Page 16 of Lethal Salvation

She saw his brow crease as he sat on the edge of her bed. “Why would you think that?”

Duchess felt her eyes bug from her head. “Um, the fact you’re an absolute dick most of the time.”

He chuckled and it made his Adam’s apple bob, drawing her eyes to his throat before she glanced up into his face. Why did he have to be so fucking hot?

“Do you always say what’s on your mind?”

“No, it’s these drugs you made me take.”

“They’re hardly drugs, Nadia. They’re just pain relief, not some kind of truth serum.”

“Whatever.” She turned on her side so he couldn’t see her face as she snuggled under the covers, tiredness invading her body as the aches seemed to recede a little.

“I do like you, Nadia.” He paused and she wondered if he had more to say. “You just get under my skin, and nobody gets under my skin.”

“Because you’re Mr Controlling.”

“Maybe, but I have my reasons.”

“Damon is nothing like you.”

His jaw clenched, his eyes going flinty. “Well, Damon is the best of us.”

“He’s my friend.”

“I know.”

“I wish I could want Damon, he’s a good guy.”

“You don’t want a good guy, Nadia. You’d chew him up and spit him out within a week.”

“How do you know what I want?”

“Because we’re the same. We both want to be in control. It’s why I need to keep my distance from you when all I want to do is sink inside you and make you scream my name.”

Duchess felt her heart thud in her chest, her pulse skittering around like Tigger on speed.

“Oh.”

“Oh? That’s all it took to make you speechless. If I’d known that I would’ve told you weeks ago.”

“What do you want me to say?”

“I don’t know, nothing, everything.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Just forget it and get some rest. I’m going to go do some work in that tiny space you call a living area.”

“You don’t have to stay. I’ll be fine on my own.”

A growl seemed to slip past his lips as he stood. “I’m not fucking leaving you to fend for yourself while you’re sick. Just get some sleep, I’ll be back with your medication later.”

She watched him move to the door. “Gideon?”

He turned back, the annoyed expression he usually wore firmly in place.

“Thank you.”

His eyes creased as his jaw softened. “No problem, Cookie.”

When he was like this it was so much harder to hate him, to fight the attraction that was so strong it almost made her forget all her own rules. Gideon, she was realising, wasn’t just the arrogant asshole he showed the world. He was so much more than that, and it was deadly to her resolve to stay away from him.