Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
“Maybe I thought you’d say no if I led with that.”
“And maybe you’d have been right. We’ll never know now, will we? Well, let me know what the dress code for the weekend is. As soon as possible, please.”
“You’re not changing your mind?”
“No.” How could she? When she knew how much it meant to him to have her there?
She understood that he’d asked her mostly because she was aware of the situation with his family. And probably because he knew that Beth wasn’t likely to expect anything more from him. Another woman might have expectations that went beyond a mere weekend away.
This was purely a favor. But it was one Beth was very happy to do for him. He’d helped her with so much over the last few weeks, and this was her opportunity to repay him in some small way.
“Thank you for doing this, Beth.”
“You’re welcome,” she said with a shy smile, dropping her eyes to her wine. “It’s an opportunity to see how the mega rich live. I’m curious, I like to learn new things.”
“Oh, I know that.”
She ignored that dry tone of voice, and ran a finger over the rim of her glass, catching some of the red liquid that had beaded on the side of the glass on her finger and sucking it off.
His breath caught and she looked up to see why he had gasped. His eyes were hooded, yet intent, as they stared at her mouth, still with her finger caught between her lips.
Oh.
She slowly drew her index finger out and then gave the tip a leisurely lick before sucking it back into her mouth. His Adam’s apple bobbed and his lips parted as he continued to stare.
“Stop that,” he said huskily, without once lifting his eyes to hers. “I know what you’re doing.”
“But you make it so easy,” she crooned around her finger, before chuckling and removing the digit from her mouth.
“I thought we’d agreed that the whole sex thing was unsustainable between us.”
“Yep,” she agreed, making a popping sound on the p.
“Then stop fucking teasing me before I give that sexy mouth something much bigger to suck on.”
Beth laughed lightly at his threat, dismissing his words with an airy wave of her hand.
Gideon liked this side of her personality. He didn’t think he’d ever seen her so relaxed and playful before. Which was remarkable given the circumstances. Gideon had mounted the steps to his patio with a heavy heart earlier, fully expecting to be reamed by her after she’d discovered his inexcusable night time voyeurism activities. But she didn’t seem as bothered by it as he would’ve imagined.
And that had his guard up.
Was she suppressing her rage? Would she take it out on him when he least expected it? At his sister’s engagement party maybe?
The thought made him shudder a little. He was placing a lot of trust in her. He was vulnerable around his family. His relationship with his father, in particular, would buckle irreparably beneath the slightest external pressure. And God help him, Gideon desperately yearned to fix things with his dad. The old man might never approve of his choices, but Gideon hoped that someday he and his father would find a way toward reconciliation.
As he watched Beth now, Gideon hoped he wasn’t making a huge mistake asking her to join him at the party. But he honestly could not imagine taking anyone else with him.
It made no fucking sense.
“Why aren’t you more pissed off?” he asked her curiously.
“Well, I’m the idiot who left the curtains open after dark. But knowledge is power…and I know better now.”
“Aye, but just because the curtains were open doesn’t mean I should have looked.”
“You didn’t just look, Gideon,” she scoffed with a wave of her glass. “You watched. Big difference.”
“So why aren’t you mad?”
“Who says I’m not?” she hedged.
Oh, she was definitely hiding something.
“I’ve seen you mad and this isn’t it.”
“Do you think anybody else in the neighborhood has such a clear view of my home after dark?” she asked, sounding genuinely apprehensive now. In fact, she sounded a lot more freaked out by that thought than she did at the awareness of Gideon’s spying. Which was…interesting.
“I checked. The first time I realized I could see into your house, I checked out the view from Aunty Naz’s place and from the Kelfords next door. Aunty Naz can’t see anything through that overgrown bougainvillea and the Kelfords’s front window and patio are in the wrong position. They have a clearer view of Jules’s place than they do of yours.”
“Oh, thank goodness. What would you have done if you’d realized they had the same view?”
“I would have mentioned it to you in passing.”
“Probably in the most loathsome way possible, right?” she asked with a laugh.
He grinned. “I would likely have thanked you for the neighborhood peepshow you provided every night.”