Loving Gigi Read Online Free Page B

waves before them and shrugged. “It really doesn’t matter either way.”
    Regardless of how many times he’d imagined a better ending to the night, he would have walked away as she asked, had he not noticed she was gripping the wooden railing so hard her knuckles were white. He put his hands on the railing beside hers and ignored how his blood rushed dizzily through him when their arms brushed slightly. “Are you here with someone?”
    She kept her face averted. “Didn’t you already say you didn’t care if I was?”
    Unable to stop himself, he put a hand beneath her chin and turned her face toward his. Even in the waning light he could tell she had been crying. “You shouldn’t be alone right now.”
    One of her hands fisted on the railing, but she didn’t pull her face away from him. Instead she said, “It doesn’t matter what should or shouldn’t be. Things are the way they are. Wishing for different only makes it hurt more.”
    Her accent was delightfully English. He rubbed a thumb across her jaw lightly, fighting how much he wanted to sample her pursed lips. “What happened, Luisella? Tell me.” Fresh tears filled her eyes and Kane wanted to gather her to his chest and promise to fix it—whatever it was. Oh, yes, she was trouble, but nothing could have torn him from her side.
    She looked into his eyes for a long time, and the fire he’d seen in them earlier returned. “Do you want to go somewhere? Leave here together?”
    It was the last thing he expected her to say, and for a moment it left him speechless. Although her question had sent his blood rushing downward, he knew he wouldn’t act on how she made him feel, not that night. She looked younger than she had earlier and lost in a way that made him want to save her more than he wanted to fuck her.
    A battle raged within him when she slid her hands up his chest, wrapped them around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. He knew he shouldn’t, but he claimed her mouth gently, assured himself he could control the desire that seared through him at her touch. Her scent. The sweetness of her mouth as it opened to his. He deepened the kiss, almost against his will, and momentarily lost himself to the wildness of their attraction.
    Her kiss tasted of angry abandon, and it brought him slowly back to his senses. She was hurting over something, and that wasn’t how he wanted her to come to him. He pulled his mouth from hers. Their ragged breathing was as loud as the breaking surf below them. Very softly he said, “Slow down.”
    She went onto her tiptoes and kissed the side of his jaw. “I don’t want to. I want to forget everything. Help me forget.”
    The innocence in her plea made Kane groan. “How old are you, Luisella?”
    “Twenty-three,” she said, arching against him desperately, trying to pull his head back down for another kiss.
    “How old?” He hated that he didn’t believe her.
    “Twenty-two,” she admitted. “But I’ll be twenty-three soon.”
    Shit. He removed her arms from around his neck, holding her there before him like an errant child. “What happened at the wedding? Did you break up with your boyfriend?”
    Once again sounding young and belligerent, Luisella answered defensively, “No, I didn’t break up with anyone. What’s wrong with you? I thought this was what you wanted.”
    I did. I do, he thought, but not like this. He stepped back from her. “You’ll thank me one day. You’re a beautiful young woman. Whatever is upsetting you tonight, sleeping with a complete stranger won’t make it better.”
    Her face flushed beet red. “Are you lecturing me? Seriously? Fuck you.” She turned to walk away.
    On impulse he grabbed her arm and turned her around to him. His cock hardened at the exchange, and he told himself to let her leave, but he couldn’t. Not yet. She pulled at her arm, but he didn’t release it. Her glare only turned him on more. Still, he needed her to understand that she deserved better. “Many