He should lie and tell her yes. That he didn’t care about her at all. He’d been lying to her since the first day he’d contacted her online, and perhaps that’s why he couldn’t lie to her now. “I want to keep you safe, but that’s not the only reason you’re here. In fact, I’m sure I’m going to get reamed when my sergeant finds out.”
“Then why?”
He was saved from answering by a loud thumping down the hall.
“What’s that?”
Quinn glanced toward the door, then back down into Lucy’s face. “Millie throwing herself against my bedroom door. She knows you’re here, and she’s not used to having women in the house.”
Lucy tilted her head back a little, and a thin shadow slid from her nose to her mouth. “How many women have there been?”
“Here? Besides my sister and all my nieces? Only one, but Amanda left when Millie was a puppy, so I doubt she remembers her.”
“Who’s Amanda?”
He dropped his hands to his sides. “She was the woman I planned to marry.”
“What happened?”
He shrugged. “She decided she liked my best friend more than she liked me.”
Lucy winced. “Ouch.”
“Yeah. I found them in bed together.”
“I’ve dated cheaters, but at least I never had to see it with my own eyes. What a bitch. That must have been horrible.”
In that moment, he could have hauled her up and planted one on her mouth. But he’d told her he’d keep his hands and all body parts to himself. He was a man of his word, and he planned to keep it, even if it meant that walking around in a constant state of arousal just might do him in. At the very least it would take years off his life. “It was. Especially when she sat there naked in my bed and blamed me for her cheating.”
“Wow, that’s ballsy.” Lucy smiled. A slight curve of her mouth that went straight to his groin. He should leave. Just back away toward the door.
“I guess that’s one way of putting it.” Back away from the blonde sitting on his bed, looking all tousled and warm from sleep. “She had a point, though. Sometimes I have to work very long hours.”
Lucy shook her head, and the light slid across her lips. “That’s crap, Quinn. We all have to work long hours sometimes. It’s not an excuse for infidelity.”
Again he fought the urge to grab her up and kiss her beautiful mouth.
“I’ve had boyfriends who were cheaters,” she continued perilously. “And they always tried to pin the blame on me, but it wasn’t my fault.” She placed a finger between her breasts and pointed to herself. “I gave them lots of sex. Good sex. They were just losers. And I’ve always figured that it’s best that you find something like that out before you marry a person. Or the next thing you know, you’ve got three kids while your husband is out picking up skanks in bars. Bringing home God knows what disease.”
Quinn swallowed. Hard. “Lots?”
Her hand fell to her lap. “What?”
“Lots of good sex?”
“Well, not with a lot of different people. I haven’t had all that many boyfriends, but when I do…yeah.” She shrugged one shoulder. “Or what’s the point?”
He had to leave. Do the honorable thing like he intended. Just get the hell out of the room while he could still manage to walk.
“I’ve always figured that if I’m going to bother getting naked with someone, I’m going to have a good time.”
He swallowed-hard. A picture flashed through his mind of her up against the wall, his mouth on her breast. “Jesus H.,” he forced from his suddenly raspy throat. Keeping his hand and all body parts to himself was the toughest thing he’d ever done.
“What’s wrong?”
“You’re torturing me.”
For several heartbeats he watched her mouth, then slowly a smile tilted the corners, as if she hadn’t realized until that moment what he was talking about. “Do you want me to stop, Quinn?”
“Hell no,” he said just above a whisper. He was a masochist. “I want you to tell me how you give good sex.”
Chapter 14
Goodstuff: Seeks Man of Dishonor…
Lucy had let her guard down, and Quinn had snuck past. Her only excuse was that she was tired. Tired of being frightened and hurt. Too tired to fight her feelings for him anymore.
She gazed into Quinn’s eyes and the dark lust staring back at her, pulling her in with the promise of hot sin. Even if she couldn’t see it in his eyes, she could hear and feel it in the velvet timbre of his voice. It brushed across her skin, a warm and sensual caress that she hadn’t recognized until it was too late. It curled and warmed the pit of her stomach and heated her up from the inside out. “Good sex always starts with a man who knows what he’s doing. Who’s as interested in pleasing me as himself. Who knows the right spot to hit, and keeps hitting it all night long.” She pushed her hair behind her ears. “Now you have to answer one of my questions.”
“Shoot.”
Before things went any further, she had to know. “Was I just your job?”
“Sometimes.” She frowned in response, and his soft laughter filled the space between them. “I think if you knew how hard you made my job, you wouldn’t be frowning at me right now. The first night I met you in Starbucks, I thought you were beautiful and smart, and I kept forgetting that I wasn’t there just to wonder what it would be like to kiss you.”
“You’re kidding?” She hadn’t known that. Hadn’t even suspected.
“No. Then I did kiss you, and I wondered what it would be like to kiss you all over. Working my way from your forehead to the tips of your toes. Stopping at all the interesting bits and soft parts in between.”
Her stomach got squishy and her mouth got a little dry. “But you thought I might kill you.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, you’d think that might make a difference, but it didn’t. Even when we were pretty sure you were the killer, I still wanted you, Lucy. There came a point where I figured dying inside you just might be worth it.” His dark gaze burned her alive, yet he didn’t reach out. Instead he took a few steps back, away from her.
No man had ever thought she was worth risking death for. Beyond all rationale and reason, she loved him more than she could recall loving a man. Her insides got hotter and itchy, and she moved from the bed and walked toward him. She raised her hand to the side of his face, and he turned his head and kissed her palm, spreading those little tingles he always made her feel up her arm and across her chest.
He closed his eyes and took another step back. “I wanted you more than I can ever remember wanting anything in my life.” Her hand fell to her side, and he opened his eyes and looked at her. “I still do.”
She knew that feeling. “Then why are you moving away from me?”
“I told you that I wouldn’t touch you with any of my body parts. I spent last week lying to you, and you were hurt. That was my job. This is my life, and I want you to know that I can keep my word.”
Now? He was worried about that now? “That’s very honorable.” She bit the side of her lip to keep from smiling.
“Are you laughing at me?” he asked, sounding mildly amused.
She took a step toward him and slid her palm to the side of his neck. “I’m just wondering if I’m allowed to touch your body parts.”
“Hell yes.”
“You won’t think I can’t keep my word?”
“No.” He shook his head, and his jaw brushed her thumb. “Touch any part you want. I have a few ideas of where you can start.”
She raised onto the balls of her bare feet and brushed her lips across his jaw. “I have a few places in mind already, but I’ll let you know if I need your suggestions.” The scent of him filled her head and heart, and she opened her mouth and kissed the side of his throat. She heard the harsh intake of his breath next to her ear. She ran her hand across his shoulder and down his chest to feel his heart. It pounded beneath her touch, and she raised her face to his and gave him a teasing kiss that left his mouth chasing hers until he could take no more and raised a hand to the back of her head to hold her against his mouth. Then he dove in and gave her a hot, wet kiss that made her insides tumble.