“I know,” she said.
He tucked his dick back into his pants, cursing Sophie in his head as he grabbed his phone from the coffee table. “Hey, Sophie. What’s up?”
“Sheriff! Oh my God. He’s been stabbed!” Sophie’s usual calm voice was high and shrill.
“What?” He froze in zipping up his pants. “Who’s been stabbed?”
Grace was beside him in an instant, her hand gripping his arm.
“Sophie, take a deep breath,” Gideon ordered. “Another one.”
When the dispatcher was a bit calmer, he said, “Tell me what happened.”
He listened and then said, “I’m on my way.”
He ended the call and Grace said, “Gideon? What happened?”
“Lennox went over to South Falls on a domestic call. He was stabbed.”
“Oh my God.” Grace’s hand went to her mouth. “Is he…”
“He’s alive. The medics are there. Deputy Stafford drove over as soon as he heard Lennox calling for backup. He told Sophie that Lennox is conscious and talking but I need to get over there. I’m sorry, Grace.”
“Don’t be,” she said. “I understand.”
He pressed a quick kiss against her mouth before running out of the room.
Chapter Sixteen
Grace stirred the soup before turning the crock pot off. She checked the time. It was almost six, but she wasn’t sure when Gideon had gotten home and gone to bed. She didn’t want to wake him if he had only fallen asleep a few hours ago.
She sat down at the table, petting Tank when he pressed his head into her lap and checked her phone. This morning, she’d woken to a text from Gideon letting her know that Lennox was at the hospital and the stabbing hadn’t been a life-threatening situation.
She traced her fingers along Tank’s spine, smoothing the hair down. Knowing Lennox was going to be okay had eased her guilt about climbing into Gideon’s bed the minute he left and masturbating her way through two insanely intense orgasms.
She couldn’t help it. She’d been so turned on by sucking Gideon’s dick, that she’d needed some sort of relief from it. She would never have slept if she hadn’t and she needed all the sleep she could get. Besides, who would have known that giving the man she loved a blow job would have been such a damn turn on? She liked giving blowjobs as much as the next girl, hell, maybe even more, but last night…
Was it just sucking his cock that made you so horny, or something more?
She tried to ignore her inner voice, but it was relentless.
Admit it, Gracie. You liked giving up control to Gideon. You liked it an embarrassing amount. What does that say about you? You’ve always prided yourself on taking care of yourself, on always being in control, and in five minutes, Gideon had you on your knees and calling him sir.
Instead of feeling shame, she felt only fresh lust. Lust so intense that she actually considered sneaking off to the spare bedroom for some more personal time.
Shit. She was in so much trouble. She hadn’t expected to enjoy giving up control to Gideon. She did it because it was obvious that it was the only way she would get to be with him. She’d decided she could pretend she enjoyed it if it meant getting what she wanted.
Only… two minutes into it, it was more than obvious that she didn’t need to fake a goddamn thing. Gideon pulling on her hair, Gideon threatening to spank her, Gideon making her call him sir… all of that did things to her.
Delicious things.
Tank’s big tail whacked against the cupboard and he made a soft whine of greeting. She turned to see Gideon walking into the kitchen, wearing a t-shirt and a pair of track pants. His hair was sticking up, he had a major case of five o’clock shadow, and there were traces of toothpaste on his bottom lip.
“Hey,” he said as he dropped into the chair beside her. Tank pushed his way into Gideon’s lap, resting his butt on Gideon’s legs as Gideon petted his side.
“Hi. How’s Lennox?” Grace stood and grabbed some bowls from the cupboard.
“He’s good. Got sent home at noon.” Gideon scrubbed his hand across his mouth, making the toothpaste disappear.
“Seriously? After being stabbed?”
Gideon nodded. “He was stabbed in the left arm and all things considered, he got lucky. It was shallow and didn’t hit any nerves or damage any muscle. Just slid through the meaty part of his arm. They stitched him up and sent him home.”
“Ugh.” Grace added spoons and napkins to the table and two glasses of water. “Poor Lennox. What time did you get home?”
“Around one this afternoon,” he said. “Wanda sent me home. Said there was no point in staying around when I looked like I was going to fall asleep at my desk.”
She spooned soup into the bowls. “She’s right.”
She was intensely curious about what happened last night, who had stabbed Lennox and why, but she didn’t ask. She knew Gideon wouldn’t tell her and, frankly, she admired that about him.
“You didn’t have to make supper,” he said as she took the biscuits out of the oven and put them in a basket.
“I don’t mind.” She set the bowl of soup in front of him. “It’s only soup and biscuits.”
“It smells good. Tank, go on.” The big dog blew air out of his nose like a horse but walked a few feet away and stretched out on the tile. Gideon ate a spoonful of soup. “Tastes even better.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
They ate in silence for a few minutes before Gideon said, “Did you sleep last night?”
“I did. I, uh, slept in your bed again. I hope that’s okay.”
“You know it is.” He dipped his biscuit into his soup and took a bite. “Holy hell, did you make these?”
“Sort of. If you define buying them prepackaged from the grocery store and sticking them in the oven for eight minutes as ‘making them’.”
He grinned at her. “They’re really good. How was your day?”
“Okay. Daniel texted me. He said I could go by tomorrow and see what I could get from my place.”
“What time are you going over?” Gideon said.
“Probably the morning.”
“I’ll go with you.”
Relief rushed through her. “Thanks, Gideon. I really appreciate that. Anyway, I also called my insurance place and put a claim in. Barbara said my rental insurance and contents insurance will replace anything that’s not salvageable.”
“That’s good news,” Gideon said.
“It is, but I’m hoping that some of my stuff is okay. Then I met Kira for lunch and then…”
“What?”
“We ran into my mom. She said,” a bitter laugh erupted from her throat, “that she’d heard about the fire at the complex and was meaning to text me.”
He scowled, dropping his spoon into his empty soup bowl. “You’re fucking kidding me.”
“Nope. I wasn’t even surprised that she knew and didn’t call,” Grace said. “Kira got mad at her, told her that it was a shitty thing for a mother to not even call to make sure her daughter was okay.”