Sinful Kisses by Emily Bowie

CHAPTER 11

Ifell asleep on the couch after Max and I pretended not to see Gia in the shadows. I wanted to stay on alert, to make sure she made it back to bed. I listen to her tiptoe back inside, her tiny steps walking toward me. I keep my breathing even as I sense her stand above me.

Her fingers lightly move the hair from my eyes, with a slight tremble to them as she stares at me. What is she looking for? She takes a step back, and I can feel her retreating.

The sun seeping into the windows wakes me and is another reminder I’m still living on a pig farm.

The smell of bacon instantly wafts around me, and I sit up. Gia is in the kitchen, cooking breakfast for what looks like an army.

“I’m shocked it took you this long to wake up.” She smiles at me, placing scrambled eggs into a dish, then placing them in the oven.

I’m shocked too. I rarely sleep, but from the time I went to bed to now has only been about three or four hours.

Max uses this as his moment to make an appearance. He goes and gives Gia a sideways hug. I wait for her to push him off, and she doesn’t. Instead, she grabs a piece of bacon and gives him a pregame taste.

“I wouldn’t let Max touch anything with his bare hands if I were you.”

The asshole chuckles, stealing another piece.

“What do you call a BJ in the ocean?” I ask, standing up to take a seat on the stool across from Gia. I do nothing to hide the raging morning wood I’m sporting in my boxers.

“Put some clothes on, dude,” my brother scolds while staying almost glued to Gia. He’s doing it on purpose to piss me off.

“Head underwater.”

“He really does lack attention from the opposite sex, huh?” Gia ignores me, talking to Max.

“You’re a feisty heathen. It’s not his fault. You have him pussy whipped.” My brother plays along.

I choke on my saliva. Pussy whipped? Fuck no.

“Don’t buy that shit, Gia. Before the accident, I would tell a joke like that, then you would beg to be dragged to a dark corner to use my cock.”

I like the way her eyes dart downward before a soft blush creeps into her cheeks. She turns around, grabbing three plates, and puts food on them.

“Since when did you two become friends?” I murmur, grabbing my plate. Irritation creeps down on me like spiders.

I eat my food, pretending that I’m not paying them any mind, but she stays in my vision at all times.

“Since I decided I like him better than you.” She tries to hide her smirk, but it slips out.

So, she likes to get under my skin? The feeling is mutual.

“You better eat up, ’cause you’re helping me with chores after.”

Her eyes go wide. “I can hardly walk,” she protests. My eyes alight with a cock joke, but she interrupts me before I can say it. “Do not make some cock joke.”

Because I feel bad for her, I’ll let her off the hook and not tell her my hilarious joke. “I’ve been telling you to rest, and you refuse to. I keep finding you in my kitchen. As much as I would love to make some sexist joke here, I could use your help more outside.”

“Makes sense,” she concedes too fast. I angle my head to look her in the eye. “You can make me dinner tonight when I’m resting on the couch.”

I shake my head, refusing to comment.

“Why pig farming?”Gia, I’ve learned, never shuts up. She still hasn’t taken a breath since talking at breakfast. She happily skips—in her bruised-up version—behind me.

“People like pork,” I grunt out. “You practically swallowed your bacon whole.”

Her steps falter. We don’t eat the pigs on this farm, but that doesn’t mean I don’t sell them for others to eat.

“I guess I just never thought about it.” A soft frown puckers her otherwise smooth forehead. “Am I a vegetarian? Is that why you were hiding your smirk throughout breakfast?” she asks in horror.

I have no fucking idea if she eats meat. But the way her mouth was moaning, I’d say she loves a good hog.

“You’re laughing. I am!” Her hands land on her hips in front of me. I tower over her small frame.

“Relax. You’re a carnivore like the rest of us here.” She eyes me like she doesn’t trust me. That look she’s giving me is getting old very fast. Crouching down, I pick her up, effortlessly sliding her from my front onto my back.

Her yelp rings in my ear.

“Fuck’s sake!” I holler at the sudden high-pitched sound. “If you let go, I’ll let you drop on your ass. Just hold on, and we’ll get to the pens faster. At your hobbling rate, we’ll get there after lunch.”

“Then maybe you should have left me to do the dishes instead of making me come out here.”

“What did I do to make you hate me, Gia?” I’m genuinely curious. I’ve been nothing but a saint to her since she smashed up my car.

“I like you fine. I just find you cocky, conceited, arrogant, and I don’t trust you.”

Her smooth arms willingly wrap around my neck and shoulders. She hasn’t complained about our position once. Progress.

“Stop smiling to yourself. It wasn’t a compliment.” Her comment only makes my grin larger.

I hike her up higher on my back. “Is this your girl version of a boy pulling pigtails?”

“Are you trying to say you think I like you because I keep putting you in your place?”

I keep teasing her, loving the way I’m riling her up. “It’s love. I know it.”

“How did I put up with you?”

“Typically, I would just shut you up by kissing the shit out of you. Want to try that?” My dick stirs, wanting to hear the answer from her mesmerizing lips. I walk a few more steps, almost to the pig fence, and she still hasn’t responded. “You’re imagining it, aren’t you?”

“You’re a pig.”

She’s not disagreeing. Interesting. I chuckle to myself, bending down to allow her feet to touch the dirt.

“Stay here, and I’ll grab some of their food.”

I should think about the task at hand. Instead, my steps feel lighter, and I’m feeling like a girl with my head in the clouds. As much as Gia is annoying with her constant talking, she’s kind of funny. She’s not the image she portrayed before the accident. I wonder if she hid who she was from everyone else. Her losing her memory may have liberated her.

As I round the corner with the pails of food in my hands, I watch as Gia climbs over the metal fence. The girl can hardly walk, and here she is climbing.

Dropping the buckets, I run toward her. “Gia,” I holler.

She’s at the top, attempting to put one of her legs over. The only reason I’m able to make it in time is because she’s slow as fuck. Grabbing her under her arm, I pull her back to me. She loses her balance, falling hard into my chest. I hold her suspended above the ground. Her heart is pounding against my hardly beating one. We’re nose-to-nose. Her breaths come out as short little pants.

“What the hell are you doing?” My jaw clenches, thinking she could have seriously been hurt. More people in America die because of pigs than sharks each year. And that statistic doesn’t even include the pigs that are used to get rid of missing people.

“I–I…,” she stammers.

Gaining control of my body, my fingers loosen around her arm, and I place her on her two feet, but I refuse to stop looming over her.

“I saw a shoe.” She tries to turn to point, but I keep her in place.

“Never go into a pen. One of those beasts will take off one of your fingers—” I slide my hand down her arm until I’m holding her fingers up. “—before you even recognize it’s gone.” I lightly nip at her ring finger. She gasps, flinching to move her hand away. But my grasp is too strong.

She nods. I can still feel my nostrils flaring, but my voice has stayed even, refusing to show any emotion that’s raging inside me.

“Are we clear?” My brow lifts, expecting a verbal answer.

“Yes. I didn’t know they were so dangerous.”

I let her hand drop and take a step back, not liking the tension that’s coiling around us. The air has a charge to it that I have never experienced before. When I’m certain she won’t be climbing any more fences, I turn and walk with my back straight to get the food that was tossed to the ground.