and staring at my chair with dismay.
“Good news. They work.”
“Bad news,” I snapped. “You ruined my chair.”
“Whoops,” Gideon said, waving his hand and repairing the chair.
Standing my ground, I glared at the man who only moments ago I wanted to bang—well, I still wanted to bang him… “This isn’t going well.”
“I could have blown up the house,” he pointed out.
“Not helping.”
“Got it,” he said, sucking his bottom lip into his mouth. “I’m sorry.”
I was aware he was trying not to grin. While his apology was sincere, his actions were a little sucky. As attracted as I was to the Grim Reaper, it would get old fast if he blew up all my stuff.
“I accept… this time. Lightning belongs outside, not in the living room. You feel me?”
“I feel you,” Gideon said.
“I mean, I don’t want to be a downer, but I like my house.”
Gideon put his hands up and grinned. “I like your house too. I’ll keep all explosions outside from this day forward. I promise.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Gideon replied, and then looked down at his hands again. “Daisy, how did you get out of my embrace?”
“It’s not that I didn’t want you to hold me,” I assured him. “I just can’t make coherent thoughts when you do. I needed space to think.”
“Not what I meant,” he said, glancing up at me. “Come here, please.”
“Since you asked nicely, I will. But no more lightning, dude,” I said, falling on top of him and wrapping my arms around him. “Now what?”
He wrapped his arms tightly around me and buried his face in my hair. The feeling was as close to magic as I’d ever come.
“Now try to get away,” he instructed.
“What if I don’t want to?” I teased.
“Daisy. I’m not joking. Try to leave my arms.”
Gideon was odd at times, but as he’d said, he was older than dirt. I’d play along and see where it was going. I remembered Jennifer telling a story about the games she and Dip Doody played in the bedroom. Now I wished I’d paid better attention. However, if he incinerated any more furniture, he was in deep shit.
“Fine,” I said, slipping right out of his embrace and skipping across the room. “Are you going to chase me?”
Gideon’s mouth was agape. He stared at me then paled as he examined his hands again.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, feeling panicked that he might feel the need to test his hands out again. Not to mention, his reaction was wildly unsettling. “What did I do?”
“You did the impossible,” Gideon said as a small grin of absolute puzzlement pulled at his lips. “No one can escape my hold unless I let them.”
“Then you must have let me,” I said, not following.
“I did not,” he replied. “Letting you go is not in my wheelhouse. Ever.”
“Good to know,” I teased. “I plan on keeping you too.”
“Daisy, you don’t understand,” he said, standing up and approaching me. “If you can escape death, you can escape anything.”
“You’re making me a little nervous,” I told him. “We both know I’m becoming a freak of nature. Maybe it will go away.”
“Have any of your powers decreased?”
Had they? Nope. They’d become more intense. “No.”
“Do you feel different?” Gideon asked.
“I don’t think so,” I said, looking down at my body.
Gideon paced the room, glancing up at me every so often. Shit. I’d totally ruined what was potentially going to be the best night of my life so far by escaping from his embrace. Of course, him burning my chair with a bolt of electricity didn’t exactly help set the mood either.
“Can we just pretend it didn’t happen and go back to making out?” I suggested. “I didn’t mean to freak you out.”
Gideon crossed the room in three steps, took me in his arms and spun me around like I weighed nothing.
“This is fucking perfect!” he shouted.
“Getting dizzy,” I told him, hanging on for dear life.
“Sorry,” he said, putting me down but keeping me close. “Fucking perfect.”
“What’s perfect?” I asked, eyeing him with concern.
Taking my hand and leading me to the couch, he seated me then squatted in front of me. “If you can get away from me, you can get away from her.”
“Her who?” I asked, confused.
“The Angel of Mercy,” he said, his eyes darkening with hatred. “She won’t be able to hurt you.”
“When you say hurt…”
Gideon was quiet for a long moment. “As in destroy you,” he said flatly. “She won’t be able to. You can get away.”
“Or I can fight.”
“Bad plan,” he said. “Very bad plan.