He made an exasperated noise. “Help me understand.”

“I can’t hear your heart racing when I’m gasping for breath. I can’t feel you shaking when I’m shaking, too. I can’t taste you when my mouth is dry from begging you to finish me off.”

His beautiful face softened. “I lose my mind every time I come inside you. Let that be enough.”

I shook my head. “You’ve said I’m like your favorite wet dream made real. Those dreams couldn’t have all been about getting the girl off. What about the blowjobs? The hand jobs? You love my tits. Don’t you want to fuck them until you come all over me?”

“Jesus, Eva.” His cock thickened in my grip.

Brushing my parted lips across his, I deftly opened his slacks. “I want to be your dirtiest fantasy,” I whispered. “I want to be filthy for you.”

“You’re already what I want you to be,” he said darkly.

“Am I?” I ran my nails lightly down his sides, biting my lower lip when he hissed. “Then do it for me. I love those moments after you’ve seen to me and you’re chasing your own orgasm. When your rhythm and focus changes, and you get ferocious. I know you’re just thinking about how good it feels and how hot you are and how hard you’re going to come. It makes me feel so good to get you that worked up. I want a whole night of feeling like that.”

His hands squeezed my thighs. “With one stipulation.”

“What is it?”

“You get tonight. Next weekend, the game’s on me.”

My mouth fell open. “I get a night, you get a whole weekend?”

“Umm … a whole weekend of seeing to you.”

“Man,” I muttered, “you drive a hard bargain.”

His smile was razor sharp. “That’s the plan.”

“OUR mom says that our dad is a real sex machine.”

Gideon glanced at me, grinning, from where he sat beside me on the floor. “You’ve got a weird catalog of movie lines in that gorgeous head of yours, angel.”

I took a swig from my bottled water and swallowed just in time to recite the next line from Kindergarten Cop. “My dad’s a gynecologist and he looks at vaginas all day long.”

His laughter made me so happy I felt as if I could float away. He was bright-eyed and more relaxed than I’d seen him since forever. Some of that had to do with the straight-to-the-point blowjob I’d given him on the couch, followed by a long, slow, slippery hand job in the shower. But a lot of it came from me, I knew.

When I was in a good mood, he was, too. It amazed me that I had a profound influence on such a man. Gideon was a force of nature, his magnetic self-possession so powerful it put everyone around him in his shadow. I saw flashes of it every day and was awed by it, but not nearly as much as I was by the charming, wryly amusing lover I had entirely to myself in our private moments together.

“Hey,” I said, “you won’t be laughing when your kids tell their teachers the same things about you.”

“Since they’d have to hear it from you, I’d know who it was that really needed the spanking.”

He turned his head to resume watching the movie, as if he hadn’t just knocked the wind out of me. Gideon was a man who’d lived an entirely solitary life, and yet he’d accepted me into it so completely that he could envision a future I was afraid to imagine. I was so scared I’d only be setting myself up for a heartbreak I couldn’t survive.

Noting my silence, he set his hand on my bare knee and glanced at me again. “Still hungry?”

My gaze remained trained on the open Chinese take-out boxes on the coffee table in front of us, and the black magic roses, which Gideon had brought home from work so we could enjoy them over the weekend.

Not wanting to make more of his statement than he’d intended, I said, “Only for you.”

I put my hand in his lap, feeling the soft heft of his cock within the black boxer briefs I’d allowed him to wear for dinner.

“You are a dangerous woman,” he murmured, leaning closer.

Moving quickly, I caught his mouth with my own, sucking on his lower lip. “Have to be,” I murmured, “to keep up with you, Dark and Dangerous.”

He smiled.

“I need to check in with Cary again,” I said with a sigh. “See if Mom’s left yet.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah.” I leaned my head on his shoulder. “There’s nothing like a little Gideon therapy to make things look up.”

“Did I mention I make house calls? Twenty-four-seven.”

I sank my teeth into his biceps. “Let me take care of this, then I’ll make you come again.”

“I’m good, thanks,” he shot back, clearly amused.

“But we haven’t played with the girls yet.”

He bent down and buried his face in my cleavage. “Hello, girls.”

Laughing, I shoved at his shoulders and he pushed me backward until I sprawled on the floor between the sofa and coffee table. He hovered above me, his arms tight and hard from supporting his weight. His gaze roamed, caressing my bra, then my bare tummy, then my thong and garters. The ensemble I wore post-shower was fire-engine red, chosen to keep Gideon revved.

“You’re my lucky charm,” he said.

I squeezed his biceps. “Really?”

“Yep.” He licked the upper swell of my breast. “You’re magically delicious.”

“Oh my God!” I laughed. “Cheesy.”

His eyes smiled at me. “I did warn you about me and romance.”

“You lied. You’re the most romantic guy I’ve ever dated. I can’t believe you hung those CrossTrainer towels in your bathroom.”

“How could I not? And I wasn’t kidding about you being lucky.” He kissed me. “I’ve been working on offloading my share of a casino in Milan. Those black magic roses arrived just as a bidder threw in a small winery in Bordeaux that I’ve had my eye on. Guess what it’s called … La Rose Noir.”

“A winery for a casino, huh? So you remain the god of sex, vice, and recreation.”

“Endeavors that help me satisfy you, my goddess of desire, pleasure, and corny one-liners.”

I ran my hands down his sides and slid my fingers beneath his waistband. “When do I get to try the wine?”

“When you’re helping me brainstorm the advertising campaign for it.”

With a sigh, I said, “You don’t give up, do you?”

“Not when I want something, no.” He rose to his knees and then helped me sit up. “And I want you. Very, very much.”

“You have me,” I said, using his words.

“I have your heart and your insanely sexy body. Now, I want your brain. I want everything.”

“I need to save something for me.”

“No. Take me instead.” Gideon’s hands reached around to cup the bare cheeks of my ass. “Not an even trade in quality, I’m sorry to say.”

“You’re bargaining like mad today.”

“Giroux was happy with his deal. You will be, too, I promise.”

“Giroux?” My heart thudded. “No relation to Corinne?”

“Her husband. Although they’re estranged and facing divorce, as you know.”

“No way. You do business with her husband?”

His mouth twisted ruefully. “First time. And likely the last, although I did tell him that I’m involved with a special woman—and she’s not his wife.”

“The problem is that she’s in love with you.”

“She doesn’t know me.” He cupped the back of my head and rubbed our noses together. “Hurry up and call Cary. I’ll clean up dinner. Then we’ll suck face.”

“Fiend.”

“Sexpot.”

I scrambled up to head to my purse for my phone. Gideon grabbed a garter and snapped it, sending a shock wave of sensation across my skin. Surprisingly aroused by the nip of pain, I slapped his hand away and hurried out of reach.

Cary answered on the second ring. “Hey, baby girl. You still doing okay?”

“Yes. And you’re still the best friend ever. Is Mom still hanging around?”

“She bailed a little over an hour ago. You stayin’ over at loverman’s?”

“Yeah, unless you need me.”

“Nah, I’m good. Trey’s on his way over now.”

That news made me feel a lot better about spending a second night away. “Say hi to him for me.”

“Sure. I’ll kiss him for you, too.”

“Well, if it’s from me, don’t make it too hot and wet.”

“Spoilsport. Hey, remember how you asked me to do some digging on the Good Doctor Lucas? So far, I’ve come up with a whole lotta nada. He doesn’t seem to do much else besides work. No kids. Wife is a doctor, too. A shrink.”

I glanced at Gideon, cautiously ensuring that he didn’t overhear. “Seriously?”

“Why? Is that important?”

“No, I guess not. I just … I guess I expect psychologists to be astute judges of character.”

“Do you know her?”

“No.”

“What’s going on, Eva? You’re all cloak-and-dagger lately, and it’s starting to piss me off.”

Climbing onto a bar stool, I explained as much as I could. “I met Dr. Lucas at a charity dinner one night, then again when you were in the hospital. Both times he said some nasty things about Gideon and I’m just trying to figure out what his deal is.”

“Come on, Eva. What else could it be besides Cross banged his wife?”

Unable to reveal a past that wasn’t mine to share, I didn’t answer. “I’ll be home tomorrow afternoon. I’ve got that girls’ night out. You sure you don’t want to come?”

“Go ahead, change the subject,” Cary bitched. “Yes, I’m sure I don’t want to come. I’m not ready to hit the scene. Just thinking about it gives me hives.”