Page 7 of Driftwood Daffodil 2

He was on a whole other level. His intimidating aura pressed down on me with every passing second.

Well, this is awkward.

Unsurprisingly, I didn’t handle awkward silences well. I tried to distract myself by rubbing the chill off my arms. When that didn’t work, I moved on to fidgeting with my hands and then bouncing from one foot to the other. And Gio still didn’t move or say anything. I’d never felt more judged in my life.

“So… um…” I clicked my tongue off the roof of my mouth and attempted to hide my nervousness. “Are we gonna do this or what?”

The corner of his mouth twitched slightly, making my eyes narrow.Why did it feel like I just lost a game?

“This?” He asked with an arched brow as if he didn’t know what I was talking about.

“Yes,” I hissed. “This.” Then I waved my hand indicating what he already knew.

Because I sure as hell didn’t know shit. There was a deal that might or might not involve certain parts of my body, that Atlee seemed to think was the answer to everything. I really would like some more details, though I highly doubted Gio would give them to me.

That thought was confirmed when he once again said, “This?”

Son of a bitch, he was going to make me say it, wasn’t he?

Sighing, I rolled my eyes, “The deal.”

“Oh,” Gio leaned over to rest his shoulder on the doorframe. “You mean the deal you were supposed to be here at eight for?”

Not this again. It was three minutes, not exactly the end of the world. If I wasn’t doing this for Kato, then I’d smack that smug look off his face and march back to my truck with a smile on mine.

Sucking back my pride, I hesitantly huffed out, “I’m sorry I’m late.”

Gio tipped his head and eyed me, “I’ll let it slide this time.”

How kind of him. Prick.

“But don’t let it happen again.”

Oh, it was going to happen again. In fact, I think I’d be late to everything from now on. Not by much, just a couple of minutes. Three to be exact. Punctuality was overrated.

“Alright,” he pushed off the doorframe. “You can come in.”

A part of me wanted to point out that we wasted ten more minutes of his precious time with his bullshit argument, but I just wanted to get this over with. Unfortunately, when I moved to take a step, Gio held out his hand stopping me.

“Make sure this is what you want to do,” he warned. “Once you step inside, there won’t be any backing out. The deal will be done.”

I paused and gazed across the threshold. The polished hardwood on the other side suddenly seemed like quicksand that would suck me in a deep dark hole of dread and despair. Atlee’s voice rang in the back of my head.

“There’s only one reason a guy makes a deal like this with a girl.”

Was he right? And if he was, could I do it?

I lifted my chin and looked up at Gio. “If I do this, what will happen to me?”

I thought it was a fair question.

Apparently Gio did not agree. “Why would I tell you that?”

Should’ve seen that one coming. I suppose it didn’t really matter. Not when Kato’s safety was on the line. Still, I needed to know.

“Will you answer one question?”

It was worth a shot.

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