Dancing with Deception by Kadi Dillon Page B

Gideon to where Colin, Jess, and Rose were standing in the doorway. She looked back at the wall across from her and saw it. It was still there. Her heart dropped and she screamed again trying to run but Gideon held her still.
    “What is it, Rebecca?” he shouted over her own panicked sounds.
    “Oh, my god.”
    “Rebecca!”
    “That s-s-spider.” She threw a terrified glance over her shoulder and saw Colin slap it with his bare hand. Bile rose up in her throat and she clamped a hand over her mouth to stop it from coming out. Her heart was beating so fast she wondered how it didn’t explode in her chest. She squeezed her eyes shut.
    “Rebecca.” Gideon shook her. “You screamed the house down because of a spider? What the hell’s wrong with you?”
    He was angry, she realized; because he couldn’t see why anyone could ever be so afraid of a spider. Afraid wasn’t the word, Rebecca thought as she struggled with a sting of tears. Well, she wasn’t about to explain it to him. She shook her head and tried to struggle out of his hold.
    “Let go of me.”
    “Gideon,” Rose said, softly. He shot his mother a furious glance then let Rebecca go. She immediately escaped.
    She ran out of the bathroom and down the hall to her room. She was so pitifully thankful that she managed to make it to the half bathroom in her room and turn on the sink before she sank down on the cold, marble floor shaking. 
     
    Gideon was still riding the last dregs of temper when he and Colin picked up the splintered wood off the bathroom floor. He was thoroughly pissed that he’d have to fix the door and he was ashamed at the way he had treated Rebecca.
    He didn’t often lose his temper that way but Rebecca had a habit of bringing out the worst in him. So maybe it wasn’t Rebecca, he thought dropping the pieces of broken door into the trash. It was his reaction to her that set him off.
    “I’ll have Jess order a new door off the internet. We can go pick it up on the mainland.” Colin regarded his brother with confusion.
    “Yeah.”
    “You didn’t need to be so hard on her.”
    Gideon couldn’t fault him for defending Rebecca. Someone needed to. “I know.”
    Tongue in cheek, Colin asked, “You going to go apologize?”
    “Yeah,” Gideon muttered before leaving the bathroom. He walked slowly down the hallway like a man walking toward his execution. It would be a completely different situation if he could relieve some of the sexual tension he felt around her.
    One kiss hadn’t been enough.
    He didn’t knock, as was his habit when he wanted to walk into any room of the house. He frowned when he saw that she wasn’t in her room. He knew she had walked this way, so where was she? Then he heard her quiet weeping. The sound was muffled and low but he followed it to the bathroom off her room. He didn’t knock there either since the door was slightly open.
    The tap on the sink was running. Gideon looked down and saw Rebecca curled up on the floor. The tremors were fiercely racking her slender body as she cried in her little protective ball. Guilt assailed him from the way he had acted. He had shouted at her for being afraid simply because she had scared him senseless with her terror. He’d heard her screams and panicked much like she had. And now, here in private she was losing the shaky composure she always seemed to have.
    But she didn’t have to do it alone.
    He crossed quietly and crouched down in front of her. She didn’t see him, for her eyes were buried in her arms as she rocked and held herself. He said her name quietly and she jolted, then turned away from him.
    “Go away.” The words were broken and watery as she tried to grab hold of control.
    He ignored her request and pulled her into his arms. Instead of fighting with him like he assumed she would, she slumped in his arms as sobs continued to shake her. He sat down the rest of the way on the floor and pulled her into his lap, taking up the same rocking motions she had