Gigi's gaze immediately fell to the snow covered wooden slats beneath her feet. Thanks to the deep 'v' of her neckline, I saw her throat bob as she swallowed and her chest heaving with shallow, heavy breaths. Even like this, even with the only lighting around us the dim twinkle of white Christmas lights, she looked like an angel on earth. An angel that I was currently having a very hard time pretending I was upset with.
Something about the way she'd stomped her perky little ass toward me, all filled with rage and jealousy, had turned me the fuck on. I'd always had a bit of a possessive streak myself. Not in a controlling way, but in the 'Touch what's mine and I'll kill you' sort of way. But tonight was the first time I'd had that sort of energy aimed in my direction and needless to say, I fucking liked it.
A lot.
If we were being honest, I'd barely even noticed the girls that had flanked me the instant I'd entered the Castellanos' home. I knew they were friends of Amaya, but any information I'd been given past that had fallen on deaf ears. The instant I'd stepped through that front door and spotted Galena back in the corner, her luscious curves wrapped in skin tight, dark green velvet, those blood red lips curving upward to reveal that glimmering white smile, everyone else had ceased to exist. Whatever hesitation I'd had about us, about what we could or should be, evaporated into thin air. This woman... she was everything, and after an afternoon spent with my incessantly prodding ex-wife, I was finally fucking ready to do something about it. And then I was cutoff at the pass by a bubbly Amaya and her friends.
"What the hell was that?" I asked as I folded my arms over my chest, both in feigning annoyance and to shield myself from the bite in the air. Was I enjoying watching her squirm a bit too much? Perhaps. But it was cute as hell.
Gigi licked her lips and blinked, and as she glanced toward the sky, I noticed a sheen to her eyes that could only mean she was holding back tears. I'd intended poking at her a bit more, but she looked so damn embarrassed that I immediately lost all desire to tease. The tone of my next words was much softer. "Gigi..."
"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" she finally spoke, her voice an emotion-filled rasp. "I get it. I have no right to interfere with whatever... or whomever you choose to do anything with but really? Them? Could you be any more cliché?"
My brows lowered in confusion, narrowing my gaze upon her. She couldn't honestly think... "What do you mean?"
"I mean... I guess I didn't think they were your type, but I get it. I just... I thought you were different. I thought I..."
I couldn't help it. A loud burst of laugher ripped itself from deep in my gut, not because her response as funny, but because she was so fucking wrong it was astonishing. "You gotta be kidding me," I snickered, more to myself than the very unimpressed woman standing before me. "Is that was this is about? Amaya's friends?"
Gigi's gaze was attempting to burn a hole clean through me. Suddenly the sheepish, embarrassed girl was gone and the badass, sass-master was back. And she was pissed. "Mind clueing me in to what's so fucking funny cuz I don't get it. This a joke to you?"
"Baby, no..." I shook my head as my laughter began to subside and a torrent of butterflies took its place. "You really don't see it?"
"No, Sully, I don't fucking see it," Gigi snapped, using her fingers to add impassioned air quotes. "Why don't you explain it to me?"
"Gi, I couldn't tell you one goddamn thing about those girls," I stated, grinning at her like some sort of village idiot. "I don't know their names; I can barely tell you what they look like. The second I walked through that door, the only thing I saw was you."
Gigi's head jerked back before she looked at me with her jaw slack and her baby blue eyes wide as saucers. "W-what?"
I chuckled affectionately, enjoying the baffled doe-in-headlights look on her face a bit too much. Every ounce of apprehension I'd been riddled with since the day we re-met was gone and left in it's wake was an innate need to reach out, to touch her, to cast out any doubt my previous waffling had left her with. "You tryin' to tell me you didn't notice, Snow?"
"I-I didn't," Gigi answered, her tone soft with a mixture of confusion and wonderment. "You... You've spent the last few weeks telling me that nothing could happen. Why would tonight be any different?"
I sighed, understanding her worries. It wasn't like I'd been real reliable in my stance up until this point. I knew I was going to have some work to put in and I was ready for it. "A good friend talked some sense into me," I explained. "And... I just hope it's not too late."
A hesitant smile played at her ruby painted lips. I could see how badly she wanted to believe me, but I could also see her hesitance. I hadn't fully convinced her yet, but I was determined to. "I'm so confused," she stated with a soft giggle. "What changed?"
"I know. I know you're confused, Snow, and that is one hundred percent on me. I've sent you nothing but mixed signals and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." I took a breath and closed the few snowy steps between us until we were standing toe to toe. As Gigi's crystal eyes blinked up at me, I lifted one hand, pushing a few stray strands of hair behind her ear and then gently cupping the curve of her jaw. "You've been nothing but one hundred percent about how you feel, about what you want. And I haven't deserved it. I haven't given you an ounce of the same."
Gigi's head tilted in curiosity ever so slightly. Her voice came out as a whisper. "What... what are you saying? What does this mean now? For... us?"
"It means," I began, stepping even closer, "that I am tired of fighting it. I'm tired of denying how you make me feel. I want... I need to figure out what this is because I... I cannot think of anything but you. I haven't stopped thinking about you since I saw you in Kindling. And it's only gotten worse. You inhabit every thought in my head and... denying it is honestly futile at this point. All I'm doing is hurting the both of us and that's... that's not what I want. That isn't anywhere close to what I want."
The sparkle that returned to her eyes was enough to stun me stupid, but that smile... God, the smile that blossomed could've knocked me dead and I would've had zero complaints. "Probably not good for a fireman to be that distracted all the time."
There she was. My sexy, sassy Snow.
My responding chuckle was low and deep. I held back a gasp as she placed one foot in between mine and brought us chest to chest. It sure as shit wasn't the winter air that was causing my skin to prickle now. It was the heat of her body, the press of her breasts against me. My mind became a muddled blur as I threw my last bit of caution to the wind and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her toward me until you couldn't get even a single slip of paper between us. "No, it's terrible," I agreed, my voice a low rasp. "And I really think we need to do something about it before all of Detroit goes up in flames."
"Mm,' Gigi hummed, grinning up at me like she was already plotting something sinful. She took her bottom lip between her teeth and I couldn't help but wish it were my teeth in their place. "And what, exactly, do you think we should do, Captain?"
"Well, I unfortunately have to work tomorrow," I began, my gaze darting from her eyes to her lips and back again, the soft, pale skin of her cheek still cool against my palm, "but Sunday... Sunday I think you should take the evening off and let me take you out."
"Out where?" Gigi asked teasingly as her red manicured nails fiddled with the buttons on my shirt. Her big eyes blinked up at me with an innocence she definitely didn't have as her tongue swiped along her blood red lips.
I shrugged. "I'm sure we'll figure something out. Dinner, maybe."
"Just dinner?"
I chuckled lowly and smirked as her arms rose to twine around my neck. "I guess we'll see where the night takes us."
Gigi giggled as if my words were some sort of loaded innuendo, and truth be told, the visions dancing in my brain matched. "Yeah, I'm sure we can figure out something."
I shook my head but couldn't erase the grin from my face. My eyes scanned every feature of the face before me. Every pore, every spot, every smile line. I sighed as I nuzzled my face against the crook of her neck. "You fucking intoxicate me."
"I know the feeling."
I beamed as I drew back but before I could even start to think of a response, Gigi surged up onto her toes and pressed her lips to mine. I froze momentarily, too stunned to do anything else, but under the weight of her mouth, the warmth of her body, the tension melted and suddenly I was kissing her back like I was starving for it, completely forgetting the house of her friends and relatives behind us.
Gigi let out a soft purr against my lips as I pressed into her, one hand spanning the small of her back while the other rose to thread into the dark hair at the base of her neck. Her nails dug in between mug shoulders as she clung to me, and a a grumble of approval rattled in my chest Her lips parted as she went pliant in my grasp, and I took advantage, taking control and dipping my tongue between them to meet the velvet of her own. Gigi responded with a soft moan, tightening the circle of her arms around my neck and devoured me back just as hungrily.
My brain instantly short circuited as I thought of everywhere else I wanted to taste her. I groaned and tightened my arms around her middle until I'd lifted her from the ground, our mouths going to an utter passion induced frenzy.
"Fuck. Snow," I hissed as I broke for a breath just to dive right back in. I couldn't stop now even if I'd wanted to. I wouldn't stop. Ever. She was mine.
This was fucking heaven. How I'd ever decided to deny myself this, deny myself her, I'd never again understand. Her curves, the glimmer of her eyes, the glow of her smile. Her lips... Fuck, it felt like I'd been missing this, missing her, my entire fucking life. I never stood a chance and I'd been a fool to think any differently. A fucking unbelievable fool.
Slowly our kiss began to transform into a series of smaller ones. More affectionate, more everything. The heat turned from a raging fire to a warm blanket, comfortable, peaceful.
Right.
I still clung to her; fingers woven into her dark locks as if they were made to be there as I laid one peck after another against her lips as the laughter from the party rang dully behind the closed doors at our backs.
"Shit, baby..." I laughed softly as the tip of my nose brushed hers. "That was..."
Gigi returned my laugh, not needing me to finish my words to know my thoughts. "Yeah... yeah. It was."
I lifted my head, brushing my lips against her hairline as I pulled her back to a normal standing position and stepped back just slightly, allowing the cool night breeze to slip between our heated bodies, though my hands didn't leave the slope of her hips. "You're gonna be trouble, aren't you?"
"Only the best kind," Gigi retorted.
I grinned as I ran an index finger the length of her jaw, my eyes snapping to her mouth the second I noticed the still perfection of her lipstick. "How in the..."
Gigi giggled and lifted one hand, rubbing her bottom lip with two fingers and holding them up, still clean, in my eye line. "Smudge proof. Apparently improvements have been made since the last time you kissed the living hell out of a girl."
"And I am beyond grateful for it," I stated before I gave her another firm press of my lips against hers. It was taking every ounce of my self control to not drag her out of here. Not that it seemed like she'd put up much of a fight. No. I wanted to do this right. She deserved that. She deserved everything. "Get back in there," I said softly, knowing that if she didn't, I wouldn't be able to stop myself. "Before someone comes looking."
"What about you? You don't think anyone's going to look for you?"
"Nah," I stated shaking my head. "Besides, I'm getting the fuck outta here before someone starts to wonder why my pants look two sizes smaller." Gigi giggled as I embraced her tightly. "I got what I came for anyway."
Gigi beamed as she pulled back. "Yeah? You just come for a quick make out?"
"No," I argued, pushing her hair back from her face once again. "I came for you." I planted a soft, sweet peck on her still kiss-swollen lips. "That was a hell of a bonus though."
"Plenty more where that came from."
"I don't doubt it."
Gigi sighed dreamily and cinched her arms around my waist. "I don't want you to go," she whined with an exaggerated pout. "Stay. Have a drink with me."
"I can't, baby," I argued softly as I laid my forehead against hers. "If we go back in there, I won't be able to act like you're not mine and I'm not ready for the grilling from your family yet."
Gigi scoffed. "You ain't gotta worry about Mama Castellanos. She's the president of the Bennett Sullivan fan club. She'll probably start planning another wedding."
I chuckled and cupped her cheek. "Give us a chance to figure this out, just you and me, okay? When we know there's something worth telling, we'll figure out how to do it together."
Gigi responded with a soft laugh. "Don't worry. I don't want these people all in my business any more than you do, trust me. Mama would take you ring shopping tomorrow."
"Yeah, let's not do that quite yet," I smiled. "Let's give us a chance to figure this shit out first."
"Deal," Gigi grinned.
I just shook my head, still dumbfounded that this girl wanted anything to do with me, before taking her chin between my thumb and forefinger and dragging her lips back to mine for a firm, fierce kiss. "Do me a favor when you go back in there?"
"Mhmm," Gigi hummed dreamily.
I kept my grip on her chin and spoke directly to her lips. "Tell that little shit you brought with you that if I find out his hands have been anywhere they shouldn't be, his friends' be calling him 'Stumpy' from now on."
Gigi pulled back, her eyes wide in shock. "Y-you knew?"
"Course I knew,' I stated with a wink. "Cute that your little plan kinda turned against you though, huh?"
"I... I..."
I chuckled as she stammered and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "Relax, Snow. I'll see you Sunday."
"Right..." Gigi stated, still gaping at me like a fish.
I chuckled and took a step toward the stairs, stuffing my hands in my pockets as the cold finally started to get to me. Without another glance I jogged around the side of the house, headed for my truck and feeling like the weight of the world had been lifted from my chest.
I couldn't wipe the grin from my face. Less than forty-eight hours. Now I just needed to come up with a date plan that made sure any of the questions in her head were wiped out.