The Rival

Chapter Twenty

SHEWASTHEREthe next morning, bright and early with a coffee cup in her hand.

And he really did intend to go out to work, and let her go up to his office. He really did intend to have a conversation with her.

He really did intend to behave himself. But the problem was, he had spent all night dreaming of her. Of her body pressed against his in the shower. Of the cries of pleasure that had echoed in his ears when she’d come.

The way she looked in his oversize clothes and socks. Her sitting at his kitchen table eating ice cream. Her listening to him when he talked about all the mistakes that he’d made, completely without judgment. Her. All night long it had been her. And he had cursed himself for a fool for not asking her to stay the night. He had missed her. All night long, and he had never missed a woman in his life.

Had never slept with a woman all night, so where the urge to hold her came from, he couldn’t say. She was different, that was all.

He really did intend to treat her like she was the same.

Until he saw her.

Standing on his doorstep holding a little cup of coffee.

He tried to remember when the sight of her had infuriated him, and he was pretty sure it never really had.

He was pretty sure he was just a liar.

To himself most of all.

He reached out and wrapped his arm around her waist, took the coffee cup from her hand and crushed her against his body, kissing her hard and deep without so much as a good-morning.

And when they parted, she looked dazed.

“Oh,” she said.

“I want you,” he said.

“Yes,” she said. “Yes, please.”

That was all the encouragement he needed. He set the coffee cup down on the bench by the door and swept Quinn up into his arms. Like it was some old movie. He held her close, carrying her up the stairs, heading straight for his bedroom. Where he should’ve kept her all damned night.

Because he wanted her. Because he couldn’t deny it. Because he didn’t even want to deny it, not anymore.

His heart was beating so hard he thought it was going to burst through the front of his chest.

And when he set her down at the foot of his bed, he cradled her face in his hands and just looked at her. Long and hard.

She was so pretty.

And he didn’t know how something so small had rearranged his life so utterly and completely.

He looked at her for answers. And all he saw was Quinn.

Her pale skin and freckles, her green eyes. That red hair.

She was beautiful. And he wanted her to be his.

In so many ways.

Impossible ways.

But there was one way that was possible. Right now.

He wanted her. He wanted this.

And he wasn’t going to stop. Not now.

Today, Quinn had on a long floral dress with buttons, like the one last night.

This time, he didn’t pop any buttons. This time, he went slow, undoing them and revealing her skin inch by inch.

It was like a gift he had never allowed himself to have before. This long, slow moment to luxuriate in a woman he wanted.

Not just getting sex to get it done. But indulging.

He hadn’t told her this last night, but he’d never taken a woman in the shower. He’d never had a woman in his bed.

Not his bed.

He didn’t count his experience with Hannah. He hadn’t taken ownership of his life yet. Of the bed he was sleeping in. Of the world he inhabited. And since then, it had been a series of one-night stands.

And it didn’t allow for him to really want. To really explore. To really get what he needed.

Maybe it had never been there before. Maybe there had never been a woman that he would have wanted like this. Maybe it was only Quinn, and that was why she was here. That was why it was her. That was why, even though he’d had an empty nest for two years, this was the first time he had felt compelled to have a woman here. Now.

Because he could have. He could’ve extended his time with any number of his lovers in the years since Camilla had left, and he hadn’t.

It was just this outrageous little carrot that made him want to be something he wasn’t. That made him want to do things he never had before.

He kissed her stomach, lowering himself onto his knees as he finished unbuttoning her dress. He teased her with his tongue, around the waistband of her panties.

“You...you like doing that,” she whispered as he pulled her underwear down.

“What?”

“You like...that.”

He lifted a brow and he leaned in, dragging his tongue through her sweet folds. “This?”

She gasped and braced herself on his shoulder. “Yes. That.”

“What man wouldn’t want a taste of that?”

“I don’t know. You know, what with the whole not-having-any-experience thing.”

“Right. Believe me when I tell you, it’s about the best thing I can think of.”

And he proved his point by setting her on the edge of the bed and draping her legs over his shoulders as he went deep, indulging himself utterly and completely.

She arched her hips up off the bed, pressing herself more firmly into his mouth, and he reveled in it.

But she was still partly dressed, and he needed to fix that. He took her to the edge, and then denied her, and enjoyed watching her sweat and pant on his bed, wanting more. Needing more.

He reached behind her and unhooked her bra, removed the dress the rest of the way and took the bra off along with it.

“You are mean,” she said.

“Why is that?”

“Because you didn’t... You won’t let me...”

Something primal and satisfying rolled through him, his body so hard he could barely see straight. Could barely think.

“Because I won’t let you come?”

“Levi,” she said.

“You’re going to get all prudish on me now after I’ve had you in my mouth?”

“Levi,” she said, scolding.

“Tell me what you want.”

“You. I want you.”

“I think that’s something you might have to earn.”

He undid the buckle on his jeans, the button, the zipper, and exposed his desire to her.

She looked up at him, her eyes widened, innocent and hungry.

And he felt like he’d been sucker punched with need.

He wrapped his hand around his hardened length and stroked himself with his thumb.

He watched her let out a long, slow breath, a shiver going through her.

She moved to the edge of the bed and wrapped her hand around him, leaning forward, stroking him with her tongue.

He watched her face, watched her expression, wonder, desire, need, reflective of his own all right there as she took him into her mouth.

He pushed his hand into her hair and held her there, as she tormented him with an expert stroke of her tongue, with the force of her need.

It didn’t need to be skilled. It just needed to be her.

It was her turn to take him to the edge. He was the one now who wasn’t coherent. He was the one who was lost.

“Quinn,” he said, ragged, trying to hold back his climax.

He lifted her away from him and set her back on the bed, put his hand between her thighs and began to stroke her with his thumb. She whimpered, moving her hips in tempo with his touch, and he teased the entrance to her body, denying her penetration even as she begged for it with her questing hips.

He brought her to the edge again and again, until he had lost all sense of time. Until he had lost all sense of everything but how soft and slick she was. How rosy her lips were, desire making her cheeks red and spreading that flush all over her body.

Her hands roamed over his body, his chest, his shoulders. And finally, he reached into the bedside drawer for a condom.

For the first time in his life, he was almost sorry to put one on. Almost sorry that he was unable to stop himself from taking things to the next level, because he could’ve reveled in this, in the touching, the teasing, for an hour or so more.

If he had just a little more willpower. But he didn’t. He would finish mourning it later, because for now he just needed to be inside her.

He moved his hand back around under her ass and lifted her off the mattress, positioning himself at the entrance of her body and pushing inside in one smooth stroke.

And that was when she shattered. She cried out her orgasm, digging her fingernails into his forearms, the climax rolling on and on, and he began to move, not even letting her catch her breath, not letting her come down from the heights before he started to chase his own.

Her whimpers, his name on her lips, created a rhythm that he kept until he lost control. Until his climax roared up inside him, desire that he couldn’t deny. And when he found his own release, she found hers again, crying out his name and shuddering and shaking beneath him. Then he collapsed beside her, sweat-slicked and spent.

“I really didn’t intend to do that,” he said.

A delicate hand came to rest on his cheek and he closed his eyes.

“What is it you intended to do?”

“Go to work,” he said.

“Sex is a lot more fun than work,” she said.

He rolled over onto his back and scooped her up, bringing her over to rest on his chest. “Yeah. It is. But I can’t say that I’ve ever shirked work for sex before.”

“Well,” she said. “It’s fun. You should do it more often.”

“Apparently I should.”

“I didn’t tell anyone,” she said softly.

“I don’t care if you do.”

And then he realized she might be ashamed of him. But he dismissed that. He wasn’t going to assume the worst of her. He’d done that too many times. To protect himself.

“Right. Well. I guess that’s just a me thing, then,” she said.

“What? You’re embarrassed?” he asked.

“No. I’m not embarrassed at all. I’d open the window and shout about it right now if you asked me to. I just...”

He understood. Without her having to finish the sentence. It was theirs. Whatever it was.

It wasn’t for anybody else.

“Yeah. I know,” he said.

He’d had secrets. A lot of them. For a long time. It felt heavy. He wondered if she felt the same way.

But this was different.

And maybe they both deserved that. Something nice. Something fun.

He was just completely shocked that it was with her.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“For what?”

“For deciding that you were a certain kind of way based on the fact that you had an education. Based on what your dad did. Every single thing that you said to me I decided was with the worst intent. And all the while I was grumbling about how you make assumptions about me because I hadn’t been to school. While I made just as many about you because you had.”

“Some of them were true,” she said.

“Yeah. Well, some of your assumptions about me were true.”

“You aren’t dumb.”

“I know,” he said.

“Do you?”

“I guess, more than knowing that, I’ve decided it doesn’t matter. I know how to run my ranch. I made the place that I could run. That was probably one reason I was so irritated to have to take any help from you.”

“You didn’t have to take it. But there’s nothing wrong with wanting it.”

“That hasn’t been my experience,” he said, his voice gruff. “Wanting and needing help are just paths that people take to get something from other people, and I...”

“I’m not trying to take advantage of you.”

“I know that. And I trust you. I swear. Whatever else is going on in this whole...ridiculous world, I know you’re not like your dad.”

“Thank you.”

She was just so... She was so hurt. And the way that he had lumped her in with Brian wasn’t fair. Because she was a good woman.

And that was that.

He might not be a good enough man for her, he might not be able to offer her anything, but he could see now that he’d been very wrong about her. And all his anger had been misdirected. She’d been hurt by her father. Because he was that kind of man, the kind that went around hurting people, just because he could.

But Quinn wasn’t like that at all. She was determined, and she was sharp. And sometimes it might come across like she thought she was better than other people, but that wasn’t it. She was just passionate. In a very deep, real way.

“I guess we better get to work,” she said quietly.

“Well, that sounds like a pretty shitty thing to have to do after all that,” he said.

She laughed. “I’m going to finish organizing the office. Levi... Thank you, for the easement.”

“In the end, it’s the best thing to do. I really do believe that having a road that circumvents the town would’ve caused harm. I haven’t changed my mind about that. I do have concerns...”

“I swear, we will find ways to invest back into the community. Really. I don’t know what to do about the fact that we’re such a big ranching operation, or the fact that people feel a little bit distrustful of us. I understand now, though, because knowing you like I do... It’s forced me to look outside of our whole thing. It’s easy for us to get caught up in who we are, and the fact that we know each other. The truth is, we all went through things with our parents. I would say the Sullivans had it the best, and you know my dad, so you know that’s saying something.”

“Yeah. Well, I remember hearing all about Seamus McCloud.”

It was rumored that the McCloud patriarch had been horrendously abusive.

“He was everything that you’ve heard and more. Maybe worse. That’s where... Anyway. It’s just that when my sister and Sawyer and Denver and Gus came together to really reinvigorate Four Corners, it wasn’t to try and take over anything. It was to try and save us. To save us from all this stuff that our parents were just letting go to waste. Maybe they were the Death Star. The Evil Empire. But we aren’t. We actually do care, and we want to succeed without hurting anybody.”

“I really do believe you.”

He kissed her on the cheek and got out of bed, pushing back against the unfamiliar feeling that was invading his chest.

“I’ll see you later.”

He got dressed, and Quinn was still working her way out of bed, and he decided that it would be best if he left as quickly as possible.

Because it was one thing to have a conversation with her, it was one thing to have sex with her, but it was quite another to indulge the strange feelings that were expanding inside him. Those, he couldn’t quite come to terms with. Those, he couldn’t quite understand.

And so he found it best to just go and work. Because that was what he was good at. And that was what he understood.