Captivated by You (Crossfire#4) Read Free

seeking her bare skin.
    She stiffened and pushed at me, rejecting me. “Gideon, no …”
    I sealed my mouth over hers. Lifting her off her feet, I took her to the floor. She struggled and I
    growled, “Don’t fight me.”
    “You can’t just screw our problems away.”
    “I just want to screw you.” My thumbs hooked into the waistband of her shorts and shoved them
    down. I was frantic to be in her, possessing her, feeling her surrender. Anything to drown out the
    voice in my head telling me I’d fucked up. Again . And this time, I wouldn’t be forgiven.
    “Let me go.” She rolled onto her stomach.
    My arms banded around her hips when she tried to crawl away. She could throw me off as she’d
    been trained to and she could cut me off with a word. Her safe word …
    “Crossfire.”
    Eva froze at the sound of my voice and the one word meant to convey the riot of emotions she
    shattered me with.
    It was in that eye of the storm that something snapped. A fierce and familiar quiet exploded within
    me, silencing the panic shaking my confidence. I stilled, absorbing the sudden absence of turmoil. It had been a long time since I’d last felt the dizzying switch between chaos and control. Only Eva could rock me so deeply, sending me hurtling back to a time when I’d been at the mercy of everything and
    everyone.
    “You’re going to stop fighting me,” I told her calmly. “And I’m going to apologize.”
    She went lax in my arms. Her submission was total and swift. I had the upper hand again.
    I pulled her up and back, so that she was sitting on my thighs. Eva needed me in control. When I
    was reeling, she scattered, which only shook me more. It was a vicious cycle and I had to get a better grip on it.
    “I’m sorry.” Sorry for hurting her. Sorry for losing my command of the situation. I’d been edgy
    after the nightmare—something she’d intuited—and getting hit with Kline immediately after hadn’t
    given me time to get my shit together.
    I would deal with him. I’d keep a tight grasp on her. Period. There were no other options.
    “I need your support, Gideon.”
    “I need you to tell him you’re married.”
    She leaned her temple against my cheek. “I’m going to.”
    I shifted her to sit across my lap and leaned back against the wall, cradling her close. Her arms
    wrapped around my neck and my world righted itself again.
    Her hand slid down my chest. “Ace …”
    The coaxing note in her voice was one I knew well. I was hard in an instant, my blood hot and
    thick. Submitting to me turned Eva on, and that reaction from her fired me up like nothing else.
    I pushed my hand into her hair and fisted the soft gold strands, watching the way her eyes grew
    heavy-lidded at the feel of the gentle tug. She was restrained and at my mercy, and she loved it.
    Needed it, just as much as I did.
    I took her mouth.
    Then I took her.
    WHILE Angus drove Eva and me to work, I scrolled through my appointment calendar and thought of
    my wife’s eight-thirty flight.
    I glanced at her. “You’ll take one of the jets to California.”
    She had been looking out the window of the Bentley, city-scoping with her usual eager interest. She
    turned her gaze to me.
    I was born in New York. I’d grown up in and near the city and eventually began to make it my own.
    At some point, I’d stopped noticing it. But Eva’s fascination and delight with my hometown had
    reintroduced it to me. I didn’t study the city with the intensity she did, but I saw it with fresh eyes all the same.
    “Will I?” she challenged, her eyes betraying her countering attraction to me.
    Her fuck-me look kept me redlined constantly.
    “Yes.” I closed my tablet case. “It’s faster, more comfortable, and safer.”
    Her mouth curved. “All right.”
    That hint of teasing amusement captivated me, made me want to do everything wicked and raw to
    her until only complete surrender remained.
    “You get to tell Cary,” she went on, switching the cross of