Loving Gigi (26 page)

S
ome moments in
life are experienced and quickly forgotten. Others are etched on a person’s soul, and they are forever changed because of them. Regardless of what Kane would show her on the island, he had broken past her defenses and left her both vulnerable and indescribably stronger.

Love.

She’d thought she understood it. She’d been sure she’d felt it—even recently for Kane. But she realized then what she’d called love had been merely the beginning of something much, much more beautiful.

Every sappy movie she’d ever watched suddenly made sense. What she felt for Kane was so intense; she doubted it could be contained in one lifetime. Looking deeply into his eyes she suddenly felt truly free for the first time since her father’s death.

Free from the anger she’d tried and failed so many times to put behind her.

Free from insecurities she’d denied, but had succumbed to again and again in moments of weakness.

Kane saw her, really saw her, and accepted what she considered her greatest flaws. She didn’t know how she’d ever thank him for that, but she knew she’d spend the rest of her life trying to.

The helicopter landed on the lawn of the home Kane had said was hers. Kane helped Gigi and Annelise out then walked with both of them to the steps of the mansion.

Annelise looked around and said, “I’ll wait out here.”

Kane encouraged her to join them but Annelise waved a hand toward the house and laughed. “I have a feeling that whatever you’re about to show her is going to end with a kiss, that I’m completely okay with missing. I will say, though, that if you two don’t get married, I am giving up on love.”

Gigi closed the distance between her and her best friend and gave her a bone-crushing, grateful hug. “Don’t wait out here. Come inside with us.”

Annelise hugged her back tightly and whispered, “I have my cell phone. I’m sure this island has a cab service. I’m actually excited to do a little sightseeing.”

Gigi pulled back and studied Annelise’s expression. “You’re sure?”

Annelise looked over at Kane and said, “If our roles were reversed, I’d ditch you in a heartbeat. I’m fine. I don’t want to miss a moment of his proposal tomorrow, but you and Kane need a little alone time. I’m fine. Now go. Get outta here.”

Gigi stopped before walking away. “Ask for Waffle.”

“For what?”

“Not what. Who. When you call for a cab, ask for the driver named Waffle.”

Annelise looked at Gigi as if waiting for the punch line. “Seriously?”

Gigi smiled. Just as Kane had brought a calm to her by loving her despite her flaws, Gigi could imagine Waffle loving a woman the same way. She didn’t know if Annelise could be that woman, but what she’d learned over the past few months was that you can’t know unless you take a chance. Gigi couldn’t imagine how she would feel had she not allowed Kane to take her home to meet her brothers.

It was impossible to know which leaps of faith would pay off and which would end in disappointment, but Gigi decided she would never again let that hold her back. Life was a whole hell of a lot better when not hiding from it. “And if he offers you a slice of pie, taste it.”

“You know I don’t eat—”

Gigi cut her off and gave her one more quick hug. “Do it this time. Trust me.”

After Annelise shrugged and searched her phone for the number, Gigi turned back to Kane. He was waiting patiently for her with a grin on his face.

“Ready?” he asked.

She placed her hand in his and walked up the steps of the large stone mansion with him. It wasn’t as large as Gio and Julia’s home, but it was impressive by anyone’s standards. He typed in a code on the security system and opened the door.

Instead of following him inside, Gigi tugged on his hand until he turned to face her. “You don’t have to wait until tomorrow to hear my answer. I’ll marry you, Kane.”

His smile widened, and he kissed the tip of her nose. “That is not how this works. I went to a great deal of trouble to make sure everything is perfect. You will follow me inside, be suitably shocked, hopefully decadently grateful, and then we’ll come back here tomorrow and do this all over again with your family here. Except the X-rated part. We’ll save that for after they leave.”

Gigi loved the laughter in his eyes and the way he demanded she go exactly where they both knew she wanted to. “You’re rather bossy today.”

“Is that a complaint?” he growled softly and pulled her into his arms, nuzzling her neck.

“Oh, no,” Gigi said and went onto her tiptoes to deliver the kiss she’d been yearning to give but had held back from out of respect for Annelise. “But it makes me want to skip right to the good part.”

He was instantly hard, and she wasn’t joking.

He shuddered against her. “I’m trying to do this the right way.”

“Who is to say this isn’t it?” His lack of control around her was a powerful aphrodisiac. Gigi ran her hands up and down his chest, loving how she could feel his heart thudding wildly. Their clothing was an almost painful barrier between them. Gigi wanted to feel his hands on her bare skin. Her hands on his. She pulled his shirt out of his trousers and slid her hands up his taut stomach.

From the driveway, Annelise called out, “I’m taking my bag with me. I’ll spend the night in town. You two lovebirds don’t need to worry about me.”

Gigi would have answered her, but Kane swept her up in his arms, stepped through the door, and kicked it shut behind him. The foyer was enormous, but that was all that registered. All that existed for Gigi was Kane. His kiss. His strong touch. They stripped each other without breaking the kiss.

Every caress was better than the last. Each dance of their tongues was sheer heaven. Theirs was a heated, loving mating that rose in tempo like a rhapsody until they were completely lost in the touch and taste of each other. He took her against the wall, thrusting into her as she wrapped herself around him. She cried out as wave after wave of pleasure rocked through her, and he came with one final deep lunge. As they slowly came back to earth, they stayed there, no separation of him or her, just a gloriously sated . . . them.

He finally lowered her back onto her feet, kissing her deeply as he did. “You’re dangerous, Gigi.”

Gigi smiled, laid her head against his chest, and wrapped her arms around him. Their lovemaking was incredible, but this, just the feeling of him all around her, was another pleasure she knew she’d never get enough of. “And you’re amazing. At least we made it inside the door.”

She felt rather than heard his chuckle. “Barely.”

“We should probably put our clothes back on. Knowing your family, someone is bound to come by to start setting up for tomorrow.”

“That would be as bad as what Julia almost caught me doing in the closet on the night of my welcome home party.”

Kane raised his head and his eyes burned with an emotion that took Gigi by surprise. He was jealous. “Who were you in a closet with that night?”

Gigi rubbed her naked body against his in an all-over caress. Even though she loved how possessive he was, she didn’t want him to imagine what had never and would never happen. “Only myself. I ran into the closet because I needed a moment alone to think, but after what we had shared on the terrace, I was so frustrated I considered taking matters into my own hands, so to speak.” She tipped her head back and grinned. “I’m glad I didn’t. Julia came in to check on me. It would have made for a very awkward sister-in-law moment.”

A slow sexy smile spread across Kane’s face. “So you have a closet fetish?”

Gigi laughed, feeling lighthearted and sexy. “No, but if it’s the only way to be alone, it works. Here we’d have the whole house.”

Kane bent and pulled his cell phone out of his pants pocket. His rippling muscular back and perfectly toned ass were a joy to watch in motion. “I told Rocco to follow us. I’ll tell him to stand guard.”

Gigi blushed. “He’ll know what we’re doing.”

Kane briefly gave instructions to Gigi’s bodyguard then threw his phone onto the pile of his clothing near the door. “How we feel about each other isn’t exactly a secret.”

Gigi thought of how they’d almost not made it inside the house, and her blush deepened. “You’re right, I guess.”

Kane pulled her gently into his arms, encircling her waist and bringing her full against the evidence of his arousal. “I want you again, Gigi. Right now. But I can wait. What do you want to do?”

There it was, the acceptance that gave Gigi the confidence to drop her inhibitions and be herself. She threw her arms back around him and between kisses said, “Let’s christen every room in this damn house.”

Kane’s eyebrows rose. “A house this big could have quite a few.”

Gigi fluttered her eyelashes at him and gave his cheek a playfully sympathetic pat. “Oh, and at your age, that’s a problem?”

“At my age?” Kane’s smile widened at her challenge. “I’ll show you what someone my age is capable of.” He picked her up and carried her to the first room off the foyer.

*     *     *

Two hours later,
Kane lay beside Gigi in one of the few beds in the mostly unfurnished home. She was cuddled against him beneath a bed sheet. “We didn’t get past the third room.”

Completely disheveled and glowing from their lovemaking, Gigi kissed his shoulder and murmured, “One more orgasm and I’m going to drown in a pool of my own drool.”

He closed his eyes, enjoying how at peace he felt with the universe. “But what a way to go.”

The sound of a helicopter flying over the house broke their comfortable silence. Gigi didn’t raise her head. “Do you think that’s my family arriving?”

Kane groan without opening his eyes. “Probably.”

“Poor Rocco.”

Kane hugged Gigi even more closely against his side. “We can shower and dress quickly if you want.”

Gigi shook her head. “All I want to do is to stay like this for as long as we can. Then I’d like to go downstairs and see what you brought me here to show me.”

What I brought her . . .

“Shit. Gigi. I can’t believe I completely forgot about that.” He’d never felt like more of an ass. “What happens to my brain when I’m around you?”

Gigi traced his lips with a gentle finger. “I don’t know, Kane; I’ve been the same since the first time I met you.”

Kane took her hand in his and brought her wrist to his mouth for a kiss. “I do have something very important to show you.” He yawned.

Gigi closed her eyes and her breathing deepened as she fell asleep against him. He held her for a long time, savoring the feeling of her beside him. Voices outside the house kept him from joining her in slumber. At first it was just a couple, then more until it sounded as if a crowd were gathering outside on the lawn.

Kane slipped downstairs to retrieve his clothing. He sent a text to Rocco and his pilot to have their bags brought inside. Once everything was set, he woke Gigi with a warm kiss and dragged her out of bed and into the shower with him.

A short time later, presentably dressed, they walked hand in hand down to the foyer. Gigi wore minimal makeup, but her cheeks still glowed from their lovemaking, and she’d never looked more beautiful.

He led her to the doorway of a sparsely furnished sitting room and covered her eyes with one of his hands while guiding her forward with his other. “In Edinburgh you asked me for my help with something.”

Gigi pulled at his hand and protested. “Kane, it doesn’t matter.”

He kept his hand over her eyes and continued to firmly guide her until she was standing before a large painting on the wall. “Yes, it does.” He lowered his hand.

Gigi gasped. “You convinced the collector to sell it? He told me he wouldn’t even consider it. Oh my God, Kane, my mother will be so happy. You don’t know what this means to me.” She turned back to him with eyes that were bright with tears.

He took both of her hands in his. “Don’t you dare cry because then I won’t tell you that every single item on the list you gave me is sitting in a warehouse near Venice. I thought this painting would be the perfect way for you to tell your mother that her palazzo will be complete again.”

Tears ran freely down Gigi’s cheeks. She threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. “I didn’t think I could love you more, but I was wrong. I don’t know how to begin to thank you.”

Kane put a finger beneath her chin and raised her face to meet his. “Tomorrow when I ask you to marry me, say yes.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to ask me now?”

A younger Kane would have, but loving Gigi had also taught him patience. “Leora will be here tomorrow. When I first met your mother she asked me for two things. Both felt impossible, but now I see they aren’t. They never were.”

Gigi cocked her head in confusion. “Did my mother ask you to marry me?”

Kane shook his head. “No. She asked me to bring Gigi to her brothers and Gigia home to her. I didn’t understand her request or you much at the time, but now I do. When I asked your brothers if they would be okay with Leora being here, they said they welcomed her into their family years ago because she is part of you. I can’t begin to try to unravel what happened between Patrice and her sons, or your mother and your father, but I know it affected you. My first impression of you at your brothers’ weddings was when I overheard you speaking to the staff in Italian. I glimpsed Gigia that day. You’ve given me your heart and your body, but I’m greedy. I want it all. When you agree to marry me tomorrow, I don’t want just Gigi. I want that strong, passionate Venetian I know is inside you.”

Gigi went up on her tiptoes and rained kisses on his face while saying something passionately in Italian. Kane didn’t understand a word of it, but it didn’t require translation.

Kane’s cell phone beeped with a text message. He paraphrased the message for Gigi. “Rocco said the cleaning staff has also arrived, and people are starting to get antsy. He’s not sure how long he can hold them off. He suggested we either come out and greet everyone or sneak out the back door. I’ll do whatever you’re comfortable with.”

Gigi squared her shoulders and gave him one final light kiss on the lips. “I don’t care what anyone thinks, and I’m never going to hide again. Let’s go greet the family.”