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“Happy birthday,” he whispered.
“Thank you,” she said, “would you like to come in?”
“Do I have to?” he asked, looking past her at the crowd.
She giggled and nodded.
“C’mon, we’ll go to my room,” she replied, grabbing his arm and pulling him inside. She led him down a hallway past the gawking crowd and into her room.
They sat down on the bed and he turned to her, so stoked to finally be in her presence again.
“Have you been okay?” he asked, thankful that they were alone. Her room was feminine and frilly and he felt completely out of place in his leather cut, but he didn’t care. It smelled exactly like Gabby and he loved it.
“Yes,” she replied, nodding. “You?” she asked with a smile.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he replied.
They sat in awkward silence, and once again, he felt like a schoolboy again. He looked at her, drinking in her beauty, completely at a loss for what to do. He sighed, shaking away his uncertainty.
This was absurd, he thought. I’m fucking Dante Santoro. I’m a fucking man, and that’s how I should act.
“I’ve missed you,” he said gruffly, before pulling Gabby into his arms, his mouth coming down hard on hers. She kissed him back, returning his passion two-fold, having missed his touch as much as he missed hers.
She pulled away after a moment, looking up into his familiar eyes, the smoldering hunger she saw there shooting right through her.
“I owe you everything,” she whispered.
“No, you don’t. You don’t owe me anything, sweetheart,” he replied.
“…and Bear,” she murmured, staring up into his eyes.
“Bear loved every minute of it,” he shrugged. “He’s got a hero complex.”
“And you?” she asked quietly. “Did you love it?”
“Yeah,” he replied, his voice thick with emotion. “I loved it. Most of it.”
“Dante…” she hesitated.
“Yes?”
“What do we do now?” she asked. “This was all so weird. Everything happened so quickly, I didn’t have time to think.”
“What do you want to happen?” he asked.
“I guess I’d like to start over.”
“I don’t know if we can do that, Gabby. We can’t change the past. What happened, happened. And there’s one thing that I can’t start over.”
“What?” she asked.
“I love you, Gabby,” he said, pulling her into his arms. “I’ve loved you for a long time. At first, it was just a fantasy. A boy’s childhood obsession. But then you came back. And now here you are. You’re not just a fantasy. You’re real. And I fuckin’ love you, Gabby. I need you in my life, I need you to be mine. I can’t just start all over. A love like this can’t just be turned off and on.”
“Dante, I —,” she began to reply, but his kiss silenced her. She melted into him, loving him back, needing him just as much as he needed her. His kiss transported her, lifting her heart with joy and sending sparks of electric desire through her limbs, just as it had before.
She knew she could be in for a rough ride with Dante. She barely knew him, but she did sense that he was a lot like her father.
Stubborn. Prideful. Mysterious.
But there was more to him than that. He was gentle but he knew when to be assertive, he was tough as nails but he wasn’t afraid to show her his vulnerable side, he was a good man that had put his own life on the line to save hers.
When life throws someone like that in your path over and over, eventually you listen. You stop fighting.
His kiss woke something inside of her that she’d tucked away for the last few weeks. She’d been worried sick about her father and was so happy that he’d been released from the hospital.
But today was her birthday. And she was ready to celebrate.
And Dante was her present.
Right here in her bedroom.
In the flesh. Safe. In one piece. Wrapped up in leather, tattoos, and delicious rugged masculinity.
They weren’t hiding. They weren’t on the run. They weren’t in danger.
That was all in the past. That was all over.
Now they were just two normal people, enjoying a nice, normal kiss, with their entire lives spread out before them.
Gabby tore her mouth from his and walked over to her bedroom door. She turned the lock with a slow smile, her stomach quivering with happiness.
She turned around, her eyes colliding with Dante’s.
He opened his welcoming arms with a lustful grin, and she walked right into her future.
