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Nolan laughed. “Like I said: complicated.”
“How does this help your dissertation, Gia?” Bart asked.
Both because she had carefully built her research agenda, and because every single interview had arrived at that question eventually (usually right off the top), Gia had a ready answer: “The details, to the degree I can use them, provide context. The stories themselves are insights: into motivations, into cultural expectations and norms, into the roles of honor and loyalty and love—and the role of revenge itself. I’m not writing a narrative of events, I’m using pieces of each story to explore the culture. People outside this life don’t understand. All they think is ‘scary criminals.’ My own friends don’t understand, and I can’t share enough to help them understand it, because the context of my personal friendships and my own lived reality, the consequences of certain truths, are too close and volatile. But I can explain this life in an academic context and show outlaws and outlaw culture in the full complexity of their humanity.”
Nolan studied her for a while, a smile spreading slowly across his face. “Damn, girl. You really are a genius.”
She grinned back. “Well, they don’t let any schmo off the street get a PhD, you know. I got some chops.” After a salsa-laden chip of her own and a sip of beer, she added, “And you can’t distract me. Tell me about the complications in your feelings about Vega.”
~oOo~
“Here, let me get that.” Standing behind Gia in the clubhouse storage room, Zaxx reached over her head and grabbed the box she’d been stretching for. However, as soon as she stopped stretching, he dropped his hands and flung his arms around her waist, burying his face against her neck.
She laughed and put a hand on his head. “Dork! Focus!”
“Oh, I’m focused,” he muttered through his nibbling and sucking. He slipped a hand into the front of her jeans. “Very focused.”
As soon as his fingers touched her clit, Gia gave up all pretense of protest. With a sighing moan, she leaned forward, resting one arm on the boxes she’d stacked, pushing her other hand more deeply into his hair, under the tie that held his ponytail.
Permission thus granted, Zaxx nudged one of her feet outward and popped two buttons on her jeans, giving himself more room. As the fingers of that hand searched and played, he pushed his other hand under her sweater and liberated a breast from the cup of her bra.
“Omigod, omigod, omigod,” Gia heard herself mutter. Already she was climbing, reality falling away.
“You’re so fuckin’ wet already,” he growled at her ear. “Hungry girl.”
Thirty seconds ago, Gia had been all business, focused on the to-do list Adrienne had given her as the Horde family prepared for the Harvest Festival. Now, she could not have cared less if anything ever got harvested or ‘fested’ again anywhere in the world. Simply having Zaxx in close proximity was a hair trigger on her libido; when he went in, she was always ready.
That was actually part of the too-much-time-together problem. He was a terrible distraction.
They were in the clubhouse storeroom. The door was closed, because she’d had to close it to get to the shelf, but on the other side were a couple dozen people, including both her parents.
Gia did not give a single fuck about that right now. Right now the only fuck she cared about was the one Zaxx was promising.
“Fuck me,” she gasped as he pushed two fingers into her and closed two other fingers hard on a nipple. “Jesus Christ, I need you to fuck me.”
“I am here to meet all your needs,” he whispered, low and sultry, his tongue tracing the edge of her ear. He pushed her jeans and underwear down her thighs, then opened his belt and shoved his jeans out of the way.
Just then the door swung open and hit him in the back. While Gia was still tensing from the startle, Zaxx threw himself around her, shielding her from view as much as he could.
Her suddenly awkward position, and the fact that they were behind the now-open door, prevented her from seeing who’d come in.
Please don’t let it be Dad. Please don’t let it be Dad.
“Um.” Adrienne’s voice brought a rush of relief. “Guys? Maybe not the smartest choice either of you have ever made, y’know? In addition to a very large father out here, there are five underage kids helping today. I almost sent Caroline back here just now. I’m gonna back out so you can get yourselves together before somebody more dangerous finds you. Gia, I came in for the box of banners. Will you bring that out with the other stuff?”
“Yeah, sure,” Gia answered, her cheeks feeling unusually hot. “Right away.”
“Thank you.” Adrienne’s voice sparkled with humor. “Hey Zaxx—nice butt.”
With that parting shot, she backed out and closed the door.
Still wrapped around Gia, both their asses still bare, Zaxx began to chuckle. “Oh shit.”
Gia caught the bug, and then they were both laughing hard. She twisted in his arms and wrapped herself around him, laughing hard enough to force tears from her eyes.
Their jeans still down, he shuffled them to the door and pushed her against it. Still laughing, he leaned in and kissed her, slow and deep. Their amusement faded away, and for a few more moments they were lost together in love.
Then they put themselves back together and returned to the work of the day.
