Bared to You

He’s a ticking time
bomb…
“We’ll figure it out,” I said.
He was quiet for a long moment. “Has Nathan
ever contacted you?”
“No.” Although I had a deep-rooted fear that I
might see him again one day, whether
accidentally or deliberately. He was out there
somewhere, breathing the same air…“Why?”
“It was on my mind today.”
I pulled back to search his face, a knot forming
in my throat at how tormented he looked. “Why?”
“Because we’ve got a lot of baggage between
us.”
“Are you thinking it’s too much?”
Gideon shook his head. “I can’t think that way.”
I didn’t know what to do or say. What
assurances could I give him, when I wasn’t sure
my love and his need would be enough to make
our relationship work?
“What’s going through your mind?” he asked.
“Thoughts of food. I’m starving. Why don’t you

---

go see if Cary wants to eat? Then we can get
started on dinner.”
Gideon found Cary sleeping, so he and I ate a
candlelit dinner for two at the dining table, a
somewhat formal meal while lounging in the worn
T-shirts and pajama bottoms we’d put on after our
respective showers. I was worried about Cary, but
spending quiet downtime alone with Gideon felt
like just what we needed.
“I had lunch with Magdalene in my office
yesterday,” he said after we’d enjoyed a few initial
bites.
“Oh?” While I’d been ring shopping, Magdalene
had been enjoying private time with my man?
“Don’t take that tone,” he admonished. “She ate
a meal in an office covered in your flowers, with
you blowing kisses from my desk. You were as
much there as she was.”
“Sorry. Knee-jerk reaction.”
He lifted my hand to his mouth and pressed a
quick, hard kiss to the back. “I’m relieved you can
still get jealous over me.”
I sighed. My emotions had been all over the
map all day; I couldn’t decide how I felt about
anything. “Did you say anything to her about
Christopher?”
“That was the point of the lunch. I showed her
the video.”
“What?” I frowned, remembering my phone had
died in his car. “How’d you do that?”
“I took your phone up to my office and pulled the
video off via USB. Didn’t you notice I brought it
back last night, fully charged?”
“No.” I set my silverware down. Dominant or not,
Gideon and I were going to have to work on which

---

lines crossed over into my freak-out zone. “You
can’t just hack into my phone, Gideon.”
“I didn’t hack into it. You haven’t set a password
yet.”
“That’s not the point! It’s a serious invasion of
my fucking privacy. Jesus…” Why in hell did no
one in my life understand that I had boundaries?
“Would you like me rummaging through your
stuff?”
“I’ve got nothing to hide.” He pulled his
smartphone out of an inner pocket of his sweats
and held it out to me. “And you won’t either.”
I didn’t want to get into a fight now, things were
too shaky as it was, but I’d let this go long enough.
“It doesn’t matter whether or not I have something I
don’t want you to see. I have a right to space and
privacy, and you need to ask before you help
yourself to my information and my belongings. You
have to stop taking whatever you want without my
permission.”
“What was private about it?’ he asked with a
frown. “You showed it to me yourself.”
“Don’t be like my mother, Gideon!” I shouted.
“There’s only so much crazy I can handle.”
He jerked back at my vehemence, clearly
surprised by how upset I was. “Okay. I’m sorry.”
I gulped down my wine, trying to rein in my
temper and unease. “Sorry I’m mad? Or sorry you
did it?”
After the length of several heartbeats, Gideon
said, “I’m sorry you’re mad.”
He really didn’t get it. “Why don’t you see how
weird this is?”
“Eva.” He sighed and shoved a hand through
his hair. “I spend a quarter of every day 
inside
you. When you set limits outside of that I can’t help
but see them as arbitrary.”
“Well, they’re not. They’re important to me. If

---

there’s something you want to know, you need to
ask me.”
“All right.”
“Don’t do it anymore,” I warned. “I’m not kidding,
Gideon.”
His jaw tightened. “Okay. I get it.”
Then, because I really didn’t want to fight, I
moved on. “What did she say when she saw it?”
He visibly relaxed. “It was difficult, of course.
Even more difficult to know I’d seen it.”
“She saw us in the library.”
“We didn’t talk about that directly, but then, what
was there to say? I won’t apologize for making
love to my girlfriend in a closed room.” He leaned
back in his chair and exhaled harshly. “Seeing
Christopher’s face on the video—seeing what he
really thought of her—
that
hurt her. It’s hard to see
yourself being used that way. Especially by
someone you think you know, someone who’s
supposed to care about you.”
To hide my reaction, I busied myself with
refilling both my glass and his. He spoke as if
from experience. What exactly had been done to
him?
After a quick gulp of wine, I asked, “How are
you
doing with it?”
“What can I do? Over the years, I’ve made every
attempt to talk to Christopher. I’ve tried throwing
money at him. I’ve tried threatening him. He’s
never shown any inclination to change. I realized
long ago that I can only do damage control. And
keep you as far away from him as possible.”
“I’ll be helping you with that, now that I know.”
“Good.” He took a drink, eyeing me over the lip
of his glass. “You’re not asking me about my
appointment with Dr. Petersen.”
“It’s none of my business. Unless you want to

---

share.” I met his gaze, willing him to do just that.
“I’m here to listen whenever you need an ear, but
I’m not going to pry. When you’re ready to let me
in, you will. That said, I’d love to know if you like
him.”
“So far.” He smiled. “He talks me around in
circles. Not many people can do that.”
“Yes. Talks you back around and makes you
come at it from a different angle that has you
thinking, ‘Now why didn’t I see it like that?’”
Gideon’s fingers stroked up and down the stem
of his glass. “He prescribed something for me to
take at night before bed. I filled it before I came
over.”
“How do you feel about taking drugs?”
He looked at me with dark, haunted eyes. “I feel
it’s necessary. I have to be with you and I have to
make that safe for you, whatever it takes. Dr.
Petersen says the drug combined with therapy
has been successful for other ‘atypical sexual
parasomniacs.’ I have to believe that.”
I reached over to squeeze his hand. Taking
medication was a big step, especially for
someone who’d avoided facing his problems for a
long time. “Thank you.”
Gideon’s grip tightened. “Apparently there are
enough people with this problem that there have
been sleep studies on it. He told me about a
documented case where a man sexually
assaulted his wife in his sleep for twelve years
before they sought help.”
“Twelve years? Jesus.”
“Apparently part of the reason they waited so
long was because the man was a better lay when
he was asleep,” he said dryly. “And if that’s not a
killer blow to the ego, I don’t know what is.”
I stared at him. “Well, shit.”
“I know, right?” His wry smile faded. “But I don’t

---

want you to feel pressured to share a bed with
me, Eva. There is no magic pill. I can sleep on the
couch or I can go home, although of the two
choices I’d prefer the couch. My whole day is
better after getting ready for work with you.”
“For me, too.”
Reaching over, Gideon caught my hand and
lifted it to his lips. “I never imagined I could have
this…Someone in my life who knows what you do
about me. Someone who could talk about my
fuck-ups over dinner because they accept me
anyway…I’m grateful for you, Eva.”
My heart twisted with a sweet pain in my chest.
He could say such beautiful things, the perfect
things.
“I feel the same way about you, ace.” Deeper,
maybe, because I loved him. But I didn’t say that
aloud. He’d get there someday. I wasn’t going to
give up until he was absolutely, irrevocably mine.
With his bare feet propped on the coffee table
and his computer on his lap, Gideon looked so at
home and relaxed that he kept distracting me
from my television shows.