REDUCED TO THIS

By Angel Sentier and Lady Parsley

Chapter Five

Teri might have wished that she'd had the forethought to take the stuffed animals and classic board games off the shelf in her bedroom and hide them. She also might have wished that she had bought a new sofa, cleaned the grout in the bathroom, fixed the blinds to the sliding glass doors, and lots of other things of that nature. She probably would have wished for those things... if Daniel Peer had not surpassed her every fantasy and was quickly proving himself to be the world's greatest and most passionate kisser. At the moment, all those other things had faded into the 'not that important' file, and her mind was fully engrossed in locking this moment away for all eternity, to be enjoyed over and over again when it was done.

"You could leave now," she told him as they stood at the doorway of her apartment when they finally pulled apart and she tried to catch her elusive breath. "You could shake my hand, tell me what a great time you had, and run off into the night. But I warn you, if you kiss me again... if you so much as peck me on the cheek... you will definitely be calling in sick for work tomorrow morning."

"Call in? To Ginger?" Danny's eyes narrowed and one eyebrow rose. "You have no idea of the wrath that would follow."

There was a pause that lingered in the air as his gaze roved over her face. Both of them were only standing about a hair's breadth apart, and she could feel the heat from his skin radiating onto her. Teri thought for sure he was going to turn around and walk at that second.

She was never so glad to be so wrong about something in her entire life.

The kiss that Danny planted on her lips was soft without being tentative or hesitant. He silently begged her lips to part and let him have a small taste of her. When she yielded, his kiss went from begging to hungry without delay. His hands that a moment ago had cradled her face were clutching at her hair, pulling at her shirt, desperately seeking any expanse of bare skin. He moaned against her mouth when her shirt yielded under his fingers and he swept his hand across the small of her back.

Teri pulled him inside the apartment, slammed the door behind them, and dropped all excess things, purse, jacket, bag of ice cream, on the floor. Both of them fell on the couch.

"Ow!" said Danny, breaking off their kiss. "This is the most uncomfortable couch I've ever sat on!"

"You can thank Tessa and her boy-toy at the time for that," she said. "It wasn't even that comfortable to begin with, but I really got it for the table and chairs that came in the set. Believe it or not, this one was actually the most comfortable of the couches they were offering." She blinked, the mundane talk beginning to break through her haze of lust. "Do you really want to talk about my couch right now?"

"No," he said, leaning in to kiss her again with wonderful mastery, his strong, capable hands doing maddening things to her body.

That was all Teri could take. He was getting naked, and he was getting naked that instant, if she had any say in it! Her hands slid down from around his neck to the front of his shirt where she blindly began unbuttoning it. She got about to the third one down when Danny pulled away from her. Immediately, her body cried out in denial.

"Maybe... Maybe we shouldn't do this," said Danny, stuttering slightly through labored breathing. He looked down at the cushion of the couch, beginning to wring his hands. "I do have to get up for work in the morning and I can't call in sick to Ginger, she'll be pissed..."

The words had an effect similar to that of a cold shower. Teri dragged a hand through her long hair. I should have figured that he'd want to leave if things got too heavy... He's with me, after all, not the Barbie goddess... She took a deep breath, trying to force her voice to a somewhat normal tone. "Well... okay. I mean, I can't say I'm not disappointed, but if that's really what you want, then... Danny, will you stop fidgeting for a second?" she said, grabbing his wrists.

When she did so, he sucked in a breath, wincing.

That was pain, she thought, confused. "Did I hurt you? I'm sorry--" She stopped, eyes narrowing slightly. "That... shouldn't have hurt you." She opened her hands to have a look at his wrists, but he took the opportunity to pull them away from her and put them behind his back. "Hey!"

"It's nothing," he said, quickly. "It's just... you know, it's... I should go..."

"Danny," said Teri, stopping him when he would have gotten up off the couch. "Show me your hands."

He wouldn't look up at her, but slowly, he brought his hands to the front and extended them to her. She unbuttoned the cuffs and pushed back the sleeves, inhaling sharply when she saw deep red marks that marred his wrists. On a closer look, she could tell that they had been put there recently.

"Oh, my God," she said, softly. "What does Ginger do with you?"

He didn't answer and still refused to look at her. Teri once again began undoing the buttons of his shirt and this time he made no move to stop her. The blue button-up that perfectly brought out the blue in his hazel eyes came off, leaving him in his undershirt. Her eyes roved over the red marks on his arms before she started tugging the undershirt up and over his head. She stifled the gasp that came up when she saw every red, black, and purple mar across his chest. She could guess that there were more on his back, but she didn't move to check. Some of these marks were turning yellow, as though they were healing.

This wasn't a one time thing, she thought. She does this to him... regularly.

She ran her fingertips across one white mark that was quite obviously an old scar. There were actually several of them. When she looked up at Danny's face, there were tears beginning to stream down his cheeks.

Carefully, she took his hands in hers once again and lifted his wrists, kissing the marks gently, first one and then the other. He took a deep breath, but she somehow knew that this time it wasn't from pain. Moving on, she kissed his arms, his shoulders, every place with an angry mark across it that she could reach. She could feel tears falling into her hair as she laved attention on his beaten chest. When she was through, she took him in her arms and ran her fingers through his hair until the shudders wracking his strong frame had stopped for the most part.

She pulled back just a bit and took his face between both of her hands, looking him straight in the eye. "Listen to me very carefully, Danny," she said in a gentle yet commanding tone. "You are not to let her do this to you again. You don't belong to her anymore, understand? You are stronger than the hold she has on you. You cannot let her hurt you again. You don't deserve it. I know you can stand up to her and, one day, you will. One day, you'll march right into that office, reach into that mason jar, pull your balls out of it, and wave them in her face before re-attaching them," she paused with a smile as he laughed softly through his quieting tears. "And you'll say to her, 'Cast ye back to hell, bitch!' or something to that effect... Do you understand me? Never again. Got it?"

He merely nodded.

"Good," she said. "Come on." She helped him off of the uncomfortable couch and pulled him with her down the hall to her bedroom with its large puffy bed. When she'd stripped him out of his pants down to his boxers, she removed her own clothes, blushing slightly as he stared, and then took a large purple nightshirt with a kitten on the front out of her dresser.

He looked at her askance, gesturing at the shirt. "You... don't want to...?"

She threw it over her head and came back to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "I really don't think that's what you need tonight," she said. "Right now, all I want to do is hold you. That's okay with you, isn't it?"

"Yes," he said instantly, holding her to him very tightly, nuzzling his cheek against the top of her head. "Yes, yes, yes... Thank you. Thank you, Teri."

In answer, she leaned up on tip-toe and gave him a brief kiss. Then, she helped him up into the bed and was about to get into it herself when she remembered something.

"Shit!" she exclaimed, her eyes going wide.

"What?" he asked.

"The ice cream! I left it on the floor!"

She ran back out into the front room and sighed as she picked up the gooey mess that had melted inside the grocery bag. As she threw it in the garbage under the sink, she knew she'd get a horrified lecture from Chloe later for wasting perfectly good ice cream. "Well," she said, softly. "There's always... next time." And there would be a next time if she had anything to say about it. Hot fudge sundae abs, damn it!

To be continued...

Author's Note: Thank you to all of our readers who continue to be patient with us! We're trying to get the chapters up sooner...