A man as alpha and dominant like Gideon Black, with his angel like features and the frost in his eyes, probably has reservations about being equal with anyone.
His nose flares a bit as if his body is physically rejecting my most important stipulation, but I’m not playing. I have stood witness as people just take whatever they want from you and they never give back.
They never see you like a human being or that you also have feelings and emotions, including your wants and needs. Forget about your thoughts and your intellect as a person, that’s simply not necessary. They just use until they get whatever they want, then they leave.
For whatever reason, if Gideon is to choose to do the same thing many men in his position do, then I want him to be aware that I wasn’t going to stand for it. I deserve much more than people stepping over me. Not from anyone, and sure as hell not from him.
He inclines his head to the left a bit, studying me. He is quiet for a moment, then he stalks closer to where I stand. A mere few steps bridge an ocean of disagreements between us, making me wonder if working with him would be that easy. But as I crane my neck up to see him clearly, I notice the stiff set of his shoulders and I get my answer. This is going to be a fight.
“I’ll be honest, with you.” he starts when he comes to a stop right in front of me.
“I expect nothing less than honesty.” I quickly cut in. Honesty is not an exception nor is it a rule that can be broken. For me, it’s a requirement in all that I do.
“I’ve never been good at sharing, anything.” He continues as if I hadn’t spoken.
“Looking at you and all this,” I gesture to the rest of the grandiose room, “it’s not hard to imagine that.” I acknowledge, doing my best to ignore the tension growing within me.
My body heats up at the way he is looking at me, all the heat rushing to the south of me.
I don’t doubt that he was most likely a stingy baby, and an even more possessive teenager. Now he is a man, probably in his early thirties at most, I’m not sure how he is now, but I feel he might just be much more domineering. With every aspect of his life.
“Well I’m sorry, that is one of my hard limits.” I state with finality, looking him straight in the eye. I refuse to be seduced out of my wits, though his nearness is making me feel like a fool. Acting like a fool.
“I see that.” Is all he says as his gaze racks my entire body, from the strands of my hair all the way down to my shoes.
“Tell you what, I will do my best to accommodate your requests and we can work on this together as we go.” He says dismissively, his voice deeper somehow.
Accommodate my requests?
Please tell me I haven’t stumbled on and meet a misogynistic asshole, who thinks all women can do is pop out children, cook and just watch their husbands dip their ink anywhere they want?!
“Accommodate me?” I say incredulously “What do you think this is?” I demand, bewildered that he would say that. And what’s more, he seems baffled at my reaction.
“Yes, your requests are under consideration.” he says, oh-so-seriously, looking at me like I’m a few cards short of a full deck.
“Mr. Black,” I start, trying to keep my cool, “I don’t think you understood me.”
I feel the fury flush my body, there is no way I’m going to let this go.
“I did not make ‘requests’ I simply laid out my prerequisites for working with a man like you, or anyone for that matter. And if you think you can just ‘consider’ them, then you can bet your arrogance that there is no deal here!”
Silence.
It greets me after my impassioned speech.
I cross my arms over my chest, straighten my neck and look him dead in the eye. I have never had my temper rise so quickly as it does in this gorgeous man’s presence. It’s almost like he sets it off just by being close to me. What more when he opens his sensual mouth? I go off!
Attraction be damned. It takes more than just chemistry to work together with this man.
If he is used to just go about life, being the captain of the ship, dictating everyone’s steps, then his ‘Reign of Terror’ is unfortunately coming to an end. I’m not afraid of him. Not a lot in this life fazes me; I have seen too much in this life to be moved by a self-entitled, arrogant, though amazing looking, man.
We stare each other down. I know he wants me to back down as I want him to acknowledge me. Neither one of us will budge.
I won’t beg him and he won’t give me what I want. And I certainly don’t trust him. Not a hundred percent anyway.
The air around us crackles with tension, and something else that makes his emerald orbs turn molten lava again as they look at me.
He takes another step closer to me, and out of uncertainty, I take one back. We continue this type of seek and find dance, yet he is right in my sight and he doesn’t need to find me. I’m as vulnerable backing away as a gazelle is when a cheetah is about to attack. One step, two more, another and next thing I know, I’m plastered against the cold window. My back softly meeting it, effectively ending my retreat.
The rest of Manhattan has no idea what’s happening at this moment in time as the sexiest man I’ve ever laid my eyes on, closes in on me, raising his arms to cage me in.
Both his palms are now planted above me, on the cold window. My body is overheating, my neck, craned up to maintain eye contact with him as if looking up at a giant that I don’t know how to conquer. In a way, that’s how it feels between us. Him, the big impregnable giant that is in my way, effectively blocking each advance that I attempt to make. And then there is me, a small woman with only the determination birthed from grief that keeps her going.
I will have my way, even if it means I have to use stones to get his attention.
The truth is however, I’m struggling. I don’t know what kind of negotiation round this is. I have never in my life been in this type of predicament. Mostly due to the fact that I usually don’t negotiate with anyone, I’m too strong minded for that.
Now though I seem to have met my match or a superior? And secondly, I have never allowed a man to be this close. In my personal space kind of close. And it also doesn’t really help matters to know that I can’t seem to be able to resist that intricate pull he seems to have over me.
He is looking down at me, his large body so close to mine, I can feel the heat being emitted from him. And the most insane notion about it all, I want to press my body towards his.
The window that my back is plastered to is cold, the temperature in the room is slightly chilly. You would think that this would be enough to cool me down but no. I get the opposite reaction, making me question every chemistry and physics lesson I ever attended in high school.
Gideon though, before he can actually seduce my body, he has already managed to stimulate my mind just by the way the green pools that are his eyes take me.
Those same eyes drop down to my lips and they just. . . stare. He doesn’t move but I can feel the tenseness of his body, the brewing restlessness within him, effortlessly matching the storm in me. It almost feels like he is fighting an invisible war with himself. I can sense the fight within him, calling an answering reaction within me. A savage kind that hopes that his mind will lose so that he might give in.
What the hell is wrong with me?
I can’t bear to stay in this tense atmosphere any longer. Gideon infuriates me like nothing else, then for some reason, he is able to channel my emotions to the other end of the spectrum. Now my body hums with a rhythm I don’t recognize and it’s all because of him.
I have to get out of this. With all the bravado I can still manage at this point, I blurt out the first thing that pops in my mind. “My ‘requests’ are non-negotiable. Take it or leave it Mr. Black. And try to hurry up while you are at it.” Sass and bravado, they have kept me alive to this day. I just hope they don’t fail me now.
I know I’m provoking him, but if he thinks I’m scared of him or his ‘oh-so-mighty' name ‘the earth shou
ld tremble at it’, then he sadly miscalculated my need for him or his resources regarding my plans for a certain Stefan Demetri.
As for a man like him, being wrong concerning anything in his life is probably a sore, hard limit.
“You knew that I was the man to give you what you wanted.” he starts, his voicing dripping with honey that I need a taste of, “You knew or else you wouldn’t be here. Willingly of course.” he states confidently.
“So, if you think you can demand anything you want from me,” He moves in again, “You, my dear, are sadly mistaken.” His voice is, my gosh, so low and deep, I melt at the intimate notes in it. But, a threat is still a threat.
The way he is looking at me is as if he trying to decide on what to do with me. On one hand he looks slightly angry, as if I infuriate him. Then on the other, he seems. . . impressed?
“I didn’t seek you out, remember that.” I point out.
“Only because you still don’t know how to capitalize on the resources available to you.” He counters back
“Oh, so you think you know what I can or can’t do with my ‘resources’? You think you know me?” I huff, annoyed.
“I don’t think sweetheart, I already know you.” he asserts, leaving an unspoken revelation in the air, as if he wanted to say that he knows me too, but maybe I’m reading too much into this.
“Well then, Mr. Know-it-all, you must be aware then that I’m a few seconds away from leaving.” I fire back at him. If he wants to play hard ball, baby, I’m well versed in the art of it.
But the way my body seems to gravitate—on its own—a little closer to his suggests that I’m nowhere near leaving anytime soon.
“Miss. Smith, I thought we made it clear that we are never to lie to each other?” He questions, with a piqued eyebrow that makes parts of me sing.
It’s like, he can read a part of me that I myself am not aware of. It’s uncanny in nature.
I know that I lied. I know that I don’t want to leave, not really. I want to stay and be reckless. I want. . .
“Err, should I come back later?” A third voice comes out of nowhere.
At this point I’m so far into the intricate web of seduction and arousal created by Gideon that when the third voice comes out of nowhere, I jump and bump my head on the window behind me.
Queue in some M.E.
Mortal Embarrassment.
Chapter 9
Chloe
MY HAND FLIES TO THE back of my head and I start to caress the small injury, but the insult comes when I whip my head so fast to the left and spot another handsome man standing there looking at us.
Seriously though, what’s in the water around here?
He is smirking at us, enjoying having caught us in a . . . umm compromising position.
“Seriously, I can come back much, much later.” He smirks at us, clearly enjoying himself.
I don’t know if Gideon heard him though, as he is still staring at me, watching me react to seeing another stranger.
“It’s okay.” He grunts out, a bit unhappy. At what though? I don’t know.
“We are just about done discussing the particulars anyway.” He tells the other guy as he turns away from me, leaving me to scramble back to earth.
I’m over here, busy berating myself for losing my head in front of this man. What was about to happen is not what girls like me do, we don’t just fall into traps set for us by men who want to sidetrack us. No, we rise above and soar. But clearly, I was busy diving into shallow waters.
Gideon pulls himself together in an instant, as if what happened between us a few moments ago was just a figment of my dirty imagination. Unbothered.
But then, what did happen exactly?
I wonder if he will ever stop making me feel so crazed and out of my mind whenever I’m around him.
“Don’t mind me, you can continue whatever that was, it was highly captivating.” The new comer goes on, looking slightly amused and maybe just a tad bit curious as to who I am, as he studies me.
His gaze is searching and he looks at me as if he already knows of me? Is that normal? Am I missing something here? I feel like there is a private joke at my expense that I’m not privy to. It makes me feel self-conscious. Again, I don’t fully know what’s going on so I won’t trust anything or anyone just yet.
“No need, we are done here.” Gideon states with finality. “Right Miss. Smith?”
He has the audacity to turn around and look at me as if all is right in the world, like we weren’t just at a crossroad. That damn arrogance of his makes me want to do damage, I swear!
“Actually no, we weren’t done. Not by a long shot.” I state, making sure to gain his attention once more. I shoot him my best stink eye and a polite fuck you smile. I know he reads the message loud and clear when his nostrils flare a bit. By now, I know I can get a rise out of him as he does to me.
He might be able to distract me by using unusual means, but I still have a head between my shoulders. I will not be sidetracked.
“Unless you agree to my terms, unequivocally and with no dispute now or in the future, then we might as well end this now. No harm, no foul.” I demand as I look him dead in the eye.
His jaw tightens and I see his fists forming tightly as if he can’t believe I’m putting up a fight about this. He looks like he has never been challenged before. Much less by a woman.
Newsflash asshole, I’m not like the many spineless women that you scramble around with between the sheets!
The new guy bursts out laughing in that moment. I’m shocked to realize that he is still there, watching me dish out my best to his friend, or whatever relationship these two have going on.
Gideon hasn’t broken our stare down, if anything, his gaze is frostier than I’ve ever seen it. But that doesn’t scare me. He doesn’t scare me.
I’ve gone through life with just myself and the heat of my anger. I won’t be bullied into submission by a random wealthy man just because I need his help in bringing down a murderer.
But that’s the thing isn’t it? Gideon Black is not a random man. Nothing about our encounter feels random, if anything, it feels premeditated. Or is it just me?
“Wow! I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone talk to you like that, man.” The new guy laughs so hard, I think there are actual tears in his eyes. Gideon, as stoic as ever, doesn’t find any of this funny.
“Well?” I prompt, because if he is not going to help me, I sure as hell can get back to my small apartment on the other side of the bridge and cook up another plan. I don’t have time to dance around his sexy self.
All I know is that Stefan Demetri is going down. With or without Gideon Black.
“Fine.” He reluctantly concedes, grumpily. “We can do this your way.”
I can’t believe my ears. For a moment there, I thought he was going to refuse me, to turn me away because he was too stubborn to make way for a woman. To work together on equal footing with one no less. As we stare at each other, there is something to be said about the way he looks at me.
It’s as if he is in awe that I could stand up for something I shouldn’t be voicing at all.
Women shouldn’t have to beg or protest just to have their opinions heard. It should be just automatic No one should have to do that. Being equal and balanced is what this damn society is supposed to be. Then again, here we are, still fighting for equality in this fallen world.
“This is better than comedy!” Exclaims the other guy whose name I still don’t know.
I turn to look at him and he sends me a wink to which Gideon catches and is visibly not happy about the exchange. There is something about the way both of them look at each other, as if they are communicating but with no audible words.
They look like they are having a whole other conversation, and I think I’m definitely the subject of interest.
“Allow me to introduce myself then, since somebody isn’t much for words right now.” He jokingly says as he sends me another smirk, giving Gideon a s
ide eye I know all too well from Sam.
“Maxwell Jones. I’m a friend. Well, more of an employee to this hard-ass man. I hope he hasn’t pissed you off as yet. He kind of has a penchant for that.” Max whispers conspiratorially, then chuckles when we both hear Gideon grunting something unintelligible under his breath.
“I think we are way over the pissed off limit, but we might just have to work on that.” I say to which Max winks my way, gesturing at Gideon with his eyes.
I think I like Max already. He seems to enjoy ribbing a very serious Gideon and he has no fear of the consequences that follow.
“I know right, he is so uptight sometimes. But I’m sure he doesn’t really mean it.” Max jokes.
I let out an unexpected laugh and I swear I don’t remember the last time I had a nice laugh in the presence of strangers.
Max is a huge guy. I think he must have been in the military one point or another in his life. He is what Sam would say is drop-dead gorgeous. He has hard, dark eyes, and a dimple in his left cheek that comes out when he smiles.
His hair is buzzed short in a crew cut, he is probably an inch taller than Gideon, but I’m not sure since he stands a distance away from us. He is wearing a black suit with a black shirt underneath, without a tie.
There is also an aura of danger about him, a type of hardness that I think I would be wary of if I hadn’t heard the man crack jokes and laugh at the expense of his friend.
Max isn’t someone I would like to meet in a dark alley or try to piss off. Something about him suggests that he can do irreparable damage to a person.
“There is nothing funny about that Max.” Gideon grits, with his stony, stoic expression back on his handsome face, clearly annoyed.
“Oh, but the lady doth think it is.” Max responds with his honey laced voice. I think Max enjoys every chance he gets to make fun of Gideon. Something tells me it doesn’t happen often.
“Why are you here anyway?” Gideon demands.
“Oh yes, about that.” The atmosphere turns somber and chill in literal seconds.
The Billion Dollar Plan: Incongruity Series Book 1 Page 7