And again.
And again.
This meeting was our last task for the day as far as I knew, but the way Gedeon’s mind worked meant I wasn’t going to be granted a reprieve untilhedecided to grace me with it.
My grip on the two knives tightened to the point my knuckles blanched. “I haven’t finished it.” I doubted I’d ever finish the list. Every time dawn found me, it awakened a new fantasy.
Gedeon flipped through the pieces of paper, pausing at the last one. “It stops at number one hundred thirty-seven.”
I blew the microscopic dust off the blades. “As I said—it’s still ongoing.”
“Out.” His command rang out like a strike of a bell, the echo transforming into a set of chains tying me to the wall.
“Are we going to meet later or…” Poised at the edge of his chair, Ryder scratched his nape. “How is this going to work?
Gedeon splayed his hand over Kali’s belly, and although I couldn’t see, I could imagine how her thighs tensed.
“Everyone, out,” he repeated. “Now. I need a moment alone with my partners.”
That deep undertone in his order…it slithered up my legs.
Ryder draped his discarded hoodie over his shoulder. “But?—”
“No buts,” Sadira cut him off. “Shut up and let’s go. I amnotgoing to become an accomplice to their freaky activities, and neither are you.”
Together with Eli, she pushed Ryder out of Gedeon’s study. When the door closed behind them, I tossed the pillow covering my groin away. “So I’m your partner now?”
“You have been one since you lowered to your knees for me,” Gedeon said, hoisting Kali onto his desk.
“Want me to do it again?” I would bruise them if he asked for it.
He whispered something to Kali, and her faint “No” rolled over to me. But whatever Gedeon had said worked—she scooched to the other side of his desk. Her legs dangled over the edge as he strode toward me, his presence devouring the room, sucking out all the oxygen and snatching the moisture from my mouth.
My grip slackened, and the kitchen knife clattered away from me.
As he approached me, his shadow lengthened behind him, growing and growing, until it curved over the wall and the ceiling.
His boots ceased their advance an increment away from my crossed legs. “Strip.”
I swallowed. Hid my favorite knife in the sheath strapped to my bicep. Then untangled my legs and stood up slowly, because him hovering so close had obliterated my balance.
Backing two feet away to make space for me, he folded his arms. “Shirt.”
On reflex, I hooked the hemline and ripped the fabric over my head. My skin wailed the loss of clothing as the wind blasting from the open window sliced my back, the late evening’s chill invisible cords lashing out on my flesh.
His gaze traveled down my torso and back up. Satisfied with his appraisal, he nodded. “Boots.”
So one-worded instructions were all I was going to get tonight.
Yet my feet moved of their own accord, my toes snagging on my heels and peeling my loosened shoes off. Without waiting for further instruction, I yanked my socks off, and the cold coating the floorboards tickled my soles.
“So?” I scratched my chest. Even without checking, I could tell my nails had left gouges in their wake. “Have you found what you’re looking for?”
“Oh, Zion.” Gedeon’s voice was as dark as his shadow. “I found my purpose a long time ago. Although it took me a while to recognize it, I will not waste a single day more without hearing its groans.”
My legs wobbled. It didn’t matter how hard and long I’d trained, all he had to do was speak, and I bordered on collapsing.
“Pants—off,” he barked, back to his authoritative self.
