I also discovered these infamous grey eyes came from her. When I asked her where they came from, she said, “Child, I don’t know. Nobody else had them as far back as anyone in the family knew. I was the first one. Then Camille and Keith inherited them…along with you. I’m so happy we found you.”
Taking my face in her hands, she studies my every feature. When she looks into my eyes, it’s like she’s found the windows to my soul. “So much pain,” she simply says. The tears that brim my eyes upon hearing her words are immediate.
How can she possibly know that?
I see Nathan and Noah both watching me from the corner of my eye. “Now, I know we just met, but I want you to know, I love you, child. You are a part of this family. A part of me,” she says, her voice cracking and eyes filling with tears of their own.
Words fail me, so I just nod my head. Noah comes over to hug me and his mother. When I look up, I see Quinn and Ayana wiping away tears too.
“Alright, enough of this. This is supposed to be a party right?” I say cleaning my face.
“Thank goodness! Anymore and they would have had to revoke my man card,” Keith says. I didn’t even notice he’d gotten emotional too. He and Nathan laughed the incident of their first encounter off and seem to be getting along rather well.
“Oh, that’s been gone,” his sister teases. We all erupt into laughter. The rest of the dinner is spent chatting and laughing.
All in all, I’d say this has been one of the best days of my life.
Chapter 27
Nathan
“Keith is pretty cool,” I tell Gia as we leisurely head up to my apartment, hand in hand.
“Ayana says he’s an asshole,” she chuckles.
“I think it’s like the law for sisters to say that about their brothers. I can’t count how many times my sister has called me an ass.”
“Your sister sounds awesome,” she teases. “I can’t wait to meet her,” she says biting her lip nervously.
“I can’t wait either. For you to meet all my family really. They’re going to love you,” I say squeezing her hand lightly.
“You could never be an asshole by the way,” she says, wrapping her arms around my middle from behind when we reach my door.
“You just love me. That’s a rule too you know. Couples have to love all the annoying little quirks about one another that others despise.” She laughs in response to that.
“I do love you, you know? Thank you for being there with me today.”
I took a backseat today, letting her soak up all the love her family showered her with. She deserves every bit of it and more. Now I get to have her all to myself.
“I wouldn’t have been anywhere else except by your side. I’m really proud of you,” I say turning, so we’re face to face. “I have a surprise for you,” I tell her, digging my keys out of my pocket. “Close your eyes. And no peeking,” I say.
“Okay,” she giggles, complying with my request.
I open the door and pull her inside to be in front of me, covering her eyes with my hands.
“I said I’m not going to peek.”
“I trust you. But it’s more dramatic this way.” I chuckle.
When we reach the area formally known as my dining room, I ask her, “You ready?”
“Um, yeah?”
“You don’t sound too sure.”
“Come on!” she whines, becoming impatient.
“Alright. Alright. One…Two…Three.” I remove my hands from blocking her view. She gasps when she takes in her gift — a Bechstein baby grand piano.
“Oh my gosh,” she exclaims covering mouth with her hands.
“Now it’s used, but it’s in good condition. At least, that’s what the guy I bought it from says. Since I know nothing about playing music or piano’s, I had to take his word for it,” I tell her.
She sits at the bench and runs her fingers over the keys. “I love it Nate, but this is too much. Besides, I have no room for it at the condo.”
“Well first, it’s not too much. It’s not even a fraction of what you deserve. Next, I thought we could leave it here.”
“But it’s your dining room,” she declares as if I hadn’t realized.
“It was my dining room. I never use it anyway.”
“Okay then. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but I only get to play it when I come over? What if I want to play it at like two in the morning? I’d have to drive all the way here and wake you up to let me in.”
“You won’t have to wake me up to let you in.”
She looks at me, arching a perfectly manicured eyebrow. “You giving me a key?”
“Yes. But that’s not why you won’t wake me. And you won’t have to drive over here because you’ll be living here,” I say waiting for her response.
“What? Nathan. No. I can’t move in here.”
“Why not?” I ask in a near pout.
“Well, for one, we literally just got back together.”
“So. We love each other. That’s inevitably where we’re headed anyway right? Move in with me.”
“I don’t know. I can’t just leave Quinn. She’s helped me so much. She took me in when I had nowhere else to go,” she explains tossing her hands in the air.
“Quinn’s condo is paid up. She doesn’t need help with bills. Plus she lived on her own long before you got there. She’ll be okay. Me? I can’t live without you. I want to go to sleep and wake up next to you every day. Please, Gia. Move in with me,” I plead.
It takes a minute for her to respond, but finally, she says, “Okay. I’ll live with you.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah!” she almost shouts in excitement.
I scoop her up, spinning her around before kissing her deeply.
When we pull ourselves apart, she tells me, “Thank you for my piano. I’ve never had one of my own. This means so much.”
“Anything for you. You deserve this and so much more,” I say pushing stray curls out of her beautiful face.
She smiles appreciatively and plants a passionate kiss on my lips. She runs her hands under my shirt sending a rippling sensation of want throughout my body. She pulls me closer to her, arching her small, sexy frame into mine. We stumble back a bit landing on the piano keys, producing a combination of indecipherable chords, sending us into a fit of laughter, while never letting go of one another.
I lift her and her legs instantly wrap around my waist, and I carry her off to our bedroom.
When I place her on the bed, I release her from the confines of her dress. My job of undressing her is easy since she went with no bra or panties.
Good thing I didn’t know that or I would have taken her earlier.
Her hands tangle in my hair, tugging just enough to be painfully pleasurable. I kiss her neck then trail kisses down her chest in between her breast.
I continue down her stomach stopping at the peak between her thighs. I spread her legs, lifting them to be over my shoulders. Grabbing her by her ass, I angle her hips higher, lightly running my tongue between her folds, causing her breath to catch in her throat.
Sliding a finger inside her I find that she’s more than ready, but I decide to draw out her torture just a bit. I pull my finger all the way out before plunging two back inside her moving them in and out slowly.
My tongue finds her clit, and her body writhes against my mouth. She gasps when my teeth graze her tiny bud, and her legs begin to tremble. Knowing she’s close, I pull away before she can fall over the edge.
She groans out her frustration and looks down at me with a scowl for denying her release. When we make eye contact, I wink and begin my ascent up her body, her anger dissolving instantly and breaths growing rasp in anticipation.
I settle between her legs and kiss her swollen lips as I sink deep inside her. Her mouth falls open with a silent cry. Her nails dig into my shoulders, and she starts to pulse around me as she quickly nears her finish again. He
r breaths quicken, and watching the rapid rise and fall of her breasts is nearly my undoing.
“Come for me baby,” I urge. Her moans become increasingly louder. Her breathing more labored. Her legs start to shake violently until finally, her walls clench around me, and she cries out her release.
I move my hips faster following her almost instantly. I collapse next to her desperately trying to catch my breath.
“That was…”
“Yeah,” Gia breathes out before I complete my sentence.
We’re lying flat on our backs, our chests rising and falling from the exertion we just expended. We look at one another unmoving, because we’re too spent. “I love you,” I wheeze out, still winded from our tryst.
“I love you too Nate,” is the last thing I hear before I drift off to sleep.
Soft melodic sounds of the piano keys reach my ears, prompting a smile to stretch across my face.
I stand to pull on my boxers and walk out of the room where I find Gia wrapped in a sheet at the piano. Her hair is in disarray from our bedroom exploits. It is by far the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen.
Her bare shoulders call for me to kiss the backs of them as they move while she lightly plays John Legends ‘All of Me’. She doesn’t notice me since her eyes are closed. As I move closer, I hear her softly singing along. I lean on the piano remaining quiet, so I don’t break the spell she’s under, soaking in her beautiful sound.
When she finishes, she opens her eyes and smiles when they find mine.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t wait to play it. Did I wake you?”
“No. I woke up, then I heard you. Even if you had, it’s a wonderful way to be woken up.”
“I can’t thank you enough for this Nate. Really. It’s one of the nicest things anyone’s ever done for me. I love it. And I love you.”
I walk around leaning over to kiss her lips. She looks astonishingly beautiful wrapped up in that sheet at the piano. Looking at her in this moment makes the need to be with her again overwhelming.
“You want to go back to bed?” I ask waggling my eyebrows. She giggles, as she stands and clutches the sheet to her chest. I pull it down exposing her marvelous bare body to me.
“You won’t be needing this,” I tell her, picking her up to carry her back to the bedroom.
Chapter 28
Gia
Nathan insisted that I start moving in with him right away. But after some debate, he reluctantly agreed on my moving in next week, so I could talk to Quinn first and ease her into the idea.
The morning after graduation, I get back home pretty early. When I open the door to the condo, I find Quinn at the kitchen counter eating straight out of a tub of ice cream.
Uh-oh.
“Quinny?” I ask slowly approaching her. She looks disheveled which so very unlike the fashion queen herself. “What’s wrong? How was last night?”
“Great. Can’t you tell?” she rolls out sarcastically.
“What happened?” I ask on a sigh as I grab another spoon to join her.
She stabs the ice cream with her spoon. “After my dad and Kirsten left, Marcus asked if he could take me out for drinks to celebrate. Long story short. One of his little thotties confronted me in the bathroom about me dating “her man.”
“Maybe she was jealous and lying. Probably an ex or some fling,” try to rationalize.
“That’s what I thought and told her just as much, but the bitch had receipts. I mean text messages, photos with date and time stamps. There was no denying it.”
“Gosh. I’m so sorry Quinn.”
“Don’t be. It’s not your fault. Technically, we hadn’t discussed being exclusive. I wrongly assumed we were. Guess you know what they say about making assumptions,” she grumbles.
“So, how’d you end things?”
“I didn’t. I left without saying anything. When he texted me asking if I was okay, I told him I was fine, but that he should probably check on his other bitch I’d just met on the restroom. He hasn’t called or texted since.”
“What an asshole.”
“Seriously. I swear I’m done with men,” she declares, taking a ginormous spoonful of the fudge swirl ice cream.
“Oh, we both know that’s not true,” I tease making her laugh.
“Fine. But I’m done with this one,” she insists.
“As you should be. He clearly wasn’t the one for you.”
“Enough about Marcus. How was your night with Nate? Who, by the way, I’m super glad you’re back with,” she says.
“I’m glad too. The night was perfect…I actually have some news, but it can wait.”
“You’re moving in with him,” she says matter-of-factly.
“What the hell? How did you know that?” I ask in surprise.
“News. You aren’t sporting a ring, and you just got back together, so I doubt you’re pregnant. So it has to be that.”
Damn, she’s good.
“Are you mad?” I wince.
“Are you kidding me? I’m super happy for you. For the both of you,” she says wrapping me in a sisterly hug. “As long as we still get to hang and spend time together, I won’t have to kill your hunk of a boyfriend.”
“Deal,” I giggle. “So my grandmother is hosting this family Sunday dinner thing. Will you come with me? We’ll get a home cooked meal, and you can get out of the house. What to do you say?”
“I say yes. I’d love to. Beats hanging around here sulking about someone who was never really mine, to begin with,” she with forced enthusiasm. I’ll take it though.
“That’s the spirit. I’m going to jump in the shower then change. We’ll leave in an hour,” I inform her making my way to my bedroom…at least for the next week.
My Grandmother Patrice’s home is beautiful. It’s not a huge house like I was expecting. And I’m sure having Noah Evans as a son, she could be living in a mansion.
This is way better to me though. It’s a cozy two-story home with a wraparound porch complete with a swing. The picturesque landscaping is so inviting. I’m almost giddy when I pull into the packed driveway. I try not to think too hard on what it would have been like to grow up here with her, playing in the beautifully manicured yard with a young Ayana and Keith.
We get out of the car, making our way up the pebbled pathway and like me, Quinn is taking in our surroundings. “This house is beyond adorable.”
“I know right,” I agree.
Before we can reach the door, Noah comes out to wrap me in a warm hug. “Gia! Quinn! Glad you made it.”
“Yeah. Wouldn’t miss it. Thanks for letting me bring Quinn along,” I tell him.
“Of course! She’s like family to you which makes her family to us. No, Nathan?” he asks.
“No, not today. He had some work to do,” I explain.
“Oh well. He’ll come next time then. Come on in. We’re just about to bless the food.” He waves his arm for us to follow him into the house.
“Never thought I’d be like family with Noah freaking Evans!” she quietly shrieks, as we trail Noah into the house. I roll my eyes and shake my head, but can’t fight my smile at her excitement.
“Hey, y’all,” Ayana greets hugging both myself and Quinn.
“Hey,” we both say taking a seat at the dining table — me next to my cousin, and Quinn next to me.
Grandma Patrice comes out of the kitchen carrying a covered dish of something with a sinfully delicious aroma. Keith trails her with a large pan of fried chicken. Noah grabs the pot from his mother placing it on the table.
My grandmother shuffles over to me and places a sweet kiss on my cheek, then Ayana’s, and then Quinn’s. There are a few people here that I don’t recognize. I’m sure we’ll be introduced soon enough.
“Okay everybody,” Noah begins. “Everyone hold hands and bow your heads while Momma leads us in a word of prayer.”
We all do as he says, as the matriarch takes her plac
e on the opposite end of the long table from Noah.
As I take the hands of my cousin and best friend, guilt starts to knot in my stomach. Sadly, I don’t think I’ve ever given thanks. I mean I believe in God and all, but I guess I’ve been a little bitter. The only conversations I’ve had with the Lord was pleading for deliverance from my tormenters or angrily asking ‘why me?’ It always seemed like he never heard me. So I gave up praying a long time ago.
Breathe Page 17