Entwined with You (Crossfire 3)

DINNER out that night wasn’t quite as boisterous a meal as usual for Cary, my dad, and me, but it wasn’t as grim as I’d feared it might be. The food was great, the wine better, and Cary was snarking out.

“She was worse than Tatiana,” he said, talking about the model he’d shared the shoot with that day. “She kept going on about her ‘good side,’ which I personally thought was her ass as it walked out the door.”

“You’ve done shoots with Tatiana?” I asked, then explained to my dad, “She’s a girl Cary’s seeing.”

“Oh, yeah.” Cary licked red wine off his lower lip. “We work together a lot, actually. I’m the Tatiana Tamer. She starts one of her fits and I calm her down.”

“How do— Never mind,” I said quickly. “I don’t want to know how.”

“You already know.” He winked.

I looked at my dad and rolled my eyes.

“How about you, Victor?” Cary asked around a bite of sautéed mushroom. “You seeing anyone?”

My dad shrugged. “Nothing serious.”

That was by his choice. I’d seen how women acted around him—they fell all over themselves trying to get his attention. My dad was hot, with an amazing body, gorgeous face, and Latin sensuality. He had his pick of women and I knew he wasn’t a saint, but he never seemed to meet anyone who really got to him. I’d recently realized that was because my mother had gotten there first.

“You think you’ll ever have more kids?” Cary asked him, surprising me with the question.

I’d long ago become resigned to being an only child.

My dad shook his head. “Not that I’m opposed to the idea, but Eva is more than I ever thought I’d have in my life.” He looked at me with so much love it made my throat tight. “And she’s perfect. Everything I could ever hope for. I’m not sure there’s room in my heart for anyone else.”

“Aw, Daddy.” I leaned my head into his shoulder, so glad he was with me, even if it was for the worst possible reason.

When we got back to the apartment, we decided to watch a movie before calling it a night. I went to my room to change and was stoked to find a gorgeous bouquet of white roses on my dresser. The card, written in Gideon’s distinctive bold penmanship, made me almost giddy.

I’M THINKING OF YOU, AS ALWAYS.

AND I’M HERE.

YOURS, G.

I sat on the bed, hugging the card, certain he was thinking of me that very moment. It was also starting to sink in that he’d been thinking of me every moment of the weeks we’d been apart, too.

That night, I fell asleep on the couch after watching Dredd. I woke briefly to the feeling of being lifted and carried to my room, smiling sleepily as my dad tucked me into bed like a child and kissed my forehead.

“Love you, Daddy,” I murmured.

“Love you, too, sweetheart.”

I woke up before my alarm the next morning and felt better than I had in a long while. I left a note on the breakfast bar telling my dad to call me if he wanted to get together for lunch. I wasn’t sure if he had anything planned for the day. I knew Cary had a shoot in the afternoon.

During the cab ride to work, I answered a text from Shawna squeeing over her brother’s engagement to Mark. So happy for all of u, I texted back.

I’m drafting u! she shot back.

I smiled down at my phone. What’s that? Signal’s breaking up … Can’t read u …

As the cab stopped in front of the Crossfire, the sight of the Bentley at the curb gave me the usual thrill. When I hopped out, I peeked into the front seat and waved when I saw Angus sitting inside.

He stepped out, setting his chauffeur hat on his head. Like Clancy, you couldn’t tell he was carrying a sidearm by looking at him; he wore it so comfortably.

“Good morning, Miss Tramell,” he greeted me. Although he wasn’t a young man and his red hair was liberally threaded with silver, I’d never had any doubts about Angus’s ability to protect Gideon.

“Hi, Angus. It’s good to see you.”

“You’re looking lovely today.”

I glanced down at my pale yellow dress. I’d chosen it because it was bright and cheery, which was the impression I wanted my dad to have of me. “Thank you. I hope your day rocks.” I backed up toward the revolving door. “See you later!”

His pale blue eyes were kind as he tipped his hat to me.

When I got upstairs, I found Megumi looking more like her usual self. Her smile was wide and real, and her eyes had the sparkle I enjoyed seeing every morning.

I stopped by her desk. “How are you?”

“Good. Michael’s meeting me for lunch and I’m ending it. Nice and civilized.”

“That’s a killer outfit you’ve got on,” I told her, admiring the emerald green dress she wore. It was fitted and had leather piping that gave it just the right amount of edge.

She stood and showed off her knee-high boots.

“Very Kalinda Sharma,” I said. “He’s going to be scrambling to hold on to you.”

“As if,” she scoffed. “These boots were made for walking. He didn’t call me back until last night, which made it nearly four days without contact. Not totally unreasonable, but I’m ready to find a guy who’s crazy about me. A guy who thinks about me as much as I’m thinking about him and hates it when we can’t be together.”

I nodded, thinking about Gideon. “It’s worth it to hold out for one. Do you want me to give you a bailout phone call during your lunch?”

She grinned. “Nah. But thank you.”

“All right. Let me know if you change your mind.”

I headed back to my desk and dug right in to work, determined to get ahead to make up for leaving early the day before. Mark was fired up, too, segueing from work only long enough to tell me that Steven had a binder full of wedding ideas he’d been collecting for years.

“Why am I not surprised?” I said.

“I shouldn’t be.” Mark’s mouth curved with affection. “He’s kept it in his office all this time so I wouldn’t know about it.”

“Did you get a look at it?”

“He went through the whole thing with me. It took hours.”

“You’re going to have the wedding of the century,” I teased.

“Yeah.” The word held more than a little exasperation, but his expression remained so happy I couldn’t stop smiling.

My dad called just before eleven.

“Hey, sweetheart,” he said, in reply to my usual work greeting. “How’s your day going?”

“Great.” I leaned back in my chair and looked at the picture of him. “How’d you sleep?”

“Hard. I’m still trying to wake up.”

“Why? Go back to bed and be lazy.”

“I wanted to let you know that I’m going to take a rain check on lunch. We’ll get together tomorrow. Today, I need to talk to your mom.”

“Oh.” I knew that tone. It was the same one he used when he pulled people over, that perfect mixture of authority and disapproval. “Listen. I’m not going to step in the middle of this with you two. You’re both adults and I’m not picking sides. But I have to say that Mom wanted to tell you.”

“She should have.”

“She was alone,” I pressed on, my feet tapping restlessly on the carpet, “going through a divorce and the trial against Nathan, and dealing with my recovery. I’m sure she desperately wanted a shoulder to lean on—you know how she is. But she was drowning in guilt. I could’ve gotten her to agree to anything then, and I did.”

He was quiet on the other end of the line.

“I just want you to keep that in mind when you talk to her,” I finished.

“All right. When will you be home?”

“A little after five. Want to go to the gym? Or back to Parker’s studio?”

“Let me see how I’m feeling when you get in,” he said.

“Okay.” I forced myself to ignore how anxious I was over the upcoming conversation between my parents. “Call me if you need anything.”

We hung up and I got back to work, grateful for the distraction.

When lunch rolled around, I decided to grab something quick and bring it back to my desk to work through the hour. I braved the midday sauna outside to hit the local Duane Reade for a bag of beef jerky and a bottled health drink. I’d skipped my workouts pretty frequently since Gideon and I had gotten back together, and I figured it was time to pay a penalty for that.

I was debating the wisdom of sending Gideon an “I’m thinking of you” note when I twirled through the revolving front door of the Crossfire. Just a little something to say thanks for the flowers, which had made a tough day more bearable.

Then I saw the woman I’d prefer never to see again—Corinne Giroux. And she was talking to my man, with her palm resting intimately against his chest.

They stood off to the side, sheltered by a column outside the stream of traffic heading in and out of the security turnstiles. Corinne’s long black hair fell nearly to her waist, a glossy curtain that stood out even against her classic black dress. Both she and Gideon were in profile so I couldn’t see her eyes, but I knew they were a gorgeous aquamarine hue. She was a beautiful woman and together, they made a stunning couple. Especially right then, with both of them dressed in black, the only spot of color being Gideon’s blue tie. My favorite one.

Abruptly, Gideon’s head turned and found me, as if he’d felt me watching him. The instant our gazes met, I felt that soul-deep recognition pierce through me, that primitive awareness I’d only ever felt with him. Elementally, something inside me knew he was mine. Had known it from the moment I first laid eyes on him.

And some other woman had her hands on him.

My brows rose in a silent WTF? At that moment, Corinne followed his gaze. She didn’t look happy to see me paused in the middle of the massive lobby, staring at them.

She was lucky I didn’t go up to her and yank her away from him by her hair.

Then she cupped his jaw, urged his attention back to her, and lifted onto her tiptoes to press a kiss against his hard mouth, and I really considered doing it. Even took a step toward them.

Gideon’s head jerked back just before she accomplished her goal, his hands catching her by the arms and thrusting her away.

Reining in my temper, I exhaled my irritation and left him to it. I can’t say I didn’t feel jealous, because of course I did—Corinne could be with him publicly and I couldn’t. But I didn’t have the sick fear in my gut I’d felt before, the horrible insecurity that told me I was going to lose the man I loved more than anything.

It was weird not to feel that panic. There was still a little voice in my head cautioning me against being too confident, telling me it’d be better to be afraid, to guard myself from getting hurt. But for once, I was able to ignore it. After all Gideon and I had been through, all that we were still going through, all he’d done for me … it was harder to disbelieve than to believe.

Despite everything, we were stronger than we’d ever been.

I hopped on an elevator and headed up to work, my thoughts drifting to my parents. I was choosing to take it as a good sign that neither my mother nor Stanton had called to bitch about my dad. I crossed my fingers and hoped that when I got home we could all put Nathan behind us for good. I was so ready for that. Beyond ready to move on to the next phase of my life, whatever that might be.

The elevator car slowed to a stop on the tenth floor and the doors opened to the high-pitched whirring sound of power tools and the rhythmic banging of hammers. Directly ahead of the elevator, plastic sheeting hung from the ceiling. I hadn’t realized any part of the Crossfire was under construction, and I peered around the people in front of me, trying to get a look.

“Anyone getting out?” the guy nearest the door asked, looking over his shoulder.

I straightened and shook my head, even though he hadn’t been talking to me personally. No one else moved. We waited for the doors to close and shut out the construction noise.

But they didn’t move, either.

When the guy began hitting the elevator buttons to no avail, I realized what was going on.

Gideon.

Smiling to myself, I said, “Excuse me, please.”

The occupants of the car shifted to let me out and another guy stepped out with me. The doors closed behind us and the car continued on.

“What the hell?” the guy said, scowling as he turned and surveyed the other three elevators. He was a little taller than me, but not much, and wore dress slacks with a short-sleeved shirt and tie.

The ding announcing the arrival of another car was nearly drowned out by the construction noise. When the doors to that elevator opened, Gideon stepped out, looking suave and dashing and irritated.

I wanted to jump him, he looked so hot. Plus, I’ll admit it totally turned me on when he went all alpha male on me.

I’d stop the world from spinning for you. Sometimes, it felt like he did.

Grumbling under his breath, the short-sleeved guy walked into Gideon’s vacated elevator and left us.

Gideon’s hand went to his hips, his jacket parting to reveal the sleekness of his suit. All three pieces were black with a subtle sheen that was unmistakably costly. His dress shirt was black and his cuff links were a familiar gold and onyx.

He was dressed as he’d been that very first day I’d met him. At the time, I’d wanted to climb up his scrumptious body and screw him senseless.

All these weeks later, that hadn’t changed.

“Eva,” he began in that toe-curlingly sexy voice of his. “It’s not what you think. Corinne came by because I’m not taking her calls—”

I held up my hand to cut him off and glanced at his gift, my beautiful watch, on my other wrist. “I’ve got thirty minutes. I’d rather f**k you than talk about your ex, if you don’t mind.”