The Harder He Falls: 2 (So Inked) (38 page)

“You’re fucking beautiful,” he growled and withdrew his hand.

She pried her eyes open and stared up at him. Her breath caught in her throat at the emotion she saw there. He cared. She didn’t know how much, but he did, and it was a hell of a lot more than simply liking her.

He prodded her entrance with his cock, but she was too impatient for slow and teasing. She wrapped her legs around him and squeezed, groaning as he slid deep within her.

Quin lowered to his elbows, his gaze still holding hers hostage. “Better than I remember.”

He withdrew and thrust until he filled every bit of her. He cupped her breasts and twirled the peaks exactly how she liked until her spine bowed and her eyes fluttered almost shut. She was so aroused, so ready for him to move, to make her come, that it wouldn’t take much more.

I love you.

The words were on the tip of her tongue, she wanted to say them, tell him what was inside her, but she couldn’t. Not yet.

She wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss, breaking the intensity of his gaze and trading it for the branding of his touch. He groaned and moved, pulling out until just the tip of him was within her, then thrusting back in slowly.

“More,” she groaned.

He did as she requested, interpreting her request for what it was, a plea for more, harder and faster. Each glide of his flesh against hers sent off bursts of pleasure, wrapping her deeper in him. He gripped the sides of her face and rested his forehead against hers. His eyes were slits of brilliant blue staring into her heart, and she could deny him nothing.

She clutched at his shoulders as he pistoned in and out of her, and she seemed to spiral to another plane. There really was a difference between fucking and making love. He reached deep within her and pulled up those words, the ones she wasn’t going to say though his gaze commanded her to.

“Come on, doll,” he whispered.

“Yes, yes, yes,” she chanted, spine arching off the mattress.

His jaw dropped on a silent shout as he came, body going taut. She rolled her hips, undulating against him. From deep within her, the wave of climax crashed, robbing her of breath. She clung to his shoulders as pleasure radiated through her body, mixed with a heady emotion that was new.

Love.

Quin was in her body and soul, and she never wanted to change that.

Tengu—This is a type of Japanese demon, often represented with a mask, similar to the Oni Mask. These demons or goblins are thought to have taught the samurai because they were highly skilled warriors themselves. They hated vanity and arrogance, and often played tricks on prominent figures who were overbearing, such as monks and other warriors.

Quin leaned over the bed and pressed his lips to Kellie’s forehead. “Come on.”

She groaned and pushed him away. “No more.”

He laughed and swatted her bare ass. “You said you wanted to go work out.”

“In the morning. It’s the middle of the night,” she grumbled.

“It’s morning, lazy ass. Stay here if you want, but I need to go.” His heart fell a little. He’d wanted her to go in with him, spar a little.

He sighed and walked around the bed, snagging clean clothes from the piles atop the dresser. He took a quick shower and headed downstairs, careful not to disturb Kellie. He couldn’t blame her for wanting to sleep more. She deserved it after this last week and what she’d been through.

“You take more time getting ready than I do,” Kellie said from the room adjacent the foot of the stairs. She sat on the hardwood floor, two boxes open and a few piles of clothing separated out. She’d braided her hair into two bunches, and wore shorts and a t-shirt.

“I thought you were still sleeping.” He sat on the last stair and pulled his shoes on.

“Morning is my least favorite time of the day. Are we getting food here or on the way?”

“There’s nothing but beer here.”

“On the way then.” She pushed to her feet and stretched. “I have no idea where my workout bag is, do you?”

“It’s not in one of these boxes?”

“No.”

She sighed and hauled a bag over her shoulder. “Damn. It’s somewhere in my car. I guess I’ll follow you there and go to work after? Then why don’t I get food and you go in. There’s no point in us both stopping.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” She closed the distance between them and kissed his cheek. “See you there?”

He wrapped a hand around the back of her neck and held her in place for a second kiss. She gripped the front of his shirt and pulled him in closer, opening her mouth to swipe her tongue across his lips and tangle with his. There was hope there, between them.

Kellie pushed his shoulders. “I like you. Don’t forget that. See you soon.”

She left him standing there, his heart two times bigger than it had been. He couldn’t stop grinning. He had a spring in his step as he grabbed his keys from the kitchen and headed out to his truck. The space where Kellie’s Cube had been was empty, but he’d see her. Soon.

The streets were almost empty thanks to the summer break, and he pulled into the parking lot at the gym with plenty of time to spare on the six a.m. opening. There was a small, faithful group of people who came in the mornings now for workouts. In a few weeks one of his staff along with his newly pregnant wife would begin a new class geared for expecting families. He was in talks with a yoga instructor. Kellie was in his life.

He whistled as he strode around to the front of the building, only to stop when the front doors came into view. Or what was left of them. One pane of eight-foot-tall glass was completely smashed in, the doors had holes the size of his head broken out and the other large pane of glass was mostly gone.

A string of expletives flew off his lips and he clenched his fists.

Not again. Not fucking again.

He strode through the broken-out window. Glass crunched underfoot. The A/C units were working overtime trying to cool the whole state of Texas.

“Fuck,” he growled and kicked the cinderblock wall on his left. He’d spent thousands thanks to this damn vandal. If he ever got his hands on the asshole, he’d take every penny out of his hide.

On the off chance something had been missed, Quin circled the receptionist desk. His stomach plummeted. The top-of-the-line security camera system was smashed in, the units pulled out of the desk and lying on the ground in twisted heaps.

This was it. He was done for. The mailbox, the first security camera, the damn fish, the graffiti, the A/C, it had all added up. This was going to break him.

He dreaded finding out what kind of shape the gym was in, but he had to know before he called the cops. With heavy footsteps, he entered the cavernous gym. No light reflected off the walls. The floor-to-ceiling mirrors were gone, and who knew what else was jacked up?

Pain blossomed up and down his spine and his skull felt as if fireworks had been set off while attached to his hair. He groaned and blinked, inhaling the rubber mat his face was pressed intimately against. Something hit him in the stomach and he cried out, rolling from the impact.

He wasn’t alone.

* * * * *

Kellie slammed on her brakes and stared at the front of the gym.

“Holy shit,” she muttered. Was she dreaming? She scrubbed her arm over her eyes but it didn’t change the carpet of glass.

She parked well away from the damage and headed for the doors.

“Quin?” She hesitated. Was he there? What if someone was still inside? The whole experience of having had someone crash into her shop made her a little leery.

Grunting and the sound of a scuffle echoed from the gym interior.

She back-pedaled and caught a glimpse of Quin’s truck parked around the corner. He was in there, and so was whoever had busted in the windows.

The overwhelming urge to protect Quin smothered her natural self-preservation instinct. Her man was in there, maybe in danger.

She ducked through the window and squinted into the darkness. A blacker bit of blackness moved and a man grunted.

“Hey!” Her feet slipped and skidded as she ran over the glass-covered tile, straight into the attacker.

A pale lump lay on the floor with a shirt the same blue as the one Quin had worn that morning.

The man turned to face her, a bar from a weight bench in hand, and swung it at her. In the dim light she caught a glimpse of his face, just the profile, and her stomach dropped.

No way.

She dodged the heavy, cumbersome weapon by a fraction of an inch and backed away from Quin. If he was able-bodied enough to get up, she wanted to give him that opportunity, and if not, she wanted this piece of trash far from him. She was the only one allowed to take her dues from his flesh.

Righteous anger burned her veins. She’d been powerless to stop all the shitty things happening in her life, but she could kick some ass at the very least.

She knew that posture, the hunch of the shoulders and that lazy left arm. He held himself like a man who knew martial arts and fighting.

“Here, catch.” She grabbed a weight from a stand and threw it at him. She didn’t stand a chance of hitting him with it, but it was enough to divert his attention for the split second she needed. She stepped in close enough and rammed the palm of her hand up against his jaw, shoving his head back and drilling a punch into his chest.

That face. She knew him. Shock slapped her like a bucket of cold water.

He brought the bar up and smashed it into her shoulder. Pain radiated down to her fingers. He kicked her shin and hooked her around the ankle, but she was ready for that. She pivoted with him and threw her elbow back into his body. A fist smacked the right side of her head, right on the temple, and her vision blurred, her grasp of reality wavered and she stumbled forward.

A blur of blue pushed her aside and she tripped over her own damn feet and fell, rolling at the last second to land on her hip. She threw her weight around and sat on her ass, too dazed to do more than watch the ferocious bull that was Quin. The bar lay on the ground a few feet away, maybe where the vandal had dropped it when surprised by Quin, who now had the vandal pinned and was laying into the guy with hard blows, giving him no room to counterattack.

Kellie got to her feet, feeling a little woozy. It was her luck she might have a concussion from one chance blow.

The vandal threw Quin to the ground in a brute force tumble and tried to leap over his body, but Quin grabbed his foot and yanked. No sooner had the man hit the floor than Quin was on top of him, straddling the back of his legs and punching.

“Quin! Quin, stop.” She understood the urge to beat him. Hell, she wanted to beat Robert, the guy who destroyed her shop, but that way only brought trouble.

She caught one of the guy’s flailing arms and pinned it to the ground with her knees. She wrapped her hand around Quin’s shoulder and pushed him.

“Stop. Now.” She put every ounce of authority into her voice.

Quin planted his hands on the vandal’s shoulders and sucked in deep breaths.

“Quin?”

“Are you okay?” He turned his face toward her. His voice and body vibrated, probably a mixture of adrenaline, anger and fear. She felt it too.

“Probably a concussion. I’m fine.”

“That’s all?” Even in the semi-darkness she could see his face growing redder with rage. He shoved the vandal’s shoulders back down.

“Are you okay?” She touched his face and shoulder. What if there had been a gun? What if the guy wasn’t alone? What if she hadn’t been there? Every bad possibility flashed through her mind. If she’d stayed in bed, would she be getting a phone call that he was in the hospital? Or worse?

“Fine. Get my phone, will you? Left pocket.”

She reached into his shorts and grabbed the weight of his phone. “Anyone special I should call?”

“Call Detective Rosa, tell him to get his ass here.”

She clenched her hand around his arm, keyed in his password and brought up his contacts. The detective was a recent call.

“Mr. Berkus—”

“It’s not Quin, he’s here, but he’s holding the asshole down who smashed into the gym this morning.”

There was a beat of silence. “I’m on my way, and I’m bringing the cavalry.”

“Awesome.” What the fuck was the cavalry?

The line went dead. She peered at the face of the phone, but it appeared that he’d hung up on her.

“What did he say? Turn the flashlight on.”

“That he’s bringing the cavalry.” She flicked on the flashlight app. “What the hell does that mean? What are you doing?”

“I want to see who this motherfucker is.”

She did too.

Quin crouched on the other side of the vandal and rolled him over. He didn’t struggle, but judging from the blood, he’d had a few screws knocked loose.

“Shin. What the fuck?”

Shin hadn’t been her favorite person, but she’d known him since she was a kid, they’d played together, their grandmothers had been friends, his father had courted her mother briefly. They spent holidays together.

“You know this fucker?”

She scrubbed her cheeks. “Yeah, he was my neighbor. You met him yesterday, well, you saw him. Shin, why?” She pushed his shoulder when he wouldn’t answer.

“You should have been my wife. This should have been my gym! Mine!”

Was he serious? That didn’t make sense. Shin went out of his way to make things difficult for her.

“Dallas Police, hands up,” a deep baritone bellowed.

In an instant, flashlights surrounded them. Kellie did as they asked, holding her hands up even as a little bit more of her faith in humanity crumbled.

“That’s the owner, Quin,” another rumbling voice said.

She couldn’t see much, but there was movement to her right and someone grasped her hand.

“This is my girlfriend. This guy is the one that broke in,” Quin said, his voice still vibrating with anger.

He pulled her to her feet and they backed away. She blinked away spots as police converged on Shin. She was still in shock. It didn’t make sense. She’d never given him any indication that she was interested in him. The gym had been sold when she was younger.

“I don’t understand,” she muttered.

“Where did he hit you? I saw that fucker hit you.” He cupped her cheeks and tilted her head back. His face was a warped mask of worry, lines creased his brow, the crow’s feet pronounced.

“I’m okay, I promise.”

“You need to go to the hospital.”

She dug her heels in on that. “Nope. Not a chance. Not going to another hospital for a long time.”

“I’m going to argue with you on this one.” Quin wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead.

“Excuse me, you two, can I have a word?” someone interjected.

The next half hour was a blur. Employees arrived, the cops asked questions, took pictures. There were questions that replayed the same few minutes over and over again. Somehow she wound up sitting on Quin’s tailgate with stone-cold sausage biscuits and lukewarm coffee. She was alone for the moment while Quin chatted with the cops yet again and went through the damage.

Shin’s reasoning was still as mysterious as it had been, but she could relate each instance of vandalism to events in her life. Had Shin been stalking her? Did he really have plans for her and the gym? It didn’t make sense and she wanted an answer.