I was in such big shit.

I stayed cool and kept my hands in my pockets as the elevator smoothly glided up to the top floor. Gideon stepped out first and led the way down the hall, while Raymond stayed behind me as if to ensure I didn’t sneak off before my scolding.

Once Gideon pushed open his room door, he held it for me and Raymond, his intense eyes casting over me for a moment in passing.

I tried not to react, but brushing past the man and having him look at me like that was wildly tempting.

Raymond sat on the dresser, his hands in his pockets, probably in an attempt to be more casual and approachable. “So, there was a little tension there.”

My cheeks flushed and I opened my mouth to defend myself. Should I say that Gideon treated me like any other model? Or that nothing had happened?

“You’ve always been stubborn with photographers,” Gideon added in that deep rumble, wandering past me to sit on the edge of the bed. “It’s going to give you a reputation.”

“Oh?” I played with a lock of my hair, trying to pretend I hadn’t completely misinterpreted that statement. Of course Raymond meant Clive, not Gideon. I leaned against the wall near the bed.

Gideon nodded. “I’ve seen a lot of guys do well, and a lot more go down in history as unemployable.”

I stiffened, my heart starting to race. “Is that a threat?”

“No,” Raymond jumped in, sliding off the dresser. “Not at all. It’s advice from a couple guys who’ve been there and done that.”

The buddy-buddy tone rubbed me a little wrong. I’d rather have been given a professional warning than a friendly lecture on all the things I was fucking up.

I hated that. Never again.

“Right.” I nodded, my shoulders tense. “Suck up to the idiots. ”

Gideon paused, then glanced at Raymond. “You can head to bed. Long day tomorrow.”

Raymond nodded and shook Gideon’s hand on the way past, patting his shoulder and leaning in to murmur something. Gideon nodded and responded, then saw Raymond out.

I stepped back to let the two pass, nodding to Raymond when he raised a hand in a goodnight wave.

Then the door swung shut and Gideon turned on his heel to look me up and down again.

It was incredible how fast the chemistry could build between us. Seconds of being alone was all it took before we couldn’t tear our eyes off each other. I felt the magnetic pull toward Gideon, like he was the inescapable mass at the centre of my orbit.

It took all I had not to push myself away from the wall and saunter up to him, but he saved me the trouble by approaching me instead.

I pushed my shoulder blades into the wall a little more and crossed my ankles, my body angled with my hips further away from the wall. I pressed my hands against the wall behind me, casually running my finger along the wallpaper near my hip.

As Gideon approached, I pulled back, letting him push me up until I was standing straight and flat against the wall. I never dropped my gaze, maintaining my defiant pout until the last moment before turning my face away slightly.

“You’re a cocky little thing,” Gideon murmured, his voice a bare, quiet whisper. It rasped, cutting through the silence in the room alongside my heavier breathing.

His knee slid between mine, and his hard chest pressed flat against my own. Delicate, strong fingers laced with mine, lifting my hands above my head as he pressed his groin into my hip.

The hottest images were running through my head: Gideon pinning me down and grinding against my hip, rutting like an insatiable animal too impatient to even get our clothes off.

I groaned softly at the feeling of his thigh against my crotch, relaxing into the wall as much as it was physically possible. His breath was hot on my cheek as he brushed his lips softly against my jaw.

I twitched with need, my fingers convulsively tightening around his.

That was all it took for me to grind against him, breaking the moment of defiance versus dominance. I turned my face back just slightly to catch his lips in a quick, heated kiss.

Gideon kissed me back hard and open-mouthed, grinding slowly and steadily against me in little circles of his hips.

My legs were weakening, all the blood rushing to my cock. I was hard in my pants and Gideon felt it, judging by the way he pressed his thigh even harder into the length.

His lips were insistent as he pressed our lips together in a series of quick, panting kisses, then sucked the tip of my tongue sensually.

“C’mon,” I panted, my voice a flat moan of need. “Please.”

Gideon smirked, then caught my lower lip and flicked his tongue along it before he pulled back to let me breathe for a second. “You’re hot up against a wall.”

I had just done a shoot last week. One of the final images was me leaning up against a wall, my hand above my head.

Was he following my projects that closely?

“You’ve been waiting long enough to get me here. You’ve been liking what you see, haven’t you?” I teased. I jutted out one hip, raising my hands a little higher above my head.

“It’s been fuckin’ weeks,” he whispered. His lips were red and wet from kissing me, his blue eyes focused completely on mine. Then, he let go of my hands to unfasten my jeans in quick, jerky movements. He hauled them down, then his own.

I moaned when that thick length of his slotted up against my own, both our erections pressed tightly between our stomachs. Gideon was practically crushing me against the wall again. He hooked his thumb and pinky around my wrists to keep them together, then pinned my hands hard against the wall.

His other hand fell to my hip to keep me in place as he thrust at a slow, sensual pace. We rubbed against one another, sensitive skin sliding against skin.

I stared as Gideon licked his palm, then squeezed his hand between us and started stroking. The wet touch made our slow grinding even more pleasurable.

Christ, the man was hot.

My fingers tingled, maybe from the blood rushing down, and I hardly had my balance. My head spun from arousal and need. My weight was utterly supported by Gideon’s body pushing me up against the wall. His scent was all I could smell, the taste of him was all that was on my lips…

God, he wasn’t planning to make me come like this, was he?

“You gonna fuck me?” I whispered hoarsely, then moaned and rolled my head back against the wall as his lips found my throat.

“Yeah,” he growled back, his hand closing around both of us. “I don’t have to be in you to have you.”

I couldn’t argue with the logic when the rush of pleasure hit me and Gideon’s lips found the sensitive spot near my pulse point. He gently sucked on it until I buckled and slid further down the wall with a breathless whimper.

He jammed his knee between my legs, my balls brushing the hair dusting his upper thigh. “Don’t faint on me,” he teased, kissing behind my ear.

I just moaned, my fingers curling hard into my palms. I rolled my head to the side to let him tease me even more as heat rushed through me. Even my nipples were sensitive to every press and grind of his chest against me.

The tight ring of fingers around my cockhead were pleasing enough, but the sensitive underside of my shaft being crushed against my CEO’s thick, throbbing length was ten times better.

I thrust hard into Gideon’s hand, my muscles so damn tense, my mind spinning.

Stroke after stroke brought me closer to the edge, and I squeezed my eyes shut hard as I hit that final plateau and, all at once, spilled over.

“Gideon!” I groaned loudly, completely forgetting to be at all discreet. In a flood of heat, I came hard and fast. My chest heaved for breath while my muscles clenched and released and I slid down the wall again. Gideon let go of my wrists to grab my shoulder and keep me up against the wall.

And then he was surging forward, his stomach tensing and breath catching in a quick, rough growl. Heat that wasn’t my own coated my sensitive cock and I shuddered, my hands sliding down the wall. I rubbed my face, trying to ground myself.

Then Gideon let go and stepped back, leaving us both sticky.

“Fuck,” I cursed, swiping my fingers along my shirt. I pushed myself to my feet again, then strode to the bathroom to get the shirt clean before the stain set.

Gideon smirked, unbuttoning and pulling his own shirt off. “Cold water from the inside and soap.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know.”

“Not your first time at the rodeo, cowboy?” He slapped my ass. “Look at you.”

I flicked the bathroom light on and glanced in the mirror as I turned the cold water on. Was that jealousy hidden under friendly ribbing? “I’m not fucking my way around the globe.”

“I did.” He shrugged. “I’m just saying.”

“Is that why you’re pissed off?” I twisted the fabric to rinse the inside, shivering as cold water droplets hit my stomach. I scrubbed quickly to get the spot out, then ran a hand along my soft shaft to clean myself up while Gideon leaned against the wall behind him.

He raised his eyebrow. “Back to that?”

“I don’t need your fuckin’ Miss Manners lectures,” I informed him. “Not if you’re just jealous.”

He snorted, then laughed. “Whatever you say. You lose work, you’ll only have yourself to blame later.”

I swayed on the spot for a moment. For a moment, it wasn’t Gideon leaning there and telling me I was going to fuck up my life by fucking boys. I pushed my shirt into my jeans and buttoned them up, then pushed past him. “Fuck off. I’ll worry about that, fuckin’ thanks very much.”

I didn’t look back as I yanked the hotel room door open, my heart still pounding.

Gideon couldn’t have known how much I hated the phrase -- and being lectured in general. He probably didn’t have shitty parents like I had had, and it probably wasn’t fair to take out my gut reaction on him.

But I’d worry about that when I got to the bottom of the vodka bottle with my name on it.