After that remark, I'd had to recite boxing statistics for six blocks before my erection finally went away. So as much as I wanted to go home and fuck all night, I knew we couldn't go to the apartment.

I sighed. "It's too dangerous. Remember those two guys you saw in the subway? If they're who I think they are, I don't want them to know you're with me. Let them think you're just subletting my apartment. That's what I told Bruno when he asked why I wasn't staying there." I took her hand, threading my fingers through hers. "I don't want to put you in danger. Let's go to my hotel room."

She nodded her understanding and our feet hit the pavement of the gray sidewalk outside the Greek restaurant. Like many sidewalks in a big city, it was stained with black marks from old chewing gum and other litter, quite the contrast to our walks in Summerville, where the sidewalks were clean and the town was a safer place to live. As we continued walking to my hotel, I glanced down at her small hand in mine. It was so delicate and frail compared to mine. I didn't want to just keep her out of danger anymore, I wanted to protect her. There was a difference. Not putting her in danger meant keeping her out of harm's way. Protecting her meant I was willing to step between her and the danger. I'd only ever felt that way about Lacey before and it sure as hell should've scared me, but it didn't. I was pretty guarded with my feeling in the past, but now, ever since I met Dani, it was different. It made me do crazy things, like go behind Coach's back. I was getting very territorial with her and now I wanted a future that included Dani, no matter what.

The door barely closed behind us before Dani was in my arms. She pressed her body against mine as I claimed her mouth. I buried one hand in her hair, holding her head in place as my tongue plundered her mouth. My other hand was at the small of her back, but as I walked us backwards towards the bed, I dropped it, palming her tight round ass.

We fell back on the bed. I caught myself on my elbows so I wouldn't crush her, but I didn't stop kissing her. I didn't just miss the sex. I missed this. Her mouth, her lips, her tongue. My teeth scraped over her bottom lip and she moaned. I ran my hand up her leg and under her dress, caressing her bare hip. She hooked her leg around me, grinding against me until it was almost painful.

"I wish we had more time." I tore my mouth away from hers.

"Me, too," she said, a wistful note in her voice.

We couldn't spend the whole night together, not with so many people watching us. There was something exciting about pounding my cock into her hard and fast, but it had been too long since we'd been able to take our time and I cursed Bruno for that.

"Tell me," she said as her fingers peeled down the top of her dress. "Tell me what you would do if we had more time." Her words were already breathy from the excitement of what was to come.

I bent my head as the tops of her breasts came into view. I pulled down the cup of her bra. It and the dress. She held the dress in place with an arm across her body, and for a moment her breasts were pushed up toward me, as if they were being offered to me on a plate. I sucked her nipple into my mouth, giving it a few hard pulls before moving to the soft skin surrounding it. She moaned as I worked at her skin, remembering what she'd said about leaving a mark and only after I'd left her flesh black and blue did I look up at her.

"If we had the time," I said. "I'd mark your entire body so that you'd be reminded of me every time you looked in the mirror."

Her eyes were dark and wild as she pulled my face up for a fierce kiss. I reached between us, pulling the bottom of her dress up so that I could run my fingers over the crotch of her wet panties. She moaned into my mouth and pushed herself against my hand.

"What else?" Now her breath was fully panting and her hands were at my waist, unbuckling my jeans.

"I'd lick every inch of you, make you come so many times that you'd beg me to stop because it was too much. I'd stretch you with my fingers before sliding inside." I groaned as her hand wrapped around me. Fuck, yeah. This was what I'd been waiting for. I'd already gotten hard just hearing the breathy tremor in her voice. She started stroking me and my cock got even harder, painfully harder. "I'd take you in every position," I continued as I pulled her panties aside and slid my finger inside her. "Slow and long, drawing out every orgasm until you couldn't move."

She made one of those sounds that I'd been dreaming about and I pulled my hand from between her legs.

"But now," I said as I positioned the head of my cock at her entrance. "Now, I'm going to fuck you hard and fast, make you come and scream out my name."

"Yes..."

The word turned into a cry as I entered her in one thrust.

I sucked in air through my teeth. "Oh, God, baby, you're so tight...and it's been so long..." My eyes rolled back in my head as I threw my head back. It felt so damn good but I didn't want to come fast. Not yet. I bit my lip as she slid her hands under my shirt so that she could run her nails over my back. I shuddered, almost losing it right then. I pulled back so that I was on my knees, my hands on her hips. I drove forward over and over, never taking my eyes off of her. I wanted to remember this, our clothes half-off, only parts of our bodies exposed, her eyes dark with desire, mouth swollen from my kisses. And that dark mark on her breast-hell yeah, she's mine.

I moved one hand from her breast to her stomach, sliding it down until my thumb was against her clit. I was too close to build her up another way. Her fingers curled in the bedspread and her back arched as I rubbed that bunch of nerves.

"Too much, too much," she gasped, her body starting to shake.

I pressed harder. I knew her body. I knew what she needed and I loved being able to give it to her.

"Come for me, Dani," I said through gritted teeth. I was fighting my body now. "Please, baby," I begged her.

She cried out my name and her body tightened around me. That's my girl. I buried myself deep inside her and fell forward, wrapping my body around hers as I exploded with an almost painful intensity. I pressed my face against the side of her neck as the waves of pleasure rushed through my body, until they subsided and I was left feeling drugged, high on having sex with my beautiful girl, Dani.

As I started to roll off of her, she clung to me, her legs wrapping around my waist to hold me inside her. "Stay," she murmured. "I know we don't have all night, but please, for right now, stay."

I didn't argue with her. I didn't want to. I stayed and let myself relax in the afterglow. I could feel sleep coming and didn't fight it. I wanted to fall asleep with her in my arms. I needed that feeling to be blazoned into my memory forever.

Chapter Twenty.

Dani Sitting on the subway, going back to the apartment, I was so caught up in thinking about my night with Luke that I almost missed my stop. I blanched at the thought of leaving the warmth and comfort of his arms. All I'd wanted to do-hell all we both wanted to do-was bask in the serenity of being together in the closest way humanly possible. I knew he needed his sleep, and although we'd fallen asleep for a little while, I eventually went back to the apartment where I'd slept for another five hours.

I loved the times we'd been able to spend hours just exploring each other's bodies, getting to know what each other liked and having heartfelt talks, solving all the problems of the world. We were definitely getting to know each other on every level, but as I thought about making love to Luke, my entire body tingled at the memory. I had to force myself push it aside as I stepped off of the subway and headed towards the stairs. I didn't need to be thinking about how good it had felt to have Luke pounding into me, not when I was heading for my grandmother's townhouse.

"Dani!" She came out as soon as I reached the sidewalk in front of her place.

Tears welled up in my eyes and I threw my arms around her. She had more color in her cheeks and I could feel a greater strength in her arms as she squeezed me. I no longer felt like I was going to break her if I hugged her too tight.

"I can't believe it's been more than three months since I saw you," she said as we walked inside. "You look amazing."

"Thanks, Grammy." I followed her into the kitchen.

"Do you want something to eat? I baked those lemon bars you love."

I nodded, but didn't trust myself to say anything. It had been years since Grammy had had the strength to cook. I looked down to hide my tears and spotted a cigarette butt in the sink.

"Grammy, what's this?" I picked it up, wrinkling my nose. I loved my grandmother, but I hated her smoking. That's what caused all of her health problems to begin with. "Are you smoking again?" I asked as I carried the butt over to the trash. "You're going to kill yourself for sure. What about your treatments?"

Grammy raised her eyebrow and gave me a cool look that said I needed to remember I was the child. "It's only one cigarette a day."

She wasn't a very good liar, I thought, as I glanced down at the boxes in the trash, but at least it looked like less than the two packs a day she used to smoke. I washed my hands as Grammy set out the lemon bars. Arguing wouldn't do any good. She was stubborn and, as she'd pointed out, she could still make her own decisions. I hoped I was half as sharp as her when I was her age.

"Grammy..." I licked the powdered sugar off my lips as I finished the first one. "These are great."

"Your friends liked them, too," she said.

I went cold. "My friends?"

She nodded. "The ones I told you about before. They were here yesterday and I offered them some lemon bars." She started to reach for her cigarettes but stopped with a wistful look on her face. "They're very nice, and good-looking. Why didn't you ever introduce them to me before? One of them could be boyfriend material for you." Her eyes had that twinkle in them that said she was intentionally messing with me.

Normally, I would've joked right back, saying something about how she should ask one of them out for herself, but I was too busy fighting the panic rising from the pit of my stomach. Bruno's thugs were still watching the house. I glanced towards the front windows. They were probably watching right now. My heart began to pound. I was such an idiot. I'd just walked right into a trap, I was sure of it.

"Grammy." I was surprised at how steady my voice was. "They're not my friends. They're looking for me." I leaned forward. "What did you tell them?"

Grammy frowned. "Honey, what did you do? Is it about money?"

I lowered my head. I couldn't look at her when I confessed. "Yes, it's about money." I twisted my fingers together, gathering my courage. "I found some money in a hotel room that didn't belong to anyone, and I took it." Once I started, the words just tumbled out of me. "At least, I didn't think it belonged to anyone. But I have a feeling those guys think it belongs to them, and now they want it back. I'm pretty sure they've been watching you, waiting for me to come. They knew I'd come visit eventually."

I fell silent, waiting for Grammy to tell me that I'd messed up, that I'd done something really stupid.

I should've known better.

"Oh, my goodness," she said, putting her hand on my shoulder. "I had no idea. I'm so sorry, Dani. I didn't meant to get you in trouble."

Leave it to my Grammy to apologize for something that was completely my fault.

"Grammy, it's not your fault. You didn't do anything wrong." I took her hand between mine.

Before she could argue, someone knocked at the front door. We both froze and I could see the fear on her face.

"It's them," she said. She stood from the kitchen table, and in her state of fluster, a fork fell to the floor with a clatter. "Go hide in the bedroom."

If she thought I was going to leave her to deal with Bruno's thugs, she was mistaken. "Grammy, if it's them, the bedroom is the first place they'll look." I gently squeezed her hand. "Besides, I don't want to hide. I'm tired of hiding from my mistake." I took a deep breath. "I'll answer the door."

Chapter Twenty-One.

Dani I started towards the door but Grammy's firm voice stopped me in my tracks like I was still some little kid.

"No. This is my house. I'll answer the door. Go back to the kitchen and stay out of sight. I'll handle this."

"Grammy, no..."

She took me by the shoulders and marched me back off and said, "No arguing, young lady. Just stay out of sight in the kitchen now."

I knew better than to argue with Grammy when she had that look on her face. I'd once seen her reprimand a police officer when she was wearing that expression and he'd apologized every time he'd seen her after that. I went back to the kitchen as my grandma went to the door. I stayed close to the doorway, though, needing to hear what was going on.

"Good afternoon," she said. I was surprised at how genuine she sounded.

"We saw a young woman arrive. We need to talk to her," a man's gruff voice answered.

"I'm sorry," Grammy said. "You're mistaken. I'm here by myself right now and I don't allow strangers in, but I'd be more than happy to bring you some of those lemon bars you liked so much."

"Strangers?" Another man spoke. "We're not strangers. We've been talking with you for weeks. You can let us in."

I didn't like the patronizing tone in his voice. I wouldn't have liked it if even he wasn't trying to intimidate my Grammy.

"I'm closing the door now."

I heard a squeak, then a thump.

"Sir, I'll ask you to move your foot so I can close the door."

I tensed.

Now Grammy's voice became hard as she said, "If you don't leave, I'm going to call the police."

I heard the door hinge squeak again and Grammy made a sound of protest.

The first man spoke again. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but you need to sit over there and let us do our job. We have to check your house for security purposes."

My heart was pounding so hard, I was having a hard time hearing anything else.

"Security?" Her tone was still strong and angry. "What are you talking about? I'm here by myself. I don't need security."

The second man's voice came out, cold and even. "Just sit over there and be quiet."

My hands curled into fists. I'd never wanted to punch someone as badly as I wanted to punch that man right now.

"Guns? Why do you need guns?"

That was it. I wasn't going to let these men bully my grandma anymore, and certainly not if they had guns.

My eyes flew open in response to what my ears just heard and I rushed out to where they all stood in the living room area and shouted, "Put those things away." I didn't look at Grammy as I stepped between her and the two men, my hands up to show that I was unarmed. "I give up. Do whatever you need to do to me. It's me you want. Just leave her alone."

To my surprise, they holstered their guns and I lowered my hands, noting that they were better dressed than I'd expected. Or worse dressed, if you considered that the suits were fairly cheap. I would've thought Bruno's guys, would've had expensive ones.

"Are you Danielle Carrington?" the taller of the two men asked me.

"Yes," I said, confused. "Who are you?"

He glanced down at the dark-haired one. "You can call us Campbell and White. We're working undercover on a case about underground fighting."

Undercover cops? I turned and shot an inquisitive glance at Grandma, wondering if she was as confused as I was.

The shorter man, White, picked up where his partner had left off. "You've been seen in the presence of one of our suspects, Luke Romero, in a small town in South Carolina" He shuffled through the pages in his notebook.

"Summersville," I said. "What do you mean, one of your suspects?"

"Technically, Mr. Romero is wanted for questioning in connection with an incident in Summerville. I'm sure you know what we are talking about. He's a very dangerous man, Miss Carrington. He's one of several fighters working with Bruno Costello, a fight promoter who's being investigated for several 'accidents.'" Campbell's expression grew stern.

A wave of relief washed over me. This wasn't about the money at all, not from the cops or from Bruno. This was about Luke and what happened with Brian in Summerville. While it pissed me off that Brian was the real criminal and he should be the one under investigation, I was relieved. At least for the moment I wasn't under Bruno's magnifying glass and more importantly, Grammy was safe.

"I'm sorry you wasted your time." I gave them my best charming smile and hoped it would work. "I haven't seen Luke since he left Summerville days before I did."

White's eyes narrowed but Campbell kept his face empty.

"When did you arrive back in New York?" Campbell asked.

"The beginning of last week?" I made it sound like a question. "I'm pretty sure that's when it was. I've been so busy, I've just lost track of time."

White and Campbell exchanged glances.

"So you haven't had contact with Romero since returning to the city?" White asked.