Chapter 14
The red LED lights on the clock beside her read 1:15 a.m. Ginny had been staring at the numbers changing for the last forty-five minutes. She had gone to bed early tonight to give Dax some time alone with his family. At twelve thirty she’d heard his deep voice in the hall wishing his mom and sister goodnight and telling them that he planned on working out and then crashing in the basement tonight. Since then she’d been biding her time until she thought the two women might be asleep.
Since this morning, she hadn’t had a moment alone with Dax and she couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss they’d shared and the things he’d said to her right before it. He’d told her that he hadn’t been with anyone since their first night together. She hadn’t expected that. It’d been torture being so close to him and not being able to talk to him, touch him or kiss him again.
Ginny bit her lip and clenched her fists. She sat on the edge of the bed, shaking from the anticipation of what she was about to do. Would she really do it? Could she sneak downstairs to Dax and pick up where they left off? With his mom and sister in the house?
Yes. Yes, she could and she would.
As scared as she was to do it, she was even more scared not to do it. Last night Amber had said something that resonated with Ginny. She’d told her that real living happens outside your comfort zone.
The basement, and all the things she hoped would happen there tonight, were well outside of her comfort zone, that was for dang sure…and she was ready for it. No more being timid. No more hesitating. No more being afraid to ask for what she wanted, and what she wanted was to kiss Dax again.
That kiss…holy hotness that kiss. It had consumed her thoughts every instant since it had happened. All day in the studio it had occupied her mind. It was burning in her brain, heating up her body like a torch. Every time she closed her eyes, she could feel his lips on hers as if they were still touching her. She could feel his hair under her fingers and feel his body against her skin. Oh, man. She was going to burst into flames if she didn’t do something about it. Now. So she was.
It was time to start living real life.
She stood and walked to her bedroom door. Her footfalls were soft, but she moved with purpose. With trembling fingers, she twisted the doorknob and inched the door open, moving deliberately so that the hinges wouldn’t squeak and attract attention. She tiptoed down the hall to the door that led to the basement, then repeated the “stealthy spy” routine as she opened it and crept down the stairs.
Ginny hoped the fact that she felt the need to sneak around wasn’t a sign that what she was doing was a majorly bad idea.—after all, she had always done what was expected of her and what better indication that she was behaving in a way that was going against expectations than having to sneak away to do what you were doing? But she didn’t feel like what she was doing was wrong at all. It didn’t make her feel bad, or scared, or even nervous, really. Instead, it brought out a bad girl side to her that she’d never imagined lived in her heart. It made her pulse quicken and arousal shoot through her. It made her feel naughty, but in the best way possible.
As she descended the basement steps with cat-like grace, she heard Dax’s workout machines clanging and got even more turned on picturing him down there, hopefully shirtless. Flexing. Sweating…
She shook her head to clear it. She was going to get herself worked into a frenzy before he even touched her.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she paused on the last step and stood still, enjoying the view in front of her. He was blessedly shirtless.
She watched his biceps bulge as his muscles strained under the weight of the heavy barbell he was lifting and lowering. As she watched those muscles ripple and flex she felt a twitch deep in her belly. Wow, she couldn’t believe what this man could do to her…and without even intending to. It was like he’d woken a dormant side of her, her sexual side.
She was so turned on just by seeing him, just by his mere presence. Well…not just his presence. To be fair. Also, his naked chest and sexy muscles. Yeah, that helped.
When he placed the barbell back into its cradle, she spoke softly. “Hi.”
He sat up with a start, his legs on each side of the bench, his eyes narrowed and his body looked primed like he was in battle mode.
But when he saw it was her, he smiled and his shoulders relaxed. “Damn.” He spoke just as softly as she had. “I’m not used to people sneaking up on me. No one gets the jump on me. Is something wrong? Did you need something?”
“Um, yes. I do need something.”
Gathering her courage, she moved towards him and without another word she straddled his lap and pressed her body against his. She snaked her arms around his neck and stared at him for a brief moment before she pressed her lips to his.
At first he remained still and didn’t kiss her back. She was just starting to think that this dive was a belly flop when a low moan rumbled in his chest and his hands took hold of her hips as his mouth took control of the kiss. Since he was on board, she didn’t hold back. Parting her lips she drove her tongue into his mouth and kissed him with all the pent-up passion that had been building in her since this morning…or maybe it had been building since the first night they’d spent together.
Either way, she wanted him to know everything that she was feeling, all the arousal, all the heat. She wanted him to know how much he meant to her, not just physically, but how attached to him she’d grown over the time she’d been here. How with every day that she spent with him she felt herself falling just a little bit more in love.
Even when he’d been all business, she couldn’t help herself from falling deeper. She loved how honest he was. How trustworthy. How funny he was in the oddest moments. How he treated Capone like his baby. How talented he was. How smart he was. He’d displayed all of those traits without trying, just in the little things he did and her feelings were growing each day, each hour, each minute, each second she spent with him.
She didn’t have the vocabulary to explain it in words, but she wanted to show him with her body. She wanted her lips, her fingers and her skin against his to express everything that she hadn’t figured out a way to express yet with language.
Her hands roamed up and down his back, her fingers exploring the lines and contours of the muscled planes of his shoulders. He groaned low in his throat as she rolled her hips against him in desperate need for release. Through his shorts, she felt him hardening and growing larger. Knowing that she affected him like that was almost as much of a turn on as his kiss. It amazed her that she had any affect at all over a guy as worldly and experienced as Dax. It made her feel like the woman she wanted to be. It made her feel empowered, feminine and sexy. She’d never felt that before, and she liked it. She liked it a lot.
Suddenly, though, he pulled back, taking her completely by surprise. There were a lot of things she might have expected him to do in that moment. Yanking himself away from her was not one of them.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered, her voice still low even though it now held confusion and anguish.
“You said that you wanted to kiss and do other things you haven’t done before.” The gravelly quality in his voice sent a shiver through her.
“Yeah?” They’d been over this already, she wasn’t sure why he felt the need to bring it up now.