Bared to You: A Crossfire Novel

today and I agreed. Now we need to—”

“If I’m not what you want, just spit it out!” I set the picture frame and my glass down before I did something with them I’d regret. “Don’t try and pretty it up with—”

He was around the desk and on me before I could stumble back more than a couple steps. His mouth sealed over mine, his arms caged me. As he’d done earlier, he carried me to a wal and restrained me against it, his hands banding my wrists and lifting them high above my head.

Trapped, I could nothing as he bent his knees and stroked my cleft with the rigid length of his erection.

Once, twice. Silk rasped against my swol en clit. The bite of his teeth on my covered nipple sent a shiver through me, while the clean scent of his warm skin intoxicated me. With a gasp, I sagged into his embrace.

“See how easily you submit when I take over?” His lips fol owed the arch of my brow. “And it feels good doesn’t it? It feels right.”

“That’s not fair.” I stared up at him. How could he expect me to respond any differently? As disturbed and confounded as I was, I was helplessly drawn to him.

“Of course it is. It’s also true.”

My gaze roamed over that glorious mane of inky hair and the chiseled lines of his incomparable face.

The longing I felt was so acute it was painful. The hidden damage inside him only made me love him more. There were times when I felt like I’d found the other half of myself in him.

“I can’t help it that you turn me on,” I muttered, “My body is physiological y supposed to soften and relax, so you can shove that big cock inside me.”

“Eva. Let’s be honest. You want me to have total control. It’s important to you that you can trust me to take care of you. There’s nothing wrong with that. The reverse is true for me—I need you to trust me enough to give up that control.”

I couldn’t think when he was pressed up against me, my body achingly aware of every hard inch of him. “I am not submissive.”

“You are with me. If you look back, you’l see you’ve been yielding to me al along.”

“You’re good in bed! And have more experience. Of course I let you do what you want to me.” I bit my lower lip to stop it from quivering. “I’m sorry I haven’t been as exciting for you.”

“Bul shit, Eva. You know how much I enjoy making love to you. If I could get away with it, I’d do nothing else. We’re not talking about games that get me off.”

“Then we’re talking about what gets me off? Is that what this is?”

“Yes. I thought so.” He frowned. “You’re upset. I didn’t mean—Damn it. I thought discussing this would help us.”

“Gideon.” My eyes stung, then flooded with tears. He looked as wounded and confused as I felt. “You’re breaking my heart.”

Releasing my wrists, he stepped back and swept me up in his arms, carrying me out of his office and down the hal way to a closed door. “Turn the knob,” he said quietly.

We entered a candlelit room that stil smel ed faintly of new paint. For a few seconds I was disoriented, unable to comprehend how we’d stepped out of Gideon’s apartment and into my bedroom.

“I don’t understand.” A serious understatement, but my brain was stil trying to get past the feeling of being teleported from one residence to another. “You…

moved me in with you?”

“Not quite.” He set me down, but kept an arm around me. “I recreated your room based on the photo I took of you sleeping.”

“Why?”

What the hel ? Who did something like that? Was this al to keep me from witnessing his nightmares?

The thought shattered my heart further. I felt like Gideon and I were drifting further away from each other by the moment.

His hands sifted through my damp hair, which only increased my agitation. I felt like batting his touch away and putting at least the length of the room between us.

Maybe two rooms.

“If you feel the need to run,” he said softly, “you can come in here and shut the door. I promise not to bother you until you’re ready. This way, you have your safe place and I know that you haven’t left me.” A mil ion questions and speculations roared through my mind, but the one thing that stuck out was, “Are we stil going to share a bed when we’re sleeping?”

“Every night.” Gideon’s lips touched my forehead.

“How could you think otherwise? Talk to me, Eva.

What’s going through that beautiful head of yours?”

“What’s going through my head?” I snapped. “What the fuck is going on in yours? What happened to you in the four days we were broken up?”

His jaw tightened. “We never broke up, Eva.” The phone rang in the other room. I cursed under my breath. I wanted us to talk and I wanted him to go away, both at the same time.