Reflected in You: A Crossfire Novel

about my sudden desperate hunger to devour him whole:
I’d give anything to be sucking your cock right now.
    Just thinking about how he looked when I took him in my mouth . . . the feral sounds he made when he was about to come . . .
    Standing, I deleted the text the moment I saw it’d been delivered, then dropped my phone back in my purse. Since it was noon, I closed all the windows on my computer and headed out to reception to find Megumi.
    “You hungry for anything in particular?” she asked, pushing to her feet and giving me a chance to admire her belted, sleeveless lavender dress.
    I coughed because her question came so soon after my text. “No. Your choice. I’m not picky.”
    We pushed out through the glass doors to reach the elevators.
    “I am so ready for the weekend,” Megumi said with a groan as she stabbed the call button with an acrylic-tipped finger. “A day and a half left to go.”
    “Got something fun planned?”
    “That remains to be seen.” She sighed and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Blind date,” she explained ruefully.
    “Ah. Do you trust the person setting you up?”
    “My roommate. I expect the guy will at least be physically attractive, because I know where she sleeps at night and paybacks are a bitch.”
    I was smiling as an elevator car reached our floor and we stepped inside. “Well, that ups your odds for a good time.”
    “Not really, since she found him by going on a blind date with him first. She swears he’s great, just more my type than hers.”
    “Hmm.”
    “I know, right?” Megumi shook her head and looked up at the decorative, old-fashioned needle above the car doors that marked the passing floors.
    “You’ll have to let me know how it goes.”
    “Oh, yeah. Wish me luck.”
    “Absolutely.” We’d just stepped out into the lobby when I felt my purse vibrate beneath my arm. As we passed through the turnstiles, I dug for my phone and felt my stomach tighten at the sight of Gideon’s name. He was calling, not sexting me back.
    “Excuse me,” I said to Megumi before answering.
    She waved it off nonchalantly. “Go for it.”
    “Hey,” I greeted him playfully.
    “Eva.”
    I missed a step hearing the way he growled my name. There was a wealth of promise in the roughness of his voice.
    Slowing, I found I was speechless, just from hearing him say my name with that edginess I craved—the sharp bite that told me he wanted to be inside me more than he wanted anything else in the world.
    While people flowed around me, entering and exiting the building, I was halted by the weighted silence on my phone. The unspoken and nearly irresistible demand. He made no sound at all—I couldn’t even hear him breathing—but I felt his hunger. If I didn’t have Megumi waiting patiently for me, I’d be riding an elevator to the top floor to satisfy his unvoiced command to make good on my offer.
    The memory of the time I’d sucked him off in his office simmered through me, making my mouth water. I swallowed. “Gideon . . .”
    “You wanted my attention—now you have it. I want to hear you say those words.”
    I felt my face flush. “I can’t. Not here. Let me call you later.”
    “Step over by the column and out of the way.”
    Startled, I looked around for him. Then I remembered that the Caller ID put him in his office. My gaze lifted, searching for the security cameras. Immediately, I felt his eyes on me, hot and wanting. Arousal surged through me, spurred by his desire.
    “Hurry along, angel. Your friend’s waiting.”
    I moved to the column, my breathing fast and audible.
    “Now tell me. Your text made me hard, Eva. What are you going to do about it?”
    My hand went to my throat, my gaze sliding helplessly to Megumi, who watched me with raised brows. I lifted one finger up, asking for another minute, then turned my back to her and whispered, “I want you in my mouth.”
    “Why? To play with me? To tease me like you’re doing now?” There was no heat in his voice, just calm severity.
    I knew to pay careful attention when Gideon got serious about sex.
    “No.” I lifted my face to the tinted dome in the ceiling that concealed the nearest security camera. “To make you come. I love making you come, Gideon.”
    He exhaled harshly. “A gift, then.”
    Only I knew what it meant for Gideon to view a sexual act as a gift. For him, sex had previously been about pain and degradation or lust and necessity. Now, with me, it was about pleasure and