Chapter 5

Gabby

Past

I just get my dress above my head when I hear it.

"What the fuck is going on here?"

I turn to see Cross stomping across the clearing with Angelica on his heels. Angelica is his current girlfriend and the bane of my existence. They are wearing matching angry scowls across their faces, but Cross's is a little more lethal. In my inebriated state, I cannot wrap my head around the fact that my brother's closest friend has caught me partially undressed and very, very drunk. As he barrels toward me, my fight-or-flight instinct kicks in, and I drop my dress beside me and look for a place of escape. I take off toward the water. The water is a good place to go.

He catches up to me in a few long strides and grabs my waist before I have time to launch myself in the water and out of reach.

"Oh no, you don't, Tesoro."

I'm not sure exactly what comes over me in that instant, but I'm not happy he has ahold of me. He is here to ruin my fun. I start struggling in his arms, which only causes him to have to hold on to me in places he shouldn't be holding.

"Damn it, Gabby. Calm the fuck down."

I can hear Angelica interrogating my new friends, and then she turns to Cross and me and announces, "There are four empty vodka bottles over here. These kids are wasted."

I hate being called a kid. I especially hate it when she calls me a kid.

"Who are you calling names, you two-bit whore?" Adriana apparently doesn't appreciate it either.

"Oh, insults from a drunk teenager really bother me," she bites back.

I watch in horror as three very naked boys emerge from the water.

Dante speaks first with his hands held up in peace, "Hey, man. We are just having a little fun. Nothing illicit happening here. Yet." He grins over at me as he adds that last bit.

Does he have a death wish?

He looks back up at Cross, and the grin falls away.

"Just some good old-fashioned skinny-dipping."

Pure mortification washes over me. There is no way Cross is gonna let us slide and not rat me out.

"Skinny-dipping with minors," Cross spits out through gritted teeth. "Get your clothes on and get the hell out of here now before I call her brothers and let them deal with you."

I see the tinge of fear hit their eyes. They must know who my brothers are. One by one, they gather their belongings and start toward the trees.

Dante turns back a moment later and says, "Hey, Gabby. I had a great evening, getting to know you. Can't wait to see even more of you. Another time."

I hear and feel Cross's growl of anger against my skin.

"Angie, get Adriana home. Try to get her in the house without waking anyone."

Adi is not having it. "I don't need an escort. I can find my own way home, thank you."

"The hell you will. Those boys could be waiting for you in the woods. Do you understand what kind of danger you two put yourselves in tonight?"

Okay, I have moved from embarrassment to right the hell pissed off.

"Let me go, Cross." I start kicking and thrashing in his arms. "You don't get to come out here and start running off and insulting my friends. They are the only ones who gave enough shit about me to try to make my birthday special. In fact, they are the only ones who even bothered to wish me a happy birthday."

He goes perfectly still.

"Angie, take her home. Please make sure she gets inside safely before you leave. I'm sorry our night has been cut short, but I really need you to do that. I'll call you in the morning. And, Adriana, if you give her any trouble at all, I will personally come over to wake up your father and inform him of what I found out here."

Adi huffs, but she gives in. No way does she want her papa finding out she stole his liquor and fed it to a bunch of underage teens.

I mouth, I'm sorry, to her as she gathers her stuff.

Angelica comes over and kisses Cross before following Adi through the trees, toward her house. We stand here in silence with him at my back and his arms locked around me.

"It's your birthday?" he whispers.

"It's after midnight, so technically, yesterday was my birthday."

I hear a soft, "Damn it," uttered under his breath, and he releases some of the force with which he had my arms pinned against my sides. "So, your brothers forgot your sixteenth birthday?"

I turn in his arms, and with a quivering bottom lip that, try as I might, I can't get to stop betraying me, I reply, "Not just my brothers. Everybody. Mamma, Papa, my grandparents ... you. Not a single person, except Adi, remembered at all. So, she arranged this last-minute makeshift party to celebrate."

He just stands there, looking at me with pity on his face.

"Don't look at me like that. I am fine. It's just a stupid birthday. There will be another one next year. Maybe then I can swim with my friends in peace."

That wipes the pity right off his face. The pissed-off is back.

"Did you even know those guys? They seemed older than you and way soberer than the two of you. Were you really gonna get naked for them? Do you know what that says to a horny guy? Do you? You could have been attacked by any of them or all of them. How could you have been so careless? I expect shit like this from Adriana but not from you."

That does it. All the fight just flies right out of me. I start sobbing. Cross wasn't expecting the tide shift and picks me up into his arms.

"I didn't want to at first, but they all were doing it, and Adi seemed like she thought it was safe. All I wanted was to swim and maybe be kissed," I confess as I bury my face into his shoulder.

He was walking us out of the clearing when he stops dead. "You wanted one of those boys to kiss you? While you were drunk and naked in the water?"

It sounds really bad when he repeats it back to me. My head is getting heavier and heavier, and I'm finding it hard to form words.

"I think so. I have never been kissed, and I think I'd like it. Though I don't think anyone wants to kiss me."

I hear his sharp intake of breath.

"Now, why on earth would you think a thing like that?"

I am starting to fade into the blackness that is pulling me under as I hear him repeat himself, "Why would you think that, Tesoro?"

What were we talking about again? Oh, yeah, kissing.

"Because nobody has ever tried to kiss me. I'm the only girl I know who hasn't had her first kiss. It's starting to get embarrassing."

He is walking again.

"Please, don't take me home," I plead. "Papa and Mamma are fighting again, and I don't want to be there. Can you take me home with you tonight?"

My eyelids are so heavy, and so is my head, too heavy for me to hold it up any longer. I feel him change directions.

"I'll call Nicco. He is at Marianna's apartment. Maybe you can go there tonight."

I start softly crying again, and he stops once more.

"I don't want to go to Marianna's. I want to go home with you."

"That's not a good idea, Gabby."

"Why not? I miss you."

I do miss him. Since he decided to start avoiding me, I've felt like I'm grieving a loss.

"Don't you miss me?" I whisper into his neck.

I don't hear his reply as I slip back into the darkness.

* * *

The next thing I remember, I am standing in Cross's bathroom in nothing but my bra and panties, and he has the shower running. I can smell the vomit in my hair. It makes my stomach turn, and the room starts to sway. Or is it me? Am I swaying?

Cross is holding me upright as he reaches his hand under the spray to test the water.

"Okay, in you go. We have to get you cleaned up."

I don't even bother to argue. I just step forward. The warm water hits my face, and I start to sink to the tiled floor.

"Oh no, you don't." Cross pulls me back up as he steps into the shower with me. He has on shorts and a T-shirt. "Turn around."

I do as I was told and turn toward the front of the spray. He is standing behind me, and I smell the shampoo in his hands as he takes my hair and starts to run his fingers through to build a lather. It feels so good. I lean back into him and sigh. He inches back, so we aren't touching, except where his hands are touching my hair. I let him wash and rinse me, and then he runs conditioner through my long locks, working the tangles out. I'm very relaxed as he massages my scalp. I try to turn around and face him, but he brings his mouth close and commands me to stand still. His lips graze my ear, and I groan. He immediately reaches to turn off the water.

I stand here in the cold, unable to move. Cross just stands behind me, silent. Then, after a moment, he nudges me aside, reaches for a towel, and opens it for me to walk into it.

I stand and let him dry me off. It feels nice. Being taken care of. I look up at him as he is toweling my hair and decide that his jaw is the finest jaw I have ever seen. So, I lean up and press a kiss to the underside of it. He goes still.

"What are you doing, Gabby?" he asks.

I notice his voice is a little hoarse, and I look up at him.

"Kissing your jaw," I answer. I see the confused amusement on his face, so I explain further, "I decided it was the finest jaw I had ever seen, and it needed to be kissed as a reward."

He smiles a sexy little smile and shakes his head. Then, he takes a big step back. "Okay, drunk girl, we got your teeth brushed and the puke out of your hair. Now, hold your arms up."

I do as he asked, and he slides his hands behind my back and unfastens my soaked bra. I gasp at the unexpected move. He looks the other direction as he peels it off of me and drops it to the bathroom floor. Then, with my arms still in the air, he quickly pulls a way-too-large tee over my head.

"I will leave you to remove the rest and put these dry boxer shorts on, if you think you are steady enough now."

I just nod, and he turns and walks out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him. I quickly lose the wet underwear and pull on the boxers. They are way too big, and I have to get a tight grip on the front of them as I try to walk without them falling to the ground.

I can hear him on the phone as I shuffle into the open studio-style loft with a huge king-size bed in the middle, an open kitchen to the left, and a cozy living area to the right with a big stone fireplace and a large L-shaped couch. I love his place. It's big but cozy, and it fits him to a T.

I haven't been here in so long. For years, I would just pop in, and he and I would play video games or order pizza and binge-watch our favorite shows. Most of the time, Nicco was there, too, but sometimes, it was just the two of us. He has not invited me over since he started ignoring me. I miss it. It was an escape from my volatile home. I lost him that day. My friend, my bonus big brother. Gone.

Now, here we stand in the exact same room. He is right; I'm still a little drunk. I can feel it, and my stomach is still very unhappy with me.

"Yep, every single one of us. I found her in the woods, drunk off her ass, with a bunch of older boys I did not recognize, about to go skinny-dipping in the springs. I know. Yeah, she's hurt, and I guess Adriana was just trying to cheer her up, but, for fuck's sake, they were getting wasted and voluntarily naked with complete strangers. Horny, drunk pricks."

Great, he is tattling on me.

"No, man, it's late. I will keep her here tonight. She has been puking up vodka for the better part of the last hour. I just wanted to warn you and see if you could intercept your mom when she realizes she is not home. Tell her she stayed with you at Marianna's apartment or something. Just put her off until tomorrow afternoon. I have a feeling she is gonna feel like ass in the morning. Yeah, me, too. I'll call you when we are up." He ends the call and looks up at me. "How are you feeling?"

I drop my eyes. "A little pathetic, to tell the truth."

I hear a chuckle, and then he says, "We have all been there before. Here, take these and drink this entire bottle of water."

My stomach churns at the thought, but I do as I was told.

"Now, bed."

I shuffle over, climb up the platform, and nestle in. It smells like him, and I sigh my pleasure. I love his smell. It is spicy and salty and all man.

A few moments later, I feel the dip in the bed, and I open my eyes to find Cross atop me. He has my arms pinned at the sides of my head, and his arms are locked in a push-up position. No part of him is touching any part of me, except his hands. I'm confused and excited.

"What's happening?"

"Your first kiss," he answers as he lowers his lips to mine.

Just a gentle brush at first, and then a tug at my lower lip with his teeth. I gasp as a foreign sensation flushes my body. He takes the opportunity to enter my mouth. I don't know what to do. I can't think. All I can do is feel. As he moves his tongue with mine, gently at first and then with more urgency, I find my nerve, and I start to kiss him back. I don't even realize I am, but I start seeking his mouth more desperately. I want to touch him. I want to put my fingers in his hair and pull him to me, but he has my hands trapped, and my struggle is futile. He angles his head a little, and the kiss deepens. Every part of my body is on fire and longing to touch him or be touched by him. I plant my feet and arch up, so my aching breasts graze his chest, and I moan low in my throat at the pleasure that scores through me. Sweet agony.

Then, just like that, he is gone. He rockets off the bed and across the room. Disoriented and bereaved, I come up on my elbows and stare at him. He is standing there, against the wall, breathing heavy, with his hands in his hair. I have never seen anything sexier in my life. He drops his hands and meets my eyes.

"Don't go giving your kisses away to just anyone, Gabby. They are too precious, and you deserve better than some drunken make-out session with a random stranger. Promise me."

"I promise."

"Good. Now, get some sleep. That hangover is going to be intense in the morning," he says as he grabs a pillow and heads to the couch to settle in.

I decide right then and there that, that is the easiest promise I have ever made because I have no desire to kiss anyone else but him ever again.