Page 68 of Gideon
I reached for him then, my hand covering his. This time, he let me.
“Gideon, I’ve learned how to make it through. I’ve worked every day of my life since I was brought here to overcome the things that happened to me. I had to. I didn’t have a choice. If I didn’t —” my voice choked off with a sob.
“They could take you again. Do it all over again,” he finished for me. I nodded, looking down at our intertwined hands. I bit my lower lip, willing it to stop trembling as I worked to choke back the sobs that threatened to spill over again.
“Exactly,” I finally managed, offering him a soft smile. “I am usually okay. Usually, I have my shit together. But lately, with you, I’ve just opened up so much. I’ve never spoken my truth to another living soul. And that openness… I don’t know. I guess it just made hearing your Father’s voice way more difficult than I could have ever anticipated.”
His hand turned up, our fingers threading together as we spoke.
“I can’t even imagine. I want to… Christ, Naomi. I want to kill him,” he chuckled humorlessly.
“You can’t,” I whispered quietly. “You and your brothers have a plan.”
“Fuck the plan,” he spat derisively.
“As much as I’d like to, the longer I think about it, the more I think I agree with you all. They’ve been doing this to these poor girls for who knows how long. For all we know, it’s still happening. We have to put an end to it, if we can,” I reasoned. It hurt to admit it. More than words could say. Yet, it was the truth.
“I just want to run away with you. Right now, Naomi. Right this very instant,” he murmured passionately, squeezing my hand in his.
“I know. I do, too. But as much as I want to run, I want to take those fuckers down more,” I admitted, giving him a wide smile.
“You’d run away with me?” he asked, a rare look of insecurity crossing his face.
“I would,” I admitted, feeling a blush cross my cheeks.
“Why?” he countered, his brow furrowed.
I knew the answer. I knew it, but saying it? That was an entirely different sort of admission. One that I wasn’t sure I was ready for.
“I have my reasons,” I shrugged off.
“You’re not getting off that easily,” he teased, though it was lighthearted. We were both too emotional to truly snark at one another as we normally did.
“I mean, I think Idoget off rather easily when you’re involved,” I tossed back, throwing him a wink that was far too flirty for this moment.
“You’re something else, you know that?” he chuckled, pulling me to him, clear into his lap without a thought. It was weird to flirt at a time like this, but I think we both appreciated the moment of levity.
“You’d really, truly run away with me?” he asked again, his voice a gentle whisper against my temple as I curled up in his lap.
“I really, truly would,” I answered with a heavy sigh of contentment.
“You befuddle me, Naomi Temple,” he chuckled lightly.
“What can I say? You do strange things when you’re falling in love with someone.”
Fuck.
I didn’t even hear the words until they were out of my mouth, and when I realized what I had just said, I froze. I didn’t move. Not a single inch, as the words hung in the air between us.
He didn’t speak.
Neither did I.
“Let’s go to bed,” he whispered into the silence, long moments later. I nodded my head.
“I’m… uh… I’m going to shower first, if that’s okay,” I muttered, standing up from his lap and stretching. My body was sore from my traumatic episode. My heart felt even more sore somehow, from the emotional turbulence of the evening.
“Okay,” he replied softly, standing as well. As I walked towards the doorway in search of the hot shower that beckoned me, I turned to look at him. The look in his eyes as he stood there, just taking me in, left me breathless.
