by Lee Kilraine
He paused next to the bed. “Let’s be clear. This is not nothing. This is something.”
“Quinn, this is everything.”
Quinn tilted his head up to the ceiling. “Thank God.” He looked back at Delaney in that way that took the air from her throat and the bones from her body. “This can’t be slow. Not this time.”
“It’s already too slow,” Delaney said, and she grabbed him down on top of her. Thank goodness he was a smart man and took his cue.
In desperation, they made love to each other. Heated strokes, kisses, and moans. Touches that ignited. Hearts overwhelmed. Long-held dreams beyond fulfilled. Delaney looked up into Quinn’s blue, blue gaze and her breath hitched. How had she gotten so lucky? She placed her hand on his jaw. “I love you.”
That threw him off his rhythm. And then threw them both over the edge. Hard. Delaney screamed as Quinn shuddered and moaned above her. He rolled them over until she was resting on top of him.
She squinted down at him. “Hey, didn’t you want to say it back?”
“Not yet. I’m playing it over and over in my head. Say it again.”
Delaney leaned down, floating a soft, slow kiss on his lips. She pulled back to look into his eyes and breathed, “I love you.”
“Oh, God, Delaney. I’m pretty sure I’ve loved you forever.”
“I’m so sorry I—”
Quinn stopped her with a kiss. “No. We don’t have time for that. But if it will ease your guilt, every time you feel sorry, just take me to bed.”
“Then how will you tell the difference between the guilt sex and the ‘you’re hot and I’m horny’ sex?”
Quinn shot her a look. “Are you kidding? Either way, I am getting laid by you. I do not see a downside here.”
In the interest of science, experiments were conducted throughout the night. Results: sex, whether initiated through guilt, desire, horniness, love, lust, or even tickling, always had the same amazing, life-affirming, explosive results. Translation: no downside. Of course, the experiments did not use a true scientific method and variables like the addition of honey, ice cubes, and official police-issue handcuffs or spankings were not factored into the final results.
Quinn held her when the loss of her friends slammed her and she could no longer hold back the inevitable pain and tears. He rocked her gently and held her tight. Just what she’d always needed in her life but never had. Until Quinn.
In the early hours of the morning, Delaney fell asleep, only to wake up an hour later on a gasp, sitting straight up in bed.
“Nightmare?” Quinn sat up and smoothed his hand along her back.
“No, thank goodness.” Delaney pushed her hair off her face. “No, I was lying on a grassy field under a gorgeous blue-sky day. The sun, warm and soft on my skin. Nan and Lopez were lying on either side of me. This time Lopez told the risqué joke and Nan actually laughed so hard she snorted. We were laughing and singing jodies, until Barbara flew in out of nowhere and told us to get off her lawn. Figures even Dream Barbara hates me.”
“Huh. So no more shark, but a barracuda.” Quinn pulled her back down, settling her in his arms, her head tucked under his chin. He breathed in, enjoying the weight and heat of her body in his arms.
She snuggled close, her head on his chest. “Lopez had a girl back home. He was going to propose to her when he got back. His squad kept giving him advice on how to propose, most of it completely useless and totally raunchy. I can still see him nodding, taking it all in, until Nan would explain it all to him and he’d laugh and turn red as a stoplight.
“Nan was like a big sister to me. A few years older, and really together, you know? She was getting out after this deployment. Said she her husband and little girl were ready for a full-time wife and mom. I can’t even imagine. . . .”
Quinn could. He totally could image how devastating it would be, because he’d come too damn close to losing Delaney. If she’d been a step ahead of Nan, instead of a few steps behind . . . or if Greer hadn’t asked him to bring her home . . . hell, that thought was enough to throw him into a panic attack. Instead, he wrapped her up tighter in his arms with the plan of never letting go.
“Quinn?” Her voice fading as her body relaxed slowly, softly onto his. “I think I’m ready to try therapy again.”
That’s my girl. He drifted to sleep knowing he was one lucky son of a bitch.
Chapter Thirty-two
“I feel like I might have my first normal day in months.” Delaney sucked in a breath of morning air. Her life felt fresh and new. Like a rebirth. “Maybe even years.”
“Define normal.” Quinn looked over at her from the driver’s seat of his truck. “Why are you so far away? I’ve got a seat belt here in the middle too.”
“Why didn’t you say so?” Delaney unbuckled, scooted over, and rebuckled. She turned toward Quinn and ran her hands over one of his forearms, wondering if he knew about her fixation with them.
Quinn glanced at her, one dimple flashing and one eyebrow raised.
Yeah, he knew.
“Normal, as in no more public announcements about our sex life, no panic attacks, no breakdowns, no repressed memories waiting to mug me around the corner. For the first time ever, my life is plain vanilla. Normal feels weird. Is it something you get used to?”
“You will never be plain vanilla.” He pulled the truck into a parking space at the diner. “If it’ll make you feel any better, we can kink up our sex life. You can be the cop and I’ll be the perp. I’ll let you lock me up and sweat a confession out of me. Tonight.”
“Deal.” Delaney hopped out of the truck and headed into the diner. “If I make it through today. Last night you didn’t even bid fifty cents for me and here we are having breakfast together. That’s sure to tear like wildfire through the Grapevine.”
“Relax, okay?” Quinn grabbed her hand and pulled her in for a quick kiss, but she melted against him and the kiss drew out and lingered before he lifted his lips from hers.
“Okay.” Her eyelids fluttered open. “Okay, I think I can handle it now.”
“Okay? I think I’ll exhaust you with sex every night. You’re almost biddable.”
A fierce elbow to his gut set him straight on that. “Biddable, my ass.”
Quinn reached to open the door, but it pushed open from inside.
Henry Lee flew out of the diner, dragging his daddy behind him. “Come on, Daddy! Hi, Qwin. Princess Laney.”
“Morning, HL. Hawk.” Quinn nodded. “Where are you two off to in such a hurry?”
Hawk shook his head. “Don’t ask.”
“Hey, Henry Lee, it looks like you got your stuffed animal back.” Although the toy looked matted and mangled with a few furry parts sticking out at odd angles.
“Action figure,” all three male voices chorused.
Delaney grinned. “Sorry. I mean your Super Ninja Squirrel.”
“Yup. Only see this?” Henry Lee held up the squirrel for Delaney to look. “See his tail? Brian broked-ed it. Everyone knows a Super Ninja Squirrel can’t fight bad guys with a broken tail.”
She examined the tail in question. “Sure. That won’t work.”
Henry Lee shrugged. “I’m gonna tell Brian he has to fix it or buy me a new one.”
“Is that where you’re rushing off to?” Quinn asked.
“Nope. Jordy told me there’s a new princess lady in town and it’s true ’cause I jus’ heard Ms. Beatrice talkin’ ’bout her. Jordy says she gots yellow hair like the sun.” Henry Lee waved a good-bye with his action figure and tugged to get his daddy moving again. “Come on, Daddy.”
Hawk grimaced and then attempted to distract HL from his mission as they walked away.
“Looks like they’re going mommy shopping.” Quinn grinned and opened the door, ushering Delaney in.
“Delaney! Over here please, young lady. Sit, sit. You too, Officer Cates.” Agatha Simon signaled them over to her booth like she was landing airplanes on a carrier deck. “Well, don’t the two
of you look happy. Don’t they look happy, sister?”
Beatrice nodded in agreement. “Oh my, yes. They’re glowing. Good sex can do that, you know.”
Heat flushed Delaney’s face, but Quinn just smiled and signaled to Renee for two cups of coffee.
“Exactly. And before you know it, wedding bells. You will invite us to the wedding, won’t you?”
“Wedding? We didn’t get around to talking about a wedding last night.” Delaney squirmed in her seat a little, remembering all they had got around to last night. She glanced at Quinn, and when he gave her that dimpled satisfied smile, she had to grab the dessert menu from the table and fan herself.
“Wedding?” Barbara interrupted from her booth on the other side of the diner. She stalked over to stand next to their booth. “Not so fast. I just got off the phone with my best friend Stacie, who said she heard from Wanda over at the high school that her daughter Libby says that Delaney has been cheating on Quinn with another man.”
Delaney wanted to pound her forehead on the table in front of her. She turned and looked into Quinn’s eyes. “So, apparently, normal’s not in my cards. And I may not be vanilla, but Barbie is for sure rocky road.”
“Barbara Jean, you should be ashamed of yourself,” Agatha Simon scolded.
“Why don’t you ask her? Go ahead, Delaney. Tell Quinn and everyone else here that you have not been meeting a male, almost daily, over at the high school.” Barbara looked down at Delaney in triumph. “You can’t. Can you?”
“No. I can’t. But I can kick your ass.” Delaney launched herself out of the booth only to feel herself pulled back up against the hard, warm length of Quinn’s body. Feeling his strength and support at her back, the tension left her. Delaney turned in Quinn’s arms until she looked up into his face. “I have been meeting a guy almost every day over at the high school. But it isn’t like what Barbara’s making it sound like.”
“I trust you, Delaney.”
“Well, no one else does.” Barbara was stirring up the crowd in the diner. “Everyone in town likes Quinn, Delaney. And we don’t take kindly to seeing you cheat and lie while you bat your big brown eyes at him.”
Delaney heard the chatter moving through the Grapevine. “Is my left eye twitching?” she asked Quinn.
“Not yet. You know you don’t need to prove anything to me, right? But if Barbara is going to throw you a pitch right over the plate, right in your wheelhouse, then I think you’re obligated to hit it out of the park for the team.”
She cocked her head and wondered what language he was speaking. “Quinn, how about you translate that? I don’t speak football. And what team are you talking about?”
“You and me. We’re a team. Team us,” Quinn said. “I’ll teach you to speak football and baseball.”
“A team? God, I like the sound of that.” She wrapped her arms around Quinn’s neck and kissed him. “But I was serious about the translation.”
“I said, you do what you’ve got to do. I’ve got your back. Always.” Quinn kissed Delaney and then spun her around to face Barbara.
“Everyone is waiting, Delaney.” And for once, Barbara was right. The diner crowd was buzzing about her possible cheating scandal. Even the Simon sisters were shifting uncomfortably. “It’s time to show your true colors and confess.”
With Quinn solidly in her corner, she knew she didn’t have to do anything. She could ignore Barbara and let the gossip fly behind her back, just like it had when she was growing up. Except she didn’t want that. Not anymore.
How could fitting into Climax have come to mean so much to her? A few weeks ago, she couldn’t escape town fast enough, but now she wanted to fit in like a puzzle piece. Realizing she’d never been alone during the worst moments of her childhood, since people had helped on the down-low, had gone a long way to healing her lonely child’s heart. And, of course, there was Quinn.
“Barbara, you keep letting your hatred of me set you up for these ugly situations. They never end well for you.” Delaney pulled out her phone and called Marcus. This wasn’t all about her, and Marcus had every reason to not want this attention.
When he answered, she said, “Hey. Cat’s out of the bag. The rumor around town is I’m cheating on Quinn with you.” Delaney held the phone away from her ear when Marcus’s reaction was to bust into loud laughter. “You can say no, but I’d like to nip this in the bud. Would it be okay if we met up over at the school with a couple of witnesses. And by a couple witnesses, I mean half the town if these faces are anything to go by.”
Quinn leaned forward wrapping an arm around her, his hand resting on her abdomen. “I can take the gossip, Delaney. Remember, you don’t owe anyone anything.”
Delaney covered his hand with hers to acknowledge his offer. “Are you sure?” she said into the phone, listening to the response while she stared Barbara down. “Oh, yeah. That’s a great idea. Okay, I’ve got to stop by Mama Cates’s house first, but we’ll see you in an hour.”
Delaney hung up on the call and looked at Barbara. “All right, it’s all set. If you didn’t make me so mad, Barbara, I swear I’d be sorry for you.” Delaney raised her voice so the back of the crowd could hear her. “And just to save the Grapevine some trouble, everyone be at the high school in an hour. It’ll cost you ten dollars to get in. Unless you have a life, of course. Then by all means, live it. Please, I beg you, because mine is not all that interesting.”
Quinn grinned. “Well, my life sure is a hell of a lot more interesting since you came back into it.”
An hour later, the Climax High School Booster Team held their most successful fundraiser in years. Delaney and Quinn had stopped off at his parents’ house first. While Quinn filled his family in on the latest showdown between Barbara and Delaney, Delaney went to change into her running clothes and grab the small case with her prosthetic blade.
She and Marcus had talked about surprising both their families by running a 5K in a few months. It wouldn’t be close to a 5K, and it was much earlier than they had planned, but it would still be a surprise.
They walked onto the track, where Coach Wraithe greeted them with a big smile on his face. “Hey, Quinn. Good to see you.”
“Ben,” Quinn said, shaking his hand. “I didn’t realize you and Delaney knew each other.”
“Oh, hey, I’m not that guy.” Coach Wraithe kept to the guy code and made it clear he wasn’t trespassing. “Delaney, this fundraiser is great. We should be able to afford the new football uniforms and new lacrosse goals now.”
“I can’t take credit. The fundraiser was Marcus’s idea. Excuse us, Coach.” She grabbed Quinn’s hand and pulled him over to meet Marcus. “Quinn, I’d like you to meet my running buddy, Marcus. Marcus this is my . . . oh, wow. I guess you’re my guy now, aren’t you?”
“You bet your ass I am. Running buddy?” Quinn stuck out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Marcus.”
“Back at ya, Officer Cates. Um, sorry about all the rumors, but well, you grew up here. You know how that works. Delaney, the whole cross-country team wanted to show their support so we’ve turned it into a fun run with everybody.”
“Cool beans. The more the merrier. Marcus, I have to go change into my running foot. Feel free to tell Quinn about how we met. Then we’ll make sure Barbara is front and center for the official introductions.” Delaney gave Quinn a kiss. “I’ll only be a sec. Wait for me.”
“Always.”
Since jumping him in front of high schoolers, his parents, and half the town wasn’t a wise option, she sat on the edge of the football field to strip off her sweats and switch into her running blade. Some of the cross-country team joined her, stretching out in preparation to run.
Finally ready, she grabbed Marcus and headed over to the edge of the track, where Quinn stood with Coach Wraithe. Delaney’s gaze ran over the other nearby faces: the Cates family and Greer, Barbara and her posse, some of the veterans, and much of the Grapevine, who sat clustered in the bleachers but close enough to get every word. A
nd her eye wasn’t even twitching. Huh. She shook her head and grinned at how much things had changed.
“Hey, everyone. So, about that rumor . . . it’s true. I have been meeting a guy here almost daily for a few weeks now. Are you hyperventilating, Barbara? Hoping to hear about the wild affair Coach Wraithe and I are having?” Delaney shook her head at the eagerness on Barbara’s face. She stepped closer to Marcus, linking her elbow through his. “I’m sorry to disappoint, but this is the guy I’ve been meeting every day after school.
“This is Marcus. Marcus and I met the day I had my meltdown in the gym. Y’all remember that day. I came here feeling sorry for myself and not only would Marcus not let me do that, but he challenged me to run again. To live again. So, that’s it. That’s the big scandal. Oh, and Coach Wraithe offered me a part-time coaching job working with the girls’ cross-country and track teams, which I’m accepting. Now, on to the fun run.”
People cheered. Everyone except Barbara, of course.
Quinn grabbed her hand before she turned away. “A running blade, huh?”
“It was going to be a surprise.”
“Oh, it is. And let me say how completely friggin’ hot you look right now. Sorry, Marcus. You weren’t supposed to hear that.” Quinn kissed her. Hard.
“Dude, I hate to break it to you, but we see her in running shorts almost every day. You think we don’t know? Come on, Delaney, they’re letting us run the first half lap by ourselves.”
Delaney couldn’t catch her breath. Quinn had her heart already racing. That guy was so it for her. She was a lot distracted when she took her place in the front row next to Marcus. She felt like she could fly, just like in high school. “Is my life great, or what?”
And then the race gun sounded. Delaney took two steps and fell flat on her face.
“Or what.” Marcus crouched down next to her. Quinn and Coach W magically appeared as the crowd went silent.
“Ow.” Delaney rolled over until she was looking up toward the sky, only all she could see was Quinn’s worried face. She used her hand to gently check her nose and cheek. “Déjà vu, right?”
