by Vonnie Davis
Quinn rode like the wind up and down Gulf Boulevard. At one point he turned onto Sunset Bay Drive, got off his bike and walked to Prickly Pear Point. The sunset was especially beautiful, with more oranges than reds or purples. Watching it alone didn’t help his mood any, but observing some children, chasing each other, squealing and teasing, helped him calm down.
He wanted children. He wanted to give them what he’d never had—love and total acceptance. While he’d gotten it from his mother, for some reason earning his dad’s love was elusive.
A few days ago, when the emergency over Cassie’s safety was tearing Quinn apart, his dad showed him support and pride, something he’d never had before. Now that she’d been rescued, his dad was back to being his normal heartless self. Gulls circled overhead, and Quinn witnessed their flight until he was ready to talk to Becca without acting like a complete ass.
By the time he got to Becca’s place, Cassie’s compact was parked in front of Wolf’s townhouse. Figures. Any time she had a problem, she ran to her family, but never to him. Was this how it would always be? Damn, he was tired of being at the bottom of everyone’s priority list. Was it too much to ask to be at the top of hers?
He locked the helmet to his bike and strode toward Becca’s front door. As soon as he rang the doorbell, the door was yanked open. A pair of arms swept around his neck and legs wrapped around his hips before a pair of familiar lips captured his. Cassie tugged on his bottom lip, bit the hell out of it and sucked it into her mouth. Quinn pivoted and pushed her against the wall to take control and deepen the kiss.
When her warm tears ran down his cheeks, he pulled back.
“I’m sorry. I was so, so wrong. I’ve never had a fiancé before and I didn’t realize I was doing things that would hurt you.” She planted kisses over his face. “You’ll have to teach me, because I’m sure I’ll mess things up from time to time. But there’s one thing you have to understand.”
God, he could barely talk. Her soul-deep honest emotion really affected him. “What?”
“No one is more important to me than you.” She kissed him again, more gentle this time, thank God, ʼcause his legs were a little weak from the raging hard-on she’d given him.
”How long does it take you two to make up? I’m getting hungry out here.”
“Stuff a sock in it, Wolf. I’ve got some major ass-kissing to do.” She bit Quinn’s neck. “When we get home tonight, I’m going to give you the best blow job you’ve ever had.”
“That’s a good start.” His bad mood was already forgotten.
“Wolf and Becca and Jace and Wendy Anne are here to talk about everything. So is your mother. She flew down to talk to Becca after she interviewed her on the phone. We’re about to have a family conference.”
He glanced back the hallway. “Mom’s here? Why?”
“I brought your lasagna over and there’s other food too.” She kissed his cheeks and then placed her forehead against his. “Is that okay with you?”
“Why did Mom fly down from DC? What the hell’s going on?”
“We’re about to have a family conference. Both you and your mom are part of our family now. I hope you’re up to it.”
Hell, with Cassie’s lasagna waiting and a promised blow job in his future, he was up for most anything. Most importantly, though, Cassie had told him the magic words. Words that healed the heart of a little boy and the soul of a grown man. Words no one in his life had ever told him: “No one is more important to me than you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Cassie clasped Quinn’s hand and led him through Becca’s living room to the group gathered around her dining room table. The tension was palpable. His mother stood, her arms and bruised wrists outstretched. “Son.”
Quinn cupped her hands, his square jaw set in both gentleness and concern. “What’s happened to you?”
Her hand, devoid of rings, rose to trail his jaw. “You look so much like him right now.”
He kissed both of her cheeks. “Like who?”
“Like Quinn Matisse, your father.” She collapsed into his arms. “Forgive me, I can’t live with this lie anymore. Buck Gallagher is not your biological father.”
His large hands swept up and down her back. “Is that why he’s always resented me?”
She nodded. “If it was possible to love two men at one time, I did. My engagement to Buck was a long one. He was more focused on his career than on starting our lives together. My cousins and I went on a trip to New Orleans where I met Mat, playing the most sensual music on a saxophone I’d ever heard. He romanced me and I fell in love with him. When I returned to DC, I was pregnant with you.”
“Yet Buck allowed Uncle Mat to visit, to spend time with us.”
She nodded. “Buck thought you were his, until he began to see the physical resemblance between the two of you.” Her fingers brushed Quinn’s face. “The dimples, the square chin and the unusual eyes. The older you became, the more you looked like your biological father.”
Quinn walked into the living room and crossed his arms, his back toward them all. “Did Uncle Mat know I was his?”
“He told me he felt the connection of your souls. That he could hear his blood flow through your veins. He was part Creole with a fanciful nature.”
“All these years, I thought dad hated me because I wasn’t good enough.”
“He hated you because he found out he was sterile. He could never father a child of his own. I’ve left him, Quinn. I can’t take anymore.”
“Good. We’ll have to keep you safe for a while.”
“She’s staying here with me.” Becca pursed her lips.
Cassie could only imagine the turmoil in Quinn’s mind. She wrapped her arms around his waist. “Come on, my love. Let’s eat and talk—as a family. Your mother is one of us now. We have plans to make.”
Over hot food and cold beer, Cassie shared most of what Chris had told her while she was held captive. At one point, she had to stop looking Quinn in the eye and busied herself with passing around the food, making sure everyone had enough to eat.
Meanwhile, she argued with herself over revealing what Quinn’s beloved Renata had also been up to. Some women would relish belittling their man’s former lover, but why hurt Quinn that way? Hadn’t he had enough thrown at him tonight? It seemed as though everyone important in his life had betrayed or used him in one form or another. She loved him too much. What good would it do to tell him?
He wrapped his fingers around her wrist and brought her hand to his lips, kissing her palm. “What are you not telling me, angel?”
He knows me too well.
She shook her head. “I refuse to say anything that might hurt you. We’re concentrating on the mole issue and the DB business right now. That’s what’s really important.”
When she tried to pull her hand from his grasp, he tightened his hold. “So, I could withhold information from you that might hurt you? Like, say, one of your brothers being hurt on the job, and it would be okay?”
Her eyes snapped to make contact with his. “This is different. Nothing good comes from inflicting pain on someone you love, with your whole heart, the way I love you.” To her surprise a sob crawled up her chest and escaped. She looked away.
“Angel, come here.” He tugged her onto his lap, and his mesmerizing blue-grey eyes bore into hers. “Suppose you let me decide.”
Tears filled her eyes. “Don’t make me say something to hurt you. I know how much you loved Renata.”
“Renata was a lying bitch who helped get my men killed. Now, what else do you know about her?”
Cassie exhaled an audible sigh. “According to Chris, she was also having an affair with him. They had a signal. If you spent the night, she would sing in the morning to alert Chris you were still there.”
Quinn blinked a few times and then cupped her cheek with a hand. “If it was you who cheated on me like that, it would destroy me. But Renata? No big fuckin’ deal. I’m over her.” He smiled. “Dr. Paxwell would be so proud t
o hear me say that.”
I’m pretty pleased myself.
“I didn’t know if you were still seeing the good shrink, or not.” Wolf forked some fried chicken off the platter. “How’s it going?”
“I’ve had three sessions. She’s pissed because Cassie and I aren’t staying apart like she instructed, but surely she knew when she issued that mandate that it wasn’t going to fly. Even so, she’s good. Tough as nails. Zero sense of humor.”
Quinn smiled at Cassie. “Speaking of which, do you know I had to handcuff Cassie to the bedpost to put this diamond on her finger?” He held her hand out for one and all to see.
“How come you didn’t show that to us earlier?” Jace leaned across the table to get a good look.
“Because I was more worried about making up with my future husband than I was about showing off my ring. Jace, why don’t you tell Quinn what you were talking about earlier.”
“Remember in Milt’s car I kept saying there was something I couldn’t figure out? What difference would it have made to Chris if you went back into government work? After all, he was doing his own mercenary thing. I just couldn’t get it all to settle right in my head. Something was off.”
Quinn sipped his beer. “Yes, I recall.”
“What we didn’t know at the time, and Cassie was too upset to remember, was Chris wasn’t the only one. There were other moles beside him, led by someone referred to as DB.” Wolf shook his fork at Quinn. “The checks your dad included in that thick packet for Noah were checks made out to each of us. Checks issued by DB Industries Incorporated.”
“DB? Oh dear, that over-bearing, cold-hearted bastard,” Quinn’s mother mumbled. “I just knew he was up to something all these years. His office at home was always locked. There seemed to be secrets around every corner. The last twenty, or so, years, he would get so testy if I inquired.” She glanced at her bruised wrists.
Quinn’s face went blank. There was no expression. He didn’t even so much as blink. Everyone quieted and waited.
“Didn’t you wonder how they knew who to make the checks out to?” Jace spooned some pudding into a bowl and handed it to Wendy Anne. “Hell, they even had Milt’s name right and he’s not associated with the fire station.”
“I talked to each member of our squad privately,” Wolf said. “I asked if they’d seen anyone strange inside the fire station. Ivy Jo said an Internet repair guy was there a couple days earlier. The day you got the threatening text. The repair guy claimed our system was scheduled for an update. She’s new. She didn’t know, but she was smart enough to make note of the make, model and license plate number of his van. Arlo checked it out and it’s owned by DB Enterprises.”
“Ryder swept the fire station today for bugs and found two in the meeting room and one in Noah’s office.”
Quinn picked up his beer bottle. His hand shook. “I re…” he cleared his throat. “I remember being in the men’s room one day at the CIA when two young guys came in. They were talking about someone they referred to as DB. One was especially excited and forgot himself. He used the name Daddy Buck.” Quinn put his hands on Cassie’s waist. “Stand up, angel. I need to walk outside for some fresh air.”
The man she loved walked outside in pain and alone.
Wolf leaned back and stared at her. “This is how you build trust between a man and a woman. Quinn has faced every painful time in his life alone. You don’t have to say anything, but you do need to let him know he’s not alone anymore.”
Cassie opened the door, stepped outside and sat on the step of Becca’s deck and waited. Quinn made two slow revolutions around the edge of the yard, his head bowed. What should she do? Speak? If so, what were the words he needed to hear? How could she ease his pain? When he began his third trip around the yard, she followed four or five steps behind him.
“Go back inside, Cassie.”
“If I was hurting, would you leave me alone? Or would you protect me?”
“Baby, I’m not in the mood for this.”
“Okay, you just keep walking. I’ll just keep following. But I will not leave you alone. If we are a couple, then when one hurts, the other hurts.”
He walked on some more and she kept behind him. His hands slipped into the pockets of his jeans, and he stopped. “I think Buck had my real father killed.”
Cassie nearly stumbled into Quinn’s back in shock over his remark. “You can’t be serious! What makes you think that?”
“When you were being held captive, he told me he’d kill any son of a bitch who tried to take my mother from him. I think he was talking about my biological father.”
“He’s going to jail, whether it’s for treason or misuse of government funds or murder. He’ll have to pay for what he did.”
“I’m changing my last name. I don’t want it. I don’t want anything associated with that cold, heartless bastard. Did you see the bruises he put on my mother’s wrists?”
“Yes.”
“I’d love to get my hands on him for hurting her.” His head dropped back and he stared at the stars, “How would you feel about being Cassie Matisse?”
She circled him and pressed her hands to his cheeks. “You are the most important person in the world to me. I will take your last name, whatever it is. I need to be with you. I want to have your babies. And you, hot lips, need to be loved every day for the rest of your life, because you’re mine.”
Coming soon from Vonnie Davis…
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Also by Vonnie Davis…
Santa Wore Leathers
Vonnie Davis
For years I’ve been a romance junkie, devouring each one like warm, chocolate chip cookies. Perhaps that’s why I adore writing about love and passion. Passion—such a powerful word, don’t you think? I’d classify myself as a late bloomer. I started college in my late forties, met the love of my life in my mid-fifties and published my first book in my early sixties. My husband and I live in Southern Virginia. We enjoy spoiling the grandchildren and traveling. My deepest desire is to write saucy, often humorous romances you’ll cherish long after you’ve turned off the e-reader.
You can follow me on Twitter @VonnieWrites.
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