Forbidden Valentine: A Forbidden Novel (15 page)

“Everyone on the playground was watching,” she added through her fit. “Can you just imagine?”

“All too well. I was there, remember? The worst was when this little girl started pointing and shouted ‘Mommy, what’s wrong with his tu-tu?”

That’s when they both lost it. Clutching each other, Ransom and Dani rode out the waves of laughter together until their stomachs hurt too much to keep going.

Performing deep breathing exercises finally helped to sober them up, and by the time they had a hold of themselves again, both were wiping tears from their eyes.

“God, I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard.” Hooking her by the neck, Ransom hauled her into a tight embrace. “Where have you been all my life?”

Sighing contentedly, Dani snuggled in, pressing her ear to the spot over his heart and listening to its strong, steady beat. “Waiting for you to find me.”

“You’re a regular poet, Miss Deviche.”

“And I didn’t even know it.”

“Now you’re just being silly.” Reaching for the remote, Ransom repositioned them on the couch so she was lying on top of him, then turned on the nightly news. As the reporter covered a traffic accident, Ransom idly traced his fingers down her spine, giving Dani a delightful case of goosebumps.

“Did you get a suit for the party?”

“No need. I already have one in the closet.”

“I hope I don’t embarrass you there. I’ve never been to anything fancy before.”

“You’ll be perfect. In case it makes you feel better, I’ve always hated these things. Typically, I avoid them at all costs, but this one is a smaller venue and now that I have you to latch onto, I figured it was a prime chance to go without feeling like a social leper.”

“You?” Dani lifted her head, surprised he would feel that way. “I thought you liked people. You teach roomfuls every day.”

“That’s different. I can’t explain it, but I don’t get nervous in front of a class. It’s everyone else I’d like to avoid.”

“So what is this thing for anyway?”

“Just a social thing the dean invited us to. Something about his fiancée throwing a dinner party. He was pretty scarce on the details, but it’s a dinner party. How bad could it be?”

SEVENTEEN

“HE’S A GREAT GUY, Dad. I can’t wait for you to meet him.”

“From what you’ve told me, he sounds great. I’m looking forward to it.”

Dani was sitting in her minute office, staring at a wall filled with framed degrees and awards she’d earned over the years. She’d been on her way out for the day when her father called, so she’d paused to chat.

When he’d left her mother, she’d been devastated. Despite his drinking, they’d been close, just as a father and daughter should be. So his leaving had come as a bit of a shock. Initially, she’d blamed herself, thinking she had done something wrong to cause him to leave. She’d spent years wondering what she could have done or said to ruin their family, but after running into him while attending her first year in college, she’d set aside her hurt and the feeling of betrayal and given him a chance.

He’d been working ever since to close the divide between them. He’d explained why he’d left—him and her mother had grown apart, fighting having taken place of love and affection—and set her young mind at ease. Although the pain of it still lingered in the recesses of her mind, Dani no longer blamed herself. She recognized that the fault rested at his feet and thought it sad that, while he was a successful therapist, he was unable to solve his own problems in his personal life.

Thankfully, she was adult enough now to set the past aside in order to forge ahead. She loved her father, wanted a relationship with him again, and that’s precisely what they were working toward.

Even though they didn’t talk regularly or often, whenever they did, it was like old friends coming together. They chatted easily, shared everything that had happened since the last call, and even laughed sometimes.

“I’m just glad to hear that you’re not still hung up on that Mark character. Vikki deserved him.”

Yes, she did. Having met as teens when her mother remarried a man who owned a landscaping business, Dani had never held much of a soft spot her for her stepsister, who seemed to view herself as a southern belle. So there was no love lost between them when she betrayed her like she had. “I bet you’re glad she’s not yours.”

Her father snorted. “Every day. Let her father deal with her.”

She agreed.

“I have an hour if you’d like to meet for an early dinner,” he offered, redirecting the conversation, and Dani frowned.

“Um, I can’t today. I’m meeting Mom. She’s helping me get ready for a thing I’m going to with Ransom tonight.”

His silence was telling. He didn’t like talking about her mother, preferring to leave the past in the past. So Dani did her best never to bring her up. So far, she’d done it twice.

“Well, next time then.”

She smiled faintly, wishing she hadn’t said anything at all. At the very least, she could have offered a different excuse, maybe said she was going out with Ransom. But, no, she had to tell the truth, and now he’d clammed up.

“Sure, that would be great.”

“Alright, sweetie. I’m going to take off. I have a meeting to get to, and I’m going to need to fill up on caffeine so I don’t fall asleep in front of the bosses.”

“Okay, Dad. Have a good day.”

“You, too, sweetie. Catch up with you later.” As was typical, he hung up without saying good-bye.

With a heavy heart, Dani pulled herself to her feet and slung her purse over her shoulder on her way out.

***

“DANIELLA MAY, IF YOU don’t stop squirming around, I’m going to bop you on the head with this brush. Now hold still!”

Dani promptly froze. When her mother used her middle name, she meant business. Through gritted teeth she said, “If you don’t stop ripping my hair out, I’m going to be bald.”

“Such a drama queen, just like your father.”

Dani rolled her eyes. She was always being compared to him. Anything that wasn’t ladylike or proper in her mother’s eyes was attributed to him. Clearly, she hadn’t gotten past his betrayal of leaving, but Dani wished she would. It was hard being stuck in the middle all the time. Was it too much to ask to just have two loving parents who could set aside their differences and focus on her?

“So when will your boyfriend be here again?”

Dani glanced up at the clock hanging on the wall. “Fifteen minutes.” Her head jerked back, wrenching her neck as her mother renewed her efforts.

“Honestly, you could have given me more time. Beauty doesn’t just happen, it has to be created.”

“Ransom likes me just fine the way I am.”

“Of course he does. You’re gorgeous. But there comes a time when natural beauty isn’t enough. You’re going to a party where you will be surrounded by the upper crust. Money and power comes with certain expectations, and at the top of that list is beauty. Tonight, you’re going to blow every one of those uptight prisses out of the water when you walk through the door on the arm of this city’s most eligible bachelor.”

“He’s not a bachelor anymore,” Dani reminded her.

“That’s right, and don’t you forget it. That man belongs to you and only you. There,” she sighed with satisfaction, “done.”

With a healthy amount of fear and skepticism circulating in her veins, Dani rose from the toilet lid and approached the vanity with caution. Her mother had a tendency to overdo things. Her own hair and makeup—reminiscent of Dolly Parton—was a testament to that. But when Dani took her first look in the mirror, she gasped.

“Mom!” Lightly, she touched her fingertips to her rosy cheeks, then skimmed the air around her smoky eyes, and finally, she touched her organza-colored lips in awe. “You made me so…pretty.”

Appearing in the mirror behind her, her mother set her hands on Dani’s shoulders and gave her a gentle squeeze. “I had a good base to start with.” She grinned widely, then squeaked. “Ah, you remind me of when I was young. Hell, we could have been twins!”

She seriously doubted that, since she took after her father in all ways, but whatever made her mother happy was just fine by her.

Turning around, she embraced her mother in a firm hug. “Thanks, Mom. You outdid yourself.”

Patting her on the back, she sniffled. “Anytime, sweetheart. Anytime.” With one last squeeze, she set her away and patted her flushed cheeks. “Now go, get ready before that man of yours gets here.”

The doorbell buzzed. Dani’s eyes widened and so did her mother’s. She made a shooing motion, ushering her out of the bathroom.

“That’s him! Go, get dressed. I’ll get the door.”

They scurried off in opposite directions, her mother toward the door and Dani toward her bedroom. Just before she closed herself inside the room, she heard her mother call out, “And be careful with your hair!”

A moment later, Ransom’s deep baritone filled the front room, making Dani’s stomach pitch and roll wildly with nerves. With a swarm of butterflies wreaking havoc on her, Dani slipped the dress she’d bought for this moment off the hanger and stepped into it.

It slid over her body like warm butter, the fabric soft and slinking, conforming to her curves in all the right places. It was luxurious without being over the top. More than anything, it was comfortable while still possessing the ability to make her feel beautiful. Not only would it stand out in a crowd and help her to fit in, but it was her. It represented everything she was and wanted to be—sophisticated and elegant without being pretentious.

Standing in front of her full-length mirror, Dani had to work hard not to cry. As it was, she was misty-eyed. Her hair, pulled up on one side and secured by a pearled comb, hung in gentle waves down to her shoulders, framing her face, which was so flawless as to be porcelain. She’d never seen herself look that way, like a nineteen-twenties movie star. It was such a surreal moment, she wished she had a camera handy to remember the moment.

A soft tap on the door broke her from her ruminations, and Dani moved to open it. On the other side, Ransom stood looking like a wedding cake topper. Dressed in a slim-fitting black and white three-pieced suit sans tie and the first two buttons on his white collared shirt undone, he was simply mouthwatering.

Dani took a moment to just stand there and soak him in, wishing they didn’t have to leave so she could pull him inside and tear his clothes from his body and have her wicked way with him. He seemed to be thinking the same thing about her.

Licking his lips, Ransom’s eyes skated down her body, lingering on her breasts, then her waist, her legs, and back up to her breasts, then finally her face and hair. “Good God, Dani, you’re trying to give me a heart attack. You weren’t kidding about the dress. You look amazing.” His hands reached out and skimmed down her arms. When he reached her hands, he took hold of them and lifted her arm out to her sides, looking his fill. “You have no idea the things I want to do to you right now. If we didn’t have to go to this party…” 

She laughed. “You must be a mind reader, because I was just thinking the same thing about you.” She made a slow perusal of him, giving him the same treatment he had her. “You look good enough to eat, Mr. Scott,” she purred, and delighted in the way his eyes flared with unbanked lust.

Gently, she extricated herself from his hold and turned to give him her back. Sweeping her hair over one shoulder, she said, “Zip me up?”

Taking a step closer, she could feel the tension that Ransom barely held checked, and it lit up her blood like nothing else. When his knuckles grazed her spine, Dani flinched with anticipation. Grasping the zipper, Ransom took his time zipping her into her dress, allowing the backs of his knuckles to ride over her sensitized skin inch by tantalizing inch.

Dani’s breathing turned labored the longer he dragged it out, teasing her into a lust-fueled haze that had her wishing that, by some stroke of luck, they’d get a reprieve from a party she no longer had any interest in attending. Staying in, wrapped in her boyfriend’s arms, their naked bodies entwined throughout the night, sounded much more enticing.

As the material pulled closed around her shoulder blades, Ransom’s lips found the back of Dani’s neck. He pressed gentle kisses along her vertebrae then across to her shoulder, the light scrape of his teeth tightening her nipples to painful points.

Dani’s core throbbed with need and her heart felt ready to burst. She closed her eyes, resting her head back on his shoulder and sinking back against his chest with a soft moan.

“I wish we could stay. Can’t we stay?”

Finished with her zipper, Ransom’s arms circled her waist, his hands flattening over her stomach. Resting his chin on her shoulder, he held her close. “I wish, but I promised to at least make an appearance.”

“I’d much rather be naked and in bed with you. I found a book online that’s teaching me how to tickle your pickle. I was thinking we could try out some of it tonight.”

Ransom made some interesting noises, all of which sounded like he was choking on his words. She looked back over her shoulder to make sure he wasn’t turning blue.

With wide eyes, Ransom asked, “You looked up instructions on how to give me a blowjob?”

“I heard that!” her mother shouted from the living room.

“Oh, God,” Dani groaned.

“Are you doing it again? Should I leave?”

“We’re just talking, Mrs. Deviche,” Ransom assured her. With a strange look in his eyes, Ransom grasped Dani’s chin and, lowering his voice, asked, “You did that, for me?”

Dani’s heart pounded. “I would do anything for you.”

His eyes narrowed and his fingers pinched her chin. “You’re a fucking dream,” he murmured, then his lips crashed down on hers.

His chest pressed against her back, his hands holding her firmly in place, and he devoured her with abandon. His tongue swiped the seam of her lips, begging entry, and Dani opened for him. Throwing herself into the kiss, she reached back, grasping the back of his head, heedless of her hair or makeup and uncaring of all the time and effort her mother had put into it.

The only thing that mattered in that moment was the way she felt in Ransom’s arms—safe, desired, and loved.

But as much as she wanted the moment to never end, Ransom eventually broke the kiss. “We need to get going, babe.” She stuck out her bottom lip, pouting, and he chuckled. Turning her to face him, he used his thumbs to fix her makeup. “I’m not fond of the idea either, but think of it as motivation for getting out of there faster. We pop in, make our rounds, and be back here before you know it.”

Grasping his lapels, Dani lifted onto her toes and touched her lips to his. “I’m going to hold you to that.”

“Please do.” His hand came down on her backside with an audible smack, and Dani jumped. “Get your shoes on, woman. I’ll meet you by the front door.”

She watched him go before retrieving the pair of black strappy heels from her closet and slipping her feet into them. As she buckled the straps around her ankles, she thought about the night ahead, plotting and planning all the tips and tricks from her new book she planned to try out on him, and grinned.

Tonight was going to be one for the books.