Sugar on the Edge(80)
We all laugh, lift our glasses, and clink them together. Sliding my eyes over to the living room, I see all the guys standing around talking with plates of foot in their hands and one eye on the hockey game that Gavin put on when Hunter requested it. As if he can sense me staring, Gavin turns his head to me and his eyes are tender. He gives me a private smile and turns back to something Brody is saying.
“Well… I think it’s wonderful,” Alyssa says. “From the time of my first kiss with Brody to the time we started shacking up with each other was only a few weeks.”
Gabby nods her head. “The heart knows what the heart wants.”
“Wait? We’re talking hearts here?” Casey asks in bewilderment. “I just thought this was sex. If hearts are involved, I am so not jealous.”
Laughing at Casey, I throw a grape at her head and miss. “You’re so jaded, Casey. One day, love is going to hit you so hard that I’m going to just snicker at you while you stumble around all drunk from it.”
Leaning in closer, Gabby whispers, “So… is it love then?”
The other girls all lean in to hear my answer. A quick glance at Gavin and my heart starts to pound… as if it’s calling out to his. Turning to face the girls, I whisper back. “It is for me. I just haven’t said it out loud yet.”
“What about him?” Alyssa asks, voice hushed.
“I don’t know… I think so. I mean, we’ve opened up a lot with each other about our feelings, but we just haven’t come out and formally said we love each other.”
Alyssa snickers. “There’s nothing formal about love, Savannah. It’s hot, messy, and totally disjointed. My guess is you’ll say it at exactly the right moment, without any planning.”
“And if he doesn’t say it back?” I ask fearfully, because all along, I’ve thought that Amanda must have surely killed Gavin’s ability to love another woman again.
“You determine how important those words are and decide what to do from there. Love is about so much more than just words.”
“Okay,” Casey exclaims as she refills her wineglass. “This conversation is turning far too morose. I say we discuss something else… like… how is the sex, Savannah? I mean… look at Gavin. You just know that man knows his way around a woman’s body.”
All four of our heads swivel to Gavin and thankfully, he doesn’t notice.
“Am I right?” Casey asks and three heads turn to look back at her while she levels her gaze at me.
Leaning inward to whisper again, I say, “You don’t even know the half of it.”
“Tell me at least a quarter of it then,” Gabby says excitedly.
Grinning, I say, “Oh girls… the things he does with his hands and mouth alone are worth dying for.”
Alyssa rests her cheek in her hand and sighs. “Brody’s good with his mouth too. I love that. Don’t you love that?”
“Hunter too,” Gabby says. “It must be a Markham twin thing.”
We all giggle and sip at our wine.
“No fair,” Casey grumbles. “I haven’t gotten any good oral in ages.”
“That’s because you haven’t found the right guy, Casey. A guy that is really in to you is going to worship you with his mouth,” Alyssa points out.
“Yeah, but that implies a relationship,” Casey states firmly. “And as you old, monogamous women know, Casey Markham doesn’t do relationships.”
“Then you can forget the mind-blowing oral sex,” I tell her before popping a few grapes in my mouth.
“Well, let me live vicariously through you at least,” Casey says. “Tell me what he does with his mouth.”
It’s been all fun and games talking with innuendo, but I’m not about to share the intimate details of what Gavin does to me. That’s for me alone. But I do give her this. “Let’s just say my nickname for him is ‘Filthy’.”
Casey gasps. Alyssa sighs. Gabby says, “No way.”
“Yes, way,” I say with a grin, proud of myself that I shared something shocking with my home girls.
“Hey Filthy,” Casey calls out into the living room, and all four men turn around to look at her.
I slump down to the counter, my face flashing neon scarlet. Gabby and Alyssa giggle. A slow, sexy smile comes to Gavin’s face, and he starts to walk into the kitchen.
“What is it, love?” he asks as he looks at Casey with curiosity. His eyes flick to mine, and he takes in the droop to my shoulders and the pain of embarrassment on my face.
“I’m just wondering,” Casey says without preamble. “What exactly did you do to our sweet Savannah to make her give you your nickname?”