'Sounds kind of selfish, if you ask me,' Dan smiled. 'Not sharing it with anyone.'
Lizzie's mouth gaped in amusement. 'That's the best part. All that bubbly loveliness to myself.'
Dan sipped his wine. 'Why don't you do it more often if you love it so much? What's stopping you?'
'Besides the cost?' Lizzie scoffed. 'It's like this, Dan. If you drink vintage French champagne all the time, what would you have left for that one special day? You'd kill the pleasure of it.'
He had a lot more to learn about Lizzie, he decided. And he wanted to know everything. He topped up her glass and returned the bottle to the fridge.
'I hope you like steak. I didn't check to see if you're a vegetarian.'
'I'm not.'
Dan opened the door to the oven and checked inside. After he'd adjusted the temperature, he looked back to find Lizzie staring at him with a quizzical expression, a question half-formed on her lips.
She waved her glass in his general direction. 'I thought you couldn't cook.'
Dan shook his head. 'I never said that.'
'So why was I delivering meals to you every night?'
He shrugged. 'Buggered if I know. I told you I didn't need them but you kept coming anyway. And they were pretty damn good so I stopped fighting it. I'm no Jamie Oliver but I do okay.'
And then Lizzie's smile disappeared. 'Damn them.' She put her wine glass down and grabbed a cracker, snapping it in two with an irritated bite.
'Who?'
'Who else? Ry and Julia.'
'Yeah, they give me the shits sometimes, too, but what's that got to do with my cooking?'
She stopped talking, her expression became blank and she nibbled on her lower lip like she did. It was starting to drive him bat-shit crazy.
Her eyes darted to the clock on the wall. 'Oh, nothing. They just told me you couldn't cook and I fell for it.'
Dan sensed there was something else there that she didn't want to say. He moved out of the kitchen and around the bench, close to her, until his thighs pushed against her knees.
'What is it, Elizabeth?'
'Nothing, Dan.'
'Why don't I believe you?'
'Your best friend and mine are sneaky and manipulative and … they totally played me. They wanted me to … '
'To what?'
Shit. Shit. Shit. Lizzie couldn't tell him the truth, that she'd been roped into being the Lieutenant-Colonel of Operation Dan. She had assured them there would be no therapy, no hugs, no pushing. Damn it. She'd forgotten to say no sex. In a fix, she made up the handiest lie she knew, which also happened to be the most believable, since she was sitting right there in Dan's kitchen while he cooked her dinner.
'You really want to know?' She carved a smile out of thin air and lifted her glass. 'I just realised we've been set up, Dan. Your loved-up neighbours have been doing everything they can to get us into this position.'
Ry took the glass from her fingers and set it down on the counter.
'What position is that?'
'Right where we are now.' Hopefully, sweet Jesus, about to have sex.
'You mean this position?' He urged her knees apart, then pulled her closer. Lizzie reached around him and pushed her fingers into the back pockets of his jeans, the soft fabric loose against his tight arse.
'This might have been the one they had in mind,' she said.
Dan's hungry eyes roamed over her legs, her breasts and then his hands lifted to take over from his eyes, caressing her already hard nipples with his thumbs.
'You've gotta admit, it's probably not the worst idea they've ever had.' Dan leaned over, kissed her neck right under her left ear and she gripped his arse tighter in response. She craved his touch, breathed in the scent of him, soap and white wine. She felt alive, every caress of his lips on her skin an electric shock. Lizzie's feet found the floor and she pulled herself to standing on shaky legs, balancing herself against his hard body.
'Dan,' she said with a moan, and he crashed his lips onto hers, taking her, lifting her off her feet. She tore her lips from his, her breath ragged and hot. 'You'd better turn off the oven. You'll burn our dinner.'
He picked her up, swung her legs into the crook of his arm. 'Do I look like I give a flying fuck?'
The light from the hallway glowed on the bed, creating a spotlight on the messy white sheets, unmade from Dan's restless sleep the night before. Lizzie barely noticed. This was going to happen and she felt an ache of anticipation in every limb that was making her tremble. Dan lowered her to the floor and she found his emerald eyes, devouring her, every inch of her, from her carefully tousled hair to her toes.
Lizzie kicked off her shoes, flipped her silk top off in a tangle of elbows and reached for him. She found muscled arms and hard chest. Reaching for the buttons on his black shirt, she slowly popped them, one by one, teasing him with a kiss as every extra inch was revealed. Then she reached up, pushed the shirt off his shoulders and down, revealing hard mounds of muscle there, too. She traced his deltoids, tough and strong, and then splayed her fingers over his pecs, pushing her palms against him in sensuous circles, feeling him move and shift under her touch. All the while, he'd barely moved, not touching her, letting her explore his arms, his chest, his strength, watching her.
'Dan,' she murmured, flicking a nipple with her tongue. 'All that hard manual labour really pays off, doesn't it?' She didn't recognise her voice, wanton and wicked.
His eyes latched on to her strapless, black lacy bra and he reached around to flick open the clasp with an expert twist.
Lizzie felt it land on her feet. 'You've done that before.'
Dan bent down and kissed the soft skin at the top of her breast and then moved lower. 'Once or twice.'
Just as expertly, Dan lowered her onto the bed and climbed over her, his body blocking out the light. The crush of her breasts against his hard chest sent a jolt to her groin and a desire so strong engulfed her so that she could barely hold on.
'God, Dan,' she cried into his shoulder and at her urging, they fumbled with their jeans, pulling them off each other with groans of laughter.
As they tumbled back on to the bed, Dan stretched out an arm to rustle around in his pocket of his jeans. He found the condom, held it up to her.
'Here's one I prepared earlier,' he said with a sexy grin. Lizzie watched as he ripped it open with his teeth and then made sure he was safe. When they were finally naked against each other, Dan grabbed her and rolled, and she was on top of him, her legs spread wide, with him demanding and urging into her. As she took him in, she watched the exquisite pleasure on his face as he closed his eyes, sucked in a breath. He was letting her judge how fast, how slow she wanted to ride him. She teased, taunted, slipped up and then down, until his big hands gripped her hips and held her there, tight on him, all around him, until she dropped forward, her sweet spot crashing into his. She was a hair's breadth away when he came, gripping her, thrusting into her, and then she exploded too, throbbing in wave after wave of bliss.
While Dan disappeared to the bathroom, Lizzie waited in the bed, feeling boneless, stripped, riding out her high with shallow breaths and Dan in her eyes. When he came back, laid next to her, she saw something unfamiliar in his face. His swagger had gone, so had all his angry. He looked drowsy and happy. At peace.
'Fuck,' he said finally on a long, slow exhale. A wicked, oh-so-satisfied smile curved his lips and he moved half on top of her, cupped her breast with his hand, kissed her neck, then her lips.
Lizzie blew out a breath. 'I love it when a drought breaks.'
Dan laughed, throaty, heartily. 'That wasn't just a drought breaker, baby. That was a fucking flood.'
'How long for you?'
'Shit, it feels like a million years. Eight months?'
Lizzie choked, happy to laugh through her embarrassment. 'You call that a million years? Try … ' She stopped. How long had it been since she'd had sex? How long since she'd had sex like that?
'Try forever.'
'Oh baby, you've got some catching up to do.' Dan's hand snaked across her stomach, moved lower, teased through her curls. His fingers found her, still wet, still achy and plump. She brought her knees up and gave him all the room he needed to send her to heaven.
Afterwards they lay together. Still, replete, silent. Dan was on his back, his right arm up and his head in his hand on the pillow. Lizzie was comfortable in the crook of his arm, one leg draped across his thigh, one hand splayed in the soft hair scattered on his chest.
It was peaceful. He liked the quiet of the night down here. No traffic. No voices. Just the waves and the wind. Just Elizabeth's sweet breath on his chest. Her voice music in his ears.
'Dan?' He was surprised to hear her voice. She'd been still so long he thought she might have fallen asleep.
'Yeah?'
'Can I ask you something?' She was careful, cautious. Her could hear the hesitation and knew what was coming.
'Sure.' He played with her hair, silky to his touch. 'Doesn't mean I'll answer.'
She took a minute to speak. Lifted her head to look down at his leg. 'Does it still hurt?'
He looked to the ceiling. 'Depends. Sometimes a lot, sometimes not.'