"Daniel has me sold on the place," I said to Gideon, as they shook hands.
"I thought I'd done that." His hair was wet with sweat and he smelled divine. I'd never known a sweaty man could smell so damn good.
His hands stroked down my arms and I felt his lips on the crown of my head. "Let's go. See you later, Daniel."
I waved good-bye as we walked away. "Thanks, Daniel."
"Anytime."
"I bet," Gideon muttered. "He couldn't keep his eyes off your tits."
"They're very nice tits."
He made a low growling noise. I hid my amusement.
He smacked my butt hard enough to send me forward a step and leave behind a hot sting even through my pants. "That damned Band-Aid you call a shirt doesn't leave much to the imagination. Don't take long in the shower. You're just going to get sweaty again."
"Wait." I caught his arm before he passed the women's locker room on the way toward the men's. "Would it gross you out if I told you I didn't want you to shower? If I said I want to find someplace really close by where I could jump you while you're still dripping sweat?"
Gideon's jaw tightened and his gaze darkened dangerously. "I'm beginning to fear for your safety, Eva. Grab your stuff. There's a hotel around the corner."
Neither of us changed and we were outside in five minutes. Gideon walked briskly and I hurried to keep up. When he stopped abruptly, turned, and dipped me back in a lavish heated kiss on the crowded sidewalk, I was too stunned to do more than hold on. It was a soul-wrenching melding of our mouths, full of passion and sweet spontaneity that made my heart ache. Applause broke out around us.
When he straightened me again, I was breathless and dizzy. "What was that?" I gasped.
"A prelude." He resumed our dash to the nearest hotel, one I didn't catch the name of as he pulled me past the doorman and crossed straight to the elevator. It was clear to me that the property was one of Gideon's even before a manager greeted him by name just before the elevator doors closed.
Gideon dropped his duffel on the car floor and busied himself with figuring out how to extricate me from my sports top. I was slapping his hands away when the doors opened and he scooped up his bag. There was no one waiting on our floor and no one in the hallway. He pulled a master key out of somewhere and a moment later we were in a room.
I pounced, pushing my hands up beneath his shirt to feel his damp skin and the hardness of the muscles beneath it. "Get naked. Like now."
He laughed as he toed off his sneakers and yanked his tank over his head.
Oh my God...seeing him in the flesh - all of him, as his shorts hit the floor - was synapse frying. There wasn't an ounce of excess flesh on him anywhere, just hard slabs of honed muscle. He had washboard abs and that super sexy V of muscle on his pelvis that Cary called the Loin of Apollo. Gideon didn't wax his chest like Cary did, but he groomed with the same care he showed to the rest of his body. He was pure primal male, the embodiment of everything I coveted, fantasized about, and wished for.
"I've died and gone to heaven," I said, staring unabashedly.
"You're still dressed." He attacked my clothes, whipping my loosened top off before I took a full breath. My pants were wrestled down and I kicked my shoes off in such a hurry that I lost my balance and fell on the bed. I barely caught my breath before he was on me.
We rolled across the mattress in a tangle. Everywhere he touched me left trails of fire behind. The clean, hardworking scent of his skin was an aphrodisiac and intoxicant at once, spurring my desire for him until I felt like I was about to lose my mind.
"You're so beautiful, Eva." He plumped one breast in his hand before taking my nipple into his mouth.
I cried out at the scorching heat and the lash of his tongue, my core tightening with every soft suck. My hands were greedy as they slid over his sweat-damp skin, stroking and kneading, searching for the spots that made him growl and moan. I scissored my legs with his and tried to roll him, but he was too heavy and too strong.
He lifted his head and smiled down at me. "It's my turn this time."
What I felt for him in that moment, seeing that smile and the heat in his eyes, was so intense it was painful. Too fast, I thought. I was falling too fast. "Gideon - "
He kissed me deeply, licking into my mouth in that way of his. I thought he could really make me come with just a kiss, if we stayed at it long enough. Everything about him turned me on, from the way he looked and felt beneath my hands to the way he watched me and touched me. His greed and the silent demands he made on my body, the forcefulness with which he pleasured me and took his pleasure in return, drove me wild.
I ran my hands through the wet silk of his hair. The crisp hairs on his chest teased my tightened ni**les and the feel of his rock-hard body against mine was enough to make me wet and needy.
"I love your body," he whispered, his lips moving across my cheek to my throat. His hand caressed the length of my torso from br**sts to hip. "I can't get enough of it."
"You haven't had very much of it yet," I teased.
"I don't think I'll ever have enough." Nibbling and licking across my shoulder, he slid down and caught my other nipple between his teeth. He tugged and the tiny dart of pain had my back arching on a soft cry. He soothed the sting with a soft suck; then kissed his way downward. "I've never wanted anything this badly."
"Then do me!"
"Not yet," he murmured, moving lower, rimming my navel with the tip of his tongue. "You're not ready yet."
"What? Ah, God...I can't get any readier." I tugged on his hair, trying to pull him up.