“I’ve always seen you, angel. From the moment you found me, I’ve seen nothing but you.”
“Oh, Eva." He rubbed his cheek against my damp face. "I must've wished for you so hard and so often you had no choice but to come true.”
“Are you sleeping with anyone?”
The question was asked so casually it took a second to process what he’d said.
I inhaled sharply. “Why is that any business of yours?”
He looked at me and I saw what I’d seen the first time we’d met—tremendous power and steely control. Both of which had me taking an involuntary step back. Again. At least I didn’t fall this time; I was making progress.
“Because I want to fuck you, Eva. I need to know what’s standing in my way, if anything.”
“I want there to be happily-ever-afters for the fucked-up crowd. Show me the way, Eva honey. Make me believe.”
“He was the kind of guy that made a woman want to rip his shirt open and watch the buttons scatter along with her inhibitions.”
“I loved the way he kissed me, as if he had to, as if he'd go crazy if he didn't and had nearly waited too long.”
“B.O.B. and I have a longtime understanding - when we're done with each other, we know exactly which one of us has been used, and it isn't me. Good night Gideon.”
“You forget who submits, Eva,” he said gruffly. “I’ve given up control for you. I’ve bent and adjusted for you. I’ll do anything to keep you and make you happy. But I can’t be tamed or topped. Don’t mistake indulgence for weakness.”
“It's probably best for me to work off some energy before I get you naked. I'm sure you'd like to be able to walk tomorrow.”
“Romance isn't in my repertoire, Eva. But a thousand ways to make you come are. Let me show you.”
“I love you, Gideon.”
“God.” He looked at me with something that resembled disgust. Whether it was directed at me or himself, I didn’t know. “How can you say that?”
“Because it’s the truth.”
“You just see this”—he gestured at himself with a wave of his hand. “You’re not seeing the fucked-up, broken mess inside.”
I inhaled sharply. “You can say that to me? When you know I’m fucked up and broken, too?”
“It's not the right word, Eva," he pressed on stubbornly, his lips at my ear. "That's why I haven't said it. It's not the right word for you and what I feel for you."
"Shut up. If you care about me at all, you'll just shut up and go away."
"I've been loved before--by Corinne, by other women...But what the hell do they know about me? What the hell are they in love with when they don't know how fucked up I am? If that's love, it's nothing compared to what I feel for you.”
“I can't go long without you either, Eva. You're an addiction...my obsession...”
“You definitely have the voice for phone sex, but I've got to go. I have a date with my vibrator."
"Oh, Eva." Cross spoke my name in a decadent purr. "You're determined to drive me to my knees, aren't you? What will it take to talk you into a threesome with B.O.B.”
“keep looking at me like that,"
he warned, leaning casually into the counter and sipping his coffee.
"see what happens."
"i'm going to lose my job over you."
"i'd give you another one."
i snorted. "as what? your sex slave?"
"what a provocative suggestion. let's discuss.”
“I spend a quarter of every day inside you. When you set limits outside of that I can't help but see them as arbitrary.”
“That’s what scares me, Gideon. You don’t know what you’re worth.”
“Actually, I do. Twelve bill—” “Shut up.”
“I'm an animal with you," he murmured. "I want to mark you. I want to possess you so completely there's no separation between us.”
“Sex that's planned like a business transaction is a turnoff for me..... Listen to yourself. Why even call it a fuck? Why not be clear and call it a seminal emission in a pre-approved orifice?" (Eva to Gideon)”
“Chicks before dicks, and all that.”
“I must’ve wished for you so hard and so often you had no choice but to come true.”
“Don't. Tell me when, then. And before you say never, take a good look at me and tell me if you see a man who's easily deterred.”
“You know how it is - some hot guys don't make your hormones go crazy, while some unattractive guys have massive sex appeal. This guy had it all.”
“Cracking his knuckles, Cary dramatically prepared to open his fortune cookie. “Let’s see. Will I be rich? Famous? About to
meet Mr. or Ms. Tall, Dark, and Tasty? Traveling to distant lands? What’d you guys get?”
“Mine’s lame,” I said. “In the end all things will be known. Duh. I didn’t need a fortune to figure that out.”
Gideon opened his and read, “Prosperity will knock on your door soon.”
I snorted.
Cary shot me a look. “I know, right? You snatched someone else’s cookie, Cross.”
“He better not be anywhere near someone else’s cookie,” I said dryly.
Reaching over, Gideon plucked half of mine out of my fingers. “Don’t worry, angel. Your cookie is the only one I want.”
He popped it in his mouth with a wink.
“Gag,” Cary muttered. “Get a room.” He cracked his fortune with a flourish, and then scowled. “What the fuck?”
I leaned forward. “What’s it say?”
“Confucius say,” Gideon ad-libbed, “man with hand in pocket feel cocky all day.”
Cary threw half his cookie at Gideon, who caught it deftly and grinned.
“Give me that.” I snatched the fortune out from between Cary’s fingers and read it. Then laughed.
“Fuck you, Eva.”
“Well?” Gideon prodded.
“Pick another cookie.”
Gideon smiled. “Pwned by a fortune.”
Cary threw the other half of his cookie.”
“Gideon: We've established some talking points: we have an intense sexual attraction and neither of us wants to date. So what do you want – exactly? Seduction, Eva? Do you want to be seduced?
Eva: Sex that’s planned like a business transaction is a turnoff for me.
Gideon: Establishing parameters in a merger makes it less likely that there’ll be exaggerated expectations and disappointment.
Eva: Why even call it a fuck? Why not be clear and call it seminal emission in a pre-approved orifice?”
“I'm losing my mind without you.” His lips were gliding down my neck, his tongue stroking over my racing pulse. He sucked on my skin and pleasure radiated through me. “I can’t think. I can’t work or sleep. My body aches for you. I can make you want me again. Let me try.”
“I can let you in, Eva. I’m trying. But your first response when I screw up is to run away. You do it every time and I can’t stand feeling like any moment I’m going to do or say something wrong and you’re going to bolt.”
“Why? Why would you do that?”
"You have your way of dealing with jealousy and I have mine.”
“..then he pushed the call button again and asked, "Are you sleeping with anyone?"
"Why is that any business of yours?"
"Because I want to fuck you, Eva. I need to know what's standing in my way, if anything.”
“When all is said and done, what is clear is that all lives end before their time.”
“nightly boiling and then cooling a broth of freshly pounded fudano leaves in which she soaked her feat -and the pale palms of her hands- to an inky blackness. When Kunta asked his mother she told him to run along. So he asked his father, who told him, "The more blackness a woman has the more beautiful she is.”
“Will you make a song for him?' the woman asked.
'He has a song,' the man replied. 'He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.”
“Many of our tribe went to the cliff each night to count the number killed during the day. They counted the dead otter and thought of the beads and other things that each pelt meant. But I never went to the cove and whenever I saw the hunters with their long spears skimming over the water, I was angry, for these animals were my friends. It was fun to see them playing or sunning themselves among the kelp. It more fun than the thought of beads to wear around my neck.”
“I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts so much . . . because it's the only thing that'll make it stop hurting.”
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