His eyes were the blue of the Caribbean, his hair a thick and glossy black mane that brushed his collar. Tilting my head back, I looked up into his stunning face. Either we were together-making decisions together-or we were too far apart to make our relationship work. I understood my husband’s desire for me to join Cross Industries, but trying to force my hand by taking action behind my back? … I couldn’t allow it, not with a man like Gideon.
I’d had to draw a line when Gideon hired my boss away from the advertising agency I worked for. How was that a marriage?įact was, it was our marriage, though neither of us wanted it that way. My ride and Gideon’s, going to separate homes. Angus slid the Bentley into place behind it. The Benz pulled up to the curb just as we reached it, Raúl a big shadowy figure at the wheel. Residents trickled onto the sidewalks, taking their dogs out or heading toward Central Park for an early-morning run, stealing what time they could before the workday kicked in with a vengeance. The flow of traffic on the street began to thicken, black cars and yellow cabs bouncing wildly over the uneven surface. Which left me with a renewed determination to prove I was worth the pain I’d forced him to face.Īround us, the shop fronts along Broadway were reopening. Yet he’d just proven that he would bend and yield to the breaking point to be with me. He was the nexus of my world, a nexus of the world. He was ferocity sheathed in elegance, perfection veined with flaws. Even with my ring on his finger, I still sometimes struggled to believe it. New York swallowed everything that came into it, while Gideon had the city on a gilded leash.Īnd he was mine. The way he held himself, the authority he wielded with faultless control, made it impossible for him to ever fade into the background. Whether Gideon was dressed casually or in the bespoke three-piece suits he favored, the power of his leanly muscular body was unmistakable. In the corner of my eye, I noted how the people nearby glanced at him, then did a double take. In jeans and a T-shirt, with a ball cap pulled low over his brow, he was unrecognizable as the global mogul the world thought it knew but still so innately compelling he affected everyone who walked by. Had I demanded more of him than I had of myself ? I was shamed by the possibility that I’d pushed him to evolve while I had remained obstinately the same. Now, I stood in the face of his courage and doubted my own. Just hours before I’d thought he might never change, that I would have to compromise too much to share my life with him. That show of vulnerability and affection cut right through me. I cupped his jaw in my hands, felt him nuzzle into my touch. How had I ever managed living without him? How had I ever lived without the cacophony of Manhattan?
My condo on the Upper West Side had the level of soundproofing expected in a multimillion-dollar property, but still the sounds of the city filtered in-the rhythmic thumping of tires over the well-worn streets, the protests of weary air brakes, and the nonstop honking of taxi horns.Īs I stepped out of the corner café onto always-busy Broadway, the rush of the city washed over me. New York was the city that never slept it never even got sleepy. Who has been caught in the Crossfire with