* * * *
Somebody long and warm pressed into Gideon’s side, and he wrapped his arms more tightly around the person’s back, burrowing his nose until Jesse’s scent filled his waking senses. The comforting smell of blood and come drifted together, making his c**k twitch. That’s right. They’d been celebrating. Mary’s killers were dead. She would survive. A small part of Gideon’s heart was finally at peace.
As he inhaled the familiar smells, however, something else began to break through his half-wakened state. It had lingered in the air when he’d first come into the apartment, though he hadn’t said anything to Jesse at the time. A perfume, faint and musky, that clung to pores even in the heat of battle, or the throes of s*x, or the quietude of church.
Gideon stiffened as he pulled away. The
