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Instantly, my nipples begin to ache, and my panties are damper than they were before. “Oh no,” I whisper, catching a bit of whipped cream on the tip of my fork. “Was it something I did?” I swipe my tongue across the whipped cream, licking it off the fork tines with delicate attention, heat dumping into my bloodstream as Gideon’s jaw clenches and hunger fills his eyes.
“I want to take you back to my apartment,” he says, “and tease you until you beg me to fuck you.”
Holy Moses.
This man…
He’s as sexy as I remember and he makes me feel more beautiful, more desired than I ever have before. Whatever his problem is with Adrian, I know we can put it behind us. Adrian’s a part of my past. He’s just a friend now. And honestly, he’s a friend I would be fine seeing less of if he isn’t Gideon’s favorite person.
I’m not about to abandon my real ride-or-dies for a man, but Adrian is…problematic, and I have enough problems right now. Trying to live up to my father’s expectations and prove to everyone at Watson Global that I’m not some undeserving nepo baby, has had me on edge since the day I arrived back in New York.
Noelle was right—I need to let off some steam and do something just for fun. Just because it feels good. But I don’t want to do that at some pretentious party.
I’d much rather let off steam with Gideon, back at his apartment.
The apartment I had no idea he had…
“Why didn’t you tell me you have a place in New York?” I ask.
“I knew it would complicate things,” he says without missing a beat. “I have a place in the city, and I stay there when I come into town on business, but I’m only here a few times a year and never for more than a week at a time. My life isn’t in New York anymore. It hasn’t been for a long time. And when I did live here, things were…hard.” He glances down at his hands. “I’m much better suited to a smaller city, where it's easy to get outside and hike or climb year-round. It would be hard to give that up, even for the chance at a relationship that made perfect sense.”
I nod, my hope shriveling on the vine. “And we…wouldn’t make perfect sense?”
He glances up, his gaze troubled again. “You’re just so—”
“Young,” I cut in, some part of me wanting to keep the word out of his mouth. His gorgeous, sexy mouth I would so much rather be kissing than discussing all the reasons trying to date would be a bad idea. “I know. I am young. At least on paper, but…” I sigh and stab another bite of pancake with a little too much force. “Lately, I feel like I’m a hundred years old. All I do is work and no matter how much I work, it never seems to be enough. I never get to relax, and nothing is easy. I don’t fit in, no matter where I am. At the office, I’m the youngest person in management and everyone treats me like a dumb kid who’s been given too much responsibility. And in my normal life, my friends think I’m a stuffy workaholic who’s gotten old and boring before her time. I just want… I…”
I stuff the bite into my mouth and chew as I think. When I swallow, I add, “I just want to be judged on who I am and what I bring to a relationship, any relationship, without my age complicating things all the time.”
He nods. “That’s a fair ask.”
I arch a challenging brow. “Does that mean you’re done being hung up on my age? That’s behind us now?”
He makes a rumbling sound low in his chest that makes me wish we were naked. But everything about Gideon makes me wish we were naked, from the way he chews to the way he sips his coffee to the way his eyes penetrate me ten different ways as he mutters, “It’s not that simple.”
“Why?”
“Age isn’t the only barrier here, Sydney,” he says.
“I know distance is an issue, but—”
“It’s not the distance, either,” he cuts in, setting his fork down and giving me one hundred percent of his considerable focus. “If it were just the distance and you were okay with seeing each other every other weekend, I’d fly down twice a month. No problem.”
My pulse flutters in my throat. “You would?”
“I would,” he says. “I didn’t make that offer in Maine because I thought… Well, I thought it would be easier to move on. But time apart hasn’t made it any easier to stop thinking of you. If anything, it’s made it harder.”
I press my lips together, fighting a giddy smile. No matter how happy his words make me, now isn’t the time for smiling. He’s made that obvious with the hint of doom in his voice.
I pull in a breath, keeping my glee to myself as I say, “It’s been the same for me. I think about you all the time. And every other weekend would be a great place to start. I’m so busy with work, I don’t have a lot of free time, anyway.” I take in his increasingly troubled expression and add, “But that obviously doesn’t work for you for some reason that you’re…refusing to share?”
“I’m not refusing to share,” he says. “I’m just dreading it.”
I give a sharp shake of my head. “Why? Seriously, Gideon, it can’t be that bad. Adrian can be a handful sometimes, but he’s a nice guy who wants to leave a positive mark on the world. Whatever he did to upset you, I’m sure we can figure out a way to make it right. Or we can just avoid him. It wouldn’t be that hard.”
“It would be hard for me,” he says, his doom voice in full effect. My eyes widen, but before I can demand that he spill whatever he’s holding back, he adds, “He’s my son.”
fifteen
