Like most things in her life, she’d found a middle ground that kept her satisfied but never fulfilled. Gideon made her think beyond her normal humble thoughts. Now her thoughts were filled with heat and sex.
Leaving the bathroom, she returned to the closet before she embarrassed herself. Grabbing the clothes off the rod, she went to reach for the garment bag then changed her mind. Whatever was in there wasn’t for her. It was for someone like Sabrina. Someone that needed clothes that came in bags like that.
Walking down the hallway, she went to the only other door on the landing. Pushing it open, she found a room half the size of Gideon’s room. It had its own small bathroom that was nice and well appointed.
Gideon had stayed in his office giving her time to get settled. Faye didn’t understand how it was going to work. She felt like an interloper. As though at any moment someone was going to point at her and call her out as an imposter.
She wasn’t an imposter. She was just Faye. Gideon was the one complicating things.
Faye didn’t want to pursue her feelings about him. Denying that any existed was the safest course of action. She needed to keep her head on straight and understand that Gideon could find his mate tomorrow, or the next day, or in a month. A kiss didn’t mean anything between them. It was just fun. A way to pass the time.
Not knowing if she was okay with that, having never been in that situation, she decided to keep her cards held close. Protect her heart. Remind herself that there was never a chance that she and Gideon could be anything more than casual friends.
Gideon could lose interest in her as a distraction at any point too. It didn’t mean she had to become invested. So she wouldn’t. She’d wait for something more interesting to distract the reporters and she would go back to her life.
Her conversation with Gideon had worn her out. She retrieved her medicine that was down in the living room. The door to the office was open so she went back to her room. After taking all of her medicine, she lay down and went to sleep.
“Faye?”
She heard Gideon’s voice close to her ear as she woke to a darkened room.
“Huh?”
“It’s time for dinner. What would you like?”
Pushing herself up, she blinked away the sleep. Her chest tightened and she quickly covered her mouth to cough.
“You pushed yourself today. You need to rest more.”
“That’s what I was doing.”
“Well, let’s get some food in you and you can go to bed early.”
“What time is it?”
“A little past six. Dinner?”
“Leftovers is fine. Isn’t there pizza?”
“Cold pizza?” He couldn’t help the disgust that colored his tone.
“Yes, It’s good.”
“I’ll save that for tomorrow. I’m thinking of something warm and healthy for dinner.”
Faye swung her legs over the bed. “Sabrina told me I should ask for lobster. I won’t because I think big bugs are creepy and shouldn’t be considered food.”
“I bet Sabrina liked that.”
“She did find it funny. Really, isn’t there anything we can cook? I can cook. Nothing fancy, but I manage.”
“I will try your culinary skills when you are healthy again. Tonight someone else will cook our meal. I can order out or have a cook come in and prepare something.”
“You have dial-a-chef? Is that a thing?”
“I have a number of people I could call that would be happy to come over and make us a healthy meal.”
“That’ a little too posh for me, you can understand that, right?”
“Sure, then I’m in the mood for Chinese. Do you like Chinese food?”
“I do, although I’ve only really ever had the kind they serve at the supermarket deli.”
“That is not true Chinese. Come down and get settled on the couch. Find us something interesting to watch while I order the food.”
“Thank you. I mean, thank you for everything, Gideon.”
“My pleasure, Faye,” he said before turning to walk out.
Being so close to him was distracting. She could smell his cologne. Or maybe it wasn’t cologne so much as just the way he smelled. It called to her somehow. It was how she thought a man should smell. It made her think of strength and protection.
She never knew what that smell was until Gideon. She wanted that scent on her pillow. Faye wanted that scent on her.
Thank goodness Gideon had already left the room. To be successful in this venture she was going to have to be vigilant. This arrangement relied on whether she could keep up enough of a wall to avoid falling in love with a man that had no guarantee.
Not that any relationship had a guarantee. At least for humans. Kindred didn’t have to worry about that. When they found the one; that was it. They were locked in for life. Being mated was an ironclad contract that seemed impossible to those that hadn’t experienced it.
Faye never let herself fall into that way of thinking, but when she was in high school, the girls in her class would talk about it constantly. All they wanted was for a Kindred to find them and make them their mate. It didn’t seem to bother them that Kindred needed humans to reproduce. They thought it was romantic, and as they’d gotten older, they’d thought it was sexy. Faye just thought it sounded unbalanced.
There were plenty of great human guys out there. There was no need to set her hopes on a million to one chance at being a mate. Being around Kindred was like a magnet for so many. She understood the appeal of the golden ticket; she just assumed that if she never played the game, she didn’t have to worry about losing.
In the other room was the biggest trophy of all. Gideon was sexy, rich beyond belief, and if you were lucky enough to be his mate, that was a promise that couldn’t be broken.
Not being the competitive type, Faye firmed her resolve to just be a spectator.
Chapter 19
Two days. Faye had tried to be strong for two days. She was feeling better. Naps were her new favorite pastime. She felt like she’d watched every movie under the sun and she could go hours without coughing up a lung.
All signs of improvement.
The other problem. A certain picture of her floating around the internet. That situation had not improved.
Gideon had kept her in a never-ending supply of take-out, warm blankets, and entertainment.
It was a moment when Gideon had excused himself from Faye’s nest of illness, she was left unattended.
Picking up the remote, she flicked through the channels looking for something else to watch. She missed just channel surfing. True, she only had seven channels at home, but it wasn’t something one usually did with an endless supply of options.
Old habits were hard to break. She paused at a particularly funny commercial and then found herself on a news channel. Not so much a news channel as an entertainment channel.
There on the seventy-inch screen was her picture. A horribly unflattering DMV picture of her that looked amazingly like a mugshot. Then came the picture of her wrapped in a blanket in Gideon’s arms in the parking garage.
They had her name. They knew where she lived. And then it got worse. The facts and figures of her sad little life were splashed across the screen. Someone had dug up old police reports of her life with her mother. A picture of her and her amazing grandmother at the local YMCA when she was taking swim lessons. It was one of her happiest memories. And they were using it as part of a salacious tabloid piece.
When Gideon returned, he found her on the couch, silent tears streaming down her face as the photos and headlines flashed across the screen.
He got angry, very angry. So angry that when her eyes came up to him just as he threw the remote across the room, she saw a hint of fang sticking out of his mouth.
“Fuck!”
“Why do they care?” she’d whimpered. She hated crying in front of anyone, but seeing that picture of her grandmother was too much.
“Because they are
bored and don’t have anything else to talk about. This is why I want to protect you. They are like hyenas going for the easy kill. You can’t stand up to these people. You can’t get them to listen to reason. Reason doesn’t sell.”
“But can’t they see that I’m not your type? That there’s nothing to make a story out of?”
“What the hell do you mean you’re not my type?”
“Gideon, be reasonable. You need someone that looks like Sabrina. Someone that will look good on your arm when you go to those fancy functions. Can you imagine someone like me at a ball? I’d be like Cinderella before the fairy godmother got a hold of her.”
“Stop, you’re being ridiculous. Besides why are we talking about balls?”
For some reason when he said that, it made her laugh. It was a sad laugh. Laughing through tears was always such a conflicting emotion.
“Faye, be serious.”
She got herself under control. The reality of her face on that screen couldn’t be ignored. “I guess I didn’t know it was this bad.”
“In the grand scheme of things, it’s actually not as bad as they could be.”
“It could be worse than this?”
“Sure, there aren’t any helicopters outside the windows,” he replied, too casually for her liking.
“Stop, helicopters?”
Gideon shook his head at her. “They will stop at nothing.”
“But I was going to go to work tomorrow. I have class tomorrow night. I need to be able to leave this apartment!”
Gideon sat back down next to her. “I’m sorry. I truly am. I know you’ve been cooped up here. I talked to Anson and Tucker about taking you to work tomorrow. My thought was via helicopter from the rooftop.”
Faye gasped at him. “No helicopters. No cameras in helicopters, no Faye in helicopters.”
“Faye, that would be the easiest way to control the situation. We can go straight from here to the office with no one seeing you.”
“Unless they follow us the same way. Wouldn’t they be expecting that?”
“Possibly. The best bet is for you to not go into work yet.”
“Gideon, we talked about this. I need to get back to work. I need to get back to school. I told you I will stay here just until this blows over.”
“What if it doesn’t, Faye?”
“What do you mean? Why wouldn’t it?”
Gideon sighed. “I would think that it would, but I honestly thought they’d have moved on by now.”
“What do you think, another few days?”
“Depends, can you rustle up a natural disaster? That might give them something else to talk about.”
“My volcanic eruption conjuring skills are unfortunately lacking. What if we just ignore them? I’ve been thinking about it. I don’t think that if they actually met me and got their pictures that they would keep pursuing me. They will move on, I’m sure of it.”
“You are so charmingly naive. And please don’t take offense to that. I just mean in this particular area. They will love you. They will follow you around, ask you what you’re wearing, want to know what you had for breakfast.”
“But why?”
“Because we’re friends. They will offer you money just to give them details about my life. What the inside of this place looks like, whether or not I recycle. Which I do, by the way.”
“That’s insane.”
“It might be, but it’s true. I’m really trying to protect you from the insanity.”
Faye chewed on that as she realized it wasn’t something she wanted to deal with, but she was willing to deal with it. She needed to get back to school or she’d fall behind.
“I need my routine back. I need to know that something is going to be the same. Maybe not my clothes, since you mysteriously haven’t been able to get those from my place.”
“What can I say, my staff has been busy.”
“You could have gone yesterday when the housekeeper came.”
“And leave you to Mrs. Scott and her incessant chatter?”
“I thought she was sweet.”
“She is, and I trust her in my space. Besides, you have clothes to wear.”
“But they’re not my clothes. People will notice they aren’t my clothes.”
“How? Who notices what other people wear at work?”
“How about everyone? That’s what they do. Say snide things about your clothes or bad perm after you walk by.”
“Why?”
“Office hierarchy. I don’t need to do it, but others seem to enjoy it.”
“I doubt they will notice.”
Faye made a coughing noise. “There’s no way every person in the office hasn’t seen this news coverage.”
“I can send out a memo, telling them not to discuss it.”
“No! That will just make it worse! Maybe I need to find another job.”
Gideon stood up abruptly, “Absolutely not. You will not find another job because of something I did.”
“You could help me find another job. Wouldn’t that be okay? I’m sure you know someone that could use a mail clerk. I’ve done some secretary work. I’m a hell of a filer.”
“Is that on your resume?”
“Smart aleck, no.” Faye was a little surprised that she spoke to him that way. Their time together had loosened her tongue. It didn’t seem to bother Gideon. She could swear he was smiling with his eyes. He did that a lot. The smiles that showed his teeth were the best. But the little grin, the ones around his eyes, she liked too.
“You can’t work anywhere else.”
“Is that because you won’t give me a reference?”
“It’s because I want to see you every day.”
Faye sighed. It wasn’t the first time he’d said something like that in the last few days. There had also been a few near misses in the kissing department. Faye had held firm. It was what was best for both of them. She wasn’t being the better person, not by a long shot. She actually didn’t trust herself.
It took all of her resolve to not look at him when that sensation tickled over her skin. His eyes were too deep for her to not stare at. Her attraction to him was not lessening. She wasn’t stupid; the chance she would suddenly find him hideous was too good to hope for.
Gideon would never be hideous. He would never not be sexy. Faye was going to have to have iron will to get through this.
“Gideon, we’re not…” she started for what felt like the hundredth time.
“I know. But you also know that my interest in you hasn’t changed.”
Faye did know that. He’d told her that, frequently. She loved hearing it. She didn’t know how to respond to him. Everything that came to mind was completely insane. Her crazy ideas ranged from agreeing to whatever he wanted, offering to date him until his mate came along, heck even no-strings-attached sex.
All things outside the realm of possibility. Funny, after a few days, she knew exactly the look that Gideon would give her for making a statement like that. He’d said a number of times that he found her attractive. That he was drawn to her. That he just liked her.
It wasn’t that she didn’t believe him. She was sure he had valid feelings. It was just that those feelings were for right now. The problem was, if she acknowledged them, then she’d have to admit how she felt too, and she wasn’t ready for that.
More than anything she wanted to be happy for him when he found his one. When the look he gave her right now didn’t compare to the shine in his eyes when he found the mate that was meant for him.
That was important to her. She wanted to be okay with that when the time came.
“When I go back to work. I need you to treat me like you did before. It will help.”
“How did I treat you before?”
Faye hesitated for a split second too long because his face went from inquisitive to hesitant. “You ignored me. And it wasn’t in a purposeful, or cruel way, it was just that you never really saw me. You were busy, and I spent a lot of time in the basem
ent.”
“You should have an office,” he said.
“What? That’s crazy! See, that’s what I mean. Nothing can be different. It will help this all blow over, no reason to give people anything to talk about.”
Gideon let out a low rumbling sound that if he’d been smiling, she would have thought was a purr.
“Gideon…” she said, pleading.
“Fine. I’ll ignore you at work if you promise to stop watching this crap on TV. It doesn’t matter and it will go away.”
“Okay, I’ll do that. And tomorrow we arrive by car. Or I can take the bus like I normally do.”
“You are not riding the bus anymore.”
“It’s a perfectly reasonable mode of transportation and when I go back home, I will be riding the bus again.”
“I could buy you a car?”
“No, you couldn’t because I don’t drive. I don’t like it. It makes me nervous. Just thinking about it makes me nervous. So, no.”
Gideon squinted at her. She hoped that meant she had won that conversation. With Gideon, she was never sure.
Chapter 20
Gideon was sitting in his office. It was 6:00 a.m. and he’d been up for almost an hour. His anticipation of going to work with Faye had him dreaming about her all night.
He knew Faye wouldn’t be awake yet, and if he didn’t occupy his time, he’d be pacing, and he didn’t want to risk waking her. He picked up his phone and called his mother. She would be up, she always was.
“What’s wrong?” his mother asked as soon as the phone rang.
“Nothing is wrong, why?”
“You’re calling me at six in the morning. I’m going to assume this isn’t a casual call.”
“I can’t call my mother to chat?”
“Of course you can. Just not before I’ve had my second cup of coffee.”
“Faye…”
“Ahh, I was wondering when you were going to call about her. Are you sure you don’t want to talk to your father about this?”
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