Page 26 of Promised Secret (Promises, Promises #3)

Chapter Twenty-Two

CLAY

I was fuming the entire journey home. Even when we reached the comfort of our home, and the happy squeaks of our rats greeting us, I couldn’t control this restless energy.

Mom had never been this insistent before, at least not when it concerned me. She’d always told me the most important thing was that I was happy and healthy, but I guessed that was only if it didn’t mess up her perception of our family.

“I can’t believe she knew this whole time,” I muttered as I paced our living room.

Dan was sitting on our couch and looked up when I spoke. He’d been quiet this entire time. I didn’t even have to ask to know he was worrying about something. I could practically see the gears moving inside that brilliant brain of his.

If this was the Dan before he’d started working out with me, he definitely would have fallen sick from all this worrying.

I sighed and fell into the space beside him. Turning my body toward him, I lifted one leg over his lap and tucked the other behind his back, so they wrapped around him in a side hug.

He was always comforted when he was hugged like this in burrito form, so I figured it might still give him some comfort even if he wasn’t wrapped up in blankets.

Dan was stiff in my hug, so I just hugged him tighter. I let my chin rest on his shoulder.

“Do you finally believe me now when I said I didn’t agree to go on a blind date?” I said, trying to break the tension.

“Were you serious about walking away from your mom?” Dan asked, without acknowledging my attempt to lighten the mood.

Of all the things he could be worrying about right now, that was the last thing I expected.

I shrugged as much as I could in this position, which only angered Dan. The words had come out in the heat of the moment, but they still conveyed just how far I’d go to keep Dan.

“How could you even think that? Your mom is your family. You can’t just walk away from her. She’s too important,” he said, sounding as frantic as my mom had earlier.

“You’re important, too,” I replied. “I can’t lose you.”

Dan seemed to soften at that. He sighed, the sound seemingly carrying the weight of the entire world.

“This is all my fault,” he muttered. “If I’d controlled myself better, none of this would have happened.”

He spoke so softly I didn’t know if he’d intended for me to hear.

I lifted my head from his shoulder and gently turned his head so that he looked at me. I loved it when he looked at me. His eyes reflected me clearly, like I was the only thing he saw, like he saw me for me.

“None of this is your fault,” I emphasized.

“But if only I hadn’t put these thoughts in your head. If only I hadn’t forced you to kiss me back then, we—”

“Do you really think you forced me?”

He flapped his lips, but no words came out. I swept my thumb over his lips and remembered the pure shock of our first kiss as adults. I’d been surprised by how soft his lips were and how they molded against mine so perfectly.

The kiss had me itching for something more. I was too na?ve to know what it was in the past, but now I knew that incessant feeling was longing to have all of him.

I brushed his bottom lip again. Dan’s pupils dilated, but my reflection was still crystal clear in them.

“You couldn’t have forced me if it was something I wanted, too. If you hadn’t kissed me, then I would have kissed you,” I murmured and leaned in to do exactly that.

Dan’s lips moved against mine. It was a tangle that needed no words. How could he think this was wrong when we fit together so seamlessly?

Dan’s eyes were hooded, and his breath was heavy when the kiss ended. His entire body showed the effect I had on him, and it hit me once again just how much he loved me. I was empowered by how much he wanted me.

“I’ll take care of everything, so you don’t have to worry,” I reassured him.

He looked anything but reassured. It hurt knowing how long he had to keep his feelings a secret. It hurt knowing he still thought that our being together was wrong. I wanted to prove to him that it wasn’t.

I untangled myself from him, got to my feet, and pulled Dan up with me.

“What are you doing?” he asked when I guided us to his bedroom. I kicked the door closed behind us. The things I planned to do were not meant for our baby rats’ eyes.

I flipped us around so that Dan’s back was to his bed. He sucked in a breath when I pulled my shirt over my head. He stayed frozen when I kicked my pants and underwear off, too, with no preamble. All he could do was drag his heavy gaze over my naked form.

I loved those eyes on me.

“Don’t think about anything else and just focus on me,” I said. Although with how he was basically eating me up with his eyes, I didn’t know if he was even paying attention to what I was saying.

I took a step closer to him, my cock plumping from his gaze’s caress. His hand was on me as soon as I was within reach. His hot palm slid up my abs and over my pecs until it stopped right over my heart.

“Clay…” Dan whimpered, the sound a plea that conveyed his longing.

“We were always meant to end up here. We sealed our fate with a clumsy kiss and fallen tooth,” I said with a teasing smile.

Dan snorted out a laugh. I beamed at the fact that I was able to get him laughing at all.

“Everything is going to be okay,” I told him again, and I’d keep telling him that until he got it into his head. “I’ll take care of everything else. All you have to take care of is…me.”

The corner of his lips wiggled. It was obvious he was holding back his laugh.

“Was that too cheesy?”

“Maybe just a tad bit,” he replied, letting his smile show through. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me toward him. “But I like the sentiment.”

I smiled and leaned into him until our bodies were flush. I could feel his cock stand at attention to greet mine. Too bad he was still fully clothed, though that was an easy fix.

“You’re mine,” I said. Dan’s eyes almost glowed at my possessive claim. I loved how he accepted all parts of me. My jealousy never fazed him.

His cock was poking a hole through his clothes. We both decided we were over the layers and scrambled to get his clothes off. We tumbled onto his bed, kissing, our hands roaming over each other.

I’d studied Dan all my life, but it was only these past few weeks that I learned the precise ridges of his body. I’d memorized all the intimate curves that made up his shape, but there were still places that were yet to be explored. I wanted to know every single part of him.

My hands cupped his ass cheeks. Dan hissed through the kiss at how tight my grip was. I slipped a finger down his crack.

“I want all of you,” I said, stroking the pad of my forefinger over his hole. Dan shivered in my arms, gasping when I applied enough pressure to slip just the tip of my finger in. “I want you to sit on my face.”

“You want me—what?” Dan asked in utter shock.

Smirking, I showed him exactly what I wanted by scooting up to the head of the bed and lying flat on my back. I pulled him until he was straddling my chest, then my hands returned to his ass to stretch his cheeks open.

“I want to explore you with my tongue,” I stated simply. The room was too dark to see it, but I knew the heat had crawled to his cheeks.

Dan took a second to find his words, and when he found them, it wasn’t what I wanted to hear. “How about I prepare myself in the bathroom?”

I held on to him before he could make his escape. “You’ve never been shy about using my body for your own pleasure before, so why are you hesitating now?”

“I just don’t think it’s necessary for you to—”

I gripped his hips harder. Dan must have gotten my warning, because he didn’t finish the sentence and muttered instead, “I’ve never done that before.”

If he was trying to convince me to stop with this idea, then telling me that accomplished the exact opposite. The desire to get my tongue on his hole suddenly became my sole goal in life.

I moved him until he flipped around in reverse cowboy, and his thick thighs straddled either side of my head. His hand fell to my chest to hold himself up, and he turned over his shoulder to look at me.

“Wait, Clay—”

“Sit on my face, Dan,” I ordered, not giving him the chance to argue.

Maybe it was the commanding tone or the desperate plea in my expression, but Dan didn’t try to come up with more reasons not to do this.

“Hit my back if I’m suffocating you,” he said.

I didn’t reply. Like hell I was going to do that. Dying while eating Dan’s ass out wouldn’t be a bad way to go.

He sighed and gave up on trying to persuade me not to do this. He knew me well enough to know I was stubborn about the things I wanted.

Then, very slowly—much too slow for my liking—Dan lowered himself. I pulled him the rest of the way down, which caused him to lose his balance for a second.

My nose landed in the space between his crack, and his heady scent was making me dizzier than I already was. My hands spread his cheeks, and his pretty little hole greeted me. Unlike the rest of him, it was so tiny I wondered how anything could fit inside there.

That only made me think about all the people he’d probably slept with in the past. That fucking infuriated me. If I’d gotten my shit together sooner, I could’ve had all his firsts, not just this one.

Dan righted himself again and looked back at me to ask, “Are you okay?”

My reply was to swipe my tongue down his taint. My action was met with a delicious sound from Dan that had me wanting to do it again. From my position, the tip of my tongue barely reached his balls, but that was okay. They weren’t my goal tonight anyway.

I licked back up his taint as Dan righted himself. His palms were back on my chest.

“You better hold on,” I warned, just before digging into my feast. I swept over his hole, teasingly at first, and the strong flavor of man overcame me. I moaned into the taste, lapping him up to get more of him.