Charlie's Angel – Chapter 10
Most of that day - their day off - was spent together. Charlie insisted he could make breakfast, but succeeded in providing only freshly squeezed orange juice and something that passed for very low octane coffee.
Dani argued she could not be expected to face the day with a hangover and weak coffee, resulting in their agreement to go out for breakfast; but that synchronicity dissolved when they found themselves in a Mexican standoff at the front door to his house.
"It is my car," Charlie pointedly protested.
"Which I'm driving," was all she said, holding out her hand for the keys.
"But it's my car," he repeated in a lower somewhat sullen tone.
"Thought you weren't attached to this car, Crews?" she teased.
Charlie took a deep breath, exhaling his frustration and dropped the keys into Reese's waiting hand. Dani reached for him, partly to show her appreciation and partly because the look on his face said he needed kissing. She grabbed his shirt and pulled him to her, locking him in a searing kiss.
Charlie's head reeled; here he was kissing Dani Reese, in broad daylight, in his front yard - his insides bubbled like when he was a kid and drank too much soda, way too fast. It was a happy, yet slightly strange feeling. When they broke apart, he was still reaching for her as she stepped away, smiling brightly and lowering herself into the waiting car. She was everything he wanted, he realized. She drove him mad, but in a good way.
After having breakfast for lunch and downing several cups of very rich, dark, strong coffee, they departed for a long drive into the mountains to the east. As the daylight waned they took a break; Charlie quietly slicing up an apple with his ever-present knife, while they leaned against the car hood admiring the view. He offered Dani a slice of the apple, which she refused initially and later ended up asking him for, making him happy for no reason.
In the late afternoon light, Dani's hair took on a bronze cast as the red and chestnut highlights peeked out. She pushed off the car hood to leave, but Charlie lingered and drew her back to him.
"Why won't you tell me who hurt you, honey?" Charlie said, returning to his earlier line of questioning. "Was it that guy? The one from last night?" he inquired softly.
He was like a dog with a bone. He wanted something he could attack, a physical problem he could dispense justice to - with his fists, not talk. He almost needed it.
"Why is it so important for you to know?" she asked, answering his question with one of her own. Dani Reese may have feigned disinterest in Zen, but she certainly knew how to employ it - when the situation suited her. He smiled wryly at her verbal parry and appreciated that she was both an intelligent and cagey woman.
Dani was intellectually as sharp as a tack, but more than that - she had street smarts that belied her age. It spoke of hard won life experience at what Doc Westfall would have called "The School of Hard Knocks, East Yahoo, Vermont". It was all the doc would ever say when Charlie asked him where he went to school and it always made Charlie laugh when Westfall said it.
Charlie shrugged off her question, but deep down, he knew. He wanted to indulge his inner demon – vengeance. He wanted to visit pain upon the person who'd hurt her and yes, he would enjoy doing it. He had wrestled with his desire for revenge the entire time he was sequestered from the world in solitary, up there in Crescent City; he still fought that urge. Zen was his primary and best tool, but Charlie Crews had other tools.
Dani was silent for a long time, but when she answered his question it was from her heart and the response she gave him was heartbreakingly direct. "The guy may have been the instrument, but I was the one hurting myself, so if you have to be mad at someone, then it should be me." She met his eyes and did not look away.
The brilliance of her truthfulness took his breath away. It cut through him, ripping Charlie's anger to shreds, burning it away like the noon sun obliterates shadows. He wouldn't hurt her and she knew it, but he also knew what she told him was the plain, simple and absolute truth. It cost her to shoulder the blame, but it was fairly placed. He gave up his quest for someone to hurt and instead wrapped his arms around her.
"Let's not do that anymore, okay?" he whispered softly into her hair.
"No promises, other than I'll try," she grumbled into his chest.
"One day at a time?" he joked, drawing back and capturing her dark eyes.
She smirked. "Since when did you get to be such an expert on twelve steps, mister?"
"Since I became addicted to difficult women, one woman in particular," he offered.
"Who is she? Cause I'm gonna have a little talk with her," Dani joked, as he leaned in to kiss her. He stopped short of her lips and continued talking, which just annoyed her to no end.
"What would you say?" he smiled into her waiting lips.
"I'd tell her you talk too goddamned much," she kissed him, tired of waiting.
Charlie groaned as she pulled his bottom lip into her mouth and his hands, which had gravitated to her hips, pulled her tightly against him. Dani moaned in appreciation, as he gathered her closer to him and their kiss deepened.
When they broke, Charlie cupped her cheek and ran a thumb over the purple mark under her eye. "No more of this okay?" he pleaded. "Purple's not your color," he softened the demand with levity.
"Charlie," she began. His eyes widened slightly at her use of his first name. She noticed immediately. "Are you gonna do that every time I use your name?" she tried not to smile at him, but failed.
"I love it when you do that," he stroked her hair. She looked at him quizzically, prompting him to explain. "I love it when you smile, honey." He just looked at her; sure he could be content to just do that for hours.
Dani cocked her head to the side, trying to decide if he was being a smart-ass or just Charlie Crews. Internally, she decided the two things might be indistinguishable.
"Don't change the subject," she chastised him, while he idly ran his fingers up the length of her arm.
"I'm sorry. What's the subject?" he asked as he leaned in to plant small gentle kisses on her neck and was rewarded by her pulse point jumping to reach him. Her head rotated away and back to give him better access. She fairly hummed in anticipation as his hands raked lightly up her sides, tugging on her shirt.
"I forget," she said somewhat breathlessly. "Damn you Charlie," she gasped as his fingers got under her shirt and she could feel the warmth of his skin on her bare back.
"I can give you what you need," he promised, his breath hot in her ear as her eyes lost the ability to focus and her knees began to weaken. "Do you want me to give you what you need, Dani?" he inquired, knowing right now an 8.5 earthquake would not derail the train they were both riding.
Dani Reese hated feeling needy. She didn't want to desire him the way she did, and with the intensity he aroused in her. She resisted, again a slave to the desire to feel in control.
"What makes you think you know what I need?" she wrested out of his grip.
He grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her to him with a strength that surprised her. It unbalanced her and caused her to fall into his arms. He softened her fall and leaned in and locked his gaze with hers. His face was hard and his eyes a storm cloud blue gray mixture. "Oh I know, honey... trust me, I know," he promised. And she believed him.
He knew her pain so it would stand to reason he would know her pleasure. She itched to find out if this man could know her completely enough that she would need nothing and no one else. Dani was gripped with a possessiveness that she had not felt in a long time. She wanted him and she wanted to be enough for him.
It was something she had not experienced in recent years – it took her a moment to realize the hollowness of the empty stranger sex and divine the precise missing component. It was trust. She trusted Crews and that made all the difference in the world. He turned her on in ways she thought lost to her.
For all his dark and dangerous talk, which excited her, Dani knew Charlie Crews would never hurt her and never allow anyone else to – not while he drew breath and walked upright.
"I do, you know?" she told him, thinking it was important that he knew.
He stilled and looked at her, his head tilted sideways and she could almost hear him wondering. "You do what?"
"I trust you," she explained.
"You mean you love me," he said with a soft smile.
"Do I? Is that the same as love?" she wondered aloud more quietly, almost to herself.
"You can't talk to yourself. That's my thing. If both of us do it, it'll get confusing," he teased lightly.
"Do I love you?" she looked at him, suddenly intent on knowing the answer.
"That is a question only you can answer," he counseled. "But it's an important one," he cautioned, "maybe the most important one."
He watched as she twisted the puzzle of her own feelings around inside her brain, examining the different facets of their partnership, their relationship, them together.
"Dani…" he sought her attention. "It's not a question you can answer here," he tapped her temple. "That one only comes from here," his finger trailed down between her breasts stopping over her heart.
She never answered. She simply stepped away from him and headed to the passenger side of the car. "You drive," she offered and tossed him the keys.
As Charlie caught them, he realized trust was a big step for Dani, and right now he was content that she trusted him to drive them home. She had voluntarily surrendered control to him, and that was a big step for them both.