Daddy in Disguise (Crescent Cove 7)

“It shouldn’t have happened that way.” His voice was almost a rasp. “You should have been able to rely on your family.”

“I couldn’t stand being in Chicago after that. I literally threw a dart at the map in Malcolm’s room. And I started over.”

I had literally walked away and built a new life. One that I loved so much. And Gideon was already a huge cornerstone of it.

“That’s not going to happen with me.” He wrapped his arms around me.

“You can’t know that.”

“I do.”

I slowly melted into him. I didn’t know if it made me an idiot or a fool, but I wanted to believe him. I climbed on top of him again and lost myself in him. In the almost promises that might be blooming between us.

For the first time in a damn long time, I stepped into the unknown.

The sun was lower in the sky, burnishing his dark hair with chestnut streaks from the summer sun. September had arrived and with it, the shorter days.

Soon, it would be time for us to go back to our jobs and responsibilities. His included the child I was growing to love so very quickly. This time with an equal, if not more overwhelming, attachment to the father.

That was what terrified me the most.

This time, it might actually break me in two.

His mouth found mine without the brain-melting passion that usually flared between us. The way he branded me with beard and teeth left me breathless and spinning.

This time, it was slow. It was thorough and soft. A seduction instead of a campaign to show me how hot we could be. He slid to the center of the seat and widened his legs to be on either side of the console that took up space in the center of the bench seat. And because I was so tall, I had room to straddle him without being hampered by the steering wheel.

We took our time. Soft sighs and a touch of laughter as we shifted more clothing out of the way. It wasn’t a race. Exactly what I needed after spilling all my ghosts into the small space we shared.

We put them in the past where they belonged.

There was only now.

Only him.

Only this connection I would hold onto.

When he slid into me this time, it was just us. When I tried to hide my face in his neck, he held me fast. Our eyes locked as the intensity hit.

“Gideon.”

He gripped my hips, dragging me tighter to him. The friction and the emotions slammed together like a sea-wall. And Gideon held. He was that stone wall that would take anything.

I curled my arms around his neck until we were chest to chest, mouth to mouth, and the reassuring thunder of his heart synced up to mine.

My thighs shook and the vibrations snaked up my body until there was nothing but his name shuddering through my lips. He held me. Split me open and put me back together.

His eyes went blind with pleasure and I caught the groan with my mouth and swallowed it whole. Took it inside for the dark nights when there wasn’t a sun outlining him.

When he wasn’t in my arms.

Just for in case.

Just for me.

Fifteen

The weeks had been a flurry of complications and finalizations for The Haunt. We’d managed to get the kitchen ready ahead of schedule, but Macy was still on the hunt for a new chef.