Wicked Flower (16 page)

“Yes, it means friendly.
Nonsexual.
Neighborly.”

“I know what it means. I simply
fail to see the point.” Her breath nearly caught when he skimmed a finger
inside her panties. His fingers trapped inside her cotton undies still managed
to spread wide, asking without words for a couple inches of maneuvering room.
Aching with need for this man’s touch, she complied and parted her thighs just
enough for him as she sat on his leather seat. “You’re so wet, you’re so
pretty.” His fingers played a sensuous game of slide up and down her opening
until they dipped deeply inside her. She was so overcome with how good it felt
that she missed when he brought his fingers up to his lips. “Your taste drives
me insane.” He rubbed the tip of his finger against his tongue and then touched
it to her lips.

Vaguely, she spoke from somewhere
outside of her mind. “You said that twice.”

Stefan’s tongue slid over her
lips while his fingers trailed back inside her panties and returned to their
play between her wet folds. She couldn’t stop her back from arching. “That’s
because before I only wondered and now I know for sure. Your taste is
exquisite, sweetheart. Your pussy’s so wet, you fucking own me right now.”

Was she dreaming? Was he really
saying these things to her or was it some X-rated song on his radio? His rough
thumb found the hard nub again peaking from the top of her sex and her tummy
felt like it rolled. Intense, pleasure-filled tingles pushed her hips forward.
The solid strong hand he used to bring her this insane pleasure met her pussy’s
thrust and pushed back. Her eyes squeezed shut, her jaw fell open and she
ground her forehead into his shoulder. His fingers beat against her flesh for
several minutes, hard and loud, giving sound to her juices and his thrusting.
“Dani, if you could feel what I’m feeling right now … Come in my hand, baby … you’re
so slick. One of these days you’re going to let me tongue you down there.
Aren’t you? Say yes, Dani.”

“Ye-yes,” Dani moaned into his
shoulder as her mind fought against the pleasure about to explode throughout
her body.
One of these days.
He’d said one of these
days like there would be more in the future. The things he said to her worked
like a magic eraser over her frazzled brain. Oh God, she was so close. All she
wanted, all she could think about was the trembling and how good it was going
to feel once the jumble of nerves punched through her clit and washed over her.
“Stefan.” Her voice shook because at the uttering of his name, her body pulsed
and her orgasm broke fast and strong, like a wave taking her deep under the
water.

“Yeah Dani, there you go baby.”

“Thank you…”

“That was my fucking utmost
pleasure.” He pulled gently at the back of her hair, bringing her head from his
shoulder so that their faces met. He kissed her long and slow.

She just sat there, knowing her
end of the kiss must feel lazy to him but her body was still coming down from
the high. Her body continued to clench a couple seconds apart. Her heart
thumped, helping remind her to breathe, even though the breaths she took were
from inside his mouth.

“
Mm,
and
you said I couldn’t make you come,” he whispered into her ear and continued
kissing her ear.

And then she felt it.

The squeeze that felt like it
came from higher up, nowhere near her vagina. Dani stilled instantly. Stefan’s
kiss stopped. “What is it?” he asked.

Dani didn’t want to move yet. She
waited, perfectly still, to see if the squeezing thing she’d felt a few weeks
before when she’d masturbated and climaxed would do it again. Her pregnancy books
said it was normal but she still wanted to check with her OB because it didn’t
feel normal to her. A few seconds later, her womb squeezed again. She sucked in
a breath.

“Dani, talk to me.”

She held her hand to her heart,
waiting for another contraction because that’s what she feared these were, some
sort of orgasm induced contractions, but it didn’t happen. Why had she
forgotten, been so careless?

The shit scared her straight, for
real this time.
Dear God, I’m sorry.
Her
thoughts were all panic and fuzz.

“I need to go inside, Stefan.”

Shame washed through her and she
didn’t know what else to say. She’d known, had that feeling before. All she wanted
right now was to get to her bed and lie down flat on her back and pray.

“Okay,” he said. “Did I hurt you?
Your baby?”

“I don’t think so. I-I don’t know.
I can’t have any more orgasms. They give me contractions.”

His face paled and his brow
crinkled. “God I’m so sorry. I didn’t know that’s what you meant.” He looked
down at his lap. “What can I do?” he asked, shielding his eyes from her.

“I just need to get inside and
lay down.”

“Okay. Can you walk?”

“Yes.”

Slowly, his head came back up and
his eyes were moist. “Dani, are you in pain? I can’t tell. Your face, it looks
like you’re hurting. Please tell me if I hurt you.”

“No, no pain.
Just
a weird feeling toward the end.”

“Do I need to take you to the
hospital? I’ll drive you.”

“No, I think it stopped now. I
just want to go inside.”

His breath came out hard and
loud. “I’ll be right behind you.”

How did she tell him that was her
biggest fear right now?

Inside the still quiet and dark
house, she thought of what she needed to say to him as she sat on the toilet,
wiping and checking the toilet paper to make sure there was no spotting.
Praying.
There wasn’t any. No cramping either. Dani’s head slumped
heavily.
“Oh God, thank you.
I promise I won’t let
that happen again. I’m so sorry, baby.”

Still freaked out, she breathed
and made her decision. One she had to stick to this time. To keep them both
sane and safe, she couldn’t lose control like that again with Stefan.

She nearly bumped into him standing
outside the bathroom door, hovering.

“Everything
okay?”

“Yes.”

As he walked with her to her room,
she turned and stopped so that he didn’t come in any further. Her hand pushed
into his chest and she waited until he stopped trying to move forward.

“I’ll stay with you. Just to make
sure you’re okay.”

His look was serious. The slight
crooked part of his nose deepened his frown and told her the truth. She knew he
was worried and being sincere. But no, she could not let him do that.

“Stefan? What you did for me
tonight was, um, I don’t even know the word. But it was wonderful. But I forgot
something that I can never forget again. I have a little person to look out for.
I’m no fool. I know I’ll be doing it on my own which is why I have to take sole
responsibility for all my actions starting now.” She kept the rest to herself
but it hummed through her mind all the same. Stefan wasn’t a keeper because he
had to leave in two weeks. And sadly, she understood. She also knew that if she
gave in to him again, she’d lose her heart.

Maybe somewhere deep inside, she
was happy he’d found a way to break the rules tonight. It just couldn’t happen
again.

“I need you to help me remember
the rules. As long as we’re together in this house, we have to be just friends,
or stay away from each other. I’m
sorry,
I’m just not
strong enough to do it on my own. If you can’t make me that promise, then I
really do have to find somewhere else to stay until you go.”

Silence fell between them for a
few seconds. Did it have anything to do with the reminder of his short visit? His
mouth twisted but he took her hand in his and kissed the tops of her knuckles
then put her hand back on her belly where he’d found it.

“Done,” he said.

Just. Like. That.

She could have cried, and ended
the day the same damn way she’d started it.

****

Friends.
Her kind, not his.
Maybe Will could tell him how the fuck
that worked. Because all that taste had done was leave him needing more. It was
going to be a long two weeks. He had no choice but to be good.
Even if it killed him.

Watching her walk away to her
bedroom, all he wanted was to
lay
down at her side and
make sure she was okay. That he really hadn’t hurt her or her baby. He closed
his eyes when she closed her door. It had been a long crazy ass day.

Stefan shook his head and went
downstairs then made his way outside and stood on the back patio.

A couple minutes later, Will
joined him.

“Hey brother,” Will said and sat
down on Mom’s picnic table.

“Can’t sleep?” Stefan asked.
“Too much Swayze?”

Will just snorted. “So what’s up?
We good to go?”

Stefan thought about it good and
hard. “I think I just fucked up pretty badly, man.”

It was the absolute truth and he
hadn’t come here to do that again.

Chapter Thirteen

The stormy days were wreaking havoc on
Mrs. C’s joints. Multiple days of wacky barometric pressure and Gina could
barely get down the stairs on her own. Stefan had picked a bad day to ask for
quality time alone with his mom but he was down to the last week of his visit. Dani
pushed one side of the lacy white curtain hanging over the kitchen sink window
open and praised the sunlight. At least it wasn’t dreary outside today.

Inside was a different story.

Dani could tell the boys were about
ready to bust out of their skin if they were stuck indoors one more day. The
sun and fresh air would be good for Mrs. C too.

Stefan was playing by her rules.

Unfortunately,
fortunately.
She hadn’t pegged him for having that kind of control but he did.

She’d gotten her dinner, anyway. Every
night, they ate at the same table surrounded by Will and Gina.
Watching each other.

It was what she’d asked for, after all.

They did their best not to bump
shoulders passing through the upstairs hall. And that was a narrow hall when
you added the larger than life men of Sin Pointe to it. She’d downloaded their
most popular
album,
one called “Play”, but hadn’t had
the guts to listen to it yet. Whenever they did pass, Stefan always gave way
and let her go by first. It wasn’t too bad except for when it was him heading
to the bathroom for his shower or the times he asked her to step aside and let
him be the one to help his mom down the stairs. He was trying so hard, in so
many ways and it was the most beautiful yet difficult thing for her to have to
sit back and watch. Those near-collisions were excruciating.

She’d seen a lot more of Will Cordero.

The man’s shoulders and arms were the
most defined she’d ever laid eyes on. Not that she wanted to be noticing those
things about Will when Stefan sent him to help her move heavy stuff around the
house, but if she didn’t know better, she’d swear Stefan was pushing them
together. Case in point, she and Will were going shopping today to give Stefan
some of that alone time he wanted with his mom. Who was she to question that? Trying
to be nice, Dani offered to use the day to go visit her baby sister. Stefan had
never looked more relieved to her than in the seconds after she made that offer.

Her heart sank but she understood. She
was fighting the same urgent call he was.

She looked out back, through the kitchen
window, to see Will and Stefan standing in the middle of the overgrown yard,
talking. Thanks to the recent rain, the grass was a good six inches too high
and Dani had yet to bust out the lawnmower from its winter hibernation. Will
had an extension cord in his hand and she lost sight of him when he walked away
for a moment. But his hair made her smile. The
mohawk
was pulled into a knot at the back of his
head. He wore an aqua blue muscle shirt with a picture of a bear on the front.
The tank was without sleeves or sides. His ribs showed through because he was
thinner than Stefan but the man’s killer arms looked lethal. She took in
Stefan. Wearing black for a change, he stood there in a clingy athletic t-shirt
and matching pants. In white, he looked tan and massive. In the black, she
could see his lengths.
Legs, arms, torso.
Dani closed
her eyes.

****

The rain could stay in the fucking sky.

With it falling every day, Mom’s lawn
was grass on crack and shooting up everywhere. Today was nice for a change.
Stefan didn’t feel nice, but Dani was going to spend the day with her sister so
his stress-level should be cut in half.

If he thought about Dani one more time,
fuck.

At least she would be somewhere safe
today. With her at her sister’s, he could walk to the kitchen without bumping
into her. Stefan took a rake and catapulted it up and over Will, past Mom’s
garden. It bounced off a large tree and nearly bludgeoned Will in the back.