"You're trouble." her blue eyes sparkle with mischief, "Nothing but trouble."
"Nah," he laughs softly, pulling her into him, feeling the scrape of crystalline beads and delicate lace against his palms. He ponders it for a moment, his dark eyes softening in remembrance of how he had been before falling in love with her. In a way, his rebellion had been more of a way to hide his feelings for her than to defy his Dad and Nora. It was more about not slipping up, not letting them see that he had fallen hard and fast for her, than not abiding by whatever ground rules were in place. "I was trouble," he shrugs, conceding her point. "But, I'm not anymore."
"Oh yeah?" she smiles and he's not one for sappy romance but he swears she can light up entire cities with it. Just that little flash of white behind pale pink lips could soften even the hardest of men, and he'll deny it until the day he dies, but it was that very smile that did him in.
"Yeah." he nods, "You see, Case, I've got this girl who saved me from all that trouble."
"Did she now?" she inquires with a coy little smile.
She knows.
Of course, she knows.
Why wouldn't she? She's Casey McDonald, ahem, Venturi, she knows everything about him. She knows things about him that he couldn't say for sure he knew about himself. "Yeah," he grins, leaning down closer to her. He wants to kiss her but he also kind of wants to tease her, to keep her waiting and wondering if he'll do it. Here, in front of their family and friends, while they're moving around a dance floor. He's not usually the PDA type, but he's made so many exceptions for her, what's one more? "She did."
"Good." Casey breathes, slipping arms around his neck.
His arms tighten around her waist and he grins, pulling away slightly. "Only thing is, now that she has me, I'm not sure she'll let me go."
"You don't seem to mind."
He laughs, not because he finds her funny but because it's true. He didn't mind her hold on him at all, in fact, he's come to rather enjoy it. "Not really, see, she makes me happy."
And, there's that smile again. The one he swears could light up Toronto. "I'm glad."
He actually kisses her this time; brushing and rubbing and she's surging up into him, sighing into his mouth for all to hear because she doesn't care. It is more PDA than either of them have ever willingly shown in public but they're caught up in a moment and it just feels so good and so right that they can't seem to part until air becomes a necessity. She's his only exception, and she will always be his exception because she is it for him.
"Me too, Case."