Page 29 of Ruthless Touch
His face comes close to the glass shower door as he looks out in shock at me standing there. “Aria? What are you doing?”
“I’m having that conversation I told you I wanted to have. I assume you thought it had ended simply because you didn’t want to talk, but oh no. I have some things to say, and you’re going to listen to me. If it means I have to stand in this hot bathroom as steam fills every inch of space around me and I can’t even see you as I say what I came to say, then so be it.”
“You’re crazy. You know that?”
His attempt at insulting me misses its mark completely. With a chuckle that I admit sounds a bit more manic than I’d like, I say, “Well, you’d be crazy too if someone kept you cooped up inside for weeks, only to let you out to have fun and cut it short, which by the way, was very frustrating. I liked the way you were when you came to the gallery, Gideon. You were sexy and fun. Why did that guy disappear?”
I think I hear him sigh heavily over the sound of the shower before he answers, “He didn’t. He just didn’t feel right being there at that moment.”
“Why? I want to know, so please tell me.”
He falls silent, and as I listen to the sound of the water, I can’t help but notice he’s actually doing a lot of talking for him. Now I just have to keep it going.
“I know you want me, Gideon. You were so hard your cock could have cut glass. So don’t try to tell me you didn’t. At least deal in facts so we can get past this.”
“Go out into the bedroom. I don’t want to have this conversation right now.”
And there he goes trying to ignore the problem again.
“Well, I do, so I’m not going anywhere. In fact, if you don’t keep talking, I’m going to come into that shower so you can’t avoid me. Your choice. You talk to me, or we take a nice shower together like normal people.”
Gideon presses his nose to the glass shower door in front of me. “You think this is normal? What about any part of us is normal?”
“Fine. We aren’t normal. No, it’s not normal to take a woman and keep her in your house for weeks on end. No, it’s not normal to finally initiate sex only to stop in the middle when there was no good reason to stop. And no, it’s not normal to have conversations like this, but you left me no choice.”
“You always have a choice, Aria.”
He’s right. We do always have a choice, and after looking at the outline of his naked body through the glass for the past few minutes, I’ve decided to make mine.
I quickly strip off my shirt and yoga pants, tossing them onto the white tile floor before opening the shower door. Gideon turns to look at me in utter surprise, but I don’t know why he’s so shocked. I did say I would do this.
“So much for obeying the rules you yourself set down,” he says as he slides his hands through his dark hair to get it off his face.
“I changed my mind. Anyway, you weren’t really talking, so I’m not technically breaking any rules,” I say with a smile as the hot mist from the shower begins to hit me.
Still stunned, he shakes his head. “Do you routinely get into the shower with men who don’t ask you to?”
Always so serious this one. You’d swear he never had someone invite themselves into the shower with him. Or maybe he hasn’t. He does seem to enjoy having control.
I take a single step toward him and stop, enjoying the view from where I’m standing but wishing we weren’t still talking. “No, but to be honest, most men I’ve met wouldn’t have any problem with me getting into the shower with them. Do you?”
As much as I don’t want to think it, I know that leading question might result in him telling me he does have some issue with me just jumping in the shower with him. I’m not actually sure what I’ll say to that if that’s his reply.
At least he’ll still be talking, though. A girl has to count her wins wherever she can find them.
Instead, he asks me another question of his own. “Are you always this insistent?”
There’s a trace of a smile on his lips as he says that, so I’m hoping this is some kind of sexual banter of his and not the prelude to him telling me to get the hell out of his shower and stop bothering him. Not that I will. I’m past the point of no return now. This shower isn’t going to end until we both come.
“Only when I really want something.”
I take another step toward him and stop, only a few feet away from him now. He’s stopped washing up and simply stares at me like he doesn’t understand what I’m doing. Maybe I’m going too slowly for him. I would be for most men, but this particular man is unlike anyone else I’ve ever met in my life. Any other man would already have me in his arms with his cock deep inside me.
Water pours down over his face, so he scrubs his eyes with his hands before stepping toward me. “What if I don’t want you?”
I glance down between us and see his cock standing straight up at attention against his belly. Looking back up at him, I can’t help but grin at how silly his question sounds.
“You should tell your body because it seems to have gotten a completely different memo.”