Dancing with Deception (10 page)

She sucked in a breath and would have fallen if Gideon wasn’t holding onto her.

“What happened?” he asked again, his voice hard as granite.

Rebecca looked past Gideon to where Colin, Jess, and Rose were standing in the doorway. She looked back at the wall across from her and saw it. It was still there. Her heart dropped and she screamed again trying to run but Gideon held her still.

“What is it, Rebecca?” he shouted over her own panicked sounds.

“Oh, my god.”

“Rebecca!”

“That s-s-spider.” She threw a terrified glance over her shoulder and saw Colin slap it with his bare hand. Bile rose up in her throat and she clamped a hand over her mouth to stop it from coming out. Her heart was beating so fast she wondered how it didn’t explode in her chest. She squeezed her eyes shut.

“Rebecca.” Gideon shook her. “You screamed the house down because of a spider? What the hell’s wrong with you?”

He was angry, she realized; because he couldn’t see why anyone could ever be so afraid of a spider. Afraid wasn’t the word, Rebecca thought as she struggled with a sting of tears. Well, she wasn’t about to explain it to him. She shook her head and tried to struggle out of his hold.

“Let go of me.”

“Gideon,” Rose said, softly. He shot his mother a furious glance then let Rebecca go. She immediately escaped.

She ran out of the bathroom and down the hall to her room. She was so pitifully thankful that she managed to make it to the half bathroom in her room and turn on the sink before she sank down on the cold, marble floor shaking. 

Gideon was still riding the last dregs of temper when he and Colin picked up the splintered wood off the bathroom floor. He was thoroughly pissed that he’d have to fix the door and he was ashamed at the way he had treated Rebecca.

He didn’t often lose his temper that way but Rebecca had a habit of bringing out the worst in him. So maybe it wasn’t Rebecca, he thought dropping the pieces of broken door into the trash. It was his reaction to her that set him off.

“I’ll have Jess order a new door off the internet. We can go pick it up on the mainland.” Colin regarded his brother with confusion.

“Yeah.”

“You didn’t need to be so hard on her.”

Gideon couldn’t fault him for defending Rebecca. Someone needed to. “I know.”

Tongue in cheek, Colin asked, “You going to go apologize?”

“Yeah,” Gideon muttered before leaving the bathroom. He walked slowly down the hallway like a man walking toward his execution. It would be a completely different situation if he could relieve some of the sexual tension he felt around her.

One kiss hadn’t been enough.

He didn’t knock, as was his habit when he wanted to walk into any room of the house. He frowned when he saw that she wasn’t in her room. He knew she had walked this way, so where was she? Then he heard her quiet weeping. The sound was muffled and low but he followed it to the bathroom off her room. He didn’t knock there either since the door was slightly open.

The tap on the sink was running. Gideon looked down and saw Rebecca curled up on the floor. The tremors were fiercely racking her slender body as she cried in her little protective ball. Guilt assailed him from the way he had acted. He had shouted at her for being afraid simply because she had scared him senseless with her terror. He’d heard her screams and panicked much like she had. And now, here in private she was losing the shaky composure she always seemed to have.

But she didn’t have to do it alone.

He crossed quietly and crouched down in front of her. She didn’t see him, for her eyes were buried in her arms as she rocked and held herself. He said her name quietly and she jolted, then turned away from him.

“Go away.” The words were broken and watery as she tried to grab hold of control.

He ignored her request and pulled her into his arms. Instead of fighting with him like he assumed she would, she slumped in his arms as sobs continued to shake her. He sat down the rest of the way on the floor and pulled her into his lap, taking up the same rocking motions she had been doing.

She shook again on a sob and began to quiet. He slid his hand up her back and planted a gentle kiss on the crown of her head. The sounds coming out of her throat seemed to border on pain. It gave way to a possibility he hadn’t thought of yet.

“Did it bite you?”

“N-no.” Her breath hitched again. She settled her head onto his shoulder, breathing deep in attempt to quiet her tears. “I don’t like t-them.”

“I know, baby.” Her breathing began to calm and the tremors shooting through her body were that of exhaustion now. She sniffled once then sighed. “Better?”

She nodded and started to get up but he tightened his hold. “I’m okay.”

“I’m glad.” He waited until she settled back down in his lap. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

She remained quiet and he wondered how badly he’d hurt her feelings. He ran his hand over her back again and this time he felt her tremble from something other than anguish. She went so completely still that he wondered if she were holding her breath.

He trailed his finger up her arm to her chin and lifted her face to his. Her skin was petal soft under his hard, calloused thumb as he stroked it across her cheek. Hungrily, he took in her flushed face, dark eyes, and lips; naked, pink, and parted with what he hoped was invitation. Slowly, watching her blue eyes turn the darkest shade of sapphire, he lowered his mouth to hers.

Her eye lids fluttered until they closed and she sigh. The frantic pounding of his heart filled his ears. He wondered how it didn’t burst from his chest. It was all he could do to keep it slow when he wanted to devour. His lips glided over hers and tasted sweetness. The hand that was on her face dropped to her shoulder then slid to her back.

Gideon pulled her against him and felt softness. His other hand slid up her bare leg until he reached the hem of her shorts. He stopped his trail up her satiny smooth leg because his brain was still able to process the fact that he was sitting on the bathroom floor in his mother’s house. He couldn’t deny himself having her mouth, though, and pressed his lips to hers again and again.

He deepened his gentle assault on her mouth and felt her shudder when his tongue began to taste all the deep, cool corners of her mouth. She made a sound in the back of her throat that sent him reeling. Her hands slid up to his chest.

He felt pressure on his chest and registered she was pushing him away. He nipped at her full bottom lip then let her pull back. He didn’t expect her to pull completely away from him, however. He watched her as she scooted away from him until they were no longer touching. She paused for a moment before scooting over once more.

He felt her distance in more sense than inches. Her face, flushed from his kiss, was closed up. She looked down at her hands, then at the bathroom door. Gideon waited for her to explain herself, but she remained mute.

“Problem?” It cost him to keep his voice causal, but he did it.

Her mouth pulled into a grim line and she frowned down at her hands then shook her head. He wished she would say something; anything. But she wouldn’t even look at him.

“Are you going to slap my face or cry or something?”

She gave him a wary glance. “It was only a kiss.”

Only a kiss?
Gideon barely kept his mouth from dropping open. She’d been affected. He knew it. His own ego was in serious danger of being insulted. “It was our second kiss, actually.”

She frowned again and he felt a little better to have thrown her for a loop. She had to have been as confused as he was. Again, the attraction didn’t surprise him. It was his actions that shocked the hell out of him. He had superior control, he thought. But he couldn’t seem to find a grip on that control when it came to Rebecca. He’d only known her for twenty-four hours. He shuddered inwardly when he thought of what the next little while in close quarters with her would be like.

Gideon stood up slowly and offered his hand. He wasn’t surprised when she ignored it and rose to her feet on her own. He handed her a paper towel from the vanity and waited for her to dry to her wet cheeks and toss the paper in the trash.

“Don’t worry, Rebecca. It was our second kiss,” he told her again and waited for her gaze to meet his. “But it can be our last if that’s what you want.”

He followed her out of the little bathroom and excused himself. She stayed in her room as he made his way down the stairs. The sooner he could get her back to the mainland safe, the better. He decided it was time to call a family meeting a figure out just what they were going to do and when they were going to do it.

After dinner, everyone occupied the family room to wait for Charles’ arrival. Gideon had told everyone at dinner that it was time they discussed what they were to do about Rebecca’s situation, and he wanted to wait for his father to arrive to fill him in.

Rebecca was nervous. So far, no one in the family was angry with her for the way she’d disrupted their lives. They even seemed to welcome her into their tight group and she hadn’t felt one moment of guilt or aloneness—except with Gideon. She didn’t know about Charles, however, and the worry left her stomach churning. She’d seen his picture on the mantle, but she had been told little about the absent man.

He seemed hard, she thought staring at the family portrait over the fireplace. He was similar in looks to both the Avery sons but was bigger than Gideon. His eyes—Rebecca shivered—were dark and intense. His sharp features were handsome and there was something about the way he stood that shouted: danger!

Colin’s laughter startled her out of her trance and she looked over to see him watching a show that consisted of various people home videoing their mishaps and accidents. She watched a man jump on a trampoline then fall though. Colin laughed again and Rebecca smiled more because of his reaction to it then the poor man lying limp on the ground.

She felt Gideon’s gaze on her and turned her head to meet it. He didn’t seem happy, but that wasn’t anything new. The only time he seemed to tolerate her was when he was kissing her. The thought had heat burning her cheeks and she looked away quickly, but not before she saw a smirk form on his lips. Damn, she though taking a chair in front of the television, she needed to get off this island and away from him.

Rose looked up from the puzzle she and Rebecca had been working and grinned. “He’s home,” she said before dashing out of the room.

“We’ll give them a minute,” Jess said breaking the silence. “They get mushy when they’ve spent a night or two apart.”

“It’s disgusting,” Colin claimed.

“It’s romantic.”

Rebecca smiled. From the little time she had spent with Jess since she’d arrived she sensed a deep hurt in her. It was in her eyes and in her voice but Rebecca couldn’t begin to guess what had happen. She’d shied away from discussing a popular male singer that afternoon when Rebecca had commented on his looks. Rebecca had even noticed there were no magazines in her room, no posters, or even romance novels that were popular right now.

Jess’s room was neat and organized and held books on accounting, world history, and the arts. There had been more but nothing Rebecca would have in her own room and nothing a young woman would normally own. But hearing Jess speak of romance lifted the worry Rebecca had been feeling. It was clear that a man had broken her heart.

Rose came back into the room moments later followed by Charles Avery and a large golden dog. Rebecca could only stare in wide eyed wonder at the man who looked more like Gideon and Colin’s brother than their father. Handsome didn’t begin to cover his devastatingly good looks.

The photo hadn’t done him justice, Rebecca thought. Or rather, it hadn’t displayed the strong sense of man he omitted. He filled the room with his intensity and Rebecca saw with an inward sigh the pink color on Rose’s cheeks.

“Hi, Daddy.” Jess ran into her father’s open arms and held on. “I missed you.”

“Missed you, baby girl.”

His voice was deep and rough but Rebecca heard the affection in it. Envy curled in her stomach along with happiness for Jess for having such a loving father. Her father had never hugged her or if he did, she hadn’t remembered it.

Rebecca watched in amazement as Gideon and Colin each embraced their father. There was no embarrassment, no casual affection; only love.

“Well, now. Who’s this?”

Rebecca realized he was talking about her. Nerves threatened again when she remembered he didn’t yet know about what was going on. Would he be angry that she threatened the safety of his family? Would he insist Gideon take her back home? But that’s what she wanted, she told herself. However, the thought of leaving this family was depressing.

“Dad, this is Rebecca.” Gideon made the introductions and Rebecca found her small, delicate hand engulfed in a big, hard one. His pressure was gentle but firm and she watched him as he took in the bruises on her face. Even though the marks on her neck were almost invisible, she was glad her hair was down so he couldn’t see him.

She saw fury light in his eyes, but his voice was calm and quiet. “What happened to your face?”

She was a little surprised he would just ask. Rose had waited until she had left the room and hammered Gideon, but not Charles. “It’s a long story.” She shot a look at Gideon clearly letting him know he could get on with it anytime now.