But that…Jesus Christ…”
He smirked faintly. “You enjoyed it, yes?”
I widened my eyes and laughed shakily. “Understatement of the year.”
“Good.” He touched my cheek briefly. “Me too.”
Chapter 8
The closer we got to the end of our arrangement, the more frequently our routine changed. I’d thought we’d established something that worked for us when we began our nightly dates with a walk and some chatting, and then we’d go back to my place and fuck and sleep, fuck and sleep, fuck and sleep.
Now we’d entered the week of my outdoor concert and the last two weeks of my companionship with Gideon, and he was all over the place. He showed up frustrated, he was forgetful and bringing up “chitchat” topics we’d already covered, sometimes he wandered off in his own world and didn’t hear a word of what I was saying, and he struggled to get comfortable to sleep.
The last two nights, he hadn’t gotten off, and he’d thought he’d distracted me from noticing by focusing solely on me and drawing as many orgasms out of me as he could.
Trust, I was still noticing, but I was trying to mind my own business when it seemed too personal. After all, I was who I was. Temporary in his life. Bought and paid for. I assumed he brought his problems to Claire or someone else, and I wasn’t at all jealous about that, and that was two lies in one little thought. Impressive. For one, I fucking knew he didn’t have anyone to talk to, and we could skip the “for two.”
I scratched my forehead and then checked the time on my phone.
Three minutes past ten. I was waiting for him outside my building, and it was good walking weather. Not too cold, which it had been the past few nights, and the sun had been shining all day.
It occurred to me yesterday that I’d never seen Gideon in the light of day.
These past several weeks, I hadn’t come to life until the sun went down, whether I was meeting with Gideon—it was mostly him—or I was having dinner with Anthony or catching a drink with Ruby and Chris.
Where was he?
I peered up and down the street.
His punctuality had spoiled me. He’d been late a single time, and he’d texted beforehand.
I was contemplating sending him a message when my phone rang, and it couldn’t be him. He didn’t like talking on the phone.
It was Anthony.
“Sup?” I answered.
“Oh. Hey. It’s after ten, so I thought I’d go straight to voice mail,” he replied. “Anyway. Uh…I have some bizarre news. Good, but fucking bizarre.”
“Yeah?” Please tell me he’d dumped that motherfucker.
“Yeah. The Initiative received a $200,000 donation today.”
“What the fuck?” I blurted out incredulously.
“Exactly. Can you believe that? When I saw the zeroes, I was like, get the fuck outta here with that shit. There’s gotta be some mistake. But no. It’s legit, Nicky. Two hundred Gs.”
“Madonn’, I…I don’t know what to say.” I scrubbed a hand over my face and felt a hundred different emotions stirring within me, and among them was a creeping suspicion. Where in the fresh hell was Gideon? “Who’s it from?”
“I don’t know. That’s what’s so frustrating about it,” he grated. “It was an anonymous donation.”
Sure. Yeah, sure. Anonymous. I wondered if Anthony or I knew anyone with that kind of money, maybe someone who’d recently entered my life…
I huffed out a breath and looked down the street again. His driver usually drove up from that direction so he could pull up right outside the building.
“Hold up,” Anthony said. “You don’t think…”
“I don’t know what I think.” I heard the tightness in my voice and tried to calm my fucking tits. I had warning bells sounding inside my head, but it was too soon to get worked up.
Fuck. I rubbed at my chest. It felt like a giant had closed a fist around it.
The city commotion didn’t sound like my favorite noise machine anymore. The sirens wailing in the distance, the honking, the occasional hollering, the steady hum of conversation from the pedestrians at the intersection twenty feet away from me, the steam billowing up from the pavement, the lights—all of it sent my heart rate up. Something was wro—
I snapped my gaze to the left as a familiar-looking Bentley rolled up, and I coulda fuckin’ cried from the relief. It was him.
“I’mma have to call you back,” I said, swallowing against the dryness in my throat. “Gideon just got here.”
“All right, talk later.”
I ended the call and caught a