Unfortunately so had Jeff Larsson, and that bastard had beaten him to the punch—meeting Lucy, dating Lucy, proposing to Lucy.
Gideon had tried his damnedest to be happy for his best friend—and to table his desire for his best friend’s woman—but it had never quite gone away. It didn’t matter how many girls he’d dated, because his heart had never been in it. When Jeff had made a passing remark on Gideon’s tendency to find willowy brunettes with freckles, he’d shelved dating completely and restricted his interactions to one night.
He showered and dressed quickly. It would be tricky getting back to his place before she arrived, but he’d had to do something to take the edge off or he was in danger of throwing caution to the wind. The temptation of Lucy in his bed, even for such a shitty reason...
He’d be a bastard and a half to do it.
No, Gideon would grab takeout, sit her down to her favorite Chinese and explain all the reasons why sex between them wasn’t an option. He’d be calm and reasonable and use whatever arguments he had to get his point across. She didn’t need lessons. No man with a pulse and a working cock was going to have a problem with anything Lucy had to offer.
His step hitched at the thought of someone else waking up next to her every morning. Of the long nights buried between her thighs and the friction of sweat-slicked skin and—
Fuck.
He glanced back at the gym, seriously considering calling the whole thing off and spending the next three hours back in the pool. Maybe if he was too exhausted to move, his fury at the thought of her with another man would subside.
He knew better.
If he hadn’t been happy that his best friend was with her—even before the idiot had started fucking around—he wasn’t going to be pleased with a stranger. There was no help for it. Lucy would charge ahead with this plan of hers whether he agreed to it or not. He might be able to talk her out of the sex bit, but he wouldn’t be able to convince her that she didn’t need a husband.
He’d failed her when it came to Jeff. Even as his best friend, Gideon had missed the warning signs until it was almost too late—and then he’d hesitated a full month before breaking the news to her. He’d well and truly fucked up across the board and it had cost him her friendship—something he’d valued more than he could have dreamed.
He wouldn’t fuck up again.
She wanted a husband? Well, then, Gideon was going to find her the most honorable man he could to make her happy. He owed it to her to do so.
He barely had time to drop the takeout on the kitchen counter when a knock sounded. He skirted the couch and opened the door. “You’re early.”
“I hope you don’t mind. Your doorman remembered me, so he didn’t bother to buzz you.” She gave a tentative smile that pulled at him despite his determination to do the right thing.
Lucy must have made it home because she’d changed into a pair of black leggings and a lightweight slouchy shirt that seemed determined to slide off one shoulder. She saw him looking and bit her bottom lip. “I know we talked about lessons, and this isn’t exactly seduction personified, but I went through my closet and, aside from work clothes, I don’t think I own anything that’s ‘seduction personified.’”
For fuck’s sake, she was killing him. Gideon stepped back and held the door open. “You look fine.”
“Fine.” She frowned. “I know you’re cranky about being cornered with this whole thing, but you don’t have to damn me with faint praise. I asked you to do this because I trust you to tell me the truth. I’ve always trusted you to tell me the truth.”
If she’d taken out a knife and stabbed him in the heart, it would have stung less. Gideon closed the door carefully behind her, trying to maintain his control. It didn’t matter how honest she thought he was, he wouldn’t agree to take her to bed. He couldn’t. “This won’t work if you’re going to jump down my throat every time I say something. I said you look fine. You do. I didn’t tell you to dress for seduction, Lucy. I said to get your ass over here so we can talk. That—” he motioned at her clothes “—is perfectly adequate for a conversation between two friends.”
“Right. Okay. I’m sorry. I’m nervous.” She pulled at her shirt, which caused it to drop another inch down her arm.
Gideon had never found shoulders particularly provocative before but he wanted to drag his mouth over the line of her collarbone. Keep it together, asshole. He cleared his throat and looked away. “You don’t need lessons, Lucy. Not from me. Not from anyone. You’re beautiful and any man would be lucky to have you in his bed.”
“If you don’t want to teach me, that’s fine. I did say that this morning.” She wandered farther into his apartment and circled the couch he’d bought six months ago. It was slate gray with dark blue accents, and the saleswoman had insisted it would pull the room together in a way he’d love. He was still waiting to love it. Lucy picked up one of the ridiculous blue throw pillows and hugged it to her chest. “I’m not fishing for a compliment, by the way, but thank you. Though, beauty only goes so far. Since you haven’t... We haven’t...” She huffed out a breath. “Can I be perfectly frank?”
“You weren’t before now?” If she was franker, she might actually kill him.
“Jeff might be a cheating bastard, but that doesn’t change the fact that even before he started sleeping around, he was never...satisfied. Since he obviously found that satisfaction with those other women, it’s impossible to blame the entire problem on him.”
Gideon watched her pick at the tassels on the pillow while he dissected what she’d just said.
“You’ve been with other men since him.”
“No.” She still wouldn’t look up. “I almost did once. But I kept hearing his voice in my head with those nasty little comments that he always wrote off as a joke and I just couldn’t. I know that’s pathetic, but after a while, the risk of finding out that Jeff was really right all along wasn’t worth the potential pleasure. So I focused on work instead of dating—and now here we are.”
Gideon wished he could go back in time and deliver a few more punches to Jeff’s perfect face. He’d known things weren’t perfect with Jeff and Lucy, but he hadn’t realized just how much of a dick his friend had been. “He’s a piece of shit.”
“I’m not arguing that, believe me.” She gave a faint smile. “Thank you again for saving me from marrying him. I don’t know if I ever said it before, but it couldn’t have been easy to say something. You two had been friends for so long.”
Gideon scrubbed a hand over his face. He read people for a living—both his clients and the people he found to fill the open positions. He was damn good at it, too. That skill made him the best in the business and ensured that he almost always got the secondary bonus for the position still being filled for a year after the initial contract.
Every instinct he had was insisting that Lucy’s sheepish smile covered up a soul wound. If he was a good man, he’d let someone else help her heal from that—someone who’d be there for the long term. Likely that theoretical husband he was supposed to find her. But Gideon wasn’t a good man.
He didn’t want it to be anyone else.
He
