DANIEL WOKE up happy. When he turned his head to see Lana lying on her stomach, fast asleep, the sight made him even happier.
Moving carefully, Daniel leaned over to kiss her bare shoulder. Lana’s skin was smooth and warm, and he was tempted to take a nibble. Lana let out a tiny contented snort but didn’t move. More pressing matters like the state of his bladder drove Daniel out of bed. After that and a quick shower, he propped himself against the doorframe of his bedroom, gloating over the beautiful sight.
He remembered he had nothing in the house for breakfast except leftovers from last night’s takeaway. Chinese for breakfast didn’t appeal, and he had plans for the rest of the day, which meant Lana had to be well fed and energetic. Daniel dressed and went down the stairs quietly. He picked up his wallet and keys and left, locking the door behind him.
The rain had stopped during the night, and the early rays of sun made the honey-colored stone of the buildings gleam like gold. Overnight everything seemed to have become mysteriously more beautiful and vibrant. The delicious aroma of baking bread and fresh coffee drew him to his usual boulangerie, and he went in to buy breakfast.
The sight of three short men standing in front of his building brought him up short, and Daniel chuckled. They all turned to watch him as he approached. “Good morning, gentlemen. Here to check up on me?”
Terry started. “Where is—”
“Lana.” Dom cut in without ceremony. “Where is she?”
“I assume Lana is still asleep. She was when I went out to get breakfast.” Daniel unlocked the outer door and led the way upstairs to his flat.
Colin sniffed at the package under Daniel’s arm. “Good bread.”
“Don’t worry, I got enough for all of us.” Daniel led the way into his kitchen and put the paper sack on the table. Although yesterday he’d been worrying about the lack of dining table and chairs, today’s uninvited guests gave him a laugh at the thought of the impending competition to cop the lone stool in the kitchen. “Would anyone like to volunteer to make the coffee?”
Colin was unpacking the bag. He muttered approvingly to himself as he pulled out butter and a jar of preserves. “Do you have a basket and a linen towel I can use to keep these rolls warm?”
Daniel pointed at a cupboard. “Help yourself. I think you’ll find all you need.”
“Better let Lana make the coffee,” Dom said. “She makes the best coffee I’ve ever tasted.”
“Hey!” Colin surfaced from inside the cupboard. “I’m the one who taught her how to make coffee, remember?”
“And that’s the only thing you taught her. She sure can’t make a pot of tea fit for consumption.” Terry reached for a roll and winced when Colin slapped his hand away.
“Wait for Lana.”
“I’ll go see if she’s awake.” Daniel went toward the stairs.
“Better set off a bomb,” Dom called after him. “She’s a heavy sleeper.”
Weird that they knew her better than he did, but he knew a different side of her they never would. Daniel could hear the babble of the dwarfs arguing as he went up the stairs, but not exactly what they were saying. He closed the door to the bedroom to shut out the sound. Lana was still asleep, her body completely relaxed on the bed.
Daniel bent to brush the hair out of Lana’s face. “How are you this morning?”
“Slightly sore but insatiable. Where were you?” Lana spoke without opening her eyes. “You went away.”
“I went out to get breakfast.” Daniel sat on the edge of the bed and stroked her arm. “When I returned, we were invaded by dwarfs.”
Lana rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. “Fuck them sideways with a pogo stick. No morning quickie?”
Daniel busted out laughing. “Speaking of insatiable, I think I may have met my match, but we’ll have time later. They came to see if you’re okay, and they want you to make the coffee. I don’t think they’re going anywhere until they see you.”
“You’re probably right, and they do admit I make good coffee.” Lana looked around the room blankly. “Can I borrow something to wear? I don’t see my clothes.”
“How about what you have on now?” Daniel teased. “You look perfect to me.”
“Too cold.” Lana lifted the blanket and peeked down at herself. “If I go down like this, there will be a lot of size-matters jokes and you’ll feel impelled to defend my honor.”
“And we don’t want that. Despite the obvious disadvantages of your entourage, I rather like the dwarfs because they love you.” Daniel rubbed Lana’s groin lightly through the blanket. “Although I’ll have them know I have no complaints on the score of size.”
“Stop it.” Lana pushed his hand away. “There are some things one’s friends should never see, and me waving a woody around is one of them.”
“I’ll get your clothes from the dryer.” Daniel tilted Lana’s face up and kissed her on the lips. “And I’ll grind some coffee beans for you.”
Lana groaned as she sat up. “I had to go and buy a dwarf alarm clock.”
Daniel laughed and then watched Lana until the bathroom door closed behind her before he went back downstairs to join the dwarfs.
“She’ll be right down.” Daniel was interested to note that Terry had commandeered the lone stool while Dom stood glowering at him. Daniel collected Lana’s clothing from the dryer and went back upstairs. The water was running in the bathroom, so he left her clothes on the bed where she would see them and returned to the kitchen.
Completely at home in the kitchen, Colin was setting places on the table. “Hope you don’t mind my raiding your pantry.” He had set out the milk for the coffee, plates, flatware, and napkins. “Although there wasn’t much to raid.”
“I don’t mind at all now that we’re in-laws.” Daniel grinned at their startled expressions. He leaned against the counter and crossed his arms. “I have no secrets from you guys anymore.”
Terry snickered. “I’ll just bet you do.” Clearly taking no chances of losing his seat, Terry leaned way over from the stool to poke Daniel in the ribs.
“You’re right, some things must always remain….” Daniel looked up when he caught a movement on the upper stair. Even in plain, boring, and completely neutral socks, just the sight of Lana’s feet stepped up his heart rate. “Damn,” he muttered. He was so lost.
LOOKING UP to find out why Daniel’s jaw went slack, Dom raised his hand to cover a smirk. Lana, of course. He’d never seen that satisfied look on her face before. And the way she searched for Daniel in the room and the smile that lit her face when she saw him… well, Dom suddenly discovered he had something in his eye and rubbed it vigorously.
“Hello, boys.” Lana gave them a smug grin before she drifted over to the coffeemaker. Poetry in motion as she put in the filter, poured in the water, and measured the grounds. She was flying. Lana went to lean on the counter next to Daniel and snuggled closer to him. He put his arm around her. “Looks like we have company, honey.”
Her smile when she looked at Daniel was infinitely more radiant than when she’d smiled at her old friends.
Dom cleared his throat. “We came to make sure you’re okay.”
“I don’t think you have to worry about me anymore, Happy.” Lana didn’t look away from Daniel’s face.
Daniel was beaming at her, obviously equally besotted and happy.
Lana had not buttoned her collar tight to her throat as she usually did, and the scars were obvious in the morning light.
“You look beautiful, Lana.” After watching them together, Dom was finally able to relax. Maybe she really was going to be okay. Love shimmered in the air like an aura. Or maybe it was just the way the sunlight came in the window.
“Thank you, Dom. Coffee’s ready.” Lana slipped out of Daniel’s embrace and went to get the pot.
Still trying to divine the man’s inner thoughts, Dom watched Daniel watching her as she poured coffee for everyone.
“How did you all meet?” Daniel took a sip of his coffee, never taking his gaze off Lana.
Dom looked at Terry and Colin, and they giggled naughtily. Still the Musketeers.
“Lana didn’t tell you?”
“She said you met at school and you protected her from the bullies,” Daniel answered. “I’d like to hear your side of it.”
“Colin and Terry lived next door to each other, so they were friends already,” Dom started. “The rest of us all met in kindergarten.”
“Even then, Lana was a beanpole,” Colin said.
“Taller than any of us and stayed that way,” Terry added. “The boys didn’t like how feminine she was and the girls didn’t like her because she was so much prettier.”
“She was picked on a lot.” Dom smacked a fist into his cupped hand. “I didn’t like that, so I said, stick with us and we’ll—”
“He started taking out my five-year-old enemies.” Lana smiled at Dom, and he smiled back.
“And we all just hit it off,” Terry said.
“We were the guard and she was the princess.” Colin helped himself to another roll and anointed it liberally with butter.
“A princess in a checked shirt and corduroys,” Lana said. “I didn’t get to choose my own outfits back then.”
“But we knew,” Terry said.
“If Lana was feminine even then, how did you all feel about that?” Daniel asked.
“What did we know? She was fun and that’s all we cared about,” Colin said.
“She’s still a lot of fun.” Daniel wiggled his brows at Lana. She fluttered her lashes at him as she slowly turned pink.
“Colin has an older sister who was a tomboy. So we decided Lana was a tomgirl.” Dom shrugged. “Made sense to our five-year-old minds.”
“So we hung out and took our vows as Musketeers—”
Lana cut in. “And princess.”
“And princess.” Colin nodded at her. “And we stayed friends and we always will. The end.”
“When her parents kicked her out, we tried to help as much as we could,” Terry said. “She would have done the same for us.”
“And the attack?” Daniel looked sorry as soon as the question was out.
Lana looked up at the ceiling and compressed her lips tightly.
“Lana doesn’t like talking about it,” Dom said.
“Thanks, Dominick,” Lana said softly.
“Neither does Dom,” Terry said, a protective note in his voice.
Dom looked at him in surprise. “Thanks, Terry.” He turned to Lana. “I’m sorry I had to call your parents.”
“I know, Dom, don’t worry about it. What else could you do? We were fifteen.” Lana reached out and squeezed Dom’s hand. “I’m not mad about it. I never was.”
He kept her hand in his for a moment. “At least you’re all right.”
“We never thought she’d end up dating anyone.” Colin used the tip of his finger to pick up the crumbs from his plate and licked them off.
“And then you come along and blow her socks off.” Dom pointed an accusing finger and then was startled by Daniel and Lana’s laughter.
“Sorry.” Daniel recovered first. “Just a running joke.”
“A match made in heaven. They have inside jokes already.”
“Lana told me about her job writing about socks.”
“Socks?” Brows raised, the dwarfs looked at one another and shrugged.
Lana raised her brows in pride. “My first published paragraph was about socks.”
“So anyway, Lana is one of us, and anyone who hurts her hurts all of us.” Dom leaned forward to stare menacingly at Daniel. “If you do, Mr. Daniel Hunter, we’ll hunt you down, chop off your balls, and feed them to the wolves.”
Lana laughed. “No ball chopping until you check with me first, do you read me, dwarfs?”
Finally Dom grinned. “I think everyone reads you loud and clear, Lana. You kids have my blessing.”
“Kids?” Lana protested indignantly.
Daniel set down his cup and put his arms around her. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
ON MONDAY Lana was seated at her desk, leaning her head in her hand, dreamily thinking over every last detail of what she and Daniel had done that weekend and not doing a lick of work. When Catharine knocked on the door, Lana straightened up and tried to look busy.
Catharine bustled into Lana’s office, holding up the latest issue of the magazine to show off the cover. “Hot off the presses. Your Haute Macabre editorial from the photo shoot. I think it turned out fabulous.”
“Thanks.” Lana reached for it eagerly. The fun of seeing her work in print still hadn’t worn off, and she hoped it never would. “Cool.” She flipped the pages over, smiling in delight. She would study it later.
“Looks like someone had a very good weekend. I would say something more, but we’re at work, if you get my drift, even though I would welcome any details you care to share. Would Daniel be wearing that same smug grin this morning? And perhaps very little else?”
Lana knew she was blushing and she just couldn’t stop grinning a grin that never ended, but she said, “Be quiet, Catharine. If I told you everything that happened, you’d probably cover your ears and run screaming into the night.”
“I’m broad-minded, I am, and night is hours away. I can stand up to hearing about whatever it is you two got up to. And whatever you did, I hope it was suitably naughty.” Catharine rubbed her hands together with satisfaction, but then she gave Lana a genuine smile. “I’m just glad to see you happy at last. You’ve spent too long alone.”
Her face cooling, Lana said, “I am happy. Happier than I ever thought possible.”
“So when do I get to meet him? Or does that hickey on your neck mean your nights are booked until next year?”
Hickey? Lana scrambled for the mirror she kept in her desk. She hadn’t even noticed when she put on her makeup—
“I don’t have a hickey!”
“Made you look!” Catharine laughed. “I guess if the weather wasn’t hot and steamy where you were, you wouldn’t have had to check in a panic.”
“I did not panic.” Lana tried to stay on her dignity, but that grin that wouldn’t stop was back. “I can tell you that we had a very nice time, thank you for asking.”
Catharine held up her hands in defeat, but she was still laughing. “I can take a hint. Just let me say I’m very happy for you, and tell Daniel if he doesn’t treat you as you deserve to be treated, he’ll have me to deal with.”
“I’ll tell him, but you’ll have to stand in line behind the dwarfs.”