I laugh more. “You’re incredible.”
“Yeah, I am pretty incredible,” he says as he leans back and puffs out his chest.
“I didn’t mean it in a good way, you big, arrogant piece of man candy.”
Faster than I can say Meals Ready to Eat, he has me pinned under him on the sofa, his big knee between my legs and his hand holding my wrists above my head. He caresses me with his eyes and licks his lips.
“I am incredible, Alexis. And you’re incredible. But what matters most is that we are absolutely fucking incredible together, and I’m going to spend as long as I need to reminding you of that. I’m going to remind you by kissing you.” He feathers a sweet kiss across my cheek. “By licking you.” He runs his tongue along my lips and then over the sensitive tissue of my earlobe. I moan. “And by loving you.” He grinds him hips against mine and I feel how hard he is even through all of our clothes as he pushes against my core in the exact right spot. “You’re mine. I’m yours. We. Are. Incredible.”
I gasp and give in to his heat, opening my mouth to him as he delves into places I didn’t know existed.
When we come up for air a few minutes later, my dress is askew over one breast and my hands are splayed across his now bare abs, giving worship. “You really know how to give a girl a gift,” I pant out.
“You know it, babe,” he rumbles. “But while you’ve got an MRE to tide you over, I’m starving, so we’ve got to go to dinner.”
He lifts off of me and grabs his t-shirt from the floor where I tossed it in my haste to get to his skin. I lie still and watch as he pulls it on, covering up all that gorgeous muscle and the beautiful tattoo that boasts my name.
After he pulls it over his head, he winks at me. “See anything you like?”
I launch a throw pillow at him as I sit up. “Conceited jerk,” I mumble. He laughs as he reaches down and pulls me up, fixing my bra strap and the shoulder of my dress at the same time.
“Ready to let this jerk take you out for dinner?”
I smile and relax into his side as he puts an arm around me and starts walking to the door. “Definitely,” I say, feeling freer and happier than I have in years.
Dinner is fabulous. He takes me to a hole-in-the-wall Indian place I’ve heard of but never gone to. It’s fun and casual, everything Gabe and I are. He’s never going to be one of those guys who puts on the expensive suit and takes his date to a fine French restaurant. But that’s why we work, because I’m not the kind of girl who wants that. I love the little Indian place, and even more, I love that Gabe knows I will.
We pull back up to the apartment building and I feel the nerves that have been building for the last hour spring to life in my chest and my gut. I know we have to have a talk about what I’m ready for…and what I’m not. I only hope Gabe will understand what I have to tell him.
He turns the ignition off and sits back against the seat in his truck. “I’m guessing we need to have a little talk now,” he says as he looks over at me and smiles.
I shake my head. “God, it’s like you can read my mind or something.”
“I told you I know you,” he whispers as he runs a finger along the top of my thigh up to the hem of my dress. “Just give it to me straight, babe. It’s not like I’m going to say no.” He smiles sweetly.
“Okay. Well, Marco and I aren’t together, and I told him I needed to explore my feelings for you. Somehow we all need to get closure, whatever that means. Honestly, Marco and I have been ignoring this elephant in the room ever since I got back. He said he forgave me and I said what happened in Afghanistan didn’t mean anything.” I look up at Gabe’s face. “But we were both lying. What happened in Afghanistan meant everything, and Marco hasn’t ever really forgiven me. He’s held on to me, and some days I’m not sure if it’s because he loves me or because he can’t stand to lose.”
Gabe picks up my hand, looking at it as though he’s never seen one like it before. He takes a big shuddering breath and lifts my hand to his lips where he kisses it then places it along his cheek. My heart misses a beat when I realize what I’ve told him has rendered him speechless. We sit there, him holding my palm to his face, his eyes closed, while I try to remember how to breathe.
“God, Gabe, I’m so sorry I hurt you like that. I’m so sorry I took what we had, what you gave me, and threw it away. I had no right, and it was selfish and childish. Can you ever forgive me?”
He finally brings our hands down, linking our fingers as he does so. His beautiful eyes open and he smiles at me as he says very quietly, “All I’ve ever wanted is another chance to be with you. If you’ll give me that, nothing else matters, Alexis. Just…” He clears his throat. “Just don’t make me live without you anymore. It kind of fucking sucks.” He laughs softly.
I nod my head, swallowing against the lump rising in my chest. “You just have to give me a little time to adjust. Okay? I need to figure out what I’m doing with myself and how I’m going to be with my family. I can’t rely on a guy to decide that for me again, Gabe. I have to do it myself. Can you be a little patient while I figure that out? Can we spend time together without labeling it for now?”
“The only label I need is love, babe. I love you, and if you’ll let me say so, then it’s all good.”
I laugh weakly. “God, if I didn’t, the women of the world would hunt me down and banish me.”
“Good. Now come here.” He pulls me to him and caresses my cheekbones with his thumbs as his warm palms cradle my face. He gently, softly, brushes his lips across mine before sliding his tongue into my mouth. He strokes my lips and then smoothes along my teeth before gently nipping at my lower lip. I gasp at the sensations, wrapping my arms around his neck as I scoot closer to him on the bench seat of the truck.
We continue our tangle of tongues and lips as my hands once again find their way underneath his t-shirt, where I touch the smooth, steel-hard muscles of his chest and back. His hand feathers up and down my thigh, eventually inching its way up under my dress and toward the danger zone. I ache to feel him there, and when I not so accidently brush against the zipper of his jeans, I can feel immediately that the want is mutual.
As I’m reduced to a panting, breathy mess of female need, Gabe pulls back, carefully taking my hands and holding them away from his body. He nuzzles my neck and speaks in a rough voice. “Alexis, if I’m going to have this patience you asked for, we need to stop now. Otherwise I’m going to throw you over my shoulder and drag your hot ass into my apartment, where I’ll fuck you absolutely senseless. That doesn’t speak of patience to me.”
I groan. “Since when are you the reasonable, mature one?”
He chuckles. “Since I’m in this for the long haul, sweetheart. I’m not going to do anything based on short-term gain that might screw up the chances of my long-term success. If I have to spend the next six weeks in a cold shower, then so be it. When you’re ready, I’ll be here. In the meantime…” He leans his forehead against mine and gives me a gentle kiss. “I’ll enjoy making out with you in the truck like we’re teenagers and getting to see you as much as you’ll let me.”
I throw my arms around him and hug him hard. “You’re just the best, Gabe Thompson. You know that?”
He leans back and looks at me with one eyebrow raised. “Do I know I’m the best, babe? You’re joking, right?”
Ugh. Big arrogant jerk.
Gabe
La paciencia es una virtud.
Patience is a virtue.
I spend the next few weeks doing three things – working, following Alexis around like a sick puppy, and hanging out with Ramon and his family. My Latino 101 lessons continue, and I learn about every possible family gathering under the sun. I eat more carne asada than I thought humanly possible, but luckily, grilled meat is all good with me. Finally, Ramon deems me educated enough to attend his niece’s Quinceañera. I ask if I can bring Alexis as my date and he agrees.
The party is an event that lasts most of the day and on into the night. I
try to con my way out of the boring parts, but Ramon isn’t having it. He also makes it really damn clear that I’d better come up with a good gift or he’ll have my ass. There’s no way I know what the hell to get a girl for her fifteenth birthday. I need Alexis.
“There’s something I’ve got to ask you, babe,” I say as I cuddle with her on the sofa while we watch a movie. “I’ve been invited to Ramon’s niece’s Quinceañera and I was hoping maybe you’d be my date.”
She leans back to get a good look at my face. “Really? They invited you to her fifteenth?”
“Yeah, they invite me to everything. I’ve been to engagement parties, kids’ birthday parties, Sunday night carne asadas. In fact, Las Posadas and a Quinceañera are pretty much the only things I haven’t been to at this point.”
Her jaw drops. “You’re kidding, right?” I shake my head. “You mean all those times you told me you were eating dinner at Ramon’s house you were going to family dinners? Like big family dinners and fiestas and stuff?”
“Hell yeah. They like me so much that his cousins asked me to be in their car club. They said if I tricked the Harley out I could lead the processions when they ride in parades.”
“No damn way!” she shrieks.
“Yes way. But I gotta warn you. You’ve got some competition, because Ramon told me his niece has been saying she’s going to marry me when she’s old enough and warning all the other women in the family away.”
Alexis’s eyes narrow. “The niece who’s having the Quinceañera?”
“No, babe, her little sister. She’s seven, but she’s gorgeous. You need to watch out in about ten years.”
“You’re disgusting!” she yells as she hops up and starts pelting me with sofa pillows.
I laugh and grab her around the waist as I pull her back down on the sofa with me.
“So are you going with me to the party or not?”
She sighs and pretends to think about it. “Oh, all right. I guess I need to go scope out the competition. Make sure she knows you’re mine, huh?”
“Oh God, don’t tease me like that. It makes me totally fucking hot when you get all possessive.”
She rolls her eyes.
“There’s one more thing. Ramon, well, he sort of told me that if I don’t bring the birthday girl a really great present he’s going to be very unhappy with me.”
Alexis starts laughing. Hard. I groan and throw my head back on the cushions behind me. “Jesus, cut me some slack, will you? I don’t want to spend the next month with my head underneath a leaky oil pan while Ramon pretends the lift is broken and threatens to drop the car on me. He’s that mean, Alexis. Seriously.”
“Oh!” She struggles to quit laughing. “You poor baby.” She pats me on the cheek. “Okay, I’ll save you from your big mean boss and get the girl a present.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much. I’ll pay for it, whatever you need to spend. What the hell do you get a teenage girl anyway?”
“I’m guessing you never bought a girlfriend a gift in high school?” she says sarcastically.
“Sweetheart, this is me we’re talking about.”
She shakes her head in disgust. “I’ll get her makeup. It used to be that the Quinceañera was the first time a girl was allowed to wear makeup. That’s hardly ever the case anymore, but girls that age still love makeup. Trust me, it’ll go over well.”
“Have I told you how much I love you?” I say as I tickle her ribs.
She shrieks and then I kiss her until she quits squirming and we forget all about the movie and the birthday party.
The day of the Quinceañera arrives and I’m nervous as hell. I’ve never been much for formal events to begin with, and now I’m going to be showing Alexis me at a Hispanic family gathering for the first time.
Ramon said that I need to dress up, so I dig out the only dressy shirt I have – a charcoal button-up – and borrow a dark red tie from Mike. I pair it with black jeans and black boots. I also put a small silver hoop in the earlobe I had pierced years before that’s never closed up. The only jacket I have is my black leather that I wear on the Harley, so on it goes over the top of everything else.
I knock on Alexis’s door fifteen minutes before we need to leave, hoping she’ll be okay with my clothes.
The door swings open and I stand dumbstruck, looking at a fucking fantasy come to life. She’s wearing a red dress with a halter top and a deep v-neck that shows her cleavage. Her long, dark hair is up on top of her head in a messy pile with tendrils falling down along her neck, like a trail leading to paradise. The dress is some sort of clingy fabric that molds to every curve and ends well above her knees. As my eyes scan down her legs, I reach a pair of shiny black patent-leather heels that are sky high. There is also a slender silver chain around one of her ankles, and I think I’ve died and gone to heaven when my eyes fall on it.
“Holy shit,” I gasp. She giggles.
“You like?” she teases as she spins around in the doorway of her apartment.
I swallow. “Um. Yeah, you could say that,” I croak out.
She reaches out and grabs my tie as she pulls me to her. “Wanna come inside and mess up my lipstick, hot stuff?”
“Oh, babe, if you only knew. But honestly, if I go inside that apartment, we’ll never get to the party and Ramon will fire me.”
She sighs in disappointment. “Okay. Let me get my purse. By the way, I had the gift delivered to her parents’ house so it’s all taken care of.”
I nod, mesmerized by the swish of her skirt as she goes inside and bends over to pick up her purse off the coffee table. Damn.
Then and there I decide I’ve been patient enough. Alexis and I are going to seal the deal tonight or I’ll have to turn my Man Card over to Mike.
We start off by attending the Mass where they celebrate the girl’s birthday. The guest of honor is in a great big pink ball gown, and Alexis explains the origins of the dress to me, how girls are supposed to be pure and innocent, and their Quinceañera party is like their entry into adulthood – makeup, dating, marriage. The girl also wears a tiara, and that’s to remind us she’ll always be a princess in the eyes of her family and God.
After we leave the church, I ask Alexis about her Quinceañera.
“Because my parents are so old school,” she says, “mine was pretty traditional, not as flashy as a lot of these girls in Austin have. I had a Mass and a dinner-dance at our house. And I was actually not allowed to wear makeup and high heels until I turned fifteen, so it was a huge deal for me.”
I laugh. “Well, I’m glad Mom and Pop Garcia were protecting your innocence so well all those years. Wouldn’t want my girl to have been around the block more than me.”
She snorts. “No one’s been around the block more than you.”
She has a point.
When we reach the assembly hall where the dance and party are being held, there is a big line of girls in formal dresses and guys in Mexican cowboy gear lined up outside. “Now that’s her crew, right?” I ask as I park the truck.
Alexis laughs. “Sort of. They’re her damas and chambelanes. Her best friends, sisters, brothers, cousins.”
“So a lot like the groomsmen and bridesmaids in a wedding?”
“Yeah, same idea. They’re her peers, her community, and in Hispanic families, those kids will be with her when she gets married, when she has her kids, when her parents die. It’s all about the family and the community.”
“Where are the kids who were at your Quinceañera?” I ask.
“Well, I had my sisters and some of my cousins, guys and girls – there’s a lot of them – a couple of girlfriends from school who I keep in touch with, then my two brothers, and uh, Marco.” She looks down and becomes very quiet.
I sit for a minute, not sure what to say. “You weren’t dating him then though, right?”
“No. But his parents are my parents’ best friends and he was best friends with one of my cousins.”
My Latino 101 lessons taugh
t me enough in the last few weeks that I now understand better what it means if Marco was one of Alexis’s Quinceañera attendants. It pisses me off and makes me sad all at the same time.
“Hey, I’m sorry, babe. I didn’t mean to hit a nerve.”
She smiles at me sadly. “You didn’t know. Let’s go in and eat. I’m sure the food rocks,” she says with false enthusiasm.
Alexis wasn’t kidding when she said the food would rock. I’ve never seen so much food – and booze and loud Tejano music. I know I’ll need to drink to keep from losing my mind over the nonstop accordion. Luckily as the sun sets and the younger guests are sent home with their grandmas and grandpas to go to bed, the DJ shows up and the technopop starts. It isn’t my favorite, but it’s an excuse to bump and grind against Alexis, so I’ll take it.
I’m about to drag her sexy ass out on the floor when Ramon comes sauntering by.
“Hey, guëro. How’s it going?” he asks, putting an arm around Alexis and giving me a challenging look.
“Good, bro. You wanna unhand my girl?”
“Hmmm. I don’t know. I think I kind of like her.” Alexis laughs and gives him a kiss on the cheek.
“Yeah? I wonder what Tina will think about that?” I look at him hard.
He takes his arm off of Alexis and holds his hands out to the sides. “Odalay, bro. Bring out the big guns – I give.” He winks at Alexis then throws an arm around me. “So, beautiful, how’s it hanging around with this white boy, eh?”
Alexis looks thoughtful before she smiles. “Pretty good so far,” she answers.
Ramon looks at me then smacks me on the back of the head. “Yeah,” he says, “if I was going to let a girl of mine date a gringo, he’d be the one. Just don’t ask him to work on your car. He’s a terrible mechanic.” At that point, we devolve into good old-fashioned smack-talk until Alexis pulls me off to the dance floor.
As we settle into a slow dance to a Spanish song, she runs her hand up and down my neck, sifting her fingers through the short hair on the nape of my neck. If I were a dog, my hind leg would be thumping the floor. It feels that good.
Concealed - A Hiding From Love Novel #2 Page 9
