He squeezed my shoulders, and then let me go.
“That’s our dinner.”
I didn’t fol ow him when he left, feeling too unsettled to eat. Instead, I crawled onto the bed that was exactly like my own and curled around a pil ow, closing my eyes. I didn’t hear Gideon come back, but I felt him as he drew to a stop at the edge of the bed.
“Please don’t make me eat alone,” he said to my rigid back.
“Why don’t you just order me to eat with you?” He sighed, and then slid onto the bed to spoon behind me. His warmth was welcome, chasing away the chil that had brought goose bumps to my skin. He didn’t say anything for a long while, just gave me the comfort of having him close. Or maybe he was taking comfort in me.
“Eva.” His fingers caressed the length of my silk-clad arm. “I can’t stand you being unhappy. Talk to me.”
“I don’t know what to say. I thought we were final y coming to a point where things would smooth out between us.” I hugged the pil ow tighter.
“Don’t tense up, Eva. It hurts when you pul away from me.”
I felt like he was
Rol ing, I shoved him to his back; then I mounted him, my robe parting as I straddled his hips. I ran the palms of my hands over his powerful chest and raked the tanned flesh with my nails. My hips undulated over him, stroking my bare cleft over his cock. Through the thin silk of his pants, I could feel every ridge and thick vein. From the way his eyes darkened and his sculpted mouth parted on quickened breaths, I knew he could feel the outline and damp heat of me as wel .
“Is this so awful for you?” I asked, rocking my hips.
“Are you lying there thinking you’re not giving me what I want because I’m in charge?”
Gideon set his hands on my thighs. Even that innocuous touch seemed dominating.
The edginess and sharpened focus I’d detected not long ago abruptly made sense to me—he wasn’t restraining his force of wil anymore.
The tremendous power coiled inside him was now directed at me like a blast of heat.
“I’ve told you before,” he said huskily. “I’l take you however I can get you.”
“Whatever. Don’t think I don’t know you’re topping from the bottom.”
His mouth curved with unapologetic amusement.
Sliding down, I teased the flat disk of his nipple with the tip of my tongue. I blanketed him as he’d done to me in the past, stretching my body over his hips and legs, my hands shoving beneath his gorgeous ass to squeeze the firm flesh and hold him tight against me.
His cock was a thick column against my bel y, renewing my fierce appetite for him.
“Are you going to punish me with pleasure?” he asked quietly. “Because you can. You can bring me to my knees, Eva.”
My forehead dropped to his chest and the air left my lungs in an audible rush. “I wish.”
“Please don’t be so worried. We’l get through this along with everything else.”
“You’re so positive you’re right.” My gaze narrowed.
“You’re trying to prove a point.”
“And you might prove yours.” Gideon licked his lower lip and my sex clenched in silent demand.
There was a bril iant depth of emotion in his eyes.
Whatever else was going on in our relationship, there was no doubt we were seriously twisted up over each other.
And I was about to demonstrate that in the flesh.
Gideon’s neck arched as my mouth moved over his torso. “Oh, Eva.”
“Your world’s about to be rocked, Mr. Cross.” It was. I made sure of it.
Feeling goofy with feminine triumph, I sat at Gideon’s dining table and remembered him as he’d been just a short time ago—damp with sweat and panting, cursing as I took my time savoring his luscious body.
He swal owed a bite of his steak, which had been kept hot courtesy of a warming drawer, and said calmly, “You’re insatiable.”
“Wel , duh. You’re gorgeous, sexy, and very wel -
hung.”
“I’m glad you approve. I’m also extremely wealthy.” I waved one hand carelessly, encompassing the whole of what had to be a fifty-mil ion-dol ar apartment.
“Who cares about that?”
“Wel , I do, actual y.” His mouth curved.
I stabbed my fork into a German fried potato, thinking that Peter Luger food was almost as good as sex. Almost. “I’m interested in your money only if it means you can afford to stop working in favor of lounging around naked as my sex slave.”
