3. QUINN
QUINN
My body clock pulls me from sleep, smug and punctual, blissfully unaware of the mess waiting in my memories.
The sheets are warm, the air smells faintly of coffee drifting from somewhere close to me.
I stretch with a yawn, wincing at the dull ache that radiates from my temples.
That’s what I get for taking tequila shots with Ella last night.
Chasing the smell of coffee, I push the comforter off me and sit up on the bed. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust to the light in the room, and when they do, I nearly fall off the bed when I see the person seated on the sofa right next to the bed, drinking coffee, his eyes on me.
I look around, confused, wondering if I’m in the wrong room. But I didn’t even get to see Ella’s room last night, and they probably all look the same anyway.
“Um, where is Ella?” I question, feeling muddled.
Beck doesn’t say anything, just stares at me and continues drinking his coffee. It smells so good, and I want some, but I’m scared to ask, especially since I’m still trying to gather my bearings.
“What are you doing in here?” I whisper, pulling the covers back over me as if to hide myself away from him.
“It’s my room. Where did you expect me to go?” he finally answers me.
His room? What am I doing in Beck’s hotel room?! What happened yesterday?
I comb through my memories for answers, and that’s when last night starts bleeding back in.
“You drugged me?!” I scream when I recall that particular detail.
Beck scoffs and gets up from the sofa. “Drugged you? What do you take me for? You drugged yourself, assuming Molly was aspirin. I was kind enough to take care of you, so you should be thanking me, not cursing me out.”
I rummage around my brain for more of last night’s memories and realize that he’s right.
My head was killing me after Ella and I came from the bathroom.
I found Beck by the bar, holding a pill, and I was the one who assumed that it was aspirin and took it from him.
He even offered to help me throw it up, but I’ve got no gag reflex.
He made me drink water, but after that, I do not remember much. Bowing my head in shame, I look up to meet his gaze. “I’m sorry, and thank you.”
He nods at me and hands me the coffee mug in his hand. “You’re welcome.”
I take it from him, causing the comforter to fall off me, and that’s when I’m able to take in the state of my undress. I clearly remember wearing pants and a shirt yesterday, but right now I’m in an oversized t-shirt that smells like Beck.
“What did we do?” I inquire in a panic when I realize there’s more to last night.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t remember much after taking the pill, so would you please care to explain why I’m naked underneath your shirt? Did you take off my clothes?” I demand.
“No, you did that all on your own.”
“And why would I do that?”
“You claimed to be hot.”
Fragments of my memory flash through my mind of me trying to take my clothes off in the club and Beck stopping me. He brought me to his room to prevent me from embarrassing myself, and then… what?
“So nothing happened?” I whisper, afraid of the answer.
He takes a seat on the bed and leans in so that we are only a few inches apart. He smells of aftershave and shampoo, which means he must have recently taken a shower. I recall complimenting his short hair last night while seated on his lap.
What did I do?
“Do you really want to know?” he questions, his eyebrow cocked at me.
He’s making me nervous, so I pull back and put some distance between us. “Just tell me—did we have sex or not?” I stress, a bit frustrated.
“We did not, but—“
I hold my hand up to stop him. “That’s all I need to know.”
He looks taken aback by the fact that I don’t want to know more, but as long as I didn’t have sex with him, I don’t need to know the rest. It’s probably embarrassing, and I’d rather not know, or at least not hear it from him.
Maybe when I’ve cured my hangover, the memories will slowly come back to me.
“Okay,” he relents and gets up from the bed.
I nod and take a sip of the coffee. It’s black with minimal sugar, just how I like it.
I have no idea how he knows the way I like my coffee, or maybe we just have the same preferences.
It wakes me up instantly, like a shot of cocaine.
I should probably lay off the drug jokes, especially after last night.
“Ella dropped some clothes off for you,” Beck says as he picks up a bag from the ottoman at the edge of the bed.
I nearly spit the coffee all over myself. “Ella knows that I slept in your room with you?!”
“Yes,” he nods with a shrug, looking confused.
How is he so calm when this is a disaster?
I can’t have his family knowing that I spent the night here—they are going to assume that something happened, and that is the last thing I want.
I’m supposed to be here on a business trip, but last night I ended up getting wasted, taking drugs, and sleeping in Beck’s room.
Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.
“Who else knows?” I whisper.
“I don’t know—all of them?” He shrugs too nonchalantly for my liking.
“Everyone?! Are you kidding me? Kill me now!” I groan, resisting the urge to crawl back into the covers and disappear forever.
“Calm down, I’m just joking. Only Ella knows, and she’s smart enough to keep it to herself,” he assures me.
I glare at him, not appreciating his teasing. “That was not funny.”
He winks and takes a seat back on the couch. “I have to entertain myself somehow. You should hurry, by the way—don’t you have a meeting with Jace this morning?” he reminds me.
His words trigger me back to work mode, and I turn my head to the clock on the nightstand. I realize that I have half an hour to get ready before my meeting with Jace, and I am yet to get out of bed or shower. This morning is off to a bad start already.
Jumping out of bed, I drain the coffee mug on my way into the bathroom.
“Of course you can use my shower. You’re welcome,” Beck sarcastically yells after me, just before I slam the bathroom door closed.
I set the coffee mug down on the sink as I turn on the shower to heat up.
I strip while checking myself out in the mirror.
I don’t have any marks on me, which is a good sign.
The last time Beck and I tangled up, I ended up marked since he was rough—the good kind, though—so the lack thereof is a good indication.
I seriously need to remember what we actually did last night, but I don’t have time right now.
When I step out of the shower fifteen minutes later, I realize that I didn’t bring my clothes in here with me, so I’ll have to go back into the bedroom and face Beck.
He’s still in the same position, but scrolling on his phone.
He’s not even looking at me, so I quickly reach for the bag, my hand tight around the knot on my towel.
He’s already seen me naked before, and probably last night, but that doesn’t mean I’m okay with him seeing me naked now.
“Ella’s shirt might be a little small, so you can borrow one of mine,” he speaks up.
I do have bigger boobs than Ella, so he is right about that. “Thank you,” I whisper, rushing to the closet where his clothes are.
After picking a random white shirt, I rush back to the bathroom to dry off, brush my teeth, and get dressed. Ella even included shoes—so thoughtful of her—as I have no idea where mine are. I’d ask Beck, but that will just rekindle the conversation that I want to forget already.
When I’m all dressed, I give myself a pep talk in the mirror before stepping out. I’m ready to go downstairs for my meeting, but it feels awkward to just leave.
“Do you need anything else?” Beck asks, probably wondering why I’m staring at him.
“I’d appreciate it if you kept what happened last night between us,” I request.
“Of course—what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” he assures me with a smug grin.
“Nothing happened,” I grit out in annoyance.
Realizing that Beck is not to be reasoned with, I quickly exit his room, leaving him and his teasing self behind.
I take the elevator down to the restaurant. I’m right on time for the meeting, but I am the last one to arrive as Jace, Zane, Ella, and Ava are already waiting.
“Good morning, Miss Atwood. I hope you don’t mind that I asked them to join us,” Jace says.
“Thank you, and of course not. I know that Morgan Enterprises is a family company,” I respond, knowing that Ella runs the finances and Zane is the foreman.
I have no idea why Beck is not here, but I’m glad he’s not since it would have been too awkward for me.
“That it is. Why don’t we order breakfast as we get started?” Ella suggests.
She gives no indication that she knows anything, which I’m grateful for. I want to put last night behind me and focus on getting my funding.
The Morgans are much easier to get along with than I imagined, and this business meeting feels casual, almost like I’m not asking them for fifty million dollars. They listen keenly, asking all the necessary questions, allowing me to see that they are genuinely interested in my project.
“I already liked your proposal, Miss Atwood, and everyone else around this table agrees with me,” Jace speaks up once I’m done.
“Thank you. So, when do I get the check, or are we digging up some secret stash somewhere?” I tease to lighten the mood.
It works as everyone laughs.
“I’ll give you the money you need, under two conditions,” he replies.
“Of course. What are they?”
“One, you’ll need to move to Iron Stallion for at least two months,” he starts.
“Why?”
“Because of condition number two.”
“Which is?”
“You have a PR degree, right?” he queries.
“Yes, I do,” I affirm, wondering where he is going with this.
“Perfect, then this will be right up your alley,” he says, and I take a deep breath, bracing myself, but his request still leaves me befuddled. “I would like for you to fix Beck’s reputation around Wrangler Creek,” he decrees.
He might as well ask me to plow Iron Stallion with a fork because that’s how impossible this task is.
Wrangler Creek’s townspeople hate Beck for a reason.
It’s been more than a decade since he did what he did, and there are still whispers around the whole incident.
His father paid for the damages, but Beck’s reputation was ruined forever, and now they want me to fix that?
It’s an impossible task, which means I might as well give up on getting my funding from the Morgans.
“But everyone hates him!” I exclaim before I can stop myself.
Jace nods. “Exactly, so fix that and you have yourself a deal.”
“Anything else but that,” I plead helplessly.
“Those are my conditions. Take it or leave it.”
I’m about to defend myself when the devil himself pulls up a seat and drops himself next to me. “What are we talking about, and when are we leaving?”