“Red,” he whispered against her lips.
The name he called her felt like a flame.
“We have to stop.”
“Why?” He pressed his forehead tight against hers. “I’ve been waiting a lifetime since the last time we kissed. I never want to stop.”
“If your doctor was here, he’d throw me out.”
“He’d have to get through me to do it.”
“I think we can be a little patient. Besides, I was afraid we were going to set your house on fire.” She pulled back to look around her. “It’s a nice house. I never really looked at it before. I wanted to go to the rooftop and just hurried up the stairs, but this is beautiful. You told me about renovating the outside structure, but you didn’t talk about the inside much.”
Rory was talking too fast, the way she did when she was nervous, trying to distract herself. It was difficult to force herself to let go of him, but she managed. “Are you hungry? The restaurant gave us napkins and utensils if you’re fine with just eating out of the takeout boxes.”
“That’s fine, Red.” There was definite amusement in his voice. “I’m hungry and I don’t eat off fancy plates.”
“Do you have fancy plates?” She caught up the bags from the restaurant and sorted the boxes and utensils, hoping everything was still warm enough.
“As a matter of fact, I do. Rose, Jaimie and Rhianna went shopping for the plates and silverware. They sent me so many pictures I was ready to shoot all three of them.” He laughed, remembering the photographs coming into his phone one after another. Thethree women were clearly having fun. Too much and at his expense. He had threatened to shoot them, but sadly, they weren’t in the least afraid of him.
Rory’s laughter sounded even better than he remembered. “I love that for you. Your friends must be very fun women.”
“They’re more like siblings and they’re pains in my ass. Jaimie is married to Mack, and Rose is married to Kane. We all grew up together. Rhianna grew up with us as well. She’s younger and always wants to be Miss Independent. I suppose she’s as capable of taking care of herself as the rest of us, but none of us like to think so.”
“Because she’s female?” Javier had said that Gideon was very protective, and if she was going to be with him, she would have to accept that trait in him.
“Yes.” Gideon opened a container of soup. “She was very young. So was Jaimie. We all fell into the habit of looking after them, and I guess we never got out of it.”
Rory thought the prawns were excellent. The restaurant had surrounded the boxes of food with heat packs. She thought Gideon might have asked them to do that for him. She doubted it was a standard practice, but maybe he got takeout from them all the time.
“Javier said you were super protective. That it was part of your character. I have the feeling that you aren’t the only one. He seemed protective—at least of you.”
“He is of the women too.”
Rory nodded. She had her mouth full of ginger noodles and couldn’t reply. Javier was extremely protective of Gideon, to the point that she felt intimidated by him.
Gideon paused in the act of bringing a forkful of fish to his mouth. He studied her expression over it. “Did Javier say something to you that was upsetting?”
“Why would you think that? I just pointed out that he was protective.Ifeel protective of you as well. He doesn’t have a corner on that particular trait.”
He took the bite of fish, his piercing blue eyes never leaving her face as he chewed. Rory felt the butterflies taking wing again, but this time for entirely different reasons. He seemed to see right through her. He wasn’t buying her misdirection. Those blue eyes had gone arctic chill. The silver around the blue had widened until the ring bled into the blue, giving his eyes the appearance of bluish mercury.
The color of his eyes fascinated her. The human aspect was nearly gone. He didn’t blink and appeared nearly hawkish. Not the color so much but the difference in his appearance. It was eerie and a little scary.
“You didn’t really answer my question. What did Javier say or do to upset you, Rory?”
She realized he rarely called her Rory. His voice might be compelling and even commanding at times, but the tone was low and gentle. Now he used a different tone, one she hadn’t heard before. Raspy. Husky. His voice still had that sexy component that got to her, but his tone had a ruthless quality to it.
“Do you realize you can sound very intimidating, Gideon?”
He didn’t so much as blink. “So I’ve been told numerous times. You’re stalling. Tell me what he did or said, please.” He put his fork down and rested his palm on her thigh.
Her heart jumped. His touch was light, but it was impossible to ignore it. “Javier is just...” She broke off, searching for an adequate description. “Javier. He’s a very scary man. I think you already know that. One minute he’s protecting me, and the next he’s warning me that I’d better not do anything to hurt you. Then he’s being sweet and disclosing that he’s got major pickpocketing skills and how he got them.”
For the first time, Gideon looked surprised. “Javier told you he was skilled at picking pockets? How did that subject come up?”
“I needed my inhaler and wasn’t going to use it in front of him. He took it out of my pocket without my knowledge and handed it to me. I didn’t even feel him brush up against me. He told me about living on the streets when he was a child and how the rest of you would provide a distraction and he’d steal wallets and jewelry.”
