Ginny blinked back her tears. “No. I’m upset because my mirror is broken.”
“Stop crying,” he demanded as if she would be able to stop immediately.
She cried harder, laying her head on his shoulder. “Freddy gave me that mirror.”
“I know.” Turning to the door, he carried her out of the room. “I’ll get you another one,” he promised. “I can make sure it’s right.”
Gavin trying to tease her just made it worse. “It won’t be the same,” she sobbed. “I need it to be the same.”
“Why? It was wrong.”
She wailed louder. “Stop saying that!”
“I can have it made exactly the same.”
Ginny lifted her head. “You swear?”
“If it means that much, then I swear. Even though it will still be wrong,” he added.
“Thank you. You can put me down.” Sniffing back her tears, she tried to give him a wobbly smile. “I don’t want you to feel sick.”
An indescribable look crossed his face as Gavin bent his head. Before she could decipher his expression, his mouth caught hers.
Anxious that he would find kissing her repulsive, she was afraid to move her lips. Letting him have her mouth, she closed her eyes tightly, not wanting to see his disgust. She focused her attention on Gavin’s stiff and unyielding lips and realized hers were the same.
Forcing her jaw to relax, she let her lips soften feeling Gavin’s lips begin to move. At first, she thought he was pulling away, so she awkwardly started to turn her face, but Gavin resumed before she could. He’d tucked her in so close that her head was in the crook of his neck, so she was unable to turn away from his kiss.
Gavin’s kiss was little more than the chaste one she had given him on the cheek in the hotel room. The only difference was their lips were pressed together. It wasn’t the passionate, drawn-out ones that she saw on television or in public, when couples didn’t care who was watching. There wasn’t anything remotely passionate about what Gavin was doing. In fact, it felt as if he was forcing himself.
Ginny pressed her fingertips against the side of his chin. “Stop, Gavin.”
Gavin lifted his lips from hers.
“You might be trying to prove something to yourself, but you’re ruining my first kiss.”
The sob escaping her lips was smothered under his again. While it wasn’t passionate, she no longer felt as if Gavin was forcing himself into kissing her.
His lips were firm, but this time it was different. Wrapping her arms around his neck, her lips became malleable to the contours of his, the sensual glide of his tongue across her bottom lip had her quivering in his arms. Hesitantly, Ginny allowed access to her mouth. The stroke of his tongue against hers had her shying away, but Gavin’s followed until they were in an intimate dance as they dueled and stroked to heighten the other’s pleasure.
Unsure if she was doing it right, and mainly worried she would put Gavin off from ever touching a woman again, she took her cues from him. Fleeting strokes of her tongue, beckoning and promising, before fleeing, allowing him the opportunity of pursuing or retreating.
Gavin was a military man to the bone. Following her, he captured her mouth, taking her prisoner in a heady rush that she didn’t want to ever end.
“Excuse me. I need to get by so I can go to bed.”
Ginny found herself unceremoniously dropped to her feet at Silas’s request.
“My mirror broke,” Ginny embarrassedly explained. “Gavin was carrying me so my feet wouldn’t get cut.”
Silas stuck his head out of his room. “The broom and dustpan are in the utility closet. You need my help cleaning up?”
“No, we got this,” Gavin said, making no move to get the items.
“Then good night. Make sure you don’t silence your phones. There are tornado warnings out. If the alert goes off, get to the basement immediately.”
“Should the boys come here?”
“Isaac is staying up; don’t worry. I stayed up until the winds slowed down. The storm looks like it’s going in another direction.”
“How can you tell? That thunder felt close.”
“The radar on the news showed it moving off. Isaac will call if it starts to build back up.”
“Good, that’s a relief,” Ginny told him. “Gavin, if you get my house shoes, I’ll get the broom. Night, Silas.”
“Good night.”
Ginny went down the steps, dreading going back up them, worried about Gavin’s reaction to the kiss they had shared. Any time she drew too close to Gavin, he reacted in one of two ways; he would either hide his head in his shell or come out snapping.
Taking a trash bag, along with broom and pan, she returned back upstairs to see Gavin waiting with her tennis shoes.
“You’re house shoes are too flimsy to wear with that much glass. I’ve already taken off your blanket and sheet and bundled them together. You can put them in the laundry room and get a clean set while I sweep and cleaned it up for you.”