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He didn’t mean it.
And that confused me.
I’d hurt him. I’d acted up and refused to give him what he wanted. I’d been a total bitch this whole time. There was no doubt in my mind that he could hurt me if he wanted to—badly.
For a brief moment, I pictured Gideon’s big, callused hands guiding my bare body over his knees. I pictured the sharp sting of his hot, heavy palm on my bare ass. I pictured the way he would touch me in the same way he spoke now—gentle but firm, commanding but not taking.
The silence between us had morphed into something else…something I couldn’t put my finger on. Gideon’s gaze swept over me, slow, assessing, until he met my eyes again.
“Well, look at that,” he murmured. “The promise of a spanking has you speechless.”
“Go to hell, grandpa.”
He hummed and shook his head. If I hadn’t been so damn cold, I might have blushed from head to toe under his gaze.
“Tell me your name,” Gideon said. “Then I’ll take the cuffs off so you can shower alone.”
That definitely sounded too good to be true. Too easy. There had to be a trick somewhere in all this.
I hesitated, weighing whether or not I believed him. Despite his broken nose, Gideon hadn’t lost his temper, hadn’t exploded like I expected him to. It should have put me at ease, knowing he had more self-control than the scumbags who my brother introduced me to. On the other hand, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was a setup and I was walking right into a trap.
Either way, it didn’t seem like I had much of a choice. If I wanted my freedom, I’d have to play along.
What if I lied? Since he hadn’t checked my backpack for any kind of ID, I could give him any name I wanted to. He wouldn’t know the difference.
“Choose wisely,” Gideon warned, as if reading my mind. “You get one shot at this second chance. Don’t throw it away by being a smartass.”
I huffed, tempted to deal with the consequences anyway as long as I got the satisfaction of firing off a sarcastic remark. But I was tired and this water was fucking cold. So, I gave in.
“Liss,” I finally admitted, begrudgingly. “My name is Larissa. Since I couldn’t pronounce it when I was little, I called myself Liss and it stuck.”
“There now. That wasn’t so difficult, was it?”
Gideon reached up and turned the knob on the shower. Gradually, the water began to grow warmer until I wasn’t shivering anymore. Blissful heat trickled over my skin. For a brief moment, his gaze lingered on the bruise at my hip. I hoped and prayed he wouldn’t pressure me to tell him about that, too.
Then he tossed a key into the bathtub.
“When you’re done, come and get that hot meal I promised you.”
As Gideon turned to leave, I scrambled for the key and jammed it into the cuff’s lock. Just as he closed the door, it dawned on me. The big tough biker was the first man in my life who hadn’t sought to hurt me. He’d only asked for my name and nothing more.
Chapter Three
Gideon
“Tilt your head back, big guy,” Baby Doll said. “This is gonna hurt like a bitch.”
Seated on a stool at the bar, I did as she instructed. I focused on a water stain on the ceiling as Baby Doll came up beside me, tracing her fingers over the bridge of my nose. I’d cleaned up the blood as best I could, but the break still needed to be set straight.
“Looks like your girl is a fighter,” she said.
The memory of that bruise on Liss’s hip rose in my mind. I clenched my jaw so hard that my teeth ached. Sure, everyone in this room had sported a nasty bruise like that once or twice. It came with the territory of riding a motorcycle on the open highway. Hitting pavement at 60mph sucked.
It’s nothing.
Yeah right.
My gut told me Liss didn’t get that bruise from a motorcycle. Someone gave it to her on purpose. The way she scrambled away from me after breaking my nose, scared shitless, was proof that she’d only acted out of self-defense. Protecting herself from a man she didn’t trust.
