Kirk thrust the items at him. “Don’t be a pussy, women dig a man who can do a trick or two.”
Genevieve released his hand and went to stand beside his cousin, crossing her arms over her chest and hitting him with a challenging smirk. “Yeah. Come on, show me what ya got.”
Well, fuck. He looked from his cousin to Genevieve and back again. “It’s been a couple years since I’ve done this. I’m not even very good at it.”
Kirk elbowed Genevieve and nodded. “Yeah. That’s why he dropped out of carnie school, couldn’t handle it.”
“Fine, I’ll eat the fire, I’m not doing a blowout.”
His cousin turned to face Genevieve full on. “I’d do a blowout for you. That’s just all I’m saying.”
Fuck, I’m looking bad by the family kook. “Fine.” He looked directly at Genevieve, waiting for her to turn her attention from Kirk back to him. When she did he shook the closed bottle at her. “Do you really want to see me potentially singe off my eyebrows showing you a blowout?”
Excitement flashing her eyes, she eagerly nodded her head. “Oh yea, yes yes please. Would love it.”
With a sigh of resignation he gave in. Opening the bottle of oil he dipped the two torches in, dosing the wicks, and then set it on a nearby table. Placing both torches in one hand he quickly lit them and tossed the lighter onto the table next to the oil.
“You seriously want to see this?” he asked Ginny, already knowing the answer.
She nodded, smiling wider than he’d ever seen.
“Fine.” Bending back so his open mouth was aligned with the ceiling he brought the first torch to his mouth and quickly snuffed it out, closing his lips around it. He quickly removed the extinguished torch and then did the same thing with the second.
Ginny squealed and clapped as he straightened and took a small bow for her benefit.
“Are you going to show me the other thing?”
“Yes.” Grinning he grabbed the lighter and relit one torch. He looked at the oil; it had been a while but he still remembered how bloody awful the stuff tasted.
“Over here hun, we don’t want to be in the line of fire,” he heard Kirk say as he moved her over to Graham’s left.
Taking a swig and keeping the oil in his mouth, he took a deep breath, stared at the torch for a minute and blew the oil onto the flame. A whoosh sound echoed through the room and a massive ball of fire flared out starting from the torch and extending out and up eight feet in the air.
“Holy shit. That’s awesome! Oh my God!”
He smiled hearing Ginny’s excitement as he extinguished the torch and spit out the remainder of oil from his mouth, before wiping his lips with the back of his hand.
As soon as he placed the torches on the table, Ginny threw herself into his arms, pulling him into an enthusiastic hug. “That was so cool!” She reached up and kissed his lips, but quickly pulled away, making a face of disgust and swiping at her lips with the back of her hand. “Oh that’s so gross.”
“Are you happy now?” He smiled down at her, pleased he could make her happy with such a small thing.
“Absolutely.”
“Good, now let’s let Kirk get back to work, or what he considers work anyhow.” He caught Kirk’s gaze and smiled, making a mental note to make an effort to hang with Kirk more frequently. They’d been close as teenagers and into their early twenties, but the years caused a separation as years sometimes do with families.
“Hey man, I get paid and laid for this. Living the dream,” Kirk interjected. He motioned to the room. “This could have all been yours.”
Graham looked down at Genevieve and nodded. “I think I have everything I need right now.”
Chapter 14
~ Genevieve ~
The day had been a whirlwind of activities and by the time they got to his house she had just enough energy left in her to walk over to his beige suede sofa and collapse onto it as she waited for Graham to get them a couple of wine coolers from the fridge.
“Don’t tell me I’ve worn you out.”
Genevieve smiled as she looked up and saw Graham crossing the room with two coolers in his hands. “Exhausted me, yes. I’m glad I listened to you and wore jeans and a t-shirt.”
“So you enjoyed yourself?” He placed the coolers on the glass coffee table and sat down next to her, pulling her against him, her back to his front.
“It was so much fun. I work all the time, at least it has been that way since I opened the store, and whenever I did go out it was to stuffy dinner functions.” She didn’t have to tell him they were Alex’s stuffy events, she knew it was a given.
He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a soft squeeze. “Yeah, well. I don’t think you’re going to have to worry about stuffy formal events with me.”
She relaxed into his arms, letting her head fall back against his shoulder and sighed – amen to that. “I can’t believe you can do that whole fire-eating thing. It was really cool. Although I really can’t see you being a carnie.”
Graham chuckled. “Yeah, neither can I to be honest.”
“Then why did you want to do the training?”
“I was younger, thought fire eating was cool. Kirk got the crazy idea of taking the classes and it wasn’t hard for him to convince me to go along and give it a try.”
“So why didn’t you continue?” She turned in his arms as he repositioned himself so he was lying flat on his back, so she was stretched out over his body, staring down at him.
Graham laughed a little harder. “Meh, the fire eating is fun, even though I don’t do it anymore. I actually got a kick out of it and it really makes you the life of the party, but shoving swords down my throat and drilling my nose. Nah, it wasn’t my thing, I really hadn’t thought it through.”
Genevieve stroked the side of his face; despite shaving that morning a shadow was beginning to form on his jaw. “Today was one of the best days I’ve ever had. Thank you.”
He smiled. “You’re welcome. Although I think the day I met you would have been mine.”
She cocked her brow at him, a saucy grin spreading across her lips. “You mean the day you let me blow you without telling me I had the wrong person?”
He cleared his throat, a flash of guilt passing through his eyes. “What I mean is the fact I met you. Not necessarily the circumstances…”
She loved seeing him squirm and couldn’t resist teasing him further. “So you didn’t enjoy my lips on you?”