Chapter 18 #2
“This has been the best day,” she whispers, touching her forehead to mine, an emotion I can’t quite define in her eyes.
It becomes clear when she keeps talking, vulnerability creeping into her voice.
“I’ve never had a romantic day out like this in my life, Carlo.
You’ve healed something in me.” It hits me like a ton of bricks that I’ve never done anything like this either.
Dinners, movies, maybe out dancing, sure, then sometimes back to one of our places for a hookup.
I’ve never done a whole romantic day out just wandering around a beautiful place with a woman I’m genuinely interested in.
It usually never gets to that point before they get bored and want to move on to the next good time.
Tania being the first romantic partner I’ve had who truly values and sees me makes my chest tighten painfully. I crush her to me and kiss her temple.
“You’ve healed something in me too, mi sueno. You ground me and make me feel worthwhile, because how can someone not feel like an absolute king when they’re with you? This has been one of the best days I can remember,” I murmur into her hair.
She squeezes me back, nuzzling into my chest like she can’t get close enough. She’s mentioned how touch starved and affection starved she felt growing up during the confessions we like to make in the dark while snuggling in bed. I have zero issues with making up for lost time.
We share one more deep kiss when I can hear people approaching.
I have to quickly adjust myself before I go back out in public, willing my erection to go down.
We exit the hut with our fingers interlaced and smile at the people coming in, like giddy teenagers that got away with sneaking around.
There is still so much to see that we keep wandering until we loop back to the parking lot by the visitor center.
Neither of us can get over how realistic and yet whimsical the sculptures are.
There are a few that are very abstract and modern with lots of metal work that are so interesting, too.
There’s way too much to see in one trip, so we agree that we’ll have to come back for another date day.
My greedy ass wants a million date days like this, but we’ll start with planning one more for now.
We get home to the cats meowing their heads off at us, obviously mad that we’ve both been gone most of the day.
I scoop Gomez into my arms when he starts to scale my pant leg and give him some loving while Tish chatters and chirps around Tania’s legs.
It’s so funny to me how needy they are since I always thought cats were super aloof.
These two are so affectionate and friendly, I freaking adore them.
Early dinner is the plan since Tania is needed at the tattoo shop tonight, because she has officially started to tattoo people and take appointments.
So we quickly throw together an easy chicken caesar salad with some leftover chicken we had already cooked.
The cats eat their dinner while we sit to eat ours in companionable silence for a few minutes.
Tania looks at me with soft eyes, opens her mouth like she’s going to speak, closes it, opens it again, then stops herself with a forkful of salad.
“What’s going on in your beautiful brain, sweetheart?” She looks down and swallows her bite before meeting my eyes with a small smile.
“I was thinking that I’m pretty glad the cats were assholes so that we ended up living together like this.” I nudge her foot under the table.
“Me fucking too,” I tell her with a wink.
I turn to look at the cats. “Hear that, cute furballs? You two are the best wing kitties a guy could ever ask for.” They look up at me from their bowls and chirp, whether in agreement or annoyance that I’ve interrupted their dinner, I can’t say.
Tania shakes her head with a huffed out laugh.
“What, they are! They helped me win over the woman of my dreams in less than a month after I’d been pining for over a year. They should start a business to get people together.” She outright cackles this time.
“They’d be amazing matchmakers. Matchmakers Through Mischief is what they should call it,” she declares with so much amusement in her beautiful face. I point at her dramatically.
“I like it. Let me start getting the copyright paperwork going.” She giggles, popping the last forkful of her salad into her mouth. We make a little more small talk before she gets up with a sigh.
“Alright, I better get going to the shop.” She bends down to kiss me on her way to the kitchen to put her bowl in the dishwasher.
I get up and follow her, depositing my bowl in the sink before wrapping my arms around her waist from behind and kissing the corner of her jaw.
She moves her head to the side to give me better access, humming contentedly as I nip and kiss down her neck until I reach her shoulder, putting her hands on my arms to keep them there.
I turn her around and cup her gorgeous ass, bringing her flush to me and kissing her soundly.
“Have fun. Take some pics of what you tattoo tonight, I want to see how skilled my girlfriend is,” I tell her when we break apart.
“I will!” Her reply is a little breathless, heat in her eyes as she looks at me.
She kisses me again before grabbing her bag.
On the way out she pets the cats and tells them to be good.
As soon as she leaves, I smile deviously and rub my hands together in excitement.
My surprises for her today are not done.
She has no idea that I called her mentor Brian and asked to get tattooed by her tonight.
I made sure I checked in with her about whether she feels ready to tattoo me a few days ago, and she said she’d be happy to do it soon.
She has much more confidence and a little more experience than she did when I first brought it up a few weeks ago.
Brian also said she is more than ready to do the fairly simple one I want.
Hopefully she’ll like the surprise visit.