He ignored all of it. “The latches are old and the locking mechanism is pathetic — a five year old could open it. Not to mention the fact that there’s only one exit.”
Frustration coiled inside her, and beneath it, the burn of anger.
He was taking charge again, the way he always did, and again, the really annoying thing about it was that he was right, this place was a security risk now that she considered it. But she refused to let herself be intimidated.
“If you think I’m going to leave because of some petty bastard’s vague threats, you can think again. This is my home, Quinn. I’m not leaving.”
The expression on his face didn’t change one iota. “Come back to the hotel. I’ll sort a room out for you. It’ll only be for a couple of days. At least until we find this asshole and stop him.”
He made it sound so reasonable. Only a couple of days at Lone Star Bounty. No big deal.
Yet Lily couldn’t help herself. “Why would I want to do that? I told you I already had some security measures in place.”
“If you won’t come to Lone Star, then I’ll have to come here.”
Lily blinked, not understanding for a second. “I beg your pardon?”
“You heard me. You can’t stay here without protection, Duchess. Not with some prick hanging around threatening both you and Rose. So, if you won’t come to Lone Star, I’ll have to come to you.”
“What do you mean you’ll have to come to me?”
“Exactly what I said.”
Tension crawled through her shoulders, making her neck ache. “Quinn—”
“How do you know this guy is operating alone?”
“Well, I—”
“What if he’s got a partner? Or two? What if they break in here in the middle of the night? Sure, you’ve got that little gun of yours, but a bullet will only take down one man at a time.”
“They won’t threaten me physically. Not when they need me to pay them.”
“Lots of ways to get money out of someone.” Quinn’s gaze was full of a hard-won knowledge. “Painful ways.”
Lily opened her mouth then shut it again. She didn’t know what to say other than she didn’t want him here taking up all her space, taking up all her air. She didn’t want another man muscling into her life, taking over—
Hang on. All he’s suggesting is staying a few nights to make sure you’re safe.
It seemed like a fair suggestion if she looked at it objectively, given the threat in the emails and how they’d made it seem like they’d been watching West and Rose’s place. So, why did she feel so uncomfortable about about Quinn staying?
You know why.
Lily took a breath, trying to resist the urge to shift restlessly on her feet. Yes, the thought of Quinn Redmond staying in her apartment, sleeping on her couch and generally sharing her space was not a good idea. Perhaps there was merit to having her stay at the hotel. It was a big place and if she had her own room there for a couple of nights, she needn’t even have to see him if she didn’t want to.
Apart from working with him to find this blackmailer of course.
It all made sense and yet there was a part of her that didn’t want to give in. That wanted to push more, fight him. Get in his face. Make him take a few steps back, prove to him that he couldn’t tell her what to do. But then, she had a feeling that would just asking for trouble, and God knew, she didn’t need any more trouble than she already had.
“So what’s it to be?” Quinn’s green eyes narrowed on her. “I stay here or you come to me?”
Come to him…
A wave of heat washed through her, making her breath catch and she had to turn away, fussing with her weapon so he didn’t see the furious blush that was no doubt turning her cheeks bright red.
Shit and double shit.
“Well, when you put it like that,” she said, keeping her voice chilly but level. “I suppose it does make sense to stay at Lone Star.” She took another moment to fuss with the holster and then, feeling steadier, she turned back to him. “But only at night. If we want to draw whoever it is out, then I need to keep my routine as normal as possible. And I don’t want them to know I’m enlisting your help.”
Surprise flickered through his gaze, making her feel kind of satisfied since it was clear he’d expected her to argue. “Good point,” he muttered.
“And now you’ve put it around that we’re apparently in a relationship, no one’s going to find it strange if I stay over.” A sudden, unpleasant thought hit her. “I hope this isn’t going affect my bottom line.”
“You’re worried about your bottom line? Now?”
“I’m always worried about my bottom line. Especially now. ” She hesitated, not wanting to give too much away. Hell, there wasn’t any other way to put it though. “I can’t afford to lose any jobs because I’m in a relationship with you, Quinn. A fake relationship I may add.”
He looked mystified. “Why the hell would you? Your main competitor is me, don’t forget.”
Naturally, he wouldn’t understand. Her place in this industry was tenuous at best and once people knew she was sleeping with Quinn — even if it wasn’t true — things would change. More jobs might be offered to Lone Star, bypassing her. Or people might treat her differently — men in particular.
“Seriously?” She gave him a cool stare. “You really don’t have any idea?”
“Okay,” he said slowly. “Maybe I do. But it shouldn’t make any fucking difference.”
“No, but it does.”
He snorted. “Well, I’m make sure that it doesn’t. You’d better get some stuff together, okay? Then I’m going to want to look at those emails you got sent.”
Oh, so he would make sure would he? Like he could control the entire universe and everything in it. Still, there wasn’t much she could do about it now, so Lily decided to let it go. “Fine,” she said. “ And I’ve decided I will go into the office this morning. I want to check on Rose.”
Quinn frowned. “I told you she was fine.”
“I don’t care what you told me. I want to check on her.” Lily turned toward the bedroom. “You can go back to Lone Star if you like.”
He didn’t respond. Not that he needed to. She knew already he was going to come with her, whether she liked it or not.
It didn’t take her long to have a shower and change into her work clothes — a nice gray pencil skirt and a white blouse, with a pair of deep red stilettos for color. Then she carefully packed a bag, before coming out to find Quinn peering around her apartment in an interested fashion.
He was so tall and broad, his particular brand of rough and ready masculine energy so at odds with her pretty, feminine apartment. Yet, as he reached to pick up a delicate knickknack in one of his large, capable hands, she noticed how carefully he handled it. And she found herself wondering what it would feel like to be touched like that. With care, as if she was precious.
A shiver of longing whispered over her skin before she could stop it.
She’d never had a man handle her with care. None of the lovers she’d had before Mason had been rough, but they hadn’t exactly been careful either. And the ones after Mason…Well, she hadn’t had any after Mason.
And you don’t want any, either, right?
No. She really didn’t.
Lily cleared her throat ostentatiously.
Quinn put down the knickknack and turned around, seemingly unbothered at being caught looking at her stuff. “Ready to go?”
She bit down on the urge to tell him not to touch anything. “Yes. And I’m driving.”
Annoyingly — though she didn’t even know why she was annoyed — he didn’t argue and half an hour later, they were pulling up outside the plain, featureless office building that housed Duchess Bail Bonds.
Lily parked the car and got out, Quinn prowling along behind her. He didn’t say anything as they went up in the elevator to Duchess’s floor and she had to quell the urge to fill the silence.
They steppe
d out of the elevator and went down the hall to the Duchess offices, Quinn reaching the door before her and pulling it open. Standing aside so she could go in first.
“My, my,” Lily commented dryly as she went past him. “Who knew you’d be so gallant?”
Quinn gave her one of his rare grins. “Yeah, I’m a fucking gentleman. And don’t you forget it.”
Lily rolled her eyes, a retort at the ready.
Then stopped dead.
Her team appeared to be gathered around Rose’s desk in the reception area, and they were staring straight at her.
Her entire team. And Rush. Who was sitting on Rose’s desk.
Lily held onto her composure, sweeping a cool look around the silent office. “Any particular reason you’re all sitting around not working?”
Rose, apparently uninjured she was pleased to see, was standing behind the desk with West — who’d obviously returned from Arizona — beside her. Though the expression on her face was decidedly pissed-off.
“They didn’t believe me,” Rush said, grinning. “I told them it was true.”
Lily frowned. “Told them what was true?”
There was movement behind her and heat, the warmth of a hard male body. “Don’t you have anything better to do, little brother?” Quinn’s deep voice was dry as the Texas desert. “Why don’t you fuck off back to Lone Star, there’s a good boy.”
But Rush didn’t move, only grinned wider. “Come on, you really think I wouldn’t tell? When there’s money involved?”
Lily knew instantly what he was talking about. The goddamn office sweepstake.
Quinn must have realized the same thing because suddenly he was right beside her and one large hand was resting on her hip as she found herself being relentlessly drawn against his rock-hard body for the second time that day.
Everyone in the office went quiet, their eyes widening as they took in the sight of Quinn’s hand on her hip.
Dammit.
Heat radiated out from the place Quinn touched her, bringing an uncomfortable flush to her cheeks.
“Shit,” Nora said, blinking.
Rhys, standing beside her, frowned. “That’s not proof.”
This seemed to please Rush immensely. “Nope, you’re right. It isn’t.” His smile was ridiculously smug. “We’re gonna need more than that.”
“Yes.” Rhys’s dark eyes shifted from Quinn to Lily and back again. “It’s a lot of money.”
“That’s not my problem,” Lily said, hoping to stop this nonsense in its tracks. “And what Quinn and I are doing is none of your—”
“A kiss,” Rush interrupted, grinning. “Give us a kiss at least.”
Lily opened her mouth to tell him no way in hell was she kissing Quinn Redmond, but Quinn got there first.
“You’ve got to be shitting me? In front of all you assholes?”
“Hey, there’s two hundred bucks riding on this. I want to be sure.” Rush glanced around at the others. “Right?”
“Yes,” Rhys agreed.
“Same.” There was a smirk on Nora’s face. “Never thought you’d be a prude, Quinn.”
West, standing behind the desk with Rose, had a thunderous expression on his face and he radiated disapproval, not that Lily was surprised. He was a protective son-of-a-bitch and it was clear he did not like the thought of her and Quinn being together.
Well, you’re not together.
“Just protecting my baby’s interests,” Quinn drawled, his hand flexing on her hip, making the heat in her blood shift and turn. “She doesn’t kiss on command and neither do I.”
Rose was giving her a ‘him? Really?’ look and strangely, there was disapproval in her gaze, too, though Lily couldn’t think of what her little sister had to be disapproving about. She’d Vegas-married the man who used to protect her when she was sixteen, not to mention that he was fifteen years her senior, for Christ’s sake.
This was all ridiculous. And the longer they stood here debating stupid things like proof and kisses, the longer it was going to take to get to the important things, such as figuring out how to deal with this blackmail problem.
She and Quinn didn’t need to prove anything to her team, but she also knew them. They were not going to let this go. And she did not need the extra attention right now, not if she didn’t want them to find out what the real issue was. And she couldn’t let them find out.
Which meant there was only one thing for it.
Lily let out a long-suffering sigh and fixed her crew with a narrow gaze. Then she turned to Quinn, took a fistful of his T-shirt, and pulled his head down at the same time as she rose on her tiptoes, bringing her mouth to his.
It was supposed to be a light kiss, nothing major. A brief moment of embarrassment for her and Quinn, that would satisfy her relentlessly curious team, not to mention the curiosity a tiny part of her had, too. So she could say that she’d kissed Quinn Redmond and had felt nothing at all.
But that’s not what happened.
She didn’t feel nothing at all.
The second his lips touched hers, she felt as if she’d been struck by lightning.
An intense, electrical charge bolted the entire length of her spine, freezing her in place, sizzling across every nerve-ending, squeezing her lungs of air and raising the temperature of her body by about a thousand degrees.
She was insanely aware of him. Of the warmth of his lips as they met hers. Of how unexpectedly soft they were for such a hard, uncompromising man. Of his warm scent, spicy cedar and sunshine, and something intrinsically musky and male. Of how hungry she was for that warmth and the broad strength of his body.
She hadn’t touched or been touched in return, let alone kissed, in years and now she wanted to open her mouth, let him inside, explore him. Stroke the oiled silk of his skin, trace the tattoos that lay beneath his T-shirt, have those strong, capable hands caress her. What would it feel like if he did? What would he feel like inside her?
Her nipples hardened behind the soft cups of her bra, a throbbing ache between her legs.
Quinn, she nearly said huskily. Oh, Quinn…
Then his hand was over hers where it clutched at his T-shirt and he’d pulled his head back before she was ready. She almost pushed herself higher on her toes, wanting to follow his mouth, her hand tightening ready to pull him back down. But there was a flame burning in his jungle green eyes, and a tightly leashed tension hardening his big body.
She opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong and then realized that the entire office had gone deathly quiet.
Lily glanced at the others.
They were staring at her and Quinn with varying degrees of shock and amazement.
“Well, I don’t know about you guys,” Rush said at last, an unholy light in his eyes. “But I’m sure as hell turned on.”
Quinn’s hand over hers tightened and he pulled her fingers from his T-shirt. But he didn’t let her go.
“Excuse us,” he said, his voice gravelly and harsh, and before Lily could say a word, she found herself pulled past her gaping team and into her office, the door firmly kicked shut after them.
Then Quinn turned, grabbed her upper arms, pushed her very firmly against the closed door.
Lily’s heartbeat was way too loud, electricity crackling over her skin. Her lips were tingling, too, as if they’d been scorched.
God, what was happening to her? It had only been a stupid kiss. The merest brush of his lips. There hadn’t even been tongues involved.
The thought made the electricity intensify and she found her gaze centering on his hard and yet sensual mouth. Almost as if she wanted to kiss him again. Deeper this time. Harder…
“What. The. Fuck. Was. That?” Quinn’s voice vibrated with anger.
Stop looking at his mouth, fool.
With an effort, Lily pulled herself together and snapped her gaze to his. And lost what little remained of her breath as the heat in his eyes nearly burned her to the ground.
“Um…” she said, her th
inking processes weirdly sluggish.
He was standing so close, closer than he ever had before, his big, powerful body dwarfing hers. The heat coming off him was incredible, making a part of her want to rub herself against him like a needy cat. The part that had been starving for human contact and she hadn’t even realized it.
Jesus Christ, pull yourself together.
She tried to moisten her dry mouth, get her breathing under control. Tried to find her usual equilibrium, her ice cold armor, anything to cool the heat inside her. She’d never experienced this kind of desire before and it was…
Too much.
A thread of fear wound through her, lapping at the foundations of her soul like an incoming tide. Anything that threatened her self-control was a bad thing, as she knew to her cost, and this chemistry with Quinn was definitely something that threatened it.
She sucked in a breath, trying to keep a lid on the fear because there was no way she was going to let him see that. No way she would be weak in front of him. Not that she was weak, not these days.
“It was a kiss,” she said, pleased that her voice sounded so cool and level. “What do you think?”
The intensity of his gaze felt like it was searing every inch of exposed skin, his harshly masculine face fierce with anger, his sharp jaw tight, the air around them dense and thick with tension. And the same part of her that wanted to rub herself against him thrilled to the knowledge that she was the one who’d done this to him. With a simple kiss. And he wasn’t even pretending he wasn’t affected. He was letting her see it. All of it.
Weirdly, the fear lapping at her receded slightly, as if knowing she got to him as badly as he got to her helped in some way.
“Yeah, not a good idea,” he bit out, his teeth clenched.
Lily’s heartbeat hammered in her ears, her breathing short and choppy. Yes, there was something thrilling about this. About having him so close, the strength and power of his big, hard body almost touching hers, tension vibrating through him.
“Why not?” She had an idea why not, but she wanted to hear him say it.
“Why not?” Quinn echoed, the rough, blunt lines of his face getting even tighter. “Here’s a reason.”
Black Sheep Bounty Hunter: A Texas Bounty Novel Page 6