“Mac,” he growls.
“DD,” I sigh, melting into his touch. I look around his apartment. “She’s not here, is she?”
“Who?” he answers gruffly.
“Nasty Nikki.”
“Mac, she’s not nasty,” he says exasperatedly. “And no, she’s not here. Why would she be here?”
“Cause you had coffee with her and she touched you. She is nasty. She makes glarey eyes when you’re not looking, and she touches you when she’s not allowed.”
Checking that I’m steady, he removes his hands and walks over to the kitchen, grabbing a clean glass from the cupboard and filling it with water. He returns and directs me to the couch where he pushes me down until I’m sitting and hands me the water. “Drink this. I’ll get you some Tylenol as well. I think you’re going to need it. Just let me get changed and I’ll take you home.”
I’m dumbfounded. I may be drunk as a skunk, but I didn’t expect him to be so cold.
I watch him walk down the hallway towards his bedroom, returning a few minutes later with his Chicago Bears’ hoodie on as well as his sneakers. He holds his hand out and hands me two painkillers. “Take these,” he orders. I grab them and swallow them both down with one gulp of water.
He sits down on the coffee table in front of me, his knees brushing against mine.
“Not that it matters, but I just happened to run into Nikki today. It wasn’t planned, and it definitely wasn’t anything more than coffee with an old friend.”
“But she was touching you. I don’t want anyone to be touching you except me,” I say matter-of-factly. I know I’m messing this up, but his whole demeanor has put my whole sexting, booty call plan up the shit.
Leaning forward, he places his palms on my knees, sending delicious shivers right through me.
“You said you couldn’t do this, Mac.”
“I didn’t think I could.”
“Well, I think I need to get you home and maybe we can talk again when you’re not drunk.” He stands and holds his hand out to me. “I’ll drive, and I can come over and see you tomorrow.” I can see him clenching his jaw, he’s torn right now.
“I don’t want to go home, I want to stay with you,” I whisper, looking up at him as tears start to well in my eyes.
“Shit. Mac, you need to stop this,” he says, sitting back down on the couch beside me. “I don’t want you to regret this.”
I scoff. “My only regret is walking out on you last Sunday.”
He looks at me in disbelief, but I can still see the anger simmering underneath. “Mac, I can’t deal with this right now. We can talk tomorrow.”
I shake my head from side to side. “I wanna talk now.”
“You couldn’t tell me what was wrong last week. Let’s just leave it.”
“No!” I shout, shocking him.
“Mac, I’m not adverse to throwing you over my shoulder and carrying you out of here,” he growls. Damn, mad Daniel is hot!
“Do it. I don’t care. I want to explain. No, I need to explain.” I place my hand on his cheek, stilling him.
He sighs again. “Okay. You can say what you want to say, but then I’m taking you home.” I can tell he’s reluctant, but as he crosses his arms across his chest and looks at me expectantly, I know that it’s now or never.
“I missed you,” I say, looking at him.
“I’ve missed you too,” he says, the hard edge in his eyes softening slightly.
I lick my lips, suddenly nervous. “Okay, so I need to say some stuff, and although it’s not easy for me to share, I want you to know. I need you to understand why I am the way I am.”
He watches me expectantly, and my lips curve into a sly smile as my eyes take him in. “God, you’re beautiful. I almost forgot how much I love just looking at you.”
He shakes his head, ruefully. “I’m nothing next to you, gorgeous.”
I instantly feel warm, and my nervousness disappears. I feel at ease now; enough to talk freely. Maybe this won’t be as hard as I imagined. I take a deep breath to clear my head, stuck on how to start the story of how Beau Gregory ruined me.
“I’m sorry.” The two words that have been on the tip of my tongue for over a week now.
“I’m starting to get that, gorgeous, considering you turned up on my doorstep drunk and wanting to talk,” he explains.
“Well, yeah, but it’s more than that. I didn’t really give you a chance.”
“Not really.” He leans forward and gently grabs my hand, urging me to go on.
“It was self-preservation,” I answer honestly. “My feelings for you are so strong, and intense...I couldn’t deal with it. The last time I fell hard and fast, I wound up broken.”
He runs his thumb across my knuckles as he waits for me to start talking.
“When I was twenty, I moved to Ohio with my high school boyfriend.” I can already feel the weight lifting off my shoulders. “He had lost his job here and couldn’t find work, so when his uncle called and offered him a job in Dalton, he took it. He wanted me to go with him. Said he couldn’t live without me and that it would be a fresh start, so I dropped out of nursing school and went with him, against everyone’s wishes.”
“Kate wasn’t a fan I take it?” he asks.
“Not at all. Beau had changed a lot in the few months before we left, and everyone could see it, but I still saw the man I’d fallen in love with.”
I see the hardening of Daniel’s face as soon as I say that. Definitely not something he liked hearing.
“A few months after we’d arrived, I realized that the nice, loving, easy going guy that I had fallen in love with back in Chicago was long gone, and I was living with an arrogant, self-serving, controlling ass**le instead. He tried to rule my life, controlling everything I did, who I saw, how I dressed, everything,” I continue, pausing briefly to look over at him. All this serious talk seems to be having an instant sobering effect, f**k it!
“Eventually, he started losing his temper. Mainly words, but occasionally he would push me out of the way, squeeze my arms to get a point across, and twice he actually punched me.”
Daniel stands up and walks to the window, planting both hands on the glass. By the way his head has fallen down and the speed in which his chest is rising and falling, I can tell he is angry.
“I just need a moment.”