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)
“You just can’t help yourself, can you?” he asked, his voice mirroring the smugness on his insufferable face.
Beth refused to ask him what he meant by that. She wasn’t much of a talker, and she didn’t think of herself as nosy. They’d been having a relatively amicable conversation. She didn’t consider her question overly intrusive. In fact, it was a perfectly reasonable follow-up to their earlier discussion.
Yet that one question from Gideon had put her on the defensive and had made her feel intolerably meddlesome.
She finally averted her gaze and glared down at her feet. She truly disliked how foolish this man made her feel at times.
“My brothers, Lennox and Niall, both work for my dad. Niall in Edinburgh, Nox in New York,” he said. The information, volunteered in a gruff undertone, made her lift her head in surprise. He looked a little confused, as if he wasn’t sure why he’d told her that. His lips thinned and he shook his head and continued, “McKenna, my sister, is an oncologist. She’s in the Cape, but she’s busy and I rarely see her.”
It was a surprisingly detailed response. Beth had expected a mere “yes” or “no”.
“And your mother?” Beth knew she was pushing it and his eyes flashed in impatience. Or irritation. She couldn’t be sure which.
“Why do you want to know this stuff, anyway? I feel like I’m leaking state secrets to the enemy.”
His surly question made her grin and he blinked for a second, seeming surprised by her smile.
“Like the saying goes…keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
His eyelids slid to half-mast, not fast enough to disguise the smolder that began to burn in his eyes.
When he spoke, his voice had thickened to a rasp. “That why you fucked me? Because it’s a surefire way of keeping me closer? That works for me too, come to think of it. We can sniff out each other’s dirty little secrets for future nefarious purposes and what not. Anytime you wanna get frisky, Lizzy, we’ll be right here.”
The we distracted her and she couldn’t help it, she had to ask. “We?”
“My cock and I.”
She covered her eyes with her hand and sighed. She had walked right into that one.
He continued, “My good friend, Hugh G Rection, and I are always happy to show you a good time.”
It took her a second, but when the stupid pun sank in, she couldn’t help but giggle. She immediately clapped her hand over her mouth as if to shove the sound back inside and he grinned.
“You know it’s an apt name, Lizzy-bit,” he told her, that smile still flirting around the corners of his mouth. “I know he can’t beat Mr. Thailand’s Powerful Pussy Pounder, but he holds his own.”
“Oh my God, shut up,” she moaned, and screwed her eyes shut while she fought back her laughter. Damn him. He was unrepentantly, ridiculously, dirty. And Beth found that she was really starting to enjoy his witty, off-color, borderline adolescent sense of humor. “You’re such a child.”
His grin widened into a perfect smile. He carefully placed the empty glass back onto its coaster and leaned over the kitchen counter. All traces of his smile disappeared and his eyes bored into hers intently.
Beth’s throat went dry at that meaningful look and—when he opened his mouth to speak—she felt herself straining toward him, eager to hear what would say next.
“I know I am…” he intoned soberly, his eyes narrowing. “But what are you?”
This time she couldn’t stop the laughter from bubbling from her lips and he sat back and watched her with a satisfied glint in his eyes and a soft smile on his lips.
Watching Beth laugh so unreservedly was stupidly satisfying. She looked different. Far from her usual pinched, prim self. Free and unrestrained. Gideon liked it, he wanted to see her laugh more often. It was oddly erotic, the way her face lit up and her eyes narrowed. How she put the entirety of that neat, compact body into the frothy, joyful sound that seemed to effervesce from her mouth.
It was too damned erotic, and Gideon’s cock was starting to live up to the ridiculous moniker with which he had spontaneously christened it earlier.
He had to get out of here.
Before he decided that keeping his enemy close was an absolute priority right now. Close enough to smell, feel, taste, touch…fuck.
Yeah. No. Gideon had to leave.
Right.
Fucking.
Now.
“Let me know if you have any immediate issues with the gutter,” he said, cutting her laughter off with an abruptness that bordered on rude. The cessation of the sound was goddamn tragic and Gideon hated that he was the one responsible for it. Then hated it even more when her face rearranged itself into its customarily earnest expression.
“Uhm, yes. Of course. Thank you…for what you did.”
“Not a problem. But get a professional in to fix it properly.”