Page 8 of Lethal Salvation

Gideon was getting bored as he held out his hand. “Well?”

“Oh yeah, sure.”

Tom handed him the report and he snatched it away without looking at it.

“Do you want to go through it?”

“No.” The truth was he probably should, but he was entertaining too many thoughts of strangling the man right now to spend the next hour going over details.

“Oh, okay. I’ll just head back down then.”

“You do that. And, Tom, if I ever come out here again and find you flirting with my staff, then you will be fired without a reference. Is that understood?”

He tipped his head as Tom went red, from his blond perfectly styled hair to his neck disappearing into his shirt. He wanted to argue, to tell him he was a prick, and he was, but Gideon knew he wouldn’t. He was a sycophant like most people on this floor. The only real person to stand up to him was his brother and the cleaner who worked the night shift. Betty was nearing retirement and only did the job to get out of the house. The one time he’d yelled at her, he’d feared he’d be wearing her mop as a hat for a week. She’d cut him down to size in a firm yet motherly way he could hardly remember. They had been firm friends, if you could call it that, ever since.

“Perfectly.”

Gideon zoned back into the conversation and watched Tom walk away before turning his gaze back to Miss Benassi, Nadia, Duchess. They all suited her but in different ways. Now she was the Duchess as she glared at him, and he felt his dick swell with need. Fuck, she’d be something in bed, he just knew she’d be a wild one.

“You’re a real dick, aren’t you?”

Her words were like cold water to his libido. “Excuse me?”

“He was just being friendly and you went all neanderthal on him. I’m surprised you didn’t pull out your dick and piss on my leg.”

Her lips wrapped around the word made his cock hard, the image of his fist holding her silky hair back so he could watch. The need to punish her for making him hard at work made Gideon step forward, crowding her in her chair. If he hoped for fear or contrition, he was wrong, this woman wasn’t afraid of anyone.

“Miss Benassi, if I’m ever in a position where I’m pulling my cock out around you, then it won’t be for anything other than to have you on your knees with your mouth open.”

The flush on her cheeks was sudden, as was the way her eyes seemed to darken, her tongue coming out to wet her lips as if she could taste him. Then quick as a flash, it was gone as she put a hand on his chest and stood, pushing him back a step.

“Not even if you beg. Now back up before I decide to teach you some manners.”

Gideon smirked, usually this fight would turn him off. He liked his women willing, compliant, with just the hint of fire but with her everything was turned on its head, the tables effectively turned.

The thought made him angry, so he retreated, slamming his door for the second time that day and burying himself in work. He needed this shit with Carter done so he could get the delicious Miss Benassi out of his hair for good and go back to his life. In the meantime, perhaps he’d call one of his usual fuck buddies to come over. He’d clearly been too long without sex if she was all he could think about.

Thank fuck if was Friday.

Chapter 3

It was weird being in her old flat after all this time, but nice too. She loved her friends at Shadow, and honestly, at this point, they were more family than anything else and that family was expanding fast.

First Bein found Aoife, then Snow and Seb, Reaper and Lucía, and lastly Bishop and Charlie. That would also include babies very soon. Charlie and Snow were expecting around the same time, and there was beautiful little Fleur, who she adored.

It made working on this case feel more isolating. She wasn’t, she knew that they were on the same case working it with her, just not so close. Not having the everyday contact that she was used to gave her a feeling of loneliness she couldn’t explain, although she knew in her gut that things were coming to a head with this case. It would be over soon, and she was determined those babies wouldn’t be born with this hanging over them, tainting the joy their parents should feel.

Charlie and Bishop especially deserved that, to have the pleasure restored that fate had so cruelly destroyed. It would never stop the worry, and she knew no matter what, she couldn’t eradicate that, but she could handle this threat for them, and she would.

She just needed to get that asshole Gideon to stop being, well, such an asshole. It didn’t help that being around him turned her into a hormone-riddled sex maniac, seeing desire and jealousy where there was none.

Today had been utter torture, but she could cope as long as the reward was big enough.

Her phone buzzing made her glance at the caller ID. She sighed as she answered the video call request. “Hey, Bás. What’s up?”

“Why would something be up? Nothing is up, everything is fine.”

Something was definitely up. “It was a figure of speech.”