Page 39 of Forbidden Games

That startled a laugh out of her. “You’re just as confident now as you were back then.”

“Two years can change a person, but it can’tchangea person.”

That was what she was afraid of. Lucy had fought hard to shed the timid woman she’d become while dating Jeff. She’d even mostly succeeded, if one didn’t look too closely at her lack of dating. But she couldn’t shake the fear that, deep down, she was still that mouse of a person who’d let her boyfriend say such horrible things to her—worse, who’d believed him when he did.

“I should have known.” He spoke softly in the tiny space between them. “I said it before and I’ll say it again—I knew Jeff was an asshole, but I didn’t know the extent of it. I would have stepped in.”

Her heart surged even as she shook her head. “If anyone should have seen the signs and stepped in, it was me. I let myself get taken in by him, and I almost married him because I was too stubborn and too naive to see him for what he was. If we’re going to lay blame, there’s plenty to go around.” She covered his hand with hers. “I don’t want to talk about Jeff anymore. He’s taken up enough of both of our lives, and I don’t want to give him even another second.”

“I won’t argue that.” Gideon nudged her closer yet, until she was almost sitting in his lap. “I have the prettiest woman in all NYC sitting with me in a dark restaurant. I can think of a thousand things I’d rather say and do than talk about a piece of shit that we share a mutual history with.”

She laid her hand on his thigh, enjoying the way the muscle clenched beneath his jeans. “I can think of a few things to add to the list.” They were alone in this mini room within the restaurant. They could do anything they wanted to beneath the table and no one would be the wiser. “Gideon...” She slid her hand higher.

“Yeah?”

“What have you been up to since I saw you last?”

He blinked down at her as if he couldn’t reconcile her ever-sliding hand with her words. Finally he relaxed, muscle by individual muscle. “After you and...” He looked away and back. “Two years ago, I looked at my life and decided I was done dicking around. I went after the biggest accounts I could find and went head-to-head with companies that had reputations stretching back before we were born.” He laughed. “I figured I had nothing to lose, so I might as well aim for the stars.”

“You’ve made quite the name for yourself.” Even if her company didn’t make a habit of contracting headhunters to fill positions, Lucy would’ve had to be living under a rock not to hear news of Gideon. He’d beaten out several more well-known headhunters and developed an excellent reputation in the process. He always got his man—or woman, as it were.

God help the woman he finally sets his sights on. She won’t stand a chance.

The thought was bittersweet in the extreme. Lucy cared about him. She wanted him happy...but contemplating him with another woman made her want to throw things.Stop that.

He’s yours for the duration.

That will have to be enough.

But what if it wasn’t?

14

Gideon insisted on dessert, if only to keep things going for a little bitlonger. Lucy must have felt the same way because she didn’t hesitate before she picked a particularly delicious-sounding apple cobbler to his cheesecake. The waiter—who was getting a significant tip since he’d made himself scarce in between checking on them—took their order and hurried off. The restaurant had filled up, though the only evidence of it they had was a low murmur of conversation by people they couldn’t see.

He curled a strand of Lucy’s hair around his finger. “You said we needed to talk.”

“Don’t we?”

He’d always liked Lucy’s directness. Even when she was highly uncomfortable with the subject—like sex—she still made an effort to cut through the bullshit and be as honest as possible. Now he almost wished that she was willing to let the slow slide of afternoon into evening go on without following through on her words this morning. Gideon should have known better. “Yeah, we do.”

She met his gaze directly, never one to shy away from a potential confrontation. “Shall I go first or shall you?”

Though he was tempted to let her take the lead, that was the coward’s way out. Gideon knew what he wanted and the only way to give him a snowball’s chance in hell was to go for it without reservation. So he let go of her hair and sat back. “Pick me.”

She blinked and then blinked again. “I’m sorry?”

“Screw the others guys and screw the list I put together. They won’t make you happy like I can, and you know it. I know you as well as anyone, and we match up in the bedroom and out of it. Pick me.”I love you. I’ve always loved you.He didn’t say it. He’d already pressed his luck by putting his cards on the table. If he threw that at her, she’d be gone before he finished the sentence.

She leaned forward and then shook her head. “What are you saying?”

“You know what I’m saying. I want you. You want me. We fit, Lucy. You can’t deny that it’s true.” He held himself still in an effort to keep from reaching for her. Crowding her now was a mistake and using sex to cloud her judgment was a dick move. Not one that he was above, but if he wanted a chance—a real chance—with her, he had to do this right.

As right as he could do it when they’d started this thing with her dating another guy and then restarted it by bargaining for sex lessons in addition to her attempting to marry another man.

When you put it like that...

Lucy put her hand to her mouth and dropped it as quickly. “I don’t know what to say.”

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