Page 56 of Heir of Fire
“Summer is probably my second favorite, but it gets a little too hot for me.”
“Figured you spend most of your time in a bikini on a beach somewhere.”
“Oh, I do,” Gianna said with a grin. “I love to travel.”
“I only started to enjoy it recently.”
“When you were on your backpacking trip?” She couldn’t help the little quip.
He shot her an unamused look. “Yes. I know it doesn’t match your level of expectations, but it was probably one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in my life.”
Gianna was silent for a moment. It hurt—his sting. His belief that she couldn’t enjoy something like that because of what he thought about her, what most people thought about her, it hit her in a way she hadn’t expected it to. She liked the finer things, sure. But the way he assumed it, so quickly too, it hurt weirdly enough.
“I wasn’t trying to be malicious.”
Finn sighed, scratching at his chin. “And I didn’t mean to get so defensive. I’m used to people shitting on my decisions. Hell, shitting on me.”
She shrugged. “I’m used to people assuming that I’m thinking the worst about them. That I’m judging them.”
He grabbed her hand, pulling it onto his lap and holding onto it tightly. Gianna continued staring out the front windshield, feeling overly exposed.
“And you don’t?” he asked.
She bit the inside of her lip. “I do. I’m not perfect. It just sucks when that’s the first thing everyone expects of me.”
“I make shitty decisions all the time. Because of that, people expect me to fail, to make mistakes. They expect it, but I’ve stopped giving a shit. You want to know why?”
“Why?” She turned to face him now, noticing they were at a red light.
“Because the best decision I’ve made is sitting in the car with me right now and that proves to me that I can do the impossible. I haven’t failed with you and that makes me reallyfucking happy. So, I’m actively proving them, and even that part of myself that believed them, wrong. And you being here with me does the same for you. Shows that you have an open and welcoming heart, because I know if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be here with me right now.”
The way he stared back at her, with an intensity she had never seen from him before, was enough to leave her speechless. The way he understood her was the way she’d wanted to be understood her entire life. It made her reconsider every way she had ever looked at him. All the times she had been harsh, unforgiving, and relentless in her mild torture towards him. Maybe one day she would be able to tell him that she hadn’t meant to do it, but from the way his brown eyes became so soft when they stared back at her, she didn’t think she needed to. It was like he already understood her. Maybe more so than she knew herself.
“I’m really happy you made that choice,” Gianna said, swallowing harshly.
“Me fucking too.”
Honking behind them took them out of the daze. Finn muttered some words under his breath, but Gianna was too high up in the clouds to hear any of it. She felt giddy and dare she sayshy. Even as they pulled up to the fancy hotel and he beat the valet to open her door, she still felt so unsure of what to do, how to act.
They didn’t need to check in because he had made sure everything was set up ahead of time, so he led her straight to the elevator and they were off up to the top floor. She wished she could have spent more time admiring the stretch of windows that covered the penthouse, giving an open view of the city or the obviously beautiful master bedroom that held a king-size bed and was adorned with the exact white bedding and sheets she had at home and absolutely loved. Or how the hotel bathroomwas lined with the shower products she used regularly, and the kitchen was stocked with her favorite snacks. She wished she could have admired the material items that usually she would have gone crazy about, but instead her heart beat uncontrollably when Finn approached her with two glasses of champagne.
She admired his brown eyes, his thick brows, his messy hair, the small mole he had next to his left ear, his rough and calloused hands, and his plump lips that once used to scowl so often but only seemed to smile these days.
Gianna beamed at him, taking one of the glasses from him and clinking them together.
“Oh, you never told me what your favorite season was,” she said, taking a sip.
He stared at her for a moment. “You know, it used to be fall, but now I think it might be spring.”
Yes, that was what she truly cared about.
TWENTY-SEVEN
FINN
Finn practically hadto peel himself away from Gianna to let her shower and get ready for their date. If it was up to him, he would have preferred a shower together, but when he told her the reservation was in an hour and a half, she screamed and ran to the master bedroom.
He went to the other bedroom to shower himself, then shaved, and made sure he was fresh. He set the suit out in the closet to air out before he had to put it on, but it was still too early. Instead, he paced around the living room like a fucking madman.
