Chapter 28: Chapter 28

Gio

Gio waited, but Bianca said nothing more. She just stared at him in that same way she’d been doing since they left the cabin that morning. Those eyes owned him now—completely. It was almost painful to look into them now and know she belonged to someone else. That she was his for just a few stolen moments and tomorrow she’d be back in Felix’s arms . . . his bed.

He hugged her, squeezing his eyes shut, not wanting to be looking into those eyes when he asked her, “What’ve you been dreaming, Bianca?”

Did he really want to know? He realized only moments ago when he found himself getting carried away that as much as he wanted to take her and do all the things he’d been fantasizing about on a daily basis, now he couldn’t—shouldn’t. Not just because she was Felix’s girl but because what was happening was exactly what he’d been afraid of.

Kissing her today had been a leap of faith. One he’d hoped would get her out of his system. Instead, it’d backfired on him. His need for her now had magnified in a way he hadn’t expected. Making love to her would only make that a million times worse. If she told him now that that’s what she wanted, he couldn’t even begin to imagine rejecting the idea—but he had to.

“Bad things,” she finally whispered. “This isn’t like me. I swear to you. That’s why it’s so hard for me to understand why this is happening.”

Earlier he would’ve looked at her, watched her, as she gave him any further details of her dreams, but now he couldn’t. It was hard enough just listen to her.

“What kind of bad things?” He gulped, now afraid of what her answer might be.

“The kind of bad things that have me waking up with my heart pounding and breathless but very content.”

Gio froze, and he could feel Bianca do the same. One thing he loved about her so much was how easily she put things out there. Only now he was wishing she’d have been just a tiny bit vaguer. He was having visions of the kinds of things he could do to her to leave her heart pounding and breathless. Although today he’d had a heavy dose of her breathlessness and felt her heart pound straight into his several times like now.

She still didn’t move, but she began to speak again. “In my dreams—”

“Don’t.” He had to stop her before she went on. “I don’t think I can take it.” He backed up, taking in the delicate features of her sweet face—he was in love with every one of them now. He forced a smile. It took everything in him to let it go—not stay there and listen to her tell him what he’d done to her in her dreams. “Let’s go check out that meadow.” He pulled out her scarf from where it was half pushed into his jacket pocket and placed it gently around her neck then kissed her one last time before taking her hand and walking her out of the cave.

For the rest of the day, she was his. They walked the trails hand in hand and played around in the snow when they got to the meadow. They each made a snowman, and, since she obviously was more experienced at this than him, hers was much better than his half-assed crooked excuse of a snowman. Of course, she laughed at it openly.

They then decided they would take their own snowmen down with snowball bombs. Being the gentleman that he was, Gio let her go first. Her first bomb was a direct hit that took his snowman’s head right off. Her jaw dropped, and in the next second, she was laughing uncontrollably. “I didn’t mean to do that,” she squealed as she took off when she saw him give chase.

“What do you mean you didn’t mean to? You aimed right at his head!”

She laughed even more as he caught up to her, quickly pushing her down on the soft hill of powder she was going to try to climb. She flipped around still laughing and out of breath. “I’m sorry!”

Gio couldn’t stand it. He loved everything about her. Her laugh—her smile—the way she made him so impossibly happy by doing nothing more than laughing. Nothing else seemed to matter as long as he was around her. Lying there in the snow next to her, looking in her eyes, was pure heaven. His eyes on hers calmed her laughter, but she still smiled big. She lifted her hand and touched his hair.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, staring at her. “I mean that.” He lifted himself to rest his weight on his elbow. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve had my share of beautiful women.” The flicker in her eye told him maybe his dumb ass should be careful with his wording. “I mean I’m not just talking about looks, Bianca. There is something so special, so beautiful about you. I hope you know that.”

He bit his tongue before telling her that he didn’t think Felix worthy of her. Hell, Gio probably wasn’t either, but at least he wouldn’t take her for granted. He knew a good thing when he saw it, and Bianca was as good as it got.

Bianca sat up, making him sit up with her. “I don’t think there is anything special about me. And I’m not saying that to fish anymore compliments out of you. What you’ve said is enough. Thank you.” She glanced out into the open meadow. It was as amazing as she had described it. Even as Gio glanced around at the huge snow-covered pine trees that surrounded it so perfectly, he suspected it wouldn’t be quite as amazing if she weren’t there with him. “It’s just hard to feel special when I’ve spent one of the most wonderful days of my life, kissing my boyfriend’s best friend.” She turned to caress his face. “I should be missing him, you know? I did before you came along. I haven’t thought about him even once today. What I’m feeling for you, Gio . . . ” She shook her head. “It’s scaring me.”

“Noah’s my best friend,” Gio said, as if that bit of information made the situation any better.

He should be happy about what she’d just admitted, but how could he be? If she were with anybody else, Gio would already be doing—saying—anything and whatever it took to convince her to leave the guy. The way he was feeling right now begging would be the obvious and easiest next step. He’d never begged a girl or anyone for anything in his life, but if he thought it could make things different, he’d gladly be on his knees already.

The problem was it wouldn’t change things. Her boyfriend was Gio’s longtime friend, and just like all his other friends, loyalty might as well be Felix’s middle name. He just couldn’t do that to him. The only thing Gio could hope for now is when he finally got a moment alone with Felix that he could get the truth out of him about his loyalty to Bianca—the only place where ironically it appeared to be lacking.

“Felix is still your friend from way back, and he speaks very fondly of you.”

Gio frowned. He didn’t need to hear this right now. He stood up, frowning even more when he realized his ass was soaked. Jeans and snow—not the smartest combination. He held his hand out for Bianca, and she took it, standing as he pulled her up.

“Ugh! My butt’s all wet,” she said, turning and giving him a glimpse of that perfectly round behind.

“Yeah, mine too,” he said, trying not to be too obvious about enjoying the view.

Bianca giggled. “We better get out of here before we literally start freezing our butts off.”

Halfway back to the car, Gio pulled her aside and into his arms. He needed to alleviate the ache he was already feeling from just the thought that their time alone was almost over. This was going to be torture.

He kissed her so desperately he hoped it didn’t freak her out, but he couldn’t help himself. “I wish . . .” he started to say between kisses but stopped to kiss her again.

“Me too,” she whispered against his lips, sounding just as desperate. She took his hand and placed it inside her jacket against her chest. Her heart pounded as wildly as his did. “That’s not just excitement, Gio. It’s fear that this feeling is only gonna get worse.” He stared in her eyes, suddenly seeing the fear—the very fear he was beginning to feel himself. “What’s happening?” she whispered. “I’ve never felt this way.”

“Me either,” he said quickly.

“We can leave again tomorrow. He won’t be back until tomorrow night.”

He leaned his forehead against hers. “Yeah, let’s do that.” That did ease the ache a little, but Felix would be back tomorrow night, and spending the day with Bianca had epically failed in getting her out of his system. In fact, his feelings for her now were at a level he didn’t even know existed in him. What the fuck was he going to do?