Page 32 of Prodigal

“I believe Ennis Canto is involved—somehow—in the shooting that killed my mother.” And Gideon shared, in a tonethat belied the anger in his eyes, what happened to him and his family all those years ago.

André inhaled sharply when he was finished, rocking back on his heels. “What the fuck? And you think my—Ennis—is behind it? That’s—that can’t be right.”

“If he’s not involved then he has information on who is.”

André shook his head. “Okay, that’s—” Fucked up was what it was. “But what does that have to do with me?”

Gideon shrugged. “He wants you dead. I want to know why.”

So did André. “But Jules and I don’t need to be here for that, do we?”

“You do.” Gideon touched him again, the slide of a fingertip down André’s nose, over his lips, lingering there. “Because I want you to stay. I like Juliette. And I like you.”

“Do you?” André narrowed his eyes, pretending as if he didn’t want to dart his tongue out to lick Gideon’s finger. “Or do you just want to fuck me?”

Gideon chuckled. “There is nojust, I told you already.” He dipped his head, breath heating André’s skin, lips brushing over André’s. “When we finally get to where we’re headed”—he glanced back at the bed before returning his smoldering gaze to André’s—“it will be everything.”

André couldn’t breathe, but he forced out a snort. “Full of yourself, aren’t you?”

A knock came on the door just as Gideon winked. “Yep, and I know you want the same…to be full of me.”

11

Gideon didn’t thinkit would take such effort to not touch André. To watch the other man walk away from him and toward the bedroom door, opening it to reveal Samir, who stood on the other side with a tick in his jaw.

Not who Gideon wanted to deal with at the moment. Especially with a hard dick and frustration hollowing his gut. For a moment, responsibilities and strategies were inconsequential and all he wanted was André’s touch. His kiss.

Disappointment filled his chest but he only had himself to blame. He shouldn’t have allowed any of it. But he couldn’t help himself when it came to André. It felt right, verbally sparring with him. Watching him blush and deny himself. Plus, the possibility of having him again, the thought that André could allow Gideon to kiss him again… Gideon kept hoping, waiting for an opening.

Which was closed now because André had enough sense to know this thing wouldn’t work. Then there was Samir, who stood at the door like a parent about to scold a wayward child.

Gideon swallowed back a sigh.

“You have a visitor,” Samir told him. There were a million unspoken things in his eyes but he didn’t voice them—he wouldn’t, not until he and Gideon were alone. Gideon loved him for that, even though he also dreaded that moment. He wasn’t prepared for Samir to tell him how much of a bad idea getting involved with André was.

Gideon knew. And still, he was finding it harder and harder to care. “Who is it?” he asked.

“Ree.”

André had his back to Gideon, but at Ree’s name, he glanced over his shoulder just long enough for Gideon to make out the hurt in his eyes before André masked it. “Oh, look. Your girlfriend is here.” He stepped aside with his hand still on the doorknob, a not-so-silent—or subtle—invite for Gideon to leave. “Don’t let me keep you.”

“Ree is not my girlfriend.” He shouldn’t even be entertaining anything André had to say, but Gideon didn’t want doubts and questions to linger between them; there was already enough other shit at play.

“I don’t care.” André didn’t look at him. He definitely fucking cared, but Gideon didn’t call him on it.

Samir’s jaw ticked, gaze traveling back and forth between Gideon and André.

Fuck.Gideon shook his head and closed the distance between himself and André. Grabbing the other man’s arm, Gideon hauled him in close and murmured in his ear, “I don’t have a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend, for that matter. If you want to deny yourself what you really want, you’re gonna have to find another excuse.” He released André abruptly and stepped past him out the door.

He kept going without looking over his shoulder or slowing down. Samir would catch up soon enough. He forced André from his thoughts—a near impossibility—and instead tried focusingon Ree with a frown. He hadn’t thought he’d ever see her again after the way they’d left things the last time. So why was she back?

What did she want?

Samir caught up with him then and they walked shoulder to shoulder in silence toward Gideon’s office until Samir spoke.

“You’re fascinated by him.”

Well, he was. So Gideon didn’t bother denying the charge.

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