“That’s because I was a fool and I wouldn’t deserve you if I allowed that to happen twice in a lifetime,” he said, smirking when he noticed Louie Danoue trying to get their attention. “I think your public is waiting,” he told her.
Ty barely glanced behind her. “What about you? Where are you going?”
“Not far,” he curved his thumb around her cheek. “We are on a train in the middle of nowhere, remember?”
Ty tugged on her bottom lip and seemed reluctant to leave him alone. She decided not to press and joined the Holtz team on the other side of the room.
Weary and tired of socializing, Quay massaged his eyes and headed back to his cabin. Along the way, his steps slowed and he took time to stare out the glass dome of the corridor leading back to the compartments and main seating area. He could tell they were nearing the upstate toward the mountains. Trickles of snow were tumbling from above. They’d be in the thick of it by morning, he predicted. With a sigh, he reached his quarters. Once inside, he didn’t bother with turning on lights, preferring to continue his enjoyment of the passing scenery.
Quay had been relaxing for a while; and obviously far more relaxed than he realized, for he was shocked to his soul when a male voice greeted him in the darkness. Turning in the leather swivel chair before the desk, he saw Wake Robinson emerging from the shadows.
“Don’t freak out, man. I only came to talk,” Wake cautioned. “I only want to tell my side of things and nothing more.”
“Why now?” Quay challenged.
“It’s time,” Wake said.
“You’ve had plenty of time,” Quay’s voice sounded dry, “and I can think of far better places to clear your conscience.”
“I doubt that,” A half smile appeared on Wake’s attractive, light brown face. “There’re certain advantages to meeting on a train.”
“Sounds foolish to me, but I thank you for being careless.”
“You’re right about one thing. I did come to clear my conscience.”
“By all means,” Quay gave an airy wave. The room was still bathed in darkness but his eyes had already focused in steadily on Wake.
“How long we been friends, Quay?” Wake removed both hands from his jeans pockets as he sat on the leather couch on the other side of the desk.
Quay smiled in the dark, remembering. “Since your mom brought you with her to Ramsey when she interviewed to be my uncle’s assistant.”
“And have I ever lied to you?”
Quay grunted and straightened to remove his tuxedo jacket. “Considering the circumstances, I’d say that’s a yes and this trip down memory lane is getting old. Before you think about sharing the lie you came here with, I should tell you the cops have matched certain pieces of DNA to forensic evidence they uncovered from the murder scene. They’ve matched me to saliva and you to skin found under Sera’s nails.” Quay clasped his hands atop the desk and leaned forward. “You understand what I’m saying?”
Wake nodded. “I do. You think I killed her.”
“You’re here to tell me I’m mistaken?”
“Very mistaken. If anything, I tried to save her life.”
“What?”
Wake’s gaze narrowed in the moonlight. “You really don’t remember, do you?”
“I really don’t. And I’d hate it for you if you sit there and tell me-”
“I tried to save her life and that’s the truth.”
“And a truth like that caused you to disappear for the last two going on three years?”
“No one would’ve believed it.”
“I wonder why?”
“There was a fight, Quay,” Wake massaged his temples as he leaned forward. “You were drunk out of your head and willin’ to take Sera up on her offer.”
“Bullshit. Sera wasn’t one to give it up like that.”
“She was bent on revenge.”
“Against who?”
“Against the man she was sleeping with.”
In addition to being confused, Quay’s anger had reached the boiling point. “I’m not in the mood for riddles,” he warned his old friend.
“Look Quay, after you and I fought-it was nothing more than a punch in the mouth which probably explains the blood they found-I got the upper hand and you were out cold, but Sera was determined to wake you up. She kept saying she was going to have a Ramsey-one who was free to have her back. She kicked and scratched at me which is probably how my skin got under her nails. I had scratches for weeks.”
Quay smirked. “So I was passed out and you helped yourself?”
“It didn’t happen that way.”
“Then what way did it happen? Because you obviously know and won’t talk,” in spite of the dark, Quay could hear the man’s voice shaking.
“Just know this, Quay, the man Sera was seeing came to the room soon after we fought. He told me to leave and I did. When I saw Sera again, she was lying on the concrete eleven floors down.”
“So you just left her in the room with some guy?” Quay’s disbelief was clear.
“Dammit Quay, I was working for that guy. I had been for years.”
Quay leaned forward. “Working for him,” he could see Wake nodding in the moonlight.
“I was a clean-up man, so to speak. I never killed anybody, but I’d…persuaded several young women to leave certain Ramseys alone.
“Persuaded…” Quay closed his eyes as so many things began to come together- the disappearances, girls moving away. “This man…the man Sera was seeing, did he have something against me? Since every girl I’d ever shown interest in had conveniently left or been removed from my life?”
“This man hates you and Quest very much.”
Quay swallowed past the foreboding lump in his throat.
Wake continued. “What happened with Sera was between the two of them. But when it parlayed into a chance to make trouble for you and your brother, he jumped at it.”
“What the hell does he have against us?” Quay demanded, standing so quickly he almost sent the heavy leather chair to the floor.
“It’s not so much you and Quest as it is your dad.”
Stunned, Quay was already poised to ask his next question when a soft knock sounded against his door.
“Quay? It’s me.”
Tykira’s voice sent Quay’s anger fading fast. He forgot about Wake Robinson as he went to answer her knock.
“Hey,” he greeted quietly. His dark eyes roamed her face with sweet intensity when he opened the door.
“Are you alright?” Ty curved her fingers just inside the door as she stepped close.
“I was fine, I’m a lot better now seeing you,” Quay left his cabin to escort Ty back to hers.
Inside her compartment, Quay turned on a couple of lamps and then prepared to leave. “Don’t worry about me,” he brushed his mouth across her brow.
She caught his wrist. “Will you please stay?” she wasn’t ready for the evening to end and not completely sure that he was okay.
Quay cupped her lovely face in his wide palms and smiled. “You can’t know how much your concern means to me, but I’m good. I want you to lock these doors behind me- all the locks Tyke-even the double bolts. And set the door alarms.”
“But why-“
He gave her face a bit of a squeeze. “Do this for me, no arguments alright? Let’s see if this fancy security system really works. Don’t open this door for anyone but me, Tyke. I’ll be back, I promise.” He had every intention of keeping his word.
Eventually, Ty nodded and accepted that his decision was final.
Again, Quay kissed her forehead and backed out of the cabin suite making sure she had done as he asked before he walked away. Immediately, his thoughts returned to Wake. Unfortunately, he found the man long gone when he returned to his quarters.
Anger returned in the span of a second. Hands clenched, Quay searched for something to slam which would only upset things. Besides, Ty would surely hear him from her cabin and he needed to keep this quiet. W
ake couldn’t leave the train and would be like a caged animal before too long.
Quay left his compartment, intent on finding the security chief, conductor and Quest. He saw his brother and Mick in the corridor shortly after he’d left the cabin.
Quest took note of his twin’s mood the moment they stood face to face. “What?” he asked.
“Wake’s here.”
“Wake? How?” Mick whispered, stepping closer to the brothers.
Quay gave a brief but accurate recap. Quest made quick work of securing Mick in their cabin and then joined his brother to locate the chief and conductor. They made a pit stop in the lounge to collect their cousin Moses who had coordinated the train security with contacts made through his organization of bounty hunters. Quay and Quest quickly returned to the cabin car where they could brief the men while being in the vicinity of their women. Everyone understood the importance of keeping things quiet. The last thing they needed was panic on a train ascending a snowy mountainside.
“I’m pretty sure Ty is secure in her cabin, but maybe you should join her there, huh?” Quest advised once the briefing had concluded.
“Way ahead of you, Q,” Quay moved on down the corridor.
There was no answer from Ty when Quay knocked at her cabin door. He had the chief porter override the security measures to let him in and found that she’d drifted off to sleep while waiting for his return. Silently, he doffed his clothing then slipped into bed with her..
Ty stirred, gasping when she felt his arms encircling her, his lips against her ear. She tried to turn.
“Back to sleep,” he urged, his hold tightening.
She tried to turn. “I don’t want to.”
Quay understood, he was just as starved for her as she was for him. “We’ve got in the morning,” he brushed his mouth across her cheek. “Right now, I only want to sleep with you.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
A steady snow began to fall during the earliest morning hours. It continued on through a hazy dawn and blanketed the environment in a scene of winter white. Ty opened her eyes and focused on the wide window that held her entranced by the passing view. She was filled with a sense of contentment and something else. She was very warm and it had nothing to do with the bed coverings. Moreover, it was the steely embrace surrounding her.
It took some doing, but she managed to turn and gasped when she found herself staring into Quay’s striking features. He was awake and watching her with an intense emotion which radiated from his dark eyes.
“Are you alright?” Were her first words. Her nails grazed his jaw as she spoke.
“I’m good,” his canyon-deep voice seemed to resonate in the room.
Ty studied every inch of his face. “I want to know what’s going on.”
“I don’t want to talk, Ty.”
“But I-”
“Tyke, right now, talking is the last thing I want to do with you.”
Tykira’s questions faded like mist as his words melted her amidst the luxurious covers. “Quay…” her fingers weakened on his cheek.
Taking both her hands and pressing them close to his chest, Quay lavished her mouth with quick, soft kisses. The innocent pecks grew hotter and wetter in their urgency until he’d kissed a path down the column of her neck and the swell of her breasts.
Ty tugged her bottom lip between her teeth and surrendered to what occupied most of her waking thoughts. Quay paid special attention to the budding nipples that were already firm in anticipation of his touch. It was only then that Ty realized he must’ve undressed her some time during the night. The man’s touch was like mist, she thought warming over the idea of sleeping contentedly while handled her. He tended to one bare nipple with maddening thoroughness. His tongue bathed the rigid peak with languid strokes, before he suckled fiercely. His long brows were drawn close as he focused all his concentration on the task. Persuasive fingers grazed the other nipple. He alternated between squeezing the dark tip and soothing it with this thumb.
Ty arched and moaned, surrounded by a sea of sensation. Quay partially covered her beneath his weight. His hands encircled her waist when she arched. He never ended the maddening assault on her breasts. The glorious mastery of his lips and tongue was wholly centered on her nipples. Tykira’s gasps of utter delight in his ear fueled his determination to take her to the cliffs of satisfaction with the simple caress.
Quay settled himself snugly between her thighs and he almost lost all ability to reason when she raised herself against him. The torturously erotic friction forced a moan past his lips. Ty shuddered, feeling his helpless cry against her breast. Her hands gradually gained strength and she stroked the crisp, silkiness of his hair. Unconsciously, she drew his head closer to her chest. Quay switched his attention to the other breast, ravaging it with his tongue and teeth. His hand cupped and fondled the mound as he drew more of her satiny molasses flesh into his mouth.
Ty’s breathing was basically a series of shuddery sighs as she struggled to relay her need. Quay knew how affected she was, he felt the same. Her unconsciously sensational grinding against his erection was driving him out of his mind. His head was filled with visions of burying himself deep inside her then. He wanted to plunder the soft creaminess of her sex until she had nothing left to give. More than that however, he wanted to savor the moment and knew that would be a lost fantasy if he gave into his basest urges. He had to see her, smell her, feel her on his mouth.
Tykira cried out her disappointment when he left her chest and showered his kisses across her abdomen. Her hands fell away from his back to lie weakly against the pillows cradling her head.
At the joining of her thighs, Quay simply trailed his nose across the light dusting of tight black curls he found there. He grazed the most sensitive area of her body, the devilish right-dimpled grin appearing when she responded with a delighted shriek. Her hands came to his shoulders, the pleasure he gave her clit was so overwhelming that she didn’t know whether to buck or rotate her hips.
Quay was holding her hands to the bed while feasting on the overly sensitive bundle of nerves. Tirelessly, he nibbled and stroked her there without a care for her breathless pleas for mercy. Ty strained against his hold, never had she been so affected. Her hips lifted from the bed and eventually Quay released her wrists to hold her thighs in place.
Ty buried her fingers in her hair and submitted to the sinful pleasure he eagerly provided. She’d climaxed more than twice and knew not whether she could survive the eventual treat of their lovemaking.
Quay offered her a brief respite. Of course, Ty would’ve been the last one to call it that. He ended the scandalous kiss after plunging his tongue deep inside her for one long, lengthy moment and rotated it slow as he withdrew. Then, he was turning her onto her stomach, tonguing a wet kiss down the length of her spine. He rose to cover her with his body, pushing her thick hair over her head to expose her neck in order to feast upon her nape.
Ty pressed her face into the pillow and arched her bottom against the potent extent of his sex. Quay’s hand curved over her hip and disappeared between her thighs. Ty sobbed when his fingers entered her one, two, three at a time. They stroked deep and rotated in an ever increasing wealth of moisture. Quay’s kisses to her back grew more ragged as Ty continued to grind her bottom against him.
Completely weakened by desire and the way she sounded while he fondled her, Quay could barely retain his grip on the condom packet he’d taken from his trouser pocket. Ty saw it fall to the pillow in the line of her gaze and she could feel him trembling behind her. Just as overwrought as he, she turned over and managed to remove the condom from its packaging and ease it in place. The simple act took far longer than she’d anticipated. Her eyes widened at the sight of him, his length and girth made her mouth dry with desire.
Quay could waste no more time. His powerful hands curved around her upper thighs; pulling them apart as he thrust forward. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched a fist that he pounded against a pillow. Never had h
e experienced such sheer desire for any woman. But Ty wasn’t just any woman; she was the only woman he had ever truly wanted.
They made love throughout the snowy morning. Quay took his time pleasuring her and allowing himself to be pleasured. Ty felt ravished and welcomed the feeling of being overwhelmed by the powerful dark male she had desired all her life.
~~~
“Quay?” she called when they lay spent and satisfied amidst tangled covers.
Immediately, he raised his head and blinked when he spied the unease in her stare. “What’s the matter?” his concern was as evident in his words as it was in his expression.
“The night we were together…after the club…”
Quay’s eyes darkened, haunted by the memories of that evening.
“I hadn’t been with anyone since the night we first made love,” she said.
His sleek brows drew close and then his gaze held the look of stunned disbelief. In his wildest dreams, he couldn’t fathom the beauty in his arms virtually locking herself away because of him.
“Ty…I’m so sorry for the way that night ended. The way I made you feel,” he grimaced as though the words put a sour taste in his mouth.
“I’ve never been able to imagine myself with another man,” her eyes lingered on snowflakes trying to gain purchase along a frosty window, “whenever my platonic relationships took that turn, I’d end them before it happened. I cursed you so many nights. Hmph…I cursed myself for feeling so deeply for you that I couldn’t let another man touch me. I was sure you didn’t have that problem where other women were concerned.”
Quay winced. “Tyke-”
“No, no don’t,” she shifted to curve her fingers around his jaw, “there’s nothing to be sorry for or to regret,. You owned me no loyalty. I only wanted you to know those nights meant so very much to me. I love you. I always have. I fear I always will.”
“Fear?” Hurt pooled his gaze.
“When it came to being hurt by you, you never disappointed me. To believe it may really be a thing of the past, scares me. I’m so afraid that I won’t be able to handle it if it happened again.”
The Ramseys Boxed Set Page 41
