Reflected in You: A Crossfire Novel

request.”
    An electric tingle coursed through me, as it always did when he took on that commanding tone. “I just thought you socialized for business and screwed random women occasionally.”
    Saying that last part was hard. As lame as it was to be jealous of women in his past, I couldn’t help it.
    “You didn’t think I had friends?” he asked, clearly amused.
    “You’ve never introduced me to any,” I said sullenly, picking at the hem of my T-shirt.
    “Ah . . .” His amusement deepened, his eyes sparkling with laughter. “You’re my sexy little secret. Have to wonder what I was thinking when I made sure we were photographed kissing in public.”
    “Well.” My gaze moved to the collage on the wall where that very picture could be found, a picture that had been plastered all over gossip blogs for days. “When you put it like that . . .”
    Gideon laughed, and the sound spread through me in a heated rush of pleasure. “I’ve introduced you to a few of my friends when we’ve been out.”
    “Oh.” I’d assumed everyone I had met at the events we’d attended were business associates.
    “But keeping you all to myself isn’t a bad idea.”
    I shot him a look and revisited the point I’d made when we argued about my going to Vegas instead of Phoenix. “Why can’t you be the one lying around naked waiting to be fucked?”
    “Where’s the fun in that?”
    I shoved at his shoulders and he hauled me into his lap, laughing.
    I couldn’t believe how good his mood was and wondered what had set it off. When I glanced at his monitor, all I saw was a spreadsheet that made my eyes cross and a half-written e-mail. But something was different about him. And I liked it.
    “It’d be a pleasure,” he murmured, with his lips to my throat, “to lie around with a hard-on that you rode whenever the mood struck you.”
    My sex clenched at the visual in my mind. “You’re making me horny.”
    “Good. I like you that way.”
    “So,” I mused, “if my fantasy is you providing around-the-clock stud servicing—”
    “Sounds like reality to me.”
    I nipped him on the jaw with my teeth.
    He growled. “Want to play rough, angel?”
    “I want to know what your fantasy is.”
    Gideon adjusted me so that I was draped across his lap. “You.”
    “It better be.”
    He grinned. “In a swing.”
    “Huh?”
    “A sex swing, Eva. Your gorgeous ass in a seat, feet in stirrups, legs spread wide, your perfect cunt wet and waiting.” He rubbed seductive circles into the small of my back. “Totally at my mercy and unable to do anything but take all the cum I can give you. You’d love it.”
    I pictured him standing between my legs, naked and glistening with sweat, his biceps and pecs flexing as he rocked me back and forth, sliding me on and off his beautiful cock. “You want me helpless.”
    “I want you bound. And not on the outside. I’m working my way in.”
    “Gideon—”
    “I won’t ever take it further than you can handle,” he promised, his eyes glittering hotly in the muted lighting. “But I’ll take you to the edge.”
    I squirmed, both aroused and disturbed by the thought of giving up that much control. “Why?”
    “Because you want to be mine and I want to possess you. We’ll get there.” His hand slid under my shirt and cupped my breast, his fingers rolling and tugging my nipple, igniting my body.
    “Have you done that before?” I asked breathlessly. “The swing?”
    His face shuttered. “Don’t ask questions like that.”
    Oh God. “I just—”
    His mouth sealed over mine. He nipped my lower lip, then thrust his tongue into my mouth, holding me where he wanted me with his fist in my hair. The dominance of the act was undeniable. Hunger surged through me, a need for him I couldn’t control or fight. I whimpered, my chest aching at the thought of him putting that much time and effort into gaining pleasure from someone else.
    Gideon’s hand shoved between my legs and cupped my sex. I jerked, surprised at his aggression. He made a low sound of reassurance and massaged me, rubbing my tender flesh with the consummate skill I’d grown so addicted to.
    He broke the kiss, moving his arm to arch my back and lift my breast to his mouth. He bit my nipple through the cotton, then wrapped his lips around the aching peak, sucking so strongly I felt the echo in my core.
    I was under siege, my brain short-circuiting as desire pumped through me. His fingers slid beneath the edge of my