Dylan slid his fingers into hers and tugged. He kept his eyes on her as he navigated into the living room, like he was worried she might flee if he stopped to look where he was going.
“Dylan!” Irene jumped up from the couch and took two steps before flattening a palm over her chest dramatically. “Dani. From the wedding.”
Dani felt Dylan’s palm getting moist but he didn’t let go. “Hi, Irene,” she said, offering her free hand. Irene brushed it away and went in for a hug, forcing Dylan to drop his grip. Over Irene’s shoulder, a slender woman with straight black hair just like Dylan’s got to her feet. She’d been sitting cross-legged on the carpet with two young boys who were also now staring.
“Dylan. You’ve been ignoring my texts. We weren’t sure if you were coming.”
“Hey, Katie. I wasn’t sure if Dani was coming,” he said, capturing Dani’s hand again as soon as Irene released her. “Didn’t want to come without her.”
Katie looked Dani up and down, but it wasn’t appraisingly. It was more uncertainty as to whether she should greet Dani, or if she might disappear into thin air any minute.
“I’m Kate,” she said, apparently deciding to chance it. “Dylan’s sister.”
“Hi, Kate. I’m Dani.” She plopped a period at the end of that sentence, giving Dylan a break, but he didn’t hesitate.
“Dani’s my girlfriend,” he said.
Dani watched Kate’s eyes widen before she caught hold of her expression and smiled. “I’m very glad to meet you.”
“I’m glad to meet you too.”
Kate opened her arm to usher them into Irene’s living room, since Dylan’s mother had apparently gone still with confusion. Happy confusion, it seemed. This was all very happily confusing. Dylan ruffled his nephews’ hair and chose an armchair, tugging Dani onto his lap. Irene snapped back to the room, rushing to offer Dani a glass of wine.
“Get her some food, Ma. Will you? I sort of stole her dinner.”
“Dylan! Why would you…” Irene threw her hands in the air and headed to the kitchen. “I’ll be back with a plate and a napkin to cover that pretty dress, Dani.”
Dylan squeezed her tighter. “Call her Danica,” he said with a smirk.
Dani smiled. “Go ahead.”
Forty-one
Dani peeled back her warm sheets and craned her neck to see the time. Since he’d been staying over every other weekend, Dylan had claimed the side of the bed with the nightstand so he could take off his watch and charge his phone. She peered over his bare shoulder and squinted at her clock.
“We should get up,” she mumbled half-heartedly. It was early, but the grumbling in her stomach didn’t care. “I need food. And coffee.” A dull throbbing in her head that she’d been mildly aware of picked up tempo, knocking out a morse code plea for caffeine.
Dylan rolled to his back and stretched his arms above his head. She watched his biceps flex and his abs tighten, the sight zinging electricity between her legs. “This is a first,” he said through a yawn. “You trying to wake me up instead of the other way around.”
She smiled at the way his eyes scrunched against the light. He looked so innocent in the mornings. Utter deception.
“Call it a New Year’s resolution.” Actually her hunger had just pushed past ignorable and she was a little afraid that if she didn’t eat, she might puke.
They were both on vacation from work for the holiday, and after spending a quiet Christmas day at Dylan’s mom’s house, Dylan had come back to the city and stayed the whole week. Last night, they’d stayed out far too late, ringing in the New Year at a white-tablecloth restaurant, then dancing at an exclusive club that the Jansens owned a share in. Cat was still on bedrest and Sonya was spending the holiday in Fiji with Marcus—his annual travel gift to her for being gone half the year. This was the first time in a long time that they hadn’t all been together on New Year’s Eve. Instead of lamenting that things had changed, she smiled at all of the ways spending all night with just Dylan had been perfect.
All night might have been too late this time, though. Even Dylan’s mouth on her neck couldn’t beat out her need for liquid sustenance. She tried to push out of the bed, but Dylan tugged her back with a big hand across her belly. He was so warm and naked and hard. Her lower half battled against her brain. “Mmm. Stop,” she whispered, tugging at his hair. “I promise if you give me coffee, I’ll be much nicer to you.”
“I kind of like it when you’re not nice to me,” he said, running his tongue under her ear, leaving a trail of goosebumps.
“Well, then I’ll be mean. But first, coffee.”
Dylan laughed and rolled away, stealing the covers from her. She whined, but after he pulled on a pair of sweatpants that he kept permanently balled up on her chair, he tucked her back in. “I’ll make the coffee. You stay here all warm and cozy, Dani-pie.”
She snuggled back into the pillow, taking a deep breath of his cologne still lingering on the sheets as she watched him pad barefoot and bare-chested out of the room. He looked good at her place, surrounded by her stuff. And she couldn’t complain about the service. “I feel like a princess right now.”
“Get used to it,” he called over his shoulder. “This is what dating Dylan Pierce is like.”
“I never would have guessed,” she whispered. Her eyes closed and she listened to him singing some song from the club last night while he opened cabinets and fiddled with her coffee maker. Her return to sleep was interrupted, though, by the loud buzzing of her cell beside Dylan’s.
“That has to be Emma,” she grumbled as she reached around blindly for the phone. No one else would call this early after the biggest party night of the year.
But just before she answered it with some snarky line, she caught Josh’s name on her caller ID. Her heart skipped nervously.
“Why is Emma up so early?” Dylan called to her.
“No,” she said. “It’s Josh.” She answered it. “Hey. Is Cat okay?”
“Cat is perfect.”
“Oh,” she said. She pressed a hand to her chest. “You scared me with the early morning call. What’s up?”
“I know you’re probably sleeping in today, but we can’t hold her family off for too long, and Cat really wants you to be the first one to meet the baby.”
“Baby?” Dani threw the covers off of her legs and sprung to her feet.
“Last night,” Josh said, laughing. “It’s a girl. New Year’s Eve baby.”