by J. H. Croix
He eventually reached his car and opened the passenger door. Once he’d deposited her in the seat, he carefully closed the door and climbed in on the driver’s side. He started the car and immediately turned the heat up. She was visibly shivering now, and he wanted her warm as quickly as possible.
“Anything you need from your car?” he asked, glancing to her.
“Just my purse. I’ll call Marley and see if she can pick up my car.”
“You do that while I grab your purse.”
When he returned to his car and handed her purse over, she set it on her lap. “Marley’s on the way. Let’s get to Dr. Marshall’s and get this over with,” she said with a heavy sigh.
A few hours later, Quinn walked at Lacey’s side to her cabin. A light snow had started to fall. Dr. Marshall had given Lacey another injection of corticosteroids and insisted she immediately schedule another MRI. Quinn was close to certainty Lacey had MS, but he respected Dr. Marshall’s caution in formally making the diagnosis. If anything, he wondered if she was being thorough beyond thorough to ensure Lacey didn’t hold doubts. While Lacey had repeatedly expressed her frustration with the process, he knew her well enough to know she’d hold onto questions as well.
At the moment, it was clear the corticosteroids were starting to help. She was able to put some weight on her right leg and her limp was much less pronounced. He resisted the urge to help her up the stairs because it was clear she wanted to manage on her own. Their footsteps left a path in the dusting of snow on her deck. Once they were inside, he didn’t bother to ask if she wanted him to start a fire and immediately took care of it. After he closed the door to the woodstove, glancing through the glass to confirm the flames were taking hold in the tinder under the logs, he looked over to see her waiting by the stairs.
Electricity arced through the air between them. Against all reason, he wanted her badly right now. Her eyes darkened and she angled her head to the side. “I might need help getting up the stairs. I need a shower like crazy, but I don’t want to be stupid. Three steps outside was no big deal, but there’s thirteen here,” she said gesturing to the stairs beside her. The fact she was asking for his help again did strange things to his heart. His need to protect her drew him closer and confused him—this wasn’t how he was accustomed to seeing her.
In a flash, he was at her side, sliding his arm around her waist. He navigated the stairs carefully with her, relieved to sense her increased strength since earlier. In minutes, she was peeling off her clothes and stepping into the shower. He couldn’t resist joining her and followed her into the steamy shower. She was covered in soap. He wasn’t sure if it was sensible to want her right now, but that was how powerful the pull to her was. He ran his hands down her sides, savoring the feel of her skin, slick under his touch. She slowly turned in his arms and leaned her head back to let the water rinse the shampoo out of her hair. When she tilted her head up again, she stroked her palm down his chest to curl around his quite obvious arousal.
He dipped his head and caught her lips in a kiss, pouring everything into it—his overwhelming desire for her, his desperate need to protect her from anything and everything, and his need to meld himself as close as physically possible to her. Their kiss went wild—tongues tangling and teeth clashing. He tore his lips free and licked and nipped his way down her neck. He held her firmly with one arm to make sure she didn’t lose her balance. He might be almost out of his mind with lust for her, but a tiny corner of him remembered her strength wasn’t one hundred percent at the moment. He dragged his free hand up her abdomen to trace circles on the skin of her breasts. When her head fell back against the tile, he leaned forward and swirled his tongue around a nipple before sucking it into his mouth and biting down softly. Her hands threaded into his wet hair and gripped as he alternated between her nipples, licking, sucking and nipping. His cock was so hard, he was on the verge of coming right then and there. He eased a hand under her knee and slowly lifted her against him.
Her eyes opened and slammed into his. He couldn’t look away from her, the depth of feeling he held inside reflected back to him in her gaze. He adjusted her weight and positioned his cock at her entrance. When he held still for a moment, she shifted her hips restlessly against him. He sank inside of her, seating himself fully within her creamy clench. She gasped, her nails digging into his back. Her channel throbbed around him, and he didn’t know how long he could hold back.
With the shower wall to help him hold her, he eased a hand between them and circled it over her clit. Her eyes closed and her channel started to pulse around his cock. He drew back incrementally and rocked his hips into the cradle of hers. Within seconds, she cried out, her entire body going taut and shuddering against his. He let go, driving one more time deeply inside of her, his own release thundering through him. His head fell into the dip of her shoulder and he held her tightly. With the hot water raining down around them, he slowly caught his breath and lifted his head. She opened her eyes, a slow smile curling her lips.
Chapter 17
Lacey rolled her head to the side to look out the windows. Dawn was just breaking, the light wispy and thin rays of sun breaking through the clouds in orange and gold. The landscape was blanketed with snow. The spruce trees were bright green under the dusting. She rolled her head to the other side to see Quinn’s amber hair mussed. He was still asleep, his breathing even and steady. His palm was resting on her abdomen as he slept curled toward her. Her heart tightened as she contemplated yesterday afternoon and evening. He’d given far more than the comfort she sought when she’d called him for help. She was starting to feel like she’d let things go too far. He meant too much, but she didn’t enjoy feeling like she needed anyone, and she was feeling dangerously close to needing him in more ways than one.
With a mental shake, she rolled her head away and stared at the ceiling, idly counting the knots in the pine. She mentally scanned her body and was relieved to find she felt only lingering weakness in her right leg. Those injections Dr. Marshall gave her were miraculous. Problem was, she hated needing them. Dr. Marshall had said she’d like her to come back in later this week—again—to discuss preventative treatment options. A huge part of her wanted to simply ignore the whole thing, but reality was making it hard to do that.
With a sigh, she turned on her side and started to sit up. She felt Quinn’s touch on her back, a slow pass down her spine. Dear God. All he had to do was touch her and her body hummed. Her skin prickled in the wake of his touch. She closed her eyes at the intensity of feeling that rose within and gulped in air. That’s how bad it was. She was on the verge of drowning in emotion and sensation.
“Mornin’,” he said, his voice gravelly with sleep.
She eased onto her hip and angled to face him. “Good morning. I was trying not to wake you up.”
He shrugged a shoulder and slowly sat up, the covers falling to his waist and revealing his sculpted chest and abs. Her mouth went dry and need tightened inside of her. This was getting ridiculous. She needed to get this crazy, out of control attraction to him under control.
“I’m usually up early. You know that,” he said. “Coffee?”
She couldn’t help but smile. “Of course.”
Over the next half hour, she swung between wanting to relax and enjoy the morning and feeling irritated with herself for letting her feelings spiral out of hand so quickly. She couldn’t help but think she’d have kept it together if all this stupid medical stuff weren’t happening. It felt as if her life had been shaken up, and she was grasping at whatever she could to hold on. Quinn’s proximity and their incredibly inconvenient desire made him an easy person to hold onto.
She drained her coffee cup and gathered herself together. She’d act normal and get this in hand. “You mentioned you were going to start looking for a place to stay yesterday. Any leads yet?” Most of her hated asking the question, but the part of her that she used to rely on—the strong, didn’t need anyone part—held firm.
She couldn’t read hi
s eyes when he glanced up. They were carefully blank. “Donna gave me a few suggestions the other day. I haven’t had much time to make any calls.”
“Oh. Well, I was just curious.”
He was quiet for a long moment. He stared down at the counter and traced a circle around his coffee mug. When he glanced up, he looked determined. “I’m not sure now’s a good time, but maybe we should talk.”
“About what?” she asked, her heart pounding and anxiety blooming in her chest.
His amber eyes held hers. “Us.”
Stubbornness rose inside. She didn’t want to talk. Not now. She wanted time to think, to sort things out on her own—to feel like her life wasn’t rampaging wildly out of her control.
“What about us?”
His eyes widened. “Do I need to point out the obvious? There’re all kinds of ‘us’ things that have changed in the last month or so. I thought maybe we should try to talk.”
She shook her head sharply. “I can’t do this right now. I’m not going to pretend like nothing’s happening, but I need some time. There’s too much going on.”
His eyes shuttered, and she felt the distance viscerally, which instantly made her heart ache with longing. She had to hold herself back from flinging herself into his arms.
Somehow they got through the next little while with Quinn getting ready for work, and her putzing around the house doing mindless tasks. For the first time in days, he didn’t kiss her goodbye. He gave a small wave at the door and walked out into the snow. She went upstairs, relieved her weak leg felt close to normal. She most certainly wasn’t up for asking for help getting up the stairs right now.
When she came downstairs again after showering and dressing, she glanced out the window and saw he’d shoveled the deck and a path to her car. He’d also brushed all the snow off her car, which Marley had dropped off yesterday afternoon. She sat down on the bottom stair and burst into tears.
Quinn was relieved he had such a busy day. Donna had booked him straight through, which didn’t offer him the opportunity to dwell on this morning. The last patient left for the day and he plunked down at his desk to get through some charting. He’d been relieved to learn Dr. Daniels had already invested in an electronic health record system and even more relieved that it happened to be a system he’d used during his residency. As he clicked through and entered a few notes, he heard footsteps coming down the hall and Donna appeared in the doorway. Her brown eyes twinkled with her smile as she leaned against the doorframe.
“Well, today turned out to be busier than I planned. I accidentally double booked you twice and didn’t even catch it! That almost never happens but with transitioning all of Dr. Daniel’s appointments over to you in the system, there were a few mix-ups. Thanks for being such a good sport about it.”
He leaned back in his chair and grinned. “I didn’t even notice. I just kept moving onto the next patient. Gotta say, I was wondering if it was like this all the time.”
Donna shrugged. “It’s always busy, but today was a little busier than usual. Now that I’ve got most of the appointments and patients under you in the system, it should be fine. I have a few left to transfer over, but none of them have any appointments scheduled. I saved those for last. So…how you doing now that you’ve made it through a few weeks here?”
“Good. The doctor part applies no matter where I work, but I don’t think I’d manage here without you to take care of everything else,” he said with a wry grin. He paused, considering Lacey’s question this morning about whether he’d looked into getting his own place. “You mentioned a place I should check out to rent. Can you refresh my memory on that?”
“My daughter and her husband have a place they rent out every winter after the tourists are gone, but they’ve already found a renter. Let me ask around and see what else I can find out for you.”
“That’d be great. I’ve been so busy, I haven’t had much of a chance to think about it.”
He sensed Donna’s curiosity, but he wasn’t up for questions right now. She knew he’d been staying with Lacey and was likely wondering about that. He forced the conversation onto other topics. “Dr. Daniels mentioned he’d be stopping by sometime this week. You happen to know when that might be? I wanted to follow up with him on a patient.”
Donna quickly pulled out her phone and called Dr. Daniels. When she got his voice mail, she all but ordered him to stop by soon. When she hung up, she glanced out the window behind Quinn. “I need to get going before that snow gets too heavy. You should too,” she said with a warning glance. “I’ll see you in the morning.” At that, she gave a wave and turned to walk down the hall again, flicking lights off in the exam rooms as she did.
He heard the front door close and then silence. He swiveled in his chair and looked outside. Darkness was falling and snow along with it. With the office quiet around him, he slowly walked through. It was strange to realize this was where he would be for the foreseeable future. Even stranger to contemplate that Dr. Daniels hired him with the hope Quinn would eventually buy him out and the practice would be Quinn’s entirely. When Quinn had applied for this position, he’d been thinking he loved Diamond Creek and he had a good friend in the area. Lacey being the good friend in question. That was before the answering desire in her eyes fanned the flames of his own long-buried desire. Now, he was facing much more than desire. He loved her, and he didn’t know if or when she might be ready to face what lay between them. What he hadn’t counted on was that he might reach the point where he was now. He didn’t think he could allow himself to tumble deeper into what he had with her. If he wanted to salvage the possibility of friendship with her, which he desperately did, he needed to take a step back.
He stood in the middle of the dark and empty waiting room and looked out into the snowy parking lot. With a sigh, he quickly walked back to his office and turned everything off before tossing on his jacket. He drove to Lacey’s cabin with the snow swirling around him, wondering how to talk to her. When he reached the drive to her cabin, he hesitated and made the quick decision to drive past it to the lodge.
Moments later, he tugged the heavy front door open and kicked the snow off his boots before stepping inside. He glanced around at the cluster of customers waiting to be seated and experienced a moment of hesitation. He didn’t know why he was here, other than to buy some time before he faced Lacey. As he stood there, he heard someone call his name and glanced behind him to find Marley walking toward him with Holly in her arms and Gage a few steps behind her on the phone.
“Hey Quinn! So nice to see you,” Marley said, giving him a side-hug. “Is Lacey with you?”
“Great to see you too,” he said, striving for a casual tone even though he felt twisted up inside over Lacey. “Just stopped by to grab some dinner from the buffet.” His statement was half-true, considering that once he’d made the decision to come here, he had figured he’d get some dinner.
Marley’s eyes, so similar to Lacey’s, narrowed when he didn’t reply to her question about Lacey. While Marley wasn’t as headstrong as Lacey, she also wasn’t one to back down. “And Lacey?”
He shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’ll probably find out after I get a bite here.”
Gage happened to finish his call at the moment, saving Quinn from further grilling by Marley. “Hey man, how’s it going?” he asked with an arch of a brow and a clap on Quinn’s shoulder.
“Alright. How about you?”
Gage flashed a grin. “Pretty damn good now that the snow’s starting to stick. I love every season, but winter’s my favorite.”
Gage curled an arm across Marley’s shoulders and started walking, gesturing for Quinn to follow. As he followed them, he quickly slipped his phone out and texted Lacey to tell her he was stopping for dinner. They threaded their way through the crowded restaurant to the back corner booth. Once they were seated, the next little bit passed quickly with a waitress serving them drinks and a swing by the buffet and back. After Gage ably got Holly settled i
n a high chair and took turns with bites of his own food and offering bites to Holly, Marley glanced across the table to Quinn.
“Okay, Lacey’s not here and something’s up. Spill it,” she ordered.
Quinn’s chest knotted, but he managed to finish chewing his bite of food and take a sip of water. He knew Marley was only asking because she cared, but he didn’t know if it was okay to talk to her about any of this. He glanced between her and Gage. Gage caught his eyes and lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “No escaping this.”
Quinn ran a hand through his hair and looked over at Marley. “I tried to take your advice and talk to Lacey this morning. She told me she can’t talk right now, that there’s too much going on.”
Marley eyed him for a long moment before she set her fork down and sighed. “Seriously?”
“Of course I’m serious. Anyway, the thing is I don’t know what the hell to do because I’m not so sure I can deal with this dragging out if she’d rather things ended. We might have already gone past the point of no return with our friendship, but I’d like to try to salvage it if I can. I’m thinking maybe it’s best if I find another place to stay in the meantime.” He leaned his head against the back of the booth. “Ah hell. I knew it wasn’t a good idea to let things go this far, but I couldn’t seem to stop it.”
His heart literally ached with his chest tight and his breath short. He forced himself to take a slow breath and rolled his head from side to side, easing the tension bundled there.
“You can stay here,” Marley said firmly. “Lacey will come to her senses, or I’ll make her.”
Gage threw his head back with a laugh. He paused in feeding Holly to glance at her, his eyes wide. “You can’t make anyone come to their senses.”
Marley punched him lightly on the shoulder. “Maybe not, but I can try.” She glanced back to Quinn, her eyes sobering. “You really love her, don’t you?”
Quinn noticed Gage was purposefully busying himself by slowly feeding Holly bites of macaroni. Quinn didn’t much care to hide his feelings, but he appreciated Gage’s efforts to make it seem like he couldn’t hear absolutely everything they were saying. He met Marley’s eyes straight on and took a deep breath. “Seems to be the case. I mean, she’s been one of my best friends for years. When this, I don’t even know what to call it, started with us, I wasn’t sure it was a great idea because I didn’t want to blow up our friendship. Now, I’m afraid we might.”
