Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 103918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 520(@200wpm)___ 416(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 520(@200wpm)___ 416(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
"I want you to count with me, Lex," Gideon said gently. I swore I felt his fingers brush over my temple, but there was no way to be absolutely certain. My lungs hurt from the effort of trying to draw in enough air. I knew I wasn't really dying, but it sure as hell felt that way. My heart felt like it was going to burst right out of my chest and my body felt overly hot.
"One," Gideon said. When he repeated the number, I remembered his gentle demand to count with him. It wasn't until he said the number a third time that I tried to choke it out. When he said the next number, I was a few beats behind him. By the number five, I was counting with him and I noticed that he was leaving more and more of a pause between each number. I matched my exhales to one number and my inhales to the next and repeated the pattern until Gideon finally stopped counting around fifty. I felt wrung out and confused.
That lasted for a good minute before I realized I was still pressed up against Gideon’s hard body. He felt warm and strong and I found myself curling into him for a few seconds before I caught myself and jerked away from him. Thankfully, Gideon released me without further argument.
"Stay here and I'll go check if your clothes are dry," Gideon bit out after several moments. His voice sounded strained. I expected him to just leave me standing there, but he actually led me back to the bed and urged me to sit. A warm, furry body pressed up against me the moment I did. I found myself letting Brewer comfort me as I waited for Gideon to return. My body automatically tensed up again when I heard his footsteps. I closed my eyes because I didn't want a repeat of the previous events when I saw his form closing in on me. It was still something I hadn't gotten used to. Just months earlier, people had still retained their shape when I’d looked at them. I hadn't been able to distinguish them, but at least I hadn’t confused them for monstrous-looking blobs of dark and light.
"Here," Gideon said as he placed something in my hands. It most definitely wasn't my dress shirt and pants. It felt like a pair of sweats. I found myself turning my face toward him.
"Your clothes aren’t dry yet. Those have a drawstring, so they should fit you well enough."
Gideon's footsteps retreated. Every instinct within me was telling me to let him go, but I found myself asking, "Why are you being kind to me?"
The footsteps stopped and I found myself wishing I had the guts to open my eyes. But I wouldn't be able to find him and make him out. Not when he might be standing around something like furniture or a door. The last thing I wanted was to have a conversation with an armoire or something. Sadly enough, it had happened before. Fortunately, I'd been with my assistant, Angie, and she'd covered for me with the potential investors who’d witnessed the fiasco.
When Gideon didn't answer I found myself saying, "Is it because I'm blind?" Never in a million years would I have guessed myself capable of being so blunt. But Gideon was the first nonmedical person I'd had to deal with since learning that my blindness was irreversible. Maybe it wasn't right, but using him as a barometer of sorts would provide a picture of what I could expect in the years to come.
"Is that the first time you’ve said those words?" Gideon asked instead of answering me.
I felt heat crawl up my neck. I swallowed hard and nodded. “How did you know?”
“You move like someone who’s only just begun to lose their sight. You have no confidence in yourself and your ability to adapt to your surroundings.”
His bluntness shocked me into silence.
I heard him move again, but this time his footsteps were coming back in my direction. I was still sitting on the bed, so when he reached me, I didn't need to see him to know that he was looming over me. I heard him shuffle and shift his weight and sensed rather than saw him lower his body so he was crouched in front of me.
"Open your eyes," Gideon commanded.
That's what it was.
A command.
I'd given thousands of orders to hundreds of people in my business over the past decade, so I knew what a command was. And I knew when not to ignore one. I opened my eyes and was greeted with a dark shape. He was right in front of me.
"In answer to your question about why I’m being kind to you… I think you're a rude son of a bitch," Gideon said simply. His words caught me completely off guard. He was right, of course, but I hadn't been expecting him to confront me on my behavior. "That said, I'm being kind to you because I'm not big on kicking a man when he's already down."