Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
His phone pinged and he picked it up listlessly. It was probably another pointless meme from Niall.
He glanced down and blinked at the message uncomprehendingly.
He blinked a couple of times, but the message remained on screen. He ran an agitated hand through his hair not sure what the hell this was.
He tapped a hasty one-handed reply, while pushing away from his desk and nearly sending his desk chair toppling.
No hesitation before her:
Beth sighed when he pounded on the door, then knocked on the glass panes, before finally ringing the doorbell all in the space of five seconds. She sucked in a deep breath and nervously smoothed back her hair. She wasn’t entirely sure how to go about this. She opened the door to find him looming out there, staring at her intently, hair a mess, blue shirt sloppily tucked into one side of his faded jeans.
“You still haven’t learned to use the doorbell.” The complaint fell from her lips in a familiar scolding tone that surprised and pleased her. She sounded almost normal. “I swear to God, Gideon, one day you’re going to smash one of my irreplaceable glass panes.”
“I’m rich as fuck. Nothing is irreplaceable when you’re rich as fuck,” he growled, and she bit back a grin, relaxing a fraction.
Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all. Perhaps she could bluff and bluster her way through this encounter until her faking it actually transformed into making it.
“You sound like your father. And that’s not necessarily a good thing.”
“About the pond?” he prompted.
“Of course, follow me,” she invited, and walked through the living room toward the patio door. On the way they passed the open door of her office and Gideon came to an abrupt halt.
“What’s—” She followed the direction of his gaze and wrinkled her nose. “Oh.”
“You little hypocrite,” he seethed without heat, and she grimaced.
“Busted?” she squeaked questioningly, and he burst into laughter, the sound rough and a little desperate—as if he wasn’t quite sure he should be laughing, but really had no idea how else to react.
“All this time…?”
“Oh yes,” she admitted without shame. “Full on spying every morning since the day after you moved in.”
“And yet you let me simmer in guilt and then put on that fucking show for weeks after you caught me.”
“Well, it’s not polite to watch a woman through her windows at night, Gideon.”
“Neither is it polite to ogle a man’s half-naked body while he’s working out, Beth.”
“I enjoyed the hell out of it though.”
He groaned softly and stared down at her with vulnerable hope and fear on his face.
“What’s happening, Beth? Am I really here about the pond?”
She wet her lips and his gaze dipped to her mouth, before he tore them away determinedly, focusing on her eyes instead.
“Among other things.”
“Please…”
Just the one word, an abject plea to put him out of his misery.
“Tell me what happened that day. I can’t close the book on us until I know every side of the story.”
He nodded, his face pale, brow beaded with sweat, and she could see the genuine terror in his eyes. He believed that even after she heard what he had to say, she would still find his actions unforgivable. And she may yet…but she needed to know.
“Let’s sit down,” she invited, and he dropped into the nearest love seat. She took the chair across from him.
“Firstly, Beth, that night—what happened between us was transcendent. It was fucking beautiful. I wasn’t lying when I told you it was the best night of my life. It wasn’t just the best night, it was the best moment. Nothing could ever compare to how I felt when I woke up next to you that morning. That sense of belonging, of homecoming. I was on such a high when I went to breakfast, I hated leaving you, and obviously I’ve since come to regret it more than you will ever know.
“Niall confronted me after breakfast, he wanted to apologize for blowing the whistle on Quilla the night before. Apparently, it hadn’t been his intention to create tension, he just thought it was good and wanted me to know that, but then Dad and Nox, and you know what happened at that dinner. Niall and I had a good talk and I couldn’t wait to tell you about it, but I couldn’t find you.”
Gideon watched Beth’s face carefully, not quite sure how she was reacting to all of this. Her expression was a closed book
“Oh, I was in the lion’s den,” she told him. Her voice cautious as if she wasn’t certain how he was going to respond to that information. “Your father wanted to grill me about what you’d been up to.”
“You told him nothing,” he said, wanting her to know that he knew that. That he believed it.
That he’d been wrong to ever think differently.