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She smiled. What Tess really wanted to do was climb on top of him and lose herself in his kiss.
“You’ve been driving all day,” she said. “We can just grab takeout.”
Scowling, he shook his head. “Want something without all the grease.”
“Okay, I’ll make something.”
“I don’t mind cooking, honey.”
Honey? Her smile widened. Was it possible they were becoming some old married couple already? They’d known each other just less than two weeks, yet they spent so much time together, and in close quarters, that they’d learned each other fast.
Danny could probably live with anyone. Nothing ever fazed him. Tossing her notepad to the dashboard, she freed her arm from her seatbelt and sprang up to hook an arm around his neck to pull him close. She planted a long kiss on his cheek and followed it with shorter ones, nuzzling her mouth against him.
“I’m so happy you’re here,” Tess said, slipping her fingertips under the neck of his tee-shirt.
“You tried to ditch me,” he said, stroking her forearm.
“I did, but you didn’t take no for an answer. Thank you, baby.” Kissing her way toward his mouth, she took what she could until he tipped his head her way, allowing their lips to meet. “Does this thing go any faster?”
“Does if you sit right in your seat.”
Dropping back, Tess hooked her arm back into the seatbelt while he put the pedal to the floor, getting them to where they were going as fast as physics would allow. Danny was exactly as he presented himself. Honest, down-to-earth, what you saw was what you got, and Tess wanted to get it. All of it. As soon as possible.
THIRTEEN
WITH THEIR HUNGERS for food and sex sated, they lay in bed together in the dark. Pressed tight to his side, her head tucked under Danny’s chin, he slept with both arms around her. She didn’t know why he liked to hold her so close. For her, at first, it was strange. As was spending so many nights with the same man. But after living with Danny, she wasn’t sure she’d know how to sleep any other way. Certainly not in the trailer.
Sometimes she’d wake in the night and he wouldn’t be in bed with her. For such an easygoing guy, his insomnia was a surprise. He’d always come back to bed if she asked him to, even if it was just to hold her until she was out again.
That night, Tess was having her own trouble falling asleep.
“Danny,” she murmured, pointing a fingertip up on his clavicle.
“Mm?”
If he hadn’t responded, she wouldn’t have woken him. It had only been a few minutes since they’d lain down together. Hearing his voice took some of the weight from her worries.
“Tell me about your family.”
He shifted to press a kiss to her head. “Just sleep, baby.”
Since it came up on their first day in the truck, Tess had tried to bring up his relatives a few times. He always pivoted to something else. In typical Danny fashion, he didn’t make a big deal of it, just asked her to change the cassette or for sex, depending on where they were.
Resting a hand on his chest, she pushed up to look down at him. “I want to know something. Please.”
His eyes opened just long enough to meet hers, then they were closing again. “What you want to know?”
“Anything. Everything. Where are your parents? Do you visit them? I’ve never seen you speak to them. You don’t call or anything.”
“Mom’s dead. Haven’t seen my father for about a year.”
“Why not?” she asked. Laying the underside of her upper arm against him, she rested her hand on her cheek. “Did you fight? What’s he like?”
“Strict,” he said, his eyes still closed, his body loose.
She smiled and touched her fingertips to his lips. “Is that why you’re so not?”
The groove between his brows seemed more amused than affronted. “I’m strict.”
