“One month. We’ll stay for one month. Long enough for me to get on with at least one of the hospitals in Boston, find Laura a new psychiatrist, and figure out our next move.”
“One month, with an option for more,” he countered, giving her what he hoped was his sternest stare.
“Fine. But only because Laura loves Boston.” Dana rested her head on his chest, and for that one moment, everything in Terry’s world set itself to rights.
Dana
For the next few hours, she felt almost normal. Except for all the packing. Terry ran to the store for boxes, and the three of them managed to strip the apartment bare before midnight. They’d head out by eight tomorrow morning on the five-hour drive to Boston.
“Sleep well, darlin’,” Terry said at the door, his hand tangled in her hair. Dipping his head, he claimed her mouth, and the heat of his kiss? Well, she’d replay it on a loop all night long if she could.
He kissed like he did everything else. With passion, command, and pure, raw power. Her last boyfriend—well before she’d been deployed—had kissed like a wet fish, though he’d been decent in bed and a good guy.
When his hand trailed down her back and cupped her ass, she moaned, though the sound was largely lost to his own growl. The hard length of his erection pressed to her belly, and if Laura hadn’t been in the next room, Dana might have drawn him back inside and onto the uncomfortable pull-out sofa.
Hooking her leg around his, she tugged, desperate for more leverage, but Terry grunted, started to falter, and braced his hand on the door jamb.
“Sorry, sweetheart,” he managed when he’d steadied himself. “My right leg isn’t stable enough when you put pressure on the socket like that.”
“Oh, shit.” Dana’s cheeks flamed, and she took a step away from him. “I didn’t think…”
“Dana—” Terry reached for her, but she shrank back into the apartment. “You didn’t hurt me. Please. Let me hold you?”
She couldn’t resist him. Not his voice, his eyes, his touch. Stepping into his embrace, she let those warm, strong arms soothe everything raw and broken inside her. “I thought about you every day,” she murmured against him. “And a lot of nights too.”
“That makes two of us.” He chuckled, and with her head pressed to his chest, the rich sound rumbled through her. “I should apologize, sweetheart. Not all of those thoughts were…pure.”
Dana pulled back enough to meet his amused gaze. “Well, I hope not. Because otherwise, I’d feel like a complete jerk.”
It felt so good to laugh. To pretend, for a few moments, that her life wasn’t a total shitshow. That she hadn’t been evicted. That she wasn’t penniless, with her sister to care for and her nephew to find.
“I’ll be less than ten minutes away,” Terry said when Dana stifled a yawn. “If you need anythin’, call me.”
“I will.”
Terry backed away, and when he reached the stairs, she called his name. He turned, and she flashed him a wide smile. “Thank you for not giving up on me.”
“I never will. Never.”
10
Terry
After a quick trip to his storage unit in the basement to stow the majority of the boxes, Terry tried—unsuccessfully—to convince Dana he’d be fine at Mac and Devan’s for a while.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Dana carried one of the suitcases into Terry’s second bedroom. “There’s a queen bed. Laura and I can share. I’m not kicking you out of your apartment.”
“I want you to be comfortable.” Terry leaned against the wall by the door while Dana placed some of Laura’s folded clothes in the dresser. “Even if that’s without me.”
She cast him a quick glance, and the heat in her eyes set his body on fire. “I don’t want to be without you. You should know that by now.”
“I’d say get a room,” Laura said on a yawn, trudging in from the bathroom wearing a pair of loose pajama pants and an oversized t-shirt, “but there’s a perfectly good one at the end of the hall.”
Dana gasped, several pairs of panties tumbling from her hands. Terry bent to pick them up, but she snatched them out of his reach. Most were plain—cotton in various colors—but the pair of black lace she shoved under the bottom of the pile caught his eye.
“My sister is tired and doesn’t know what she’s saying.” Dana tossed a balled-up pair of socks at her, and the two laughed. In the twenty-four hours since Terry had met Dana’s younger sister, she’d gone from barely present to tired, obviously anxious, but also engaged and hopeful.
He hoped Xavier wouldn’t dash that hope for good when he finally made contact.
