Cupping his jaw, I tilted his head up.

"You can be so good for me, Gideon," I told him softly.

"I don't know how I could ever forget that.

Even for a minute."

His chest expanded on a quick, deep breath.

He straightened, his hands gliding up my thighs, until he towered over me again.

His lips touched mine, softly.

Lightly.

"I know today was all kinds of fucked up.

Shit .

the whole week.

It's been hard for me, too."

"I know."

I hugged him, pressing my cheek to his heart.

He was so solid and strong.

I loved the way I felt when I was in his arms.

He was already thick and hard between us, but he grew more so as I cuddled into him.

"Eva ."

He cleared his throat.

"Let me finish, angel."

I nipped his jaw with my teeth and reached down to grip his perfect ass, tugging him tighter against me.

"Why don't you get started instead?" "That isn't where this was headed."

As if it could've ended any other way when we were both naked and running our hands all over each other.

Gideon could put his hand to the small of my back while we were walking and make me as needy as if he'd put his hand between my legs.

"Well .

revisit and revise, ace."

Gideon's hands came up and gripped the sides of my throat, his thumbs beneath my chin to push it up.

His frown gave him away, and before he could tell me why it wasn't a good idea to make love now, I caught his cock in my hands.

He growled, his hips jerking.

"Eva ."

"It would be a shame to waste this."

"I can't screw this up with you."

His eyes were dark as sapphires.

"If you ever freaked out while I was touching you, I'd lose my mind."

"Gideon, please - " "I say when."

The command in his voice was unmistakable.

My grip loosened automatically.

He stepped back and away, his hand dropping to fist his cock.

I shifted restlessly, my attention riveted to that dexterous hand and its long, elegant fingers.

As the distance between us widened, I began to ache, my body responding to the loss of his.

The heated languidness he'd instilled with his touch turned into a slow burn, as if he'd banked a fire that had suddenly been stoked.

"See something you like?" he purred, pleasuring himself.

Astonished that he'd taunt me after denying me, I looked up .

and my breath caught.

Gideon was smoldering, too.

I couldn't think of another word to describe him.

He was watching me with a heavy-lidded gaze like he wanted to eat me alive.

His tongue slid leisurely along the seam of his lips, as if he tasted me.

When he caught the full lower curve between his teeth, I could've sworn I felt it between my legs.

I knew that look so well .

knew what came after it .

knew how ferocious he could be when he wanted me that badly.

It was a look that screamed SEX.

Hard, deep, endless, mind-blowing sex.

He stood on the far side of my shower, his feet planted wide, his ripped body flexing rhythmically as he caressed his beautiful cock with long, slow strokes.

I'd never seen anything so blatantly sexual or boldly masculine.

"Oh my God," I breathed, riveted.

"You are so fucking hot."

The gleam in his eyes told me he knew what he was doing to me.

His free hand slid slowly up his ridged abdomen and squeezed his pectoral, making me jealous.

"Could you come watching me?" Realization struck me.

He was afraid to touch me sexually so soon after my nightmare, afraid of what it might do to us if he triggered me.

But he was willing to put on a show for me  - inspire me - so I could touch myself.

The surge of emotion I felt in that moment was devastating.

Gratitude and affection, desire and tenderness.

"I love you, Gideon."

His eyes squeezed shut, as if the words were too much for him to take.

When they opened again, the force of his will sent a shiver of need through me.

"Show me."

The wide head of his cock was engulfed in his palm.

He squeezed, bringing a flush to his face that had me pressing my thighs together.

His thumb rubbed over the flat disk of his nipple.

Once.

Twice.

He groaned a rough sound of delight that had me salivating.

The water pounding at my back and the billowing steam that plumed between us only added to the eroticism of the picture he presented.

His hand quickened, sliding rhythmically up and down.

He was so long and thick.

Undeniably virile.

Unable to bear the ache of my tightened nipples, I cupped my breasts and squeezed.

"There you go, angel.

Show me what I do to you."

There was a moment in which I wondered if I could.

It hadn't been so long ago that I'd been embarrassed to talk about my vibrator with Gideon face-to-face.

"Look at me, Eva."

He cupped his balls in one hand and his cock in the other.

Shameless, which was such a turn-on.

"I don't want to come without you.

I need you with me."

I wanted to be as hot for him.

I wanted him as aching and needy as I felt.

I wanted my body - my desire - to be burned onto his brain the way this image of him would be burned onto mine.

With my eyes locked with his, my hands glided over my body.

I watched his movements .

listened for the catch of his breath .

used his clues to know what drove him wild.

It was somehow as intimate as when he was inside me, maybe more so because we were wide open and on display.

Totally bared.

Our pleasure reflected in each other.

He started telling me what he wanted in that raspy sex god voice: Tug your nipples, angel .

Touch yourself  - are you wet? Push your fingers inside you .

Feel how tight you are? A hot, tight, plush little heaven for my dick .

You're so fucking gorgeous .

So sexy.

I'm so damn stiff it hurts .

See what you do to me? I'm going to come so hard for you .

"Gideon."

I gasped, my fingertips massaging my clit in rapid circles, my hips grinding into my touch.

"Right there with you," he said hoarsely, his hand jacking his cock with brutal speed and violence in his race to orgasm.

At the first jolting contraction of my core, I cried out, my legs quaking.

My palm slapped against the glass enclosure for balance, the climax stealing the strength from my muscles.

Gideon was on me in a second, gripping my hipbone in a way that conveyed greed and possession, his fingers flexing with restless agitation.

"Eva!" he growled, as the first thick, hot burst of semen hit my belly.

"Fuck."

Hunching over me, his teeth sank into the tender spot between my shoulder and neck, a painless hold that conveyed the rawness of his pleasure.

His groans vibrated against me and he came violently, spurting repeatedly against my stomach.

* * * It was a little after six o'clock in the morning when I slipped out of my bedroom.

I'd been up for a while, watching Gideon sleep.

It was a rare treat, because I hardly ever managed to wake up before he did.

I could stare at him without any worries that he'd be weirded out.

I padded down the hallway until it emptied into the expansive open floor plan of the main living area.

It was ridiculous that Cary and I lived on the Upper West Side in an apartment large enough for a family, but I'd long ago learned to pick my battles when it came to arguing with my mother and stepfather over my safety.

There was no way they were budging on location or security features like a doorman and front desk, but I could exploit my cooperation on my living arrangements to get them to ease up on other points.

I was in the kitchen waiting for the coffee to finish brewing when Cary joined me.

He strolled in looking amazing in a pair of gray San Diego State University sweats, sleep-mussed chocolate brown hair, and a day's worth of stubble along his square jaw.

"Morning, baby girl," he murmured, pressing a kiss to my temple as he passed me.

"You're up early."

"Look who's talking."

He grabbed two mugs out of the cupboard, then the half-and-half out of the fridge.

He brought them over and studied me.

"How are you doing?" "I'm good.

Really," I insisted, when he shot me a skeptical look.

"Gideon took care of me."

"Okay, but is that really so great if he's the reason you were stressed enough to have the nightmare to begin with?" I filled mugs for both of us, adding sugar to mine and cream to both.

As I did, I told him about Corinne and the Waldorf dinner, then the argument I'd had with Gideon over her appearance at the Crossfire.

Cary stood with his hip cocked into the counter, his legs crossed at the ankle, and one arm banding his chest.

He sipped his coffee.

"No explanation, huh?" I shook my head, feeling the weight of Gideon's silence.

"How about you? How are you doing?" "You just gonna change the subject?" "What else is there to say? It's a one-sided story."

"You ever stop to think that he might always have secrets?" Frowning, I lowered my mug.

"What do you mean?" "I mean he's the twenty-eight-year- old son of a suicidal Ponzi scheme swindler, and he just happens to own a large chunk of Manhattan."

One brow arched upward in challenge.

"Think about it.

Can they really be mutually exclusive things?" Lowering my gaze to my mug, I took a drink and didn't confess that I'd wondered the same thing once or twice.

The extent of Gideon's fortune and empire was staggering, especially considering his age.

"I can't see Gideon bilking people, not when it's more of a challenge to accomplish what he has legitimately."