over.”

Danny glanced down at his watch. “Not for another two hours.”

She laughed as she gave him her hand, and he pulled her up to face him. For a second they just stood there, looking at each other, and then their smiles slowly faded as the atmosphere shifted. Leah dropped her eyes, the sudden intensity of the moment catching her off guard.

Danny gently raised their joined hands, and her heart began thumping erratically as she felt his other arm snake around her waist, his open palm resting on her lower back.

She took a tentative step toward him, their bodies almost flush as she slid her left hand up his arm and over the top of his shoulder, coming to rest just below the nape of his neck.

He started to sway them ever so slightly, and Leah smiled at the absurdity and the charm of them dancing in the middle of her bedroom.

“You’re much better at this than I expected,” she said. “Dance Dance Revolution was not your friend tonight.”

“Oh, I threw that battle,” he said dismissively. “I didn’t want to deal with Jake and Tommy being totally emasculated by my performance. Plus, every woman in the place would have swarmed me after that, and it would have been really awkward for everyone.”

She pressed her lips together, but the smile broke through anyway, and he flashed his dimples before he turned them around and dipped her.

Leah dropped her head back and laughed, and Danny slowly pulled her back up, looking down at her as he used their joined hands to brush the hair away from her face.

And then he leaned in, his cheek brushing against hers as he sang the next words softly in her ear.

When you kissed my lips, with my mouth so full of questions,

It’s my worried mind that you quiet.

Place your hands on my face, close my eyes and say

That love is a poor man’s food. Don’t prophesize
.

In those first few seconds, it felt like her heart had stopped, but by the time the verse ended, it was pounding so wildly she was sure he could feel it against his chest; Danny lifted his head and she pulled back, her lips slightly parted as she stared up at him.

The sexy, throaty timbre of his voice still resonated in the room; it poured through her body, warming her veins and making her feel heavy and sedated, like drinking wine in front of the fireplace while a snowstorm raged outside.

It was sex and salvation and desire and serenity, stirring something primal and innately feminine in her.

Leah’s breathing became shallow as she continued to stare up at him, and he kept his eyes on hers, still swaying them gently to the music. It felt like a current was running just below the surface of her skin, making her hypersensitive to everything around her: his hand on her back, the soft sound of his breathing, the scent of his skin.

And that voice.

She wanted to hear it again. She wanted to fall asleep listening to it every night. She wanted him to wake her up with it every morning.

Leah took a step forward, closing the tiny distance between them and pressing her body against his, and he dropped his head slightly and exhaled. The warm rush of his breath danced over the side of her neck, causing goose bumps to prickle over her skin, and Leah turned her head slightly, breathing him in as they moved to the music.

She had wanted this for so long—to feel his body up against hers again. She’d imagined it so many times, but those daydreams were pitiful echoes of the reality.

All at once she realized she was trembling, and Leah tightened her arm around his back, trying to steady herself against him. She knew what she wanted, why she had asked him to come in, and now that he was right in front of her, she could feel the apprehension beginning to swirl with the growing desire in her belly.

Danny’s hand moved on her back, his fingertips teasing the sliver of exposed skin above the waist of her jeans.

“You’re shaking,” he whispered, slipping his hand up the back of her shirt and tracing soothing circles on her overheated skin. Leah’s eyes fell closed as she dropped her forehead to his shoulder. With every pass of his fingers, a tingling sensation rippled over her skin, making her feel almost dizzy.

She had never in her entire life physically responded to someone the way she did to Danny, and it was as terrifying to her as it was thrilling.

Leah gripped the back of his shirt, her forehead still pressed to his shoulder, and the solid steadiness of his body made her trembling that much more obvious.

Danny lowered his chin so that the only thing separating his lips from her ear was the delicate veil of her hair. “Are you okay?” he asked softly, and she nodded against him, not trusting her voice.

He flattened his hand against her lower back, pressing her closer to him, and that was all it took for her mind to completely surrender to her body.

Leah turned her head slightly, nuzzling his neck before she placed a soft kiss just under his jaw, and their swaying came to a halt as he froze. She stilled instantly, her lips unmoving on his neck.

Danny took a deep breath before he gently removed his hand from hers, and Leah’s stomach dropped.

And then he wrapped his arm around her waist with the other and pulled her against him, so that any measure of space between them was completely forsaken. She exhaled against his skin as he started swaying them again, his movements fluid and carnal and intoxicating and perfect.

Her free hand came up to cup the back of his neck, and when she resumed kissing his jaw, he tilted his head up slightly, his fingertips digging into her lower back. Emboldened by his reaction, she trailed her kisses upward, pressing her mouth just below his ear before lightly grazing her teeth over his skin.

He made a tiny sound in the back of his throat, and she kissed him there before trailing her fingers down the back of his neck.

“Danny?” she whispered, and he pulled back just enough to look down at her. She wet her lips before tentatively lifting her eyes to his. “Will you kiss me?”

His eyes fell closed, and Leah saw his throat bob as he swallowed. And then his hold on her loosened as his hands came to her sides, slowly trailing up the length of her body and over her shoulders. His fingertips ghosted along the sides of her neck, making her shiver.

He used his thumbs under her jaw to tilt her face up before he ran them over her cheeks.

And then he nodded, slowly closing the distance between them.

He kissed her carefully, his lips gentle, and Leah tried to keep hers pliant as she responded, but it was like trying to stop a cresting wave from breaking. She could feel the swell of it rising with every touch of his lips, building and building until finally she tightened her hold around his neck and deepened the kiss with a sigh.

He moaned quietly into her mouth, and every tingle, every delicious sizzle of electricity that had been dancing over her skin collected at once, melting together until it felt like her entire body was humming.

Within seconds, their kisses had grown feverish and their breathing labored, the soft rasping sound of it blending with the music in the background. She had never known what it was to lose control until she’d met him; she’d felt it the night he’d given her the block of concrete, and she knew she was already there again, in that place where the only thing that mattered was what her body wanted, where she needed to be touched and how, where she wanted to touch him.

There was nothing else but that. No thought, no reason, no consequences. Nothing existed except his mouth on hers and his hands on her body and the crushing desire for more, more, more.

She reluctantly broke their kiss, and Danny grunted softly as her lips left his. He watched her ease up onto the bed behind them, crawling backward until she was kneeling in the center of it. Leah crossed her arms in front of her body and gripped the hem of her sweater, pulling it up over her head before tossing it to the floor, and Danny’s eyes finally left hers as they dropped to take her in.

His chest rose and fell quickly as his eyes raked over her body, and it was as if she could actually feel them trailing over her skin.

And then he leaned forward, placing his hands on the foot of the bed as he began crawling toward her.

She felt her legs go weak, and she dropped from her kneeling position to sit on her calves just as his lips met hers again. He applied gentle pressure, pushing her backward until she fell onto the pile of pillows behind her.

Danny held his weight in his arms as he kissed her, nudging her legs apart with his hips before lowering his body onto hers.

She gasped as she felt his pressure between her thighs, and when he gently pushed his hips into her, she moaned into his mouth.

“That sound,” he said hoarsely between kisses. “Do you have any idea what that sound does to me?”

His mouth moved seamlessly down her throat, and when she felt the heat of his kisses on the swell of her breast, she arched up slightly, tangling her fingers in his hair.

His hands slid between her body and the mattress, and she felt him take the clasp of her bra between his fingers.

“Can I?” he whispered against her skin, and she nodded fervently, arching up higher.

The clasp popped open, and Danny pulled the garment from her body before dropping it over the side of the bed. And then his mouth was back on her, this time without the barrier of clothing between them, and her hips thrust upward of their own accord as she sucked in a sharp breath.

His hands came to her hips, pinning them to the bed as he kissed his way back up her neck, stopping just before their lips touched.

“Easy,” he whispered, planting a soft kiss on her mouth, and then he was gone again, trailing his mouth down the center of her body.

Leah closed her eyes and reached above her, grasping the headboard as she tried to keep herself still. Instead of focusing on what she wanted to happen, she started concentrating on what was happening right now. With her eyes closed, she didn’t know where he would touch her next—whether it would be with his lips, his tongue, or his hands—and the anticipation only amplified whatever he was doing, so that the tiniest graze of his finger set her on fire.

She felt him remove her jeans, but she kept her eyes closed, holding her breath as she waited for his next move.

“Leah,” he said softly, and she opened her eyes and looked at him.

He was kneeling at the foot of the bed with her jeans in his hand, and he dropped them on the floor as his eyes traveled up the length of her body, laid out for him like an offering. He shook his head slightly before he lifted his eyes to hers.

“You are so beautiful,” he whispered.

She released the headboard and sat up, taking his face in her hands as she kissed him, and he wrapped his arms around her. She could feel the rough material of his shirt against her breasts, and she reached down and tugged the hem.

“I want to feel your skin on mine,” she said against his mouth, and he nodded before he broke the kiss, reaching behind his head and pulling his shirt off. Leah brought her hands to his chest, tracing the contours with her fingertips before trailing them down over his stomach.

He remained perfectly still, his eyes closed and his breathing shallow as she touched him. His body was strong, lean and muscled, and she kissed along the top of his chest before she lay back onto the mattress and pulled him with her.

“You feel good like this,” she whispered, running her hands over his back as the skin of his chest brushed against hers with every movement.

He slowly brought his mouth back to hers, his kisses once again careful and measured. It seemed like every single one was designed to tease and torment her, and after several minutes of his gorgeous torture, she was squirming beneath him.

Leah whimpered pathetically against his mouth, and she felt it curve into a smile.

“Relax, sweet girl,” he said, his lips grazing hers as he spoke. “I’m gonna make you feel good this time, I promise.”

He lowered his head and kissed her, and then she felt his hand trail down her stomach before it slipped below the front of her panties.