“I’m not so sure I feel like sharing you with anyone else,” she said impulsively.
Something flickered into his amber eyes. He reached out and cupped her waist warmly in his hand. “I know what you mean. It’s nice alone up here on this hill with you. Should I tell Katie no?”
“Well . . . maybe we should wander out tomorrow?” she asked, her heart not in what she was saying. She realized that a dark, murky cloud of emotion was hanging at the edge of her consciousness. Maybe that unnamed emotion was fear, that if they left the little world they’d created between themselves, the magic would be broken. What if they could never return?
Gia mentally rolled her eyes. Her anxious, unrealistic thoughts weren’t at all in sync with her practical planning self. She reined in her disquietude.
“Yeah . . . we really should get some groceries, venture into the real world, I suppose. I wanted to thank Sherona for all the supplies, although I suppose it’d be more in character for you to want to go do that, since I don’t think it’d be typical for Jessie to return social calls. We could walk through one of the local towns, check out the sights, and then go to Katie and Rill’s for dinner?”
“Sounds like a date.”
“Except that you’ll be dating a boy,” she said drolly. “But would that be so bad? A date, I mean?”
That sexy smile tugged at his mouth. “Not in the slightest.”
“I mean, if I have to be in disguise, we might as well get it over with all at once, right?”
“Get what over with?”
“Halting cabin fever from ever setting in?” she suggested, shrugging.
“A preventive measure?”
“Exactly.”
“Fine with me either way. You’re the one who hates being confined.”
“That was before,” she admitted, touching the side of his ribs. She thrilled to feel his skin roughen beneath her stroking fingertips. He growled softly when she touched his stiffening nipple. He promptly dropped the phone behind him on the bed.
“Before what?” he asked, suddenly dead serious. He pulled the sheet down, exposing her bare breasts. Without pause, his head lowered. He pressed his mouth over her heart and softly cupped a breast.
“Before being confined with you,” she whispered, enthralled by the sensation of his light, brushing lips and the slight abrasion of his whiskers on her skin. He found her sensitive nipple, his warm mouth enfolding her.
Gia closed her eyes and forgot Rill and Katie Pierce. Nothing existed but Seth and the new, amazing world he was opening up to her.
* * *
Later, after they’d made love, Seth held a warm, supple, dozing Gia in his arms, her cheek against his chest. He thought she’d fallen asleep until she spoke.
“Do you know what would be amazing?” she asked, her voice dreamy and slurred with sleep.
“Hmmm?” he asked, running the soft coils of her hair idly between his fingertips.
“If you could work on the Eleanor film and do my makeup.”
The citrus fragrance from her hair and the unique scent that came off her skin after orgasm filled his nose in the silent seconds that followed. He couldn’t think of how to respond to her sweet words. He lifted his head to peer into her peaceful face.
By the time he quietly said her name, she’d fallen asleep, a small smile on her lips.
* * *
Later, Gia cuddled against the pillows and watched a local St. Louis television broadcast of the news while Seth sat in bed next to her, making sketches of her face. At first, she felt a little self-conscious knowing he was making such an intent study of her. Eventually, she sank into relaxation, however, lulled by the pressure of his gaze on her cheek and the subtle scratch of his pencil on the pad. After he set down his pencil and stretched, Gia roused herself from her lassitude.
“You should go and do your workout while I make you dinner.”
“You weren’t serious about that, were you? You don’t have to cook anything,” he said, scowling slightly as he landed one final kiss on her shoulder before he got out of bed.
“Of course, I was serious. I’m making you a special dinner, and you better shower after your workout and dress nice for it, or I’ll be insulted. Go along,” she teased, waving her hands in an “away with you” gesture. He gave her a slightly amused, speculative glance. He knew she was up to something, but couldn’t guess what. She watched him saunter over to the bathroom, as insouciant and comfortable as a god in his nakedness, and twice as gorgeous because of it. Gia leafed through her book, waiting impatiently for him to go downstairs so that she could set her plan into action.