Crossfire 01 Bared to You (49 page)

When Gideon showed up at my apartment later that evening, he found me soaking my aching body in my bathtub. Although I could tell he was fresh from a shower after his own workout with his personal trainer, he stripped and slid into the bath behind me, cradling me with his arms and legs. I whimpered as he rocked me.

“That good, huh?” he teased, catching my earlobe in his teeth.

“Who knew rolling around for an hour with a hot guy could be so exhausting?” Cary had been right about Krav Maga causing bruises; I could see a few shadows blooming beneath my skin already and we hadn’t even gotten to the hard stuff yet.

“I might be jealous,” Gideon murmured, squeezing my breasts, “if I didn’t know Smith was married with children.”

I snorted at yet another tidbit of knowledge he shouldn’t know. “Do you also know his shoe and hat sizes?”

“Not yet.” He laughed at my exasperated growl and I couldn’t hold back a smile at hearing the rare sound.

One day soon we were going to have to talk about his obsession with information gathering, but today wasn’t the day to get into it. We’d been at odds too much lately and Cary’s warning about making sure we had as much fun as not was ever-present in my mind.

Playing with the ring on Gideon’s finger, I told him about the conversation I’d had with my dad on Saturday and how his fellow cops had been ribbing him over the gossip about me dating
the
Gideon Cross.

He sighed. “I’m sorry.”

Turning, I faced him. “It’s not your fault you’re news. You can’t help being insanely attractive.”

“One of these days,” he said dryly, “I’ll figure out whether my face is a curse or not.”

“Well, if my opinion counts for anything, I’m rather fond of it.”

Gideon’s lips twitched and he touched my cheek. “Your opinion is the only one that means anything. And your dad’s. I want him to like me, Eva, not think I’m exposing his daughter to invasions of her privacy.”

“You’ll win him over. He just wants me to be safe and happy.”

He visibly relaxed and pulled me closer. “Do I make you happy?”

“Yes.” I rested my cheek over his heart. “I love being with you. When we’re not together, I wish we were.”

“You said you didn’t want to fight anymore,” he murmured in my hair. “It’s been bugging me. Are you getting tired of me fucking up all the time?”

“You do
not
fuck up all the time. And I’ve screwed up, too. Relationships are hard, Gideon. Most of them don’t have kick-ass sex like we do. I put us in the lucky column.”

He cupped water in his hand and poured in down my back, over and over, soothing me with its sinuous warmth. “I don’t really remember my dad.”

“Oh?” I tried to not tense up and reveal my surprise. Or my agitated excitement and desperate hunger to learn more about him. He’d never talked about his family before. It killed me not to prod with questions, but I didn’t want to push if he wasn’t ready….

His chest lifted and fell on a deep exhale. There was something in the sound of his sigh that brought my head up and ruined my intention to be cautious.

I ran my hand over his hard pectorals. “Want to talk about what you
do
remember?”

“Just…impressions. He wasn’t around much. He worked a lot. I guess I get my drive from him.”

“Maybe workaholism—is that a word?—is something you have in common, but that’s it.”

“How would you know?” he shot back, defiant.

Reaching up, I brushed the hair back from his face. “I’m sorry, Gideon, but your father was a fraud who took the easy, selfish way out. You don’t have it in you to be that way.”

“Not that way, no.” He paused. “But I don’t think he ever learned how to connect to people, how to care about anything but his own immediate needs.”

I studied him. “Do you think that describes you?”

“I don’t know,” he answered quietly.

“Well, I know, and it doesn’t.” I pressed a kiss to the tip of his nose. “You’re a keeper.”

“I better be.” His arms tightened around me. “I can’t think about you with someone else, Eva. Just the idea of another man seeing you the way I do, seeing you like this…putting his hands on you…It takes me to a dark place.”

“It’s not going to happen, Gideon.” I knew how he felt. I wouldn’t be able to bear it if he was intimate with another woman.

“You’ve changed everything for me. I couldn’t stand losing you.”

I hugged him. “The feeling’s mutual.”

Tilting my head back, Gideon took my mouth in a fierce kiss.

In moments it became clear we were soon going to be sloshing water all over the floor. I pulled away. “I need to eat if you want to go at it again, fiend.”

“Says the girlfriend rubbing her wet naked body all over me.” He sat back with a sinful smile.

“Let’s order cheap Chinese and eat it out of the box with chopsticks.”

“Let’s order good Chinese and do that.”

C
ary 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 and 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, 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, gestured 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?”