and I pressed harder. “Talk to me.”
He let out a long sigh. “I can’t shake off everything from my childhood, Rain. I can’t tell you how many times I got comfortable in a foster home, only to have to pick up and leave. No warning, no notice, just pack your shit in this bag and let’s go.” He furrowed his brow. “It felt like… like a slap in the face. It was just a reminder that none of it was real.”
“What do you mean?”
He made a frustrated noise. “God, what am I even going on about?”
Once more, he tried to get off the desk, and I stopped him again. Danny didn’t open up often, especially about his past, and I was going to hear what he had to say. Period. I didn’t care if I had to tie him to the desk, which was certainly an interesting idea. That got my thoughts going in another direction that had to be shelved for another time—another dirty, perverted time.
“Use your words,” I teased gently.
He chuckled. “Shut up. It was just easy to get comfortable. I’d imagine that those people could be my family. Maybe I could be part of their traditions. Maybe the next year, I’d get to help decorate the tree. But none of it was real.” Color rose in his cheeks, maybe from the emotion the memories brought back or embarrassment. I wasn’t sure which. “At the end of the day, I was just a random kid passing through with all his shit in a trash bag.”
His words made my heart ache. “Danny—”
“Oh God, please don’t look at me like that.” He laughed derisively. “Drama queen, table for one. I just… I need your stuff not to be in boxes.”
“Understood,” I said a little hoarsely.
I could tell by the look in his eyes and the blush on his cheeks that he didn’t want any sappy words or declarations. He wasn’t a sappy guy, and neither was I. I could show him my intentions through action. I would show him that we were very real, and none of this was temporary.
“Those boxes are history.” I leaned in and pressed my lips against his. They were dry and soft and warm. “But that’s tomorrow and this is now. And right now, I want to fuck.”
“You want to fuck?” He huffed out a laugh, his breath minty across my face. “Wow, the romance really is dead.”
“You want me to pretty it up for you?” I pressed kisses down the side of his neck—hot, openmouthed kisses that made him squirm. “Maybe I could quote some Romeo and Juliet or something.”
“There’s something to be said for the Bard.”
“All right, here goes.” I gently bit at that particular spot on his neck that drove him crazy, worrying the skin there with my teeth. Predictably, he let out a low moan. “Forsooth, good sir. Wouldst thou be so kind as to fuckest a good knight through ye olde mattress?”
He laughed. “And just what the hell version of Romeo and Juliet would that be?”
“The uncut version. Romeo and Juliet—after dark.” I brought our hips closer together and ground against him, wrenching a groan from the both of us. “Come on, Irish. You gonna make me beg?”
He smiled a little, those blue eyes sparkling. “Probably.”
Yeah, that worked for me.
*
I spent much of the morning unpacking boxes. By nine o’clock, I’d given up on finding a perfect place for everything. By ten, I’d started throwing away things I’d previously considered precious with reckless abandon. Sometime around noon, my parents began scavenging through my trash like oversized raccoons dressed in people clothes.
I finished breaking down the boxes for the recycling bin, shaking my head as my dad dragged an ancient vacuum cleaner out of the trash and across the yard. Sometimes one man’s trash wasn’t another man’s treasure. Sometimes it was just another man’s trash, only one house over.
I grabbed a sandwich from a fast food place on the way in and made it into the office for my one o’clock meeting with Kenneth Clark. He showed up in a dirty tank top and dusty, paint-splattered cargos, apparently oblivious to little things like soap and water and clean clothes. I tried not to look at his hair, which he kept on the longer side, all tangled and limp and greasy. A brush certainly wouldn’t go amiss. Or deodorant.
We had a lovely hour chat, most of which was spent with me asking uncomfortable questions and him trying not to squirm in his