She shifted again, her hand slipping between her thighs, pressing just so, to ease the violent ache that had erupted at the mere thought of him. Not that she’d be so crass as to masturbate in the same room as his mother, but she just needed the touch right then. No... she needed his touch. Now.
Close your eyes. Close your eyes and go to sleep. He’s in a room full of shirtless old men. Think about that for a minute. There is nothing sexy about that image.
Only, the image that stayed with her was him, leaning back in the chair. That damned newspaper shielding... yeah, well, he could have shown her what he was shielding. As far as she’d been concerned in that moment, they’d been the only two people in the world.
Why again wasn’t she in the guest room? With him?
She groaned, and buried her face in the pillow, freezing when Elaina made a soft noise and shifted onto her back. She began to snore.
Great. Just great.
Tired. Frustrated. It was a wonder Dani slept at all. At some point she must have dozed, for when she heard the clink of something metal hitting against the door her eyes shot open, but for a moment she couldn’t remember where she was.
There. That sound. Something rustling?
She turned her head, willing herself to see in the dim light, but the room was too dark. With a glance to the sleeping Elaina, she stole from the bed to pad over to the door. Light from the hallway shone through the crack, making it very easy to see the bit of belt that was pressed underneath the door and into the room. Whoever held it was moving it back and forth under the door. Dani smiled and looked back at the bed. Satisfied that her future mother-in-law was still sound asleep, she put a foot down on the leather. There was a slight pull at first, but when nothing further happened something else was pressed under the door.
It was a five-dollar bill.
Dani smiled and grabbed the money. Heart singing anthems and hallelujahs she silently dressed, carrying her boots and the socks that had refused to dry with the rest of her clothes, and slipped the five into her pocket. One more stolen glance showed Elaina still asleep as Dani slipped through the door.
No one was in the hallway. Of course not. For a moment she glanced toward the empty guest room, thinking again that if people would just freaking relax, they could have... okay, maybe not with her father in the next room. And his. Fine. The garage was fine.
Slipping down the stairs was easy. The hard part was crossing through a room full of men who were notorious for being light sleepers. Marcus had chosen a spot on the floor near the side door Dani had snuck out through earlier.
He rose on one elbow and regarded her balefully in the pre-dawn light. Dani knelt beside him and showed him the five-dollar bill. Marcus looked at her for a long moment, snatched the bill from her hand, and gave her an exaggerated wink. He rolled away from the door and Dani slipped out into the night.
She padded to the garage and met Luke.
He was standing there, talking to his father.
Luke shrugged, and gritted his teeth.
“Ah, there you are,” William said as though he’d been waiting for her all night. “It’s nearly dawn.”
Dani looked from him to Luke and back again. “Did I oversleep?” Her body had just gone, not for the first time, from arousal to ice in less than three seconds flat. She could be forgiven for being just a tad snarky.
William gave her a look before turning to Luke. “I think we might start off—it’s a bit early, but it shouldn’t be too much of a wait.”
“What is he talking about?” she hissed at Luke, crossing her arms against the pre-dawn chill. T-shirt and shorts were not adequate dress for five a.m., even in Florida. “This was for the five bucks?”
“I had something else in mind,” Luke growled through clenched teeth. “He just showed up while I was waiting.”
“Coming, kids?” William called.
“Well, not now!” Dani seethed.
Luke clapped a hand over her mouth. “Yeah. We’re coming.”
She shot Luke a look. Did he seriously want to go there?
He looked at her a long moment. “Just... behave,” he muttered, pulling away his hand. “This isn’t exactly my rodeo anymore.”
She met his gaze, still frustrated, and angry as hell. “Cowboy, you’re so deep in the horseshit right now, it’s a wonder you can see the rodeo at all.”
Chapter Eight
William led the way, seeming to assume that the young people would follow whether he watched or not. Dani had a momentary fantasy of them bolting back to the garage, or anywhere, really, that had a door that could be locked or disabled. This wasn’t even about sex anymore, though the need clawed at her even as she staggered along in the scion’s wake.
Thank goodness she hadn’t stayed in the nightie.
Luke hung back with her, not seeming to care that William had outstripped them completely and was already almost at the corner. Light tinged the eastern sky, brilliant in purples and reds that made her wonder if the old rhyme was true.
Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.
Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.
It’s a wonder the whole world hadn’t figured out that a storm was brewing.
Unless it had.
Dani stopped cold, wondering suddenly at the traffic on the street. Who was out at this hour? It was barely edging on six. The black car idling at the corner took on a new and sinister meaning. The mini-van backing out of the driveway on the left contained enemy agents.
She’d been foolish. Letting her guard down because this was Orlando. Nothing sinister lived in Orlando.
“...apparently, he got the reverend to open early and get things moving at dawn. He called a bunch of people, I don’t know what all else. For all I know, he’s going to declare the entire church a national dependency and order the building be turned into a park.”
Dani stared at Luke. How long had he been talking? She hadn’t been paying attention to him, either. No wonder he looked so frustrated. She reached a hand for him, and with a glance at how far up the street William was at this point led the way at a trot, wincing with each step. Luke said nothing further. Maybe he had nothing more to say. Maybe, like her, he was frustrated and trying hard to not take it out on her, the way she really was trying to not take it out her frustration on him. She grasped her boots and socks in one hand, his fingers intertwined with those of her free hand.
It might have been nice, this early morning walk together, had it not been for two things.
First, Dani had gotten used to being barefoot long ago, but the past couple of years had seen her calluses get thinner and thinner. Some of the places she’d worked weren’t safe for anything less than thick, heavy boots, and so the walk along the street was getting to be a bit uncomfortable.