blaring. He was, after all, the king of playing shit off. Like, if there was an Olympic event for playing shit off like it was nothing, he would be the all-time record holder. And he’d seen her phone.
Dani’s expression morphed into happiness again as she saw Tara and gave her and Jesse another hug. Promises were made to hang out and shop and look for gowns together. And Sean might’ve almost believed that he was reading the whole thing wrong until, out in the parking garage, Tara turned to Dani one last time.
“Oh, I was going to wait, but I can’t. Dani, will you be my maid of honor?”
Annnd there was that look in her eyes again—only darker. Her jaw dropped.
Lost in her excitement, Tara misinterpreted Dani’s silence as maybe surprise or hesitance. “I know it’s a lot to ask and that we’ve only known each other for a year but you know I love you and I can’t think of anyone I’d want standing beside me more than you.”
Dani blinked and pushed a smile onto her face. “Oh, my God, I can’t believe you’d want me. But of course, I’ll be your maid of honor. I’m stunned and honored.”
Another round of hugs and happy exclamations ensued. Meanwhile, Sean was nearly itchy to get Dani out of there before she burst and unleashed whatever her real reactions were to all this.
Finally, it was just the two of them. “Come on, I’ll drop you at home,” Dani said as she crossed the parking garage toward her car.
“Want me to drive?” he asked, probably taking his life into his own hands.
She made a face at him. “Why?”
He held up his hands. “Just offering.”
Sean eased into the car, expecting to hit his knees on the dash, but he found that the passenger seat was still pushed back from when he’d used it last week. He got hit with the sudden and fucking ridiculous feeling of fitting in to her life, even in this small way, which just showed how pathetic he was sometimes.
The ride back to his house was quiet, but not at all peaceful. Because he could feel Dani raging from where he sat. The car was nearly vibrating with her chaotic energy. Her knuckles were white where she gripped the steering wheel. Her jaw was clenched tight.
“What?” she bit out, glancing over to find him watching her.
“Just looking.”
“Well, don’t.”
“Why not?” He wasn’t sure why he was pushing her, but everything inside him wanted to—in every way he could.
“Because.”
If he laughed, she was going to legit fuck him up. So he remained serious. “Not good enough. I like looking at you.”
She huffed, but Sean was looking, so he didn’t miss the tint of pink that climbed up her high cheekbones. Dani liked him looking whether she admitted it or not.
His cock stirred and he shifted in his seat. And let himself look his fill. At the small swell of her breasts under that tight little shirt. At how high up the black denim skirt rode on her thighs. At how fuckin’ pretty she was.
Sean found himself wanting a thousand things as he took Daniela England in. He wanted to know why Jesse and Tara’s engagement had so bothered her. He wanted to make her feel better. He wanted to let her take all that pent-up anger or angst or whatever it was out on him. He wanted to hold her—a strange urge for someone who found hugs odd and unfamiliar.
He wanted to be inside her. And then fall asleep with her in his arms and wake up only to slide inside her again.
Fuck. What was all that about?
Dani could’ve dropped him off on the street in front of his house, but instead she pulled around into his back yard and parked with the engine idling. He wasn’t sure why she’d done that, but his cock thought it knew, apparently, which maybe explained why Sean was rock fuckin’ hard.
They sat there for a long second. Neither of them speaking or moving. And all Sean could think of was how the last time something had been on her mind she’d told him, “I just want to get out of my head…”
He knew how that was. So just in case that was where she was now, he needed her to know. “My offer stands.”
She looked at him, fierce and beautiful. “Your offer?”
“You can use me.”
“Fuck off, Sean.”
The ice in her tone hit him right in the chest. He was the one who’d pushed this seat