“Whyever not?” She was practically batting her eyelashes at him—a sure sign she was hiding something. “We spent several weeks doing little more than that, didn’t we?” Her smile bordered on suggestive, but her eyes were still flat.
Gideon reached for her, wrapping his fingers gently but firmly around her wrist before she could sidestep him.
“Are you dating Forth now?” he asked before he checked the words with his brain and realized they sounded petulant and jealous, and were utterly and completely out of line.
Nevertheless, he didn’t give her a chance to respond before directing her around a corner and through a door—and suddenly they were outside in the Japanese tea garden.
The faint trickle of water burbled in the quiet, and a large, shallow, metal bowl contained a roaring fire. A cloudy sky above allowed glimpses of a half-moon and part of a starscape. The air was chill and brisk, and smelled faintly of burning wood.
“Well, it’s not the riverfront at the JW Marriott,” Fiona commented, bringing to mind the last time they’d both attended an event and ended up in a private setting by the river. She drew her beaded wrap a little closer. “And no I’m not dating Brad. As if it’s any of your business. You’ve always had a craw up your butt about him for some reason, haven’t you?”
Gideon had no reason to feel the relief, but it washed through him. Then it was replaced by irritation with himself for his selfishness. Just like his father.
“Did you want to talk to me about something Gideon?” She’d stopped and turned to look up at him. Her gaze searched his, but it was cold and emotionless. He wanted to warm it again, to melt away that reserve and see her easy and giddy.
He reached to touch her hair, piled tall on her head, leaving her long, elegant, sexy neck and shoulders bare. His mouth went dry.
He knew exactly how warm her skin would be, how it would smell like spice and sweet and something exotic…how she’d shiver, and catch her breath if he pressed his lips to that spot just below her ear—
He dragged himself back to reality. “I just wanted to know that you’re all right. I think about you…often.” Twisting a loose coil around his finger, he rubbed the silky strands between the pads of his fingers until she stepped back and the lock slipped from his fingers.
“I’m doing just fine, Gideon. How about you? Are you happy? Picking out names? Will there be a Hollis Gideon the Fourth, or are you waiting to learn the sex? Decorating the nursery? Planning a wedding—or did you elope?”
He felt like he’d been punched in the stomach, then grief and anger, emptiness and fury rushed over him.
It was his own fault for seeking her out, for getting this close to her again. He should have just stayed away, across the room, with his fiancée.
It would have been much safer.
Yet impossible to do.
“I love you, Fiona.” The words shocked him as much as they did her, and he gaped for a moment before trying to backpedal. “Oh, God, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…”
Her entire face had frozen. Now, it sagged, then drew tight with incredulity. Her eyes snapped wildly as she got in his face, the words tumbling out. “You didn’t really just say that, did you, Gideon? I had to have imagined it. Howdareyou do this to me—toyourself—and to Rachel.How dare you.”
Gideon had never seen her so angry—so cold and detached and deadly furious.
It was frightening and illuminating at the same time. He thought for a moment she was angry enough to strike him, but instead, she whirled and stalked away, her feet clipping hard on the stone pathway as she disappeared into the night.
He stared after her, ill and ashamed.
Empty.
Then the sound of clapping…slow, steady, mocking…reached his ears.
Gideon turned to see Rachel, leaning against one of the tall columns that created a stone archway.
He turned cold.
“Nice job, Gideon.”
“Oh, God, Rachel…I am so sorry.” He went toward her, his whole body numb, his brain frozen. Misery, shame, desolation warred inside him. There was nothing he could say.
Rachel allowed him to take her hands, but she didn’t move away from the column against which she leaned. “What in the hell was that?” she said in a clipped voice.
Her fingers felt warm in his freezing hands. He scrambled to pull his thoughts together…but the only thing he could focus on was the image of Fiona’s shocked, loathing expression before she turned away.
Forever. Gone. Forever.
