Page 21 of And Everything In Between

Chapter 7

Two Hours Later

“What’s your sign?” Paige asked randomly.

Giovanni laughed.

“Oh, we on that now? Real nigga, that’s my sign.” He was a little tipsy and enjoying her company. They had a playful vibe, and he could dig it. She’d spent most of the night laughing and talking. And he let her.

“Answer the question,” she said, kissing her teeth and rolling her eyes.

“Leo.”

“Explains the boss vibes.”

He grinned. “What about you?”

“Gemini. Duality, baby. Two sides to everything and a flirt.”

“That so?” He leaned in a little. “Are you showing me both or the side that’s not looking for what I’m looking for?”

“You’re still on that, ain’t you?”

“Damn right, I’m tryna figure out how you think you can tell me what I’m looking for.”

“I’m woman enough to say I’ll probably eat those words later. But it won’t be tonight.”

The night flipped without warning because this thing she was doing with him was igniting something in him. The mood thickened fast, the way heat rolls in before a storm. The air inside the lounge was heavier now, syrupy with smoke, laughter,and the low, sticky hum of old R&B vibrating off the walls. Sweat glistened at the small of Paige’s back, mixing with the coconut oil from her skin.

She had loosened up right along with the room. He shook his head every time she tossed her head back to laugh. She was so fucking fine. And the belly chains chiming low when she shifted her hips on the couch were like music to his ears.

Somewhere around her second drink, she’d kicked her sandals off, stretched her legs out lazily across the leather like she owned the place. She wasn’t sitting pretty; she was sprawled out, comfortable, body speaking its own language.

And Giovanni stayed close but cool, lounging in the cut with a slow sip of brown liquor, eyes glued to her. He was already making space for her in his world. He let her breathe, but he was clocking everything. Every smirk. Every stretch. Every easy roll of her wrist when she talked. Every flash of thigh when she adjusted her seat. That laugh?

Trouble. And charming as hell.

Paige had that rare pull. Funny. Fine. Miss Congeniality in a body that reminded him of his favorite car, curves in all the right places, built with care, made to be driven but never mishandled. She was the kind of woman a man like him would go too far for.

He knew better. He’d been there. Had his heart handed back to him in pieces by someone who mistook his devotion for desperation.

But it was already too late to act like he didn’t see it. She could easily become his next masterpiece. He'd take care of her. Wax her down. Keep her gleaming. Never let her lose her shine. Yeah… Paige Bishop was more than pressure.

She was his white whale.

A diamond in the rough.

A rose through concrete.

Not for everybody.

Not for casual hands.

And definitely not for the weak.

Good thing he didn’t have a weak bone in his body.

Paige caught him mid-glance, her lip curling up into a smirk. She knew he was watching; she couldn't miss his gaze, couldn't miss the heaviness of him, hanging on to every word she uttered.

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