Page 1 of Gideon
CHAPTER1
GIDEON
The lights of Zion faded in the rearview mirror as I stared blank-faced through the windshield at the road in front of me. My mind kept repeating a question over and over, keeping time with the rumble of the tires on the gravel road.What had I gotten myself into?My new bride sat beside me, stiff as a board, looking like a damn Stepford wife. The smile plastered on her face was fake as hell, and it didn’t fool me for a second.
I took a deep breath, hoping it would calm my emotions, but it didn’t help at all. The wedding had been a complete shit show. My brothers had warned me. I knew what to expect. Or at least I thought I had. I walked into this wedding knowing that the fuckers who ran it were going to take us to that room in the basement and do the inspection on my new bride. I knew that after, they would expect us to consummate our marriage in front of all those pedophilic, voyeuristic assholes.
And that was what happened. Sort of.
I had expected my new bride to be afraid. I had expected her to cry, or to cower, or to clam up and be stoic and silent, even. I was prepared to be there for her, to be her rock. Even though I knew I couldn’t outwardly show much, I had determined to do my best. It had all gone as I expected, at first. The inspection was barbaric and gross. She had endured it with no argument, no protest. She was strong as fuck. Then the consummation had begun, and that’s where everything had gone tits up.
I tried to go through with that portion of the ceremony with all the respect and kindness as I could muster for this full on stranger I was literally fucking. But she blindsided me. Instead of lying back and taking it, as I had been told to expect, she had engaged. She had fucking engaged! Her hands wrapped around my biceps and her hips had met my thrusts. She had even made a few sounds that weren’t the painful cries I had expected. She had made actual sounds of pleasure.
What the fuck was I supposed to do with that?
I mean, I had carried on and finished the task at hand, as was expected. That’s what I had done. But it was a curveball I had not been expecting. I wanted to say I had been there for her, had comforted her in the aftermath of that moment, but I honestly had no idea if I had or not. I had walked like a zombie from the room, barely cognizant of the reception at all.
The Elders had chalked it up to the hazy afterglow of having just fucked my virgin bride. My brothers had chalked it up to the fuckery that the whole wedding had been. All the while, I was simply trying to put the puzzle pieces together as I watched my new bride carry on through the reception like a beautiful, radiant bride, and not like a piece of property that had just been sold. She mingled around the room, smiling and chatting with friends and family and congregation like absolutely nothing had happened.
How was that possible?
Even my sisters-in-law hadn’t behaved in such a way.
Perhaps her parents had prepared her better for what was to come. Perhaps someone had warned her, and she had mentally prepared for today, just as I had. It didn’t really matter now. I just needed to get home and sit her down and have the talk. I had decided to just lay it all out there on night one. Levi had tried to keep it a secret. Ollie had, too. That had gone horribly for each of them. Zeke had told Talia about his kinks pretty early on and that had gone well. Though he had kept our plan a secret, which had set off a whole fuck ton of shitty events that had blown up in their faces.
My plan was to sit my new wife down tonight and tell her the truth about everything. Let the pieces fall where they may and talk it out until we had an understanding. I mean, it wasn’t like I was going to force her to leave with us. I would just force her to keep quiet. Surely that couldn’t be too hard, right? As I stole another glance at her out of the corner of my eye, I couldn’t help but admire her beauty, and wonder who exactly it was that I had married.
Naomi Cantor. Well, Naomi Temple as of about two hours ago. My new bride. She was beautiful, that much was clear. Tall and willowy, with long red hair kissed by the sun. She was gorgeous. Her eyes were the most vibrant green I had ever seen. Outside of those few things, I knew literally nothing about her. Hopefully tonight would change that.
I took one last deep, steadying breath as I pulled into my driveway. Home sweet home. My house wasn’t much, I knew that. A small,technicallytwo bedroom home sat to the right of the driveway. There was a small, detached one-car garage, but I couldn’t park my car there. It was full of tools and things for my boat.
I technically had two boats, the one I was currently renovating, which sat in a cradle on dry land, and the small sailboat that sat tied to the dock in the water. The larger of the two, the full size sailboat that I was renovating, was my pride and joy. Honestly, I spent more time there than I did in the house. The house was just there to cook food and sleep. Sometimes. I couldn’t count how many nights I had spent on The Ataraxia, under the stars, with the sound of the nearby lake’s waves lulling me to sleep. That was home. That was heaven.
“Here we are,” I sighed, pasting a smile on my face that was anything but genuine. Zeke had been right. This shit was hard. One look at Naomi’s face told me everything I needed to know. She was unhappy with what she saw before her.
“I know it’s not much, but it’s home,” I explained, hoping to smooth the awkward tension over, at least marginally. She was silent, exiting the car and looking over the outside of my home with a little more judgment than I had hoped. I joined her, grabbing her suitcase from the bed of my pickup.
“Uh, let me show you the place.” I ushered her up the sidewalk to the front door, fumbling with the keys like an idiot before finally hearing the click and opening it for her. She stepped inside with no small amount of trepidation and I held my breath for a moment. Why was I worried about this? Why did I care if she liked it or not?I guess because this was going to be her home, too, at least until we left Zion for good.
“It’s small, but it does the job,” I said, looking around my home and realizing what she probably thought of the place. It wasn’t dirty, but cluttered hardly covered it. I had at least remembered to clear out the dirty dishes from the sink and wash up the countertops before today. So there was that. But all in all, it wasn’t much. A small, eat-in kitchen with a stove, an old refrigerator, sink, and countertops. A living room that left much to be desired, only giving enough room for a couch, a tv, and a coffee table. Upstairs, there were two bedrooms and a bathroom. The bathroom was decent, at least. Malachi had installed a nice shower in there. I wasn’t sad about that. Not one bit. But that was all she wrote. My humble — and small — abode.
“Where is the bedroom?” she asked quietly, as though she were pushing her words through clenched teeth.
“Right this way,” I explained, leading her up the staircase that was a bit too steep for the space until we got to the top floor. “There are two bedrooms and a bathroom up here. It’s not much, but —” I began, but she cut me off.
“I’m sure it will be just fine.” She spoke with a saccharine sweetness that was almost bitter to the ear.
“This is the main bedroom,” I pointed out, gesturing to the left. “And this is —” I continued, but, once again, she cut me off.
“That’ll be enough for tonight. Thank you, Gideon,” she spoke, slipping into the main bedroom, suitcase in hand. With a smile that didn’t meet her eyes, she shut the door. Right in my face.
And I heard the lock click.
Wow.
So that’s how it was going to be.
I had half a mind to bang on the door and tell her it was supposed to be a room we shared, but when I took a split second to think about it, I wasn’t sure I could entirely blame her for such behavior.
