Boom (22 page)

“You make me cry,” she panted, trying to warn him while she still had the ability to speak. “So good. It’s so good with you, you make me cry.”

“I love your tears, baby.” He pushed her to lie back so that he could place her legs over his shoulders, altering the angle of penetration, then plunged into her as deeply as he could go. Fiercely he hit against her clit with every thrust, and the angle he’d achieved was spectacular, the best ever. His cock stroked against the one spot that had her body tensing with a sensation so exquisite it bordered on agony, and with each fluid stroke he boosted her that much closer to losing her damn mind. “You’d never use your tears against me. You’d never do anything to hurt me.”

“Never.” She didn’t think about how she’d had tears in her eyes earlier and for the first time he hadn’t gotten angry over them, nor did she think of the weight of trust his words carried. At that moment all that mattered was what she was feeling. Wildly her hips pumped, lifting off the desk as she chased after that insane fulfillment hovering just out of reach. She’d never stop until she had it. Never, ever stop…

“Try to keep quiet.” His voice was thick, unrecognizable. She adored the sound of it. His hands moved under her to cup her ass, his fingers biting into her soft flesh as he pulled her to him again and again while he plunged into her like a wild man.

It was almost impossible to do as he asked, and he seemed to understand that. He leaned forward, folding her thighs up tight to her chest and her heels pushing into his back, and he kissed her just as the tension inside her snapped. An explosion of ecstasy shattered through her, ripping the world apart, and while spasm after spasm rolled through her, she couldn’t help but cry out into his muffling mouth. Her orgasm roared endlessly, shattering, incinerating. Beautiful.

Had sex ever been
beautiful
before?

Only with Quinn.

Only he could bring this kind of beauty to her.

The unbearable bliss was still echoing through her when suddenly she found that it was her mouth that was doing the muffling as he groaned deep and long down her throat. His movements became uncoordinated and wild and urgent, and she opened her eyes to watch him. It was beyond exciting, seeing him in the throes of rapture. The cords in his neck stood out while every muscle in his body strained to reach the pinnacle of pleasure, his eyes drifting closed as if tortured.

She understood. It was the same with her whenever he made her come. What he gave her was so intense and dazzling that it was a magnificent torture, and it killed her that the pleasure he gave her couldn’t last.

At last the terrible tension stringing his body taut drained away, and his weight collapsed onto her with his face turning to tuck into her neck. With her heart still racing, she wrapped her arms around him and she bent her head to press her mouth against the silken fall of his hair.

“Don’t ever tell me you can’t,” she murmured, arms tightening. “Talk about a huge lie.”

That brought his head up, and when his gaze locked onto hers, the languorous satiation and warm contentment she saw there made her chest clench with a happiness so soaring it was a wonder she didn’t fly right up to the ceiling. “What?”

“Right before we both lost our minds and had sex on your desk, you said you
can’t
.” Dryly she gave their still-connected bodies a significant look before raising a brow at Quinn. “Trust me, pal. You
can
.”

“Hell, yeah, I can.” Grinning, he put his face back in her neck and kissed her there. “And I’m going to keep on doing what I can until we both pass out from exhaustion.”

“Uh, here? Because I’m thinking that’d be kind of awkward as the workday went on.”

“Not here. Next time is going to be tonight by the fireplace, because I haven’t yet seen what you look like in firelight. Sound good?”

“Yeah,” she whispered, stroking his hair while that crazy happiness in her chest grew. “Sounds really good.”

Chapter Eighteen

Once Mia managed to get out of the main building with Jase loudly wanted to know what took them so long in the office—all the while wearing a big shit-eating grin all over his face—she returned alone to the chalet. Taking her phone out of her purse, she plugged it into the borrowed cord, paranoid now about letting it get low on juice.

The moment she did, it began to ring, surprising her. Then she saw the name on the screen and all but pounced on it in her haste to answer.

“Hi, Deb. How are you?”
How’s it be going since I left you high and dry without a stager all this time?

“The hell with that, how are
you
? What’s going on? Are you okay?”

Mia inwardly cringed at the worry in her aunt’s voice. “I’m so sorry I’ve been gone for so long, and that I wasn’t able to call you sooner after my phone died. It’s just been crazy here, weather-wise. Have you been slammed with business?”

“Forget about the business,” came the surprising response. “You left this long, rambling message that you were fine but snowed in and having a great time getting to know a part of the country you’d never imagined you’d ever see. So since you obviously haven’t decided to fly out of there yet, I just want to know if you’re actually snowed in, or are you touring freaking Montana’s High Country?”

“Both.” When she’d left the message, she hadn’t yet learned that the airport had reopened and her flight to Seattle had resumed without her.
Thanks, Quinn
. “I’m truly sorry for leaving you in the lurch, Deb. Did you also see the text I sent you?”

“The one about vacation time?”

“That’s the one. I’ve never taken a vacation in the two years that I’ve worked for you fulltime, so I’d like to take a couple weeks off to get my life in order. But since this downtime obviously came up with no notice, I understand if you need to replace—”

“Stop, already. You know very well that the dead of winter isn’t our busy season. Even if you were here, I’d be paying you to do almost nothing. The only new listings I have are a small apartment in Little Italy off of Roosevelt, a brownstone monstrosity that needs a ton of renovation before any staging can be done, and a cute little shotgun-style cottage out in Old Town that I can stage myself. What I’m concerned about is
you
. How are you after the jackass did his thing online? Daria told me you know about it.”

Without warning, she recalled Quinn’s assertion that to be hurt by anything Jackson did was an indication that she still cared. That was why she took her time to search her heart, only to find peaceful serenity. “I’m good, Deb. I swear. If anything, I feel better than ever now that I’m free of Jackson.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Mia couldn’t help but chuckle at her aunt’s amazed tone. “I can now see that I deserve to feel like I’m more important to a man than anything else in his world. Jackson never gave me that, so… I’m good.”

“It’s about time you realized that.” Her aunt’s voice crackled with relief before she laughed out loud. “I can’t tell you how often I’ve wanted to knock some sense into you about that very thing. You deserve nothing but the best, sweets, because that’s what you are—the best.”

Aww
. “I don’t know about that, but it sure is nice to hear.”

“The people who love you tell you that very thing all the time, but Jackson the Jackass always had a way of drowning us out. But now it seems like you can hear us just fine. I don’t suppose you have anyone helping you with your hearing, do you?”

Mia began to feel warm all over. “Uh…”

“Right. What’s his name?”

There were times when she wished her aunt didn’t know her so well. “Quinn Kingfisher.”

“Your kidnapper?”

“Didn’t we go through this already?”

“Right, right. You call him your savior, and I call him the guy who was supposed to take you to a hotel designated by the airline, but decided instead to drive you up into the mountains and keep you. Kidnapper, savior—same difference.”

Mia sighed. “I really like him, Deb. A lot.”

Her aunt made a dubious sound. “This isn’t a rebound thing, is it? You know, just something you’re needing to make yourself feel desirable after being dumped?”

Mia was eternally grateful Deb wasn’t there to see her eye roll. “Definitely not that, since I had the hots for Quinn long before Jackson kicked me to the curb. If anything, that’s the reason why I feel so relieved Jackson broke up with me. I’m now free to do other things.” And the thing she wanted to do the most was Quinn.

Her aunt’s thoughts seemed to be traveling along the same path. “And is this Quinn guy the reason why you don’t seem to be in any hurry to get out of Montana?”

“Yep.” No need to lie when it was so obvious.

Her aunt chuckled, and there was an unmistakable ring of approval in the sound. “Well then, I’m not going to waste another minute worrying about you, sweets, since you’re obviously doing just fine.”

“I really am, I swear. In fact, I can’t remember when I’ve been so happy.”

“If there’s anyone on this planet who deserves to feel happy, it’s you. Oh, I almost forgot,” she said, interrupting herself. “Do you know a man by the name of David Brockman? He said he was a law professor of yours?”

Every muscle in Mia’s body tensed, and before she was even aware that she was doing it, she glanced in the direction of her purse lying on the bed she hadn’t used in days. “Yes, I know him.”

“He came into the office yesterday looking for you. Is he married?”

Mia blinked, momentarily distracted. “What? Why?”

“Are you kidding me? He’s got that deep, James Earl Jones kind of voice and a short, salt-and-pepper beard that makes me wanna rub my face all over it.”

“Uh, okay.” Mia tried envisioning that particular scenario and began to laugh when all she could see was her aunt doing a catlike nuzzle all over the scholarly, bowtie-wearing, oh-so proper Professor Brockman. “I take it you liked the look of him.”

“The look of him, the sound of him, and I made sure I got close enough to get a good whiff of him, and that was seriously fine too. And the best part of all, I didn’t see any ring on his finger. Believe me, I checked.”

Mia made an amused sound. “I don’t know if he’s married, but he was my favorite professor when I was at Northwestern.”

“I got the feeling you were a favorite of his too. He mentioned he had some papers for you that you’d drawn up as your last assignment for him, and that he’d be happy to take care of them for you. Do you know what he’s talking about?”

“I do.” And it was obvious Professor Brockman was getting impatient with her to get back to him, and she couldn’t blame him. She was getting impatient with herself for dragging her feet on what had to be done.

“So?” Her aunt’s voice brought her back to the present. “Do you have a message for the lovely professor? If you love me at all, you’ll make up a long and detailed response that needs to be delivered in person. Preferably with me wearing my new ruffled nightie.”

Good grief
. “Uh, I don’t think I could ever come up with a message where that would be appropriate.”

“Kids today. You just don’t have any imagination.”

“I’ll work on that.” With a gusty sigh, Mia again looked to her purse on the bed, this time zeroing in on the corner of a manila envelope peeking out of the top. “I know exactly what the professor’s talking about regarding those papers, Deb. You can tell him that even though I’m currently in Montana, I have a copy of them with me. I didn’t forget them, nor have I forgotten a single word that they contain. He’ll believe you, because he knows my memory for the written word, just as I’m sure he remembers that Jackson’s memory is nowhere near as accurate.”

“Jackson?” From lighthearted and teasing, Deb’s voice turned diamond-hard. “What does he have to do with this?”

“Well…”

“Oh, no. I do
not
like the sound of that. Please don’t tell me the papers Professor Yummy was going on about have something to do with the jackass.”

“As a matter of fact, they do.”

“Suddenly I don’t like the professor nearly as much as I did a minute ago. Sweets, listen to me,” her aunt went on when Mia let out an impatient sigh. “If these papers have any power to pull the jackass back into your life, even for a second, then you should burn them. Right now. Find a fire and toss those suckers in. Forget they existed, just like you should forget that the jackass ever existed, and move the hell on.”

“I have to finish what I started, Deb. I have to do this.”

It was Deb’s turn to sigh impatiently. “Didn’t you just tell me that you’re interested in another man now? What does he think about this?”

“Um…”

“He doesn’t know about it,” she interpreted perfectly, and Mia wondered when her aunt had gotten so good at reading minds. “Mia, you said you can’t remember when you’ve ever been this happy. Why would you insist on holding on to a part of the past that made you miserable, when you’re happy with what you have now?”

“I’m not holding on, I swear.”

The silence that greeted this was deafening.

“You’re right,” Mia said, as if her aunt had chastised her for being the complete and utter loser that she was. “Quinn’s not going to like learning about those papers, which is why I haven’t mentioned them. But he does know that I was on my way to Seattle for a very specific reason, so I’m sure he’ll understand that I need to see this through to the end.”

Though deep down, she was fairly certain she’d just told a lie.

“Honey, I’m home.”

Mia looked up from sliding a pan of piping hot lasagna onto a trivet to cool, and grinned as Quinn came around the corner, still in his ski jacket and holding a small bag in one hand. “You did not just say that.”

“Yeah, I did.” Dropping the bag on the island next to the lasagna, he leaned in for a kiss, then answered her grin with one of his own as he unzipped his jacket and shrugged it off. “Wanna make something of it?”

“I don’t think so.” It was almost impossible to look away from those sexy eyes of his, but she managed to turn her attention to the bag he’d brought before she lost her mind and began ripping his clothes off right there in the kitchen. “What’s this?”

“It’s from Olivia. She said you texted her wanting to know what my favorite dessert was, so she packed some up.”

“That was sweet of her.” Curious, Mia peeked in the bag, then lifted a slow brow at Quinn “You’re kidding.”

“What?”

“Donuts? You favorite dessert’s… donuts?”

He shrugged. “What’s wrong with that?”

“It’s tragic.” With a pitying shake of her head, she set his bag of “dessert” aside. “What I wouldn’t give for my own kitchen and my own car so I could drive to my own grocery store and make you my famous chocolate chip cookie pie. Seriously, it’s like heaven on a plate.”

“Your
own
shit, huh? Sounds like the beginning of cabin fever is setting in.” Looking as though he was torn between being concerned and laughing, he came around behind her to wrap his arms around her waist. “Either that, or you’re getting homesick. Which is it?”

“A little of both, I guess.” Not to mention Deb’s voice kept cropping up to bug her when she least expected it. Her grin trickled away, and her mood threatened to tank. “Whatever it is, it’s causing hallucinations. Earlier today I was looking out the balcony window toward the mountain, and I thought I saw a Great Dane. Then I figured out it was a deer when it was joined by a bunch of others. Either that, or you have a serious problem with a roving pack of Great Danes here at Whiteout.”

“Holy shit.” Quinn buried his face in her neck and burst out laughing, and her heart executed professional-level gymnastics as the sensation of his mirth reverberated through her while he held her. Until that moment, she’d never realized how soul-stirring it could be to share a laugh with the person she loved. “I’m making a rule right now—you’re not allowed to go anywhere outside a building by yourself. You’ll be chasing Great Danes all over the fucking mountains, get lost, and we won’t find you until spring thaw.”

“Don’t worry, this city girl knows her limitations. The Great Danes can take care of themselves.”

“My city girl can also take care of herself in her natural environment, I’m sure,” he said, and the laughter faded as he turned her to face him. “But I’m serious about you not going out on your own, yeah? Experienced mountain men have been known to get lost in the wilderness around here, so if you need to go anywhere, just ask. If I can’t take you to wherever it is you want to go, then someone else around here can.”

Now
, she thought, looking into his face that was so beautiful to her eyes that she was sure angels would be ugly in comparison.
Now is the perfect opportunity to tell him I need to finish what I started. That I have to go, but that I’ll be back because I want to be with him. I don’t really want to leave him in the first place.

And there it was. The bottom line.

She didn’t want to leave him. And she wanted him to know it.

Was it crazy to have that thought now, when she hadn’t known of his existence a month ago?