Peter cleared his throat. Loudly.
“Would you like me to get you another drink, Quinn?”
Before Quinn could answer him, Logan said softly, “We can handle it from here, Pete.”
“It's Peter. Quinn?”
Quinn finally broke their locked gaze. But instead of looking at Peter, she looked at Ty, who gave her a bright white smile. A knowing smile, an unspoken promise of what was to come later. Quinn's hand fluttered to her throat.
“I'm fine. Thank you,” she answered Peter absently.
“Oh. Okay.” Peter tugged at the lapels of his jacket. “Well. I…I'm going to go mingle. I'll see you a little later, Quinn.” He nodded to both Logan and Ty. “Nice meeting you, gentlemen.”
Logan gave him an answering nod and a predatory smile. Ty shook Peter's hand, then gave him a slap on the back as he scurried away.
A band on a stage at one end of the large hall started to play, drowning out some of the noise from the gaming tables. Ty noticed a dance floor in front of the stage, with only few couples dancing.
He offered his hand to Quinn. “Dance with me?”
She smiled warmly and accepted his offer, linking her fingers with his. She handed her Long Island iced tea to Logan as Ty led her toward the parquet-covered dance area.
Once there, Ty pulled her into his arms and pressed his hips to hers. He brushed his nose against her hair. “You smell good.”
Her low chuckle vibrated against his chest. “And you look very handsome tonight.”
“Just tonight?”
“Well, you look extremely handsome in your tux. But honestly, I prefer you naked.”
He smiled into her hair, careful not to wreck all the work she had put into styling it.
“Well, if we are being honest here, you are practically naked.”
“I'm covered where I need to be.”
He wasn't the best dancer, but he managed through the slow dance, shuffling his feet. He was careful not to pinch her pedicured toes.
“Ty, what's going on? Logan said he'd explain later, but—”
“We couldn't let you do this on your own.”
“But—”
“But we realized we were being as stubborn as you were by refusing to come.” He chuckled. “I guess we are just not as stubborn as you. We were willing to bend.” He suddenly felt fiercely possessive of the woman he held in his arms. “We want you, Quinn. We care about you. We want you to realize it.”
Her fingers clenched against his back. Hard enough that he could feel them through his tux coat.
He heard what suspiciously sounded like a sniffle. He leaned back slightly to look at her. She turned her face away.
“Hey now. You need to stay strong. Isn't this what this whole display is supposed to be about?”
“Yes,” she whispered against his lapel. “I just don't want you guys to do what you don't want to do.”
“If we didn't want to do it, we wouldn't be here.”
“You don't know what this means to me,” she said as her body melted against him, cementing the fact that he and Logan had made the right decision to come tonight. No matter what it cost them otherwise, Quinn needed to be a part of their lives. Maybe they didn't agree 100 percent with her decisions, but they were hers to make, and he and Logan would be there to help pick up the pieces if need be.
“Do you feel how much I want you right now?”
She pulled back a little in his arms and looked up at him seriously. “Oh, is that you? I thought you had a salami in your pocket.”
Her eyes crinkled at the corners, and he pulled her close once more, his fingers skimming down the smooth skin along her spine. She shivered against him, rocking her hips with an exaggerated motion.
“Careful,” he warned her. His balls tightened as his cock hardened even more.
He pulled her hips against him even tighter, making sure she felt every inch of him. A shoehorn would be needed to separate them.
Or not. He noticed the glances they were getting from couples on the dance floor and others who were gathered at the gaming tables nearest the dance floor. Some of the rich biddies were shooting nasty looks toward them; others were whispering to each other.
Ty sighed. He put a little space between him and Quinn.
“What's wrong?”
“Oh. The same old, same old.”
An expression of concern crossed her face. “What does that mean?”
Ty shook his head in disgust. “Never mind.”
“Oh no, you don't. Tell me what's wrong.” Quinn looked around at the surrounding charity participants. “Ah. Never mind. I understand now.”
“I guess your mother's friends are still stuck in the Dark Ages.”
“They are not all my mother's friends, but yes. This country club has a strict membership policy, if you know what I mean.”
He stopped in the middle of the dance floor and studied her face. Logan said that they had to be there for her, no matter what, and he had agreed, but… “Quinn, do you know what you are doing tonight?”
“Absolutely.”
“No. Look. These people don't even like the fact a black man is dancing with a white woman. How are they going to react when they find out you are not only dancing with one but sleeping with him?” He put up a finger to stop her from interrupting. “And you are not only sleeping with a black man you are sleeping with his white male lover. I don't think they are going to be real open to that concept.”
The band transitioned from one slow song into another.
Quinn grabbed his arms and wrapped them around her. She laid her head against his lapel. “I don't care.”
Lord, she felt good in his arms. “Quinn, you had better be sure about this.”
“You sound like Logan.”
Ty bit back a laugh. As funny as it was being accused of sounding like Logan, what Quinn was doing tonight was serious business. “Well, maybe he's right. Do you really want to alienate your family because they want you to be with that analyst geek?”
She gave him a light punch in the arm. “Hey! I'm an analyst geek.”
“Hardly.”
He moved her slowly around the dance floor, his fingers pressed into her hips.
“If my parents can't accept my decisions—can't accept me the way I am—then, well, to hell with them.”
“Quinn, they are your family.”
“Then they need to accept my choices. They need to let me choose who to love.”
Ty stopped again, catching her chin and tilting her head up. He squinted, looking deep into her eyes. She met his gaze defiantly, as if daring him to question her. He decided to let the comment go. The dance floor at a charity event—a crowded one at that—was no place to explore what her last comment meant.
“Why no earrings tonight?” she asked him.
“Because I leaned toward the more-conservative side tonight.”
“So you decided to change yourself to fit in?”
She was purposely challenging him. Ty bit back a curse. Instead he said, “Does it look like I fit in here?”
“Do I look like I fit in here?”
Where was she going with this? “Yes.”
“Well, that proves it: looks are deceiving.”
He snorted. “You can't judge a book by its cover?”
“Looks are only skin deep.”
“Beauty fades; stupidity lasts forever.”
Quinn threw her head back and laughed loudly, drawing more attention to them. Not that they already hadn't drawn enough attention. But her laughter made a little of the tension in his body disappear.
As the song changed again, he decided he'd had enough of trying to fake that he could dance. His whole point of asking her to dance was for some alone time and to feel her against him. A little something to tide him over until later. He had achieved his goal; now he could return her safely, with all her toes still intact.
He cupped her elbow, leading her from the dance floor. And directly into Long Arm Landis.
“Holy shit, T. Never would have expected to see you here.”
“How are you doing, Renny?”
Quinn looked from one man to the other. “Renny? I thought his name was Long Arm.”
Ty kept a grasp on Quinn's arm, holding her close to his side. “Ren, this is Quinn Preston. Quinn, this is Lawrence 'Long Arm' Landis. Known around the locker room as Ren or Renny. The public and the media nicknamed him Long Arm.”
Quinn eyed the other man's arms, which were encased in a very expensive tux. “His arms look like a normal length to me.”
Both of the men laughed.
“Where did you find her?” Renny asked him.
“His nickname comes from how far he throws on the field,” Ty explained to Quinn.
“Oh. Sorry.” Her cheeks were unmistakably pink.
Renny eyed Quinn's dress. Or rather, the lack thereof. Ty suddenly felt a bit protective. He was close with all his former teammates; they were like brothers. But not close enough to share. Logan was off-limits. And now so was Quinn.
That realization smacked Ty right between the eyes. Logan was right. She belonged with them. Any remaining doubts he'd held on to vanished.
“My agent didn't mention you'd be here. Hey, T, you find it a bit odd we are the only brothers here tonight?”
“We were just discussing that fact.”
“Are you here to sign autographs?”
“No. I'm here escorting Quinn.”
Ty's declaration drew Renny's attention back to Quinn. He gave her a big smile and leaned toward her, whispering, “You like dark meat?”
“Are we talking about a Thanksgiving turkey?” Quinn countered.
Renny laughed, his gaze raking over her from the top of her head to the tips of her toes and back. “Wow. Looks and a sense of humor. Quite the package.” Renny fingered the sapphire. “Nice piece of bling.”
What was with that fucking sapphire? The next person who touched Quinn between her breasts was getting his fingers broken.
Ty stepped between him and Quinn, breaking the contact. “You can look, but you can't touch.”
“What's up, T? Is she yours?”
She's mine. She's Logan's.
“She's ours.”
Chapter Fifteen
She's ours.
Those two little words resonated through Quinn. They meant a lot to her. To be claimed outright like that felt good. Especially since she'd thought she was going to have to face this night by herself.
Ty's former teammate lifted his hands in front of him as if in surrender. “Hey, man, white looks good on you. No harm, no foul.”
The jury was still out on how Quinn felt about Ty's friend. He was a little overconfident, if not arrogant. But then, he was apparently a famous pro football player. And not a bad-looking one to boot.
Renny sure hadn't come dressed conservatively. He had a huge diamond solitaire in each ear. Quinn guessed they had to be two carats a piece. One of his long fingers sported a large square ring. She had been able to read the ring when he touched her sapphire. It said World Champions, and it was encrusted with diamonds and colored stones that looked like rubies, in the shape of a bulldog.
She wondered if Ty had one of those rings.
Even though Renny was dressed in a tux, he had a large gold cross hanging from his neck, and his dress shirt had the top two buttons undone. His cummerbund was Bulldog red. His hair was tightly braided into cornrows against his head. He had beautiful white teeth and large dark brown eyes.
And he was watching her checking him out.
Crap.
She didn't want to give him the wrong impression.
“So,” Renny asked, “what's with the she's ours?”
Quinn saw Ty's gaze bounce from Logan, who was still at the bar, to her, and back to Renny. A mix of emotions crossed Ty's face, and suddenly Quinn realized he was struggling with admitting the truth about his relationships. Or at least one in particular.
His former teammate had no idea Ty was in a relationship with—in love with—another man.
A lump formed in the pit of her stomach. By throwing her relationship in her parents' faces, in Peter's face, she was outing both Logan and Ty. She knew that. The boys had warned her about that. And she hadn't listened. Hadn't seriously thought about the consequences.
She slid an arm inside his jacket to hug his waist. The heat from his body was overly warm against her bare skin as she gave him a little squeeze.
She was such a selfish shit.
She never should have come. She never should have dragged them into this. Yes, they ultimately had decided to come on their own. But only to please her.
The sting of tears bit at the corners of her eyes. She looked up into Ty's face and said, “I'm sorry.”
He brushed the pad of his thumb over her cheek and gave her a tender smile.
“Don't be. We wanted to be here for you.”
“But I didn't want you guys to be a sacrifice for my benefit.”
“We're not, Quinn. Believe me, we're not.”
The last came from Logan, who had moved up to join them, looking concerned.
“Is everything okay?” Logan asked.
Ty nodded. “Fine.”
He introduced Logan to Renny. The two men shook hands.
“I think I remember you. You laid the sod at our stadium. What are you doing here?”
Logan answered honestly. “I'm with Quinn.”
A look of confusion crossed Renny's features. “I don't get it. I thought T was with her.”
Quinn laid a hand against Logan's chest. An unspoken warning that they did not have to do this. They did not have to go through with this tonight.
Logan went on anyway. “He is. We both are.”
It took a minute, but finally the confusion cleared from Renny's face. But not for long. “So you guys are escorts.”
Quinn opened her mouth to say something, to stop them. But Logan put a hand over hers and squeezed. Her breath caught, and she helplessly watched everything unfold before her.
Ty shook his head, looking directly into Renny's eyes. “No, we're lovers,” he said.
“Yeah, I get it. You and Quinn are doing the bump and grind. So how does he”—he nodded his head toward Logan—“fit in?”
Logan brushed a piece of imaginary lint off Ty's shoulder. “Like he said. We're lovers.”
Renny stepped back, his eyes widening. “Wait. Wait.” He did a complete circle in place, stomping his feet and smacking his palms on his thighs. Then he planted his hands planted on his hips and stared at Ty. He opened his mouth and a second later closed it, before opening it once more. “T… Really?”
“Yeah, really,” Ty answered softly.
“Damn, man. Wow.”
Quinn decided it was time to step in. “Wow just about describes our relationship perfectly.”
The overhead lights flashed a couple of times to get the attendees' attention. The lights lowered to a more-ambient glow. A man Quinn didn't know was at the microphone on the stage, a soft spotlight shining off his bald head.
“Ladies and gentlemen, tonight's turnout for the House to Home Charity Monte Carlo Night has been exceptional. Thank you to the Mandolin Bay Country Club for allowing us to hold it here, and special thanks to the Society Ladies' Charity Club for all their hard work. Now, if you'd all take your seats, we'd like to get the bachelor/bachelorette auction started.”
A low murmur came from the crowd as they moved away from the gambling tables along the outer walls toward the round banquet tables surrounding the dance floor.
The man continued. “When we are finished with that, dinner will be served, followed by the reopening of the gaming tables. At that time, our local celebrities will be signing autographs and posing for pictures. And we have a special treat for our sports fanatics. Long Arm Landis is with us tonight.”
A spotlight came from nowhere to shine on Renny. He pasted on a smile, covering up the fact he was still in shock, and gave a slight
wave. Polite clapping came from around the large room.
As soon as the spotlight cut off from Renny, they all moved to the nearest empty table and sank into chairs. Ty and Logan flanked Quinn, while Renny settled to Ty's right.
Quinn adjusted her dress to make sure she wasn't giving the event goers a free show as the announcer continued with his speech.
“Just a reminder, the House to Home Charity needs your generous donations to continue to benefit the needy. This charity was put in place to help rebuild homes for the victims of natural disasters. Disasters which include hurricanes, like Hurricane Katrina, earthquakes, tornadoes, and mud slides. Just about any type of natural disaster. So without further ado, we will begin the auction…”
One by one, local celebrities, like newscasters, sports figures from local farm teams, and high-profile businesspeople, were called to the stage to be “sold” to the highest bidder. The winner received a date of their choice with the auctionee. It could consist of dinner or a movie, or just a meeting at a coffee shop.
When Logan suddenly nudged Quinn in the ribs, she realized she had stopped paying attention to what was happening on the stage.
Logan whispered against her ear, “You're up.”
Quinn looked up at the announcer, who was doing double duty as the auctioneer. He was holding an arm out toward her, beckoning her to the stage.
“Ms. Preston is the daughter of Margaret Preston, the president of the Society Ladies' Charity Club. Her father is Charles Preston, retired senior partner of Morgan, Morgan and Chandler Accountants, one of the top ten accounting firms in the world.”
Quinn felt self-conscious as she carefully made her way up to the stage. Okay, they had proved her blood was blue. Now did they want to check her teeth too?
“Ms. Preston is a senior financial analyst for the insurance firm of Anderson, Jameson and Coleman, LLC.”
When she approached the microphone, she leaned into it and asked, “Would you like my weight, height, and age too?”
Chuckles came from the crowd, which she could not see because of the damn spotlight blinding her. From nowhere, someone shoved a large cardboard check into her hands, almost making her lose her balance.
Double Dare Page 19
