I lifted the back of her hand to my lips to kiss it. “No. Thank you.”
I pulled out her chair so she could sit down and then walked over to my own and sat across from her. The sight of the city and night sky behind her, with the decorations that had been set up; it felt like a vision I should have to pay for.
“You really don’t do dates that often?” She looked around and smiled. “Could have fooled me.”
“Well, I’ll admit, a lot of this was the creative genius of others. I told them that I needed something incredibly romantic for the most incredible woman I know.” I smiled at her then. “I’ll say they delivered.”
Her smile only got bigger. “I’ll say.”
“I’m glad you like it. I don’t typically worry about stuff like this, so I didn’t really have a gauge for it. I’m making lots of mental notes for the future.” I popped and poured a bottle of iced champagne into a couple of flutes.
“Future?” Avion asked. “More dates you mean?”
“Do you want more dates?” I asked.
I could see Avion’s expressions twisting into one another as she fought for the correct answer, finally she settled for a slight side-step. “I’ve had a question for you for a while. I was going to ask in the hospital and didn’t, and now I think maybe not asking has made things worse than if I did ask.”
“Okay?” I said.
“Iof course want more dates, because you’re an incredible guy, and it’s kind of a given that I would, but what doyouwant? I’ve… had this fear that I’m just sex to you,” she explained. “I mean… Do I mean more than just sex to you?”
“I wouldn’t have come to save you from your brothers’ compound if you weren’t,” I replied. “Which isn’t a statement for you, it’s more a statement for me. I’m out of my depth when it comes to understanding emotions and the non-sexual parts of a relationship. It’s very new for me, but I want to get better.”
“Just in general, or for me?”
The question rammed into me like a wild bull, and what Milli and Kelly were saying before made so much sense. I was being so ambivalent about my relationship with Avion that all she had was to compare it to my relationships with other women, and for the effort I was putting in, it looked mostly the same. I had to state myself clearly. That was what was going to show Avion what she meant to me.
“I told you in the greenhouse that you were different, right?” I said. “I didn’t mean you’re just the best at the sub/dom stuff. I mean, you are, but that’s not what that meant. All of this. The running from your brothers, your apartment back home, even this date, it’s all because of you. I’ve never wanted to do stuff like this for someone before, but I do for you. I want you to be happy. Happy with me.”
I watched as the smile on her face went from small to large and blinding. It was like getting whacked with a baseball bat. “Good.” She took a quick, almost nervous sip of her champagne. “I am happy with you,” she said. “So when I call Lorie tonight and she asks who you are to me I could say… a guy I’m dating or…?”
“Or?”
She laughed. “Or my boyfriend?”
That word had previously had such a viscerally negative connotation for me before. If some woman thought I was her boyfriend, I’d failed. But hearing Avion said it, even thinking that I could go forward callinghermy girlfriend.
That didn’t sound too bad to me.
“Boyfriend works,” I said.
Her smile got impossibly bigger and she made an adorable, coy expression with her face. “Giovanni Raines ismyboyfriend.”
The little giggle she let out then shot me several steps forward. If I wasn’t careful, I’d be proposing to her before the end of the week. “Yes, Giovanni Raines is your boyfriend.” And Avion Narzand was my girlfriend.
Now I had to make old habits die hard in order to ensure that fact never changed.
47
AVION
Seeing my door in the distance at the end of the hallway actually made me a little sad. For someone who claimed not to date a lot, Gio was certainly good at it. The dinner on the rooftop was a perfect way to spend an evening. It was so nice to just tune everything out and focus on getting to know one another. I felt like I understood Gio much better now, including the way he stumbled and stuttered over anything even marginally emotional, showing me just how uncomfortable he really was with discussing them.
Everything made a little more sense now.
Though I was tempted to try and convince Gio to come inside with me when we stopped in front of my door, I realized the importance ofnotdoing that. I was only human, and with a boyfriend like Giovanni, whowouldn’twant to drag him into the bedroom, but not only was he serious before when he said we couldn’t do anything else until I was definitely out of the woods on my injury, this was also a step towards defining our relationship outside of the confines of sex, which was major.
“Maybe next timeI’llplan the date,” I said. “Maybe take you to some of my favorite places around the city.”
