Page 73 of Prodigal

“Thank you,” Gideon called after him before refocusing on Jules. “You were saying?”

“Do you love him? Do you love Dré?” There was worry in her brown eyes. Worry for her brother. Fear too.

Gideon didn’t like it, not one bit. He didn’t like that those two had been on their own, fending for themselves and having only each other to look out for them, for so long. He didn’t like that Jules—at such a young age—already had such an adult and maybe even jaded view of things. He reached over to her, palm up on the table, and after a small hesitation, she placed her hand in his.

Gideon linked their fingers, squeezing her gently. “I love your brother very much. I am in love with him, yes.” He nodded. “And as you are a part of him, I love you too, Miss Juliette.”

Her lips trembled and she blinked rapidly.

“I will never hurt André or allow another soul to hurt him. I will never hurt or allow anyone to do the same to you. I already told him, now I’m telling you, you are safe with me. Every part of you.”

She stared at him and he smiled.

“Do you believe me?”

“Yes.” Her voice wobbled but she got the word out, and it filled him with the warmest, most tender sensation.

Staring into Jules’s shining eyes, holding her shaking hand, it hit Gideon then. All this time he’d thought his purpose was destroying The Council. He’d thought it’d been finding out the identity of who’d killed his mother. But now, he was coming to suspect that his purpose was this.

André and Jules.

To love them and to be loved by them, in return. To protect them. To have a true family with them.

He released Jules and sat back slowly.

His father had loved him fiercely, completely, but Aldo had also been a man grieving the loss of his wife and his son, since Gideon had to be in hiding, away from him. They saw each other in person, but those instances had been few and far between. Their relationship, for the most part, had been conducted over video and phone calls. Aldo had been his teacher, his commander, honing Gideon into the man his father wanted him to be. The man Aldo couldn’t be. And Gideon had taken up that mantle because it’d been all he knew. All he’d been fed—revenge, payback, destruction.

Now, staring at that young lady across the table, he wanted the things he’d never once considered back when he’d been learning ten thousand ways to destroy a man without killing him. He wanted a family. He wanted a love that was all his and unconditional.

“Are we gonna be living here with you from now on?” Jules asked as if reading his mind.

Gideon chuckled. “That’s not something your brother and I have discussed, but if and when we do, you’ll know.” It was what he wanted, though. But was it too soon to broach that topic with André?

They settled into silence, Gideon staring into his coffee cup. When was the right time to ask André to move in with him? And would he say yes if Gideon did ask? He wasn’t sure.

The chef brought their food a short time later and they dug in, Gideon humming in appreciation. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d eaten. “What are your plans for the rest of the day?” he asked Jules.

She didn’t look up from her plate. “Nothing. Well, I have to talk to that therapist you and Dré got me.” She lifted her head then, rolling her eyes. “And then I have a project that I have to put the finishing touches on before I turn it in.” She was attending classes remotely—after Gideon had a nice video chat with the principal of her school—and seemed to be doing well so far, though both he and André knew that Jules missed seeing her friends and socializing.

He had to wrap up his business, or at least ensure that it was safe enough for her to return to the life she knew and loved. He didn’t want her isolated the way he’d been growing up.

“The therapist is nonnegotiable, so don’t even think about missing any appointments.” After all she’d experienced lately, it had been imperative that they got her to speak to a professional. “Want to have dinner with your brother and me? You can choose the menu.” He’d noticed that Jules liked being included in things, and he tried to make sure she always was. It was worth it, especially when she smiled so widely.

“I would like that. Thanks, G.”

“Nope.” He wagged a finger at her. “We’re not doing that. You, Miss Juliette, can only call me by my full name.” He wasn’t serious though, and she knew it because she laughed with a mouth full of food as Samir entered the kitchen, expression somber.

“It’s begun,” Samir told him.

The plans Gideon had set in place, everything he’d laid out for André on the plane, was happening. If this was any other time, he would’ve gotten up from the table and run to watch it unfold, but not now. Right now, he would sit and enjoy his mealwith Jules. He lifted a fork in a mock salute to Samir as Jules’s confused gaze ping-ponged between the two of them. “One domino down…”

Soon they would all fall.

André came awaketo a warm wet mouth wrapped around his dick and slurping noises filling his ears. He moaned, widening his thighs without opening his eyes, and reached down, palming the back of Gideon’s bobbing head.

“Hmm.” He rolled his hips lazily until fingers, wet with saliva and pre-cum, breached his ass, and then his eyes flew open, legs lifting as well. “Gideon, fuck!”

Gideon chuckled, and the sound vibrated down the length of André’s shaft, making his eyes roll back in his head. He arched, fisting Gideon’s short hair and bucking into his mouth, down his throat. He shuddered at the sounds the two of them made together, the symphony of pleasure that filled the room. And he floated, lost to the heat melting his bones as Gideon sucked the life out of him.

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