by Wood, Lauren
“No,” I answered simply. “I’d rather not.”
“Why not?” He cocked his head to the side, acting like he was innocent.
“Because you know how I feel about you just dropping by.”
Klaus snorted. “I was supposed to just ‘drop by.’” He made air quotes. “Don’t you remember our plans?”
I studied him, trying to remember if we’d made plans for today. But as far back as my mind could go, I couldn’t remember anything.
“What are you talking about, Klaus?” I asked him. He was constantly rambling on when he shouldn’t.
“It’s Saturday,” he reiterated. “The bar?”
“That’s not our Saturday ritual.”
“It could be. Now, move aside.” He pushed my shoulder, and I backed up, allowing him access to the house.
“I’m not going to the bar, today, Klaus,” I stated, closing the door and turning around to see that Quinn was there, staring at us in curiosity. She looked surprised at our topic of conversation, but she hid it well. She coughed and straightened her back as if to pretend like she wasn’t listening.
But I knew better. She was relieved. She was happy that I wasn’t going to the bar. I wasn’t doing it for her, was I? No, I didn’t owe her any kind of loyalty. The sole reason was because I only wanted one woman underneath me tonight, and I wouldn’t find her at a bar. She was standing right in front of me.
“Quinn,” my brother exclaimed and walked over to her. Klaus took her hand and kissed it. “It’s always a pleasure.”
She smiled, politely. “Same here.”
“What are you dressed for?” His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at her scrubs.
Quinn nodded at me. “Ezra’s about to take me to the vet office.”
“Work?”
“Yep.” She replied shortly.
“Speaking of which,” I intervened, not wanting Klaus attempting to woo her, like he was so good at. “How about you make yourself useful while you’re here and watch your niece until we get back?”
Klaus showing up may have worked in my favor. If I was going to tell Quinn my idea then I needed for us to be alone. The best way for that was if Paige was out of the picture. She didn’t need to know about any of this, and with how smart she was, I didn’t want her piecing any of it together. Paige was smart for her age.
I could tell that my words were making Klaus curious, and the only reason he was holding himself back was because of the woman standing beside him. Maybe he figured out why I wanted the time alone, or perhaps he didn’t and still just wanted a shot at Quinn himself. I hardly ever knew anything that went through his head although I was glad for that for a majority of the time.
“I mean, I was going to…”
I cut him off and grabbed Quinn. “We’re leaving,” I announced. “Be back in a bit.”
Before Klaus could say anything, I moved Quinn outside, my hand on her wrist. I hadn’t even thought about the fact that I was touching her before I was. But here I was, walking her outside to the car. I knew that I should have let her go, but that was the last thing that I wanted to do. So I didn’t.
I walked Quinn to her side of the car and waited for her to get inside. I caught a glimpse of her face, as she settled into the car. She was beyond nervous and surprised. There seemed to be more to it than that, though. She had a cute blush to her face. I had embarrassed her, and for some reason, I was happy about that.
Once I got into the car, I put the key in the ignition and put the car in drive. My head looked at Quinn, and she was staring out the window. Her lips were parted, and she was breathing heavily. What I wouldn’t give to peer into her thoughts and see what was going on in there.
One thing I knew for sure was that she was confused. And I didn’t blame her. There were parts of me that weren’t even completely sure of myself or what I was doing. All I knew is that it needed to be done. And all I could hope was that she felt the same way…although what were the chances that she didn’t?
I turned the car onto the road, trying to remember where her vet office was. Once I was on the road, my attention turned to Quinn, fully.
“Do you know why I offered to take you to work this morning?” I wanted to know what she was thinking before I told her the truth, just out of my own curiosity.
“So you could apologize for how rude you were?” She offered before I saw her eyes widen. Quinn had managed to surprise herself with her words, and the more important part, she’d managed to surprise me. I had already known how mean I’d been to her, but I didn’t want to be reminded of that.
“You thought I was rude?”
She raised an eyebrow at me. “Yes.” Then, she swallowed. “But I shouldn’t have said that. You’re my boss, and I’m sorry.”
“I was an ass.”
Yes,” she agreed. “You were.” She was still looking out the window.
“That isn’t why I offered to drive you to work.”
“Then, why did you?”
“Because I wanted to talk to you.” I sent a glance her way. “About us?”
“Us?”
“Yes.” I could feel Quinn’s eyes staring into me.
“What about us?” Her voice was low yet intrigued.
“There’s an obvious attraction between the two of us,” I stated. “That can’t be denied.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t think that we can keep working together or try to go back to normal unless we figure this out together. And I think that the only way we can work past this is if we go to the root of the problem and…”
“And sleep together?” Quinn finished for me, her voice shocked. And I heard the smallest bit of lust in it. She liked where this conversation was going.
“Exactly.”
“Why would that help us?” She asked me. “Wouldn’t that make it worse, so much worse?”
I knew where she was coming from, but that wasn’t how I saw this.
“I don’t think so,” I told her, honestly. “Right now, all I can think about is how you’ll feel, what you’ll taste like. If I had all of the answers to my questions, then wouldn’t those questions just leave my head? I wouldn’t have to worry about those things anymore.”
Quinn looked like she was taking in everything I was saying. “So one night of wild sex, and then what?” She asked me, trying to get answers to fill in all of the holes that my proposition were leaving her with.
“And then we forget all about it,” I told her, evenly.
She nodded. “So, we pretend that it didn’t happen.”
“Precisely.”
When the words were said out loud, I realized that they sounded different, much different than I had expected. It made me sound like a cold-hearted jerk who just wanted to take advantage of her. That wasn’t my intention, and I couldn’t change how I was viewed. After all, if the shoe fit. I couldn’t change it now.
Quinn didn’t say anything. Her eyes were focused out the window, and she was silent. I couldn’t think of a time that I’d ever seen her so quiet. Usually, she was full of words, things that she wanted to say. I’d made her speechless, and that was an accomplishment to me.
But I wanted to hear something. I wanted her to tell me whether she agreed with me or not. At the same time though, I didn’t want to rush her for an answer. The car ride was incredibly quiet, as we drove to the vet, leaving me with my own thoughts. Quinn didn’t stop looking out of the window, and I knew she was trying to process everything that I’d said without making that obvious.
When was the last time that I had ever felt so anxious or nervous? I was the kind of man who was always sure of himself, who knew exactly what he wanted and that was that. So, why was it different this time? Why was I so unsure of myself and attempting to get validation from a woman, one that I planned to sleep with, at that?
In all honesty, I was used to being confident of myself and in my actions. I was used to knowing exactly what I wanted and getting it, without having anything stand in my way. When
I wanted a woman, I never had problems getting her, and now I was wondering if Quinn was going to be the first woman to really reject me.
Quinn wanted me, I knew that much. But maybe I wasn’t the only one with questions and concerns. Just like I didn’t want to sleep with a subordinate, perhaps she didn’t want to sleep with her boss. Last night could have just been a mistake for both of us, except that it wasn’t. I knew what I’d said, but I hadn’t really thought that it was a mistake. Nothing with her could ever be a mistake.
I pulled into the parking lot of the vet and stopped. Quinn unbuckled her seatbelt, but she didn’t get out. She turned around to face me, biting into that lower lip the way that I liked. I wished that I could reach across, grab her chin and press those lips against mine. But I knew better than to even consider that at the moment.
She hadn’t even told me whether or not she was accepting or rejecting my proposition yet.
In an effort to try and convince her, I got out of the car and walked over to her side to open her door. Quinn looked shocked at my chivalry before she slipped out of the car, our bodies incredibly close together. She was staring at me with those big green eyes that I’d come to like so much.
“What’s your answer, Quinn?” I asked her, bending down so that my lips were next to her ear. I didn’t care if anyone saw us.
She didn’t say anything for a second before she nodded her head. “I think that I would like that.”
My thumb brushed over her bottom lip. “Good.” And then my lips were on hers. Kissing her may not have been the best idea, but it seemed like a pretty good one to me. Those beautiful, luscious lips. I could tell that she was surprised, but she was enjoying this nonetheless. She liked the feeling of my lips against her, liked when I kissed her.
8
Quinn
Work went by much slower than it usually did. Typically, I was so immersed in learning and helping the animals that the time flew by. But that wasn’t what had happened this time. Instead, I found myself looking at the clock every five seconds, trying to see how long it would be until I was finally back home.
When Ezra offered to take me to work, I should have known that something was up, especially when he asked if Klaus could watch his daughter. For the most part, Ezra refused to be a part of my life outside of Paige. So, him showing an interest and being invested should have told me that there was so much more to the story.
Should I have said yes to his proposition? What was this going to do to our relationship? Was Ezra right to think that quenching this thirst, having one wild and passionate night was enough to make us never think about this again? Or, was there a chance that he was wrong? Couldn’t doing this, if it were good, make us want more of each other? Make the cravings even worse?
But when he had asked me, I knew that there was no way that I could refuse him. Ezra had been right about one thing. There was a very obvious attraction between us, and if we didn’t try this out then I would keep wondering how he felt. We needed to do this, and more than that, we wanted to do this.
“What is going through your mind?” Pierre clapped a hand on the desk, making me jump, as I looked up. I was sitting down, doing some paperwork for the veterinarians, and I was completely zoned out. I hadn’t even noticed that he was right there. It was a good thing I wasn’t working on animals today otherwise I might have made an accident by now and hurt one of the animals.
“What do you mean?” I asked and closed the folders of paperwork that I was working on. After all, I hadn’t gotten that much work done anyways. My mind was far from where it should be. “I’m just working.”
“You’re daydreaming.”
“No, I’m not.”
He smirked at me. “Is it about that boss of yours?” He asked. “Don’t think that I didn’t see him kiss you before you came in.”
I gasped. “You saw that?”
“The entire office saw that.”
I looked at the clock. “That was six hours ago. Nobody said anything?”
“What were we supposed to say?”
“Where’s Morgan?” I asked, changing the subject. If anyone knew where Morgan was then it was Pierre considering they were sort of in a relationship. They would be a great couple if my friend wasn’t so obsessed with playing hard to get. But it was just the kind of person that she was. Besides, hadn’t she told me that they had gone on a date a couple days ago? Maybe he was finally breaking through her walls.
Pierre sat down on the desk and sighed. “She’s mad at me.”
“So, she didn’t come into work?”
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing!” Pierre exclaimed, pushing a hand through his hair. “She’s being dramatic.”
“Well, her name is Morgan.”
“Yeah,” he snorted. “I guess so.”
“So, what happened?”
Pierre stared at me. “Did she tell you that we went out on a date?” He asked me.
“She sure did.”
“It didn’t go so well.”
I gave Pierre my full attention at the mention of any drama. I had more than enough drama myself, and it was nice to be able to push that aside and think about something else for once. Besides, watching the two of them was like turning on my favorite television show and getting immersed in the drama.
“Go ahead,” I told him. “Tell Quinny what happened.” I didn’t get off of work for the next hour, and I needed something to keep my mind off of what was going to happen when I got home.
“I took her out to a nice restaurant, and one of my ex-girlfriends happened to be there.” My eyes widened, and I swiveled my chair. Oh, this story was about to get spicy and fast. When had all of this gone down? Morgan had never called me to tell me about any of this, and I felt a little bit left out that I was hearing from Pierre and not her, considering she was supposed to be one of my good friends.
“Your ex?” I questioned.
“Yes, her name is Lily.”
“And why did you guys break up?”
“Because I cheated on her.”
My jaw dropped. “Please don’t tell me that she told Morgan.”
“Oh, no, she didn’t just tell Morgan about the cheating part,” Pierre told me, and my eyes widened while I realized where this was going. “She told Morgan about every single aspect of our relationship, from our sex life to the kinds of dates that I’d taken her on, anything and everything that she could think of. And oh, do you want to know what the worst part about it all was?”
“What?”
“She told Morgan that I’d taken her to that exact restaurant every week, and that it was our place. Lily told her that I was just reusing ideas for dates from when I’d been dating her.”
“Well, was she being honest?” I asked.
“Well, yes.”
“Pierre!” I exclaimed.
“I’m sorry!” he apologized, his voice an exclamation. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You can’t recycle date ideas,” I told him. “What did Morgan say?”
“Nothing.” He sighed.
“Nothing?” I questioned. “That sounds very un-Morgan-y.”
Pierre nodded in agreement. “She stood up, looked at me, and then just walked away.”
“When did this happen?”
“Two nights ago.”
“Have you talked to her since?”
“No,” he answered, sadly. “She didn’t come to work today, and she hasn’t answered any of my calls or texts.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I thought, maybe you could help me figure that out?”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “No!” I exclaimed. “I can’t help you. The heartwarming part of making it up to a woman is that you thought of it yourself, not with the help of her best friend!”
“Ugh, fine!” he growled. “I’ll leave you to work.”
“Bye, Pierre.”
Pierre left, and I managed to get my head in the game and act
ually get some work done, which was much harder than I would have thought. I spent a majority of time fighting my brain to think about animals rather than the mind-blowing sex that I was sure about to happen the second that I was picked up from this office.
When my eyes finally darted to the clock, I realized that it was finally time for me to be off. I let out a sigh and stretched more in my chair. Just as soon as I realized the time, my phone began ringing.
I reached out and grabbed, not surprised that it was Ezra. He was a punctual man, and I wasn’t surprised that he would be there, right as I got off of work. I answered. “Hello, Ezra,” I greeted, unable to hide the nervousness that I felt just to talk to him.
Maybe, I needed to be a little bit more confident. This was just sex, right? And it wasn’t exactly like this was the first time that I’d ever had sex. This was all about being relaxing and a stress reliever, and that was exactly what I needed to think about. He wanted me. I wanted him. Everything was perfect.
“Quinn.” His greeting was short and simple, something I’d come used to when it came to him. “I’m waiting outside for you. When are you going to come outside?” Regardless of the fact that Ezra was a businessman, he was the farthest thing from patient. And he had always been that way.
“I’ll be out there within five minutes.”
“Good.” The phone line went dead.
I gripped my hand in my hand and groaned. This man could be so infuriating, and I wanted to scream or throw my phone, but I managed to stop myself. I finished getting all of the paperwork in one folder and closed it before pushing it aside. I’d gotten a good bit done, although not nearly as much as I should have.
I pulled my backpack on and walked out, stopping by Pierre.
“Out so soon?” He asked me.
“Well, I am off the clock.” I looked at my phone. “It’s five.”
“Lucky. I’ve got another hour.”
“Good luck,” I told him. “With work and Morgan.”
“I have better luck with work.”
“Bye, Pierre.”