All of You (28 page)

She threw her arms around Kat and put her lips close to Kat’s ear. “I’m not sorry, but I’m sorry you’re angry. Just go with it, okay? Give things a chance to work out.” Stella pulled back to meet Kat’s narrowed, dangerously close to crying eyes and smiled knowingly. “Trust me,
cara
.”

Thank God Stella chose that minute to let her go or Kat might have started crying in her sister’s arms.

But Kat was so stupidly happy to be close to him again.

She’d been missing his face – and everything else about him – so damn much.

“You know I
have to kill her, don’t you?” Danny kept his eyes squarely on Nathan’s profile, head shaking. “You do realize that, no matter how much I love you both, I have no choice but to strangle her tonight, right? That there is seriously no other option?”

The treacherous, wily, deceptively lovely object of Danny’s seething fury bounced back to the table and shot Danny a guilty – but somehow still infuriatingly triumphant – look.

Despite Nathan’s warning, Stella leaned into Danny’s space and grinned. “I seem to remember a similar situation occurring some months back. You pulled a lot of shit that night at
The Stony Lonesome
, Danny, remember?”

When he glared at her, Stella laughed. “I know, I know. And I wish I could say revenge is why I did this, but it’s not.” Her smile softened and she squeezed his hand. “Sometimes these things need a tiny push. You watch…it’ll all work out.”

Stella turned to deal with Nathan’s raging disapproval and Danny grabbed his glass of Jack on the rocks. He tossed it back, still shooting daggers at the back of Stella’s head.

He was going to do some pushing, all right. But it would involve Stella and the I-71 overpass.

When Danny couldn’t stand it a second longer, he glanced in Kat’s direction, his mouth watering, his dick hardening, and his chest aching right on cue.

She didn’t want him, but that didn’t mean Kat still wasn’t the sexiest damn woman in the room.

By a long, long shot.

Sparkly Converse kicks, tight jeans that hugged her perfect legs and ass, and a form-fitting, long-sleeved, black tee shirt emblazoned with a bunch of female Marvel characters and the words
Girl Power
. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she had her glasses on…

Danny shifted uncomfortably in his chair, trying to get his erection under control. Because all he could think about was how ridiculously adorable she was and how much he wanted to fuck the living shit out her.

Right now.

This very minute.

Wasn’t sure how he was going to keep breathing if he didn’t.

Too bad Kat wouldn’t so much as
glance
his way.

She spent the next fifteen minutes ignoring the hell out of him while Danny tried not to notice. With each gulp he took and each smile she gave someone else, Danny’s hurt and anger increased, until he realized he was flat-out staring at Kat like a pathetic, desperate, enraged fool.

Nathan walked around to Danny’s side of the table, grabbed an empty chair, and sat down. He rested his forearms on his knees and leaned in. “You doing okay there, Mac?”

Danny snorted and drained the rest of his drink before slamming the glass down hard enough to attract Kat’s attention – for one fucking second. He gave her a huge, shit-eating grin before she turned away again.

Danny shrugged. “Yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Maybe you should slow down on the Jack,” Nathan said. “We don’t want anything bad happening tonight, right?”

Danny snorted again, openly staring at Kat’s profile.

He knew she felt it. And that her family saw it. Hell, a blind man could have seen the pitiful way he was panting after her.

“Maybe we should get you home,” Nathan said.

Danny flagged down the waitress and ordered another drink, ignoring Nathan as hard as Kat was ignoring him until, with a profanity-laced mutter, Nathan walked backed to Stella and sat down.

A new song came on and Stella said, “I love this!”

Nathan’s lip curled. “What is this shit?”

“It’s ‘Dark Horse,’ by Katy Perry.” She leaned her body into Nathan’s upper arm and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “Come on, let’s dance. Just one song.” When Nathan quirked a brow, Stella straightened stood and tugged on his arm. “I know, I know, but, come on!” She grinned. “You don’t have to do anything but stand there.” Stella leaned down and kissed his cheek. “
Please,
baby?”

Nathan’s expression made it clear he’d rather swallow a handful of poisonous tacks, but he slowly stood up. “Thank you!” Stella dragged him out onto the edge of the dance floor. They intertwined their fingers, Nathan wrapped their arms around behind her back, and they leaned into each other.

And swayed.

A little.

Barely noticeably.

It was as close as Nathan was ever going to get to dancing, but Stella didn’t seem to mind. She smiled up at him adoringly and then rested her cheek against his chest, moving her body more animatedly to the music while Nathan pretty much stood still.

The whole fucking tableau made Danny sick to his stomach, because he wanted to touch
his
woman, hold
his
woman, and have
his
woman look up at him like that.

Never mind she wasn’t
his
woman and never would be. She’d made it more than clear that she didn’t want him and that whatever it was they had going on between them wasn’t worth figuring out, fighting for, or even fucking
trying
.

Well, in that case…

Danny worked the room like he’d done a million times before. He was an old pro at putting a vibe out there, catching a woman’s eye, and letting nature take its course.

As he scanned his surroundings, Danny quickly realized doing this tonight – with Kat sitting six feet away and his heart smashed to smithereens beneath her sneakers – was going to be a lot more difficult.

Good thing he was nothing if not resilient. And determined. It’s how he’d survived his life up until this point and how he’d survive the rest of it.

Without
her
.

It didn’t take long for Danny to lock eyes with a tall, slender blonde with a short bob haircut, standing nearby with a group of her friends. She had crystal blue eyes framed by lots of dark, glittery eye shadow, nice, plump lips, and unnaturally large tits – which were currently on display under a thin layer of black see-through mesh. A band of black spandex covered her nipples and part of her stomach, but left very little else to the imagination.

Yep. She’ll do just fucking fine.

He curled his upper lip, his hooded gaze roaming slowly over every inch of her body. By the time Danny met her eyes again, she was smiling coyly and biting her bottom lip, head tilted in at a
come hither
angle.

Danny slowly shook his head…

And two seconds later, she was cat-walking his way.

Gigi grabbed Kat’s
hand and squeezed. She leaned in, so Kat could hear without her screaming. “Wanna tell me what’s going on with you and Danny?”

Kat shook her head, continuing to shred a cocktail napkin until it was ripped into ten equal-sized squares.

“Kat, talk to me. I…” Gigi’s words trailed off and her eyes abruptly lifted to something above Kat’s head.

Kat turned around and her stomach lurched. She immediately constricted her throat muscles to keep whatever was in her stomach from coming back up her esophagus and spewing all over the table.

Because there was a woman.

A tall, beautiful, blonde woman.

On Danny’s lap.

A tidal wave of blood from Kat’s head dropped to her feet, draining her face of all color and leaving her light-headed and off-kilter.

The woman threw her head back, laughing at something Danny said, as she ran her hands through the front of his hair.

Exactly the way Kat had done a few days ago. When he’d had his head in
her
lap…after they’d talked and kissed…and…

If she hadn’t known better, physiologically, Kat would have sworn her heart had stopped working. That it was literally broken…shattered into a million pieces now floating around inside of her pericardial cavity.

Tears blurred her vision, making the image of Danny wrapping his arm around the woman’s waist and giving her a sly grin swim before her eyes.

Gigi squeezed her hand, trying to pull Kat’s attention away from Danny. “Let’s go,
cara
.”

Gigi’s voice sounded faint and far away, almost like she was at the opposite end of a very long tunnel. But Kat had no ability to answer her or do anything other than watch the woman slide off Danny’s lap, grab his hand, and pull him onto the dance floor.

Time seemed to slow down and everything went quiet in Kat’s brain as Danny grabbed the woman’s hips, pulling her into him as they began moving their bodies to the beat of whatever song was currently playing.

Besides the loss of her mom and Stella’s breast cancer fight, the pain was unlike anything Kat had ever known…

Watching Danny touch another woman that way, watching another woman’s hands on a man Kat now realized she deep-down considered
hers
.

Especially when they were doing something Kat really couldn’t do. She’d danced like Elaine from
Seinfeld
before MS; Kat could only imagine how awful she’d be at it now.

Not that anyone had ever bothered asking.

Not that
Danny
had bothered asking.

Actually, he did ask you…at Nathan and Stella’s bachelor/bachelorette party. But you pushed him away. You rejected him. And last night you did it again.

And now you wanna get all pissy because he’s moving on?

Apparently the answer was,
Hell, yes!
Because every piece of her heart and every cell in her brain screamed it all at once.

The jealousy and utter fury tore at her soul and it was all Kat could do not to march over there and hurt them both as much as they were hurting her.

If that was even possible.

Kat didn’t know the tears were falling until she felt Stella’s hands on her face, wiping them away.

“
Nathan, do something
,” Stella hissed, turning Kat around so she couldn’t see Danny and wiping at her damp face with a stack of napkins.

Nathan huffed. “
You
did this. I told you not to interfere, didn’t I, Stella? But, no, you had to-”

When Stella shot him a look that would have felled a lesser man, Nathan crossed his arms over his chest with a sigh and glanced back at Danny.

“Just take me home. Please,” Kat said, shoving Stella’s hands away. “I need to leave. Now.” She stood, forcing Stella and Gigi to back up.

“I’ll take her.” Nathan offered Kat his arm, which she gratefully accepted. When Gigi objected, Nathan shook his head. “It’s best I get out the hell out of here. Otherwise I’m liable to do something I’ll regret, too.”

Stella grabbed her purse, but Nathan shook his head at her, too.

Stella’s brows dropped. “Wait, what-”

“Make sure someone drives Danny home right after we leave. He’s shitfaced and there are about a hundred different ways he could get his ass in trouble tonight,” Nathan said.

“But-” Stella sputtered.

Nathan shook his head once more before walking Kat out, putting his big body between her and the hideousness on the dance floor. They walked out to Nathan’s SUV, waited for it to warm up, and then drove home in silence.

It was a good kind of silence, a silence only two introverts could appreciate and understand. Nathan knew Kat was upset, which meant she needed to internally deal with things, without a barrage of questions, psychoanalyzations, or heated discussions. His presence was very comforting and Kat would be eternally grateful for his strong, silent support as she quietly wept the entire trip.

Although, at a particularly fevered crescendo of Kat’s sobbing, Nathan
had
been compelled to awkwardly pat her on the shoulder a few times. It was a sweet gesture she really appreciated, especially since she knew Nathan was the least expressive human being ever to walk the planet.

As they neared her apartment, Nathan cleared his throat. “Stella will rip my face off if I don’t ask you to spend the night at our place tonight.”

“Thanks, but no. I need to be alone right now,” she replied hoarsely.

“Yeah, I figured.” Nathan gave her a tiny smile. “But you know your sister. Better to do what she says than hear about it later.”

They exchanged a knowing glance and Kat managed to crack a tiny smile.

“You also know you can call anytime and I’ll come get you. Day or night, no matter what time it is. Don’t hesitate. Just call or text Stella or me. If you need anything.” Nathan glanced out the driver’s side window. “We’re always here for you, Kat.”

Somehow Kat’s body managed to produce a few more tears. “Yes, I know. Thank you.”

Nathan turned into the parking lot, pulled into a spot, and put the Denali in
park
.

As Kat undid her seatbelt and grabbed her purse, Nathan cleared his throat. “Listen, this is none of my business and I know Danny acted like a huge asshole tonight, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about you, because he does. Hell, that’s
why
he acted like that, as fucked-up as that sounds.”

“Yeah, I know.” Kat fidgeted with the zipper on her purse.

“He’s coped like that ever since I’ve known him. He feels hurt – or fear – and he lashes out like a wounded animal.”

“How does he usually get over it?” Kat asked. At Nathan’s quirked brow, she said, “The hurt. The fear.”

“I don’t think he ever really gets over it. He mouths off and brawls and laughs and swaggers, but that doesn’t fix shit. And, I don’t know how much you know about his past, but he’s got a lot of shit to fix. His parents didn’t want him, so they gave him away, but not before neglecting the hell out of him. Every foster home he was in sent him back. The last home kept him till he was eighteen, but that was more of a kindness-of-their-hearts/pity thing.” Nathan scoffed softly. “My mom had a lot of issues, but at least she loved us in her very limited, very fucked up way. Same with my brothers. Lots of shit I won’t get into, but at least we had each other growing up. Danny had no one.”