Chapter 30

30

The dip of the mattress roused André from sleep. But it was the brush of soft lips to the back of his neck that had him inhaling and turning onto his back. A heavy body pressed him down and he released a sigh of contentment. And of relief. His spirit never truly settled until Gideon was back beside him. He'd tried staying up but apparently, he'd fallen asleep at some point. He lifted heavy eyelids to find Gideon peering down at him with half a smile.

"You're home," he whispered just as Gideon kissed him. André moaned, eyes dropping closed once more. Gideon was naked, his limbs gliding against André's the way their tongues did.

He lifted his legs and wrapped them around Gideon's waist, hands sliding up his shoulders into his hair, gripping, tugging, his back arching when Gideon broke the kiss and dragged his tongue down André's throat, licking and nipping.

André wore only his underwear, and as Gideon kissed his way down his chest, he ripped them off, tossing them aside. Nails dragged down his sides, causing his body to arch off the bed. Gideon kissed him, open-mouthed hungry kisses, wet with lust that raised goose bumps on André's skin and had his legs lifting to the ceiling. And when Gideon buried his face in André's groin, pausing to inhale him loudly, André choked on what saliva was left in his mouth.

"Fuck." It was a broken whisper, all he could afford since he was busy bucking against Gideon's face when the other man's fingers wrapped around his length. "Gi-Gideon."

His lover grunted, probably because he was too busy flattening his tongue down the side of André's shaft. Goddamn. That touch, coupled with a hint of teeth and the tight grip of Gideon's fist, had André melting, panting, whimpering. Then Gideon took him into his mouth fully and André swore he blacked out. His hips moved as if on their own, rocking, thrusting into Gideon's mouth, fucking him, hard and fast, knocking his head back with every plunge down his throat.

Gideon hung on to him with nails in André's upper thighs, nails that he then raked down André's skin. Fuck! A silent scream opened his mouth wide, but nothing came out. All sounds began and ended in his throat, though he managed to sling a leg over Gideon's shoulder. Gideon pulled on André's balls, a fingertip grazing his hole, tapping against it before he pushed both of André's legs back, licking his hole.

That was the moment André found his voice.

His words.

"Ah fuck, Gideon!" He yanked on Gideon's hair but that didn't cause even a falter in his actions. He ate André's ass with loud, appreciative moans.

He was the best ass eater, a champion at it. Face all up in André's ass as if he was trying to remain imprinted there, wet, stiffened tongue burrowing into him, fingers dipping in too. Scissoring, stretching. André rocked back on his face, riding the finger, his tongue. Anything Gideon gave, he took.

Felt like hours, but also like no time at all. Gideon didn't appear to be in a rush, and André wasn't about to stop him. He lay back, legs and ass in the air, his aching cock dripping. Riding against Gideon's face, he stroked himself, pre-cum slicking his fingers. Through it all, he cried out Gideon's name until he was hoarse, until his throat ached.

Gideon finally pulled away and sat back, meeting André's eyes as he licked his lips while squirting lube onto his hands and then smearing it on himself. Then his fingers were back, double digits slick with lube spearing into André, wetting him up even more.

André spread his legs wide, struggling to keep his eyes open. The pleasure, as always, was blinding. Teeth in his bottom lip, he held Gideon's stare even as his limbs shuddered. Felt as if his bones vibrated from the rush of heated arousal in Gideon's eyes. Even in the dim light of their bedroom, there was no mistaking the love that glowed in his blue orbs as he took himself in hand and brought his dick to André's hole.

Nostrils flaring, Gideon held his gaze as he fed himself inside, inch by thick inch, while André's body struggled to take him. It was like this every time. But André loved it. Loved how Gideon had to coax his body open, had to force him to take it. Something about that pain and discomfort was the hottest. A desperate thrill danced up and down his spine. And it felt as if a hand was around his throat, blocking any sound. Myriad sensations sent his senses into a frenzy. Fuck if he didn't crave it.

Gideon finally hit bottom and they both inhaled, bodies freezing momentarily.

"I love you." That couldn't be Gideon's voice. He sounded as if he was gritting his teeth, as if he was in pain, as if he teetered on the edge of ruin.

"I love you, too," André panted. He managed to get his limbs to work just long enough to reach out and touch Gideon's face, pulling him close, legs locking around his waist. Gideon lowered himself to André's chest. And with their faces inches apart, breaths mingling, André kissed him. Easing his head back, he took in the way Gideon's lashes fluttered, and inside him, Gideon's dick jerked and thickened. "I love you so much."

"I'm gonna fuck you now," Gideon murmured against his lips.

André's body tightened. "Mmmm, yes." Please.

"I'm gonna come inside you. Fill you up until you overflow." Teeth nipped André's lower lip. "Till you leak."

Had his voice always been that deep, dripping with lust and dark carnal promise? Because André was about to come from just that. His body quaked, hips jerking. "Fuck." He moaned, nails scratching up and down Gideon's back. "Please."

Gideon licked him, a drag of his tongue from André's chin to his nose, and then he reared back, pulling himself almost all the way out before driving in.

Deep.

"Fuck!" André scrambled to hold on. But Gideon didn't give him time.

Over and over, he drove in. So hard, André's teeth rattled and his bones shook. So deep, André felt him in his spine. In his chest. His toes curled and he shoved a hand between their bodies, but Gideon got there first. The both of them ended up stroking André's dick in time to Gideon's thrusts.

Head thrown back, his ass came off the bed with each thrust he caught from Gideon. They fucked each other, Gideon's dick driving to the depths of André's soul and André riding it without a motherfucking care. Full abandon. No brakes.

He wasn't even aware of Gideon shifting positions, but he found himself choking around Gideon's tongue in his mouth, tasting blood when their teeth banged. They kissed. But no, that wasn't even the correct description for the way they ate each other's mouths. Saliva dripping, teeth tearing, lips attempting to soothe.

It was nasty perfection.

And it wasn't long before André was melting, coming with a low cry that Gideon snatched away with his mouth. André clenched around him, muscles squeezing until Gideon grunted, fingers spasming on André's hips, almost as if the other man was tapping out. Finally, Gideon was coming too, burying his face in André's neck as he pounded into him. André felt every bit of it, shuddering when Gideon's cum heated him up from the inside out. He wrapped both arms around Gideon, holding his shaking body, stroking his hair.

Their ragged breathing filled the room, hearts thundering in the aftermath as their bodies struggled to regulate. Gideon clung to him, and André clung right back.

When his brain righted itself enough for him to formulate questions about what happened tonight with Gideon's plan, he didn't ask.

That could wait.

After a while, he kissed Gideon's temple and rolled away from under him. The other man was already falling asleep. André hobbled to the bathroom and cleaned himself up, then returned with a wet towel to take care of a now snoring Gideon.

André smiled down at him.

He wanted to be Gideon's safe space. His peace. Whatever he had to do to protect what they had, what they were building, he would. He'd never wanted to do that with anyone else, not even his ex. But for Gideon, he would do it all.

He climbed back into bed, holding Gideon in his arms, watching him sleep. When the first rays of morning sun appeared through their window, he carefully got up from the bed, ensured that Gideon was still asleep, and quickly got dressed. He tiptoed out of the bedroom, using a second bedroom down the hall to wash his face and brush his teeth since he didn't want to chance waking Gideon. Then he made his way downstairs.

He found Samir in the kitchen, scowling into a cup of tea.

"Morning," André greeted him. "Take me to my father."

Samir faced him with a raised eyebrow.

"No, Gideon doesn't know, and he won't, not yet." André wasn't asking. "Let's go." If he wanted a future with Gideon, then André would have to really deal with his father.

It was time.

He'd expected to find Ennis in a dungeon somewhere, shackled and beaten and bloodied, too.

Instead, when Samir unlocked the warehouse's heavy iron door that groaned when it swung open, André found his father sitting on the floor in the middle of the large, empty, and echoing space, armed men wearing masks and big guns standing off in the corners.

Ennis's legs were folded under him and his eyes were closed. He appeared to be meditating.

André ignored the other men in the room as he studied his father. He no longer resembled the aloof billionaire one would see on television or in the glossy magazines. He looked as if he'd been stripped of something and as if it hurt. If André wasn't in the know, if he wasn't privy to all of Ennis's sins, he might have felt sorry for him.

Samir jerked a finger and the armed men filed out of the space, leaving the three of them alone. Only then did Ennis open his eyes. They were filled with happy surprise when they landed on André, only for that happiness to die a quick death when his gaze shifted to Samir. Ennis froze, staring at the hulking man.

"You only have a short amount of time," Samir told André. "Use it quickly." He didn't like that André had basically forced him to bring him here, though André knew no one could force Samir to do anything he didn't want to. The other man just hated that they hadn't consulted Gideon before leaving the penthouse.

"André." Ennis got up from the floor, fidgeting from foot to foot as his gaze bounced between André and Samir. "You're here."

"I am." Walking over, André stood in front of him. He understood the hope in Ennis's eyes but had nothing for him.

"Come." Ennis waved him over to a pair of metal chairs that were randomly placed off to the side. "Sit with me."

Samir moved as they did, skirting the perimeter of the room, and it seemed his presence, or at least something about him, made Ennis uneasy. That made sense. Samir was calm, hardly ever speaking, but he was a killer. You only had to look at him to know that. Maybe in another life, André wouldn't have known or picked up on it, but he'd been around Gideon and his people long enough to sharpen his discernment.

Samir was a straight-up killer.

"I'm glad you're here," Ennis told him as they sat. "I know the last time we saw each other?—"

"The last time we saw each other, you confessed to being responsible for killing the mother of the man I love." Just speaking those words… It was one of those pinch me moments. If anyone had told him this would be his reality now, he'd have laughed in their face. But this was his world now, and it was partly because of the man sitting across from him.

"I had to save you," Ennis rushed to explain. "You and your mother. I wanted?—"

André held up a hand. He didn't come to listen to Ennis regurgitate all the excuses he'd spewed on the yacht that night. "When I was ten or eleven years old, I was bullied really badly in school. Calder McGilvery and his group of friends made my life hell. No matter how much my mom complained, nothing happened. Calder's family was friends with the principal and some local politicians, so basically untouchable. I endured it, took most of their beatings and taunting on the chin." He shrugged. "I was a skinny kid with zero friends, there wasn't much else I could do. They would call me poor, the N-word, throw food at me, and pull my pants down in the middle of the gym."

"André."

"One evening after school, they cornered me while I was walking home and beat me so badly, I cracked a back tooth and fractured my left arm. Routine shit. Except one of them said something else while I was curled up on the ground, trying to escape their kicks. He said I was a piece of shit and a weak loser and that's why I didn't have a father. Because my father must have known I was worthless and wanted nothing to do with me."

Ennis inhaled sharply.

"Out of all the things they'd done and said to me, that one gutted me. Hurt me to my core, because that was a wound I'd been dragging around for ages, my father not being there. I questioned why he didn't want me, and those boys, their words seemed to provide the answer."

"But that's not true." Ennis leaned forward and grabbed his arm. "André, that is not the truth."

"I went home to Mom and I cried in her lap while she cleaned the blood off my face. I asked her why my father didn't want me. I asked her if she could find him and get him to come protect me from Calder and his friends. I told her to tell my father that I would get straight A's, I would keep my room clean, and I wouldn't grumble when she asked me to do the dishes. I would be—" His voice cracked. "I would be the best son ever if he came for me." He could still hear the desperate wobble in his voice as he begged his mother to find his father. As he bargained. He'd felt that absence so acutely in his soul that day. And he'd wanted to prove those bullies wrong. That he had a father who did indeed love him, who would protect him, who would tear the world apart for him.

"My mother…" He swallowed. "She stroked my head, her voice low as if it hurt her to speak, and she told me that sometimes, no matter how good we were, no matter how deserving, we never get what we want. We can do all the right things, André, and still be treated wrongly. Still be disappointed. Still get our hearts broken. We have to live with that, she said. We have to find a way to live with it. That was all she said, but I heard what she didn't say. That my father would not be coming for me. That he would not be protecting me, that I would forever be walking around feeling unwanted and unloved by the man who'd fathered me."

"I'm so sorry. I'm sorry, son." Silent tears trekked down Ennis's face.

When André stared at him, he thought he saw pieces of himself there, in Ennis's eyes. In the shape of his nose, the curve of his jaw. He saw himself. As much as he wished he could say otherwise, Ennis was his father. André was his son. He could spend the rest of his life denying it, hating it, or he could use it to his advantage.

"The first time I got on a plane was to see you." He hadn't planned on mentioning this, but he might as well. "I traveled to DC. I thought I would come see you." He had to chuckle at his naivety. "A man stopped me and told me to go back home. That you didn't want to see me."

Ennis averted his gaze.

"How did you know I was coming to see you?"

Ennis's Adam's apple bobbed and he cleared his throat before turning back to André. "I always had eyes on you and your mother. Prislaya and whoever else she was working with had already threatened your life. I knew if you were to come to me, they would find out, and I didn't know what would happen, what they would do to you. I had to protect you." His tone and eyes pleaded with André to hear him, to believe him. "I had to keep you away."

Did André believe him? Could he? "And the money?" He didn't bother elaborating.

"You're still my son," Ennis said. "I refused to leave you destitute." Sadness clouded his eyes when he said, "In the end, that was the only thing your mother would accept from me."

"Was it your idea to nominate Heath Lyndhurst as Aldo Winters's proxy?" That was still something Gideon didn't have an explanation for, and André would do anything to get his man answers.

His father sighed. "Lyndhurst was Prislaya's pick. She chose him but had me be the one to sponsor him so as not to be directly connected to him." He lifted a shoulder in defeat. "She said she would explain it all later, but Gideon killed her before she could."

Pity. It seemed Prislaya had a lot to answer for.

Leaning back, André took a deep breath. "Gideon loves me, and it is that love that allows you to keep breathing. If I tell him to, you would be dead before the clock hand touches the next minute." There was confidence in his voice, confidence he couldn't hide. Wouldn't. He spoke the truth and Ennis knew it. "We have plans for The Council. You will continue to hold your seat, but all your votes, all of your support, belong to Gideon. All of your resources too. You will use said resources to figure out who ordered you to go after Gideon all those years ago and who was involved in the second attempt on his life. Everything you do will be monitored by Gideon and his people." He flicked a glance in Samir's direction and Ennis stiffened. "Is that clear?"

"The reason I agreed to do what Prislaya wanted was to protect you and your mother. I aligned with her to ensure your safety, André," Ennis whispered. "All I ever wanted was to protect you." Hurt and pain bled from his eyes, pouring down his face, but André wasn't moved by any of it.

"No. All you ever wanted was to protect yourself. To hold on to your wealth, your position, your life." André shrugged. "I get it." Now, he did. "Stand on it." He got to his feet and gazed down at Ennis. He looked different than when André had first arrived—he now appeared withered and broken. "When I have children of my own, there will never be a moment when they have to question their worth or my love, never a moment when they won't feel my protection or my presence. That's what you do as a parent, you show up. No matter what it takes. You show up."

"André, please." Ennis grabbed his wrist. "I'm so sorry, son. I fucked up, but I love you."

"You did fuck up." André nodded. "Now comes the consequences." He pulled away, striding over to Samir. The door opened and the armed men reentered, their guns trained on Ennis.

"André."

He ignored Ennis as he addressed Samir. "Um… Can I be the one to tell Gideon?—"

"Too late." Samir pointed to different spots on the ceiling and around the room. "Cameras all over. And mics. He saw and heard everything you just said."

Shit. He grimaced when Samir's phone went off. He'd wanted to be the one to explain to Gideon.

"Yeah, G," Samir answered the phone. His lips twitched and he held the phone out to André, who took it hesitantly, putting it to his ear.

"Gideon, listen. I can explain. I?—"

"You want kids?"