Page 42

I purse my lips, trying to hide my grin as the words slip out of me. “You could sleep with me in here.” My cheeks flush. “I mean… like, sleep, sleep. As in actually sleep. No devilry.”

Gideon chuckles, hand scrubbing over his jaw. “No devilry, huh? You think you can keep your hands to yourself?”

I feign indignance, tossing a pillow at him that he catches.

“With ease.”

Gideon’s lips curl into a guilty smirk. “Well, if you want me to be entirely honest, woman, I’m not sure I’d be able to get all that much sleep.”

My lips part as a bolt of arousal shoots straight to my clit.

“Oh.”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to reassure him—fuck,encouragehim that I am absolutely okay with that, though it feels a little bold.

You’ve only known him for two days!

I attempt a nonchalant shrug, pressing my thighs together.

“Well, that doesn’t sound so bad to me.”

Gideon quirks a brow at me, opening his mouth to reply, but in terror of rejection, an alternative tumbles out of me.

“Well, we can at least hang out together. If you want. It’s barely 8:30.”

GIDEON

Jesus, fuck.Why do I torture myself like this? Winnow making me laugh so hard it makes my dick soft, feels like perhaps whatever God there is has shown me a small mercy by enabling me to avoid an erection. But now, there’s no possible way to avoid it if I crawl in bed with her.

I want this woman.

Not merely physically, but in every way—a terrifying realization considering I barely know her. It makes me feel out of control, and control is the only thing that’s enabled me to survive this life.

Not to mention, I refuse to put her in a situation that, if she one day decides she’s grown tired of me, might make her feel like she has to fuck me in order to keep a roof over her head.

That thought alone fortifies me to maintain my self-restraint, even if I do wanna fill every pretty little hole of hers with my cum.

Still, I can’t help but feel like a nun as I pin her mischievous, yet somehow still innocent, gaze with a narrow-eyed look of my own. I grab a book out of my nightstand and pull the covers back on my side of the bed.

“You better behave yourself, woman.”

My words do nothing to quell the excitement I can see bubbling beneath her surface. Grinning from ear to pretty ear, she watches me like I’ve hung the moon, and by God, I wanna fucking give it to her.

“Yes, sir, I shall.”

As I climb in, her eyes fall to where Trigger sits, tail swiping back and forth across the floor as he does a little dance in place with his front paws. I shake my head at the poor bastard.

Winnow and I exchange a look; mine a scowl and hers a pout.

“You did this.”

Her lips pop open on a huffed laugh.“It was one night!”

“That’s all it takes. You’ve spoiled him rotten now.”

Winnow’s pouty lip returns. “Please?”

I heave a sigh.Goddamn it.