AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Six
Gia
Dinner ran late enough that the boardwalk lights were beginning to mesh with the stars above. As we returned to the park, the place was bustling. Crowds of people still stood in line for the snack stands, games, and rides.
Sloane held my hand and he used it to pull me to a stop.
“Are you sure I can’t give you a ride back to the resort?” Bless him for asking in such a quiet, non-pressuring way. “It’s all the way on the other side of the island. It just doesn’t feel right dropping you off here in front of Bessie. Makes me feel like she’s my mom, making sure I treat you all ladylike and don’t step out of turn.”
He’d done nothing but treat me like a lady all night. Even sexytalked me into taking home cake. If he only knew how much that got my motor running, he might be alarmed.
Or not.
I got the feeling Sloane would be as wild as he was gentle.
“I called an island taxi to take me here, and I can call one to take me back. Besides, it’s not you I’m worried about.”
Sloane stared at me from under furrowed brows. “Gia, I’m not a fly-by-night kind of guy. I don’t normally ask park guests out for dinner the first day I meet them. Or ever, for that matter. I’m not into temporary flings. But when I met you today, I couldn’t deny wanting to know you. And tonight was…” He blew out a long breath.
“Amazing,” I said at the same time he said, “Unbelievable.”
We laughed and he took a step closer.
“What I’m trying to say is, if I kiss you…”
If? This wasn’t a sure thing?
“... it’s going to mean something. Even if it just means goodbye.”
Goodbye. The word twisted a pang into my chest. I definitely wanted to see more of Sloane.
He brushed his thumb across my cheek. “Because, trust me when I say I’m not someone who could touch you and forget it. Nor would I want to. It’s not in me to be your temporary fix. It’s not who I am.”
Wow. It was like he was having a conversation with my inner heart. One outer Gia didn’t even get to be a part of. He was talking to placeholder Gia. The girl who didn’t take any man too seriously, because they just wanted to be with a beautiful big girl until the better option came along.
I was used to being fetishized.
I didn’t exactly know what to do with honest to goodness feelings.
But I knew I couldn’t be finished with the only man to ever make me feel like this. Whatever this was.
“Okay, then. How about you give me a toe-curling kiss goodnight and when you’re done, tell me you’ll see me tomorrow?”
“Will I see you tomorrow?” His voice dropped an octave, and the shadows dipped over his face as the lights above us flickered and he backed me against a nook in Bessie’s platform.
Sloane looked a little dangerous as his gaze roamed my face.
Not the kind of danger that screams run for your life. More like the kind that says, I put a scrunchie on the doorknob—do not disturb.
“I want you to see me tomorrow,” I whispered as my back hit the cinder block wall.
“Then I will see you,” he said, determination in his eyes.
The dark expression on his face told me he would crash into me, wild and forceful. That’s not what happened.
His kiss was soft, exploring. Instead of pressing me up against the wall I was already touching, Sloane slipped one arm around my back, pulling me away from the concrete and into him. The other hand cupped my cheek, fingers sliding into my hair. It was a gentle kiss, beautiful even. The kind of kiss you give someone you treasure.
I’d done a lot of kissing in my life—but I’d never been kissed like that before. Like I was precious. Like he was memorizing my taste.
