Wicked Flower (33 page)

“Stefan?” she asked. He wanted to
stop her from saying the word NO before it fell off her sweet lips. But
something told him he was going to have to hear this out. “That means so much
to me.” A tear dropped from her eye and he hadn’t even seen it form. “More than
you can ever know.”

“But?” he said.

“Just that I can’t go right away.
But soon, two months.” Her voice kicked up at the end like she doubted he’d
wait for he. God, she was wrong.

“Really?” He was stunned and a
huge part of him didn’t believe he was hearing her right. Stefan cupped
handfuls of her hair, wishing he could snap his fingers and make everything
work how and when he wanted it. Not in two months, but now goddamit.

Trista’s words rang in his ears.
It felt like the world was fucking with him and he was not thrilled. But Dani
was right. He knew she was. How fucking unfair was it that this Thom had broken
her heart in an email yet the world would come crashing to an end before she
even dreamed of not speaking with him face to face?

He heard her begin to cry, a
steady stream of tears and hiccups. His arms were around her, holding her
tight. He couldn’t see her like this but he was the only one allowed to protect
and surround her until she felt better.

“Hey, what’s this all about,
huh?” He had to make it stop.

“I hate saying no to you.” Her
voice hitched and the cries became wet. She sniffed.

Stefan caressed her back, her
sides and her shoulders, realizing he had to be patient. That she was worth it.
“I understood that to be a yes but not right now,” he whispered the truth to
her, not caring about the pain it caused him to have to share her in any
capacity with any other man. Two months wasn’t that long, he reminded himself. He
could see them living a life, a fun life that meant something. One where he was
happy most days. “There are places I want to take you. Fuck, I want you on tour
with me, sweetheart.” He ran his fingers through her hair and massaged her
scalp that she let fall heavily into his hands. But he knew that was
impossible. “If I could just get you to Nashville. Now.” His hands roamed over
her body, harder now, greedier. “But I can’t take you away from my mom. There’s
still that.” His nose nuzzled past all her hair so that he could suckle her
neck.

She cried out a tiny moan, which
he loved. “You didn’t remind me. That was part of my good news,” she said, her
voice huskier than it had been before. What was she saying? “I talked to your
mom. She says she’s willing to give Tennessee a try if…” Her voice trailed off
as she stretched her neck for him.

“If what?”

“If I am, she is. And if you’re
willing to wait and let me do what I have to do with Thom. Then she’s on board.”

Mom didn’t want him to rush Dani
and have it come back to bite him in the ass. Just like she’d said.

“She loves you. Like a daughter.
She told me that.” His mom was wise and Stefan could learn a thing or two from
her.

His fingers hadn’t felt enough of
Dani’s body and he adjusted so he could skim his hands down her thick, luscious
thighs. God, her ass felt so good. He wanted to lay a kiss to her belly but he
held back and stayed nibbling at the peach fuzz near her earlobe stealing
glances down the front of her body, over her full breasts and between them to
her swollen belly.

“Dani, how can I take you away
from your life here? In what universe am I that worthy? So what, I’m a fucking
musician? Are you sure?” She, a twenty something young woman had to be the one
to have the unselfish thought of taking the time to do the right things. She
was so much better than him. If he pushed too hard without making it clear what
she was getting herself into with him, that’s what he could see coming back to
bite him in the ass. If he ever disappointed Dani like he’d done his mom, he’d
never get over it. He’d be just like Will. Stuck. “This beautiful baby growing
in your belly isn’t mine. He belongs to a young man risking his life for our country.”
Dani twirled on him and kissed his shoulder. She ran her hand up and touched
the stubble growing back on his face. His abs shuddered when she started touching
the ink running up his ribs on the side using the lightest touch of her
fingertips.

“Stop it. You’re stuck in your
head. I want you stuck here with me. All these things you’re worrying about,
there’s a fix for everything. We can figure it out. You took the biggest step
when you invited me just now. That was huge and I know that.” He felt her
wiggle onto his thigh. Oh, fuck.

 
She made sense but he couldn’t stop the
thoughts from coming as they rubbed against each other. He found a new spot to
kiss her and his cock jumped when he felt the goose bumps he’d just given her. Her
hard nipples scraped against his chest and he groaned inside. Still, the world
hadn’t wanted Stefan to be a father to his own child and so that baby had died
in Amanda’s belly. Who the fuck was he to think he had any right to this man’s
baby?

His mom was right. Just like
she’d been when she asked Stefan to move out on his eighteenth birthday. The
whole town had thought he was a shameful, selfish asshole. He wasn’t back then
but he’d sure grown into one. In a bitter twist, he knew he was no different
than his dad. Better or worse didn’t matter. He’d strung Dani along just like
Dad had done to Mom. To get what he wanted, he’d strung her along this whole
visit with what? The promise of one great night of sex? Her nipples, dark and
rosy, held his attention. And then he’d gone and asked her for something she should
never do. To put her trust in him and join his crazy life.

“Saying yes, it makes you as
selfish as me. I can’t make you like me, Dani.”

New tears welled up in her eyes
and fell when she blinked.

“Hey, hey, shhhh. Don’t cry. It’s
okay. I shouldn’t have asked.” He wiped away her new tears and kissed her
cheekbone.

“You’re taking it back and
pulling away.” Her face broke his heart. “If it’s because I asked you to wait …
Two months. Three max. That’s all I’m asking you for,” she said to him, killing
him with that pained look and her shiny eyes. “I am willing to try this if you
are. Are you, Stefan?” Her brows hiked up with her question.

Her hope gave him a glimmer of it
too. But she needed someone who would be with her forever. A partner for life. Could
he be that for her?

“I’ll be on the road in two
months. You’ll have to get settled in all on your own. I won’t have any time to
help.” She’d be so pregnant by then.

“Oh.” Her face fell. He was such
a dick.

“Sweetheart, I meant that of
course I’ll wait. I just wanted to be there, you know. I’m not a very patient
man. And I don’t like to share what’s mine.” Stefan took her face in his hands
and kissed her nose, aware he was slowly committing to her. “I also can’t lie
to you. Dani, you deserve someone who wants to make love to you, and I do. But
I also still want to fuck you, sweetheart. Does that sound like the kind of
boyfriend you want? Huh? Tell me the truth.”

“What about all we’ve been
through in the last week makes you think you can say that to me? Huh?” Her
forehead wrinkled with the honest question. He smoothed the lines with his
thumbs and kissed each of her eyebrows, remembering when he’d used those words
on her.

“You’re right. Let me make it up
to you.” Stefan caressed the top swells of her hips and then slid her panties
down and off. He helped her into the tub and reset the jets. They fired up but
all he could see was the hour glass of a woman he was following after. He held
her hand so she didn’t slip and then scooted her down to sit between his legs.
On her own, she scooted until her back melted into his chest. This felt so
right. He wanted to try.

“Dani,” he kissed the top and
sides of her hair, she had so much of it and it smelled like coconut heaven. “The
reason I couldn’t answer you earlier, about being on tour.”

“Yes?” Her hand floated over the
water and found his. She caught it and laced their fingers together. “Why Stefan?
What was going on there?”

“I haven’t had a monogamous
relationship since I was sixteen years old.”

“Oh. Wow.”

Their passion was still thick but
he found talking to her while he touched
her a
major
turn on. Even with the heaviness. He played with her hair both on top of her
head and hidden between her legs.

“Yeah, and thanks by the way. Disturbing,
right?”

“Sorry. No. It’s just a long time
to go without someone steady. Someone you can count on.” Dani ran her fingers
up and down his arms. “So what happened that scared you off relationships so
badly? And lest I remind you my ass just got dumped via email so…”

“Message
received, wise ass.”
But he loved her for it. “You’ve heard me talk
about Amanda. She was fourteen, I was sixteen. We’d known each other since
kindergarten. Small town stuff, you know how that goes.” Dani shook her head
that she did and crooked her head to look at him. Her gentle smile encouraged
him to go on.

This was friendship. This was
what he craved with her. This was what Will was talking about.

“How long did you and Amanda
date?”

“She asked me to the Sadie
Hawkins dance in seventh grade. Well, she was in seventh grade. I was already a
freshman but I went because she was cute and her parents were friends with
mine. We had a good time. I kissed her. She slapped me. But then about a year
later I asked her out again.”

“I bet she said yes. I bet she
couldn’t resist you.”

“She did say yes. She also slept
with me that first night.”

“Well that’s no surprise. Were
you guys each other’s firsts?”

“It was her first time but I’d
already been with someone.”

Stefan needed inside Dani. He
wanted her riding him while the water sloshed wherever the hell it felt like
it. He washed her skin with his hands, wetting where she was dry and watching
the water run its way back down her body.

“Let me guess. Babysitter?
Librarian?”

He maneuvered so that he lay back
against the tub’s edge and pulled her to him. “Babysitter. Come here. Sit on my
stomach.” She did and he realized he didn’t like being in the bath water
because he wanted to feel her wetness rubbing against his abs with no mistake
of whether it was her or the water.

“Oh Hon, you know I’m only
teasing, right?”

“I do and I like it. I have a
friend, her name is Tris. She’d love that you call me that.”

Dani smiled and he must have
embarrassed her because her cheeks looked like the roses he’d spent all day
drowning in. He could drown in her right now. “So what all happened with Amanda
then? I’ve been curious but didn’t want to pry.” she asked him, skipping over
what he’d shared about Tris and rubbing her hairs against his. He pressed down
on her ass cheeks, guiding her and keeping her off his hard on for now. He
realized Tris, Jaxon, Benny, they were his family and he wanted them all to
know Dani. Yeah, he guessed he could see where that would make even his little
firecracker a little nervous.

“We went steady that year. Like
any other horny sixteen year old, I found ways for us to be together. I had
heard from my buddy that as long as I always pulled out before I came that I wouldn’t
get her pregnant. It worked for a whole year but one night my stupidity caught
up with me. I did get her pregnant. When she told me, I was scared shitless but
I promised to help her anyway I could. I loved her as much as any sixteen year
old dumb ass could.”

“Did you have a job or anything?
Did you guys tell your parents?” Her back arched when he toyed with her nipples
and she continued to ride his stomach. Fuck, he needed to get them out of this
tub.

“I got a job fast. My high school
music teacher ran the Moonlight Emporium so he hired me to work on the weekends
and during the summer, cleaning up and helping stock the instruments that came
in for repair from the schools. It wasn’t much but it was something.”

“It sounds like you had a plan. A
good one for such a young kid. So what happened?”

“I thought I was running things.
I had a part-time job which I was willing to make full-time when I quit school,
a girlfriend and a baby on the way. I felt like a man. Then one day Amanda came
crying to me that she couldn’t see me anymore. Said she hated me. Unfortunately,
she yelled this during dinner with my parents at our house. Thinking back, I’m
sure her parents found out she was pregnant and gave her crap about being with
me. Shit, I might as well tell you now that my dad had been seeing someone else
behind Mom’s back and the whole town knew about it.”

Dani’s hot ass riding of his abs
went still and she brought her knees up. “No way. Really?”

“Yeah. People didn’t talk much
because they liked my mom but I know they knew. They looked at me and dad like
we were scum. Amanda’s parents had to have hated that their baby girl got mixed
up with a Calderon. Well, long story short, about a week later my parents had
their answer to why Amanda had freaked out on me at dinner that night. Her mom
called to tell my mom about the pregnancy, the miscarriage and that she should
be ashamed of having me as her son.”