"What?" "I got hard."

My eyes opened wide.

"Inconveniently and publicly."

He cupped my breast in his hand, his thumb stroking over the hardened point of my nipple.

"I had to drag out a finished discussion while I waited for it to go down.

It turns me on when you challenge me, Eva."

His voice lowered and became raspier, dripping with sex and sin.

"It makes me want to fuck you.

For a very, very long time."

"God."

My hips pumped upward, my core tightening with the need to come.

"And since I can't," he purred, "I'm going to get you off like this, then watch you return the favor with your mouth."

A whimper escaped me, my mouth watering at the promise of pleasing him that way.

He was always so attuned to me when we made love.

The only time he really let go and focused on his own pleasure was when I went down on him.

"That's it," he murmured, "keep rubbing your cunt against me like that.

Christ, you're so damn hot."

"Gideon."

My hands were gliding all over his flexing back and buttocks, my body arching and grinding into his.

I came with a long and drawn-out moan, the tension breaking in a rush of relief.

His mouth covered mine, drinking in the sounds I made as I shivered beneath him.

I clutched his hair, kissing him back.

He rolled us so that he was beneath me, his hands going to his button fly and ripping it open.

"Now, Eva."

I scrambled down the bed, as eager to taste him as he was to have me do so.

The moment he shoved his boxer briefs down, I had his penis in my hands, my lips flowing over the wide crest.

Groaning, Gideon grabbed a pillow and shoved it under his head.

My gaze met his and I pulled him deeper.

"Yes," he hissed, the fingers of his right hand tangling in my hair.

"Suck it hard and fast; I want to come."

I breathed in the scent of him, feeling the satiny softness of his heated flesh on my tongue.

Then I took him at his word.

Hollowing my cheeks, I took him to the back of my throat, then pulled up to the crown.

Over and over.

Focusing on suction and speed, as greedy for his orgasm as he was, spurred by the abandoned sounds he made and the sight of his fingers clawing restlessly at the comforter.

His hips churned, his hand in my hair guiding my pace.

"Ah, God."

He watched me with dark, hot eyes.

"I love the way you suck me off.

Like you can't get enough."

I couldn't.

I didn't think I ever could.

His pleasure meant so much to me, because it was real and raw.

For him, sex had always been staged and methodical.

He couldn't hold back with me because he wanted me beyond reason.

Two days without me and he was .

undone.

I pumped him with my fist, feeling the thick veins throbbing beneath the smooth skin.

A ragged sound tore from his throat and salty warmth spurted on my tongue.

He was close, his face flushed and his lips parted with gasping breaths.

Sweat misted my brow.

My excitement mounted along with his.

He was completely at my mercy, near mindless with the need to climax, muttering filthy sexy things about what he was going to do to me the next time he fucked me.

"That's it, angel.

Milk it .

make me come for you."

His neck arched, his breath exploding from his lungs.

"Fuck."

He came as I had - hard and brutal.

Semen burst from the tip of his cock in a thick, hot rush that I struggled to swallow.

He growled my name, his hips pumping upward into my working mouth, taking what he needed from me, giving me all he had until he was emptied.

Then he curled toward me, pulling me into a strangling embrace that pinned me to his heaving chest.

For long moments, he just held me.

I listened as his raging heartbeat slowed and his breathing returned to normal.

Finally, he spoke with his lips in my hair.

"Needed that.

Thank you."

I smiled and snuggled into him.

"My pleasure, ace."

"I missed you," he said softly, his lips pressing to my brow.

"So damn much.

And not just for this."

"I know."

We needed this - the physical closeness, the frenzied touching, the rush of orgasm - to release some of the wild, overwhelming emotions that affected us when we were together.

"My dad's coming out to visit next week."

He stilled.

Lifting his head, he looked at me wryly.

"You have to tell me that while my dick's still hanging out?" I laughed.

"Caught you with your pants down?" "Hell."

He pressed his lips to my forehead, then rolled to his back and righted his clothes.

"You have an idea of how you want the first meeting to go? Dinner out or in? Your place or mine?" "I'll cook at my place."

I stretched, then tugged the wrinkles out of my shirt.

He nodded, but his vibe changed.

My sated, grateful lover of a moment before was replaced by the grim-faced man who'd been around more frequently lately.

"Would you prefer something different?" I asked.

"No.

It's a good plan and what I would've suggested.

He'll feel comfortable there."

"Will you?" "Yes."

He propped his head in one hand and looked down at me, brushing my hair back from my forehead.

"I'd rather not hit him in the face with my money if we can help it."

I took a deep breath.

"I hadn't considered that.

I just thought I'd be less anxious about making a mess in my own kitchen than in yours.

But you're right.

It'll be okay, though, Gideon.

Once he sees how you feel about me, he'll be good with us being together."

"I only care what he thinks if it affects how you feel.

If he doesn't like me and that changes something between us - " "You're the only one who can do that."

He gave a curt nod, which didn't help me feel better about what he was feeling.

A lot of men got nervous meeting their girlfriend's parents, but Gideon wasn't like other men.

He didn't rattle.

Usually.

I wanted him and my dad to be loose and easy around each other, not tense and defensive.

I changed the subject.

"Did you get everything worked out in Phoenix?" "Yes.

One of the project managers noted some anomalies in accounting, and she was right to push me to look deeper into it.

Embezzling isn't something I tolerate."

I winced, thinking of Gideon's father, who'd bilked investors out of millions before killing himself.

"What's the project?" "A golf resort."

"Nightclubs, resorts, luxury living, vodka, casinos .

with a chain of gyms thrown in to keep fit for the high life?" I knew from checking out the Cross Industries website that Gideon also had software and games divisions, and a growing social media platform for young urban professionals.

"You're a pleasure god in more ways than one."

"Pleasure god?" His eyes sparkled with humor.

"I spend all my energy worshipping you."

"How did you get to be so rich?" I blurted out, pricked by the memory of Cary's insinuations about how Gideon could've amassed so much at such a young age.

"People like to have fun, and they'll pay for the privilege."

"That's not what I meant.

How did you get Cross Industries started? Where did you get the capital to get things going?" His eyes took on a speculative gleam.

"Where do you think I got it?" "I have no idea," I told him honestly.

"Blackjack."

I blinked.

"Gambling? Are you kidding?" "No."

He laughed and tightened his arms around me.

But I couldn't see Gideon as a gambler.

I'd learned, thanks to my mom's third husband, that gambling could become a very nasty and insidious disease that caused total lack of control.

I just couldn't see someone as rigidly controlled as Gideon finding anything appealing about something so dependent on luck and chance.

Then it hit me.

"You count cards."

"When I played," he agreed.

"I don't anymore.

And the contacts I made over card tables were as instrumental as the money I made."

I tried to absorb that information, struggled with it, then let it go for the moment.

"Remind me not to play cards with you."

"Strip poker could be fun."

"For you."

He reached down and squeezed my ass.

"And for you.

You know how I get when you're naked."

I shot a pointed glance down at my fully dressed body.

"And when I'm not naked."

Gideon's grin flashed, dazzling and entirely unapologetic.

"Do you still gamble?" "Every day.

But only in business and with you."

"With me? With our relationship?" His gaze was soft on my face, filled with a sudden tenderness that made my throat tight.

"You're the greatest risk I've ever taken."

His pressed his lips gently to mine.

"And the greatest reward."

* * * When I got to work Monday morning, I felt like things were finally settling back into their natural pre-Corinne rhythm.

Gideon and I were dealing with adjusting to my period, which had never been an issue for either of us in any previous relationship we'd had, but was in ours because sex was how he showed me what he was feeling.

He could say with his body what he couldn't with words, and my lust for him was how I proved my faith in us, something he needed to feel connected to me.

I could tell him I loved him over and over again, and I know it affected him when I did, but he needed the total surrender of my body - a display of trust he knew meant a great deal because of my past - to really believe it.