Accepting His Ways (Quinlan O'Connor Book 2) (24 page)

Quinn grunted and said, “Yes, we can do it again. I love the way I have free access to your body when you do it this way.”

“I do too,” she managed to get out before he flipped her around so he could play again. It was a long night.

Quinn was glad he had made their next flight in the afternoon. He could not imagine leaving the hotel before noon and he could see Cheyenne needed a good soak first. Life was good.

“We are flying to Miami, Florida? We are really going to Miami?” she squealed. “I’ve never been to Miami and I have always wanted to see it. You’re incredible. I can’t believe you remembered.”

Then they spent the rest of the day, night and part of the next day in Miami, before Quinn put them in a cab with their luggage and soon they boarded a cruise ship for a ten-day trip through the islands. Thanksgiving in the Bahamas was incredible and she couldn’t wait to come home and show off her tan.

Her first time swimming in an ocean and snorkeling was a blast. Quinn was very indulgent, allowing her to do whatever she wanted within reason. Swimming where the sharks were last seen was not something he allowed, even though she pouted and begged, he refused. Finally, she did get three loud swats to her barely covered bottom.

“There are a few things I must deny you, Cheyenne, and if that’s too hard for you to accept, I’m sure they have paddles or their equivalent here. I also know that panties are always optional.”

“You wouldn’t.” Looking into her man’s face as he looked her in the eye and started to reach down to lift her dress, she knew he would do it right where they stood. “Okay. Spoilsport. Who invited the dom to our honeymoon, anyway?”

“I’m good with that designation if it keeps you safe. And I invited him.” He bent down to kiss her pouty lips and made love to her mouth right on the side of the street. No one seemed to mind. When they returned to the ship, they finished the task.

“I have your wedding present,” announced Cheyenne as she reached into the suitcase and brought out a white document envelope.

“Hmm, what is this, a certificate for a getaway weekend with my lovely bride?”

“Well, it could be a getaway, but I think it’s a bit more. Open it up.”

He looked at her for a long moment before he opened the envelope and pulled out a deed to the house in Elk Ridge. His eyes met hers and he waited for a few seconds before responding.

“You knew.”

“I did. I love that you did it, but I was also hurt. I thought we were going to do it together and I felt as though you had taken the joy of that away. A few days ago, when we worked through the Maggie disaster, I thought you would tell me then, but you didn’t. Then I talked with Da and he said it was something you wanted to do and I should accept it. How did you get it in my name as well?”

“Remember those little powers of attorney that we executed so that when you were gone to training and loan-outs I could handle anything that came up in case we had overlooked it and you had one for me, just in case?”

“Ah, you’re devious. I would say you planned it that way but Ace was the one who suggested it.”

“Um, well, about that…”

“You set that up too. I’m going to have to watch you more closely. You’re wilier than I gave you credit for and I won’t make that mistake again. No more buying big-ticket items without me. It won’t go well for you,
piscín
, so be forewarned.” He shifted his tone and laid her down on the bed, “I love it and I love you, Mrs. O’Connor. Now let me show you my appreciation.”

Sunbathing and walking through quaint islands was incredible. There seemed to be more people on the ship and in the little island communities than in their own town. It was like a dream. Unfortunately, like all dreams, waking up was inevitable and after two weeks, it was time to head back.

However, she and Quinn did agree that not being home for a big family holiday had its disadvantages so decided they would try not to go over a holiday again but going on trips together was wonderful.

Arriving back home to the realities of life, Quinn was busy finishing his last days with the sheriff’s department when they received the call that seemed to make the world stand still. Liam called. They needed help finding Katie. Quinn and the other O’Connor men except for Da left for Montana. It was more than thirty-six hours before Da got the stand down message. Katie was safe. It was a scary thing to realize there were crazy people in the world and the O’Connors were not immune to their effects.

When Quinn called Cheyenne, he spoke sweet nothings to her and he wanted to do nothing more than talk with her until they both fell asleep. When he flew back home, he held her for most of the evening and night, not letting her get far from him.

“That scared me. I don’t want you going anywhere alone,” said Quinn in adamant tones.

“Quinn, honey waiting for escort all the time isn’t practicable or feasible for me to do. I promise I’ll be very careful when you’re gone.”

“You had better or you know what will happen.”

“All of you will come looking for me, silly, we all know that.” Her answer was met with a center swat to her lower cheeks to bring heat to her sitting zone and a consuming kiss that brought heat to her upper cheeks.

* * *

Closing up the physical doors of the Sterling Accounting Firm that her father had opened in actuality twenty-five years ago but almost thirty years in business was hard. It made Cheyenne pause for not the first time, wondering if she was deserting her father’s dream. She wasn’t, she was expanding it to include the O’Connor name. She was going to keep the business as Sterling but bring it under the umbrella of the O’Connor Enterprises. She smiled. Dad would approve.

The tears rolled down her cheeks as she walked through the little office that her father had said he made sure had a second room for when his newly born daughter would join him in the firm. As she grew up, James had said that she would not need to be an accountant, but have a job or business that needed an office. He knew he needed her beside him always. For the last two years in college and two after graduation, she was. She turned out the lights and locked the doors for the last time.

Next was the final packing up of the apartment. The original plan was to be out by November first, but while the major packing up had been accomplished except for her bed, she wanted to keep the apartment. Quinn had agreed. They were glad they did because newlyweds need privacy. Quinn had stayed with her at the apartment but with the biggest Christmas Cheyenne had ever experienced over, the plan was to be moved out before the New Year. That was more packing and crying for the loss of familiarity. She wasn’t only leaving her apartment and her office, but her whole town and in some ways, her lifestyle.

There was no club to release tension in, no group of girls to occasionally hang out with, and she would not have her own place to decompress when Quinn irritated her.

“It’s not like I don’t love him to distraction,” she explained to Jacquie, “but he’s so much. I mean, bigger than life. His whole family is bigger than life, and I won’t have a place to go to breathe. I know it sounds crazy, and I’m probably working myself up over nothing but there won’t even be a place like The Sting to play in and let go.”

“No, I don’t think you’re crazy. You and Quinn have built a life around things like this and you’re so right when you say they are bigger than life. Quinn won’t understand it even if he wanted to because he was born in the middle of all of this. It’s normal to him. Listen, I think you should tell him.”

“What? Tell him what? I love you but life with you is too much of everything? The sex is mind blowing, the dominant part is instantly freeing, the family is smilingly overwhelming and the changes in my life are alarming. Yes, I know we talked about it but now that I’m living it all, I’m suffocating from the sheer bigness of everything. Yeah, I can see me saying all of that to him. I love him so much it hurts and even that can be overwhelming. How do I let him know I need help but I don’t know what kind of help I need?”

“I think you already did,” said Jacquie as Ace and Quinlan had walked in behind Cheyenne right when she was making her last impassioned speech.

They stood behind her as she spoke and Quinn nodded his head after Jacquie spoke. He walked up behind Cheyenne, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed the tenderness of her neck, nipping a bit causing her to startle but then relax. Jacquie walked around them and said goodbye to the couple but it went unacknowledged as they worked through the newness of marriage in a larger than life environment. They spent a long evening figuring things out.

Quinn, being the Alpha male wanted to fix everything. Cheyenne, being somewhere between type A and type B personality, but submissive to her dominant husband, wanted no part of it.

“Quinn, you can’t just barrel in and take over.”

He leaned away from her and said, “You do remember who I am, right?”

“That isn’t what I mean. You can’t just fix this. It takes time. I need you to understand that those are my feelings and support me as I deal with them. Help me by allowing me time to put things in their proper place in my own life and then in our life.”

“Okay, what can I do then?” Quinn pulled her back into his arms and cuddled.

“Just don’t get irritated when I work through all of my feelings. Don’t get impatient and try to take over. Promise you won’t get out of control.”

He shook his head. “I don’t see how that is going to help. I’m a good fixer.” He looked at her face and agreed. “Fine. You tell me what you need and I’ll try to meet those needs.”

She smiled and leaned up. “I love you, Mr. O’Connor.”

He met her lips part way. “And I love you, Mrs. O’Conner.”

Finally, the apartment was packed, moved to storage, and the apartment cleaned in time for the New Year celebration and a few days of nothing but relaxation to calm frayed nerves and finalize their plans. Quinn would go to the training and Cheyenne would stay at his parents’ house until he returned. He had the movers set to pick up and move their things to the new house in Montana near the end of January as his reporting date was February first.

Telling his thoroughly satiated wife goodbye for a few weeks was difficult but a necessity. He kissed her one last time, landed a solid swat on her bottom for a “deterrent” and off he went for three long weeks.

Cheyenne missed him already by the afternoon and while life with Sean and Siobhan was filled with love and laughter, she missed having things to do. It was the very busiest time of the year and she was anxious to get things started but she was out of her normal working environment and everything felt off. She was more than restless and hated how irritable she was becoming. Work was not as satisfying as it had been. She used Da’s office for the O’Connor accounting and it was easier to have immediate access to their records but not enough to stave off the aimlessness of the days.

Quinn called daily but Cheyenne grew more restless and she decided she would pick up her gear, household things and go to the new house. She was anxious to leave and get there after she made the decision. Quinn would be back on the twentieth and the house would be empty by the fifteenth. He had arranged for their things to meet them there on the twenty-third and she would have to change it up by ten days. He had everything set up perfectly so to not repeat Liam’s mistakes.

Quinn had told her to wait for him, but she was so ready to get going in her new life she decided to drive to the Circle C and visit until the furniture arrived. Cheyenne knew that if Quinn was not happy with her, it didn’t matter if they were newlyweds or not, she would most certainly feel his displeasure. For some reason, her head knowledge didn’t speak to the rest of her and she made the decision to go early. When she called her sisters-in-law to tell them she was preparing to come early, they all advised against it. In fact, Kelli went on to recount several times in her early life when she had chosen to go against Quinn and the dire consequences she suffered because of it. When she told Siobhan that she was leaving, that good woman tried to talk her out of it as well.

“Cheyenne, I’m always going to try to back you up whenever I can, and not step into your marriage or your decisions, but you need to rethink this. Quinn can toe the line pretty hard and if he was very specific, and he was about this, it just would not do to go against him. Honey, I would hope a little self-preservation would kick in here. You and I both know what Quinn will do if you leave early against his expressed wishes. You know that his choice to plan this so carefully was because he had seen Liam and Jocelyn’s problems. He didn’t want that to happen to you.”

“I know, Mom, but listen. I know Quinn might be upset a little bit, but he’ll be so relieved that he doesn’t have to do anything except learn his new job.”

“Cheyenne, that’s not how it works and you know it. You and I both know you just want to defy Quinn and do what you want to do. Unfortunately, I think you’re just going to have to learn from your mistakes. But I’m going to have to call Da and let him know.”

“Why do you have to do that?”

“Because, my dear, he’s
my
husband and I don’t want the retribution that would come if I didn’t tell him before you left so he had an opportunity to talk to you. That’s how I’ve learned to keep peace in
my
home.” She hugged Cheyenne.

Sean came home at lunch as normal and tried to change her mind. After a few moments, he seemed to make a decision within himself.