Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Gideon distantly noted that his brother’s nose looked broken, but he couldn’t bring himself to be horrified by his violent reaction, or care for Nox’s welfare.
Even the knowledge that his father had sabotaged his career every step of the way, registered only dimly. All he could focus on was the fact that Beth had played the classic villain trick. Fooled her enemy into thinking she was on his side, seducing him into her bed, making him fall deeper and deeper—
His thoughts careened to a chaotic halt at that incomplete thought. As he found himself facing a reality about his feelings for Beth that he wasn’t sure he was emotionally equipped to handle right now. Not after what he’d just learned.
It would break him.
Why had she done this?
The words resounded through his mind like a gong echoing in church.
He couldn’t come up with an answer that made sense.
All he knew was that he had to find her. To speak with her. He had to get to the bottom of this.
“You fucking broke my dose,” Nox said, sitting up, his handkerchief pressed to his nose. The pristine white linen square was dotted with violent splashes of red.
Gideon swallowed back his nausea at the sight of that blood and turned away from Nox.
“Gideon,” Nox called, his voice hoarse and demanding. “I said you broke…”
“Shut the fuck up, before I break something else, Nox,” Gideon said listlessly. He walked out of the room without a backward glance, his entire focus right now on finding Beth.
“Oh, you’re here,” Beth said with a giggle, after returning to her and Gideon’s suite for the third time and finally finding him there. “This house doesn’t seem that big, but oh my God, it’s massive. I got lost. Do you know they have secret passages behind bookshelves and stuff? Very spoo—” She stopped talking and stared at Gideon. He was sitting on the bed, looking absolutely wrung out.
“Are you okay? You look awful!” She rushed over to the bed, and put her hand on his forehead, testing for fever. He was so pale and shaky, he looked like he’d aged thirty years since she’d seen him last.
He jerked away from her touch and she blinked at him in shock. Not certain what was going on right now.
“Gideon?”
“Did you speak with my father and Nox today by any chance?” he asked, seeming to force the words out through barely moving lips.
“I did. I’m sorry, I know you’re hoping for a reconciliation but I can’t say I like either of them very much. Well, maybe I like your father a fraction more than Nox. Your nickname—obNOXious—is perfect for him.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Gideon, what’s—”
“What the fuck did you talk about, Beth?” She jumped at the increased volume in his voice and stared at him in shock.
“Gid—”
“The tattoos I’ve been doing for Kenny’s patients by any chance?”
“Yes, but your father already—”
He cut her off again. “And you told him you thought I was an arrogant, lazy, first-class leech?”
Oh God, what was going on here?
“Gideon, you’re scaring me. Please tell me what this is about.”
“Did you say that?” Another borderline shout.
This time it brought a sheen of tears to her eyes.
She stared at him, at his cold face and icy eyes and suddenly the resemblance between Gideon and his horrible father and brother became so much more apparent.
“I said that but I said it to puh-puh…” Oh please, not now. She stared at him in misery, looking for her Gideon, the man who’d made such sweet love to her last night, the man who could infuriate her one moment and make her laugh the next. The man with whom she’d foolishly fallen in love despite her every instinct to the contrary.
But that man was nowhere to be found.
Instead she was confronted by this horrid facsimile of the man she loved and she felt a profound sense of loss and grief that rivalled what she’d felt when Granny June and Spock had died.
“And you told him about the graphic novel. About the contract.” This time the words emerged on a flat note. As a statement of fact and Beth gaped at him in absolute horror.
“N-n-no.” Where was this coming from? How could he think that she would have said anything about that? When it had been so clear that she was the first person he had told about the potential contract last night? It was his news to celebrate. And she would never steal his thunder like that.
“You did,” he maintained, his voice shaking with fury. “You fucking did.”
“N-n…”
“How the hell else would they know about it?” he interrupted her, even though he knew that she needed time to gather her thoughts, needed a moment to breathe if this was to be in any way a fair exchange.
“I—”
“I told no one but you,” he interrupted her again, and she finally understood, to her utter horror, that he was using her stutter against her. That he didn’t want her gather her thoughts, that he’d made his mind up about this and had no interest in hearing what she had to say. “I could maybe have forgiven the rest, Beth, but not this! He’ll sabotage the contract. Make it disappear. He’s done it before.”