Unbound (45 page)

Dani pulled him from his deep thoughts when she said, “So what do you think? Are you in?”

“Huh?” he asked brilliantly.

“You haven’t been paying attention to me at all have you?” she pouted.

“On the contrary, I w
as actually mesmerized by you, A
ngel,” he confessed.

* * *

Watching Cayden, she realized how much he’d changed. Cayden had been affectionate, playful and protective since the beginning of their relationship but this was different. Cayden had always been a lady’s man and she was very aware of that. It was amazing that he was willing to wait for her to be ready before broaching the topic of sex. More so that, as far as she could tell, he hadn’t been with anyone since the day they first kissed.

Dani watched him watching her all day. He watched her lips as she
talked;
her hands when she touched him, and obviously, he watched her body when she paraded around like a lingerie model
for his benefit. The way he touched her the
night
before
was nothing short of reverent. He kissed her like he was suffocating and she was the only source of air. His hot hands burned her skin with desire and his eyes pleaded for permission to go farther. It was too bad they’d been interrupted.

Now she looked across the table into eyes full of tenderness. He said he was mesmerized and as she drew circles on the top his hand with her fingers, she believed him. This was not the cocky, devil-may-care party animal of the past. This was the guy girls pray for at night. He was stunningly handsome, strong, patient and affectionate. What else could a girl want in a guy? If she didn’t have this constant longing to be near Chase, she believed, Cayden would have her heart by now. He did in many ways, if she were to be honest with herself. He made her feel happy and safe. He relieved some of the aching need for Chase. She missed the days when he was her guardian and with her all the time.

Being a warrior wasn’t
a nine to five
kind of
job. He went where they needed him, when they needed him, no questions asked. It was very much like being in the human military. On the other hand, maybe abs
ence did make the heart grow fo
nder because she surely felt his absence when he was gone. Every day they spent together was a day that put more of the space she desperately needed between her and Chase. If she really gave herself over to the clear compatibility she shared with Cayden, he could soothe her past the need for other people. If she were to give all she had, he could stop the pain altogether with a blood bond. She would love him entirely and never think of wanting anyone else.

“What are thinking about so intently?” He leaned across the table and kissed her bottom lip.

She couldn’t find the smile he deserved to see, “The future.” Her tone brought seriousness to the simple statement. “It’s been a dangerous topic of thought for some time now.”

“Do you see me when you think of your future?” He brushed her cheek.

“That was actually my very line of thought, you and the future. I have been too wrapped up in death and drama to imagine anything but surviving. I’m not even going to school anymore with the exception of some online courses. It’s going to take much longer to graduate if I’m forced to keep this pace. Today I find myself imagining other possibilities.” She held his hand to her cheek and turned her head to place a kiss in his palm.
He closed his fingers, as if to
save the kiss.

“Do you know that I adore you? This has been a huge adjustment for me. This relationship is like nothing I have ever known. I don’t really know what I’m doing but it feels good. I hope you can be patient while I figure out how to be a good boyfriend. Everyone is waiting for me to screw this up and fall off the wagon, so to speak. I do know that I’m not the best you could do in a guy but you are the only girl I think about anymore. I would do anything to make you feel the same way.” Cayden was obviously referring to the ever-present shadow of Chase Deidrick. This made her heart ache. She was doing them both an injustice by withholding pieces of herself for an engaged man.

After lunch, they strolled through
the park hand in
hand, not really speaking much. They enjoyed each other’s presence, both of them working through things in their own heads as they meandered. Dani’s cell phone rang. She looked at Cayden and shook her head in disgust.

“Is it Darren?” he asked.

“Worse. It’s Chase, again.”  There’s no time like the present to start moving on. “Will you tell him I’m safe and he doesn’t need to keep calling?” She handed Cayden the phone. Sure, it would hurt Chase but she needed to stop focusing on him and his feelings. She would be hurting when he was bonded to Sam but he didn’t care about that. He had to push and push at her.

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk to him?” Cayden stopped with his thumb on the talk button.

“I’m positive. Just tell him I’m safe with you. He can stop worrying and he can stop calling.” She turned away from him so he couldn’t see her pained expression and she listened.

“Hello, Chase,
” Cayden answered dryly. It was quiet for a few seconds. “Hello?”

“I guess you found her. I thought you would call me.” Chase was pacing a hole in his bedroom floor. “May I speak to Danielle, please?”

“No. She’s actually busy. She asked me to let you know she is safe with me. She said you shouldn’t continue worrying about her. There’s no need for you to keep calling.” Cayden relayed her message flatly.

Chase’s mouth fell open. Was she having Cayden dismiss him or was Cayden speaking for her? He wouldn’t take Cayden’s word for it. He knew damn well she cared deeply for him. She was just tired of waiting for him to figure out things on his end.

“Put her on the phone,” Chase demanded.

“She doesn’t want to talk to you.” Cayden was trying not to smile at Chase’s anger because he knew it would upset Dani but it was entertaining as hell to listen to Chase wriggle after all the years of him getting whoever he wanted, whenever he wanted them.

“I’m not going to stop calling until I hear her tell me she… until she tells me to.” Chase started to say until she tells me she doesn’t want me anymore but changed his mind. He didn’t want to hear those words. Chase could hear Cayden’s muffled voice speaking to Danielle. Finally, she took the phone.

“What do you want, Chase?”

“Lovely, I am so sorry about last night. Please forgive me. Are you alright? Where are you? How did they find you?” Chase was rattling on when Dani interrupted him.

“I have asked you to stop calling me that name. I’m with Cayden and we’re trying to spend some time together in peace. I’m safe with him so you can go on with your own life and stop calling me. Thank you for your concern, but it’s really not necessary. I have to go now. Enjoy the rest of your day.” She explained slowly as if speaking to child.

Her phone was dropped back into her bag and she took Cayden’s hand again to pull him along with her. She was planning a shopping trip to New York City after the drama was all over and acting like nothing had happened. She was right back into the outing without missing a beat.

When
they arrived back at the hotel
her mind was in overdrive. Dani had to get past the thing with Chase. Steve, her red headed college buddy, had imparted his philosophy on break ups after her experience with Lucas at the frat party. He said the best way to get over someone was to get under someone else. He may have been offering up his services, she wasn’t sure. She’d been thinking about that very male idea of how to get on with your life. She had to admit that when she and Lucas broke up and she fell into bed with Charlie, it had seriously dulled the pain to her injured heart.

Having made up her mind to finish what they started the night before, her stomach was in anxious knots. She flushed with nervous heat. After this, she would commit herself to the relationship she had, instead one that would never be. Of course, Cayden was clueless and yammering on about a sports bar down the street, with the best wings in town. He wanted to take her there for dinner and challenged her to a few games of pool. She listened absently and looked at her reflection in the mirror.

“The future starts
now,” s
he told her own image and lowered her head to clear all other thoughts before blindly rushing down this road. There is no going back. She wouldn’t hurt Cayden that way. Not after all the changes, he’d made for her sa
ke. Not after all the betrayals
she’d witness happen to others and to her. If she ever went to Chase after being with Cayden, he would be crushed. She wouldn’t do that him, ever.

* * *

Cayden turned from the window he was peering out of and looked at Dani. She was braced against the dresser with her head hung low.

“Are you alright, A
ngel?” He put a gentle hand on her back. She lost a couple of inches in height when she kicked off her heels and Cayden wondered how someone so delicate and petite could be so very strong. He was watching her in the mirror when she raised her head and looked back at his reflection. Her ice-blue eyes somehow found a way to burn him. He called her an angel but the look she gave him had the devil written all over it. She maintained eye contact while pulling her dress over her head to drop it on the dresser. Then she turned to him, putting her hands on his chest, she looked up into his stunned hazel eyes.

“I want you Cayden, only you.” And she went up on her toes as he lowered his head to take her mouth. This was where things always got weird for Cayden. Her taste and smell were so overwhelming to him. She was like the most fragrant summer meadow and the sweetest smelling bakery all at once. He had never wondered what another vamp would taste like, but he wanted to taste her. It was the undercurrent of hunger he had for humans, but it only happened when they were intimately kissing and touching. Her purely feminine heat brought out strange desires he couldn’t understand. Kissing him more deeply she unbuttoned his shirt and backed him toward the bed. He cursed under his breath when she bravely reached down and stroked her hand over his fly and appraised the quickly rising situation with an appreciative purr. His insides instantly turned to molten lava. Her eyes were so smoky and inviting he hated to look away from them but he couldn’t resist sitting on the bed so he could lavish the swells of her perfect breasts with his mouth. He dropped her bra to the floor and sucked on one perfect nipple, gently scraping it with his teeth. Dani hissed with blissful pleasure.

She dug her fingers deep into his hair and continued to purr for him while he made his way to the other dusky pink nipple. She pushed his shirt off and encouraged him back onto the bed. Cayden was nervous in bed for the first time ever. He wanted her so badly but he felt like this would be the hour in which he lost his heart forever. There would be no going back for him once he had all of her. This would entirely destroy the man he had been in the past. She would own him down to his soul and it terrified him to be so completely at her mercy. She straddled him in nothing but her panties and he wished his pants were already gone. Before it went any further, he needed her to know that it wasn’t just sex for him. He wanted all of her, body and soul. Cayden looked up at the future in her beautiful eyes.

“I want you to love me, Dani, the way I love you.” His voice was full of the emotions swelling in his chest. He was nowhere near being able to mask his need for her acceptance.

Danielle smiled devilishly at him and whispered, “Make me love you, Cayden. Make me yours.”

TWENTY-TWO~

Dangerously close to the edge, Dani wanted to reach out to Cayden. She needed him to make her love him. She needed to trust him and let this happen. She reached to him with her mind to listen to his inner mind babble. It wasn’t fair but she needed reassurance that his feelings were genuine.

“I love her already,” he thought to himself, “She’s going to own me.”

He was afraid, more than even she was. This was completely new territory for him. He had no idea how to love and be loved in returned. She repeated her plea and he held himself over her, giving her one last chance to change her mind before the point of no return. He was hesitating to even take his pants off. This time he looked her in the eye while she spoke directly to his mind and allowed him to see himself through her eyes.

“Make me love you, Cayden. Please,” she begged telepathically.

He took a gasping breath and he realized what was happening. She showed him how loving and beautiful he was to her. She showed him how safe and cared for he made her feel in his strong arms. She sent him streams of memories of them together and the sadness she felt when they were apart, breathing deeply of his woodsy springtime scent mixed with leather and gunpowder from his time on the firing range that morning so he could experience the way he affected her in every way. She rose up to kiss him so he could taste his own delicious mouth on her tongue. He would surely know now that this was not one sided, she wanted him too. She just needed a little time to love him completely and this was the first step to their future.

“Dani, thi
s is amazing. Thank you.” He
realized it was a two-way connection and he could talk to her without leaving her lips. “I feel so close, like I’m inside you and surrounded by your soul.”