by Parker, Ali
I bit down on the inside of my cheek hard. “Did you kill him?”
“What? No. I stabbed him in the leg. He’ll be fine.”
“Thank God,” I said. Then I shook my head. “Wait. If you stabbed him in the leg, how do you have this shit all over your face? This doesn’t make sense.”
He shrugged. “I may have taken a hit to the head at some point.”
“What?” I practically yelled at him.
He grimaced. “Too loud.”
“Sorry.” I walked around him and went to my tip toes. The hair on the back of his head was matted with blood. I reached up and gently touched it with two fingertips. “Does this hurt?”
“It doesn’t feel good,” he said dryly.
“You might have a concussion. We should go to the hospital. If all this blood is from your head—”
“Quinn,” he said softly and turned to me. He put his hands on my shoulders. “I’m all right. I just need to lay down.”
Nancy came back from the bathroom with two aspirins in her palm. She held them out to Rhys and then gave him a glass of water. We both watched him toss them back and then drain the whole glass. She went and refilled it and brought it back to him, and he drank more.
“Did you ride your bike home?” I asked.
“Yes.”
I was going to give him a piece of my mind in the morning. I sighed and took his hand. “Come on. I’ll get you cleaned up, and then you can lie down in the guest room. I don’t need you getting blood all over my sheets. The rest of my stuff has already been ruined enough.”
He followed me into the bathroom where I cleaned him up and inspected the back of his head, looking for a gash or some evidence of where all the blood came from. I never found it.
Maybe it wasn’t his. Maybe he wasn’t telling me the whole truth of what went down. Maybe he didn’t stab that guy in the leg.
I had him take his shirt off and made sure there weren’t any wounds hiding beneath his clothes. He also took his pants off. He wasn’t leaking from anywhere. Once I was satisfied that he wasn’t going to bleed out in my guest room overnight, I took a look at the hand he’d been cradling when he first showed up at the door. His knuckles were bruised and split and in need of cleaning. He let me clean them and wrap them for him. I also wrapped his wrist tightly in case it was fractured or sprained.
Once he was blood free, he looked a lot more like himself. He had a split lip and the beginnings of a black eye, but he looked healthier than I expected.
We went down the hall to the guest room, and I pulled the blankets down. I sat down at the head of the bed with my back against the headboard and told him to come. He didn’t hesitate to lay down on his back and rest his head in my lap.
I stroked his hair, running my fingers through it gently as he looked up at me. “Thank you,” he said softly. He could barely keep his eyes open.
“For what? If it wasn’t for me, you never would have had to do this tonight.”
“Someone needed to teach him a lesson, right?”
I sighed and leaned down to kiss his forehead. “I wish it didn’t have to be you.”
He smiled, and his eyes closed. I continued stroking his hair and watched as his breathing evened out and he fell asleep. It didn’t take long at all. Seconds, probably.
But time seemed to stand still as I sat there with him, suspended in a reality I could never have.
Chapter 13
Rhys
My head wasn’t pounding as furiously as I thought it would be when I first opened my eyes. The room was dark, so I knew it wasn’t morning yet. There was a pressure against my shoulder blades, and I remembered that I’d fallen asleep with my head in Quinn’s lap.
I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness.
After a minute or so, she came into focus. She was just a pale outline above me. I could hear her soft and steady breathing, and her breath danced across my forehead. Her hand was still in my hair.
I smiled to myself and winced as the cut on my lip burned. It didn’t matter. It had all been worth it to lie like this with her.
I had to fight myself to keep my eyes open. I wanted to linger here in this quiet place with her for just a couple more minutes. I wanted to commit it to memory so that after I went back to New York, I had something to pull out and think about. Something that wasn’t just sex but a quiet moment between the two of us. Tenderness.
Love.
* * *
I woke again when the bedroom was basked in sunlight. I had a bit of a headache but nothing too serious, and by the time I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stretched, I felt refreshed. My knuckles still hurt, and my wrist ached, but besides that, I was in decent enough shape. Not bad for taking on four guys on my own.
I stood up and gave myself a minute before I left the bedroom. I wanted to make sure no dizzy spells were going to jump up on me. When none came, I looked around the room and found my clothes, washed and folded, sitting on top of Quinn’s old dresser that she’d moved into the guest room years ago.
I pulled on my jeans, which smelled like her lavender detergent, and then my shirt, and I left the bedroom to walk down the hall. I lingered in the entrance to the kitchen and watched Quinn.
She must have just gotten out of the shower within the last ten minutes or so. Her hair was wet and hanging straight down her back. She’d probably start braiding it soon. She was wearing sweatpants which were rolled halfway up her calves and a black crop top that showed off her lean midsection. She really had no clue how goddamn sexy she was.
I whistled.
Quinn turned around and smiled at me. She’d been chopping up cantaloupe and throwing the little squares into a bowl along with some green grapes. “Morning,” she said.
“Morning.”
“You look much better than you did last night.”
“All thanks to you.”
She shrugged. “It was the least I could do.”
I joined her at the counter, and she popped a piece of cantaloupe in her mouth. I watched her lips as she chewed. Her marvelous, splendid, voluptuous lips. Then she picked up another piece and held it up to my mouth. I opened up, and she placed it on my tongue.
It was fucking cold.
She giggled as I chewed and wiped her hands on the towel hanging off the oven handle. Then she went back to chopping.
“Where’s Nancy?”
“She had to go into the parlor this morning. She’s been working there with me for the last six months as our receptionist. You just missed her by about twenty minutes. She was hoping you’d get up so she could see you.”
“Why?”
“Seriously?” Quinn asked.
I stared blankly at her. “Yeah. What am I missing here?”
“She feels terrible, Rhys. You were in pretty rough shape last night, and she had no idea what condition you’d be in this morning. And whatever condition it was, you wouldn’t be in it if she hadn’t started dating that asshole.”
“But she didn’t know he was an asshole when she started seeing him.”
“No,” Quinn said slowly. “But a certain someone who is a pretty good judge of character did warn her a handful of times, and she chose to disregard the warnings and the numerous red flags.”
I chuckled. “Nancy doesn’t like being told what to do. And neither do you. Didn’t Max tell you that I was bad news and that you should stay away from me?”
Quinn opened her mouth to reply and then closed it. She cocked her head, thinking. “Well shit. You just poked a giant hole in my logic.”
I tapped the side of my head. “Perspective, baby.”
Quinn rolled her hazel eyes at me. “She’ll be glad to hear that side of things. This has been hard on her. All of it. The messed-up apartment. You getting your ass kicked—”
“I did not get my ass kicked.”
She blinked innocently at me. “Oh? Then what would you call all of this?” She gestured at all of me but focused her attention on my back eye, spli
t lip, bruised throat, and fucked up right hand. She put her hand on her hip and arched her eyebrow. “You look like you were used as a piñata.”
I laughed. She didn’t.
“Rhys,” she said. There was no playfulness to her tone. “What happened last night?”
I moved around her and grabbed another piece of melon. After popping it in my mouth, I met her gaze. “I found Kyle, and I told him to leave Nancy alone. He wasn’t having it. He said she was his. He was unreasonable, so one thing led to another.”
“How many of them were there?”
“Four.”
“Jesus.”
I shrugged. “I handled it.”
“Nancy is scared that Kyle is going to come after her again. Does she need to worry about him?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“What did you do?”
“Why do you assume I’ve done something terrible?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t think that. But I need to know what happened. So does Nancy. She deserves the peace of mind. Tell me.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Fine. He came at me with a baseball bat. I busted up his knee, broke a rib or two, and kicked in a few teeth.”
Her eyebrows inched up her forehead with surprise. “Oh.”
“And then I had to contend with the other three. I’m sorry that I scared you last night. And Nancy. I didn’t really realize how rough I looked, I guess.”
“You looked like you were in a freak accident and your parachute didn’t open after jumping out of an airplane and you landed on something hard and sharp.”
I grinned. “Like the good old days, huh, baby?”
Quinn took the bowl of melon and grapes and started eating them. “You’re impossible. You know that?”
“You make a point to remind me whenever you get the chance.”
“So, these other guys. What sort of condition were they in when you rode away? The same as Kyle?”
“Give or take.”
She paused with a grape in her mouth. It was cute the way her lips were puckered. “Define ‘give or take’.”
I stole a couple grapes. “Well, instead of broken ribs, they had other broken things. Like a broken nose and wrist. But I’m no doctor.”
“No. You’re just the guy who sends people to doctors.”
I grinned. “You like that about me.”
Quinn drew her wet hair over her shoulder and ran her fingers through it. Then mindlessly, she began weaving it into a braid. “I don’t not like that about you.” Her tone was playful. It sounded to me like she’d forgiven me for being a total barbarian last night.
I took the hem of her shirt and pulled her to me. “I know.”
Quinn tugged her shirt out of my hand and walked around the kitchen island. Confused, I watched her go and sit on one of the barstools on the other side. She continued eating her bowl of fruit without looking up at me.
“Uh, did I do something wrong?” She shook her head. “Then why does it feel like I suddenly did something wrong?”
She heaved a dramatic sigh. It was a signature move, and one that guaranteed that she was right and I was wrong. I braced myself. “You’re leaving today, right?”
“I was planning on it.”
“And you think that you can just come here, fight my battles for me, and then fuck me and leave?”
“Wait, what? No. Quinn—”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to go down that road. Saying goodbye to you the first time was hard enough. I don’t want to live it again. Seriously, Rhys. I’m all alone here. Except for Nancy. And if we do this again, I’m afraid I’m going to feel the exact same way I did last time, and it almost killed me.”
Her words hit me right in the gut. I leaned on the other side of the island and hung my head. “I get it.”
“Do you?”
I looked up at her. “Yeah.”
“Really? Because from where I’m standing, it doesn’t seem like you do. It was so easy for you to pack up and move to another fucking state, Rhys. And you never looked back. You just left.”
“It wasn’t easy.”
“You never even called me. I waited weeks, thinking that you would. Just to check in. Just to make sure I was all right. It had only been two months since Max and—and—” She shook her head sharply. “It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s in the past. And that’s where it should stay. If you have to go back to New York, then that’s fine. But you can’t have both. You can’t have your new life and me. It’s not fair.”
I ran my tongue along my teeth. Every word was true, and that made it hurt even more. “You’re right.” Quinn stiffened. “I should have called. I should have made sure you were all right. I just couldn’t hear your voice without thinking of him. I couldn’t bear it, Quinn. I needed to do something to make it better, and the only fucking thing I could wrap my head around was killing Reed.”
“And did that make it better?” she whispered.
I swallowed. “No. Nothing has.”
“Then why didn’t you come back?” Her voice cracked, and I didn’t dare look at her. I didn’t want to see the tears that were there because of hurt I’d caused.
“Because this city only reminds me of what I’ve lost and what I’ve done.”
“And what have you done, Rhys?”
“Enough. I’ve done enough.”
Chapter 14
Quinn
I’d spent the last eight months thinking I was the one who’d been damaged the most, the one who’d suffered the worst.
As I stood across from the only man I’d ever loved, I realized how wrong I’d been.
Rhys was equally, if not more, fucked up than I was. It had been no secret how hard he took Max’s death, but the details were never divulged, and nobody ever worked up the nerve to ask him about it—except for me. And I’d been unable to get anything out of him other than a vague answer that guaranteed he was withholding something from me—from all of the crew.
I knew he didn’t have bad intentions, and he was likely keeping these details from me to spare me from more hurt. Unfortunately, that meant he was carrying a heavy burden all by himself.
I licked my lips. He was still standing across the island from me. He had his forearms resting on the counter, and his head was hung. I wasn’t sure if his eyes were open or closed.
I walked around the island and stopped when I was just a couple inches away. Then I leaned into his side and rested my cheek on his back, right against his shoulder blade. I wrapped one arm around his back and put my other hand on top of his on the counter. “I’m sorry,” I said gently.
“It’s all right.”
I shook my head, and my cheek whispered against the soft fabric of his shirt. “No, it’s not. I understand why you have to go back to New York. That’s your home now. I was acting like a spoiled child.”
He finally looked at me and peered over his shoulder. I couldn’t see his mouth, but his eyes were warm and kind. “No, Quinn. You were just saying the things I didn’t want to hear but needed to. It’s all right. We’re all right.”
I kissed his shoulder and hugged him tighter. All I wanted to do was tell him I loved him. But I couldn’t. So I just said, “Yeah. We are.”
He straightened up and turned to me, letting his arms slide off the counter to hang at his sides. I stared up at him as he reached out and put a hand on both of my hips.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
“Just because I have to go doesn’t mean I want to.”
“I know.”
“Give me something to think about on my ride home?”
“Distracted driving is dangerous,” I said as I took the hem of his shirt and pinched it between two fingers. I inched it upward to run my fingers along the warm skin of his lower stomach. “I want to make sure you get back in one piece.”
He caught my hand and held it still. “Are you playing games with me, Quinn?”
I drew my bottom lip between my teeth
and gave him my best sultry gaze. “Maybe.”
Rhys ran his thumb over my knuckles. “You know what happens when you play games, baby girl.”
I did know. I knew from experience the sorts of things he would do to me for teasing him. Delicious things. Mouth-watering, panty-soaking, naughty things.
I slid my hand out of his and gave him a coy smile as I undid his jeans. He watched me, a smile playing in the corners of his mouth, as I pulled down his fly and went to my knees in front of him. I didn’t bother taking his pants or boxers off. I didn’t want to waste time. I simply pulled down the waistband of his boxers and freed his cock.
I wet my lips with my tongue before planting wet kisses on his meaty tip and trailing them down his shaft. Then I ran my tongue up the base and back to the tip, swirling around his shaft, and finally taking him in my mouth.
Rhys moaned as I gripped the back of his legs to pull him closer to me. His eyes were hungry as he stared down at me while I took inch after inch, keeping my tongue pressed to the underside of his dick.
I could take almost all of him. Feeling him in the back of my throat made my clit ache, and I reached down and rubbed myself over the fabric of my sweatpants. Rhys growled above me and reached out to plant his hands on the counter behind me, bracing himself as he worked himself in and out of my throat.
I slipped my hand under the waistband of my sweats. I needed more. I went under the panties, too, and found slick wetness there. My body was telling me I was ready as I slid a finger around in my juices and swirled it over my clit.
I moaned over his dick in my mouth. The vibration made him shudder, and he gripped the counter tighter. The muscles in his forearms strained, and his veins appeared like snaking lines on the insides of his arms.
“Deeper, baby. You can do it.”
I took him out of my mouth and caught my breath while I ran my tongue up and down his shaft. Then, when I was ready, I took him between my lips and held his gaze as I kept my throat relaxed and took every inch of him.
“Fuck,” he grated. He couldn’t help himself. He gathered my hair up in one fist and held me down on his cock as he fucked my mouth. Thick saliva gathered around his dick as he worked himself over, and I stayed where I was for him, worshipping his cock the way he deserved. My swollen pussy ached for him to fuck it the same way he was fucking my mouth.
