Warmth spread through me. “Gideon …”

“Sometimes you’re this icy, hands-off blonde.” His jaw tightened and he slipped one hand between my legs, his fingers gliding gently through my cleft. “And then you’re like this. So hot and needy. Wanting my hands all over you, my cock inside you.”

“I’m like this for you. This is what you do to me. What you’ve been doing to me from the moment I met you.”

Gideon’s gaze slid over me, followed by his hand. As his fingertips caressed the outside curve of my breast and stroked over my clit at the same time, I shivered.

“I want you,” he said gruffly.

“And here I am—naked.”

His mouth curved in a slow, sexy smile. “I couldn’t miss that.”

The tip of his finger circled my opening. I lifted a little to give him better access, my hands sliding over his shoulders.

“But I wasn’t talking about sex,” he murmured. “Although I want that, too.”

“With me.”

“Only you,” he agreed. His thumb brushed feather light over my nipple. “Forever and always.”

I moaned and reached for his cock, gripping him in my hands, stroking him from root to tip.

“I look at you, angel, and I want you so badly. I want to be with you, listen to you, talk to you. I want to hear you laugh and hold you when you cry. I want to sit next to you, breathe the same air, share the same life. I want to wake up to you like this every day forever. I want you.”

“Gideon.” I leaned forward and kissed him softly. “I want you, too.”

He teased the tip of my breast, tugging and rolling the hardened peak between his fingers. He rubbed my clit and a soft sound escaped me. Gideon hardened in my hands, his body responding to my growing desire.

The room was lightening as the sun rose higher, but the world outside seemed a lifetime away. The intimacy of the moment was both searing and sweet, filling me with joy.

My hands caressed his erection with tender reverence, my only goal to please him and show him how much I loved him. He touched me the same way, his eyes windows to a wounded soul that needed me as much as I needed him.

“I’m happy with you, Eva. You make me happy.”

“I’ll make you happy the rest of your life,” I promised him. My hips churned, desire sliding hot and thick through my veins. “There’s nothing I want more.”

Leaning forward, Gideon flicked the tip of his tongue over my nipple, a quick swipe that sent a sharp ache through my breast. “I love your tits. Did you know that?”

“Ah, so that’s what did you in—the rack.”

“Keep teasing me, angel. Give me an excuse to spank you. I love your ass, too.”

He pressed a hand to my back, arching me toward his mouth. Hot wetness surrounded the sensitive peak of my breast. His cheeks hollowed on a deep suck and my sex echoed his mouth, hungry for his cock.

I felt him everywhere, all around me and inside me. His heat and warmth. His passion. In my hands, his cock was hard and throbbing, the plush head slick with pre-cum.

“Tell me you love me,” I pleaded.

Gideon’s eyes met mine. “You know I do.”

“Imagine if I never said the words to you. If you never heard them from me.”

His chest expanded on a deep breath. “Crossfire.”

My hands stilled on him.

He swallowed, his throat working. “It’s your word for when things get to be too much, when it’s too intense. It’s my word, too, because that’s how you make me feel. All the time.”

“Gideon, I …” He’d made me speechless.

“When you say it, it means stop.” His fingertips left my breast and slid down my cheek. “When I say it, it means never stop. Whatever you’re doing to me, I need you to keep doing it.”

Lifting, I hovered above him. “Let me.”

“Yes.” His fingers left my cleft, and a heartbeat later his cock was filling me, the flared crown stretching sensitive tissues.

“Slow,” he ordered softly, his gaze hooded as he licked his fingers with long, sensuous laps of his tongue. He looked so wicked, so shamelessly decadent.

“Help me.” It was always more difficult for me to take him this way, using only gravity and the weight of my body. As desperate as he’d made me, he was still a tight fit.

He caught my hips, sliding me up and down leisurely, working me onto his thick erection. “Feel every inch, angel,” he crooned. “Feel how hard you make me.”

My thighs trembled as he rubbed over a tender spot inside me. I gripped his wrists, my sex rippling.

“Don’t come,” he warned, with that authoritative bite that practically ensured I would. “Not until you’ve taken all of me.”

“Gideon.” The slow, steady friction of his careful penetration was driving me insane.

“Think of how good it feels when I’m in you, angel. When your greedy little cunt has something to tighten down on when you’re coming.”

I tightened down on him then, seduced by the coaxing rasp in his voice. “Hurry.”

“You’re the one who has to let me in.” His eyes gleamed with humor. He urged me to lean back, changing the angle of my descent.

I slid onto him, taking him to the root in one smooth, slick glide. “Oh!”

“Fuck.” His head fell back, his breathing quick and rough. “You feel amazing. You’re squeezing me like a fist.”

“Baby.” I couldn’t hide the plea in my voice. He was so hard and thick inside me, so deep I could barely catch my breath …

He shot me a look that scorched. “I want this. You and me, nothing between us.”

“Nothing,” I said fervently, panting. Wriggling. Losing my mind. I needed to come so badly.

“Shh. I’ve got you.” Lifting his thumb to his mouth, Gideon licked the pad, then reached between us, rubbing my clit with expertly applied pressure. Heat bloomed across my skin in a mist of sweat, the flush spreading until I felt feverish.

I climaxed in a searing rush of pleasure, my sex spasming in hard, desperate clutches. His growl was a sound of pure animal sexuality, his cock swelling in response to the covetous milking of my body.

But he didn’t come, which made my orgasm all the more intimate. I was open, vulnerable, wrenched by desire. And he watched me fall apart with those haunting blue eyes, his control absolute. The fact that he didn’t move, just held himself deep, enhanced the feeling of connection between us.

A tear slid down my cheek, the orgasm pushing my emotions over the edge.

“Come here,” he said hoarsely, his hands sliding up my back and pulling me into him. He licked the tear away, then nudged me sweetly with the tip of his nose. My breasts pressed against his chest, my arms went around his waist, slipping into the space between him and the headboard. I held him close, my body quivering with aftershocks.

“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured. “So soft and sweet. Kiss me, angel.”

Tilting my head, I offered him my mouth. The melding was hot and wet, an erotic mixture of his unsated lust and my overwhelming love.

I pushed my fingers into his hair, cupping the back of his head to hold him still. He did the same to me, the two of us communicating without words. His lips sealed over mine, his tongue fucking my mouth even as his cock remained unmoving inside me.

I felt the undercurrent of strain in his kiss and his touch, and I knew he worried about the day’s events, too. I arched my back, curving into him, wishing I could make us inseparable. His teeth caught my lower lip, sinking gently into the swollen curve. I whimpered and he murmured, soothing me with rhythmic strokes of his tongue.

“Don’t move,” he said hoarsely, restraining me with his grip at my nape. “I want to come just feeling you around me.”

“Please,” I breathed. “Come in me. Let me feel you.”

We were completely entwined, grasping and pulling at each other, his cock rigid inside me, our hands in each other’s hair, our lips and tongues mating frantically.

Gideon was mine, completely. Yet still some part of my mind was stunned that I had him like this, that he was naked in a bed we shared, in an apartment we shared, that he was inside me, a part of me, taking every bit of my love and passion and giving me back so much more.

“I love you,” I moaned, tightening my core and squeezing him. “I love you so much.”

“Eva. God.” He shuddered, coming. He groaned into my mouth, his hands flexing against my scalp, his breath gusting hard across my lips.

I felt him spurting inside me, filling me, and I trembled with another orgasm, the pleasure pulsing gently through me.

His hands roamed restlessly, rubbing up and down my back, his kiss that perfect blend of love and desire. I felt his gratitude and need, recognized it because I felt the same way.

It was a miracle that I’d found him, that he could make me feel this way, that I could love a man so deeply and completely and sexually with all the baggage I carried. And that I could offer the same refuge to him in return.

Laying my cheek against his chest, I listened to his heart pounding, his perspiration mingling with mine.

“Eva.” He exhaled harshly. “Those answers you want from me … I need you to ask the questions.”

I held him for a long minute, waiting for our bodies to recover and my own panic to subside. He was still inside me. We were as close as we could be, but it wasn’t enough for him. He had to have more, on every front. He wasn’t going to quit until he possessed every part of me and infiltrated every aspect of my life.

Pulling back, I looked at him. “I’m not going anywhere, Gideon. You don’t have to push yourself if you’re not ready.”

“I am ready.” His gaze held mine, blazing with power and determination. “I need you to be ready. Because it won’t be long before I’m going to ask you a question, Eva. And I’m going to need you to give me the right answer.”