Page 35 of Finding Fate
“You always did have a thing for blondes.”
“No, I had a thing for a blonde named Gabby. There is a difference.”
“Here,” Landon says, handing us our drinks. I hand her the cup of blue liquid and take my beer, giving her back my attention.
She takes a long pull from her small black straw, her eyes falling to her ring. She grins at me with her straw in the corner of her mouth. “So, is this why you told me I could get my nails done?”
“One reason. I know you. You would have wanted them done. And back then I don’t think I ever saw you without them done, which means it’s something you like. Keep them. We’ll work it in.”
“Do you take payment in back scratches?”
I can’t help but laugh. “That obvious, huh?”
Her eyes are twinkling with the light hitting them just right. She’s happy, which makes me happy. “I guess I know you too.”
“Even if you don’t scratch my back you can still keep them.”
She wraps her arm around my lower back and pulls us together, moving her pelvis against mine to the beat of the music. “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you happy, baby: back scratches, dick rides, and all.”
I flatten my palm against her shoulder blade, bringing her upper half closer like her bottom half is. “Keeping me happy is a skill you’ve mastered.”
She brings her face in closer to mine, a good bit of her drink already gone from the constant sipping out of the tiny straw. “Mmm hmm. Before I forget, your ass looks great in a pair of slacks. Is there a reason I’ve never seen this look before?”
“I normally reserve this type of clothing for church. We couldn’t have an open relationship back then. I sat on the pew alone. You and me never left the sin bin. We didn’t make it to prom either.”
She comes in so close my lips are hovering over hers. “What can I say, I like being in the sin bin with you. Speaking of, wanna get drunk and have car sex in the parking lot? You know, for old times’ sake?” So many memories. She has a bitchy little smile on her face as she grinds our pelvises together. “I take it that’s a yes?”
Sucks being a guy sometimes. There is no hiding our arousal at all. “That depends. You gonna ride it like it’s the last time?”
“That’s the only way I ever ride you, baby. How else do you think I keep you coming back for more?”
I wrap my lips around her top one and tug. “I knew you were baiting me all that time.”
“Of course I was. There’s no shame in my game, sweetheart. Want to know a secret?”
“What’s that?”
“That night of the concert . . . I saw you first. One look at you and I knew you were mine. You were so hot. I knew I had to step up my game and put my big girl panties on to get you—an older guy. Put myself right in your line of vision, yet I still had you coming to me. You were doomed from the start. I was going to figure out how to fuck you whether you tried or not.”
I stare at her, trying so damn hard not to smile, but it’s no use. There is no way to completely understand my feelings for her. I gave up a long time ago. “You are crazy as hell, girl. My kind of crazy. No one has ever understood this thing between us. It used to bother me that no one could see it—how real it is—but I don’t give a shit anymore. It’s just you and me, Gab, forever.”
She kisses me, so much emotion coming with it. “Promise me you won’t let anyone come between us this time, Maddox. We can fight for this. He can beat me. He can try to ship me off to Greece. He can threaten to take things from me. I’m telling you now I’ll never leave you willingly. I can endure anything he throws at me. As long as I know you’ll come for me. Promise me.”
It feels like someone is shoving a knife in my heart and twisting it. Guilt settles in that Konnor is the one that went and got her and not me. I should have known before he did that something wasn’t right. I let my heartache control my brain. I run my hand through her hair and force her to look at me. “I’m sorry, Gab. The only way someone will take you again is by prying you from my cold, dead fingers. I promise.”
Suddenly she goes from emotional to grinning from ear to ear. Gabby’s emotions come in short waves. When she’s had too much, she switches to the crazy, fun bitch that I love just as much as the sensitive one. “You go I go. I’m chasing your ass even in the afterlife.”
“You better.”
She grabs my free hand in hers and turns around, already moving her ass on me. “Now get drunk with me and let’s dance the night away. We didn’t get to go to parties together back then, remember? I want to have fun. Then I’m going to defile your goodness in the back of Konnor’s Tahoe.”
My Gabby—the good, the bad, and everything in between.
Twenty-Three
Gabby
Irun out of the club pulling Maddox behind me by the hand, drunk as shit and giggling like a teenager that is doing something bad. God knows how much I’ve drank tonight. I wasn’t counting. It’s my birthday—the big one at that—and might I add the first good one I’ve had since fourteen, so everyone can bite me. I’m also celebrating good things. I was going for sloshed with the man I love, and with his lazy eyes and smile that won’t go away, I know he’s exactly where I want him. It was time to go; though with his longer legs and wider stride, he isn’t running at all, and letting me tug him along like a child.