by Day, Sylvia
“Gideon—”
His lips touched my temple. “I think I loved you the moment I saw you. Then we made love that first time in the limo and it became something else. Something more.”
“Whatever. You cut me off that night and left me behind to take care of Corinne. How could you, Gideon?”
He released me only long enough to scoop me up and carry me over to where my bathrobe hung from a hook on the back of the door. He bundled me up; then had me sit on the edge of the tub while he went to the sink and pul ed my makeup removal wipes out of the drawer. Crouching in front of me, he stroked the cloth over my cheek.
“When Corinne cal ed during the advocacy dinner, it was the perfect time to make me do something stupid.” His gaze was soft and warm on my tear-streaked face. “You and I had just made love, and I wasn’t thinking clearly. I told her I was busy and that I was with someone, and when I heard the pain in her voice, I knew I had to deal with her so I could move forward with you.”
“I don’t understand. You left me behind for her. How does that move us forward?”
“I screwed up with Corinne, Eva.” He tilted my chin back to rub at my raccoon eyes. “I met her my first year at Columbia. I noticed her, of course. She’s beautiful and sweet, and never had an unkind word to say about anyone. When she pursued me, I let myself be caught and she became my first consensual sexual experience.”
“I hate her.”
That made his mouth curve slightly.
“I’m not kidding, Gideon. I’m sick with jealousy right now.”
“It was just sex with her, angel. As raw as you and I fuck, it’s stil making love. Every time, from the very first time. You’re the only one who’s ever gotten to me that way.”
I heaved out a breath. “Okay. I’m marginal y better.” He kissed me. “I guess you could say we dated. We were exclusive sexual y and we often ended up going to the same places as a couple. Stil , when she told me she loved me, I was surprised. And flattered. I cared about her. I enjoyed spending time with her.”
“Stil do, apparently,” I muttered.
“Keep listening.” He chastised me with a tap of his finger to the end of my nose. “I thought maybe I might love her, too, in my own way…the only way I knew how.
I didn’t want her to be with anyone else. So I said yes when she proposed.”
I jerked back to look at him. “She proposed?”
“Don’t look so shocked,” he said wryly. “You’re bruising my ego.”
Relief flooded me in a rush that made me dizzy. I threw myself at him, hugging him as tight as I could.
“Hey.” His returning embrace was just as fierce.
“You okay?”
“Yes. Yes, I’m getting there.” I pul ed back and cupped his jaw in my hand. “Keep going.”
“I said yes for al the wrong reasons. After two years of hanging out, we’d never spent a ful night together.
Never talked about any of the things I talk to you about.
She didn’t know me, not real y, and yet I convinced myself that being loved at al was something to hang on to. Who else was going to do it right, if not her?” He moved his attention to my other eye, cleaning away the black streaks. “I think she was hoping that being engaged would take us to a different level.
Maybe I’d open up more. Maybe we’d stay the night at the hotel—which she thought was romantic, by the way
—instead of cal ing it an early night because of classes in the morning. I don’t know.”
I thought it sounded terribly lonely. My poor Gideon.
He’d been alone for so long. Maybe his whole life.
“And maybe when she broke it off after a year,” he went on, “she was hoping that would kick-start things, too. That I’d make a bigger effort to keep her. Instead, I was relieved because I’d started to realize it was going to be impossible to share a home with her. What excuse was I going to come up with to sleep in separate rooms and have my own space?”
“You never considered tel ing her?”
“No.” He shrugged. “Until you, I didn’t consider my past an issue. Yes, it affected certain ways I did things, but everything had its place and I wasn’t unhappy. In fact, I thought I had a comfortable and uncomplicated life.”
“Oh, boy.” My nose wrinkled. “Hel o, Mr.
Comfortable. I’m Miss Complicated.”
His grin flashed. “Never a dul moment.”
Gideon tossed the makeup remover wipe in the trash.
Then he grabbed a towel to throw over the puddle he’d left on the floor and toed off his shoes. To my utter delight, he began stripping out of his wet clothes.
Watching him raptly, I said, “You feel guilty because she stil loves you.”
“I do, yes. I knew her husband. He was a good guy and he was crazy about her, until he figured out she didn’t feel the same way and things fel apart.” He looked at me as he peeled his shirt off. “I couldn’t figure out why he let it get to him. He was married to the girl he wanted, they lived in a different country away from me, so what was his problem? Now, I understand. If you loved someone else, Eva, it’d shred me to pieces, every single day. It’d kil me even if you were with me and not him. But unlike Giroux, I wouldn’t let you go. Maybe I wouldn’t have al of you, but you’d stil be mine and I’d take what I could get.” My fingers laced in my lap. “That’s what scares me, Gideon. You don’t know what you’re worth.”
“Actual y, I do. Twelve bil —”
“Shut up.” My head spun and I pressed my fingertips to my eyes. “It shouldn’t be such a mystery that women fal in love with you and stay in love. Did you know that Magdalene kept her hair long hoping it’d remind you of Corinne?”
He dropped his slacks and frowned at me. “Why?” I sighed at his cluelessness. “Because she believes Corinne is who you want.”
“Then she’s not paying attention.”
“Isn’t she? Corinne told me she talks to you almost every day.”
“Not quite. I’m often not available. You know how busy I am.” His gaze took on the heated look I was so familiar with. I knew he was thinking about the times he got busy with me.
“That’s nuts, Gideon. Her cal ing every day. That’s stalking.” Which reminded me of her assertion that he’d been as possessive over her as he was about me. That niggled at me in a terrible way.
“Where are you going with this?” he asked, in a voice laced with warm amusement.
“Don’t you get it? You drive women off the deep end because you’re the ultimate. You’re the grand prize. If a woman can’t have you, they know they’re settling for less than the best. So they can’t think about not having you. They just think of crazy ways to try and get you.”
“Except for the one I want,” he retorted dryly, “who spends a lot of time running in the opposite direction.” I stared unabashedly, drinking him in as he stood naked in front of me. “Answer one question for me, Gideon. Why do you want me, when you can have your pick of perfection instead? And I’m not fishing for compliments or reassurances. I’m asking an honest question.”
He caught me up and moved us into the bedroom.
“Eva, if you don’t stop thinking of us as temporary, I’m going to take you over my knee and make damn sure you like it.”
Setting me down in a chair, he went to rifle through my drawers.
I watched him pul ing out underwear, yoga pants, and a top. “Have you forgotten I sleep in the nude with you?”
“We’re not staying here.” He faced me. “I don’t trust Cary not to bring more intoxicated jerks home and once we turn in for the night I’l be drugged on the medication Dr. Petersen prescribed and possibly unable to protect you. So we’re going to my place.” I looked down at my twisted hands, thinking about how I might need protection from Gideon, too. “I’ve been down this road with Cary before, Gideon. I can’t just hole up at your place and hope he comes out of it on his own. He needs me to be around more than I have been.”
“Eva.�
�� Gideon brought me my clothes and crouched in front of me. “I know you need to support Cary. We’l figure out how tomorrow.”
I cupped his face. “Thank you.”
“I need you, too, though,” he said quietly.
“We need each other.”
He pushed to his feet. Moving back to the dresser, he pul ed open his drawers and grabbed clothes for himself.
Standing, I began to dress. “Listen…”
He pul ed a pair of low-slung jeans on. “Yes?”
“I feel tons better now that I know the score, but Corinne is stil going to be a problem for me.” I paused with my shirt in my hands. “You wanna nip her hopes in the bud real quick. Stow the guilt, Gideon, and start weaning her off.”
He sat on the edge of the bed to pul on his socks.
“She’s a friend, Eva, and she’s in a rough spot. It’s a cruel time to cut her off.”
“Think careful y, Gideon. I have exes in my past, too.
You’re setting the precedent now for how I’l handle them. I’m taking my cues from you.”
He stood with a scowl. “You’re threatening me.”
“I prefer to see it as coercion. Relationships work both ways. You’re not her only friend. She can find someone more appropriate to lean on in her time of crisis.”
We grabbed what we needed and walked back into the living room. I saw the mess left behind—an aqua-hued bra beneath an end table and blood spray on my cream sectional —and I wished Cary was stil around to smack some sense into.
“I’m digging into it with him tomorrow,” I bit out, my jaw tight with anger and worry. “Goddamn it, I should’ve decked him when I had the chance. I should’ve knocked him out cold, and then locked him up in his room until he gets his brain working again.” Gideon’s hand at the smal of my back rubbed soothingly. “It’l be better to do that tomorrow, when he’s alone and hungover. More effective that way.” Angus was waiting for us when we got downstairs. I was about to climb into the back of the limo when Gideon cursed under his breath, stopping me.
“What?” I asked him.
“I forgot something.”
“Let me get my keys.” I reached for the overnight bag Gideon was holding, which had my purse inside.
“No need. I have a set.” He shot me an unapologetic grin when my brows rose. “I had copies made before I gave them back to you.”
“Seriously?”
“If you’d paid attention”—he kissed the top of my head—“you might’ve noticed that you’ve had the key to my place on your key ring since I returned it.” I gaped after him as he darted past the doorman and back into the building. I remembered the torment of those four days when I’d thought we’d broken up and the excruciating pain I’d felt when those keys slid out of the envelope and into my palm.
I’d had the key to being with him al along.
Shaking my head, I looked around at my adopted city, loving everything about it and feeling grateful for the crazy wel of happiness I’d found here.
Gideon and I stil had so much work ahead of us. As much as we loved each other, it was no guarantee that we’d survive our personal wounds. But we communicated, we were honest with each other, and God knew we were both too stubborn to quit without a fight.
Gideon reappeared just as two large, beautiful y groomed poodles walked by with their equal y coiffed owner.
I climbed into the limo. As we pul ed away from the curb, Gideon tugged me onto his lap and cuddled me close. “We had a rough night, but we got through it.”
“Yeah, we did.” Tipping my head back, I offered my mouth for a kiss. He obliged me with one that was slow and sweet—a simple reaffirmation of our precious, complicated, maddening, necessary connection.
Cupping his nape, I ran my fingers through his silky hair. “I can’t wait to get you back in bed.” He gave a sexy little growl and attacked my neck with tickling nips and kisses, banishing our ghosts and their shadows.
At least for a little while…
Gideon and Eva’s story continues in the powerfully sensual sequel in
the Crossfire series,
1. Eva’s move from California to New York brings her closer to her mother. While the move was a good one for both her and
Cary’s careers, it could have been
avoided. Why do you think she made the
choice to start her new life in New York?
2. Cary is dependent on Eva material y and emotional y, even though she turns to him as a sounding board more often than he
turns to her. What needs does Eva meet
for Cary?
3. Initial y, it’s the physical attraction that draws Gideon to Eva, but by the time he lures her to his nightclub there’s something deeper involved. What is it about Eva that causes Gideon to pursue her so
relentlessly?
4. Gideon has a difficult time accepting any 4. Gideon has a difficult time accepting any privacy barriers between him and Eva. Do you think Eva is too soft or too tough on the issue? How would you respond?
5. Eva values transparency in her
relationships, but she al ows Gideon to keep his secrets. Why do you think that is?
Do you agree or disagree?
6. Gideon’s life revolves around his work and his philanthropic commitments; Eva’s
social life is more personal. How do these differences affect them as a couple?
7. Gideon and Eva have a very sexual
relationship. Considering their pasts, why do you think sex is such an important way for them to communicate?
Sylvia Day is the national bestsel ing author of over a dozen novels. Her résumé includes a variety of odd jobs ranging from amusement park employee to Russian linguist/interrogator for U.S. Army Military Intel igence. She’s presently a ful -time writer. Sylvia’s work has been cal ed an “exhilarating adventure” by Publishers Weekly and “wickedly entertaining” by Booklist. Her stories have been translated into Russian, Japanese, Portuguese, German, Czech, Italian, and Thai. She’s been honored with the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, the EPPIE award, the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Readers’ Crown, and multiple finalist nominations for Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA®
Award of Excel ence. She’s now hard at work on DEEPER IN YOU, the sequel to BARED TO YOU, but would love for you to visit with her on her website.
Connect with Sylvia
www.SylviaDay.com
www.Facebook.com/AuthorSylviaDay
www.Twitter.com/SylDay
Books by Sylvia Day
Paranormal Romance
Renegade Angels
A Taste of Seduction
A Hunger So Wild
A Touch of Crimson
Dream Guardians
Heat of the Night
Pleasures of the Night
Historical Romance
Seven Years to Sin
Pride and Pleasure
The Stranger I Married
Bad Boys Ahoy!
Georgian
Don’t Tempt Me
A Passion for Him
Passion for the Game
Ask For It
Writing as S. J. Day
Marked
Eve of Chaos
Eve of Destruction
Eve of Darkness
Writing as Livia Dare
Sapphire’s World
In the Flesh
Anthologies
Hot in Handcuffs
Guns and Roses
Wicked Reads
Best Erotic Romance
Steamlust: Steampunk Erotic Romance
Men Out of Uniform
The Promise of Love
Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance 2
Al uring Tales: Hot Holiday Nights
Perfect Kisses
Got a Minute?
Al uring Tales: Awaken the Fantasy
Declassified: Dark Kisses
White Hot Holidays: Vol. 2
Dreams of the Oasis: Vol. 2
Sex on Holiday
NonFiction
Lustful y Ever After
Perfectly Plum
The Write Ingredients
Digital Titles
A Caress of Wings
A Dark Kiss of Rapture
Al Revved Up
Kiss of the Night
Misled
Snaring the Huntress
Catching Caroline
Writing as S. J. Day
Eve of Warfare
Eve of Sin City
Table of Contents
1. Praise for Sylvia Day
2. Books by Sylvia Day
3. Copyright
4. Bared to You
5. Dedication
6. Acknowledgments
7. Chapter 1
8. Chapter 2
9. Chapter 3
10. Chapter 4
11. Chapter 5
12. Chapter 6
13. Chapter 7
14. Chapter 8
15. Chapter 9
16. Chapter 10
17. Chapter 11
18. Chapter 12
19. Chapter 13
20. Chapter 14
21. Chapter 15
22. Chapter 16
23. Chapter 17
24. Chapter 18
25. Chapter 19
26. Chapter 20
27. Chapter 21
28. Chapter 22
29. Deeper in You
30. Book Club/Readers' Group Guide
31. About the Author
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