Cherrie Lynn - Take Me On

“Why? Have we done something wrong besides worry ourselves sick about you?”

“Please don’t—”

Gianna put up a quelling hand. “Do not try to tell me not to worry about you. I don’t know why you can’t simply talk to us. Is sneaking out like this the way to handle things?”

“I’m not sneaking anywhere. I fell asleep, and I didn’t mean to. What I meant to do was rest until Ian told me he was heading home, and then go see him.” She lifted her free shoulder in a shrug. “It just worked out this way.”

“So you’re leaving. You’re moving in with this man.”

“I’m not moving in with him. But I want to spend some time with the father of my child, yes. I don’t get it—wouldn’t you consider that a good thing?”

“Just be careful, Gabriella.”

That made her laugh. “I think the worst has already happened, Mom.”

Gianna shook her head and stood, collecting her wineglass. “Not necessarily,” she said, walking past her without another word.

So much for her mother being excited about another grandchild. She honestly hadn’t expected this. Sighing, she let herself out into the heavy, humid night air.

Five minutes later, Ian’s door swung open, and he immediately reached to take her bag from her shoulder. Before he could do anything with it, she pitched herself into his arms and put her mouth on his, the very thing she’d wanted to do ever since he’d walked into her room at the hospital.

“Mmm,” he groaned as their lips parted at last, then sighed as he buried his face in the hair at her neck. “I’m glad you’re here.” She held him tight, savoring the safety of his arms.

“Me too,” she whispered. But there were things to clear up, a conversation she was burning to have, and she needed to get it out before she exploded. Not with him, though. With her little-shit brother. “First thing,” she said, drawing back from the comfort of his embrace and missing it immediately. “Let’s go see Brian.”

“It’s late—”

“I don’t give a damn. You know he’s still up.”

“Or out scrounging for watermelon Oreos.”

“What? Gross. Let’s go.”

He followed her purposeful steps as she headed to Brian and Candace’s apartment, but he tried to talk her out of it the whole time. She wasn’t having it. She pounded on their door until it flew open and her brother stood there, shirtless and pissed off.

“What the fuck , Gab?”

She glanced back to make sure Ian was still behind her. He was, but he looked rather pale. She stuck her finger in her brother’s face just as Brian was opening his mouth to say more. “Do you mean to stand there and tell me that after everything you went through to end up with that sweet girl in there, after you knocked the shit out of her brother, after you pretty much did with her whatever the fuck you wanted no matter what her family thought, you’re going to give him shit for being with me? Really, Brian? Are you going to stand there and tell me that?” She’d been poking him in his naked chest to punctuate each point she made, but now she cupped her hand behind her ear and gestured at him to bring it with her other. “Come on. Say it. Let me hear you try to say that to me. Right now.”

Brian stood gaping. No words came. She smacked him on his inked pec. “I thought so. Now that hopefully you realize what a hypocrite you’re being, I expect you to not be a shit to him anymore.”

Brian glanced at Ian and then waved toward her. “That’s all yours, man. My condolences, and don’t say I never warned you.” And he shut the door, muttering, “Fucking crazy” under his breath.

Gabby chuckled and turned. “There. Handled.”

Ian’s eyebrows couldn’t have climbed much higher in his forehead. “You weren’t kidding, were you?”

There had been too much excitement today. From the scare over the baby to the tense words with Brian—both Ian’s and later Gabby’s. Ian could tell she was on edge. He was no doctor, but he knew that wasn’t good for her. She needed to relax, but here she was, running around to meet him late at night, fighting what should be his fucking battles with her brother.

Then again, Brian was her family, not his, so he guessed he didn’t have much say in how those two interacted with each other. He just wished he weren’t right in the damn middle of it.

“What do you say we get out of here?” he asked once he’d surmised she was about to pace a hole in his carpet.

“Hmm?” she asked distractedly.

“I don’t know. Go for a ride or something. I’m the new kid in town, remember? I don’t get out much except to hang with the same people I see every day.”

She scoffed, fingering a long, dark strand of hair from her ponytail. Then she sighed and dropped beside him onto the couch, close enough that the side of her warm thigh pressed into his. “I’m pretty sure you’ve seen all there is to see.”

“Hey,” he said, gently turning her chin toward him so she had to look into his eyes. Was it his imagination that she melted a bit into his touch? “You’re here, but I get the feeling you’re not, you know?”

“Yeah,” she admitted. He could stare into those clear green eyes all night.

“So let’s drop out of life for a while. Even if it’s only for a couple of hours, we’ll pretend it’s just you and me.”

The corners of her lips curled up in a most enticing way, got him thinking about all sorts of things he’d like to do but couldn’t. Wouldn’t push anything on her. God, she was so fucking beautiful. So beyond anything he’d ever dared to pursue. “Where will we go?” she asked.

“I’ll drive, you navigate. Show me your life here. I want to know everything about you.”

“I was pretty much a nerd, Ian. What life I’ve had didn’t start until I went away to college.”

She chuckled as his brows drew together. Someone as smart, sexy and seductive as she was, describing herself as a nerd with no life? He’d imagined a high school career filled with throngs of admirers and slavering suitors. “I expected that you were Homecoming Queen or something.”

“Ha. No. It wasn’t my thing to really care what other people thought about me, which is like the kiss of death around here, and I damn sure didn’t run around trying to be everyone’s friend or make people like me. I wasn’t popular. In fact, I was probably universally hated.”

“I find that hard to believe. They were most likely intimidated.”

Her little smile bloomed into that full-force grin that tugged at his heart in all the right ways. “Am I intimidating to you?”

“Hell, no,” he lied, and she laughed. Yeah, she could be, but he could handle her.

“All right, Ian, I’ll give you the grand tour, if you really want it.”

He only wanted to be with her— only her, not her and all the troubles whirling around in her head. “I do.”

“Let’s go.”

Minutes later, they cruised in silence down all but empty streets, past darkened buildings. He drove while Gabby mostly stared out her window.

It did make him a little crazy to live in a town where there wasn’t much to do except catch a movie or a beer at the bar. Not that he’d been one to revel in the incessant hustle and bustle of city life, but it had been nice to have the option.

“Do you find yourself going a little stir crazy, being back here?” he asked, trying to get her talking.

“Not really. I can function in both. It doesn’t take me long to adjust either way.” She pointed ahead. “Up there on the right? My high school.”

Jesus, it was small. It must’ve been impossible to blend into the background at a place like that… Something he thought he’d become somewhat of an expert on during his own school days. He hadn’t been able to have many friends, because inevitably they’d start to wonder why they couldn’t hang at his place every now and then, or why he often couldn’t go out on the weekends. Because his stepdad had been such a drunken asshole, Ian couldn’t subject anyone else to it, and he’d felt a duty to protect his mother from it as best he could.