Danil’s Mate(19)

CHAPTER SIX





“Dora!”

Dora sat straight up where she sat at her kitchen table. She was hard at work on an article she’d been writing for her school paper. Well, technically she’d been kicked off her school paper. But still. She was hoping this investigative article on the PSAT classes many of the more affluent kids could afford was just sharp enough to get her back on the journalism team.

“Dora!” her dad shouted again and she couldn’t help but roll her eyes at his tone. She was a teenager, after all, and he couldn’t help but talk to her like she was a ten-year-old sometimes.

“What?” she shouted back.

He appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, a pink dress shirt in one hand and a bright red sock in the other. “I swear to heaven, kid. If you mix up the whites one more time I’m going to put you up for adoption.”

Dora pursed her lips to keep from laughing. She was pretty sure that every one of her father’s button-up white shirts was now a powdery pink. And he looked mad. Really mad. Now would not be a good time to laugh. No. Now would be a good time to put her head down and look contrite.

Dora burst out laughing.

Her father’s lips tugged upwards as he tried to remain fierce and firm. To no avail. They both ended up laughing as he sagged over the back of a kitchen chair.

“I’ve actually heard that pink is really in right now, Dad.”

“DORA!”

Dora sat straight up in her hotel bed and pulled her covers up to her chin. She roughly brushed the tears out of her eyes. She both loved and hated when she dreamed about her father. It was such a punishing reminder that he was gone. But at the same time, she often got to experience little moments with him that way. Little moments she may not have remembered otherwise.

“DORA!” Her door was getting knocked almost off its hinges. She stumbled out of her bed and checked the peephole. She frowned as her stomach flipped.

“What?” she yelled back as she wrenched the door open.

Danil froze as he looked down at her. She realized she probably should have put some pants on before she opened the door. She stood there in some lacy boy shorts that barely covered her ass and a tiny jersey tank top. Well. If it was a problem for him, then he was gonna have to deal with it. The cool morning air wafted in and raised goosebumps over her skin.

She cocked out one hip and put her hand on it. “I repeat, Danil. What?”

He dragged his eyes up from her legs on display but seemed to get just as caught on her breasts which were threatening to spill out of her tank top.

“Danil,” she said, snapping her fingers in front of his face.

His eyes finally made it all the way to hers and she saw that they were twin fires. Burning with desire for her, but also with anger.

He stepped into her room, causing her to take a step back. Slamming the door behind him, he scanned the room.

“Sure!” she said, tossing her hands in the air. “Come on in!”

She paced away from him toward the bathroom. Being this close to him was making her system go haywire and she needed a second before they were gonna have whatever argument he seemed so dead set on having. But she froze when she heard him scuffling around.

Turning, Dora’s jaw dropped to the absolute ground when she saw what he was doing.

“Are you packing my things?! Danil! Stop!” she shouted as she raced over to him. She grabbed the pair of jeans that he was stuffing into her suitcase and yanked on them.

He easily unhanded them. “Actually, yeah,” his deep voice rumbled through her. “Put those on. For my sanity. And. God. This, too.” He pulled out a simple blue bra from her pile of clothes and shoved it toward her. He quickly averted his eyes from her chest and resumed shoving her things into her suitcase.

Dora tossed aside the clothes he’d handed to her and started smacking his hands away from her things.

“Danil! What the fuck are you doing?” she barely recognized her own voice with all the anger and shock lacing through it.

“What does it look like?” he growled. “I am packing your things. We are leaving in two minutes. So I suggest you help.”

Dora took a shocked step back from him and crossed her arms over her chest, a mulish expression spreading over her face. “I’m not going anywhere, Danil.”

He absolutely ignored her as he opened the drawers of the dresser she’d never used and slammed them back shut. Next he strode into the bathroom and grabbed all her cosmetics and shampoos out of there, jamming them into her suitcase as well. Next were the scattered shoes throughout the room. But when his eyes landed on her carefully organized desk, recorders, notebooks filled with notes, her laptop, Dora threw herself in between the bull and the red flag.