Uncontrollably, I scowled at her. Something about that sounded wrong.
Her smile grew. "I liked Levi, too. He was cool."
Oh, hell no.
Pointing at her I said, "Don't think you're out of trouble when it comes to him."
Wearing a slightly astonished expression on her beautiful face, she said, "What are you talking about? I thought he was fun."
Giving her an unhappy look, I chugged the last of my beer and slammed it down on the dresser. Pulling off my shirt, I told her, "Take off your clothes."
Smiling, she slowly began to undress. I was naked by the time she had her skirt and top off. Hooking two fingers into the waistband of her panties, I pulled her towards me. She squealed in surprise, but when I checked between her legs, she was wet for me.
I practically ripped off her panties and bra in my attempt to get at the good stuff. I jammed two fingers in her and took one nipple into my mouth. Biting down lightly, I savored her whimper and her arousal.
Fingering her, I brought my head up to say in her ear, "I better not ever see you let a guy touch you like that again."
"He only pulled me onto his lap," she responded breathlessly.
"You're mine, Gianna. No one touches you but me." I kissed her possessively while driving my fingers deep to drive the point home. She came around my fingers, moaning her pleasure against my lips. Pulling my fingers out, I got in position and thrusted between her splayed legs.
"We were only having fun," Gianna gasped.
Pressing my forehead against hers, I demanded, "Say you're mine, Gianna."
With her hands in my hair, she kissed me, stroking my tongue with hers sweetly. "I'm yours Caleb . . . for as long as we like each other."
Finding heaven being with her like this, I didn’t care about anything but that moment. "You love me, Gianna."
She closed her eyes, shaking her head. "I'm not allowed to."
Moving faster, wanting to make her as mindless as me, I rubbed her clit with my thumb. "Say it, Gianna."
"No, you don't love me back." Gripping my shoulders, she was close to another climax. "Caleb!"
"Say it, baby. Let me hear it on your sweet lips as I’m inside you."
Her hair wild on the pillow, her face showing her pleasure, she came. "I love you, Caleb!"
Her grip on me tightened. I shut my eyes at the sensation, opening them to see her eyes half-closed as gazed up at me. "That's my girl."
After coming, I fell forward, elbows on either side of her to keep from crushing her. Moving my lips from one flushed cheek to the other, I smoothed her hair back from her forehead. "Don't worry. I won't ever want anyone else. It's you and me forever, Gianna."
She wrapped shaky arms around my neck, turning her face into my neck. "I love you, Caleb. I know you love me, too."
"Go to sleep, princess." Dropping to her left side, I dragged the blanket over us. With her head on my chest, she went to sleep.
Running fingers lightly up and down her back, feeling a deep sense of peace, I dozed off.
Asleep only a couple hours, I woke up needing to use the restroom. I decided to take a quick shower. Under the spray, I thought back on our crazy night. It started rough but had ended spectacularly.
Walking out of the bathroom, I ran my eyes over the sexy girl in bed. Going over to the dresser, I grabbed my phone. It was past one in the morning and I’d had the ringer off all night. Dante had left a message just after midnight that I quickly returned. I ignored the messages from chicks. That was a message in itself.
There was a text message from Julie that said, "You need to call me ASAP!"
Uptight bitch.
My first instinct was to ignore it, but I decided it was better to know what she was up to. Not wanting to wake up Gianna, I pulled on some jeans, grabbed a room key and stepped into the hallway.
I called Julie, wondering if she'd even answer this late. She did so on the third ring.
Without saying hello, she immediately snapped in a hate-filled tone, "You need to bring my daughter home."
Like I hadn’t been expecting that one.
"I'll have to disagree."
"Are you screwing her?" she asked angrily. What happened to the 50s housewife throwback? Her potty mouth was going to ruin the perfect image she tried so hard to project.
"That's none of your business," I told her, not able to help myself from adding, “And very crude, Julie.”
"I swear, if you get her pregnant. . . ." she trailed off, probably imagining a screaming miniature version of me. It’d be a damn handsome baby boy.
"If I got her pregnant, you’d be the youngest grandma in the neighborhood," I taunted her. Still only thirty-three, Julie was already young to be the mother of an eleventh grader.
"I've already talked to her father about her running away. When she returns, I'm sending her to live with him in Houston," she informed me smugly.
Her words jolted me out of my cocky attitude. "You can't do that!" I practically shouted in my panic.
"I can do whatever I want. She's a minor and I'm her mother."
"But she'll have to leave her entire life behind." I almost blurted out she'd have to leave me behind. I couldn’t lose her and what we had. I’d never been so freaking happy in my life. Plus, she’s hate leaving Denver and her crew. Before I came along they were her life, everything that was important to her.
"Bring her back tomorrow and I'll let her stay in Denver," Julie offered, probably reluctant of giving Gianna up to Houston herself. It’d be hard to control Gianna from so far away.
"And you'll leave us alone?" I asked cautiously.
"No, that's not part of the deal. You bring her back and break up with her, or I’ll ship her off to Houston and far away from your influence."
"You're a real bitch, Julie."
"No, I'm a mother who wants the best for her daughter. I have plans for her life which don't include her ending up with some loser delinquent."
I banged my head against the wall. "I hate you."
Sounding uncaring, she said, "Either way it’s your choice, Caleb. You have until tomorrow night to get my daughter home and end it with her, or I ship her off to her father."
I hung up on her venom and would’ve punched the wall, but I knew the hotel had cameras in the hallways. My hand trembling, I slipped the key card through the slot to let me back into the room.
Too hyped up and upset to go back to sleep, I stood at the end of the bed staring down at Gianna. She was curled up in sleep, blissfully unaware of her mom’s latest threats. If I told Julie to shove it, she'd send Gianna to Houston. I could always try talking my parents into letting me follow her, but what if Julie sent her somewhere else where I couldn’t get to her?
If she got Gianna’s dad and his money on her side, they could decide to send her to boarding school in England, or some crazy shit like that. In addition to leaving me, she'd be ripped away from the friends who were so important to her. I didn't know how she'd handle losing that support system if she lost them.
I pictured some preppy British prick hitting on her with his pretentious accent and ran a hand over my face to keep from losing my shit. Not that some cowboy with a Texan accent doing it would be any better.
At least in Denver she’d still be near. I’d be able to watch her from afar. Christ, that sounded lame. If I broke up with her, then I’d lose her and she’d lose me, but she'd still have her friends. In Houston she’d be starting completely over.
The selfish thing to do would be to call Julie’s bluff, try to hold on to her. But at what cost to Gianna? She'd possibly lose everything and we’d be separated anyway.
The unselfish thing would be to let her go. She’d lose nothing except what we had.
In this moment, I knew without a doubt that I loved her because I could feel my heart being ripped apart in my chest.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“You know it’s love when all you want is that person to be happy,
even if you’re not part
of their happiness.”
-Julia Roberts
GIANNA
I woke up in our Las Vegas hotel to a slight headache and a serious looking Caleb. He was propped up on his elbow in bed next to me, staring down at me.
The boy wouldn't admit he loved me, but he watched me sleep? If that didn't scream I love you then I didn’t know what did. Okay, well maybe the actual words would be more effective.
He'd come around. I had all the time in the world to wait for him to vocalize his feelings.
I gazed at him silently in return, adding a small smile. Then I noticed the bags under his eyes and the weariness on his face. Reaching up, I touched his cheek. He hadn’t shaved since yesterday morning and his stubble was rough under my hand. I liked it.
"What's the matter, Caleb? Didn't you sleep?"
"I couldn't." The defeated look in his eyes was weird. We’d made up last night, so it couldn’t be that.
I tried to lighten his mood. "Well, I slept like a baby. You wore me out, stud."
It didn’t work. Still silent, he leaned down and surprised me with how passionately he kissed me. My eyes went wide in shock, only to see an uncharacteristic intensity in his. I wrapped my arms behind his neck and welcomed the unexpected intimacy.
I loved him so much. I was lost in the feel of his hands roaming my body. Touching more than just the outside, I felt like he was stroking the inside of me as well, my heart and soul.
For the first time, Caleb made love to me.
His face turned away from me, I was sure he’d gotten tears in his eyes, too.
Afterwards, holding me in his arms, his face pressed into my neck, I basked in the afterglow. I tried moving my head to the side to look at him, but he jumped up off the bed and disappeared into bathroom, still not saying a word.
Okay. What the hell was going on with him?
He came out fifteen minutes later, showered and changed. I laid there in bed, feeling unsure about what was going on in his head, when he finally said, "Get ready. We're going home."
With that, he grabbed the room key off the nightstand and left the hotel room.
Okay. What the hell was going on?
CALEB
I had to get away from her. Even looking at her was painful. Each of her smiles clawed at my heart. I tried telling myself we were going home because it was time, but I knew the truth. I was being forced to let her go.
Unless I could think of some way to hold onto her it would be the end of us. I needed a plan that didn't involving poisoning her mother. Prison would separate us more permanently. I loved Gianna so freaking much that the feeling of being apart from her for any period of time had me panicking.
I sat down with a bottle of water in an armchair in the hotel lobby, obsessing over the situation. An idea came to me. Julie could just think we’d broken up. We’d snuck around behind Julie’s back before. She’d been completely ignorant before Josh opened his big trap. Now we'd simply have to be even sneakier. I tossed the empty bottle into a trashcan and rushed back up to the hotel room, feeling much better about the situation.
GIANNA
Hair wet from a shower, I was pulling a shirt over my head when Caleb came back in a much better mood. He pounced on me, dragging me into his arms and swinging me around.
"Did someone just take their antidepressants?" I teased him.
He threw his head back and laughed. "Something like that."
His kiss was infused with happiness. I welcomed it as much as the passionate, intense kisses from earlier. Gathering our things, we took the elevator down to check out. I sensed our Vegas trip had brought us closer, but I wouldn’t miss the smoky smell in all the casinos.
Thirty minutes later, we were on the highway out of Sin City. We stopped an hour or so outside of Vegas in Mesquite, Nevada to eat a late breakfast at a diner. Caleb explained he was eager to get home so he wanted to drive the whole way today, getting us home sometime tonight.
We kept our stops to a minimum in order to make good time. A few hours outside of Denver, just over the Colorado border, it was early evening when we stopped at a fast food restaurant to use the restroom and grab some food. I told Caleb what I wanted to eat and went to the women's restroom while he ordered for us.
When I came out, his mood had changed again.
CALEB
Three hours away from Denver, we stopped at a fast food restaurant to eat. While Gianna was using the restroom, I got a text message from Julie.
Julie: Don't think to trick me, Caleb. I know your kind. My daughter better be on her way home. Call me.
I could tell Gianna was confused by my sour mood, but how did I explain? I’d been planning on breaking it all down to her before we reached home. I’d been sure she’d agree sneaking around was the best plan in dealing with Julie. In less than two years we’d been eighteen and could tell her mom to go to hell. Besides, I’d have thought of something else before then.
Now, I wasn’t so sure.
When Gianna started eating her chicken strips, I went outside to make the call. My appetite was gone. Julie answered on the second ring. "Where are you?"
"Hello to you, too, mommy dearest," I said sarcastically.
"Not for long." The distaste was evident in her voice.
I didn’t want to be infected with her poison. The crap she was putting us all through, Gianna, me and my dad, was unbelievable. Not to mention what Gianna’s little brother was experiencing being alone in that house with her. All for her screwed up vision of the perfect life she wanted for her daughter.
"We're three hours away."
"What have you told her?" she asked suspiciously.
"Nothing yet," I snapped at her.
"Keep it that way for now," she paused, "And don't think to try and fool me, Caleb. You won't be able to deceive me. Trying to sneak behind my back to see her won't work. Trust me, I'll use whoever I have to in order to find out. Her friends, the administration at the school, the mailman, a private detective. Whatever it takes."
"Okay psycho, you don't have to convince me."
There went that plan.
She ignored my name calling and continued, "When you arrive at the house, come inside with her. Follow my lead and don't deny anything I say."
"What are you planning?" I asked warily. Crazy ass bitch was capable of anything.
She sounded smug as she said vaguely, "Just making sure there are no loose ends." Her voice turned hard with her next words, "Don't doubt I'm sincere, Caleb. I'll send Gianna away from her family in order to secure her future. A future that does not include a loser delinquent like you."
"Screw you, Julie!"
"No more than four hours, Caleb. I'll be expecting you both."
She hung up before I could get out the rest of what I had to say to her.
GIANNA
Eating my food, I could see Caleb through the large restaurant windows, standing in the parking lot and talking on his cell phone. He appeared to be arguing with someone. I figured it was his mom or dad. They had to be pissed we’d taken off like that. I watched as he ended the call, looking like he wanted to throw his phone across the parking lot. He stalked back inside but didn't touch his food.
"Aren't you hungry?" I pointed to his hamburger and fries.
His only answer was to start eating. I finished the last of my fries and stood up with my trash. He didn’t utter a peep as I walked out of the restaurant. I wasn’t sure he even looked up from his meal. Leaning against his car, I waited for him to join me.
He exited the place a minute later, unlocking my side first then walking around the car to get behind the wheel. Once we were back on the highway, I exploded. "What the hell is your problem, Caleb?"
"I don't have a problem," he responded calmly, but I could his see his knuckles turn white from his death grip on the steering wheel.
"If you say so," I said sarcastically. Turning up the stereo, I watched the scenery out the window for the next hour. Western Colorado desert transformed into lush gree
n mountain scenery. While passing over the Rockies, I must’ve fallen asleep because I woke up to him nudging me in the shoulder.
"We're almost there," he explained in a tense voice.
I blinked open my eyes to see the lights of the city in the distance come into focus.
Back in Denver.
Back to reality.
We were on the I-70 descent down the mountain and into the outlying suburbs.
Thirty short minutes later we were on the freeway and exiting into Broomfield. I felt extremely nervous about facing my mom. But with Caleb by my side, I’d find the strength. My mom would never be able to tear us apart. I loved Caleb and even though he hadn't said the words aloud, I knew he loved me, too.
Glancing over at Caleb, I saw he was still in a bad mood. He was probably just worried or stressed about dealing with my mom. It sucked to be the one with the crazy parent. His dad, Scott, was so cool about us, even though it was breaking up his marriage. Hopefully he'd be happier away from my mom, like my dad was.
CALEB
The closer we got to Gianna's house, the tighter my chest felt. I had to think of something.
Fast.
Nothing came to me. It didn’t help that I was spazzing out inside. I didn't doubt Julie's words. She was crazy enough to send her daughter to Siberia to get her away from me. As adorable as Gianna would be all bundled up like an Eskimo, I didn’t relish the thought of seeing it on Skype.
I glanced over at Gianna and although she seemed agitated, she managed to give me a quick smile. Maybe we could just keep driving through Denver, all the way to the East coast. If we weren't so young, it might’ve worked. Unfortunately, two teenagers on their own wouldn’t fare well. A psychotic mother looking for them would only hurt their chances. I could just imagine Julie’s heartfelt pleas to the media, desperate to find her missing daughter. She’d probably find a way to get me thrown me into prison
I didn't want all that insanity for Gianna.
Plus, my money would only last so long, only go so far. What would we do after that? Get jobs at McDonald's? Maybe Julie was right and Gianna did deserve better than me.