TWENTY-TWO
Still smiling, Shay and Dan quickly trotted down the steps of the magistrate's office. Dan had an injunction that prevented Neil K. Mitchell from posting comments related to him on any social media platform, and a warrant for him to appear was going to be issued for coercion and extortion. The Sheriff's department was going to attempt to serve the injunction and warrant, but if Neil decided to go missing, he knew a crack PI that was willing to track the asshole down and make sure justice was served.
He felt better now than he had in months. The shit with the rumors was finally behind him, he had Shay in his life, and he wasn't letting her go. Feeling their success last night, they had fucked---no, he mentally corrected---not fucked, made love, long into the night. He didn't fuck her anymore, he made love to her, and there was a difference.
They'd started just after the video finished and didn't finish until they left her house this morning to see the magistrate. For fifteen hours they'd done nothing but make love and sleep. If they weren't sleeping, they were making love, and if they weren't making love, they were sleeping, and it was wonderful. Whichever of them woke up first, woke the other by doing something wonderfully wicked, and then they'd start again. She'd be hard pressed to top him swimming out of the darkness of sleep with his hard cock deep in her mouth, and he'd returned the favor this morning by burying his face in her womanhood when he woke first.
They'd gone hard and fast, and slow and easy, and sometimes both in the same session. She'd dragged him into the shower last night to fulfil one of her fantasies, and they'd made love long, hard, and loud as they competed with the neighbors to see who could make love the longest and loudest. He couldn't tell if they were the loudest, but they certainly outlasted them, and by a lot.
They'd made love on her bed, in her shower, and once, for a change, against a wall. She'd bound his hands by wrapping the belt from her robe around her bed and ordering him to hold it, before he'd done the same to her, and they'd finished with their hands tangled together in the belt above their heads as she rode him, and herself, to orgasm.
After their tumble this morning, they were both sore, tired, and hungry. They'd missed dinner and breakfast, but he hadn't cared, and he didn't think she had either. They'd napped for an hour or so after their early morning romp before those
fucking
birds on her phone woke them again. Even though he could think of nothing he'd rather do than lay in the bed while holding and kissing her all day, since he didn't think he'd be able to do anything else to her for a couple of hours yet, he knew they had to get up and get moving.
They'd showered together, and though she'd tried out of pure mischievousness, he couldn't keep a hard erection. That had never happened to him before, but he'd never made love to a woman five times in such quick succession before either.
And the hell of it was, even after he'd come gallons last night, and thought he'd be useless for days, after spending three hours with her as she walked him through the legal system, he wanted her again, and he'd have no trouble keeping his end up, so to speak.
"I don't know about you, but I'm
starving
! I feel like I haven't eaten anything in days." Dan waited a heartbeat. "Not food anyway."
She giggled, and the sound made his heart sing. "You know what I'm in the mood for?"
"Same thing I'm in the mood for?" he asked, pitching his voice so she'd know he wasn't talking about food.
"Well, that, but how about an In-N-Out burger until we can do the other?"
The thought of it made his mouth water. "That sounds great! I haven't had one of those in a year or more."
"You poor thing!" she purred.
Using the Porsche's satnav, they found the nearest In-N-Out where they laughed and talked as they ate their burgers and fries. He couldn't believe how something as simple as a ground beef patty between two pieces of bread could be so tasty. Sometimes he got so wrapped up in his life he forgot life's little pleasures. Simple things, like a well-prepared hamburger, or the laugh of the woman he was starting to fall in love with.
The thought hit him like a brick to the head, his mind supplying the sound of a phonograph needle skidding across a record.
Did I just think that?
"Dan?" she asked. "Everything okay?"
"What?" he asked, trying to recover.
He was still reeling from the realization that he was falling in love with Shay. In his mind, he was furiously rifling through his memories, trying to pick out when he'd started falling for her. It wasn't last night. No, in hindsight he already had the feelings. He went back farther. The night he first took her to bed? No, they weren't there then. He examined his feelings more closely. Or were they? Was that why their fucking was so intense? Had the tinder already been in place and the sex had struck the match to set it ablaze?
"Dan? You okay?"
"What?" he asked, shaking himself out of his musings. He grinned. "Yeah, great. Sorry. I was just lost in thought there for a moment."
"I'll say. You were so gone, I wasn't sure you were still on Earth."
"Something just hit me, that's all."
"What?"
"I can't tell you here, but remind me and I'll tell you tonight."
She frowned a bit, and her eyes narrowed slightly. "Is it bad?"
He couldn't help but smile. "I think it's wonderful, but you might have a different opinion. I'll tell you all about it over dinner tonight. My place. Deal?"
"Okay," she said slowly.
He took her hand and kissed it gently. "Nothing to worry about, I promise."
"Then why won't you tell me now?"
"The time and the place aren't right." He could tell she didn't like that answer. "I'll make you this promise. If you guess it, I'll confirm it, but what I have to say, I don't want to say in a fast-food joint, that's all." He tugged on her hand and pulled her close. He first kissed her on the lips, a quick public smooch, before placing his lips close to her ear. "It's a surprise. I hope you'll like it."
She leaned back. "You better tell me at dinner. You know how I am. I hate secrets."
He grinned. "I'm dying to tell you now, but not here. Tonight, at dinner, I promise."
He felt giddy. He knew now that he'd been right. The month or so when they'd spoken on the phone almost every night had primed the conflagration, but taking her to bed had been the spark that had started the blaze. Now the fire was consuming him, and he never wanted the flames quenched.
So this was what love feels like!
He wanted to climb onto the table and scream his feelings for the world to hear, but she deserved to know first, and he needed to know if she felt the same for him.
Keeping his secret chilled their meal a bit, but he was resolute. She could wait six hours for him to make the biggest leap of faith of his life. He was, for the first time, going to tell a woman he was falling in love with her and wanted no other.
He sat back in his chair and munched on his burger. He felt like an idiot, but he couldn't wipe the damned smile off his face to save his life. It was all because of the incredible woman sitting across the table from him, eyeing him with equal parts amusement, suspicion, annoyance, and trepidation, and damned if he didn't love her for it.
On the way to her place to get his clothes, and a change of clothes for her, they played twenty questions. She seemed obsessed with the idea of having done something wrong and upsetting him, and he kept telling her she'd done nothing wrong, but in fact, had done everything right. She wasn't even close to guessing his secret, which made the thought of telling her that much more exciting. She finally gave up after they left her house. He could tell his refusal was bugging her, but after he told her, he was sure she'd understand.
He was coming down off his high, and doubts were starting to creep in around the edges of his euphoria.
What if she didn't love me?
He refused to let the possibility bother him much. He'd wait on her.
But what if she didn't love me, and she didn't think she ever would.
That thought was a little scary, and he shoved it aside. He was a big boy, and he'd recover, but he didn't want to lose her.
What if me telling her I was falling for her scares her off? Should I keep it to myself until she told me? But what if she already felt something for me, but was waiting to see if I felt the same way? If she was waiting for me, and I was waiting for her, we might never know.
He shook off his doubts. It didn't matter now. He'd promised her he'd tell her at dinner, and he would. He wouldn't lie to her. If she didn't love him, and never would, better to know now before he got in any deeper. It'd be hard, maybe the hardest thing he'd ever done, but if she felt nothing for him and only wanted him for sex and a little companionship, he could treat her as he'd treated Brooke until she grew tired of him. He wouldn't try to hold her.
If she doesn't want me, I want her to find someone she did want.
"Dan?"
"Yeah?" he asked, looking at her.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, why?"
"A half hour ago you were practically bouncing off the walls, and now you look like your dog just died. What's going on?"
"Dinner. I swear, it'll all make sense after dinner. Just... bear with me, okay?"
She gazed at him for a long time. "We're having an early dinner, even if I have to go out and buy takeout."
Her teasing lifted his mood slightly. "An early dinner it is."
-oOo-
Shay and Dan were working in the kitchen. They weren't practiced yet, so they sometimes got in each other's way, but it still felt so natural and right, and he certainly didn't mind feeling her body against his as he had to reach around her for something.
He'd been up and down all afternoon. Thinking about her and how he felt, he'd soar so close to the sun he thought he'd go blind, and in the next minute, he'd sink into the depths of despair with the thought that she might never feel the same way about him.
It was maddening, and he'd almost told her several times to end the uncertainty, but he hadn't. He was also a guy, so he kept it bottled up inside. She could tell something was going on with him, but she'd stopped prying, and when he began sinking, she sensed it and would go to him. She'd take him in her arms, he'd take her in his, and within moments, the sun would come out again and banish the darkness of his thoughts.
They were close to having dinner ready when the bell chimed at Dan's door. He frowned as he glanced at the door. He hadn't buzzed anyone in, but he knew it was the door because the building chime was a
bing-bong,
while his door chime was a
bing-bong-bing.
"Would you mind?" he asked, nodding in the direction of the door as he flipped the chicken and vegetables in the pan.
"Dan?" Shay called from the door.
