He broke their kiss, and she lifted her heavy eyelids. He was leaning back, looking at her, the moonlight turning her skin milky-white. He cupped her breasts in his hands.
“God, I love your breasts,” he murmured, placing small, sucking kisses along the curves. “They’re perfect.”
He rubbed his thumbs over her nipples once, then again, and she arched mindlessly. All that mattered was the way he made her body vibrate, the drumbeat that pounded through her, the need to have him inside her.
She reached for the bottom of his polo shirt and pulled at it, impatient to get her hands on him. He yanked it off and she ran her palms over his chest, feeling the iron-hard muscles beneath his hot skin, running her fingers over the coarse dark hair that arrowed down beneath the waistband of his pants.
When she fumbled for his belt, he stopped her. “Not yet,” he murmured, sucking on her earlobe. His erection was hard beneath her, and she squirmed against him, desperate.
“You don’t take orders well, do you?” he whispered into her ear before he sucked on her neck.
“Never have.” She gasped when he burrowed beneath her skirt and trailed a hand up the inside of her thigh. “I prefer to give orders.”
She felt him smile. “You can give me all the orders you want.”
“Take off your pants,” she said, kissing him again.
His chuckle vibrated against her. “In a minute.”
“You’re disobeying?” She caught her breath as his hand drifted higher. “You’ll have to be punished.”
“Now I’m scared.” He caressed her bare ass, then stilled. “A thong?” His fingers followed the tiny strip of material. “Did I mention that I love this skirt?”
“Is that right?” She rubbed her cheek against his chest, breathing in the cologne he wore. “Next time, I won’t wear any underwear.”
He sucked in a breath. “You’re going to kill me, Maddie.” He slipped his hand beneath the lacy thong, and she arched helplessly against him. He took the tip of one breast in his mouth as he stroked her slick crease. Her tension wound tighter and tighter.
“No,” she panted. “Not alone.”
“Yes,” he whispered. “My turn to give orders. I want to watch you.”
He increased the pressure as he swirled his tongue around her nipple, and she exploded, crying his name.
The waves of release went on and on until she lay in his arms, trembling and unable to move. He caressed her, feathering kisses across her face, murmuring endearments.
Finally she opened her eyes. “Why did you do that? I wanted you inside me when I came.”
He smiled, nuzzling her neck. “We’re just getting started.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
QUINN SKIMMED HIS HANDS over her hips and up her sides. “You are so sexy,” he murmured, nuzzling the shadowed valley between her breasts. “I can’t stop touching you.”
She shivered, and he picked up the blanket and drew it around her. “Come to the beach,” he said.
His phone buzzed as he stood, but he ignored it. Taking her hand, he led her down the rest of the stairs onto the cool sand. He spread the blanket and she dropped onto it, her legs still wobbly. He stripped off his shoes and socks, took foil packets out of his pocket and yanked off his jeans. He stood naked in front of her, bathed in moonlight. “Come here,” she whispered, holding out her hand.
The wind off the lake was cool on her hot, sweaty body, but she barely felt it. Dropping beside her on the blanket, Quinn gathered her close. “Cold?” he murmured.
“Mmmm,” she said, smiling into his shoulder, feeling his ragged heartbeat beneath her fingers. “I know how you can warm me up.”
“Yeah? Want to tell me?”
“I’d rather show you.”
“I like the sound of that.” He skimmed his hand down her arm, down her hip, down her leg. “As much as I love this skirt, it has to go.”
He eased the zipper open, then slid the short denim garment down her legs. He hesitated at the thong. “Shame to get rid of this. Promise to wear it again?”
“I promise.” She nestled closer to him, inhaling the scent of his skin, along with the smell of wood smoke.
“Someone must be having a campfire farther down the beach,” she murmured, looking over his shoulder.
He glanced at the deserted expanse of sand on either side of them. “Not anywhere close. No one can see us.” He nuzzled her neck. “Or were you hoping they could?”
“I’ve never made love in public. Where someone could watch me.” She dragged her hands down his back and cupped his firm hips. His muscles flexed beneath her fingers.
“Really? I thought you were pretty adventurous.” He eased one leg over hers. “Maybe there’s someone in the woods spying on us,” he whispered, brushing his mouth over hers. “Do you want me to stop?”
The thought of someone watching them, just as she had watched Quinn, made her heart race.
“No,” she whispered, pulling him closer. “I love what you’re doing to me.”
“What if they see me doing this?” He swirled his tongue around her nipple.
“It doesn’t matter. Don’t stop,” she gasped, arching into his mouth.
“How about this?” He reached down and cupped her.
“Quinn,” she moaned. “Please. You’re making me crazy. I don’t care who’s up there.”
“Seeing you back then made me crazy,” he said, kissing his way up her chest, her neck, to the corner of her mouth. “Now I don’t want to share.”
“Do you want to stop?” She wriggled against him. “In case someone’s watching.”
“I don’t think I could.” He trailed his mouth down to her navel as he opened one of the foil packets. “I want you too much.”
He tensed for a split second, as if realizing what he’d just said. Then he kissed her again. “Let them watch,” he said as he slid inside her.
For a moment he stayed perfectly still, watching her, his eyes heavy-lidded and his face taut with passion. He cupped her face in both hands, and she felt him trembling.
Then he began to move and she felt the tension building again, coiling more and more tightly. Holding his gaze, she held on to his hips and rose to meet him, matching his thrusts with her own. Her heart thundered, its beat matching his.
“Quinn,” she cried as her climax swept over her.
He thrust again, then shuddered in her arms. When he kissed her neck, she thought she heard him whisper, “Maddie.”
HOME, HE THOUGHT HAZILY, breathing in Maddie’s scent, his body absorbing the slide of her skin over his, the feel of her arms and legs gripping him. He was home.
As their skin cooled, Quinn pushed the thought out of his mind. To distract himself, he trailed his fingers down her side. “You make me wild, Maddie.” Since the first time he’d touched her. Hell, if he was honest, since the first time he’d seen her.
“No more than you make me. I can’t believe we just had sex in a public place.”
“What were we thinking?” He nuzzled her neck.
“The same thing we’re going to be thinking in another few minutes if you keep that up.”
“Did you like knowing we might have an audience?”
“I liked being the one with you instead of the one watching.” Her breath tickled his chest, and he felt her lips curve as she kissed him.
“Me, too. I don’t care if the whole world is watching. I don’t care about—”
Warning bells clanged in his mind.
“Can we stay here forever, Quinn?” Her voice was dreamy and her muscles lax. “Just like this?”
Forever? He hadn’t signed up for that. “You’d get cold,” he said abruptly. He stood and tugged on her arm. “Come on, Sleeping Beauty. Let’s go back to the house.” He shook the sand out of the blanket, draped it around her shoulders, then steered her toward the stairs.
She wrapped her arm around his waist and snuggled, smiling, into him. They’d made love twice.
The cell phone in
his pocket chirped again. Saved by the voice mail. When they got into the house, he tossed their clothes on a kitchen chair and flipped open his phone. He had ten missed calls.
“Let’s go to bed,” Maddie said, twining her arms around him from behind. Her breasts pressed into his back and her hands trailed over his abdomen.
“Hold on,” he said, grabbing her wrist as he stared at the phone. He listened to the first voice mail and turned to stone.
Quinn dropped the phone on the kitchen table. “I have to go,” he said, grabbing his pants. “The Harp is on fire.”
Maddie stumbled backward. “What?”
“The fire chief has been trying to get hold of me,” he said grimly, struggling to get his arms into his shirt.
“Oh, no!” She grabbed her own clothes and threw them on, hopping on one foot as she tried to jam her shoe onto the other.
“Stay here. I can deal with this.”
“I’m sure you can, but I’m coming with you. If you don’t want me in your truck, I’ll drive myself.”
He did want her with him, he realized uneasily. And he’d wanted to stay all night. “There’s nothing you can do.”
“You don’t know that.” She reached for her car keys. “I’ll be right behind you.”
“Fine. Let’s go,” he said impatiently. “We’re wasting time.”
She headed for the front door and he ran after her. Moments later they were in his truck, barreling down the short stretch of highway to town.
A cloud of smoke trailed lazily into the air above Otter Tail, but he didn’t see any flames. The fire must be under control.
He slowed as he got closer. Three fire trucks sat in front of the Harp and a tangle of beige hoses snaked over the ground. A handful of gawkers stood in small clusters, kept well back from the fire engines by Cal Hodges, the police chief.
Parking the truck at a haphazard angle, Quinn jumped out and stared at the scene. Maddie grabbed his hand a second later.
Several windows were shattered. Scorch marks ran up the outside walls, and smoke drifted out of holes in the roof. All he could see through the broken glass was a mass of charred wood and smoke.
“The walls are still standing,” Maddie murmured. “Maybe it’s not as bad as it looks.”
He’d seen plenty of fire scenes during his years as a cop. This was not good.
The fire chief saw him and stepped carefully over the hoses. “Where the hell were you, Quinn? I’ve been trying to get hold of you for over an hour.”
“I didn’t have my cell phone with me,” he said. He’d been making love to Maddie while his pub burned down. “What happened?”
Don Taylor’s mouth tightened. “Arson. We’ll have to wait until the place cools down to confirm it, but it was classic. Multiple points of origin, and it got out of control way too fast. Someone driving by spotted it early and called it in, or everything would have been incinerated. As it is, I’m not sure how much of the place is salvageable.”
“Was anyone hurt?”
“Nope. The fire department put it out pretty fast.”
Maddie moved closer and Quinn let himself lean on her for a moment as he watched the smoke swirl around the ruined building. His place. He’d finally found where he belonged and what he wanted to do. Now it was gone.
“I’m sorry, Quinn,” she murmured. “But you can rebuild it. You needed a bigger place, anyway.”
“So the fire was a good thing?” He swung around to face her. “It makes everything easier, doesn’t it?”
“Of course not.” She cupped his face in her hands. “This is awful, but no one was injured. It’s just a building, Quinn. You can build another one.”
“But not on this land, right?”
She dropped her hands. “I didn’t say that.”
“This was a good resolution to your dilemma, wasn’t it?”
“That hadn’t even occurred to me,” she said. “Believe it or not, I was more concerned about you than my ‘dilemma.’ I know you’re upset. So am I. But—”
He saw Frank Gervano talking to Gordon Crawford, and anger ripped through him. He moved away from Maddie so abruptly that she stumbled.
“Is this what you were talking about, Gervano?” he demanded as he strode toward the two men. “Is this what you meant when you said properties can lose their value quickly? The Harp lost its value pretty damn fast tonight, didn’t it?”
“What are you talking about, Murphy?”
Even dressed in jeans and a chambray shirt, the guy looked oily. “I’m asking if you burned down the Harp.”
Gervano recoiled. “Of course I didn’t.”
Quinn looked at the man’s hands. “I didn’t mean you did it yourself,” he said scornfully. “You might ruin that perfect manicure. So how did you work it? Who did you hire? That’s how your company operates, isn’t it? You don’t let anything get in your way.”
“Quinn, I know you’re upset,” Gordon Crawford said, stepping between the two men. “But that’s no reason to accuse Frank of burning down your pub.”
“Get away from me, Crawford,” Quinn said, shoving the mayor. “Hell, maybe you did it. So you can develop the land.” It felt as though they’d used a dull spoon to scoop his heart out of his chest. “How did you find out about this pub, anyway, Gervano? Laura Taylor sure as hell didn’t contact you.”
He caught a flicker of guilt in the mayor’s eyes. “Damn you, Crawford.” He grabbed the older man’s shirt with one hand, curled the other into a fist. “Who gave you the right to mess with people’s lives?”
“That’s enough, Quinn.” The police chief, Cal Hodges, caught Quinn’s arm, then moved him out of reach of Gordon. “We don’t know who’s responsible. Beating people up isn’t going to get us any answers.” But he glared at Gordon and Gervano. “Could be other people with reason to burn the place down.”
“Is that right, Cal? Who do you like for it?”
“I don’t make assumptions,” he said, holding Quinn’s gaze. “Don’s getting the fire inspectors in from Sturgeon Falls tomorrow, and we’ll see what they have to say.”
Quinn watched Cal talk to Gervano and the mayor, anger churning. Don Taylor pulled him farther away from the men. “You going to settle down, son?” he asked quietly.
Quinn shook him off. His arms felt as if they were weighted down and his legs trembled as though they would give out any moment. “Get out of here, Don. Go do your job. Save what’s left of my place.”
The fire chief hesitated, then nodded once and walked away.
Quinn turned to Gervano and Crawford. “If either of you is responsible for this, you won’t be able to run far enough or fast enough. I will destroy you. And I’m not stupid enough to do it in front of witnesses.”
“Quinn, don’t be ridiculous,” Crawford blustered. “Of course we’re—”
He stepped closer and the mayor stumbled back. “You never did know when to keep your mouth shut, Gordon,” Quinn said in a low voice. “Get out of here. Now.”
Crawford turned and hurried away. Gervano stared at Quinn for a beat, then followed.
Maddie approached him, holding out her hand. He wanted to take it and hold on tight. He wanted to lose himself in the depths of her green eyes, to wrap himself in the understanding he saw there.
He yearned for her, for her strength, for the comfort she offered.
And that scared the crap out of him. He didn’t need Maddie.
He didn’t need anyone.
“This is your fault,” he said to her. “You brought YourMarket to Otter Tail, and they burned down my pub.”
She dropped her hand. “What?”
“Your fault,” he repeated. He heard his voice rise, but couldn’t stop himself. “You want to sell my pub to them.”
“You’re upset. I understand.” She clenched and unclenched her fists. “But I didn’t contact YourMarket and I didn’t burn down the Harp.”
“You might as well have. If you hadn’t been so greedy, they wouldn’t have gotten i
nvolved. You brought this ugliness.”
“Stop before you say something you’ll regret,” Maddie said. “This is awful, but we’ll figure out a way to fix it.”
“We’ll figure out a way? There is no we.” He shoved his hands through his hair. “God, how could I have slept with you? What was I thinking?”
She flinched. “I don’t know. You tell me.”
The pain on her face was like a punch to his gut, but he couldn’t stop himself. “You don’t care about this town or anyone in it. Hell, you haven’t even been here for fifteen years.”
THE WHOLE SCENE—flashing lights of the fire trucks, the smoke from the Harp, the glare of streetlights—seemed to break into a million glittering pieces. Maddie felt her heart shrinking, getting smaller. Harder. Until she couldn’t feel anything. “You want to know why I never came back to Otter Tail?” She drew a shuddering breath. “Remember what I told you about the beach…?” She swallowed and clenched her hands again. She’d told him far too much.
“Right after that night, there was a party. I’d never been to one of the parties before, but I went, hoping you might be there. You were.”
Everything she’d felt that night came rushing back. The excitement. Her happiness at being included. Her anticipation of seeing Quinn. And the humiliation and embarrassment that had overwhelmed her as she’d fled.
“I made a pass at you. Clumsy and awkward. Stupid, too, because I knew you had a girlfriend. You laughed. Asked why I thought you’d want to kiss me. A couple of the other kids laughed, too. Someone asked if the fat girl had a chance with Mad Dog.” She’d heard that voice in her head for years. “I left Otter Tail a few days later and never came back.”
“What are you talking about?” Some of the anger faded from his expression.
“I should have learned my lesson. I should never have gone near you this time. But I let you fool me. I let myself think you cared about me. It was all a game, wasn’t it?” She swallowed. “You wanted the pub, and you thought the best way to get it was to screw it out of me. Or was that a pity screw after my little confession about watching you on the beach?”
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