by Jane Cousins
He was too close. They were too close. And like a ninny she was just standing there. With the kitchen island behind her she couldn’t back up, but maybe she could, no, Matias blocked her with just a slight shift of his hips.
“I don’t know what you think you are doing. You know touching is forbidden until we understand how all this time travel stuff works.”
“Forbidden?” Matias savoured the word like he had the churros dipped in decadent dark chocolate yesterday. “Doesn’t that just tempt you even more?” He moved closer still.
“No. Not in the slightest.” Heavens, she sounded like a prim spinster.
Matias smiled slowly, flashing white teeth. “The thing you have to know before we start is that the Argentine Tango is also known as the dance of the heart.”
Quinn shook her head, Matias was so close now that she could feel the heat radiating from him. This was so not a good idea. They weren’t supposed to touch… she was scared. Scared if they touched she’d want more. Want to never stop. The man was too dangerous by half to her well-being, her sanity. “No.” But the protest came out too soft, too tentative.
Matias folded the scarf and then proceeded to wrap the material around his left arm, all the way down to his hand. Before Quinn could process the reason, he grabbed her right hand in his scarf covered hand. Pulling her arm up. “You’d better hold on.”
“What?” Quinn asked dazedly, even as her left hand came up automatically to clutch at his t-shirt covered shoulder as he pulled her in tight and began to lead her around the small space.
Matias used his hips, shoulders and legs to sweep Quinn around the room. Conscious of her recent injuries he didn’t dip her too deeply. But he still kept their momentum so fast that she didn’t have time to protest or think.
She just had to be in the moment. Keeping time with him. Matching her moves to his. And he wasn’t surprised that Quinn could. Given her dedication to yoga she moved like supple silk in his arms. Warm, and soft, but beneath all that was strength and steel.
Sweet Lady. Quinn was breathless. This dance was so intimate. Those toffee coloured eyes staring down at her with an intensity that made her heart race and her sex throb to match.
Wrapping one of her bare legs around his jean covered thigh, she sighed softly as he bent them over low before twirling her out and back again, to find herself plastered against his warm muscular frame. It was like foreplay… but with clothes on. Which was a good thing. Right? Except her hyper hormones were straining at the leash.
Matias twirled Quinn away once more, pulling her back in, this time with her rear end snuggled up tight against the front of his jeans. Slowly he allowed his silk covered hand to glide down over the bare flesh of her raised arm, over her delicate collarbone, over her breast to rest on her hip. Thrusting a leg between Quinn’s, they sashayed forward several steps, glued together. Moving in perfect unison. Then he reached for her hand, spun her and pulled Quinn back into his arms just as the song came to an end.
It was no small thing to take a step back, away from Quinn. His body rebelled at the idea. He managed a few inches of breathing space between them. Unravelling the scarf, he carefully draped it around her slender neck and shoulders. “Now that was a dance.”
Quinn managed a shallow breath. Trying to convince her heartbeat to slow down whilst at the same time wrestle her libido back under control. Grrr, the man was impossible. He was six foot two inches of walking temptation. But if her rigid lifestyle and quest to stay sane had taught her nothing else it was sheer will-power. She always said no. “Well that was-”
“If you say nice.” Matias’s voice came out practically a growl. “Then prepare yourself for round two.”
“Educational.” Quinn forced a small, tight smile.
“Coward.” Matias’s eyes sparkled with amusement. “Backing down from a challenge.”
“I say smart, practical and imminently sensible. You were crazy, if we had accidently touched.” Would she have been inundated with toe curling sex scenes, knocked unconscious or hurtled back ten years in time to the Merry Maverick?
“Risk and reward.” Matias forced himself to move away. Rounding the kitchen island to grab a glass and fill it with water from the tap. “There is something to be said for skirting the edges of something dangerous and emerging successful.”
“If you are a treasure hunter, sure. But I’m a psychiatrist. We tend to be more objective observers than thrill seekers.”
Matias bent over, resting his elbows on the bench, contemplating Quinn carefully. “But you are not just your profession. You’re a woman too. Don’t you crave… more?”
Heavens, that accent of his was like audio ambrosia. Seductive and all too tempting. Quinn clenched her hands, digging her nails into her palms. Forcing a light scoffing laugh, she shook her head. “My life is overflowing with good things. A lovely house, a challenging job, great friends, close family, I want for nothing.”
“What about the touch of a man who sets your blood on fire? Who makes your eyes sparkle with excitement? Who makes your skin ache with anticipation? Who makes you forget all your responsibilities and the clamouring pressures of the world out there, switch off that busy mind of yours and just be… in the moment?”
“Control is one of the cornerstones of a healthy life and a healthy mind.” Damn, there she went again sounding rigid and prissy.
Matias smiled. “You know when you use that tone, it only makes me want you more.”
“Seriously?” Quinn fought hard to keep her tone at a respectable pitch and not set off the local dogs. Maybe Matias was clinically loco?
“Seriously. I’ve watched you move, on the yoga mat, now on the dance floor… beneath that cool, calm, off limits façade you project, beats the heart of a sensual woman.”
“You’re sleep deprived.”
“And you’re scared.”
Quinn’s eyes widened. “And what exactly am I frightened of, Bubbles? You? Who come tomorrow morning won’t remember any of this… me… this physical attraction you claim you feel for me.”
“Oh, the physical attraction is real enough, you want me to drop my jeans and prove it?” Matias grinned.
Quinn issued a soft snort of derision. “Please don’t. At least be honest enough to admit that given the situation we are in, the huge pressure you are under, the extreme emotions you must be experiencing, that I am nothing more than a convenient distraction of the female variety.”
Matias shook his head, the edges of his lips quirking upwards. “For all those fancy schools you attended and all those certificates hanging on the walls, you sure know shit about men, Quinn.”
“Your insistence that there is something between us is nothing more than a deflection.”
“You keep trying to block me with clinical bullshit, what does that say about you? And you’re wrong about you being convenient. Or that my physical attraction to you is simple. From what I’ve heard, we keep zinging off each other, Quinn. The dance at the wedding you told me about. Meeting at the hospital. It sounds to me like we can’t seem to stay away from one another. And each time we meet, I may not remember, but I’m sure as hell I want you. Be honest, despite your claims that you find me irritating… I think that just means I get under your skin like no one has before. Is that it, Quinn? Am I getting to you?”
“So what if you are?” Damn, she’d said the words out loud, but she wouldn’t stop now. “You seem to be forgetting one salient detail here. You and I can’t touch.”
“Oh, trust me. I do enough forgetting. Finding a way so you and I can touch is number one on my to-do list.”
Why did he have to be so darn tenacious? So confident? “Okay, say we could touch, what then?”
Matias’s eyes flared with heat and promise. “You’re a doctor, please tell me you didn’t flunk out on human anatomy?”
“Sex? Okay, so we have sex. What then?”
Matias frowned for the first time since their conversation started. “More sex?”
; “And then?”
Matias looked at her, coming up a blank.
“Exactly. You can’t make any promises, Matias. Come tomorrow you won’t know my name.”
“No one gets guarantees in life. Not everyone will wake up tomorrow. Not everyone will make it through the day. Why can’t we just indulge, here, now? It would be good between us, Quinn. That I can promise.”
“And when you wake up tomorrow morning and turn over, assailed by all those fresh memories from ten years ago and find a strange woman in your bed, what then? And please don’t say you’d leave during the night. That scenario doesn’t work for me either, given I’ll know we slept together and you’ll go back to gruff, asshole mode, and look straight through me next time we meet.”
“What if I told you I could give you four days… maybe five? We could blaze hot but briefly, what would you say then?”
“What did you do, Matias?” Suddenly his not sleeping and the way he moved, restless and hyper alert dinged warning bells for Quinn.
“I took a non-sleeping potion.”
“Goddess. Where did you get it from? Don’t you know how dangerous those things can be?”
“It’s fine. Nico got it off one of your relatives when we first arrived here. We were keeping it for an emergency situation.”
Quinn felt like he’d slapped her up the side of the head, yes, emergency situation. As in lives were on the line here, Jodie’s, Copper’s and maybe even Matias’s, if they couldn’t figure out some answers soon and prevent any more hybrid jaguar attacks.
They were getting side tracked by their hormones. Clearly spending so much time together was a mistake.
Suddenly Quinn felt weary to her bones. “Look. Everything has gotten out of hand. My ability to think clearly is shot to hell, whilst you may not need to sleep, I do.”
Matias watched Quinn hurry away down the dimly lit hallway to her bedroom, the door closing behind her with a loud finality. Damn him. He’d pushed. He’d been having so much fun teasing her, sparring verbally, that he’d forgotten he’d meant to bring up the subject of Quinn returning to the Maverick to try and save his parents.
Fuck, who was he kidding. He couldn’t do it. Couldn’t ask her. He’d seen the bloodied claw marks across her back. No way was he prepared to send her back into a dangerous situation. His parents had been dead for ten years, changing their fate was a pipedream belonging to the adolescent he used to be.
But he might still be able to save Copper with Quinn’s help.
Yes, she was right. He did need to focus on what was important. Remembering everything he could about that last day on board the Maverick and finding a way to reach out to Copper and bring her home.
Fuck fixing his memory problems, he’d be a goldfish for the rest of his life as long as he knew Copper was safe.
So, he needed to stop thinking about Quinn’s full, kissable lips, and the way her cool, stardust eyes challenged him to set the heavens on fire. Absently he picked up a washcloth and began cleaning the kitchen. It was going to be long night of keeping busy and coming up with a plan.
A plan to save his sister and… fuck it, go on admit it, a way to seduce Quinn Bennett into his bed for a brief, blazing fling.
Because damn it, if he was fated to be a goldfish, he was damn well going to the happiest damn goldfish that ever existed. Even if that meant just reading about his encounter with Quinn Bennett every day in a god damn sparkly pink personal diary.
Chapter Fifteen
Quinn came awake gasping. Blinking rapidly at the dark ceiling above her bed. Trying to slow her breathing and her racing heart. Something Nell had said earlier reverberating in her thoughts. Matias’s shoulder wound. Something about how surprising it was he hadn’t bled out.
Oh Goddess. If Matias incurred that wound saving her, then did that mean she’d changed the past? Or was it the future?
But Matias was clearly alive, with the scars to prove it. Scars he’d had before they’d even met. But what if her travelling back in time somehow changed the sequence of events? Was Matias’s life in danger because of her presence on the Merry Maverick?
Hold on, did she have the power to change the past? If she could get back to the Maverick to check on Matias, why couldn’t she go back earlier and find out what happened to Copper Yanez? Or stop Matias’s parents and the crew from being killed? Was that allowed?
Damn. She needed advice from her cousin Jules, the only one of Riya’s ten brothers to inherit time travelling abilities from their paternal Great-Grandmother.
Jules would know all the rules regarding changing past events. The man was practically a time travel cop, setting wrongs right where he could. All that was missing was the official badge. And even then, Quinn had a sneaky suspicion he actually had one, linked to an organisation that operated in the shadows. Or would it be more accurate to state they operated in the slip streams of time?
No, probably the last person she should consult in regards to what she could and couldn’t do in the past was Jules. After all, what if he said she wasn’t allowed to go back?
Not that there was much her cousin could do to stop her. On the other hand, it wasn’t like she had any actual idea on how to go about getting back to the boat. Well, except for recreating the exact same set of circumstances that sent her there in the first place. Touching Matias Yanez.
Just one little problem with that. Convincing Matias to participate.
* * *
“Hell, no. No, let me be perfectly clear. Fuck the hell, no.”
“Would you please get off the ladder and come down and talk to me about this?” Quinn crossed her arms over her chest, tapping her sneaker clad foot impatiently. She’d emerged from her bedroom to find her kitchen sparkling, her wood floors gleaming and Matias up a ladder, dusting her lighting fixtures. In the four hours since she’d gone to bed he’d obviously embarked on an epic cleaning venture. Her house was reaping the benefits of the stay awake potion.
Matias heaved a sigh and stomped down the ladder. “Do I need to remind you the state you returned in last time you went on a little time-travel jaunt?”
“I know what to expect this time and I can go prepared.”
Matias shook his head. Quinn had all but raced out of her bedroom two minutes ago. Brimming with determination and steely resolve. Insisting that they try sending her back in time again. “There’s no way you can be prepared. You said yourself the jaguar creature was fast and lethal.”
“Ah, but if I go back earlier, I can warn you of what’s coming. Rally the crew… save your parents.”
And there it was. Matias couldn’t hide his flinch. “There is no guarantee of that. And you getting yourself killed will not help in bringing them back.”
“We have to try.”
“You mean you have to try. If we are somehow successful in sending you back, then I get to sit here, worrying and wringing my hands.”
Quinn waved off Matias’s concern. “You’re not the wring your hands type.”
Suddenly Matias was only inches away, his hot breath playing over her hair. “Trust me, Quinn, when it comes to you, I find I barely know myself anymore. What you are proposing is too dangerous.”
“I’ll take a weapon and a medical kit. And I promise to be careful. My main aim will be to save your family and the crew, not to engage the creature at all if possible.”
“You’re insane.”
For some reason that accusation made Quinn grin. She’d always believed if anyone ever levelled that charge against her she’d be horrified, but instead, given the moment, she wore it like a badge of honour. “I can’t just sit on the sidelines, Matias. Not if there is anything I can do to help. Please… I need to do this.”
Fuck. The thought of her going where he couldn’t follow, putting herself in danger, the idea clawed at his gut. But he read the iron resolve in those silvery blue depths. Shit.
Ten minutes later, Matias found himself outside. The night air was cool but not cold. The sky cloudy with only d
im light playing over the ink black ocean below thanks to a ghostly half moon. Quinn stood in front of him, raring to go. Her hair was plaited back tightly in a single braid. She wore a black cotton long-sleeve hoodie and matching stretch pants and sneakers.
In one hand, Quinn held a medical kit, so full that the extra healing cloths she’d placed on top were in danger of spilling to the ground. In her other hand, she held a short katana sword. From her expert grip, he at least had confidence in her ability to use the weapon with skill.
Damn, Matias couldn’t seem to shake the bad feeling he had about this trip. Nor could he ignore the niggling guilt. He’d had this exact same idea, for Quinn to go back to help…save his family. What if…? What if Quinn could go back and make everything right? Had Quinn somehow picked the idea up from him? What if she got hurt? Or worse? What if she couldn’t find a way back and got stuck? Or lost, like Copper?
Fear. He was so tired of fear eating away at him. Even if he could only remember the last thirty-six hours it appeared to be an emotion he was all too familiar with. “You come back.”
“I will.” Quinn promised. Suddenly her stomach roiled with nerves. She was really going to do this. Knowingly head into a dangerous situation. She could only pray she looked half as brave as the multitude of Enforcers whose memories she had witnessed over the years. “So…” Quinn glanced down briefly. “My hands are kind of full here, how should we do this?”
Matias’s lips quirked upwards. “Now there’s an invitation I’ve been waiting to hear.” Stepping forward, he lowered his lips onto hers. The scent of her, mimosa, gardenia and vanilla wrapped around him. Her lips petal soft against his. It was like he’d found something precious, more valuable than any gem or hunk of gold.
He’d been expecting Quinn to immediately disappear the moment their lips met. This was so much better than his imagination.
One of his hands grasped her by the nape of the neck, pulling her in close. The other hand slid around her narrow waist. He revelled in the feel of her full breasts plastered to his chest. The small moan she made in the back of her throat before she opened her mouth, letting him taste her more deeply.
