Tempting Nora (12 page)

Does
he want me to eat the cake off of his spoon?
she thought, horrified.

She looked at the hunk of delicious chocolate cake less than an inch from her face and then back at Gideon again. Her
palms grew sweaty at the thought of him feeding her. Such an act was intimate, right? She wasn't sure she was ready for intimate. Heck, she'd had enough trouble keeping her heart from shooting out of her chest when he had his hand on her lower back.

"I'm not a little kid," she said. "You don't have to feed—"

Gideon stuck his spoon into her mouth.

While she sputtered, he removed his now empty spoon and smirked. As
she glared at him, chewing the delicious bite he'd forced upon her, he stuck the utensil into his mouth and licked the remaining frosting from the plastic. That spoon had been in both of their mouths. She couldn't help herself. She blushed. And not a cute, a little-pink-in-the-cheeks
blush. No, she was ninety-nine percent sure her face was the color of a ripe tomato.

She swallowed the bite
of cake.

"Did you have to do that?"
She was going to have an aneurism.

"You should have just eaten
the bite," he said. "Then I wouldn't have had to shove the spoon into your mouth like that."

"I don't need you to feed me,
" she said.

"I'm perfectly aware of that." He buried his spoon in the cake again. "But this is a date and I love the expression you make when you
indulge yourself."

Somehow he made those words sound dirty.

"Hmph." Maybe she shouldn't eat chocolate cake around him anymore.

Gideon held out a spoon filled with chocolate cake yet again. With a grin, he pressed the moist morsel against her lips. The frosting made her upper lip sticky and the smell of frosting had the potential to make her
drool like a dog, but she kept her mouth firmly closed.

"Oh, come on," he said. "You're no fun."

She shook her head.

"
Nora, I think you look super sexy in that shirt," he said. "It clings to you in all the right ways."

Just as she was about to open her mouth to complain, she realized what he was doing. He was trying to
manipulate her into opening her mouth again by making annoying comments. Well, fine. She had self-control. She didn't have to respond to his wisecracks.

"Still not opening up, eh?" Gideon raised an eyebrow.

She shook her head again.

"What if I tell you that the night I met you at the bar, I thought you were the most beautiful woman in the room," he said. "
That green dress you wore made your curves look positively succulent. I was so glad I had the opportunity to approach you."

Her eyebrow twitched. No way had he
thought she was the most beautiful woman in the room. More likely he'd seen her and thought,
Easy target
. But she wasn't an easy target. Not then, not now. She shook her head a third time.

"
Then why don't I tell you about the dream I had last night?" he said. "It was pretty amazing. My lips were on your jaw and I could taste your skin."

She could imagine his lips on her jaw while his fingers
tangled in her hair. Crap. She was overheating again. Any more teasing and she might just burst into flame.

"Do you want to hear more?"
His eyes blazed with desire.

With a muffled groan, she shook her head
yet again.

"What if I tell you everything
that happened in my fantasy?" He leaned in closer, dropping his voice to a seductive whisper. "Every. Last. Detail."

Her eyes widened in alarm.

"If you don't want to hear about my dream, then open up," he said. "I'll only feed you once. After that, you can help yourself."

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"I mean it." He held up his finger. "Just once."

The two of them locked eyes and a battle of wills occurred. She knew that Gideon wouldn't hesitate to tell her all about his
erotic fantasy, even if he knew she'd punch him in the gut because of it. Not only would his words make her uncomfortable enough to melt, but she might just have another nightmare about kissing him tonight. No, it wasn't worth the risk. She had to let him win this one.

She rolled her eyes and opened her mouth.

"Good girl." Gideon grinned roguishly and placed the spoon in her mouth.

Glaring at him the entire time, she ate the cake off the spoon. The dessert was scrumptious, but she didn't react to the taste. Instead she
gave Gideon the mother of all dirty looks as she contemplated murder.

"That's quite a glare you
have." Grinning, Gideon stuck the spoon in his own mouth again. "I think my skin is about to melt off."

"
I wish your skin would melt off," she said.

"
Watch your temper." He laughed even as he said the words.

As she continued to
scowl at him, Gideon leaned closer again. Her heart thundered as he ran a finger along her bottom lip. He stared deep into her eyes with a grin on his face.

"My, my, you're a mess
y eater," he whispered huskily. "You have chocolate on your face again."

She didn't know if he was messing with her or what, but she wasn't going to take this anymore.
His victory with the spoonful of cake had obviously gone to his head.

"
You're going too far," she said. "Move your hand right now."

"Why?" He ran his finger over her bottom lip
, even as she snarled. "I love your mouth. It's so kissable."

"
Move your hand," she snapped.

"What's the big deal?" He
traced her skin, grinning.

Tingles ran down her spine.
This was bad. She had to stop him now.

"
Knock it off," she said. "I'm warning you."

"But I like it when you blush." His caramel eyes glistened.

If he wasn't going to listen to her, then she had no other choice but to make him listen.  She seized a glob of cake and smeared it across his face. Spluttering, the guy closed his eyes and smacked his lips. At first she stared down at her hand, shocked she'd actually gone that far. One second she'd been fuming, the next she'd reacted. That was when Gideon's eyes snapped open. With his messy face, he looked like some sort of fudge monster. His eyes narrowed.

Make that an angry fudge monster.

Maybe she'd gone too far. He'd just been teasing her and yet she'd nailed him in the face with icing. Still she hadn't wanted his hand on her lip. He was too tempting and…and…What was she doing just sitting here? She needed to make a run for it before Gideon chopped off all of her limbs.

She leapt to her feet, but Gideon seized her arm. His grip was far stronger than she
expected. She wailed as he pulled her to the ground and straddled her. A blob of chocolate dropped off of his chin and landed on her cheek. As he pinned her arms above her head, she gazed up at him with huge eyes. This was it. She was going to die today. She found it ironic that chocolate cake, the thing she loved above all else, was the reason behind her early demise.

"Nora, Nora, Nora." He leaned in closer,
globs of chocolate falling from his face like tasty rain. "You're going to regret what you just did."

"Let me go." She wriggled.

"Oh no." He shook his head. "I have to torture you first."

"Torture?" She gulped.

"Yes, sweetheart, torture." An evil smirk crossed his face.

"For the last time, stop with the nicknames!" She flailed violently, but Gideon wasn't
letting her go.

He leaned in so close that his cake coated cheek brushed her chin.

"I think you're in no position to make demands." He breathed in her ear and then whispered, "Time to frost my cupcake."

"Cupcake?"
She froze, eyes wide with confusion.

As he held her arms down one-handed—that was quite a feat
considering how much she was squirming—he grabbed a substantial glob of cake and smeared it all over her face. She yelped as sticky icing and globs of cake covered her skin. He spread the frosting around her neck and all the way down to the collar of her shirt.

After she smacked her lips together and tasted chocolate, she
yelled in rage. It was only as she flopped about like a chocolate covered fish that she realized how ridiculous the situation was. She was being frosted like a cupcake while wailing as loud as she could. Suddenly, this whole situation wasn't irritating anymore.

It was hilarious.

She started to laugh so hard that she couldn't breathe. All of the stress, all of the anxiety, she'd felt after seeing the shadow dispersed. Tears of mirth streamed down her face as she tried to catch her breath. She was vaguely aware that Gideon rolled off of her and lay in the grass at her side as his laughter joined hers.

It took her ages
to calm down enough to catch her breath. Once she had, she looked at Gideon and saw that the chocolate icing on his face was melting because of the sun. The man, noting her stare, gazed back at her.

"You
face looks delicious," he said.

"Even now, you're a pervert." She shook her head.

"Actually, I was thinking about frosting." He elbowed her. "You're the one who has your mind lodged in the gutter."

"That's not true and you know it," she s
aid. 

Thank
heavens she had chocolate icing on her face. Without it, he would have seen her blush.

"Uh-huh." Gideon snorted and shook his head. "Just make sure you watch out for the rats in the gutter. Beli
eve me, I've been a longtime resident and the rodents are mean."

"Hey." She smacked him on the shoulder.

"Already back to the abuse." He rubbed his arm, feigning serious injury.

She
smirked and stared at the sky. Gideon grabbed her hand. For a moment she contemplated pulling away, but then she decided not to. What was the harm in holding hands? She'd held hands with Robert before. This whole situation was innocent.

"Do you know what I like most about you?" Gideon
asked.

The words made her snap to attention.

"What's that?" If he said something perverted, she'd give him an injury the likes of which he'd never seen.

"You never do what I expect,"
he said. "Like with the cake. I never saw that coming."

"To be honest, I surprised myself with that one," she said. "Who knew that punishing you was even more
imperative than eating cake?"

"I must be pretty important." He grinned at her cockily.

"Yeah, about as important as a hive on my butt." She scowled at him.

"Oh, woman, how you wound me." He clapped his hand to his chest. "I
give you a compliment and you pay me back with an insult."

"Hmph." She
wrinkled her nose and looked away from him.

For the first time,
she noticed that a person was standing in the grass watching her. It was an inhumanely good looking man with brown hair and cool blue eyes. When she squinted, trying to figure out why he looked so familiar, she realized it was the creepy guy with the cigarette
.
She sucked in air. Chicago was such a big city that the chances of this being a coincidence were slim. Suddenly, she was unnerved all over again. She didn't like the way he was looking at her.

"
Are you okay?" Gideon squeezed her hand. "I was just kidding about what I said."

"I know." She glanced at him. "There's just a creepy guy from my apartment staring at me."

The smile slid off of his face at once. Suddenly, he was a perfect example of primal protectiveness. He looked around, somehow managing to appear intimidating even while wearing a chocolate icing facemask.

"Where is he?" he asked.

"He's right…right..." Frowning, she looked where the man had been and saw no one.

The man had disappeared in an instant, yet there were no cars or buildings for him to
hide behind. Nobody could disappear so fast, not even if they sprinted. 

"Well, that's weird." She frowned. "It must have been my imagination."

"Yeah." Gideon's jaw was tense.

Both of them were silent for a moment.

Finally, Gideon said, "I think I want to eat the cake now. After all, that's what I bought it for."

His words drove all thoughts about the man she'd seen from her mind.

"You still want to eat the cake?" she asked.

She stared at what remained of the
dessert. It was a giant mountain of chocolate icing, whipped cream, and fudge frosting. Sure, it still smelled good, but she didn't know if she wanted to eat it.