by Jenna Sutton
Her eyes widened, and color flooded her cheeks almost immediately. He chuckled as she looked away, facing forward so he couldn’t see her expression.
So far, their trip to Georgia had been all he had wanted it to be, if not more. The visit to the manufacturing facility had gone well. On the drive to the plant, Amelia had been full of questions about the machinery and the manufacturing process, as well as the facility.
She’d been impressed when he had explained the facility was one of the first in the nation to incorporate sustainable design to reduce its impact on the environment and to use energy more efficiently. Solar panels covered the building’s roof, generating electricity for operations.
Amelia had toured the facility while he’d sat down with the plant manager. He had been a little unsure about letting her go without him. What if something happened and she got hurt?
But then he’d realized he was being ridiculously overprotective. His feelings were so new to him that he didn’t want to let her out of his sight.
With the exception of the visit to the manufacturing plant, he had put Riley O’Brien & Co. on the back burner and focused his attention on Amelia. It had been a little weird to tell his assistant that he wasn’t going to be available and that he was turning off his phone. He hadn’t turned it back on, and he had no intention of doing so until he returned home.
They’d spent the majority of their free time walking the nature trails, talking, and making love. Amelia had woken up this morning determined to explore the lake.
Pulling his paddles into the canoe, Quinn scooted forward on his seat so he could slip his hands under her T-shirt on either side of her waist. He smoothed them across her belly and continued his path until he reached her lush breasts. He cupped them in his palms, rubbing his thumbs across her lace-covered nipples.
She sucked in a breath. “Are you seriously copping a feel while we’re in the middle of the lake?”
Ducking his face under her hat, he kissed her hot cheek. “I’d do a lot more than that if I wasn’t afraid I’d tip over this ancient canoe.”
“Hmm, it sounds like you need some cooling off. Maybe you should take a dip in the lake.”
“That’s a good plan, Juice. Let’s go skinny-dipping.”
She giggled, and the happy sound made him feel as if his heart expanded in his chest. “Quinn O’Brien! I am not going to skinny-dip in broad daylight.”
He gently squeezed her breasts. “Does that mean you’ll go skinny-dipping with me tonight?”
She shook her head, and her curly hair teased his nose. “No way.”
Sliding his hands from her breasts to the waistband of her pants, he flicked open the button.
“Give me a kiss.” She turned her head, just enough for him to kiss the corner of her mouth.
He found the tab of her zipper and pulled it down. Before he could get his hand inside her pants, she placed her hand on top of his.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked.
“You said you wanted to spend the day exploring, and right now, I want to explore the landscape between your legs.”
With a gasp, she gripped his hand. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not? I think it’s a great idea.”
She didn’t respond, and he shook off her hand before sliding the tips of his fingers inside her panties. “Lean back,” he commanded.
She stiffened slightly but then relaxed against him. “I’m warning you now, if you get us all wet, I’m going to be so mad at you.”
Chuckling softly, he eased two fingers between her folds. He circled her clit with light strokes before sinking his fingers into her body.
“Sweetheart, you’re already all wet,” he said, withdrawing his fingers and thrusting into her again.
“I guess I left myself open to that one.”
Her comment put such an X-rated image in his mind he groaned. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. He always thought he could control himself with her, but inevitably he devolved into a mindless beast concerned only with one thing—getting inside her. Right now he was so turned on he was afraid he was going to embarrass himself by coming in his jeans.
Even so, he couldn’t force himself to remove his fingers from her creamy pussy. He pressed his thumb against her clit, and she shivered.
“I think we need to do a little creative problem solving,” he rasped.
She made a noise, somewhere between a gasp and a laugh. “What’s the problem?”
“Logistics,” he answered as pulled his fingers from her body and pumped them back in.
She moaned. “What logistics?”
“The logistics of us being in a canoe and me wanting to be inside you when you come,” he answered, swirling his fingers inside her and giving her clit a couple of light flicks with his thumb.
“Too late,” she gasped, “I’m coming now.”
Her pussy clenched around his fingers. He pushed deeper, and she gave a low cry of pleasure.
“Oh, God, that feels so good.”
He waited until she had ridden the last waves of her orgasm before withdrawing his fingers. She straightened and twisted her body so she could swing her legs over the seat and face him.
She leaned toward him, hitting him in the chin with the brim of her hat. He pushed it back so he could see her face.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her brown eyes huge and apologetic. “It just happened so fast.”
“Yeah, that was pretty fast.” He winked. “I must be even better than I thought.”
Growling, she slapped his upper arm lightly. He laughed, enjoying her embarrassment.
“You hit like a girl,” he jeered before reaching down to pull up her zipper and button her pants.
He grabbed his paddles, dipped them in the water, and began to row, mostly to keep his hands busy and to take his mind off his hard-on. After several minutes of companionable silence, he spoke.
“What are you going to do after you’ve finished with our project?”
She pulled her lower lip between her teeth, biting down slightly. He made several pulls with the paddles before she answered.
“I don’t know for sure. I’d like to . . .”
He tilted his head. “You’d like to what?”
Sighing loudly, she looked up at the cloudless sky. “I’d like to open my own chain of boutiques.”
He whistled. “That would take a huge amount of work, not to mention a shitload of money.”
The businessman in him cringed at the risk she would take on. More than fifty percent of all new companies failed within four years, and the number was even higher for retail stores. Frankly, he thought it was a miracle anyone had the guts to start a new business.
She brought her gaze back to his. “I know exactly what it’s going to take,” she replied, and he thought her voice sounded strange.
“What did you do before Ava Grace won American Star?”
“After I graduated from high school, I worked two jobs. During the day, I worked as an assistant manager at a women’s clothing store, and at night, I worked for a company that made custom boots.” She smiled, but there was little humor in it. “That’s how I know one pair of your boots would cost more than most people’s house payments.”
Quinn frowned, sensing that her mood had taken a turn but unsure what had caused the shift. He tried to lighten it.
“Maybe you can make a pair just for me, and every time I wear them, I’ll think of you,” he suggested.
She smiled, and this time it was real. “Ava Grace says she feels happier when she’s wearing something I made for her.”
He nodded. “Because you made it with love.”
She jerked her gaze to his, and he felt his face flush. Could his comment have been any sappier?
They stared at each other for several seconds
without speaking. Finally, she cleared her throat.
“Yes, I love Ava Grace. She’s more than my best friend. She’s the only family I’ve ever had.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, cocking his head. “What about your parents?”
Amelia sighed. “Quinn, I’ve got mommy and daddy issues,” she stated flatly. “My mother had me when she was fourteen, and she didn’t even know who my father was. She hooked up with a group of guys after a football game in a nearby town, and my father could have been any one of them.” She took a deep breath. “She told me on a regular basis she would have had an abortion but she didn’t have the money. She was a terrible mother and an even worse human being who only cared about getting drunk, getting high, and getting laid. I was lucky the strange men she brought home usually passed out before they could get to know me.”
She had used her fingers to make air quotes around the words “get to know me,” and a mix of emotions roiled inside him. He was overwhelmed with rage toward her mother for not giving her daughter the love and attention she had needed and deserved.
And he was flooded with tenderness for Amelia, who was even more remarkable than he’d realized. He had guessed she’d had a less-than-ideal childhood, but he’d had no idea how bad it really had been.
“I got away from her as soon as I could. I moved in with Ava Grace when I was fifteen. Her grandmother had just died, and her father was MIA. We only had each other.”
She fell silent, and he stopped rowing and pulled the paddles back inside the boat. “When did your mother die?”
She clenched her hands into fists atop her knees. “Five years ago.”
“What happened?”
She swallowed. “She was killed by a guy she picked up at a truck stop. She went back to his motel room, and he caught her trying to steal money from his wallet. He beat her to death with one of the legs from the coffee table.”
Holy shit!
Leaning forward, he placed his hands on top of hers. He didn’t know how else to comfort her.
“I’ve shocked you,” she said finally, and he nodded.
What had happened to her mother was horrifying, and he couldn’t imagine how much it had fucked up Amelia. He struggled to find the right words.
He wanted to tell her that he would make up for all the love she hadn’t had growing up and all the pain she’d experienced. He wanted to promise that he would give her all the love she needed now. He wanted to assure her that he would be her family.
But he didn’t know if she wanted those things from him. And he worried that if he offered them to her, he might mess things up between them. He’d never been in this position before, and he suddenly felt a weird kinship with all the pathetic losers who called radio talk shows to solicit advice about their love lives.
She waited for him to speak, and when he didn’t say anything, she raised her eyebrows. “Quinn, you must realize the relationship you have with your parents, and with Cal and Teagan, is not the norm. Most people don’t even like their families.”
“I know how lucky I am. And I can’t even find the words to tell you how sorry I am about your mom and your shitty childhood. But I’m glad you had Ava Grace. When I finally meet her, I’m going to thank her for being there for you.”
Her mouth dropped open. “You’re going to thank Ava Grace?”
He wondered why his statement had shocked her so much. “Yes, I’m going to thank Ava Grace,” he repeated. “She has a lot to do with the person you are today, and I’m grateful to her.”
Ava Grace had done a great job of loving Amelia. She’d taken care of her and kept her safe when Amelia’s mother had fallen down on the job. But he was in Amelia’s life now, and he was gunning for Ava Grace’s job.
Chapter 34
The limo’s headlights cut a swath of light across the front of the farmhouse, illuminating the empty driveway. Amelia exhaled in relief. It was pure luck that Ava Grace wasn’t home since she usually spent Sunday evenings catching up on her favorite television shows she’d recorded during the week.
Amelia had known Quinn would want to escort her home after they landed at the corporate airstrip outside Nashville. She’d been resigned to introducing him to Ava Grace and then suffering her best friend’s interrogation after he left.
She hadn’t been eager for him to meet her, though. Men tended to turn into slobbering idiots in the tall blonde’s presence, and she didn’t want to see his eyes bug out and his tongue roll out of his mouth like a cartoon character.
More important, she didn’t want Ava Grace to witness them together. Her best friend was perceptive, way too perceptive for Amelia’s peace of mind.
It would take Ava Grace less than sixty seconds to figure out Amelia and Quinn had breached the boundaries of their professional relationship. Within ninety seconds, she’d have a good idea they were getting busy. By the two-minute mark, Ava Grace would know Amelia was racing toward heartbreak.
During the entire flight from Georgia and the drive to the farmhouse, she’d tried to work up the courage to tell Quinn about the redesign. She cared more about protecting Quinn’s feelings than she feared angering Teagan. Her conscience—her heart—wouldn’t allow her to lie to him anymore.
Unfortunately, every time she had opened her mouth to tell the truth, something else had come out. She had babbled the whole time, and he had given her strange looks for the past three hours.
This was her last chance to tell him before he returned to San Francisco, and she turned toward him with the intention of coming clean. But he no longer lounged beside her in the limo’s leather seats. He’d already opened the door and exited the car.
Quinn held out his hand to help her from the car, courteous and attentive as always. She grasped it, a tingle traveling up her arm. She closed her eyes briefly to savor the feel of his skin against hers before joining him outside the limo.
The lights from the car’s interior cast his face in shadow, and she couldn’t see his expression. She could feel him, though, and she shivered a little when he brushed her hair away from her face.
“Are you going to invite me in?” he asked quietly.
Yes, she was going to invite him in. And then she would get some gumption and tell him the truth about the redesign. In doing so, she would implode whatever this thing was between them.
“Come in.”
She headed up the walkway. Ava Grace had left on the porch light, and she fished her keys from her purse and entered the house. She flicked on the foyer light, and Quinn and the limo driver followed with her luggage. She directed them to leave the bags in the foyer, and Quinn cocked his head toward the limo driver.
“I’m not sure how long I’ll be,” he said.
The driver nodded, assuring him that he’d be waiting. She knew Quinn wouldn’t stay for long after she came clean with her secret project.
The foyer opened up into the living room, and she switched on the lamps situated around the room. His gaze swept the space, his face openly curious.
“This isn’t what I expected when you said you lived in an old farmhouse,” he admitted.
She looked around the room, trying to see it from his perspective. Before she and Ava Grace had moved in, they had done some minor renovations, including refinishing the wood plank flooring, painting all the rooms, and installing new light fixtures.
They’d chosen a fresh, buttery yellow for the living area, which provided a lovely contrast to the shiny oak floors. The far end of the room featured an entire wall of windows, and a huge stone fireplace occupied one wall.
An oversized sofa upholstered in a floral pattern and two coordinating plaid chairs filled the homey room. Reclaimed barn doors that had been whitewashed were repurposed as end tables and a coffee table.
All in all, it was obvious two women lived there. It was decidedly feminine.
“What did you expe
ct?” she asked.
“I don’t know. But I like this room a lot. Is the rest of the house this nice?”
She nodded. “We went a little overboard when we moved in.”
They lapsed into an awkward silence. The tension in the room was palpable, and nausea churned in her stomach. He crossed his arms over his chest, and they stared at each other, several feet separating them.
“Quinn—”
“Amelia—”
They spoke at the same time, and she swallowed the rest of what she’d planned to say. He did the same. She cleared her throat loudly, and he frowned as he dropped his arms.
“What were you going to say?” he asked, his eyes intent on her face.
“I need to tell you something.”
Looking down, she realized her hands trembled. She immediately clasped them together to hide her nervousness.
She had rehearsed what she wanted to say over and over, hoping that if she used the right words to describe her deal with Teagan, she could minimize the fallout. But now that she was here, she couldn’t remember what she’d practiced.
Quinn closed the space between them, wrapping his big hand around the back of her neck. “I need to tell you something, too.”
She let her head drop forward. Tears burned the backs of her eyes, and she pressed her tongue against the top of her mouth to keep them from trickling out.
Placing his fingers under her chin, he lifted her face. He smoothed his thumb across her bottom lip before leaning forward and kissing her. She gripped his waist with both hands, wishing his kiss would never end.
Wishing they would never end.
He pulled back abruptly. “I think Ava Grace is home,” he said, stepping away from her.
She heard footsteps in the foyer, and she growled. She was going to strangle Ava Grace for her rotten timing!
He shot her a quizzical glance. “Are you okay?” he asked just as Ava Grace entered the room.
Ava Grace’s gaze landed on her, and a huge smile lit up her face. “Millie!” she squealed. “You’re home!”
Amelia smiled, even though just moments before, she’d imagined wrapping her fingers around Ava Grace’s slender neck. The tall blonde rushed toward her but stopped when she noticed Quinn.