Rebel Without A Claus

“I owe you, Quinn. And there isn’t a chance in hell that I’m leaving this town without paying up. By the time we’re through, I’ll have replaced that memory of the worst sex of your life with the fucking best.”

I swallowed.

“Of course, if you want to save us the hassle of the to-ing and fro-ing that you’ll undoubtedly put us through, I have no problem bending you over that chair and fucking you into oblivion right now.”

Oh, Lord, why couldn’t I breathe?

Who was this Nicholas White? He wasn’t like I remembered.

This version made me simultaneously want to slap him and kiss him.

It was very jarring.

Mostly because I didn’t know what I wanted to do most.

“Hey, you didn’t answer my text so I—well, well, well, it looks like a Merry Christmas in here!”

The sound of Erin’s voice made me start. I jerked back from Nicholas, yanking my wrist from his fingers, and almost tripped over the Christmas lights.

“Nothing!” I shouted. “Nothing. I had something in my eye.”

Erin smirked. “Had your eye on something, you mean.”

I was going to murder her. Slowly and painfully.

“Good to see you, Nicholas. A little birdie told me you were home.” My traitorous best friend winked at me.

Never mind. I was going to make it quick.

Nicholas turned to her. “Hi, Erin. Long time no see. You look well.”

“Not as well as you.” Her smirk didn’t leave her face. “Sorry, I would have brought you some coffee, but I didn’t know I was interrupting anything.”

“You weren’t,” I ground out. “Nicholas was just going.”

“Oh, he was just going, but it wasn’t out, was it?”

“I’m going to kill you.”

She sipped her coffee. “No, you won’t.”

“I’m going to leave you to it. A coffee does sound good,” Nicholas said, grabbing his coat. He hung his scarf around his neck, but kept his coat pressed firmly against the front of his body.

Erin raised her eyebrows at me, still smirking behind the lid of her coffee cup.

I bit the inside of my lip.

“Erin.” He nodded to her. “I’ll be back in thirty minutes,” he said to me, then swiftly made an exit through the door, leaving us alone with a slight chill from outside.

I took the coffee she offered me and looked away.

“Quinn. What was that?”

I swallowed. “Nothing.”

“You had something in your eye? That’s bullshit, even for you.”

I was offended. “What other reason could there possibly be for him to be so close to me?”

“Oh, I don’t know. But I sure as shit know that something in your eye doesn’t make you all flushed and bothered.”

“I am not flushed and bothered.”

“Yeah, you are. I could fry an egg on your cheek.”

“Will you leave it? You’re making a mountain out of a molehill. Nothing happened.” It wasn’t a lie. It didn’t. Not really.

Erin perched on the Santa chair. “What did he say to get you all tied up in knots like this?”

She wasn’t going to leave it.

“He told me why he left on graduation night. And told me it was his first time, too.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “I know I should ask about the first part, but I’m far more interested in the second.”

No shit. “There’s not much to tell. We lost our v-cards together, and it was the worst sex of my life.”

“I would imagine so. It wasn’t like either of you knew what you were doing.”

“Well. There’s that.”

“So what did he say to make you blush like a teenager? Considering you are the most shameless person I know, it must have been quite something.”

I cleared my throat. “He was quite clear in his intention to… rectify… that night.”

A grin that could only be described as shit-eating spread across her face. “And you’re taking him up on that offer, right?”

“No.”

“Are you fucking insane?”

I tacked the lights to the wall and looked at her. “Erin, believe it or not, my life doesn’t revolve around me getting laid or not.”

“I know. That’s why you’re a bitch most of the time.”

“What’s your excuse, then?”

“It’s not good sex,” she muttered. “Either way, what’s the harm? He doesn’t live here, right? He’s gonna leave soon. Have a quick roll in the hay and move on. God knows you’d have to be blind ten times over to not see you’re attracted to one another.”

“It’s not happening,” I said firmly, tacking another bit of the lights to the wall. “One hundred percent.”

“If you say so.”

“I do. That’s the end of it. Thank you.” I tacked another piece of wire and fully turned away from her.

I wasn’t kidding.

It wasn’t going to happen.

Sure, okay, all right, I was tied up in knots. Maybe I still had goosebumps on the back of my neck and there was still a tingle of a shiver on my spine and my heart was still doing a boom-boom-boom-boom in my chest at the thought of it, but it meant nothing.