I let out a giggle and brush my lips gently against his. “You’re incorrigible.”
He kisses me again before pushing a stray piece of hair behind my ear. “But are you okay?”
I think about it for a moment. Yes, I’m okay—better than okay, really. I nod, “Yeah, I am. In fact…” Before I finish my sentence, I shift my leg to straddle to him. My core, already wet and craving more of him, lines up perfectly over his already growing cock. “What do you say we continue celebrating your birthday just us.”
He smiles. “I think that can be arranged,” he says, before pulling me down closer to him to kiss me passionately. I can already tell we will need extra caffeine for going out later, but like he said, it is well worth it.
Before I even have the key in the door, I can hear the music coming from the house. It reminds me of being back in college and showing up to a frat house for a party. Finally putting my key in the door, I hope I don’t open it to find a bunch of college kids dancing with beers in hand. This could get a little awkward if that’s the case.
Luckily, when I open the front door I am greeted by an empty living room, but I can hear the voice of an angel along with the loud music coming from the kitchen. Even though we are at karaoke just about every Friday, I never tire of hearing that voice.
I quietly walk to the kitchen where I can hear Dani singing, but nothing prepares me for the sight in front of me. I have come home plenty of times to Dani cooking in the kitchen, but here she is with her back toward me, wooden spoon in hand as a microphone, shaking her ass and pretending to be onstage. She either hasn’t heard me approach or just doesn’t want to stop her performance. I recognize the song to be “Like A Prayer” but have never heard this version. Maybe she is practicing a new routine for karaoke.
She is in the zone, and who am I to disturb her? I just stand and watch her. Hearing her voice reminds me of the time Zach and I had arrived home from the gym and heard her singing in the shower. There was so much power and emotion behind her voice, and while I still hear that same power and emotion, she is not the same girl. It has only been a few months, but there is such a difference in her from the first time she knocked on the door to now, in the kitchen, making that spoon her bitch.
I have no idea what she is cooking, but it smells delicious. As if my stomach is on the same page, it grumbles and I’m lucky that the music is too loud for her to hear it over the tunes. I’m not ready to stop staring at her just yet.
It’s in that very moment when I realize that this girl…this girl is everything…my everything. She is my world. I would do anything for her. I need to make her smile, to make her laugh, to make her feel that she is enough. I want to fill all the cracks in her broken heart and pray she never has to know that kind of pain again. I want to go to sleep with her every night in my arms and wake up the same, kissing her and showing her what she means to me. I want to dance with her around the kitchen like her parents and for her to teach me more about her being in her element of cooking and baking. What is this feeling? I can’t make it out exactly, maybe because I’ve never experienced it before. I… I… I think I love her. Yep, I do. I look at her the way Zach looks at Haylee. I love the way she looks in our kitchen, dancing around as if she’s auditioning for a girl band. I love the way she fits in my arms, in my “nook” as she calls it, how she is honest and isn’t afraid to speak her mind.
I want her…all of her…forever. I just need to figure out how to tell her that.
“Hi, handsome.” She finally turned around and noticed me standing here, leaning against the wall with my ankles and arms crossed. She reaches over to her phone and turns the volume down from the source instead of walking over to the Bluetooth speaker.
“Hey, baby.” I smile at her. I could tell her right then and there, but nope, it’s not the right moment. I stride over to where she is standing at the counter, wrap my arms around her waist, and press my lips to the spot where her neck meets her shoulder that causes her to shiver. She leans back into my touch and turns her head to look up at me before pulling me in for a quick kiss.
“Mmmmmm, a guy could get used to this.”
“What can I say? I aim to please.” She winks and sneaks out of my arms, heading over to the fridge, and my excitement goes straight to my dick. She is quite the sassy little vixen. I adjust my pants before walking over to the island and pulling out a stool to sit down on.
Dani brings over two water bottles and hands me one.
I take a sip and look around the kitchen. “What’s all this?”
She laughs. “Dinner.”
“Thank you, Captain Obvious. I meant what are you making.”
She scrunches her nose up at me, a face she makes often when she is trying to be a smartass. I’ve learned many of her expressions, like when she is pretending to be mad but is fighting back a laugh, when she is sad but trying to hide it from me, when she is annoyed with her brother, when she is about to come. That last one is my favorite expression of hers. Her cheeks and chest get so flushed, her eyelids start to flutter, and she will chew her lip on the left side to try and keep from crying out at first. I am completely in my own world reliving each of her expressions that I don’t hear her talking until I feel—
“Owwww! Did you just tweak my nipple?”
With a devilish smirk on her face, she says, “Yes, yes I did. You clearly weren’t listening, so I had to get your attention. If it makes you feel any better, I’ll make it all better later.” She winks while I rub the pain in my chest. Shit, that legit hurt.
I give her a puppy dog apology look. “I’m sorry, babe, what was it you were saying?”
She smiles at me before walking back to the stove to sir something in the big pan. “I said that I was making shrimp and veggie stir fry over rice.”
At the sound of that, my stomach growls. This time she hears it and throws her head back in laughter while she continues stirring the pan, which I now know is full of veggies.
“Zach is in the shower, and Haylee is on her way from class. Why don’t you go get changed and come back and you can help me finish.”
I get up from my stool and take another drink of water. “What? You don’t love me in my work clothes?” Dani turns around, and her eyes take in my appearance: black pants and a tight purple button-up shirt that is rolled at the sleeves, the top two buttons undone.
She saunters toward me, reaching up for my collar. “Why yes, I do enjoy the view of you like this, but I need a moment to finish my song, so I kind of need you to leave for a moment. Also, if you don’t leave the kitchen, I may have to keep unbuttoning this shirt…” Her hands go from my collar to the buttons, and she plays with the first one that’s not undone. “And then dinner is going to be ruined, which means you won’t also get dessert…so there’s that.”
I’m not sure if she is referring to real dessert that she baked or her—either way, I want my dessert. I quickly kiss the top of her head and run out of the kitchen toward my bedroom. I hear her laughing in the distance, and the music turns back up; this time I recognize the song to be “Baby, Baby” by Amy Grant. I only know this because she has been singing this song a lot in the shower. I hurry up and get changed into gym shorts and a T-shirt so that I can get back to the show in the kitchen.
I apparently wasn’t fast enough. By the time I get back there, Zach has taken a seat at the table and Haylee is in the kitchen with another spoon, dancing with Dani. Well, so much for getting a chance to sneak a peek at dessert. I take a seat next to my best friend while we enjoy the view of our girls laughing and having fun. They seem to be dancing to some Katy Perry remix. From what I have heard, these two used to be extremely obsessed with her.