Chapter 33 Taran
It wasn’t so much the music that woke me but the masculine groan in my ear and then the bed dipping as he moved. What the … I forced my tired eyes open, my bleary vision processing the unfamiliar side table, wall, and door.
“You better have a good reason for calling.” Quinn’s voice sounded behind me, rough and raspy with sleep.
Memories of last night flooded in, in a flush of heat that had me sliding my legs together in abrupt arousal. After we’d fallen asleep, I’d come awake perhaps an hour later and then I’d woken Quinn with my mouth. We’d fooled around for what felt like hours before making love again.
Surely, we’d only fallen asleep five minutes ago?
“What time? Fuck. We’re okay. Just … I’ll explain later. We’ll get the next ferry … aye … see you then.”
I rolled over as Quinn hung up his phone.
He looked sleep rumpled and sexy. His expression was disconcertingly wary. “We missed this morning’s ferry.”
“Oh.” I pushed up to sitting, tugging at the duvet covers to conceal my nakedness, even though I probably had beard rash in some very intimate places. “Was that the Austin Powers theme song on your ringtone?”
Quinn’s lips twitched and he nodded. “It’s my tone for Ramsay.”
I snorted. “Why?”
“Inside joke.” He searched my face. “How are you this morning?”
Something about the question or the way he asked it, perhaps, made me hedge. “I’m fine … you?”
Quinn frowned. “I just had the best night of my life, so I’m phenomenal. Glad you’re just fine, though.” He pushed to get out of the bed.
Oh. Guilt flickered through me, realizing I’d read his wariness wrong. “Quinn … you know I thought it was phenomenal too.”
He tugged up his boxer briefs and then his jeans to cover his nakedness. “But we’re not …we’re still not.”
Dread fluttered in my belly. “You promised.”
“I know.” Quinn scrubbed a hand down his beard. “I know. I’m sorry. I’m being a prick. We need to go. Check out is in an hour.”
“Right.” I slid out of the bed, feeling awkward in the light of day, even though there had been zero awkwardness between us last night.
The cool air of the hotel shivered across my skin, making my nipples pebble as I searched for my underwear. I heard Quinn’s sharp intake of breath as I found my knickers and started tugging them on. My eyes flew to his and my skin instantly flushed hot at the hunger on his face.
“You’re so fucking beautiful, Taran.”
“Thank you. You are too.”
Quinn smirked and jerked his gaze away. “Thanks.”
Hurriedly, before this ended back on the bed, I dressed.
“Meet you downstairs?”
“Aye.” I asked him teasingly, “Do I have a ringtone?”
Amusement danced in his eyes. “Maybe.”
Chuckling, I decided to let him keep his secrets for now and left to return to my room for a quick shower.
Standing under the hot rain of water, last night played over in my mind until I was breathless and stupidly turned on. Finally, I shut off the water and pressed my body to the cold tile to cool down. Last night with Quinn had been everything I’d thought it would be and more.
The selfish part of me wanted to keep sleeping with him. To indulge with him whenever the mood struck.
Yet I’d meant what I’d said after his confession about his father’s abandonment. I did forgive Quinn. I didn’t want to punish or hurt him. And if I couldn’t promise him more than just sex … I would inevitably hurt him.
A tangle of turmoil, I quickly readied myself to leave, piling my wet hair on top of my head with a band I found in my purse.
Quinn was waiting for me at reception. We turned over our keys and paid for our rooms, and I followed him out to the car park where we’d left our cars overnight.
“Ramsay needs your phone,” Quinn said, quite abruptly reminding me of yesterday’s kidnapping attempt.
“Do you really think it’s Eoghan?” I asked, not for the first time.
“Who else could it be?”
I’d thought the ferry journey back to Glenvulin might be fraught with awkwardness, tension, with all that was left unsaid hanging between us.
Fortunately, or not so fortunately, I received a call from DC Alice asking me to come to the station as soon as we docked so they could take a formal statement too.
At least it meant Quinn and I had something to discuss on the journey back, replaying everything that had happened in the past few weeks, who could be behind it, and why.
Quinn eventually brought up Frank. Noting the way his expression turned distant at the mention of my ex-fiancé, I decided to be honest with him.
Considering the private details of his marriage he’d shared with me, it seemed only fair.
“It’s not Frank.”
“How can you be certain?”
“Frank doesn’t have an aggressive bone in his body. He’s one of the most passive people I’ve ever met. When I broke off our engagement, he didn’t even put up a fight. He didn’t get angry, he was understanding about it, and he walked away easily.”
Quinn’s eyes narrowed. “You say that like you don’t care.”
Familiar guilt pricked me. “I wasn’t very fair to Frank.
The truth was, I was settling for him, and I think deep down he knew that.
I was afraid I was getting old and I wanted a family and …
life with Frank was easy. We didn’t argue because he always gave in to me.
What I wanted went. Looking back on it, it’s horrible. ”
“You were bored out of your fucking mind.”
My lips twitched, which made me feel even guiltier. “Stop it.”
He grinned smugly. “It’s true, though. I bet even the sex was polite.”
I flushed and shoved him playfully. “Shut. Up.”
“It was, wasn’t it?” Quinn looked far too pleased with himself. “No wonder you broke it off.”
I grimaced. “I was selfish. And when Mum died, I didn’t want him near me.
I didn’t treat him very well and he was so patient.
But honestly, I think he was relieved when I broke it off.
Frank is a pathological people-pleaser, and I don’t think he would have ever ended our engagement after Mum died.
He would have seen it as dishonorable. I gave him the out he wanted.
” I met Quinn’s suddenly serious gaze. “So no, there is no way this is Frank.”
“Okay. Then we take him off our list.”
The ferry slowed as it approached Leth Sholas.
“So … you didn’t love him then?” I barely heard Quinn’s question over the engine.
“I cared about him a great deal. But no. I didn’t love him.”
“Was there …” Quinn exhaled shakily, his hands clenched around the railing. “Was there anyone you loved while you were gone?”
I tensed because I knew admitting the truth might only muddle things even more between us. But I knew I couldn’t lie. We’d promised to be honest from now on. “No, Quinn. I haven’t been in love since I was eighteen years old.”
He squeezed his eyes closed at my word choice, the muscle in his jaw flexing, but he nodded, accepting my answer.
The atmosphere was a wee bit strained between us as we docked, but the appearance of Tierney, Ramsay, and Akiva provided a reprieve from our overwhelming emotions.
We quickly and quietly explained what happened yesterday in Oban, and Ramsay took my phone. “I’ll get it back to you today,” he promised.
“Are you all right?” Tierney hugged me.
“I … I don’t know,” I answered honestly.
As she pulled away, her gaze flicked to Quinn and then back to me. I saw the question in her eyes. “Later,” I whispered.
“Taran is needed at the police station.” Quinn rested a possessive hand on my lower back. “I’m escorting her.”
“You don’t have to.”
He scowled. “And yet I am.”
I sighed at his stubborn response but didn’t object.
“Meet me at the Lantern at three.” Ramsay waved my phone at me. “I should have some info by then.”
Thanking him, I gave Tierney a reassuring smile, which did nothing to ease the concern wrinkling her brow. Quinn prodded me forward, and I turned away as he guided me across Main Street to our cars. It took us less than a minute to drive to the police station.
DC Alice was there with PC William. After I provided them with another statement about yesterday’s attack, DC Alice questioned Quinn about Eoghan.
I found myself reaching to squeeze Quinn’s thigh as he reminded her of the boating incident with Liam. The detective constable shrewdly took in the gesture but ever the professional, she made no comment on it.
Instead, she sat back in her chair with a sigh.
“After Oban Police contacted us, we drove down to Glenbuie to speak with him. He was belligerent and generally uncooperative. But he denies his involvement in the incidents that took place here, and he has an alibi for yesterday’s assault.
He was in the pub in Glenbuie from its opening at 10 a.m. until we found him there in the afternoon. ”
“We know it wasn’t him in Oban yesterday,” Quinn reminded her. “I knew it wasn’t him from the build of the bloke. But that doesn’t mean he’s not involved.”
“There’s nothing we can do to prove Eoghan’s involvement, Quinn.” Alice considered him. “Perhaps your own trauma from that incident is clouding your judgment.”
“He was aggressive toward Taran in her store.”
“I know, and he was given a warning about that.”
“What about the spray paint across Cammie’s Defender? I’m the only thing that connects Cammie and Taran.”
“Are you?” She frowned. “I’m not being deliberately argumentative, Quinn, or telling you that you’re for sure barking up the wrong tree.
But I can’t have tunnel vision in an investigation.
I need to look at all possible avenues. Cammie and Taran grew up together, and they’re friends independent of you.
We don’t know that the vandalism against Cammie’s vehicle is connected to Taran.
Oban Police have run out of leads, so we need you both to be extra vigilant going forward.
If anything happens, even something small, I want to know about it.
The more we know, the faster I can get to the bottom of this. ”
Frustrated at the situation and not at DC Alice, we thanked her and left the station.
We both needed to return home to change.
Quinn wanted to be at the Lantern when I met with Ramsay.
Since I was feeling confusingly clingy after our night together, I told him I’d meet him there.
He looked like he wanted to say something as we stood by my car, but whatever it was, he squelched it with a quiet “See you soon.”