Gemma’s eyes go wider than when she first set them on this safe house. She opens her mouth to speak, but it falls shut just as quick. The same motion plays on repeat while she tries to wrap her mind around the statement.
“Yours?” She finds the word, and with it, the flood gates open. “What does that even mean? Like some kind of mafia princess? You’re saving me from one to keep me for yourself? I can’t do this. My mom won’t survive on her own. How am I?—”
Fuck, she’s cute in her frazzled state. Snow white cheeks turning rosier by the second. Flustered and confused while her mind spins at a thousand miles an hour.
No, I’m not one to mince words. I could’ve lied, said I saw something special in her, and wanted to protect it. What good would it do? My end goal would be the same. Why not jump past the boring bits and get straight to the action?
“Nothing to do with the mafia.” Don Bernal’s organization is more akin to the mob than the mafia anyway. “This is personal.”
Gemma goes still when I answer her torrent of questions with a simple statement. Her lip puffs out, and she gulps fiercely. What I wouldn’t give to be able to read her mind right now. See the thoughts she wasn’t willing to share so freely.
“Personal?” She’s back to one-word answers. Still, I feel the corner of my lip twitch into a very small smile.
I step closer to her.
“You haven’t left my head since I saw you. Burrowed in deep and took your place as the sole owner of it,” I say. “I didn’t do this out of pity or some false-hearted obligation. I did it out of burning fucking need. Soon as I saw you, I had to have you.”
I raise a hand, testing the waters to see how far I can take this. Hereyes watch it close in, focused on the digits slipping over her shoulder and tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear.
Gemma sucks in a breath, and it gets locked in place. No exhale, like her lungs aren’t sure if they should keep going.
“I’m not just here to protect you.” I lean a little closer, moving my hand to the side of her cheek. “I want you as mine. Forever.”
“Oh, fuck,” she whispers as her eyes flicker over my mouth.
It’s all the permission I need. I lean in slowly, not wanting to scare her away after the bombshell I dropped. If she pulls away and wants to run, so be it. I won’t fight her.
She doesn’t.
Our mouths meet, a gentle brush to start, before the monster burbling inside me takes control. Slow morphs to intense in an instant. A tender graze replaced by devouring lips trying to taste every last inch of her mouth.
I have to force myself to break the kiss, and when I do, I’m met by the brightest smile I’ve ever seen. Almost like while I was on the hunt for her, she was playing her own game of catch the cat.
“Still think I did this out of some misguided sense of honor?” I ask, never moving far enough to lose the warmth of her breathing against my lips. “No, little Gem. I saved you for me.”
5
GEMMA
No part of me can make sense of this. Not my mind, which can’t grasp Ghost’s confession and what just happened, nor my body that refuses to part with him while he cradles my cheek like I’m too delicate to squeeze.
But through it all, I hear that word echoing in my head.
Mine.
“I bet I’m smiling like an idiot, huh?” I’ve gotta make a joke. Keep it light. Hold onto the little glimmer of whatever this is for as long as I can.
“More like an adorable goofball,” Ghost answers.
Then it hits me all at once. I got so wrapped up in this moment, I could’ve forgotten the world out there exists. That I could be in danger, and Ghost’s the only one who can protect me.
But the thing at the forefront of my mind?
“I don’t even know what your name is,” I say, shifting the conversationback to one grounded in reality. We can live in this dream forever, but only once the hardship is behind us.
Ghost chokes on a laugh and pulls away from me. Each inch creates an uncomfortable void between us. The place where I should be instead, coiled tightly against his firm chest.
“Hank,” he says, like a throwaway comment. “Haven’t used it in years, and don’t suppose I’m gonna start anytime soon.”
