Boom (28 page)

“Standing in, but not staying in,” Quinn growled, looking as though he’d like nothing better than to throw Jackson out the nearest door. “Sorry, but we just became all filled up. Too bad you can’t stay.”

“I’m not interested in staying,” Jackson snarled, “I’m interested in getting my fiancée back.”

“Holy shit,” Olivia muttered from her place off to the side. Mia couldn’t blame her. If her jaw hadn’t unhinged so hard it clicked, she would have said the same thing.

“
Your
fiancée?” Quinn’s snarl was so much more impressive than Jackson’s that it made Mia shiver. “Are you fucking kidding me? You’re standing here, in my house, looking me in my face, making noise about taking my woman from me? Are you fucking
kidding
me?”

Jackson either had bigger balls than she remembered, or he had no sense of self-preservation as he stepped up to Quinn. “You stole her from me, and you know it.”

“No man can steal another man’s woman unless he’s fucked up hard and let her slip through his fingers.”

“When you two met, Mia was still engaged to me.”

“You see this?” Quinn pulled the hand he held up to Jackson’s eye level, and for a moment Mia thought he was showing the unity represented in their clasped hands, which she thought was rather sweet and poetic, if a bit out of character for him. “You see that rock I put on my woman? I put it there because I knew she’d like it, yeah, but just as importantly I put it there as a warning to any other swinging dick who’d even
think
about taking what’s mine. If you would’ve done that, I might’ve held back from doing my damnedest to take her for myself… though I kind of doubt it. Thankfully I didn’t have to. You didn’t put a ring on her because you’re the fool that didn’t want her. Hell, I should fucking thank you for having your head stuck so far up your ass you didn’t realize you had this treasure who was devoted to you. Devotion’s a hard thing to come by in this world, but you had it. You had it, and you threw it away like garbage, you stupid bastard.”

“He doesn’t have my devotion anymore.” Smiling with the knowledge that only one man had a hold of all of her, she again looked into Quinn’s eyes and saw that beautiful warmth. God, he took her breath away. “You do.”

He raised their entwined hands between them, kissed her ring, then touched the tip of his tongue to his name she’d had scrolled in black beneath it. He’d licked her, so she was his. “I’d better. You’re the only star in my sky.”

Just when she thought she couldn’t fall in love with him any harder. “And you’re the only star in mine.” Then she blinked and looked to Jackson, who stared at them with something that looked vaguely like revulsion. “Wait a minute. I thought you’d found that special person, too. I remember her last name was the same on the name of the law firm you’d gotten a job with. Barrington, right?”

“Jill Barrington,” Jackson gritted out, still looking at them with poorly veiled disgust, and only then did she remember how much he’d hated public displays of affection. They were too messy, too emotional, and too damned human to be put out there for the world to see. That weird hang-up alone had been a giant red flag that his romantic wiring was on the fritz, but she’d been too blind to see it. “She’s the daughter of the man who founded Barrington and Associates.”

“Boss’s daughter, huh?” Looking vaguely bored now that Mia had soothed his Alpha-maleness, Quinn curved an arm around the small of her back, his hand absently rubbing along to top of her ass—a caveman-like gesture of ownership if there ever was one, but she understood he felt the need to establish his territory, so she’d let it slide this once. “Yeah, I’d say that’s about right for the likes of you. What happened? She wake up and realize she was just another rung when it came to your social climbing?”

“You want to know why Jill’s no longer a part of my life?” There was open hostility in Jackson’s expression, and for a moment she thought he might completely lose his mind and throw a punch at Quinn. “I’ll tell you why. Between the Kingfisher Corporation putting the screws to me to pay that ridiculously padded bill and that bowtie-wearing freak Brockman filling Barrington’s head with a shitload of lies about me, I’m now out of a job, and Jill dumped me because Daddy told her to.”

“Wow,” Mia said, shocked, before looking up at Quinn. “You’ve been putting the screws to Jackson?”

“Not me personally,” he said, and shrugged. “I did happen to mention to my dad that if we were able to get anything out of this deadbeat, you and I had decided to put that money away to pay for his grandchildren’s education. Last I heard, he had the company’s legal team all over it, and they’re like a pack of wild dogs. They won’t stop until they’ve got what they want.”

Yikes
. “For the record, I didn’t pad that bill. If anything, I was kind. I didn’t list daily gas usage or that used Corvette you insisted you needed.”

“You let your woman buy a
car
for you?” The look Quinn graced Jackson with was beyond contempt. Mia wasn’t sure what it was, but even on the periphery she could feel its burn. “You sad sack of shit. How do you hold your head up?”

“And I have no idea what you’re talking about regarding Professor Brockman,” she went on when Jackson spluttered for a decent comeback. No doubt he’d think of one about an hour from now, but thinking on his feet had always been a problem for him in mock court. “He and my aunt are dating now, but I haven’t spoken to him recently, and certainly not about you.” They had better things to talk about, now that he was the man who’d put a sparkle in Deb’s eye.

Jackson’s teeth ground together. “You expect me to believe you didn’t put him up to trying to break up my relationship with the Barringtons so we could get back together? You didn’t have him tell my boss how I was on academic suspension my first year at Northwestern, or how the only way I’d passed at all was because you tutored me and wrote my notes out for me? You didn’t instruct him to tell Jill how… how events had gone between us those last two years?”

“You mean when you took advantage of Mia’s love by making her quit law school—which she was better at than you—so she could pay for your sorry ass? Is that what you meant to say?”

Jackson ignored Quinn by what appeared to be sheer force of will. “Did you have Brockman say all that to break Jill and me up, so that we could have another chance?”

“Good grief, no.” At last the light went on, and she looked at him with sympathetic eyes. “I’m sorry you thought that, Jackson, and sorrier still that you came all this way for nothing. I think it’s a shame things didn’t work out between you and Jill. I thought you two looked very happy together.”

“She couldn’t do anything for herself,” came the absent reply as he continued to stare at her as if seeing her for the first time. “She never cleaned up after herself, or me. She never once made the bed or did our laundry. And her cooking… how can any woman grow to adulthood and not know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich?”

“Dude, sounds like you wanted a maid, not a wife,” Quinn said, shaking his head. “There’s a difference, you know.”

In a heartbeat, Jackson’s face hardened. “Shut it. You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

“I know everything there is to know when it comes to finding the perfect woman, dumbass, because I’m holding her right now. She does so much more than clean a mess up, or make a bed, or whatever the hell else you just whined about. It’s about how you’d do anything to have her eyes look into yours and no one else’s. It’s about how her smile hits you so hard it takes your breath away and leaves you punch-drunk. It’s about laughing together and dreaming together and talking about nothing in particular together, and knowing these are the best moments of your life, because you’re being what you’re supposed to be—
together
. You want Mia back because she made your life easier, and I get that. I can even sympathize. But you can’t have her back, because she makes my life
complete
.”

Mia’s throat clenched with every word until she could hardly breathe, and she knew beyond any doubt that she would always remember this moment. Quinn loved her, more than anything in his world, and it filled her with an emotion so beautiful she thought she’d burst with it. She glanced back to Jackson—sad, plastic-looking Jackson—and said the only appropriate thing that came to mind. “
Boom
.”

He stared at her without comprehension, and his head began to shake. “You really didn’t do anything to try to get me back, Mia? You didn’t do
anything
?”

What the hell
. “No, Jackson. Why would I?”

“Because we were good together. I look back on what we had and… damn Mia, I can’t believe how
perfect
it was. Don’t you miss me? Don’t you miss
us
?”

She shook her head, genuinely sorry for him. “Not even a little.”

“You know what, you can have a room for the night, I really don’t give a shit now that I think about it,” Quinn said magnanimously, surprising Mia even as he abruptly turned away and guided her toward the offices. “Just do me a favor—don’t do what you usually do and walk out without paying your bill, okay? Enjoy your stay.”

“That’s awfully big of you, giving him a place to spend the night,” Mia murmured as they closed the office door behind them, shutting out the chaos before continuing on to his inner office, where he shut the door as well.

He lifted a brow at her, then led her around to sit on his lap once he’d settled in his desk chair. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“No, it just surprised me.”

“I felt so fucking sorry for him. He was actually deluded enough to think he was going to get you back, you know? Now he’s got nothing, not even the boss’s daughter, and it’s all because he’s a selfish douche.” Then he shrugged, positioning her more comfortably into the curve of his lap. “I doubt he’ll stick around. He doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who enjoys hanging around people who’ve bested him, and let’s face it—with you on my lap and him out there rejected and alone, he’s definitely been bested.”

“Then why is it I feel like I’m the one who’s won?” She looped her arms around his neck, rested her forehead against his and smiled into his eyes. “I’m still the one making the bed, after all.”

“I don’t give a shit if you never make another bed for the rest of our lives.” His arms tightened on her, bringing her mouth to his. “As long as you’re in that bed with me every night, that’s all that matters to me, baby.”

“
You’re
all that matters to me,” she whispered, sliding her fingers through his hair. No matter how many times she did it, she’d never be able to get enough of the feel of it. “And a week from now, when you become my husband and I become your wife, the whole world will know it. But even more than that, you’ll know it. You’re my choice, because you’re the greatest thing that ever happened to me. And I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life showing you how much I love you.”

“Perfect woman,” he murmured, bringing his mouth to hers once more.

Note From the Author

Hello!

When I started writing BOOM, I had every intention of it being a fun, lighthearted romantic comedy novella that would max out at 40K words. I was even going to turn it into a Christmas tale (and there are still vague hints that this story takes place around Christmastime), despite promising myself that I wasn’t going to write another Christmas novella for a while. They’re seasonal, obviously, so there’s not much interest in these books in, say, June. Lastly, this project wasn’t going to be the beginning of a series, because I already have a couple of those going on, and I just wanted a happy, easy-read standalone.

As they say, the best-laid plans…

I still think I pulled off the lighthearted romantic comedy part. There wasn’t any darkness or angst to speak of, but that’s the only thing I got right. I hope everyone can forgive me for missing the mark on absolutely everything else, including how this project wasn’t supposed to be part of a series. Brody, West and Dev have decided to bother me with their general lack of a love life, so I’ll be visiting them in time, if only to shut them up.

I won’t be visiting them for a while, though. My plans for the next year are to return to House Of Payne with Steele and Essie’s story, which will be out in early May of 2016. Then I’m devoting myself to Marco Polo Scorpeone in what will be his two-part storyline—The Year Of The Scorpio. If there’s time, I’ll return to the Kingfisher men and Honey Pot, Montana to see if they’re still interested in lightening things up and having some fun in the snow.

As always, I LOVE hearing from readers, just as much as I love interacting with them. Please feel free to drop me a line at
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I hope to see you all in 2016!