Page 21 of Promised Secret (Promises, Promises #3)

Chapter Seventeen

CLAY

“…you have feelings for me, too.”

Dan’s words were a slap to the face.

Too?

What did he mean, too?

That implied that someone else also had feelings for Dan, and the only other person in that room earlier was Jones.

Fuck.

It all made sense now.

The reason why Dan was acting so weird around Jones lately. Why they were in his room alone.

Maybe if the rage wasn’t clouding my thoughts, I’d realize that my friend Jones would never cheat, especially when he’d been cheated on himself.

Right now, though, all I could think about was how tightly Jones hugged Dan, and how fucking smug he looked doing so.

“Clay? Clay!”

Dan shook me when I didn’t respond.

“Are you angry?” he asked quietly. He was apprehensive as he studied my expression.

I was still too pissed off to form words, so I grunted. Which was just great. A strapping, intellectual man like Jones versus someone who only knew how to make mildly suggestive noises.

The choice was obvious.

“No need to get so offended,” Dan said with a snort, but he couldn’t mask the hurt that flashed through his eyes before he faced his window.

That was a quiet splash of cold water over my rage.

“What did I do wrong?” I asked, trying to turn him back toward me. He resisted. It wasn’t until I said, “Look at me, please,” that he finally relented and faced me with his chin in the air. Dan was handsome even when he looked so stubborn and prideful.

He let out an angry huff. “You don’t have to get so offended by someone thinking you might have feelings for me.”

“Is that why you think I’m mad?” I asked, genuinely shocked.

“Is it not? What other reason could there be?” he asked, now sounding unsure of himself.

“No! I’m pissed because Jones fucking likes you too, and you let him climb all over you!”

Spitting out those words allowed me to release the built-up frustration.

Now that I was more clearheaded, I could think properly.

Jones implying that I liked Dan? The only sore spot the statement hit was the fact that I’d been so dense.

Me liking Dan had never been the question. It was the sudden callout that my feelings could be more than platonic, and how true it rang that stung. And the fact I’d realized it too late, since Jones had obviously confessed to Dan first. That fucking enraged me.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Dan yelled back. He sighed, then added, “Jones doesn’t like me. He’s so in love with Ryan, his eyes are basically hearts when they’re in the same room together.”

I couldn’t deny that. Jones might as well be a puppy, wagging his tail every time he was near Ryan.

“But in the room…he was hugging you so hard,” I said bitterly.

“He was comforting me.”

“If you needed comforting, you could’ve come to me,” I muttered.

Dan sighed again. He flipped up his armrest and turned so he was sitting sideways in his seat toward me. My hands were resting on my lap, palms facing up, and when he reached out to touch my palm, I wrapped my fingers around his.

“Why aren’t you saying anything about the other thing?” he asked softly.

“The other thing?” I repeated slowly. I knew what he meant, but there was a frog in my throat, and I was buying time.

His pointer finger slid over my palm in a gentle caress. “You having feelings for me?”

“Oh, that. Well, you know,” I replied with a shrug.

“I really don’t,” he insisted, which was ridiculous. How could he not know how he made me feel?

“C’mon, Dan. It’s you we’re talking about.”

I lifted my armrest and turned toward him as well. Our knees brushed together in the tight space.

“Who wouldn’t like you? It’s the Dan effect,” I said jokingly.

I hadn’t met a single person who hadn’t been caught under Dan’s charm. When we were younger, it was the reason the term Dan effect had been coined in the first place, though it wasn’t being used much these days.

My words made him frown. “You know that’s not what I mean. I don’t care about some stupid term our classmates came up with when we were kids. I want to know how you see me. The real me.”

“Whether it’s the polished, perfect side you choose to show others, or the you who’s grumbling about working too much yet won’t take a day off, or when you fall sick from worrying too much over something, then insist the only thing that could cure you is being rolled up like a burrito and hugged, my answer will be the same.

You’re pretty much impossible not to love,” I told him truthfully.

These were feelings I’d never had to consider before because they were so natural, but that didn’t make them any less true.

A soft pink crept to his cheeks. He’d always acted so confident and proud, but he’d never been good at really hearing nice things said about him.

“I, um, I wasn’t expecting that,” he stammered and pushed his bangs out of his face. They were long enough now to be tucked behind his ears. He looked down at our knees, and they tumbled down again.

“Don’t look away,” I said. I hooked my pointer finger under his chin, and it didn’t take much force to turn those beautiful browns back on me.

“I love you, too, you know? I always have.”

The words were a soft embrace that made my insides go all gooey. He nervously licked his lips, and his eyes fell onto mine too before quickly flicking away. My lips suddenly felt so dry.

“Though it’s not the same way you feel,” he added, shoulders drooped the tiniest fraction.

“How so?”

He glanced at my lips again. “Well…I want to kiss you.”

I didn’t hesitate to take his lips in mine. I released all the possessiveness that’d filled me at seeing him get so close with someone else, even if that person was one of our best friends.

Dan was mine. Just like he’d always been.

The kiss caught him off guard, as did the hard nibble on his lips. He released a keening moaning sound that went straight to my cock.

He was breathless by the time I released those now kiss-bruised lips.

“What else?” I asked as I watched him. I loved watching him and seeing all the different sides of him.

Always have, always will.

Right now, he was so beautiful with his cheeks flushed and lids half-closed. His long lashes fluttered against his cheeks like he was so drunk he could barely keep them open.

I made him look like that.

It took another beat before he could gather himself and look at me again.

“I, um, I want to touch you,” he murmured.

I chuckled lightly. If I hadn’t been clued in on that fact after having his hands all over me not once, but twice, then oblivious couldn’t even be used on me.

Both of those times, he got to do whatever he wanted, while not giving me the same chance.

I pushed him back onto his seat and pressed the switch to incline the seat backwards.

“What are you doing?” Dan asked when he was flat on his back. His shirt had risen just enough for me to catch a glimpse of his smooth stomach. I used that opening and slid my hand under his shirt.

The way he fucking shivered under my palm had me completely filling in my pants. Dan’s skin was warm and solid as I continued my exploration of his chest. His breathing came in short breaths as he silently watched me. The apprehension was still clear in his eyes, but I didn’t stop.

He was smooth, unlike me, with only a scattering of hair on his treasure trail. I wanted to follow it and finally see his dick like I’d been wanting to, but I followed the dip up to the middle of his chest. His shirt slid up along with my hand to reveal more of his glorious form.

Back in college, Dan had started going to the gym with me to build up his strength and to stop falling sick every time he worried too much. He’d accomplished those goals, but he’d never stopped working out with me.

We did practically the same workouts, yet the muscles showed up differently on him. They were more sensual, sexy as hell. I could probably touch him all day if he let me.

“What else?” I asked and rubbed my thumb over his stiff nipples.

Dan’s voice was a whisper of its usual self when he replied, “I want to get close to you.”

I smirked. That I could totally get behind.

I straddled him, and his hands found their way around to my ass. The position was awkward, being in his minivan and all, but we made it work. The vehicle was short for me to sit up straight, but I preferred sliding my chest over his, anyway.

I really liked having our cocks pressed together, even if our jeans got in the way of me seeing his erection. Twice now, I’d been longing to see him hard for me, and I never had the chance to. I wanted to rip his jeans off so I wasn’t deprived of it once again.

I managed to control my hands, reminding myself that I wasn’t some savage who’d ravage Dan on the side of the road, no matter how much I really wanted to.

I controlled my breathing and forced myself to meet his warm browns. “Is that all you want from me?”

His lips moved, but no words came out. He frowned again, the worried one that made his brows merge into one. It was cute when he worried like this, but I wanted him to know he never had to worry with me.

“You can tell me. You can tell me anything,” I encouraged, and that seemed to reassure his worries.

He licked his lips, making them glisten so fucking pretty before saying, “I want you to be mine. I don’t want you kissing other people or even dating them. I want you to only be mine.”

“You took the words right out of my mouth.” I pressed the words onto his lips.

At the police academy, they taught you to trust your gut. Your instincts could be the only thing that kept you alive. The first time I met Dan as a kid, my instincts told me there was something special about him. And now, I’d finally realized what it was.

He was the person who carried my heart, and if that wasn’t special, I didn’t know what was.

Dan kissed me back hard. His firm hands cupped my cheeks firmly, like he couldn’t bear letting me go.

“Is this real?” he asked in between kisses. “Are you really going to be mine?”

“I’ve always been yours, Dan,” I told him truthfully. “It just took me till now to realize what that really meant.”

“Yeah?” His hands found mine, and our fingers intertwined, just like how our lives had threaded together the fateful day we met in the clinic. I gripped his hands tightly and wished I could make it so our lives merged together forever.

“I love you,” I told him. I’d repeat it over and over until it was an undeniable fact he couldn’t worry over.