The Fighter's Block (6 page)

The message said he was home and would be there all night if she wanted to stop by, so Dani made a quick stop at her sister’s house, changed her clothes, and arrived at Van’s apartment at seven-fifteen. When he heard the
dainty
knock at his door his heart rate
increased. He knew it was Dani
and he was suddenly nervous to see her
again
.

She
was afraid he wasn’t actually home since it took a while for the door to open. But when
at last it
did, her heart thumped a little heavier from finally seeing him again.
He
looked better than she remembered, and she was also remembering other things about Saturday morning that made her smile.

“Hey,” Van said to her. His heart was still pounding, and just seeing her there made it worse. She was such a beautiful girl,
gorgeous,
and he was more than pleased that she’d decided to give him another chance.

“Hey yourself,” she replied, entering the apartment when he held the door open for her.

Her smile was pretty coy
and Van knew she was aware of the power she had over him. He didn’t even try to hide how much he wanted her, so when she stepped closer to him, he shut the door and kissed her.
Thankful she was wearing a cute little dress, his hands roamed up the soft skirt until his fingers were greeted by lace. He already knew he was getting lucky again, but just thinking about their night together on Friday increased the excitement. He felt along the edge of her panties to determine the cut—high and cheeky, his favorite. Or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe anything on
her
was his favorite.

“Did you miss me?” she asked qu
ietly, enjoying his exploration.

“Fuck, y
eah. I mean
…
yeah,” he corrected himself
. “So much that I was about to resort to drastic measures to track you down. What happened? How come you left?” He pulled away to look
into
her eyes, see if she was okay.
He had images of that asshole ex of hers and the trouble he might have given her.
S
ince she was hesitant to answer,
he silently cursed himself for questioning her. “Never mind, I’m sorry. Not my business. I’m just glad you came back. I was worried.”

That made her smile. “Worried? Or horny,” she determined.

He laughed but made himself slow his hormones down. She was right. This was probably too much. He stepped back and just took her hands in his. “Both, I guess. I’ll cool it.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Well I didn’t come here to get the cold shoulder.”

She pulled him closer, biting that damn lower lip again. It made his insides turn over, but in a good way. What in the world was happening to him? She had this spell over him and he completely lost his wits. That had never happened to him before. He’d always been in control of any situation, calmly, rationally… She
conquered
all of his brain cells with one smile.

He was wearing a
slim
t-shirt and
baggy
shorts and Dani stood very, very close to him with just their hands touching.
She glanced over the definition in his chest, looked over his biceps and forearms. The size of his hands made her moist as she flirted with her body, barely brushing his chest with hers.

He smiled. “Do your friends want to play?” he asked, making no effort to look away from her breasts as they taunted him.

She didn’t miss a beat. “Do yours?”

He
lifted
an eyebrow. “Is that even a question?”

She kept eye contact when she
replied.
“You’ve got a giant cucumber in your pants.”

“Do you want it in yours?”

She finally cracked a smile and then laughed. He smiled too, loving the fact that she was so playful. But the passion was still being bridled for the time being. Dani let go of his hands and gently placed them against his face. Again she traced the tiny scar on his cheek with her finger, and then touched the one under his mouth. She spotted another scar on his forehead, just below his hairline. She couldn’t imagine this gentle man getting into so much trouble.

Dani wrapped her slender arms around his waist and laid her face against him.
She was wearing flats tod
ay; her face fit nicely below his
collarbone
.
He smelled amazing, like a fresh shower and a touch of something
else masculine. She softly kissed his neck
and then his lips
but didn’t
feel the need
to
seduce
him this time
.

T
hey silently
agreed
to head to the bedroom
.

Chapter Three

“I always had a crush on
Mr. Roper,” Dani said with a smile, tossing another piece of popcorn in her mouth.

“The old guy?” Van chuckled.

“Mmhmm. I thought he was
a
pretty cute
old guy
.”

“Hm
m
, you like older men?”

She
looked at the television
and pretended to consider it
. “Well, maybe not that old.” She curled up against Van again and said, “You’re plenty old for me.”

“Well that’s good to know. Is twenty-five your limit?”

“Mmm, maybe. Jeez, is that how old you are? That’s a quarter of a century.”

“And you’re two years away from it, honey.”

Dani frowned. “Ugh, you’re right. Man, thanks for ruining my night…”

Van rolled his eyes playfully, and when Dani
threw a piece of popcorn at him
, he stuck his hand in the bowl and flicked some at her face.

“Ah!” she exclaimed.

She scooped some off of the bed
and threw
it
at him, but by then
he
had jumped up and used the pillow as a shield. Dani reached for the bowl and threw a handful at him anyway, and then she stood up on the bed to continue to launch handfuls at a time from higher ground. Van used the pillow to bat them away, but then he just went straight for the attacker and pulled her legs out from under her.

Easiest takedown ever.

They both
landed on the bed, popcorn and all.

“My mom always told me not to eat food in bed,” Dani smiled as Van started to kiss her.

“So you’re saying…next time we’ll go with pudding instead of popcorn?” he smiled back, pulling her on top of him.

“Mm
m
, lemon pudding,” Dani smiled as she kissed him.

“Butterscotch.”

“Ew.”

“Okay, lemon.”

They both laughed, but after a few minutes of messing around, the popcorn got to be a little too much
for
Dani
and she
had to
remove herself
from
it
.

After the mess got cleaned up it was after
eleven
, and because the two of them now smelled like popcorn, along with the bedding, it was decided that everything needed washed.

The bedding went to the laundry, and the bodies went to the shower.

Van considered shower sex with Dani to be on the top of his favorites list. The first time with her had been incredible. She was so sexy and confident with her body that it made the experience satisfying yet left him wanting more.

This time seemed a little more playful, and Dani took her time exploring his body again before she knelt in front of him with a wicked smile. She licked the bead of arousal from the tip of him and traced his ridges with her tongue. Van didn’t know whether he should watch this beautiful goddess work her magic or close his eyes because of the intensity of it.

When she took him deep, he decided upon both. He could have finished right then and there but he forced himself to hold off. She even encouraged him to, but instead he pulled her up, wrapped her legs around him, and burrowed into her hot pussy. He was so thankful for that ten-second conversation about birth control the week before because being inside Dani skin to skin was
beyond words
.

Van woke up when Dani did, even though she hardly moved. But she liked seeing him next to her and she scooted closer so he could hold her.

“What time is it?” she
murmured
, sighing
with contentment
when his strong arms wrapped around her
.

Van glanced behind him at the clock on the nightstand. “Uh…eight-forty
-two
.”

“What
!?
”
she
exclaimed, jumping out of bed. “Oh, crap!”

“What’s the matter?”

“I’m supposed to watch my niece and nephew today! Like…right
now
!”

She scurried around to find the rest of her clothes, so Van got up to do the same. He put
on
a pair of shorts over his boxers, and then handed Dani a shoe he realized she’d been looking for.

“Thanks,” she said almost breathlessly. She gave Van a hasty kiss on the cheek and left the bedroom.

Van followed her out and asked, “How long will you be?”

“Uh…” She was looking around for her purse until she found it on the kitchen counter. “Until three, I think. Nine to three.” She looked at Van and said, “Oh shoot, the game! I’m so sorry, I completely forgot I agreed to this when I agreed to that, too.”

“Nah, it’s okay. I’ll just take Q and you and I can go another time.”

She grabbed an apple from the counter and bit into it, putting her shoe on at the same time. Then she wrapped her arms around Van and gave him a hug and a kiss. “I’m really sorry about this. I just… I guess I got too caught up with you and couldn’t even think straight,” she smiled.

“
I know the feeling,” he replied, returning the smile
.
“
Just give me a call when you can, okay?”

Dani hated rushing out of Van’s apartment like that
because she wanted to spend more time with him
, but she’d messed up big time. As it was
,
she already had to call her sister to tell her she’d be late. Jaime didn’t exactly sound upset, but Dani knew she wasn’t happy about it when she stated that the neighbor had just arrived to watch the kids until
she
could get there.

The rest of the
day
seemed to go by slow
ly
. Dani’s niece and nephew were pretty easy to watch, but sometimes she felt like there were a million other things she could be doing instead. She loved spending time with
Jacob
and Naomi, but they had unusual interests for kids that were
ten
and
eight
, and today all she could think about was Van
.

“And this goes through that,” Naomi was telling her.

“
Where
?
” Dani
asked
her.

Naomi took the yarn
from Dani and just did it for her.

Yes, they were
crocheting
. And if Naomi didn
’t have the body and voice of an eight
-year-old, Dani w
ould have sworn she was a sixty
-year-old woman. The kid also loved to bake. She certainly didn’t
get those skills from her mom—b
ecause Jaime was hardly
domesticated—but from grandma,
Steve’s mom.

“Grammy says you just have to do it a lot and then you’ll get better,” Naomi was saying, but at the same time, Dani’s phone was ringing.

Again.

She didn’t even have to glance at it to know it was Brian. She declined the call
for the
eighth
time that week
and then sat there, anticipating that another message was going to be left.
Sure enough there was, and while Naomi was busy
crocheting
Dani’s
scarf for her, she listened to the message just to torture herself.

“Dani… You can’t avoid me forever. I just want to talk to you, okay? Just meet me somewhere. Anywhere. Let’s talk about
when you’re coming back, okay? I love you. You know I do. And I don’t want you to be struggling just to make a point. I get it, all right? You’re mad. You have every right to be.
I’ve been stressed at work but
I promise things w
ill be better…
”