Book 1 - Page 84 (1/2)

”Don't leave me,” I whispered. ”Stay.”

Gideon didn't answer, didn't make any promises, but he didn't let me go either.

I woke sometime later, hearing Gideon's heart beating steadily beneath my ear. All the lights were still on, and the carpeted floor was hard and uncomfortable.

Gideon lay on his back, his beautiful face youthful in sleep, his s.h.i.+rt lifted just enough to expose his navel and the ripped muscles of his abdomen.

This was the man I loved. This was the man whose body gave me such pleasure, whose thoughtfulness moved me over and over again. He was still here. And from the frown that marred the s.p.a.ce between his brows, he was still hurting.

I slid my hand into his sweatpants. For the first time since we'd been together, he wasn't hot steel in my palms, but he quickly swelled and thickened as I tentatively stroked him from root to tip. Fear lingered just beneath my arousal, but I was more afraid of losing him than of living with the demons inside him.

He stirred, his arm tightening around my back. ”Eva...?”

This time I answered him the way I couldn't before. ”Let's forget,” I breathed into his mouth. ”Make us forget.”

”Eva.”

He rolled into me, peeling my s.h.i.+rt off with cautious movements. I was similarly tentative in undressing him. We approached each other as if each of us was breakable. The bond between us was fragile just then, both of us apprehensive about the future and the wounds we could inflict with all of our jagged edges.

His lips wrapped around my nipple, his cheeks hollowing slowly, his seduction subdued. The tender suckling felt so good I gasped and arched into his hand. He caressed my side from breast to hip and back again, over and over, gentling me as my heart raced wildly.

He kissed across my chest to the other breast, murmuring words of apology and need in a voice broken by regret and misery. His tongue lapped at the hardened point, worrying it, before surrounding it with wet heat and suction.

”Gideon.” The delicate pulls expertly coaxed desire through my skittish mind. My body was already lost in him, greedily seeking the pleasure and beauty of his.

”Don't be afraid of me,” he whispered. ”Don't pull away.”

He kissed my navel, and then moved lower, his hair caressing my stomach as he settled between my legs. He held me open with shaking hands and nuzzled my c.l.i.t. His light, teasing licks through my cleft and the fluttering dips into my trembling s.e.x took me to the edge of insanity.

My back bowed. Hoa.r.s.e pleas left my lips. Tension spread through my body, tightening everything until I felt like I might snap under the pressure. And then he pushed me into o.r.g.a.s.m with the softest nudge of the tip of his tongue.

I cried out, heated relief pulsing through my writhing body.

”I can't let you go, Eva.” Gideon levered over me as I vibrated with pleasure. ”I can't.”

Brus.h.i.+ng away the tear tracks from his face, I stared into his reddened eyes. His torment was painful for me to witness, hurting my heart. ”I wouldn't let you if you tried.”