Page 61 of Gideon
“What a disturbing image,” he says faintly, and then we gasp as a rough voice still hoarse from sleep speaks from the door.
“You were sleeping with Niall?Niall, your brother’s boyfriend?” Eli says incredulously.
“Oh lovely,” I sigh. “Well, at least I can cross off telling Eli from my itinerary today.”
Milo mumbles a greeting and scarpers away quicker than a nun in a brothel, leaving me standing in an uneasy silence on the patio.
I shift from one foot to the other, wishing I had shoes on and a T-shirt, and maybe a suit of armour. Eli is dressed only in a pair of loose tobacco-brown shorts that hang from the sharp bones of his hips, but he looks as composed as if he were in a dinner suit.
He stares at me, his eyes narrowed, his gaze flitting from the faint marks of his fingers on my hips to the dark mark on my neck. He can’t help the gleam of satisfaction, and I feel a surge of hope.
“Did you sleep well?” I ask brightly.
“You were sleeping with your brother’s boyfriend?”
“Not at the same time,” I say indignantly. “That would have been tacky.”
“Tacky? Out of every word in the dictionary, that’s the one you come up with?”
“I don’t think you should lecture me with your constant mangling of the English language,” I say primly.
He laughs but then scrubs his hand down his face. “Thisis what you were hiding. I knew there was something.” He shakes his head. “It’s like an episode of fuckingDynasty.”
“Well, as long as you and Niall aren’t wrestling in the fountain, we should all be fine.”
“I could totally take him,” he says meditatively.
“That should not be as hot as it is, Eli.” I walk towards him, loving the way his hands come up to bracket my hips, the way his fingers twitch as if he’s stopping himself from grabbing me. “It was off and on, and it meantnothing. Just an itch to be scratched.”
He shakes his head. “Why, when you want something so bad, is it always so fucking complicated?”
“Is that me? You wantmebadly?”
“Cariad, of course it’s you.”
“What does that mean?”
“Sweetheart.” I blush with pleasure and his eyes sharpen. “Oh, you liked that,” he says softly, his voice almost purring. “Look at your face. You like endearments.”
I try to shrug. It’s the worst acting job I’ve ever done. “Eh, it’s okay.”
“Oh really, let’s see. How aboutenaidwhich means soul, orannwylwhich is beloved?” He draws me close. “Or how aboutcalon bachwhich means little heart?”
That low, hoarse voice whispering endearments against my skin makes me flush hot all over. I slide my arms around him, feeling him grab me tight and the thrust of his cock against mine.
“Eli,” I whisper, and he takes my mouth, forcing his tongue in and twining it with mine. All my thoughts fly away, and I open my mouth wider, groaning under my breath and letting him push me against the wall because his cock can rub against mine perfectly in that position. He kisses me for a long time, pulling back only to whisper heated words that would make me red-cheeked if he said them in normal conversation. But out here as the sky darkens ominously and the first few promised drops of rain start to fall, it feels right. Like we’re animals and wild and free. No cares, no obligations. Just me and him and his bloody stupid fucking soft words.
He pulls back and I stare at him. At that freckled nose, the clear olive eyes dark as seaweed now, the full lips swollen from my kisses. “God, you’re gorgeous,” I whisper, and his face twists.
“No, that’s you, Gid. What you see in me is beyond me, but I’m not complaining.”
I open my mouth to dispute this.Doesn’t he know what he is to me?I still inside.What is he to me?But before I can complete the thought, he reaches out and pushes my shorts down, leaving me stark naked on a small cottage patio.
“What are you doing?” I whisper furiously.
“Ssh,” he says, smiling at me wickedly. “There’s no one around, and the hedge is hiding us.”
I cast a glance around, and he’s right. When I look back, he’s smiling. “There’s my Gid,” he says deeply. Then he pushes me into the chair I’d been sitting on.
