Unexpected Fate (Hope Town #1)

“Cohen Cage . . . I swear to God that I’m going to go insane if you’re going to leave me like this.”

He doesn’t say anything. His eyes are back to searching my own.

“I’ve waited forever for this,” I whisper.

His eyes close, and he drops his forehead against mine.

“Forever,” I repeat.

“Shit,” he groans. Then he pulls his fingers from my shorts, helps me right my clothing, and helps me stand with his hands against my hips.

I watch in confusion as he grabs his shirt and pulls it back over his head before he starts to pace around in the darkness.

Good job, Dani. Way to scare him off with your freakish admission that you’ve always waited for him to shove his hands down your pants. I bet he’s trying to figure out the best way to run as fast as he can without hurting my feelings.

Well, too late for that.

“Listen, I’m just going to go . . .”

His head snaps over to mine, and within seconds, I’m back in his arms. He just holds me tight against his body. When his body starts to sway with the music coming through the stage’s thick curtain, I struggle to keep up with his mood changes.

Until I hear the song the DJ is playing.

Brett Young’s “Kiss by Kiss.”

The same song I had my first dance to with him four years ago. The same song that has always reminded me of him day after day and year after year.

His lips go to my temple and he places a lingering kiss there before sliding his jaw down to rest it there. His breath against my ear is coming in deep pants as I hear him singing the song lyrics. Lyrics that will forever have a new meaning to me.

“And every time you look at me I just want to hold you. All my life I’ve been waiting for you. Little by little falling for you.”

Oh. My.

I pull back and look up into his handsome face. His lips curl slightly in a smile that seems to say, Well, I guess the cat’s out of the bag now. His eyes hold mine as he waits to see what I’ll do with his admission, and he pulls me deeper in toward his body. As if he’s afraid I’m going to run.

As freaking if!

“I fell for you a long time ago, Cohen Cage. I’ve loved you my whole life.”

His face relaxes, and he lets out his breath. When his forehead drops against mine, I brace myself for his rejection.

“Dani-girl,” he groans like a prayer for strength.

Which is when it happens. When he realizes just who he has in his arms. And he starts to pull back. This is going to change everything between us. This final rejection. If the families find out—my brother, his siblings . . . Oh, God, Liam was right. This is going to be terrible.

“I have to go check on Megan. Make sure Chance can take her home.”

And just like that, he’s walking away from me, pulling the curtain to the side, and jumping down off the stage.

I didn’t think it would hurt this bad. But having something I’ve wanted, desired, craved, in my arms for just moments only to have it ripped away is more painful than never having him.

Because no matter the obstacles we would have had to face, having him there, realizing that we really are just as perfect as I’d always imagined and knowing I’ll never have it again feels like someone just died.

To top it all off, I was so close to what promised to be the most powerful orgasm I’ve ever experienced.

“Shit.”

After dropping my ass back down to the floor, I curl my legs up and wrap my arms around them before laying my head against my knees.

Well, doesn’t this just take the cake for shit outcomes?

ONE COULD SAY THAT I had a moment of insanity. An out-of-body experience that I was helpless to stop and just had to let happen. Maybe I could say it was the beer? No. No matter how I try to excuse what just happened between Dani and me, it would be a lie.

She was exactly where I wanted her.

She looked so beautiful when I walked in this afternoon. Her body showcased in those short-as-hell shorts. Those perky tits I love so much standing out in her tight tank. And those heels. God, what I wouldn’t give to know what it felt like to have them digging into my back as I pounded into her.

It took everything I had not to rush her right then and there. But I stuck to my guns and kept my determination to stand back. If things were still there when I got home, then we would explore this.

“What am I doing?” I mumble to myself, jumping off the stage and into the party that had been going on around us, careful to hide the fact that my cock is about to claw its way off my body to run back to Dani.

Cam spots me and shakes his head. Colt, who’s standing next to him, gives me a thumbs-up, which I return with my middle finger. He and Cam laugh so loud that I can hear them across the room and over the music.

It takes me a second to get through everyone and to the table I left Megan at. She looks just about as miserable as she was this morning when I stopped by to make sure she was okay. Jack should have been shipping off with us, and I know that’s a fact that hasn’t escaped her notice. It’s been hard since we lost him, but no one has suffered harder than Megan. Well, maybe their four-year-old daughter, who keeps asking for her daddy.

A little over a week ago, she called me because she needed help with something around the house. When I got there and saw just how bad things had gotten, I stepped in and continued to stop by—just basically made sure she knew she wasn’t alone.

“Hey, Megs,” I say with a smile.

I drop down in the chair next to her and look over at Chance, who has been keeping her company—or as he likes to call it, “watch duty.” Chance, like I did, served with Megan’s husband.

I think I’ve always known that I would eventually join Corps Security. When my aunt Melissa got custody of me after my mom died—then, shortly after, met Greg—it didn’t take long before I was adopted by both and calling them Mom and Dad. They have been a huge part of my life, and I honestly look at them both as my real parents. I was around three when they started dating. He has helped shape me into the man I am today. Since then, I’ve come a long way from the little boy who wore a cape everywhere and wouldn’t shut up about dick piercings.

“Hey, Coh.”

She looks at me briefly before turning her attention back to the people around us. I lean back and take in the room. Since all the parents ran out before things could get a little crazy, the makeshift dance floor is crowded with the pulsing bodies of my closest family and friends. The room is full of people enjoying life. That is all she would see. Happiness she doesn’t have anymore.