Chapter 29 #2
Okaaaaay. Sarah’s nerves danced along a knife’s edge. Was Liz feeling all right? Did she know what had happened in Quinn’s bedroom? And did she disapprove? Maybe she’d been stifling a scolding instead of laughter.
“Are you feeling all right this morning, Liz?” Sarah ventured.
“Yes, of course.” Liz’s voice was high, tight, strained. “I just need some quiet time away from … Well, just some quiet time.”
After she’d left the kitchen, Sarah gaped at Quinn. “What’s going on with your mom?”
“No idea. She’s been acting sketchy since I got up.”
A renewed flush heated Sarah’s face. “Do you think she knows about last night?”
“I don’t see how she could.” He shrugged. “Although I wouldn’t put anything past her.”
Sarah suddenly felt small and cheap.
Quinn rose and rounded the counter, surrounding her in his strong arms as he came up behind her. He laid his cheek on her head. “I can guess what you’re thinking, and you’re reading it all wrong.”
She leaned against him, feeling snug and safe in his hold. “So Sparky’s a mind reader now?”
“You’re not as good at hiding stuff as you think you are.”
“And you’re an expert at reading women?”
He kissed the top of her head and gave her a little squeeze. “No, though I’d like to become an expert at reading you. How am I doing so far?”
A few simple words had her sighing and returning to an even plane. How did he do that? “Not too bad, but you’ve got a way to go.” Even I can’t read me sometimes.
He chuckled, his warm breath ruffling her hair. “Can’t wait for you to start teaching me.”
And there it was, that zing that hit her core and dissolved into a puddle of heat. Lord, how was she going to keep her hands off this man—and keep his mother from catching on?
All of Quinn wanted to haul Sarah back to his bedroom, and he busily tried on one excuse after another to get her there.
You left something behind. We tore up the sheets, and I was hoping you’d help me make my bed.
Have I shown you my shower? Nothing passed muster as plausible, so he went with honest, leaning down to nip her ear and whisper, “I didn’t get near enough of you last night.
What do you say we duck back into my room? ”
She craned her head and gave him an eye-roll so huge he thought her eyeballs might disappear in their sockets.
“Trying to read your signals, Sunshine. Is that a ‘Take me now, you hot stud,’ or an ‘I want you so bad, but later’? I couldn’t tell.”
Her shoulders started shuddering with laughter. “I gotta hand it to you, Sparky. You do see the beer bottle half-full.”
Before he could ask her what she meant, her phone buzzed. “It’s Gage.”
He stepped back so she could answer.
“Hey, Bro. What’s going on?” Her eyes slid to Quinn’s, a question mark flitting through them. His body tensed, primed to run interference for her.
A quick head bob, and she said, “No, it’s gotten better. Either he’s not being such a pain in my ass or I’m getting used to him. He’s standing right here, by the way.”
Quinn’s muscles uncoiled a fraction, and to Sarah he mouthed, “Haha. Don’t tell your brother.”
She mouthed, “Don’t tell your mother,” right back at him, a mischievous glint in her eyes. Another head bob. “Sure. I can do that. How soon?” A pause. “You got it. How are Lily and Daisy?”
Quinn idly picked up coffee mugs while Sarah chatted with her brother. When she finally hung up, he turned and asked what Nelson wanted her to do.
“Their house has been empty the last six weeks, and he wants me to go check on it.” She shrugged.
Protectiveness surged inside him. Where it came from and why, he didn’t know. It was just there. “Let me know when you’re going, and I’ll go with you.”
She shook her head vigorously, and her hair shifted in glossy layers.
A vision of her tossing her head side to side, moaning incoherently as she’d orgasmed underneath him last night rocketed straight to his crotch.
His dick hadn’t exactly been asleep, but now it woke right the hell up, raring to go.
“No, you won’t,” she argued. “Someone needs to be here for your mom.”
Mom. Right. He sidled up to Sarah’s back once again and bent his head to kiss her shoulder, pulling her tank strap out of the way so he could kiss her there too, and moved slowly up her neck.
“Quinn, stop!” she hissed, but the giggle in her voice contradicted her words.
He didn’t stop. Instead, he kept kissing, adding soft sucks and nips as he went, and snaked his hands around to knead her breasts. “Whatever you say, Sunshine.”
She shoved at his arms. “Your mom might see us.”
“She might,” he mumbled against her earlobe right before licking the shell of her ear. “I’ll stop as soon as you say you’ll have dinner with me again tonight.”
“In the sunroom or your bedroom?” Her voice came out breathy.
Lick, nibble, fondle. “Well, we could start in the sunroom … or not.” Kiss, suck. He started grinding against her ass slowly, pausing when his phone buzzed. The name on caller ID surprised the hell out of him. “I should take this.”
She adjusted her tank, slid off the stool, and walked toward her room. A sigh escaped him as he watched her.
He answered the call. “Wyatt! Where you been, man?” Wyatt hadn’t acknowledged him since the press conference nearly two months ago. Yeah, this was a call he’d needed to accept.
“’Sup, Hads?” Not the most enthusiastic of greetings, but Quinn would take it.
They shot the breeze for a few minutes, discussing when the NHL might start back up, what they were doing to keep in shape, and how glad they were they’d been paid out their salaries for the season, though it sucked that they’d miss out on the revenues the league normally generated.
“So you know that blond you were seeing the night of the dinner?” Wyatt said when they’d run through the regular bullshit.
“Which one?” Quinn quipped—out of habit—then looked around, feeling guilty as hell. What if Sarah had heard him? Not cool.
“The hot one. Dory.”
Quinn’s wacko antenna shot up and began a sweep of the area. “What about her? We’re not seeing each other.”
“I know. That’s why I’m calling. I, uh, sorta, um, I started hanging out with her. Is that cool with you?”
Quinn’s first reaction was, “Take her! Please!” but he held it back.
“Yeah, no problem.” Then he leapt to how the hell Wyatt knew Dory.
He almost laughed out loud. She’d probably slipped her number to every guy on the team.
For a puck bunny, sleeping with a player was about the conquest. Bragging rights.
He pictured them swapping score cards and stories over pink cocktails, and it soured his stomach.
Why had this never bothered him before now?
Because he hadn’t given a fuck, but Sarah changed all that.
Should he warn his buddy that Dory was a potential nutjob? Maybe Quinn had blown it out of proportion. Besides, Wyatt was no stranger to crazy chicks. “How’d you two meet anyway?”
More hemming and hawing from the other end, then Wyatt broke out in his nervous giggle-laugh. “Uh, I ran into her at the same place the night after the dinner.”
“Have you been seeing her since?”
“Uh, not really. Until a few days ago. I ran into her again at the grocery store in Breckenridge, and we, uh, spent some time at my place in the mountains.”
Wait. “What?”
Wyatt started backpedaling, tossing out excuses like strip joint patrons threw out money. “Well, we might have started seeing each other a little sooner, but she said it’d be cool with you. It is, isn’t it?”
Quinn’s mind began calculating. “So you and she weren’t in town a few nights ago?”
“No, man. We just got back yesterday.” Wyatt sounded as confused as Jake from the State Farm commercial.
Could Dory have left Wyatt’s place, driven to Quinn’s to lob a rock through his window, then driven back? Quinn shook his head to dislodge the ridiculous idea. No way. No one’s that crazy.
“Yeah, it’s totally cool with me.” Quinn would worry about how awkward a team get-together might be in the future. Wyatt with Dory, him with Sarah, Nelson there too. He flinched inside. “Go for it. Happy for you, man.”
Quinn hung up, an uneasy feeling creeping up his spine. If Dory hadn’t launched the rock through his window, who had?
He texted Sarah. Workout with me in the gym in 5?
Sarah: Thought we already worked out?
Quinn: Different kind of workout, although I’m UP for a repeat of the last workout.
Sarah: Cute.
Quinn: Is that a yes or a yes?
Sarah: See you in 5.
He puffed out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding, and his mind meandered away from the rock to being in bed with Sarah this morning. Despite his mom’s jarring wake-up call, there’d been no weirdness between him and Sarah. No awkwardness. Just a natural progression that felt so right.
By the time he’d changed into gym shorts and a T-shirt, excitement was percolating in his veins.
He couldn’t wait to be with her again. Somewhere along the way, he’d convinced himself the wind or kids had been responsible for the rock toss after all, and he shoved the incident to a far corner of his brain.