Reflected in You: A Crossfire Novel

been staged and methodical. He couldn’t hold back with me because he wanted me beyond reason. Two days without me and he was . . . undone.
    I pumped him with my fist, feeling the thick veins throbbing beneath the smooth skin. A ragged sound tore from his throat and salty warmth spurted on my tongue. He was close, his face flushed and his lips parted with gasping breaths. Sweat misted my brow. My excitement mounted along with his. He was completely at my mercy, near mindless with the need to climax, muttering filthy sexy things about what he was going to do to me the next time he fucked me.
    “That’s it, angel. Milk it . . . make me come for you.” His neck arched, his breath exploding from his lungs. “Fuck.”
    He came as I had—hard and brutal. Semen burst from the tip of his cock in a thick, hot rush that I struggled to swallow. He growled my name, his hips pumping upward into my working mouth, taking what he needed from me, giving me all he had until he was emptied.
    Then he curled toward me, pulling me into a strangling embrace that pinned me to his heaving chest. For long moments, he just held me. I listened as his raging heartbeat slowed and his breathing returned to normal.
    Finally, he spoke with his lips in my hair. “Needed that. Thank you.”
    I smiled and snuggled into him. “My pleasure, ace.”
    “I missed you,” he said softly, his lips pressing to my brow. “So damn much. And not just for this.”
    “I know.” We needed this—the physical closeness, the frenzied touching, the rush of orgasm—to release some of the wild, overwhelming emotions that affected us when we were together. “My dad’s coming out to visit next week.”
    He stilled. Lifting his head, he looked at me wryly. “You have to tell me that while my dick’s still hanging out?”
    I laughed. “Caught you with your pants down?”
    “Hell.” He pressed his lips to my forehead, then rolled to his back and righted his clothes. “You have an idea of how you want the first meeting to go? Dinner out or in? Your place or mine?”
    “I’ll cook at my place.” I stretched, then tugged the wrinkles out of my shirt.
    He nodded, but his vibe changed. My sated, grateful lover of a moment before was replaced by the grim-faced man who’d been around more frequently lately.
    “Would you prefer something different?” I asked.
    “No. It’s a good plan and what I would’ve suggested. He’ll feel comfortable there.”
    “Will you?”
    “Yes.” He propped his head in one hand and looked down at me, brushing my hair back from my forehead. “I’d rather not hit him in the face with my money if we can help it.”
    I took a deep breath. “I hadn’t considered that. I just thought I’d be less anxious about making a mess in my own kitchen than in yours. But you’re right. It’ll be okay, though, Gideon. Once he sees how you feel about me, he’ll be good with us being together.”
    “I only care what he thinks if it affects how you feel. If he doesn’t like me and that changes something between us—”
    “You’re the only one who can do that.”
    He gave a curt nod, which didn’t help me feel better about what he was feeling. A lot of men got nervous meeting their girlfriend’s parents, but Gideon wasn’t like other men. He didn’t rattle. Usually. I wanted him and my dad to be loose and easy around each other, not tense and defensive.
    I changed the subject. “Did you get everything worked out in Phoenix?”
    “Yes. One of the project managers noted some anomalies in accounting, and she was right to push me to look deeper into it. Embezzling isn’t something I tolerate.”
    I winced, thinking of Gideon’s father, who’d bilked investors out of millions before killing himself. “What’s the project?”
    “A golf resort.”
    “Nightclubs, resorts, luxury living, vodka, casinos . . . with a chain of gyms thrown in to keep fit for the high life?” I knew from checking out the Cross Industries website that Gideon also had software and games divisions, and a growing social media platform for young urban professionals. “You’re a pleasure god in more ways than one.”
    “Pleasure god?” His eyes sparkled with humor. “I spend all my energy worshipping you.”
    “How did you get to be so rich?” I blurted out, pricked by the memory of Cary’s insinuations about how Gideon could’ve amassed so much at such a young age.
    “People like to have fun, and they’ll pay for the