by Tina Martin
“Can you?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
Ramsey smiled, satisfied with her answer.
Out of nowhere, she said, “We’re complete opposites.”
“I realize that.”
“Is that what initially attracted you to me?”
“No. I told you what initially attracted me to you.”
“Yes, the heart thing, but—”
“No buts. That was it.”
“Being that we’re opposites, Ramsey, you don’t foresee that being a compatibility issue?”
“No. I don’t.”
“How can you not?”
“Give me a scenario where it would be a problem.”
“Um…” Gianna chewed on her bottom lip.
He looked at her as she did so. Everything in him wanted to jump across the table and suck that lip into his mouth.
“You don’t think that would be an issue?”
“Huh?” he asked. Had she said something?
“You didn’t hear what I just said?” she asked him.
“No. I was so busy daydreaming about how I wanted to suck your bottom lip into my mouth.”
Gianna’s face flushed.
The chef came outside on the balcony with two plates of spaghetti.
Gianna smiled, recognizing they were having a similar dinner to the meal she’d ordered on their first date at Luce. Before the chef walked away, he popped the top off of the bottle of champagne, poured some in their flutes and headed back inside.
“See, that’s a prime example of what I’m talking about,” Gianna said. “I couldn’t just blurt out how I was daydreaming about sucking your lips, but you tell me stuff like that and it’s not a problem.”
“Okay, run the scenario by me again.”
“Alright. Let’s say you wanted to do something outrageous that I would be opposed to. Like skydiving, for instance.”
Ramsey chuckled. “Regal told you about the skydiving, huh?”
“He did. My question is, would you be upset with me if I didn’t want to do it?”
“No, and I would never force you to do something you didn’t want to do. I’d just use my power of persuasion to coax you into doing things.”
Gianna playfully narrowed her eyes at him. “Goodness. You’re going to be so much trouble.”
“You’re just now realizing that, sweetheart?”
She giggled.
“On a more serious note, I only have another week off of work.”
“Okay.”
“I want to be there with you for Gemma’s consultation and Carson has already booked a suite for us. We’ll fly out Tuesday morning. The consultation is Wednesday.”
Gianna didn’t say anything. But her chewing slowed as she thought about how much he was willing to invest in this relationship for her sake.
“Talk to me,” he said when he could tell she’d been busy cramming thoughts in her mind.
“I was just thinking about how much you’re doing for me. I could never repay you, Ramsey.”
“Gianna, I haven’t felt this much excitement, this much longing, this much of anything in my heart for a long time. You’ve already repaid me, baby. Now, I want to know how you’d feel about me going back to work in a week’s time.”
“I think you will need to and it will be good because I’m at work during the day anyway and—”
“That’s another thing. I don’t want you working long hours anymore.”
Gianna grimaced. “It’s my job, Ramsey.”
“I realize that. I also realize you get there around seven in the morning and you don’t leave until around seven in the evening. I don’t like that.”
“But—”
“No buts. It’s too much for you.”
She frowned. “Are you serious?”
“Yes. I am. What’s makes you think I’m not?”
“Don’t know. I just didn’t expect you to be controlling.”
“Controlling? I’m trying to look out for your well being and you call that controlling?”
“Yes. You can be my husband, fine, but you don’t have to tell me how to live and run my own business.”
Ramsey lowered his fork to his plate of half-eaten spaghetti. “I’m not telling you how to live, Gianna.”
“That’s what it feels like.”
“Of course it would feel that way to you because you don’t know how it feels to be taken care of. You don’t know how to accept my generosity. I get it. You’ve worked your whole life, through blood, sweat and tears, taking care of your sister when that is not your responsibility, by the way, but you do it because you love her. I admire that in you. I also hate that everything—all of this responsibility—fell on your back. And you’ve been doing this for how long? Since you were a teenager? You were forced to be your sister’s mother while you were still a teenager. And you’ve been going nonstop ever since. I hate that you get up every morning, even on Saturday and work your butt off at the bakery. I hate that your parents left you with their responsibilities. Hate the fact that you go to bed some nights crying yourself to sleep because you don’t know what’s going to happen from one day to the next. Don’t know how your bills are going to get paid. I hate that for you, Gianna. That’s why I step in as forceful as I do because I realize I need to work quickly to take these stresses away from you because there’s only so much a person can handle and you, my sweet wife, can’t handle much more.”
Gianna felt the blood drain from her face while her eyes filled with tears. “That’s why I don’t like you working so much. It’s not about me being controlling. Look at me,” he told her the moment she looked way from him. When she connected her misty eyes to his again, he said, “It’s not about me being controlling. It’s about me stepping in and doing my job as your husband to make sure you have everything you need. I am your husband now. I take care of you now, Gianna, and I take my responsibility very seriously. You’ve never had that—somebody taking care of you—but you do now and maybe it’s going to take a while for you to realize the difference in a controlling person and one who wants to take care of you, but I will say this. I won’t put you in a cage, tell you where to go. What to wear, where to eat. I’m just trying to be here for you. To be present for you. To take the stress away from you and be a man for you. Your rock. Your protector. Your everything. Tell me you see that.”
Gianna’s blinked the tears away from her eyes. Clearing her throat, she spoke clearly and softly when she said, “Yes. I see that, Ramsey. It’s just that, like you said, all my life, it’s just been me.”
“Well, now, it’s you and me. Okay?”
She nodded.
Ramsey stood up. “With that being said,” he took a step closer to kneel down in front of her. “I want to make our engagement and marriage official.”
Gianna swallowed the lump in her throat. It was one thing to know that they were married on paper, but a completely different thing altogether to have him holding her left hand, staring into her eyes, on bended knee making it all official. “Ramsey…wha-what are you doing?”
He watched a tear roll down her face and closed his eyes, forcing himself to take it. “The more you get to know me, the more you’ll realize that I’m in no way perfect. I have many flaws—ones that I’m sure will present themselves to you at some point during our marriage. But the one thing—the only thing you need to know about me is that I’m loyal. I will always be loyal to you and I hope that on this journey, we get to know more and more about each other every single day. And I will do everything that is within my power to make sure you’re happy. Your days of struggling are over. Your days of crying yourself to sleep at night—over.”
Ramsey used his thumbs to wipe the tears from her face. “Gianna, you’ve already married me so I’ll ask you this—will you keep an open mind, go on this journey with me, let me be there for you, comfort you, protect you and be a husband to you?”
“Yes,” she answered with trembling lips.
Ramsey slid the r
ing onto her trembling finger. And then he slid his tongue between her trembling lips, tasting spaghetti sauce on her tongue. Still in the kneeling position, he pulled her closer to him until he felt her legs around him and stood straight up, taking her to the chaise lounge chair where he lowered her, then eased on top of her until her back made contact with the cushion. And then he lowered himself on top of her until his body blanketed hers beneath the night sky, beneath the romantic lights and clamped his lips down on hers.
This kiss was different from the others they’d shared. This kiss was the first time he was kissing her as his. The kiss he’d been holding back all day long and now was relieving the pressure that had been building at his gut with wanting to connect his mouth to hers. He angled his mouth, going deeper, wanting to kiss her into understanding. Wanting her to know that she was his woman.
Gianna whimpered, her hands settling at the nape of his neck allowing him to have full control. Goodness. He was so dominant and she was well aware of him being there, his body comfortably on top of her while his tongue bathed the inside of her mouth as if manually searching for her heart. And she was feeling more sensations course through her body. She’d never desired a man before Ramsey and she knew she would never desire one after. He’d awakened the deepest desires inside of her and a part of it scared her. Where did this passion come from so suddenly?
A better question was, how could she make it stop? She wasn’t ready for this. She didn’t know the first thing about passion. What did a woman who practiced kissing on a Fuji apple know about passion and desires? She could hang with him with the kissing – well a little – but then his lips, his mouth locked onto her neck like a leech and her body jerked so hard it lifted up from the cushion. Still, he didn’t let up.
“Ramsey,” she whispered. Panting. “Ramsey.”
“Huh?” he said.
She assumed he made the huh sound so he didn’t have to take his mouth off of her.
“What are you—? Oh, goodness.” Breathing heavily, she started again, “What are you doing to my neck?”
“Sucking it. Licking it. Rolling my tongue in circles on it. Marking my territory.”
“You’re giving me convulsions.”
“I know. I like feeling your body convulse beneath mine.” He took a single kiss from her lips then rotated his body so that he was lying next to her. He pulled her into his arms. “Don’t worry, Gianna. I want to take things slow with you.” He brushed a kiss across her temple, then buried a hand in her hair, lowering his head to smell her strands. “Your hair smells like your bakery. Ahh…smells so good.” He noticed it before but never said anything.
She giggled. “I know. It’s a business flaw.”
“It’s not a flaw. I love the fact that you smell so sweet. Makes me want to gobble you up.”
She smiled.
He found her hand and interlocked their fingers. “Gianna, I meant what I said about your work hours. I think we should cut your closing time back to five. Additionally, I want to hire someone to help you out.”
“I have no idea where to begin with hiring someone.”
“If it’s okay with you, I’ll put an ad in the paper and we could have some interviews,” Ramsey said.
“We?”
“Yes. I wouldn’t leave you to do it all alone.”
“But you’re going back to work soon.”
“Right, about that,” he said, adjusting his position on the chair so he had a full view of her face. “I’ve been thinking about taking another month off.”
“Please don’t say it’s because of me,” she said.
“It’s because of you,” he said, then took a kiss from her lips.
“Ramsey, I don’t want you to change your life for me.”
“It’s too late for that, don’t you think?”
“But—”
He placed his index finger on her lips. “I told you…there’s nothing I won’t do for you.”
She gripped his wrist and pulled his hand away from her mouth. “But, Ramsey—”
“I have a home office. I have full access to everything I have access to at work, and I have my brothers. I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I want to be with you. You’re my priority now, Gianna.”
She smiled, then went quiet, thinking about how good it felt to be someone’s priority.
“Talk to me,” he whispered.
“About what?”
“I can always tell when you’re holding something back from me.”
“I was just thinking about how grateful I am to have you in my life. I’ve never had anyone do anything for me. Well, except Felicity.”
“Well, now you have me, Cupcake.” He kissed her again. “Will you spend the night with me?”
“In your bed?”
He grinned. “Yes. In my bed.”
“No!”
Ramsey laughed. “Okay, when I say spend the night with me, it has nothing to do with me touching your cupcake. I promise. I just want to hold you in my arms. In my bed.”
She glanced at his eyes. His mouth. Both were equally seductive.
“I promise,” he said, still smiling.
“That wicked dimple in the corner of your cheek is not convincing me.”
He chuckled. Dang, she was a hard bargain and he loved it. A woman saying no to him was a rarity, and he actually enjoyed the challenge. “Okay,” he said clearing his throat. “I mean it, sweetness. I won’t touch you unless you want me to.”
“Um…no. I can’t. It’s too much, too soon. I hope you understand.”
“Oh, baby, you’re killing me.”
“I don’t want it to be weird,” she said. “I’ve never shared a bed with a man before and even though I trust that you won’t touch me, I’m just not ready yet.”
“Okay. I respect that, but you better believe I’m going to make up for it somehow.”
“I’m sure you will.”
Chapter 21
Gianna was ready to leave for the bakery at six in the morning when she remembered Ramsey had driven her home yesterday evening. She’d left her car at the bakery per his request. What was she going to do now? Take his car? Was he even up this early in the morning?
When she turned away from the front door to go seek him out – boom – there he was standing on the bottom step staring at her. He had on a pair of flimsy black mesh gym shorts and he wasn’t wearing a shirt. Mercy. Her eyes widened to take in the full scope of him. Of pure, male gorgeousness. His abs were so toned, his six pack looked like a set of grenades. His chest was beefy and thick. And then his shoulders were well-defined and very linebackerish. And those shorts…goodness. They just hung right around his waist. They were loose enough to where she could see why they were comfortable for workouts but clingy enough to put his manliness on full display. Things she couldn’t see when he was in his normal clothes she could see clearly now. He had the body of an Adonis. And he had it on full display. What was he trying to do? Give her heart palpitations first thing in the morning? As it was, she wasn’t a morning person. He knew that. And this morning, she needed to get going but somebody convinced her to leave her car at the bakery.
She frowned, dug deep to find her voice and asked, “Just what do you think you’re doing walking around here with your tits out?”
Ramsey looked down at his chest, then back up at her and cracked a smile. “They’re called pectorals, baby. You wanna touch? Get acquainted with them?”
Her eyes narrowed. “No. I want to go to work. How am I supposed to get to work today?”
“You’re not going to work today.”
“Oh, yes I am,” she said, crossing her arms.
He smiled. “You really are a different person in the morning. I feel like I’m married to two women. On one end, I have the nice, shy, sweet Gianna who has this major crush on me and then there’s evil, rah-rah, morning Gianna who looks at me with dark brown eyes like she’s ready to choke me.”
“I am
ready to choke you. I need to get to work, Ramsey.”
“I told you, you’re not going to work today.”
“Um, did you forget I have to bake a million freakin’ cupcakes for Jennifer, your secretary?”
“Her name’s Judy.”
“Judy, Jennifer…whoever she is—she ordered ninety-eight cupcakes for today.”
“Ninety-six,” he corrected. “And Judy will get them,” Ramsey said, taking the last step down to walk up to her. He manually uncrossed her arms and took her left hand into his right as he headed towards the kitchen.
“We’re heading in the wrong direction. I need to go towards the front door, not back here.”
“You need to trust your man.”
“My man needs to give me the keys to his car?”
“No, your man does not. I mean, I would, but you don’t need my car. You know why, sweetness?”
“Ramsey, I don’t have time for this little back and forth with you.”
“We’re making cupcakes here now stop panicking.”
“Here? Are you kidding? We can’t make cupcakes here. You don’t have—” Gianna looked at the island when they stepped into the kitchen noticing it was full of ingredients. Butter, cream, milk, vanilla extract, powdered sugar, pecans, brown sugar, all purpose flour, shortening, granulated sugar, buttermilk, eggs, baking soda and a slew of other items that she probably would or wouldn’t need. And then she saw what looked to be a brand new, teal mixer – two of them – and cupcake baking pans, liners and two white aprons.
“Ramsey, what did you do?”
“I sent Carson shopping to get everything we needed to make over a hundred cupcakes.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t want you working at the bakery today and I knew you wanted to fulfill this order, so let’s get busy. And, just for clarification, by get busy, I mean let’s start making and baking some cupcakes.”
“You’re a sneaky somebody. You planned this.”
“Yeah, I did,” Ramsey said, tying on an apron over his six pack. “Suit up, sugar lips.”
Gianna grinned, even when she didn’t feel like it. This isn’t where she was supposed to bake. She baked in her bakery. The Boardwalk Bakery. Not Ramsey St. Claire’s gourmet kitchen. But cupcakes had to be made, and she didn’t have time to pout when the people of St. Claire Architects would be waiting for cupcakes. She lowered her purse in one of the barstools then removed a hairnet from it, placing it over her hair. She’d already had it in a bun, the same way she did her hair whenever she had to work.
