Emma
It was early evening when Daniel arrived for our date. Henry was at Alice's house, apparently having their own date that involved a fantasy role-playing game with a group of their friends. Henry had told me something about the fact that he would be out late, that the dungeon master had something epic planned for them before he left. Which was perfect. It wasn't often Daniel and I had the place to ourselves.
I was wearing a white dress with little sunflowers on it. Something I would have felt too old to wear, once upon a time, but that was when I was the miserable, broken Emma. The one who worked at a company run by her ex, a company built on the back of my hard work. The woman who saw herself as a mom to my sweet boy and a wife and nothing more. But now that I feel more like a person, more like a woman, the dress just... felt right.
And when I opened the door and saw the look on Daniel's face as his gaze ran from my sandals to the dress, I knew I made the right call. "You look amazing," he said.
I smiled. "Thanks, so do you." And, he did. He'd combed his wild auburn hair back the best he could and shaved, so he didn't have that day-old scruff, even though I didn't mind the scruff. He was wearing a green plaid shirt and tan khaki pants. Clothes that suited him in every way, hugging his muscles and drawing attention to his startlingly green eyes.
When I realized I'd been ogling him for too long, I forced my gaze away and did a little wave to welcome him in. "The food's done. Want it inside, or on the porch?"
"Maybe inside. It might be a little chilly out to just sit."
I smiled. He didn't mean he'd be chilly. The big guy was never cold. He meant that I might be cold in my new dress, which was just sweet as heck.
Following me into the kitchen, he said, "Anything I can help with?"
"Not at all, I just made some lasagna and garlic bread."
"Oh, yum," he said the word yum with a little growl as he wrapped his arms around my waist.
I turned around in his arms and grinned, then stretched up and kissed him on the lips. His eyes shone, drinking me in like his heart was just as full as mine. Which it might have been. Sometimes it was still strange to feel loved. To know this amazing man really, truly saw me as some kind of catch.
After a minute, he released me, grabbed the lasagna, and hurried it out to the table. I followed him with a plate of garlic bread. When we set everything into place, I pushed him to sit down. With my ex, I’d always felt like a waitress when I served him food, but for Daniel, I kind of loved it. Maybe it was the way his eyes got big every time I put food on his plate or the way he devoured it like I was the best cook in the world, or maybe it was just the fact that he always seemed so grateful. In any case, I loved serving him.
I just wished I didn't have an awkward, looming thing to talk to him about. Something I was pretty sure he wouldn't like to hear. Even though I didn't know if he'd be upset about the dinner with vampires out of jealousy or protectiveness. Knowing Daniel, probably more protectiveness, but who knew? Men were strange creatures sometimes. It could’ve been jealousy. Because, you know, I was such an awesome catch that every man must want me.
Smiling at the thought, I decided that getting the topic over with was probably best. “So, I had something strange happen today,” I said as I dished out lasagna onto Daniel’s plate.
“Is it work related?” he asked.
I nodded my head. “Yeah, sort of.”
With one hand up, Daniel shook his head. “Let’s say no work talk. Tonight is about us, not the stuff we have to deal with."
While it was true, I wanted to tell him about Vance and the upcoming dinner, it felt like something that needed to be said soon, or it'd almost be like I was hiding it from him. And I never wanted to hide anything from Daniel. Still, I guess it could wait until we weren’t on a date. Sometimes I forgot how important it was to him to keep our romantic time and work time separate. He had once confessed to me that after seeing all the cops around him getting divorces or their wives always seeming to be unhappy in their marriages, he'd worked very hard with his wife not to make the mistake of being married to his career. Which was a good thing. When she died, at least he knew he’d been a good husband.
Now that he was technically retired, well, semi-retired, he didn't see any reason in this world to not carry on the same tradition. He said that he always wanted me to feel special. But I also wanted him to understand that when the department called him in for supernatural cases, I had no problem with him jumping into his work. I did the same thing after all.
And like we could ever be work friends. But the thought was just so sweet that I wanted to try to stick to his preference, even if I wasn't good at holding things in. I'd try. For Daniel.
So, we ate together. Daniel asked more questions about what Bryan had been like in high school. He hadn’t known him well. He asked what Bryan’s relationship with Carol had been like, and I gushed over how perfect they’d seemed for each other. Daniel's slight scowl at the mention of Bryan's name slowly faded away until I could see it hit him how much Bryan seemed to have been special, at least back then, and why any of us were willing to get involved in vampire business, to begin with. Although neither of us talked about all the vampire trouble.
Daniel told me about working with the wolf shifters. How Nathan was growing into a good alpha for his people, and how Thomas would have been proud. Daniel had shown Nathan how to fix their cabins. They'd worked on repairing the leaky roofs together, fixing insulation, and other issues. He'd helped the young man create responsibilities for his people, as well as rules. Daniel confessed that Nathan had had some struggles getting his people to fall in line, since they were so used to doing whatever the heck they wanted, but that things were getting better. That helped with their money troubles, too, having everyone working and productive.
I was glad.
My big bear shifter pretended to be so tough, but when it came to his best friend's son, he had a serious weak spot. He seemed to think that when his friend died, it was his responsibility to take over as a father figure. He wanted it to be that simple, but I knew it wasn't. Daniel couldn't be anyone's father figure until they were ready for him to be. And, finally, it seemed Nathan was ready for it.
After dinner, Daniel suggested a walk around the block. My neighborhood bordered the ocean, with sidewalks and cute little street lights. It made for a nice evening walk, although I made sure to shrug into a jacket before we left. Hand in hand, we strolled down the street with the sound of the surf in the air and just enough chill in the air to cut the heat from the day. Neither of us spoke until we got to the small boardwalk that led down to the beach from the street. It was something the neighborhood had installed as a joint venture years ago.
As we stepped up onto the boards, a ping came from the vicinity of Daniel’s butt. He pulled his phone out of his back pocket with his free hand but frowned at the screen. As curious as I was, I didn’t peek at the screen. “Everything okay?” I asked instead.
With a sigh, he stuffed his phone into his back pocket again. “We agreed to no work talk.” He squeezed my hand and we started down the boardwalk. “Want to walk back to your house on the sand?”
“Sure.” We had said no work talk, but I didn’t like not telling him about my plans for the following evening. “Daniel,” I said slowly as he helped me stay upright as I slipped off my sandals to walk along the beach. “No work talk, I know, but…”
He furrowed his brow. “What?”
“There’s something you should know,” I said, reluctant to break the peace of our evening. “You know that vampire detective? Vance?” Oh, how innocent my voice came out.
It could’ve been my imagination, but it seemed like Daniel bristled a bit. “Yeah?”
“He came by earlier.” I didn’t elaborate where he’d come from, but Daniel must’ve sensed there was more to it.
“Came by where?” he asked suspiciously.
“Uh, well, I went for a swim and when I got out, he was there.”
“Vance Acheron was waiting for you when you got out of the ocean?”
Oh, my. Why was it so hot that Daniel’s voice sounded positively predatory? I fought the shiver that wanted to dance up my spine. “Yes. And he wanted to talk about the case, so we took a little walk to talk.”
He grunted but no more protestations, so I kept talking.
“He invited me to dinner,” I said, then when Daniel turned his head sharply to look at me, I rapidly followed up with, “a dinner party, not like a date.”
He lifted a brow. “With the vampires?”
“Yes. He thinks it’s one of the vampires that will be there tomorrow night who killed the guy on the beach and thought, with my powers, I might be able to figure out who had done it. I’ve been working on reaching out with my magic to get a read on people. It’s not strong yet, but it’s something.” I shrugged and bumped my shoulder into Daniels.
Oh, no. He looked seriously upset. “It’s a bad idea,” Daniel said, seeming to choose each of his words with care. “I can’t tell you not to go, but…”
“You’d like for me to not go?” I squeezed his hand, understanding what he wasn't saying. He was worried about me. He didn't like the idea of me walking into a potentially dangerous situation alone, and probably saw no real need for it. But anything that could help me figure out if my friend's ex was a murderer, and who was a killer in our town, was a smart move. Especially given the fact that I'm not just some helpless damsel in distress. “Daniel. I know there’s the potential for danger. But I am Karma, after all. More than likely my karmic powers will help protect me. And it’s not a date, no matter how Vance might flirt.”
Oops. Probably shouldn’t have said that part.
Daniel tugged on my hand until I fell against him. My skin danced with anticipation as he slid his hand around my shoulders and stopped me.
It was all I could do to control my breathing as I looked up into his sea-green eyes. No doubt he could hear my heart pitter-pattering in my chest, but I couldn't stop that.
“I know we just barely made things official,” he said softly as his fingers traced a pattern across my knuckles. “But this is eventually heading toward something... more, right? Not that I'm trying to pressure you or anything.”
Before I could answer, he kept talking. It was almost a babble, bless him.
“We haven’t…” Daniel let go of one of my hands and rubbed his forehead, then grabbed my fingers again. “We haven’t taken things to the next level in the bedroom, but I wanted to give you time. I'm trying to be conscientious of the fact that you haven't been single long, but I also don't want you to think I'm dragging my feet or that I don't know what I want.”
I looked around, trying to think of the right words to say, and realized we’d already walked all the way back to the sand just outside my backyard. “I don’t want more time,” I blurted out.
Yeah. Smooth.
“I mean, I’m ready for…” Why wouldn't my mouth work? “I want to have sex with you!” I exclaimed, then immediately wanted to take the words back, even though I meant them. That was not the lead-way I wanted for us to take things to the next step.
Daniel’s jaw dropped. Before I lost my nerve, I jumped up on my tiptoes and pressed my mouth to his. He must not have been expecting me to, because he stumbled backward. He was a shifter, after all, so he recovered quickly, and the next thing I knew, Daniel swept me up into his arms.
I lost all sense of myself as I pressed my mouth to his passionately, clutching him tightly with my arms wrapped around his neck. When he stepped onto my deck, I came up for air. “My bedroom. Now!” I gasped. In my fervor, I’d already undone the buttons on his shirt I could reach. “Henry’s out for the night.” Thank goodness with Henry out until late I wouldn't have to worry about being quiet or discreet.
Trying to reach the keys in my pocket, I wiggled around in Daniel’s arms, enjoying the feeling that he held me in his arms without any worry of him being too winded or me being too heavy. As a bear shifter, he probably could’ve carried three of me.
When I fished them out, I handed him the ring and moved to kissing his jaw and neck as he unlocked the back door.
We headed down the hall to my room, where Daniel gently set me on the bed. My heart raced as I stared at him, and he stared back at me.
"You're sure?" he asked.
And it was so darn sweet. "I'm sure."
He crawled onto the bed next to me and his mouth met mine again. We kissed and kissed, like teenagers. Tasting each other's lips as his hands swept up and down my body like he wasn't sure what he was allowed to touch. For most of the last few weeks, he’d been wrapped around me, his hands running up and down my arms or my side, slowly driving me crazy. Here and now, with everything out in the open, I wanted more than just his light touch.
Struggling out of my jacket, I let it drop to the floor, then moved to the rest of the buttons on his shirt. His lips moved from my mouth, down my neck and shoulder. Each kiss was hot, feverish, and possessive. Passionate in a way I hadn't experienced in so many years that it felt like my body was humming.
When I got his shirt off, I dropped that on the floor too, then went for his belt. His hands closed around mine. "Uh, do you have protection?"
I froze, surprised. "Uh, unless you want to discuss safe sex on the STD front, I don't think we have to worry about that. I have an IUD." No need to clarify to him that before I got it, I’d had horrible periods. It’d been this or an early hysterectomy. I’d been really lucky that the IUD had worked. They weren’t effective for everyone.
It took him a second before he seemed to realize what I was saying. When it hit him, he blushed and mumbled out, "Sorry, I—."
“You couldn’t have known that.” Did he think that was something to be embarrassed about? I cupped his cheek, then he let me undo his pants, and then he slowly removed my dress. Before we knew it, we were both naked and under the covers, shivering from the mixture of the cold evening and our warm bodies. Our mouths met again and again, and he wrapped me in his warmth. His body was hard and strong against mine. His every touch brought a symphony of desire to me.
My nerves felt like they were charged with electricity as his hands gently touched my breasts, touched me intimately, and I touched him too, bringing groans of pleasure from his lips. When we finally came together, it was like a storm unleashing. A beautiful storm of love and desire. It felt like something more than physical was happening between us. Like this was the missing piece in our relationship. The final thing to make it perfect.
And when we both came, I swear it was like feeling the heavens open up. Pleasure unlike anything I'd experienced in my life hit me, and some stray thought whispered that maybe this moment was so amazing because I was finally with the right person.
Later on, he held me close. Kissed my neck and whispered something I was pretty sure was, "I love you." But maybe it was only my imagination. Because whether he said it or not, he'd showed me he loved me tonight. And, I hoped, I showed him it right back.