Burned Hearts (9 page)

Dane had grown up with no parents. But he'd had a devoted aunt and the never-faltering Amano. Not to mention the Heidi Klum look-alike Mikaela Madsen.

Kyle had experienced as close to a perfect family unit as I could comprehend, though he'd confessed his dad preferred being a road-warrior salesman to a traditional home-at-six-o'clock-for-dinner husband/father.

I longed for a happy medium based on all the realities of life—and the fact that I still wanted a career. And once the criminal convictions came in, Dane would be on to his next big project. Whatever that might be.

Now was the time for me to seriously contemplate how to shape our future with a child being a prominent part of it—developing his own skill set, interests, passions. Feeling free to be his own person, not having to follow directly in his father's footsteps. Or, again, be smothered by a mother who adored him to pieces.

I already felt so attached, so addicted, to the baby growing inside me. How could I not be a crazed lunatic when I gave birth to him?

You'll have to chill. Let him breathe, Ari. Let him breathe.

I did just that currently. Big inhale, slow exhale.

Dane joined me on the sofa. I hadn't even realized Ethan had left us, being so engrossed in my mental debate.

“Everything okay?” Dane asked as he rested his hand on my thigh.

I cozied up to him. “Just fine. I was reminding myself not to suffocate our son with motherly love.”

Dane grinned. “I doubt he'll mind.”

“I don't want to be fearful of all the things he might want to do, either. It'd be cool if he rowed and boxed like you. Golfed like my dad. Played football like Kyle. Or is that too much? I want him to be well-rounded. Completely amazing. Oh! And Amano could teach him martial arts.”

I stared at my husband, who raised a brow.

“I'm too weird, aren't I?” I asked. “Totally mommy-psycho.”

Dane wrapped his arm around me and held on fiercely. “Baby, I get it. Nothing weird about you. I want our son to have it all, too. Be all he wants to be, you know?” Dane paused a moment, then added, “We are going to name him eventually?”

“Have you been talking to Kyle?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

Okay, the two of them discussing the baby would be the absolute
last
topic on the table.

I said, “We just might have to wait to see our son's first identifying quality before we can make a sound decision. I have no intuition when it comes to this. No name seems extraordinary enough. I mean, he'll never be a Jack or a Bill. I like Samuel, but still, not right. I want unique, but not bizarre-unique. Nothing related to fish or fruit or colors.
No
colors.”

“Hmm … Pewter Bax.” Dane gave me an amused nod.

“Not.”
Shifting on the sofa so that I could cuddle deeper against him, I rested my cheek in the crook of Dane's neck. My happy spot. I said, “You haven't exactly been throwing out any bones to chew on.”

“Let's see … Vaughn? Cagney? Something international?”

“Cagney.” I let it roll off my tongue. “Interesting. Definitely unique. Manly. Strong.”

“Cagney Bax,” Dane said.

“Just shot to the top of my list.”

“You don't have a list,” he quipped.

“True. But I should have a list.
We
should have a list. Keep at it.”

He kissed my forehead. “Whatever you want, baby. Whatever you want.”

“That's a no-brainer.” I flashed him a lascivious grin.

My palm skated over his abs. He hadn't bothered with a shirt, not even upon Ethan's arrival. Not that that would be out of the ordinary. Ethan had apparently been a regular ringside fan when Dane had boxed in college. And I certainly wasn't complaining that he strutted around with nothing more on than loose dark-gray or black pants.

As my fingertips teased his skin, Dane's emerald eyes glowed suggestively. “Why don't we take this into the bedroom?”

I kissed him, then said, “There's nothing I'd rather do than get naked with you. Except that you're seriously injured.”

“And seriously wanting you.”

His words and heated gaze sent a tickle along my clit, making me squirm. “Mm. Tempting.”

“Then get a little closer.” His arm shifted to my waist and he hauled me onto his lap, so my legs straddled him.

“Dane,” I reluctantly protested.
Weakly
protested—because I wanted him just as much. “According to Dr. Forrester, you're supposed to be relaxing while hooked up to that sophisticated water-chilling contraption he brought for you to keep the swelling down.”

The pad was to be placed over Dane's shoulder. Tubes connected to the pad and the box churned out frigid water to keep the pad icy cold.

He gave me a devilish look. “I promise to spend the rest of the night in bed.”

“With your cold pack.”

“With my wife.”

He kissed me. His arm around my waist held me firmly and he stood in one graceful motion. He shifted me to his hip on his good side and I encircled his neck with one arm and clasped my hands together so I was nowhere near his injured shoulder. I gripped him with my legs.

“Hey,” I said. “Let's not get all Tarzan-like. You don't have anything to prove to me.”

“Ari, you're doing most of the work.”

True, I clung to him, holding myself up. But still. “I'm a bit heavier than I used to be.”

“Actually,” he said, “it seems like you should weigh much more. You're five months pregnant, after all.”

I hadn't “popped” yet. I could still pass for needing to lay off the Doritos and take a few extra laps in the pool.

“Regardless,” I told him, “you shouldn't be straining yourself like this.”

“Let it go.”

I had no choice. I couldn't press the issue without insulting his manliness. I also suspected he liked demonstrating his virility because I spent way too much time with Kyle.

Dane and I made it stealthily down the long, winding corridor, me not the least bit worried I'd end up dropped on the stone flooring along the way. My major concern was Dane exerting himself.

He set me on the bed and I gazed up at him, asking, “Can I get you the shoulder pad now?”

“You can take your clothes off now.”

Heat flashed through me. Still, I hedged. “Dane.”

“Or I'll do it.”

The fire in his eyes kept my insides sizzling. I reached for the hem of my shirt and peeled away the material. Then I stood and rid myself of every other article.

His gaze slid over me. “You're sensational.”

Emotion welled in my throat. “You say the sweetest things.”

“Just stating the obvious.”

I reached for the drawstring at his waist and slid his pants and briefs down his thighs. He was barefoot, so stripping him bare was an easy task. He sank onto the edge of the bed and pulled me to him. I straddled his lap again, slowing lowering onto him, taking his thick cock deep inside me, inch by hot, solid inch.

Our eyes locked. He said, “I love that you're always ready for me.”

I kissed him, then murmured against his lips, “I love that you always want me.”

“More than you know.” His tone was low, intimate. Sexy as hell. His hypnotic irises burned with love and lust, sending heat along my skin and searing my insides. “Every minute of the day. I could never get enough of you, Ari. Never.”

His arm caged me again. I dropped my hips so he could sink into me. My inner walls clutched him firmly, holding him in place while I went up in flames. He was hard and huge, filling me completely. Feeling so damn good, I could come with just a few quick squeezes, a gentle milking of his erection.

My fingers threaded through his hair. He kissed me hungrily, as though in desperate need of me. I returned the kiss with equal fervor—desperately needing
him
. I couldn't help it. With Dane, I was insatiable.

I couldn't press my chest to his the way I craved doing, because his arm remained immobilized across his midsection. We were sealed together in all the right places, though, and I greedily took what I wanted from him. He willingly gave it.

Rocking my hips slowly at first, I felt the initial wave of euphoria flow through my veins. The erotic sensation built, drawing me in, tempting and taunting me. We fit beautifully together, and Dane continued to kiss me as though trying to convey his intense yearning for me. He succeeded wonderfully.

When I picked up the pace and we moved faster, with more insistency, he tore his mouth from mine and let out a sensual growl that reverberated in my core.

“Ari,” he said on a sharp breath. “You feel incredible.”

He eased back against the bed, bringing me with him. I flattened my palms alongside his broad shoulders on the mattress, again holding myself up so I didn't brush his arm or his wound. His hand at my waist shifted to my ass. He cupped a cheek and gave it a rough squeeze that excited me. His hips bucked and he pumped into me as I ground against him, my breath coming in heavy pulls.

The insane desire to claw at him welled within me. It was next to impossible to fight the craving. To refrain from pressing my fingertips into his rigid muscles and feeling them flex beneath my touch. Instead, I fisted the comforter. Not a satisfying alternative, but at least Dane was here with me, inside me, making love to me.

Still, that desperation he incited held me in a vise grip. My mouth crashed over his and I kissed him possessively, the way he always did me. His hand moved to palm my breast and he massaged with just the right amount of pressure to add to my escalating passion. Then he swept the pad of his thumb over my tight nipple before rolling it, pinching the tingly bud.

My orgasm blossomed quickly, fiercely.

I broke our kiss. “Dane.” My heart hammered; my pulse raced. “I'm going to come.”

He raised his head and kissed the side of my neck. Nipped at the skin. All the while, he pumped steadily, until I couldn't hold on a second longer. A rush of heat seared me as I cried out his name.

The release was thrilling, exhilarating. Scorching. I clutched his cock, taking pleasure in every second of him thrusting into me. My body trembled and little pants of air escaped my parted lips.

“I love watching you come,” Dane told me in a primal tone. “I love making you come.”

“You're so good at it,” I managed to say as I still soared from the climax.

“And I'm not done. But damn it.” He hissed out a breath. “I want to touch you with both hands. I want you pressed against me, not holding yourself away.”

“Note I'm still having a moment here.” My body continued to vibrate. My pussy clenched him. “I don't think you've missed a single beat.”

“It's not the same.”

“It's fantastic.”

His hips jerked and he slid easily against my coated walls. Caressing solidly again, with purpose.

I smiled in my delirium. “Got a point to prove?”

“I don't like feeling weak.”

“You're not weak. I am for letting you do this when you should be resting.”

“You're what I need, not Forrester's therapy.”

“I'd argue, except that what you're doing is too amazing to tell you to quit and ice that shoulder.”

“Fuck my shoulder.”

“Better yet, fuck me.”

He pistoned into my wet depths, igniting the inferno again. My head dropped and my lips grazed his hot skin, over his collarbone and uninjured shoulder. His chest. Then upward to his throat and that pulsing vein that screamed of his vitality and always, always beckoned my attention. I swept my tongue along it, enjoying the taste of him and reveling in the fact that Dane was alive and healthy—current wound notwithstanding.

“I love you,” I whispered against his lips.

“And you are more than I could have ever asked for, baby. Everything I want and need.”

Emotion crept around the edges of ecstasy. Anticipation mounted. “I'm going to come again.”

“Yes,” he murmured. “Come for me. Come with me.”

His hand moved to my ass once more and his fingers glided along the cleft, gathering moisture as he heightened my arousal.

“Oh, God, Dane.” My head nestled close to his throat and I inhaled his enticing scent. Heat, expensive cologne, and pure masculinity exuded from his every pore. An intoxicating fragrance that hitched my pulse a few notches.

As he pumped with heartier strokes, one of his slick fingertips rimmed the sensitive spot between my cheeks and then carefully pressed in.

Excitement roared through me. “Dane.”

“You like everything I do to you, don't you, baby?”

“I
love
everything you do to me.”

The snug fit in both places was enough to push me to that sizzling precipice. But Dane maneuvered himself slightly and suckled my hard nipple, adding even more pleasure to the firestorm already raging within.

“That's so wicked,” I said on a throaty moan.

He thrust deeper, his finger delved farther, and I called out his name again as I came.

“Ah, Christ. Ari.”

I felt his cock throb in wild beats and then explode inside me. His body convulsed with mine, the furious tremors a testament to the fiery passion we shared.

I let my body burn. Savored every delicious, core-singeing sensation.

“Ari,” Dane murmured in a raspy voice. “You can't begin to imagine how much I miss you every night I'm away from you.”

“Yes, I can.” I'd been just as tormented by his absence. “But once this is over, nothing will keep us apart ever again.”

“Not if I can fucking help it.”

 

chapter 5

Over breakfast the next morning, alone on the patio off from our master suite, I broached another touchy subject with Dane.

“I understand the need to keep your Phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes miracle within our tiny group, but I couldn't help but think of Mikaela yesterday.”