By the time Dani leaves Dr Gunner's office, it's late, the campus grounds eerily dark as she's making her way to her car. Her vision's still blurred, from the tears she cried, and she longs for her bed, for sleep, for any kind of brief respite from the dull ache that's settled around her heart. Getting into her car, shifting around on her seat and finding Nico sitting there in the passenger's seat, shouldn't have surprised her, not this time, but it does - Dani jumps so hard in her seat she almost bangs her head. It's instinct that makes her get out of the car and take a few steps away from it, turning her back on it, but it's also instinct and maybe kindness and maybe love that makes her stop when she hears the car door slam.
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'Come here,' Nico says, holding his arms out. Dani falls into them, buries herself against his chest. He lets her. Lightly strokes her hair, places small kisses on the crown of her head.
"Dani, listen to me," he says, quietly. "I am not involved with Vera. What you saw is just how she always behaves, and she'll tell you - if you ask her - that I was just telling her to stop. Yes, I was involved with her before - very, very briefly, and it meant nothing, and it stopped… It stopped that night. That night when Marshall turned out to be dead and your fish died too. That night I kissed you. There's been no-one since I kissed you. How could there be?"
Dani unburies herself, her mouth a beautiful silent "oh", which is all the encouragement Nico needs.
"Do you really think I was gonna let you run away from me forever? That I wasn't going to come after you at some point? Let me tell you something; I don't want Vera. I don't want Gabrielle. I fucking don't. I want you. Only you. I know part of you knows this already. And I know you're really just scared. I get it. I understand. Scared is okay. Hell, I'm scared. I haven't felt this way since… probably never. But Dani. I am still. Not. Going. Anywhere." Nico pulls Dani by the collar of her coat, pulls her closer. "I'm in love with you," he says. "I was always totally in love with you. You changed everything. For so long, I was fine with flying solo. But now it's like, I've been in the dark all this time, and, every time you're near me, you turn on the light inside my head. That's what you do, Dani, can't you see that?"
She's just staring at him, her eyes still wide and unsure. Nico can see she's struggling to believe him, struggling to believe anything good can happen to her. "Tell you what," he says, playing the very last of his cards. "You tell me, right here and right now, to my face, that you don't feel the same. Tell me you don't love me. You tell me that and I will turn around and walk away and never bother you again."
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At first there are simply no words in Dani's mind. All there is, is Nico's body pressed against hers, the smell of him, his face, the sweetest, loveliest… She tries picturing how he will walk away, how he will slowly disappear out of sight, how she will be left there alone. Then the words tumble out. "Nico. I can't tell you I don't love you." Dani falters, shaken by the intensity of his eyes, the hunger and the love she sees in them.
"Say it. Please," Nico urges, his voice a cracked whimper.
"I love you. I do." It is all Dani can say before her throat closes up completely, but it is all Nico needs. He lunges at her, hands grabbing her head, her hair and then finally, finally kissing her. Dani tastes coffee and menthol on his lips and something that is uniquely him. His tongue pushes in, tasting her, mapping out the inside of his mouth, before his teeth close to tug on her lower lip. It feels so much like her whole body is trapped inside his mouth.
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Nico kisses her like he's been dying to, because he has. Dani's mouth tastes like everything he's ever missed, tea and sugar and spice, sweet and lush and he wants to have her here, right now. She's wrapped around him, whimpers when he pulls away to kiss her cheeks, her jaw, down the exquisite line of her neck. Recklessly, he whispers how he's going to put his mouth all over her for hours, until he can't see or smell or taste anything but her. Dani grips his hair and gasps, hips rocking against his until he goes cross-eyed with how badly he wants her.
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Afterwards, Dani has very little recollection of how they managed to get from the campus to her house. She vaguely remembers Nico insisted on driving, and being cuddled up against him, and that she bit his ear and breathed into it, relishing the sharp intake of his breath as she did that and the small hissing sound he made.
The next thing Dani knows, they are falling on her sofa. "Dani," Nico breathes against her mouth, "if you don't want things to be moving this fast, now would be the time to stop me." She replies by kissing him greedily.
Nico pushes her back onto the sofa, keeping her there at arm's length. His eyes turn to burning fever, as he takes his sweet time to look her body up and down - still fully clothed. His hand slides over her face, brush her hair back and then he rests his fingers against her bottom lip. Dani realizes he is mimicking their moment in the hospital, and, eager to return the pleasure, she takes his hand, pouts her lips and lets his finger slip inside. She licks over it, swirls her tongue against it and then starts sucking. Slowly first, then harder, tongue rasping over the top, flashing her eyes at him as she does so. He is panting and Dani enjoys that he makes no effort at all to hide she is making him horny as hell.
"Jezus," Nico moans, "do you have any idea what you are doing to me?"
"I can guess," Dani smiles. She lifts herself up, kisses him gently on the lips and then trails one hand down over his chest, along his ribs, over his stomach. She inches back to look at his face as her hand finds the swell of his cock straining hotly against the fabric of his trousers. She uses one finger to slide up and down his length, before slowly circling the head with her thumb. Nico's eyes are fluttering, and the sound he makes seems barely human. Dani then stops, waiting for him to make the next move.
He pounces at her, eyes full of bloodlust. He drags her off the sofa onto the soft rug - I'm not fucking you on there, I'm not 17', he growls - his use of the word fuck making her half-mad with anticipation. With some violence and no consideration they get rid of each other's clothes in no time. Nico squints, gasps, as he sees her naked breasts, her stomach, everything, for the first time. He takes her hands and holds them down next to her head and then - so fast it's Dani's turn to gasp - slides over her and enters her in one fluent thrust. Dani tries to free her hands to touch him, as an immense wave of pure pleasure sweeps through her body at feeling him inside her - but Nico just tuts and smiles wickedly, keeping her pinned down.
A lamp casts faint shadows across their bodies, silhouettes them in amber glow, as he starts thrusting into her slowly, still pinning her arms and hands down under his. He seems to know exactly what he is doing, building it up to a steady rhythm, and keeping it there. Each time he thrusts, the melting point deep inside Dani becomes more sensitive, exploding heavenly sensations to every centimeter of her body, all the way down to her toes. Only a few minutes of that, and she is turned into nothing but wide open whimpering lust. "Nico, please," she moans against his face, "I don't want to come yet, I want this to last."
Nico just laughs a low hum, pushes into her a little harder, making her yelp, before he leans in and whispers in her ear, "don't worry, baby, we won't do this just once." Then he moves his head lower, where he sucks one nipple harshly into his mouth and then the next, until the pressure inside Dani builds to almost painful levels. Nico feels it too and he comes up to bury his tongue in her mouth, fucking her a little faster and harder now, then breaks the kiss. "Come on, Dani, come for me, baby," he says into her mouth, and that is all Dani can take. Her orgasm pounds through her body, as she arches her back off the ground, clenching around him as he keeps thrusting. She thinks she is screaming, but she can't be sure, because for at least some time everything fades and she can only hold on to him desperately.
All the while, Nico stays half on top of her and inside of her, raining kisses on every bit of skin he can reach, until she comes down enough to kiss him again, tongues gently battling against each other. Dani brackets her legs behind Nico's, whispers "please" and "more" against his mouth. There's a slight hesitation, and looking at him Dani thinks she understands why. Nico looks undone, like he's barely hanging on to the last shred of his control, pupils blown and wide open, vulnerable - and in that moment, if there was still doubt in Dani's mind about loving him, it's gone, because she loves him then with such intense zeal it's a surprise she's even breathing. "It's okay," she murmurs against his mouth. "You can do anything you like," meaning it, and then he's moving again, and crashing his mouth down on hers until she can taste blood. He's relentless: touches, caresses, slaps, tweaks, scratches, rubs, scrawls, all over her body, but Dani's not afraid and she feels no pain, only pleasure. She starts coming again, shouting his name now, and then he is there too, swearing and clawing at her, until it becomes impossible to tell who is trembling the hardest.
Nico lets himself roll of her onto the rug, taking her half with him, arms and legs entangled and they just lie there, trying to catch some breath. He looks at her in awe. "Wow," he says. "You are…"
"All yours," Dani whispers back and she sees how that hits him, moves him. A tiny smile plays with the corners of his mouth as he says, in a soft-wonder voice, "I'm pretty sure I want everything with you, Dr Danielle Santino, and I don't mean just sex." Dani smiles back, a deep smile that wells up within her, as the knowledge begins to bloom that her life is about to dramatically change.