Chapter 19
CARY JOINED US in the living room for excellent Chinese, a sweet plum wine, and Monday night television.
As we flipped channels and laughed over the hilarious names of some reality television shows, I watched as two of the most important men in my life enjoyed some relaxation time and each other.
They got along well, ribbing and playfully insulting each other in that way men had.
I’d never seen that side of Gideon before and I loved it.
While I hogged one whole side of our sectional sofa, the two guys sat cross-legged on the floor and used the coffee table as a dining table. Both were wearing loose sweatpants and fitted T-shirts, and I appreciated the view. Was I a lucky girl or what?
Cracking his knuckles, Cary dramatically prepared to open his fortune cookie. “Let’s see. Will I be rich? Famous? About to meet Mr. or Ms. Tall, Dark, and Tasty? Traveling to distant lands? What’d you guys get?”
“Mine’s lame,” I said. “In the end all things will be known. Duh. I didn’t need a fortune to figure that out.”
Gideon opened his and read, “Prosperity will knock on your door soon.”
I snorted.
Cary shot me a look. “I know, right? You snatched someone else’s cookie, Cross.”
“He better not be anywhere near someone else’s cookie,” I said dryly.
Reaching over, Gideon plucked half of mine out of my fingers. “Don’t worry, angel. Your cookie is the only one I want.” He popped it in his mouth with a wink.
“Gag,” Cary muttered. “Get a room.” He cracked his fortune with a flourish, and then scowled. “What the fuck?”
I leaned forward. “What’s it say?”
“Confucius say,” Gideon ad-libbed, “man with hand in pocket feel cocky all day.”
Cary threw half his cookie at Gideon, who caught it deftly and grinned.
“Give me that.” I snatched the fortune out from between Cary’s fingers and read it. Then laughed.
“Fuck you, Eva.”
“Well?” Gideon prodded.
“Pick another cookie.”
Gideon smiled. “Pwned by a fortune.”
Cary threw the other half of his cookie.
I was reminded of similar evenings spent with Cary when I was attending SDSU, which made me try to picture what Gideon had been like in college. From the articles I’d read, I knew he’d attended Columbia for his undergraduate studies, then left to focus on his expanding business interests.
Had he associated with the other students? Did he go to frat parties, screw around, and/or drink too much? He was such a controlled man that I had a hard time picturing him that carefree, and yet here he was being exactly that with me and Cary.
He glanced at me then, still smiling, and my heart turned over in my chest. He looked his age for once, young and seriously fine and so very normal.
At that moment, we were just a twenty-something couple relaxing at home with a roommate and a remote control.
He was just my boyfriend, hanging out. It was all so sweet and uncomplicated, and I found the illusion a poignant one.
The intercom buzzed and Cary leaped to his feet to answer it. He glanced at me with a smile. “Maybe it’s Trey.”
I held up a hand with my fingers crossed.
But when Cary answered the door a few minutes later, it was the leggy blonde from the other night who came in.
“Hey,” she said, taking in the remnants of dinner on the table. She eyed Gideon appraisingly as he politely unfolded and stood in that powerfully graceful way of his. She shot me a smirk, then unleashed a dazzling supermodel smile on Gideon and held out her hand. “Tatiana Cherlin.”
He shook her hand. “Eva’s boyfriend.”
My brows lifted at his introduction. Was he protecting his identity? Or his personal space? Either way, I liked his response.
Cary came back into the room with a bottle of wine and two glasses. “Come on,” he said, gesturing down the hallway to his bedroom.
Tatiana gave a little wave and preceded Cary out. I mouthed behind her back to Cary, What are you doing?
He winked and whispered, “Picking another cookie.”
Gideon and I called it a night shortly after and headed to my room. As we got ready for bed, I asked him something I’d wondered about earlier. “Did you have a fuck pad in college, too?”
His T-shirt cleared his head. “Excuse me?”
“You know, like the hotel room. You’re a randy guy. I just wondered if you’d had some kind of setup even then.”
He was shaking his head as I ogled his divinely perfect torso and lean hips. “I’ve had as much sex since I met you as I’ve had in the last two years combined.”
“No way.”
“I work hard and I work out harder, both of which keep me pleasantly exhausted most of the time. Occasionally, I might’ve gotten an offer I didn’t refuse, but otherwise I could take or leave sex until I met you.”
“Bullshit.” I found that impossible to believe.
He shot me a look before he headed toward the bathroom with a black leather toiletry bag. “Keep doubting me, Eva. See what happens.”
“What?” I followed him, enjoying the sight of his delectable ass. “You’re going to prove that you can take or leave sex by doing me again?”
“It takes two.” He opened his bag and pulled out a new toothbrush that he extricated from its packaging and dropped into my toothbrush holder. “You’ve initiated sex between us as much as I have. You need the connection as much as I do.”
“You’re right. It’s just . . .”
“Just what?” He pulled open a drawer, frowned at finding it full, and moved on to pull open another.
“Other sink,” I said, smiling at his presumption that he would get drawers at my place, too, and his scowl when he couldn’t find them. “They’re all yours.”
Gideon moved over to the second sink and began unpacking his bag into the drawers. “Just what?” he repeated, taking shampoo and body wash over to my shower.
Leaning my hip into the sink and crossing my arms, I watched him stake his claim all over my bathroom. There was no doubt that was what he was doing, just as there was no doubt that anyone walking into the room would know right away there was a man in my life.
It struck me then that I had a similar claim on his private space. His household staff had to know their boss was in a committed relationship now. The thought gave me a little thrill.
“I was thinking about you in college earlier,” I went on, “when we were eating dinner, imagining what it would be like to see you around on campus. I would’ve been obsessed with you.
I would have gone out of my way to see you around just to enjoy the view.
I would’ve tried to get in the same classes as you, so I could daydream during lectures about getting into your pants. ”
“Sex maniac.” He kissed the tip of my nose as he passed me and went to brush his teeth. “We both know what would’ve happened once I saw you.”
I brushed my hair and teeth, then washed my face. “So . . . did you have a sex pad for the rare occasions some lucky bitch got you in bed?”
His gaze caught my soapy reflection in the mirror. “I’ve always used the hotel.”
“That’s the only place you’ve had sex? Before me?”
“The only place I’ve had consensual sex,” he said quietly, “before you.”
“Oh.” My heart broke.
I walked over to him, hugging him from behind. I rubbed my cheek against his back.
We went to bed and wrapped ourselves around each other. I buried my face in his neck and breathed him in, snuggling. His body was hard, yet it was wonderfully comfortable against mine. He was so warm and strong, so powerfully male. I only had to think of him to want him.
I slid my leg over his hips and rose above him, my hands splayed atop the ridges of his abdomen.
It was dark. I couldn’t see him, but I didn’t need to.
As much as I loved that face of his—the one he resented at times—it was the way he touched me and murmured to me that really got to me.
As if there were no one else in the world for him, nothing he wanted more.
“Gideon.” I didn’t need to say anything else.
Sitting up, he wrapped his arms around me and kissed me deeply. Then he rolled me beneath him and made love to me with a tender possessiveness that rocked me to my soul.
I woke with a jolt of surprise. A heavy weight crushed me and a harsh voice spit ugly, nasty words into my ear. Panic gripped me, cutting off my air.
Not again. No . . . Please, no . . .
My stepbrother’s hand covered my mouth and he yanked my legs apart.
I felt the hard thing between his legs poking blindly, trying to push into my body.
My scream was muffled by his palm smashed over my lips and I cringed away, my heart pounding so hard I thought it would burst. Nathan was so heavy.
So heavy and strong. I couldn’t buck him off. I couldn’t shove him away.
Stop it! Get off me. Don’t touch me. Oh, God . . . please don’t do that to me . . . not again . . .
Where was Mama? Mama!
I screamed, but Nathan’s hand covered my mouth. It pressed down on me, squashing my head into the pillow. The more I fought, the more excited he became. Panting like a dog, he rammed against me over and over . . . trying to shove himself inside me . . .
“You’re going to know what it feels like.”
I froze. I knew that voice. I knew it wasn’t Nathan’s.
Not a dream. Still a nightmare.
God, no. Blinking madly in the darkness, I struggled to see. The blood was roaring through my ears. I couldn’t hear.
But I knew the smell of his skin. Knew his touch, even when it was cruel. Knew the feel of his body on mine, even as it tried to invade me.
Gideon’s erection battered into the crease of my thigh. Panicked, I heaved upward with all my strength. His hand on my face dislodged.
Sucking air into my lungs, I screamed.
His chest heaved as he growled, “Not so neat and tidy when you’re the one getting fucked.”
“Crossfire,” I gasped.
A flash of light from the hallway blinded me, followed by the blessed removal of Gideon’s smothering weight. Rolling to my side, I sobbed, my eyes streaming tears that blurred my view of Cary shoving Gideon across the room and into the wall, denting the drywall.