His grip on my hand tightened until it hurt. I didn’t mind.
My dad smiled. “Making Eva happy. How can I argue with that?”
—
THE smell of freshly brewed coffee brought my well-trained senses to life the following morning. I blinked up at the bedroom ceiling of my Upper West Side apartment and gave a sleepy smile when I discovered Gideon standing beside my bed, stripping out of his shirt. The sight of his leanly muscular torso and washboard abs almost made up for the fact that I’d obviously spent the night alone after falling asleep in his arms.
“Good morning,” I murmured, rolling onto my side as he pushed his pajama bottoms down and kicked them off.
Whoever said Mondays sucked had obviously never woken up to a na**d Gideon Cross.
“It will be,” he said, lifting the covers and sliding between the sheets with me.
I shivered as his cool skin touched mine. “Yikes!”
His arms slipped around me, and his lips touched my neck. “Warm me up, angel.”
By the time I was done with him he was sweating and the coffee he’d brought me was cold.
I didn’t mind in the least.
—
I was in an excellent mood when I got to work. Morning sex contributed to that, of course. Also the sight of Gideon getting dressed for the day, watching him transform from the private man I knew and loved into the dark and dangerous global magnate. The day only got better when I exited on the twentieth floor and saw Megumi sitting at her desk.
I waved at her through the glass security doors, but my smile faded the moment I got a good look at her. She was pale and had dark circles under her eyes. Her usually sassy asymmetrical haircut looked limp and overlong, and she was wearing a long-sleeved blouse and dark slacks that were out of place with the August mugginess.
“Hey,” I greeted her when she buzzed me through. “How are you? I’ve been worried about you.”
She gave me a weak smile. “I’m sorry I didn’t call you back.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m totally antisocial when I get sick. I just want to curl up in bed and be left alone.”
Her lower lip quivered and her eyes grew shiny with tears.
“Are you okay?” I glanced around, worried about her privacy as other employees passed through the reception area. “Did you see a doctor?”
She started crying.
Horrified, I stood frozen for a minute. “Megumi. What’s wrong?”
She pulled off her headset and stood, tears spilling down her face. She shook her head violently. “I can’t talk about it now.”
“When is your break?”
But she was already hurrying to the bathroom, leaving me staring after her.
—
I headed to my cubicle and dropped off my bag, then went down the hall to Will Granger’s desk. He wasn’t there, but I found him in the break room when I stopped to grab some coffee.
“Hey, you.” His eyes behind his square-framed glasses looked as worried as I felt. “Did you see Megumi?”
“Yeah. She looks wiped out. And she started crying when I asked how she’s doing.”
He slid the carton of half-and-half over to me. “Not good, whatever it is.”
“I’m bad with not knowing. My imagination runs wild. I’m bouncing between cancer, pregnancy, and everything in between.”