Bliss Series Boxed Set: The Whole Damn Harem (14 page)

A fucking coming out party? For Daniel and I? Even though we’re not
not
dating and aren’t sleeping with other people?

Fuck me dead!

We may be monogamous, but that’s all it is. We spend a lot of time together, we sleep together, and I only agreed to this BBQ outing because I saw the unease on Daniel’s face when he first suggested it and I hated to disappoint him. That look tugs on heart strings I thought I’d severed long ago.

“Right, okay,” I say determinedly, downing the last of my wine and taking my glass back to the kitchen. “I’m ready to get this over with if you are.”

Daniel is frowning. He rubs his face with his spare hand, finishing his beer before stepping towards me. He wraps one hand around my waist and pulls me in flush against him, cupping my cheek with the other and pulling my lips close to his.

“Mac, don’t over think this. It’s just a BBQ with some friends of mine. Nothing more.” He kisses me slowly but surely, taking his time to make sure he clears my head of anything except the way he’s consuming me. He eventually eases back until our lips are barely touching. “But thank you for coming with me. It means a lot.”

“You can make it up to me later. Maybe we can break another record,” I say, trying to break the sudden serious tone of this conversation.

“Well, I’ve always been told that I’m an overachiever.”

And with that, Delicious Daniel is back to his best. He takes my hand in his, entwining our fingers in that way that makes my heart sigh and my body melt, and walks me to the door to lead me out to his waiting car.

Twenty minutes later, we’re parking outside a nice unassuming two story house in the suburbs amongst a number of other cars, indicating that this is more than just a ‘small’ gathering of friends. I look over at Daniel who suddenly looks nervous. He runs his hand through his dark hair before turning towards me.

“I like that you’re here with me, Mac. Thank you for doing this.”

He’s unusually tense, like he’s afraid of something...afraid of my reaction to this. I hate knowing that I’ve done this to him.

I lean over and rest my hand on his jaw, feeling the slight furriness of his stubble. A shudder rushes through me at the thought of other places where that stubble feels just as good. “I’m here to be with you. Let’s go meet your friends and have some fun,” I say, gently brushing my lips against his, trying to reassure him.

He moves into the kiss, wrapping his hand possessively around my neck and sliding his tongue against mine. I whimper into his mouth, spurring him on as his hunger takes over. He nips my bottom lip before tracing his tongue along it, soothing the gentle sting. My other hand rests on his chest, right over his heart which is thudding rapidly under my touch.

This is too much for me. My head is fuzzy as our tongues continue their tangled embrace, our bodies acting like magnets, unable to get close enough. I tear my lips away from him, lowering my head to his shoulder as I try to catch my breath, and regain my senses.

“Tell me you feel this, gorgeous? Tell me I’m not dreaming this,” he rasps against my temple.

“I’m feeling it, and it’s scaring the shit out of me,” I whisper.

I feel rather than hear his sigh of relief, but the tension seeping out of his entire body as the words leave my mouth is unmistakable.

We sit like that for a few minutes, not moving. A blaring horn snaps us out of it, and we pull apart. I look up at Daniel’s beautiful face, relishing in the sly grin on his face.

“What?” I ask with a smile.

“Nothing. You’re just even more beautiful with messed up hair and swollen lips.” Then, he has the audacity to smirk at me.

“Shit,” I mutter before pulling down the overhead mirror and trying to repair the damage. “Lucky I bought emergency supplies then, isn’t it?” I wink at him as I open my purse and proceed to touch up my lip gloss and fix up my hair. “There, just like new.”

“Let’s get this show on the road,” Daniel says opening his door and circling the car before opening mine. He holds his hand out to me and entwines our fingers together as he helps me out, closing the door behind me and walking towards the party...and Noah.

Let the fun and awkwardness begin.

Walking through the open front door of Noah’s townhouse, I’m struck by how totally unlike him it is. At the hospital, he’s cocky, on the hot side of arrogant, and as Zoolander would say, ‘Really, really, good looking’. He is a great guy when you get past all that, though. I wouldn’t have been sleeping with him for so long otherwise. I mean, we may call him the walking dildo, and the ego definitely matches the size of his one-eyed trouser snake, but there is more to him than his nine inch monster, something that is obvious as I look around his house.

The foyer has a high ceiling and a marble floor with a curved staircase leading up to the second floor. The room is decorated with a walnut side table and a huge mirror facing the door. All in all, it feels like a home. A rather decadent home, but still. I had expected Noah to have a bachelor pad from hell. Clean – yes, but not this Chicago surburbia meets Beverly Hills mansion feel to it. I’m half expecting a butler to show up at any minute.

Daniel sees my wide eyed expression and chuckles, “Mac, it’s just a house.”

I turn to look up at him. “This isn’t a house, Superman. This is a townhouse on steroids. I bet he even has a pool with a waterfall. Maybe even a grotto like Hugh Hefner.”

That makes Daniel snort. “Pfft, he wishes. He may talk the talk, Mac, but Noah is no Hugh Hefner. I’m beginning to wonder how well you know the guy,” he says, quirking his eyebrow.

“I’m starting to wonder that myself. Not that it matters because I’m here with Superman. Hugh Hefner wannabes have nothing on you,” I reply with a grin before standing on my toes to kiss him.

He grabs my hands and wraps them around my back, deepening the kiss and pulling my body hard against his erection that is now digging into my thigh.

When we hear someone clearing their throat, I squeak and pull my body and my hands away. I turn to see Noah leaning against the wall watching us.

“Don’t stop on my account. I was enjoying the show,” he says with a huge shit-eating grin which makes me blush.

“Shut up, Taylor,” Daniel says as he looks down at me and smirks. “It’s not my fault she finds me irresistible.”

“It kinda is, you know.” I look up at him and grin, squealing when he squeezes my ass cheek which is still firmly attached to his hand.

Noah pipes up, “Well, are you two going to stand here all day and make out in my foyer, or are you going to come out back and catch up with everyone else?”

“Sorry, I can’t seem to keep her off me. It’s such a hard life,” Daniel adds, shaking his head in jest.

“Excuse me! I’m right here you know!” I say laughing. “C’mon, let’s go meet your friends so I can dig some dirt about your college days.”

“Shit, didn’t think of that.” he replies, grabbing my hand and entwining my fingers. I look over and see that Noah is still standing there looking at us.

I quickly lean up and kiss Daniel hard on the mouth. “You’re gonna pay for this later, you know,” I say with knowing eyes.

“Looking forward to it.”

“After you, Makenna,” Noah says, gesturing for me to go first. I walk past him, Daniel following close behind.

I hear the guys chatting idly behind me.

“You better not be checking out my ass, Noah,” I say, looking over to my shoulder just in time to see Noah lift his gaze from my ass and Daniel look over, catching him do it.

“Taylor, quit it,” he says as he slaps the back of Noah’s head jokingly.

“But it’s a nice ass,” Noah replies cockily.

“It’s my ass now so eyes off,” I hear Daniel mumble behind me as he walks forward and grabs my hand, walking towards a group of people standing around the swimming pool with - yup, you guessed it - a waterfall.

“See, told you there would be a waterfall,” I say with a smirk.

Noah pipes up, “You can’t have a pool without a water feature, Mac.”

“Apparently,” I reply dryly.

“Dan!”

“Winters.”

“D-bag.” (must remember to ask him about that one later).

A bunch of man hugs ensue, followed by cheek kisses to the partners of the previously mentioned men, all the while never letting go of my hand as much as I try to tactfully wiggle it free.

“This is Mac, my girl…ah, friend,” he says nonchalantly, like he hasn’t just freaked me the fuck out.

Girlfriend? Is that what he was about to say? Why not ‘girl who I’m fucking exclusively’ or ‘the woman I’m not
not
dating.

I suddenly find myself feeling nervous again. He’s already told me that he hasn’t brought a woman to one of these get-togethers for a long time, and now he’s having trouble even introducing me. This must be harder on him than I thought.

“Hey, nice to meet you all,” I say to the group who are all now looking at me with renewed interest. I knew I should have dragged Kate along to this. At least then I would have known someone other than Walking Dildo who is still watching me like I’m a freak show at the circus.

He hadn’t seen me out of my scrubs until a few weeks ago at the Bears’ game. Scratch that, he’s seen me out of my scrubs A LOT, just not socially like this.

“So, I better introduce everybody. That’s Dave and his wife, Sheree,” Daniel says, pointing to a gorgeous man with his equally gorgeous, and very pregnant wife who are standing to our right. “Sheree is expecting their first son any day now as you can see.”

“That’s so cool, congratulations,” I say to her.

“Thanks, we’re pretty excited,” she replies, rubbing her swollen belly and looking up at Dave adoringly. It’s so cute.

“And this is Gary, who I work with, and his partner, Louise. Then there’s Thomas and Cade who you’ve met already, and that’s Matt, Noah’s younger brother.” My eyes go wide as I realize that Matt is just a younger version of Noah. I mean seriously, a spitting image. It’s like he’s a mini Walking Dildo. Wait, that doesn’t sound quite right, does it? I bet there is nothing mini about any of the males in Noah’s family.

After saying hi to everyone, Daniel wraps his arm around my shoulders and pulls me in to his side, lightly kissing my temple. It’s one of my favorite Daniel-isms. It makes me feel cherished, so I instantly relax.

“So how’s work been, Danny Boy?” Thomas pipes up.

“Really busy, but profitable, and that’s what matters,” he replies, still holding me to his side.

“And how about you, Mac? What do you do for a job?” Cade asks, turning the attention back to me.

I smile. Questions like this I can answer. “I’m a nurse at Northwestern.”

“Ah, so you work with Taylor then?”

“Sure do. Different floors, but we see each other occasionally,” I reply, not realizing what I’ve said until I feel Daniel stiffen momentarily beside me.

Knowing that I’m digging myself into a hole, I decide to extricate myself from the situation.

“Will you excuse me for a moment? I’m just going to find the bathroom,” I say, trying to move away from Daniel and turn towards the house.

“Hey,” he says quietly, holding onto my hand and squeezing gently. “Are you okay?” He looks concerned.

“Definitely. I won’t be long,” I say as he lets go of my hand and I walk away from the group.

When I finally find one, I lock the door and put the lid down on the toilet. I pull out my phone and call Kate.

“Yo, bitch,” she says when she answers.

“I need to freak out, vent, you know, get some shit out of my head.”

“Go,” she says instantly.

“Okay. So we’re at Noah’s house which, by the way, is totally over the top cool. I’m talking marble floors, staircases, a huge ass swimming pool with a freaking waterfall at the side. Noah’s already caught Daniel and I making out in his entrance way, and then they were both checking out my ass which was totally understandable because I have a tight ass, but still, not the point. Anyway, so Daniel introduces me to his friends that are here, and they’re all really nice, and one of them is like eleven months pregnant by the looks of her, and she’s looking up at her hubby Dave like they’re newlyweds and it’s really cute, and Daniel almost introduced me as his girlfriend but stopped himself, then I totally put my foot in my mouth by saying that I work with Noah, but I see him occasionally which Daniel totally misunderstood because I wasn’t meaning like that, but I know he took it like that, and now I’m hiding out in the bathroom pretending to pee and talking to you on the phone, trying to work out how the hell I got here and how to get through this without putting my foot in my mouth again, or pissing Daniel off, or hurting him, or getting annoyed by Noah who, by the way, is totally different outside of the hospital apparently because he lives in a fucking suburban paradise with a freaking waterfall.”

I take a second to catch my breath since I swear I didn’t stop to breathe at all during that verbal tirade.

Kate is giggling her tits off down the phone at me.

“Don’t laugh. This is serious,” I say, trying to stifle my own laughter.

“Mac, seriously, this is funny shit. I wish I’d recorded that because as far as rants go, that was epic.”

I give up trying to hold back, and crack up laughing. “Oh my God, Kate, seriously! What am I going to do?”

When she finally composes herself, I hear a deep breath over the phone. “Mac, you need to tell Inner Mac to put her big girl panties on and suck it up. Daniel’s friends sound nice and yes, you probably did put your foot in it, but by the sounds of it you’re doing fine. Just go with it, Mac. Enjoy yourself, enjoy Delicious Daniel, and relax.”

Sighing over the phone, I feel my whole body loosen, almost like her words were the salve I needed. “God, I love you,” I tell her.

“I know. Who else would put up with you?”

“Exactly!” I reply with a giggle.

“Now enough about you and your rant. Any hot single guys there?”

“Well, there is Noah’s younger brother…”

“There’s a mini walking dildo?”

“Well not so mini, but yes, he’s hot too. Serious potential there, but not sure of his single status,” I add.

“Hook a sister up. Find out his deets, and we’ll have a full debrief in the morning. Are you staying at Daniel’s tonight?”