Page 145 of Only You

He nuzzled my ear. “Is it considered kidnapping if I tie you up and keep you here?”

“It depends on how many times you make me come,” I whispered. My traitorous dick was already on board with this plan. “I won’t press charges if you make it worth my while.”

Daniel sighed and released me. “I don’t have any rope.”

I laughed. “Better get some for next time then.”

In the kitchen, eating the leftover pizza, Daniel said, “Oh, by the way, word is Robert and Barry are hosting their annual Christmas party Friday. The last one in their current house.”

“Oh wow,” I murmured. As I chewed my mind flashed back to the year before. I’d been there with Adam, and we’d run into his ex from Rome. It seemed like a lifetime ago. Had it really only been a year?

“I was thinking we’d go together,” Daniel said. “And then we could come back here and put up a tree, decorate a little and make this a proper home for Christmas.”

I hesitated. “Okay. It sounds fun.”

“Does it? You sound unsure.”

“It’s silly.”

“Tell me.”

“The party…” I considered how to phrase it. “I want to go. It’s just that last year, I went with Adam.”

“I know. I saw you there.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, but you didn’t see me.”

“No, I didn’t.”

Daniel nodded. “It was the first time I ever saw you, and I couldn’t look away. You didn’t seem happy with the guy you were with, but I had no idea what was going on.”

“Oh.”

Daniel blushed. “I asked about you afterward. Robert and Barry warned me off. And then I saw you again when I came to look at Robert’s documentary work.”

“That’s when I first saw you.”

“Yeah. And then we met for real a bit later that day with the house plans, and afterward I asked even more about you…” He breathed out, touching my cheek. “By the time I saw you on the hill by Ayres Hall, I already knew I wanted you, but I had no idea how to have you.”

“Here I am.”

“Here you are.” Daniel slipped his hands under my shirt. “Are you sure you can’t stay?”

I breathed in the scent of his neck and kissed his collarbone. “I want to stay, but…” I groaned.

“But what?”

“I might beg you to do something you don’t think is right. I don’t want to pressure you.”

Daniel stiffened. “God, baby, you know I want to, but we can’t. We shouldn’t have.”

“It feltso right,” I whispered.

“It did.” Daniel’s voice was tight. “Right up until I knew I was going to come and then I panicked.”

Against my better judgment, I whispered, “You can always pull out again, if that relieves your anxiety about it. I trust you.”

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