Through A Glass, Darkly (The Assassins of Youth MC #1)(24)

“And it’ll get you in trouble with Allred.”

He broke my gaze and looked over my shoulder. Maybe he was so used to being a rebel, it was only now occurring to him that stealing me and Vonda away could result in the loss of his mine job, his arms exchange business, his new house. “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.”

“But I may have already blown it.” The urge to unburden myself of my shame was too great, and I moved away from Gideon. “When I was talking with Bronson Carradine, I accidentally may have—well, okay, I definitely told him that you were selling arms to Allred, and—”

He spun around to face me. “What?”

I spoke faster now, just spilling it all in one fell swoop. “Yes, I definitely mentioned it, but only briefly, in passing, and then I took it back and said that what I meant to say was barns, you were selling him barns or some such stupid thing, oh God, Gideon, if I could only take it back! It was the most asinine thing I’ve done in years—”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“—and I tried to mitigate it by saying you were selling Allred farms or something, I can’t believe what a mother hugger I can be sometimes, sometimes I just want to shoot myself—”

“Mahalia! It’s not important. I can deal with Bronson Carradine.”

“—because I can be such a jackwad sometimes and—”

He shut me up with a kiss.

Yes.

A kiss.

The most sensual, thoroughly erotic kiss of my entire life.

And yes, I’m counting Field.

Gideon was gentle, at first. It was almost chaste and innocent, the way he squeezed my shoulders in his grip and slanted his mouth across mine. I was still talking, so my mouth was in a ridiculous position, and the shock of the kiss made me freeze up.

He persisted, kissing me through my surprise and pressing his body to mine. One of his hands released my shoulder, sliding down my back to my waist, where he gripped me, pulling my hips to his in a sudden jerk. Oh Lord, was he lean and mean. He was just one mouth-watering, sinewy hunk of masculinity. Since I was almost naked under my cotton dress, I could actually feel the hard slab of his abdomen against mine.

I didn’t resist one iota. His mouth was hot and delicious, tasting of beer. He slipped his tongue between my lips, just the tiniest tongue-tip of a lick to my teeth. I nipped him back like a placid, drowsy puppy, feeling deliciously naughty and bad.

Then my entire body jerked.

I found myself standing about four feet away from him, over by the couch, staring with burning, accusing eyes while wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. “Shut the front door,” I whispered.

“God! I’m sorry!” Gideon held out his hands as though shopping for melons. “I didn’t f*cking mean—”

I realized that by wiping my mouth off, I was signaling to him that I found him distasteful. And the opposite was the truth. “No! It’s fine, Gideon! I just mean, I was unprepared for—it. The—it.”

He laughed incredulously at me. “The kiss, you mean? Jeez, you can’t even say the word.”

“The kiss!” I said boldly, like a southern belle standing up to a smuggler.

He laughed at the ceiling now. “It’s all right, Mahalia. I shouldn’t have done that, even though you’re not legally married to anyone at the moment.” He even scratched his tight, flat stomach lazily, laughing at me!

“Well, yes,” I agreed. “You’d be in even more trouble with Allred if he knew about that.” My eyes dropped, and I couldn’t help note the big, pulsing bulge in the crotch of his jeans. He had chains attached to belt loops, and switchblade holsters, holders for his cell and maybe a Taser or two, dragging the tight jeans down a bit. My eyes followed the delicious line of hair that arrowed down from his navel, and he saw me looking, and he laughed again.

“Do you think I really care what Allred Lee Chiles thinks of me?”

“Well, you should care. You should care a lot, Gideon. Maybe you don’t realize the extent of his power. But he’s not just some whackjob stuck in this tiny corner of Utah. His power runs far and wide, maybe even down to your Bullhead City.”

He shook his head. “Nah. That’s where the Assassins of Youth hold sway. That’s our backyard, not a playground for a bunch of nut jobs.”

Classifying me and my sister wives as “nut jobs” irked me. Like him, I considered myself a rebel. I stood up for myself, if no one else did. “Like John Keats, I find myself straining at particles of light in the midst of a great darkness without knowing if my ideas are correct.”

“The poet?”

So he was somewhat educated. “Yes. I was just reading him. He wants to know if even in his ignorance he can be free from sin. That God might be amused with his mindless bumblings. ‘Though a quarrel in the streets is a thing to be hated, the energies displayed in it are fine. The commonest man shows a grace in his quarrel.’”

“Are you calling me common?” He quirked a grin.

“I mean you’re just human. We’re seeing through a dark mirror right now, and want to be taught the mysteries of our souls. He says our reasonings may be all right, even if wrong. ‘For the same reason an eagle is not so lovely a thing as a truth. Do you not think I strive to know myself?’”

He wasn’t smiling now. “I think you strive to know yourself just fine, Mahalia. You’re the smartest, sharpest woman I’ve ever known. That’s one of the things I like about you. You’re not content to flow with the herd.”