Insatiable (17 page)

He spooned me so nicely, his body warm and firm and comforting against my back, that I went immediately into a deep and dreamless sleep.

V
AUGHN

It had been two days since Quinn came to my house and dragged that confession out of me.

Two wonderful days in which neither of us stepped out of said house. Everything we could possibly want or need I ordered in.

I couldn’t get enough of that body of hers. Sometimes we took it slow, going up to the bedroom and teasing each other until we couldn’t take it anymore.

Other times, neither of us could contain ourselves and I would push her down onto whatever flat surface was available, pulling her hips back against me.

And thank God it’s the weekend!
I thought. Quinn had given into her desires, yes. But I don’t think anything short of a natural disaster could have stopped her from going into the office.

The thing was, the more I saw of her the more I wanted to see. It didn’t seem possible to tire of being around her.

Take this moment, for instance. I sat at the island in my kitchen. Quinn stood at the stove, trying to make what I believed to be scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast.

She kept her hair down, and I liked how glossy it looked in the morning sunlight while it bounced around her shoulders.

She wore one of my button down shirts and nothing else. A cream-colored one with a black collar. It hung down just enough to cover her butt. I could see where those lovely cheeks of hers met her thighs, and seeing that stirred the desire inside me again.

It all seemed so perfect. But even now something lurked in the back of my mind. It was an invisible countdown, I knew. Just like the ones I’d had with Stacey and Alisha and all the others.

Is it weeks? Months?
I wondered. Then,
No, it’s different this time. I told her things I never told anyone else. Of course it’s different this time.

The thought was enough to distract me until I smelled the distinct odor of burning toast. And, sure enough, little grey curlicues of smoke rose out of my artisanal toaster from its perch on the granite counter.

“Why is this going wrong?” Quinn said, dropping the spatula on the oven top and lifting her hands in defeat. That arm-lifting action also lifted my shirt up along her back, and the desire turned to an ache inside me.

However, I don’t think either of us could answer that call just now. We were both too sore.

“Let me show you how it’s done,” I said, getting up off the barstool. I frowned at the burnt stuff in the skillet, which I took and washed down the disposal in the sink.

Quinn blushed. “You know, I’m normally pretty good at cooking up simple stuff like this. Just ask the kids I babysit sometimes. I don’t know what happened to me.”

“I happened to you,” I said, grinning while I grabbed the carton of eggs from the fridge.

“You’re giving yourself a lot of credit, mister,” she said. She grabbed my butt through my pants and gave it a squeeze.

“No more than what’s deserved. Now step back before you do to this batch whatever you did to the last.”

That earned me another slap on the butt. I didn’t mind. I liked that Quinn tried cooking for me. But I have to say, I got a lot of satisfaction from doing the cooking for her.

She kept shaking her head like I was so unbelievable. I wondered what sort of men she’d been with before who wouldn’t do something so easy like cooking breakfast for her.

Half an hour or so later we both sat at the island, our scrambled eggs and toast with the sides of fresh-squeezed juice and fresh-ground coffee all gone. The kitchen smelled good.

“I need you to tell me that these past few days were real. That they meant something to you,” Quinn said, transfixing me with her eyes.

“Of course they meant something. You mean something to me, something important,” I said.

“Because I’m not usually like this with people. I don’t let this sort of thing happen, not this quickly. And I need you to know that this didn’t mean nothing to me. I guess I’m trying to say that you have me in your hands now, and that you can’t let me slip through your fingers.”

“That’s not going to happen,” I said. I reached across the granite island top and took her hand in mine. I gave her a reassuring squeeze. She looked at me for a while, I suppose trying to figure out whether I meant it.

It satisfied her. “Good. I had to get that out of the way. I’m sorry if it was awkward or anything.”

I had to say it did hurt a little that she felt she needed to ask those questions. However, I could also without much difficulty reason why she had asked, knowing what she did about me.

She was intelligent. She didn’t jump into things lightly. She needed assurances. And after I forced myself through my first few moments of reaction I found I appreciated her more than before.

I didn’t tell her about that hidden countdown I sensed at the back of my mind. With any luck, it was a countdown to nothing. A leftover from an obsolete version of myself.

“Is it Sunday?” Quinn asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Then I should get back to my place,” she said.

I didn’t let go of her hand. “There’s no need for that. Literally anything you could want or need, I can have here before lunch. Stay.”

Her cheeks heated up, emphasizing her freckles. I loved making her blush. Those freckles had to be simultaneously the most adorable and the sexiest features I’d ever seen on a woman.

“I can’t. Your marketing launch is getting so close now. Even taking this weekend off  might have been too much. I haven’t even checked my email, my phone’s dead. Who knows what’s waiting for me in the mail back home...”

She got up, pulling her hand from mine, and I could see Quinn the professional taking over for Quinn the lover.

“Forget the ad stuff for now. I’ll just push it back another week,” I said.

It would take my board of directors some cajoling to go along with, but since I was the majority stockholder in the company they would just have to deal with it. Right at that moment I could have happily sold Phoenix Software if it meant no one would ever bother the two of us again.

She looked at me with hope and gratitude in her eyes, and a similar hope flared in my chest. Then those lovely green eyes of hers hardened and she shook her head.

“No, no more distractions. When I start something, I finish it, and I intend on finishing this, too.”

I stood and wrapped my arms around her, clasping them just below her navel. She leaned her head back against my shoulder and I breathed in the sweet, clean smell of her hair.

“Are you sure? I can be very distracting when necessary.”

She reached around to the back of my head and then pulled me down so that we could kiss. She tasted sweet. Everything about her was sweet, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how all she had on was my shirt.

Then she pulled away from me, spinning out of my arms like a dancer. “Not on your life,” she winked.

She left before lunch after a fresh shower (which I was forbidden from joining her in). She stepped out the door telling me that she just wanted a few days to get everything settled with the marketing push and then we could continue.

A short pause, she called it. I told her that it better be short, because I didn’t know how long I could wait.

I waited until the door closed, then started thinking of the best way to surprise her. There was no way I could wait several
days
before picking up again.

Q
UINN

I walked down the street feeling more exhilarated and alive than I’d felt in, well, ever. The breeze blowing through my hair was sweet and cool. Colors looked sharper and more vibrant. I smiled at my fellow pedestrians.

They must have thought I was a nut job. For once, I didn’t care what anyone else thought.

I didn’t even mind the extra couple blocks I needed to walk before finding a taxi.

I wished my phone hadn’t died. I wished Vaughn would have let me at his computer for a bit. Though, there had been that one time I’d gone into his study. I’d even gotten as far as turning the computer on before Vaughn came in, folded me in his arms, and took me again, right there in that chair.

I need to know what’s going on!
I thought. So many distractions. The old me would have despaired at the amount of time I’d lost.

For once I went home hoping that Mary wouldn’t ask me to look after the kids tonight. I needed every moment I could beg, borrow, or steal. I even thought about grabbing a few supplies and heading over to the office.

No one else would be there, it’d be perfect!

I decided against that, though. Going back and forth from there would also eat up too much time.

I got back to my place, grabbed the mail, and went up to my condo. I breathed a rather guilty sigh of relief at not having encountered Mary.

Inside, away from all prying eyes, I dropped everything for a moment just so that I could do a little happy dance.

I almost wished that Anne was here so that I could spill everything to her. Almost.
That really happened. The past few days really happened! And he wants to keep seeing me!

Not only that, but I’d believed him when he said that this meant something to him, too. That he wasn’t just going to let me slip through his fingers. We both knew more about each other, now.

It was different from anything before, for both of us.

“Okay, that’s enough for now. Work. It’s time for work!” I said, shaking my head, trying to force it back into a serious mindset.

Thankfully, the sky hadn’t fallen. There was a request from Ms. Spencer dated yesterday asking for an update that I needed to reply to sooner rather than later. Anne had attached a few of the last minute revisions I’d requested to an email. Nothing else. That was good.

And I was happy that I hadn’t gotten a cat yet. It definitely would have been forgotten over the past couple days.

Then again, if things go well I won’t be needing a cat...
I pushed those thoughts from my mind. One, they got in the way of thinking about work. Two, they were about a future that still didn’t seem quite attainable to me.

I couldn’t keep myself still, though. I kept wandering around my condo, doing a circuit from the kitchen to the living room to my office, over and over.

On one of these trips I noticed that I had a message on my answering machine. I must have overlooked it in my excitement to plug my phone in and check my email.

I hit the button to play it back.

“
Hey babe, I’m in town for once and I thought we could see each other again? Maybe get a little familiar? I know we can work through some of that stuff from before. See you later.
”

“No,” I said.
Not now. Why did he have to do this now? How did he get my number?
I’d gotten a different one when I moved into the condo.

I suppose it didn't matter how he'd gotten the number, it only mattered that he did have it.

If there was a single person in the world I didn’t want to see that day (or ever again, but especially not that day). It was him. Archer, my ex from a few years ago, before I’d started at C&M.

It had been a messy breakup, and sometimes he still got it into his head that we were a thing. Like it had all just been a mistake on my part that I’d dumped his cheating, drunk ass.

I checked the time stamp on the message. It was from this morning, around the time Vaughn and I had been sitting at his kitchen island having breakfast.

If I’d been home, I could have told him to stay away. I could have told him that I had no interest in seeing him!

Part of me knew that wasn’t the way Archer operated, though. He never really cared about what I actually said, only hearing what he wanted me to say.

I got angry at Vaughn for a few heartbeats, wanting to blame him. But I knew at best he was only half to blame. It took two to do what we did. It wasn’t like he’d handcuffed me to his bed.

Though wouldn’t that have been something?
I thought with a smile. I shook my head.
Not the time to think about that, Quinn!

It was then I’d wished I’d gone ahead and gotten that restraining order against him.

Of course, back then he had still been poisoning my mind. I still couldn't believe I’d actually felt guilty over the whole thing, like it was my fault.

I could leave, I could go somewhere and just hide out until he stops looking. Vaughn would let me stay at his place
, was my knee-jerk reaction.

I was a different person now then I was when I’d been with Archer, though. I was stronger. I was successful at my job, people respected me.

He was a ghost from my past that I decided I needed to get rid of myself, to make him stop poisoning my thoughts.

I didn’t know whether I should count it as luck or misfortune that I didn’t have to wait long to put myself to the test.

I sat at my desk in my home office, checking ad schedules for conflicts, when I heard the knock at my door. I’d gotten so involved in my work that I almost forgot about him.

But as soon as I heard that knock my throat squeezed shut and my stomach went cold.

I considered pretending to not be home. Let him knock as much as he wanted, let him leave.

But he’ll just come back!
I kept thinking. I knew Archer. I knew that once he got this into his head he wouldn’t stop.

My phone sat on my desk beside my keyboard. I looked at it when Archer knocked again. I could call someone for help, but who?

Vaughn
, I thought, my mind going straight to him. I could call him, get him to come over.
Maybe I won’t even have to answer the door!
That would be nice, letting someone else take care of my problems.

Except that wasn’t the sort of person I wanted to be. They were my problems, not anyone else’s, not Vaughn’s. I’d taken myself this far, made my way up the ranks at C&M faster than anyone else.

An ex-boyfriend should have been nothing at all.

But if that was the case, why did every knock at the door drive right into my head? Why did it tie my stomach in knots and leave me almost paralyzed in my chair?