Maybe he can stop in while I'm at work."
"Let me know if you need any help with that."
Gideon glanced at his watch.
"You'll want to stay here again tonight?" "Yes, if that's possible.
Until Cary comes home."
He took my face in his hands and pressed his lips to mine.
"All right.
I have a lot of work to catch up on.
Charge your cell so I can reach you."
I heard a faint buzzing.
Gideon backed away and reached into an inner jacket pocket to withdraw his phone.
He read the screen, then said, "I have to get this.
I'll talk to you later."
Then he was gone, striding down the hallway as quickly as he'd arrived.
"He's going to marry you," my mother said, coming up to stand beside me.
"You know that, don't you?" I didn't, no.
I still felt a little flare of gratitude every morning when I woke up and realized that we were still together.
"What makes you say that?" My mother looked at me with her baby blue eyes.
It was one of the rare physical traits we didn't share.
"He's completely taken you over and assumed control of everything."
"That's just his nature."
"That's the nature of all powerful men," she said, reaching up to fuss with my no-nonsense ponytail.
"And he'll indulge you, because he's making an investment in you.
You're an asset to him.
You're beautiful, well bred and well connected, and independently wealthy.
You're also in love with him and he can't take his eyes off you.
I bet he can't keep his hands off you, either."
"Mother, please."
I was so not in the mood for one of her lectures on the fine points of catching and marrying a rich man.
"Eva Lauren," she scolded, facing me directly.