Chapter Twenty-One Lena
Chapter Twenty-One
Lena
The bed is empty.
Well, aside from me.
Waking up alone isn’t unusual. Ever since I adjusted to the time change, I rarely wake up before six. And since I’ve been sleeping in Gideon’s bed, I sleep like a baby. Nightmares are rare now, and sleeping in his arms is an addiction I don’t want to recover from.
I think it would drive me crazy if I had to go back to sleeping without him. And the best part is, I don’t have to.
He said I can stay.
Gideon almost always wakes up before me, leaves me to sleep in this big, cozy bed while he gets some work, or a workout, in before I get up and start my day.
It’s become a routine, and I kind of love it. It feels so . . . easy. So perfect for us. And this morning is no different.
It’s been a week since the incident at the shooting range, and I’m determined to get back out there today to shoot that damn rifle. Gideon’s kept me away from there, focusing on hand-to-hand and other exercises, but I’m ready to try again.
I will succeed today.
I know I can do it. I feel so much stronger since I’ve lived here with Gideon. The bad moments are fewer and farther between, and since our conversation last week, I’ve felt a shift in me and how I feel about the entire incident.
It’s still the worst night of my life.
But I realize that it wasn’t my fault. Those shooters would have been there with or without me in attendance. I’m not the reason that Gideon was shot.
I still hate it, but I’ve let a lot of the guilt go.
And today, I’m going to shoot the rifle that scares me and let that go too.
I climb from the bed and wander into the bathroom to do my business, pull my hair up into a ponytail, and after I brush my teeth, I wash my face and then move to the closet to pull on some leggings and a baggy sweatshirt over a sports bra.
No matter what we decide to do today, this outfit will work for it.
After I leave the bedroom in search of coffee, I hear Gideon’s voice in his office, and I stop in the doorway, watching him.
He’s in his usual uniform of black tee and black tactical pants, and his tattoos are delicious in the early-morning light. Just looking at him makes me wet.
But I don’t like the way he’s rubbing his forehead in agitation or the hard set of his shoulders.
“Yes, Madam President.”
I lift an eyebrow. He’s talking to my mom.
His eyes lift to mine, and he offers me a half smile, making my thighs clench.
Christ, he’s handsome.
His eyes fall to where I’m clenching my legs together, and he smirks.
“She’s doing well. Would you like to speak to her?”
No, she likely won’t.
Gideon scowls, confirming my suspicions.
“It’s no trouble, she’s right—yes, ma’am. Understood.”
He hangs up and sighs, and I cross the room to him. Gideon shoves his chair back from the desk as I move to stand in front of him, and he buries his face in my stomach as his arms come around my hips and he hugs me.
My hands dive into his hair, enjoying him.
“This isn’t the longest I’ve gone without speaking to my parents,” I inform him softly. “Once, when I was in high school and they were on a tour of Europe, I didn’t see or speak to them for about four months.”
He tips his head back so he can look up at me with those hard steel eyes. “I fucking hate that.”
“It just is what it is.” Dragging my hands down to his cheeks, I bend down to kiss him. “I’m fine, Gideon. Better than fine. Are things resolved in DC?”
“No.” He kisses my stomach, and then he pulls me into his lap and nuzzles my neck, making me laugh. He probably won’t tell me any more than that.
I’m on a need-to-know basis when it comes to my own life as far as my mother’s concerned.
“I’m going to make us breakfast today,” I inform him. “I’ve been watching YouTube videos to learn, and the other day, Willow walked me through making French toast.”
“You need protein with that,” he informs me, still kissing and nuzzling my neck.
“I’ll make bacon and eggs too.”
His hand drifts up and down my thigh and around to my ass.
“What are you doing?” I ask him.
“Trying to seduce my girl,” he growls, making me grin.
“Aside from that.”
He lifts his head and kisses my nose. “I was at war with a spreadsheet.”
“Why?”
“Because I fucking suck at spreadsheets.”
“Well, lucky for you, I’m good at them. I can help.”
The idea thrills me, and my chest clenches in excitement. I can help him. I can be helpful and put some of the classes I took to use.
I turn around and, still sitting in his lap, wait while Gideon types his password into the computer, and the spreadsheet that comes up has my eyes crossing.
“Jesus, big guy.”
“Told you.” He points to numbers on a page, information in two different emails, and I can figure out quickly what he needs in the spreadsheet. “It’s taken me three days to get that far.”
“I can do this in less than two hours.”
He stills behind me, and then his lips land on my shoulder. “You’re hired.”
Excitement stirs in my belly, and I turn to smile at him over my shoulder. “Really?”
“Hell yes. If you can do this for me, I’ll give you anything you want.”
With a snort, I turn back to get to work, opening a fresh spreadsheet to start from scratch, and Gideon moves my ponytail over the front of my shoulder and kisses the back of my neck, making my nipples pucker.
“I’m supposed to be working,” I murmur as I try to concentrate.
“Good girl. So dedicated. Such a work ethic.” His hands roam under the baggy sweatshirt, slide up my sides and over to my breasts. “Have I told you lately how much I love the metal right here?”
“Once or twice.” Jesus, my panties are already soaked, and my fingers tremble as I try to focus on the task at hand. Gideon flicks one nipple, and I gasp. “Shit, I can’t work like this.”
“You’d better.” He lifts the sweatshirt all the way off and lets it fall aside, then works my sports bra off, and goose bumps pebble up from the cool air. “Be a good girl and keep working for me, Rebel. If you stop, you don’t get to come.”
His teeth graze the ball of my shoulder as his hands drift down my stomach and into the waistband of my leggings, working down until he’s cupping my pussy, and when he finds how wet I am, we both groan.
“Look at how wet you are, baby. Goddamn, you make me insane. What do you need?”
“You.”
“More specific.”
I swallow thickly, my hips circling with every movement of his fingers. “I need you inside me so bad I ache with it.”
“Mm, I like that.” He bites the side of my neck, making me whimper. “I fucking like that a lot. I want you aching for me all the damn time. Did you wake up like this?”
“No.”
“What turned you on? What made this pretty pussy so fucking wet for me?”
“Just . . . you.”
His fingers move between my lips, then back up to swirl around my clit, and I lean back into his touch, abandoning the keyboard altogether.
“You stopped working,” he growls against my ear as he pulls his hand out of my leggings, making me gasp in outrage as he licks his fingers clean. “I told you what would happen.”
“Gideon.”
“Don’t forget who’s in charge here, Rebel.” He bites my earlobe and then pushes me forward until I’m standing and bent over his desk. “I think I’ll edge you for a little while, just to remind you who the boss is.”
“Fuck.”
“Oh, we will. Don’t worry about that.” He grips onto the sides of my leggings and yanks them down and off, and I’m bent over his desk completely naked. “God, you’re gorgeous.”
His hand glides up over my spine from my ass to my neck, and I curl into his touch like a cat. I never get enough of his hands on me. After I’ve gone without touch and affection for so long, being with Gideon every day is absolute bliss.
“You’re so good at that.” My voice is breathy and quiet, and I feel him grin against the small of my back before he bites my ass cheek, making me squirm.
“You have the softest skin,” he says. “Like velvet.”
“It’s all in the lotion you use.”
He smacks my ass, and I gasp before chuckling.
“Keep running your perfect little mouth, Rebel, and see what it gets you.”
“Hopefully more of that.”
He swats me again and then rubs his hand over it, soothing the sting. “I love your sass.” His fingers trace the crack of my ass and down over that puckered muscle on their way through my sopping pussy.
He comes back up again without touching my clit, which has my legs scissoring back and forth.
“Are you all worked up, baby?”
“You know I am.”
“Good.” He bites my butt cheek before kissing it and then leaves wet kisses up my spine to my neck, and he wraps a hand around my throat, pulls me upright, and kisses my lips. His tongue licks into my mouth, and he grinds his hardness against my backside, but he’s still fully dressed.
“You need to get naked.”
He quirks an eyebrow. “You’re. Not. In charge.”
“Please get naked?”
His lips quirk, but they don’t smile.
“I need you to fuck me, big guy.” His fingers dive into my pussy, hard, and he starts to finger fuck me, and holy shit. “Oh, yes. Yes yes yes.”
“God, you’re tight.” He nips at my shoulder, and then he pulls his fingers out and spins me around, kissing me as he unfastens his pants.
When his cock springs free, he lifts me in his arms and walks me to the wall, pinning me there.
“You make me lose control,” he growls against my lips as he slides inside me, making me whimper. “And I never lose fucking control, Lena.”
“You’re safe with me.”
At my whispered words, he starts to pound mercilessly. He pins one of my hands above my head and fucks me harder, more intensely than ever before.
“Rub that clit and come for me.” He licks my bottom lip, and I know I can’t tell him no.
I lick my middle finger, making his eyes blow wide with so much lust, my pussy clenches around him tighter, and then I move my hand between us and circle that little bundle of nerves, making us shudder.
“Just like that. You’re going to come all over my cock.” He bites my lower lip, and I gasp, right on the edge. “Make a mess of us.”
“Gideon.”
“That’s right. Say my name while I fuck you, baby.”
“Gideon.”
“Go over. You’re so fucking gorgeous like this. Come now.”
His voice is like gravel, his cock hard and hitting just the right spot, and I couldn’t stop this orgasm if I tried.
I clamp down on him, and he ruts into me, growling as he follows me over the edge and splashes his cum inside me.
His lips find mine, but they’re softer now. Tender. And when he lets go of my wrist, I wrap them both around his neck, and he buries his face against me.
“Mine,” he whispers.
“Yours,” I agree.
“That was really good,” Gideon says with just a hint of surprise in his voice as we clean up the breakfast dishes.
“I told you, I’m learning. I have to earn my keep.” I snort at that, and then suddenly, I’m in Gideon’s arms, and he’s kissing the top of my head.
“You don’t have to earn anything.”
“I know my mom’s paying you—”
“No, she’s not.”
I spin and stare up at him in shock. “What?”
“I turned it down.” He kisses my nose. “She thinks I’m doing her a personal favor.
I can’t accept money for having you here when I have no intentions of ever letting you leave, and I’m happy to protect and care for you, Lena.
No one needs to pay me to do that. This is no longer a job for me. It’s a relationship.”
Holy mother of God.
I don’t know what to say.
I’m at once overjoyed and annoyed.
“But—”
He steps away, not touching me at all now, and I need his hands on me, so I step with him and wrap my arms around his waist.
“Don’t pull away from me.”
“Then tell me what the hell you’re thinking.”
I lick my lips and frown up at him. “You spent a lot of money on me when I first got here, and we weren’t in a relationship then.”
Holy shit, we’re in a relationship.
“I already have plenty of money, Lena. If you’d ever like to see my portfolio, I’m happy to show you. Ryker’s a finance guy, and he’s made us both very rich men. I can afford to buy you anything in the world you might need or want. Your clothes and art supplies were no big deal.”
I blink at him for a full ten seconds. “Whether you’re wealthy or not isn’t the point.”
He brushes a piece of my hair off my face and behind my ear in that way that I love so much.
“Then what is the point, baby?”
“I think you should be reimbursed for those things, at least. I understand not wanting a paycheck, but it’s her fault that I couldn’t bring anything at all with me. She should have to pay for that, and she’d expect to.”
He sighs, narrows his eyes, and cups the side of my neck in his big hand. “I’ll let her know she owes me for that initial night of online shopping, but that’s it, Lena. That’s as far as I’ll compromise.”
“I can live with that. And now I really have to pull my weight around here.”
“What are you even talking about?”
“I want to cook and clean up and help you with your spreadsheets and anything else you need. I can’t just work out, learn how to kick someone’s ass, and sketch all day every day. That’ll get old fast.”
He swallows hard. “I’m going to warn you right now, baby, living out here isn’t easy. You’ll start to feel isolated, and eventually, you might want to move back to the city.”
Frowning, I stare at him again, and then I roll my eyes.
“Did you just roll your eyes at me, Rebel?”
“Yes. For fuck’s sake, Gideon, I’ve been here for weeks.
I’m not bored. I don’t miss crowds of people, or being harassed by the paps, or anything like that.
Sure, I could use a restaurant meal once a week, but when things die down, we can do that.
I’m not telling you I want to leave—I’m telling you I want to be a partner.
I want to do my part for this household.
Because if you don’t intend to let me leave, and I don’t intend to do the leaving, this is my house too. ”
A slow grin moves over his impossibly handsome face, and he pulls me in tighter and ghosts his lips over mine.
“It’s all yours, baby. Learn to cook, do whatever you want. But you need to tell me if you ever start to miss the city. Because we can take trips. I want to make sure you never start to hate it out here.”
“Did Debbie start to hate it?”
“Fuck no, getting her off the ranch took bribery and tears.”
“What about Willow?”
“She loves it here, with the occasional trip to town, or Seattle.”
“So what makes you think that I won’t be content too?” I tilt my head and thread my fingers through the hair at the back of his head. “I love the quiet. I love your mountains. I don’t want to go anywhere.”
“Good.” He slaps my ass and steps away from me. “Now, let’s go to the gym.”
“Can we go to the range?”
His brow furrows. “Baby, we don’t have to—”
“I want to. I need to shoot that damn rifle.”
He’s already shaking his head, but I take his hand and give it a squeeze.
“I’m good. I’ve got this. Let me kick some ass today.”
He sighs, examines my face, and then nods. “Let’s kick some ass, Rebel.”