Then There Was You by Mona Shroff

Author:Mona Shroff
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HQN Books
Published: 2020-11-06T19:43:31+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

ANNIKA

ANNIKA HELD DANIEL’S face in her hands. She used her thumbs to wipe away residual wetness as she held his gaze. The green she loved so much in his eyes was flecked with brown and even black.

He had been holding this inside him for five years. Trying to will it away, forcing normalcy into his life where there simply could be none.

This was why he had held her in the ER. She knew it, as if she’d always known it. He understood her pain. She had felt so empty, so lost after losing her baby. People had expected she would get over it and move on—after all, her baby hadn’t even been born. But she had still felt the loss. Her heart ached for Daniel—he had actually held his child and watched her grow. He had seen himself in her.

“Who took care of you, Daniel? Who was there for you?” A day’s worth of scruff was rough against her hands.

He shook his head, looked away from her and shrugged as if he didn’t understand the question.

“You took care of Sheila.” She couldn’t move her hands from the curve of his jaw. They belonged there.

He nodded.

“Made all the...arrangements, handled the well-wishers. Made sure she ate?”

“That’s what...men...do.”

Realization hit her like a brick. “That’s what your father says.” Anger toward the older man flashed through her, followed quickly by pity, then sadness.

All this time, Daniel had kept his loss to himself. Provided and cared for someone else, never succumbing to his grief.

Until now.

His lips parted. “I’m sor—”

She stopped his apology with her fingers. “Don’t.” His gaze shifted to her mouth. Without thought, she straightened so she could reach him and gently placed her lips on his.

He moved slowly at first. Small tentative kisses, as if unsure what she wanted. She leaned closer to him, opening her mouth to him. His response to her invitation was immediate and frantic. His hands on either side of her head were strong yet gentle, and he pulled her close, moving his mouth on hers as if he were parched and she was water. He tasted smoky like the bourbon and smelled of leather and the outdoors. When he moved his body closer to her, she met him halfway, so not even air could get between them.

He released their kiss and placed hot full lips on the cool skin of her neck and she shivered, a small moan escaping her. She was losing herself in his touch. He pulled back, and Annika had to suppress a whimper. She opened her eyes and found him looking at her, his eyes hooded with desire. He touched his lips to hers again, gently to start, but Annika wanted more, and within seconds her need took over and she took his mouth with hers.

Daniel responded in kind. Every kiss, every touch was fueled by his passion and his grief. She recognized his need to feel something again as it mirrored her own need. She did not resist. She did not want to.

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