Page 21 of From London, With Love
Gideon paused. Looked up.
And the world dropped away from her as she fell into those dark, dark eyes.
“Getting comfortable,” he said, the heavy timbre of his voice dropping to depths she’d not even known he could reach.
There was something sensual about the way he said it. And then he moved to his coat. One button. Two. All the way down. Beneath it, he wore a charcoal gray wool waistcoat and a shirt and tie, but the way his fingers stroked over each button made it feel indecently intimate.
“Alexa?” he said, and she realized he’d repeated it twice.
Alexandra blinked. “Yes?”
“And tonight? What do you wish of me tonight?”
Good grief. This was happening.Nothing, she wanted to cry.I was wrong, this is too much….
But he slipped the coat from his shoulders and she forgot what she’d been going to say.
Gideon was unlike every other man of her acquaintance. Though Malloryn was taller, Gideon dwarfed him through the shoulders. His chest strained at his waistcoat, and as he slipped his hands in his pockets and stared back at her, the wool of his pants tightened over those powerful thighs.
Everything.I want everything.
“Do you like what you see?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Where do you wish to start?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered, so the two halves of her conflicted conscience could meet in the middle.
“A kiss,” he murmured.
“I’ve had a kiss.”
“Oh, Alexa.” For the first time tonight, he smiled. “That was barely a kiss before we were so rudely interrupted.” Stepping closer, he paused barely two inches away from her, looking down. “Tonight we won’t be interrupted. Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
The scent of his cologne swirled through her. Gideon. This was Gideon. And something seemed to click in her mind. She knew this man. She’d spent years trying not to glance at the careful way his hands moved and the fine flex of his shoulders within his coat. She’d spent years with her fingers itching to sink through the dark strands of his hair, always cut too long. For the first time, she had permission to take what she wanted from him.
“Yes,” she said, tipping her chin up firmly so she could look him in the eye. “Though you don’t make the rules here. I do.”
The faintest of smiles touched his mouth. “You like to be in control.”
I need to be in control. But she didn’t say it. She’d spent years as a pawn, both her body and mind manipulated by others. She wouldneversubmit again.
“What are your rules?”
“A kiss,” she said. “Tonight. And I want to touch you.” Daring herself, she reached out and brushed her fingertips across his waistcoat. “I want to see you.”
“As you wish.” Reaching out, he rested his fingertips under her chin and slowly lowered his mouth to hers. “A kiss, then.”
The soft rasp of his lips across hers sent a shiver through her. Alexandra closed her eyes and leaned into the caress, savoring the sensation of it. Soft. Gentle. Ridiculously gentle. She wanted more, but the second she pushed into the embrace, he captured her wrists and leaned back.
“Oh, no.” His eyes were alight with some sense of devilry she’d never seen him wear before. “That was merely another taste. You haven’t earned your kiss yet.”
“Earnedit?”
Gideon stalked past her, pausing by the fireplace to take up the snifter of cordial she’d had poured and tossing it back. Giving her a challenging look, he tugged at the tie around his throat, and then slid it loose. The buttons at his throat gave, and then he began to work on the ones at his wrists.
“Come here,” he said.
