Page 25 of Her Unflinching Warrior (Omega Sky)
“Any of the above,” he grinned.
“My meal, yes. The bourbon, almost. My mad? My mad was gone as soon as I heard Slade growling at that racist buffoon.” She smiled up at him. “But can I ask you something?”
“Almost anything.” His eyes twinkled.
Honest to God twinkled! Whose eyes did that?
“Jada, are you with me? What question did you want to ask me?”
“Oh yeah,” she shook her head. She really needed to focus on the topics at hand, instead of mooning over what a handsome man Gideon was. She cleared her throat. “You seemed really cool dealing with the racist bullshit that Murray pulled at brunch. How did you manage to stay so calm?”
She watched as he tipped his neck to the side as if he were relieving sore muscles. Who could blame him?
“Over the years—and I mean years—unless somebody is getting hurt, I’ll normally just ask to talk to management and explain and let them know what’s going on. These days I’d say eighty to ninety percent of the time, management will do something about the problem, unless it’s the owner who’s the problem. In that case, I just walk away.”
“I suppose that’s a more mature way of handling things,” Jada admitted.
Gideon grinned. “What’s your immature way of handling things?”
“I bury them with negative online reviews with, or…”
“Or?” Gideon asked.
“Well, there was this one time, it was a little clothing store on the upper east side. They actually accused one of my friends of shoplifting. She was picking something up to take it into the dressing room. Sheila was the type to wither and die, but she was with Raylene that day, who threw down. Thank God!”
“To tell you the truth, I still think it’s messed with Sheila. She’s careful where she shops. Raylene told me all about it. The owner of the boutique came out and told both of them to leave or she’d call the cops.”
“So what’d you do?” Gideon asked.
Jada grinned at the memory. “Somehow their inventory, bookkeeping, and social media software all got wiped. I thought about making it look like they were cheating their suppliers, but I drew the line at making it look like they were stealing.”
Gideon laughed.
“See, I showed restraint.” Jada buffed her nails on her sweater. “But I still don’t understand how you can just walk away without doing anything to that other ten or twenty percent. Doesn’t it kill you?” she asked.
“No,” Gideon answered. “As it is, my job requires me to literally hold people’s lives in the palm of my hand. When I’m confronted with something like our friend Murray here in the states, it’s not a life or death situation. Is it bullshit? Yeah. But I believe that Karma will eventually balance the scales. Jada, I have to believe that, otherwise I couldn’t handle the raw pain and suffering I see in the world.”
His words cut like a knife through warm butter. She stood there staring up at him like she was seeing him for the first time.
“How do you do what you do?” she finally asked.
“Because I can. Because it needs to be done.”
Jada reached up and cupped his jaw, brushing her thumbs over his lips. “Take me back to the hotel, Gideon Smith.”
Slowly, he pulled her close, sifting his fingers through her curls. His intense brown eyes flared with passion…for her.
“Are you sure?”
She could only nod.
His eyelids slid down as he focused on her suddenly dry lips. She swiped her tongue across her bottom lip to moisten it.
“You’re killing me, Angel,” was all he said before he swept down and took her mouth. The beauty of it burst across her mind, before the power of it had her wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down as she did her best to burrow into his body.
Gideon seemed to be on the same page. His fingers went from sifting to clenching, and his other hand swept under her sweater and spanned the base of her back. He kneaded her flesh as he made a low rumbling sound that made her clit throb. Jada squeezed her thighs together, tight.
Senses swirling, it took long moments for her to realize that the mewing sounds she was hearing were coming from her.
