She put her laptop into her bag and faced him. “If I think about doing this—if—I require clear terms.”
“Tit for tat.” His face gave nothing away. “We’ll share a room—both at the convention hotel and at the wedding itself. Don’t look at me like that. You know damn well DeathCon’s hotel has likely been sold out for months, and I’m not going to do you a damn bit of good if I’m staying somewhere else. At the wedding, we’ll share because my family knows me too well to believe I’d wait for marriage to have sex.” Aubry snorted, but he kept going. “You have to sell this. You can snarl and do that adorable snarky comment thing you do, but you can’t look at me like I’m dog shit on the bottom of your shoe.”
He thought she was adorable. She hated the faint heat she could feel in her cheeks at that realization. “I think you’re asking the impossible.”
“Do you? I think you’re just a bit disappointed that you don’t get to experience all I have to offer.” He leaned forward, giving her another whiff of that tantalizing cologne. “I think the lady doth protest too much when it comes to wanting me.”
Aubry burst out laughing. “Oh my God, does that line actually work with women?” She tried to keep her tone light, but she knew she was blushing. Worse, she knew Quinn could see it.
Sure enough, his blue eyes tracked over her cheeks, and his grin made her stomach do a slow turn. “I think it just did.” Before she could screech at him, he continued. “But it’s not meant to this time. This arrangement is purely business.”
As much as she wanted to tell him to take a hike, Aubry would never forgive herself if she passed up this chance. She straightened, took a deep breath, and held out her hand. “Okay, I’ll see what I can do. Deal?”
“Deal.” He ignored her hand and took a step closer, towering over her even though she was wearing thick-soled boots. “And, sweet cheeks, if you’re going to pretend to be my girlfriend, you should know damn well that we seal this with a kiss.”
“What are you, a demon from Supernatural? That’s not how people seal bargains.”
“It is when it’s like ours.”
Before she could do more than sputter, he hooked the back of her neck and kissed her.
Aubry hadn’t been kissed in a truly embarrassing amount of time, which was why she froze and didn’t immediately shove his larger-than-life ass away from her. Or that was what she told herself as her hands came to rest on his chest—his very nicely muscled chest. His hand was hot on her neck, his grip tight enough that she was fully aware of who was in control of this situation, but his mouth was light on hers.
She still hadn’t figured out if she wanted to bite him or kiss him back when he lifted his head and said, “I knew you weren’t all piss and vinegar.”
The almost surprised expression on his face slammed her back into reality. She’d just stood there like a bump on a log and let Quinn kiss her. What the fuck was wrong with her? She shoved him.
Or she tried.
When she pushed on him, he didn’t move, but she hopped back a full foot. “You are insufferable!”
“You say the sweetest things.” He turned and started for the door. “Tell Adam and Jules I’ll see them later.”
She watched him go, wondering if she’d just made a horrible mistake. Oh, who was she kidding? She knew she had. Going to DeathCon with Quinn was a no-brainer. She would be so busy fighting not to have a panic attack and excited about Deathmatch she’d be able to ignore his towering presence. At least in theory.
But the other half of the bargain? How was she supposed to pretend they were in a relationship when she could barely stand to be in the same room with him? And that was ignoring the fact that she didn’t know what the hell an actual relationship looked like. She certainly hadn’t seen one between her mother and the men she paraded through their doublewide when she was growing up. Or from the boys who’d tried to talk their way into her pants, starting around the time she hit puberty.
Hell, the only healthy relationship she’d ever held down was with Jules, and that hardly counted because she liked Jules just fine but had no desire to roll around naked with her.
Not that she had a desire to roll around naked with Quinn. Because she definitely did not. Besides, this wasn’t about whether she theoretically did or did not find the idea of sex with Quinn attractive. This was about pretending she did. His parents or whoever he was trying to fool wouldn’t be convinced if she just stood next to him. She’d have to, like, touch him. Or hold hands. Or kiss. Or…
What do people in relationships even do—besides bang a lot?
Aubry dropped into her chair and laid her head on her folded arms. She couldn’t even model her behavior after Jules and Adam because her friend was such a foreign creature in so many ways. She was so sunny. Aubry couldn’t fake that. She didn’t want to try.
She was just…herself. Cranky and kind of twisted and maybe old beyond her years.
It wasn’t too late to back out. All she had to do was give up DeathCon and there was nothing holding her to that damn wedding. Quinn might not be the most awful person in existence, but she wasn’t inclined to do him this type of favor out of the goodness of her heart. She wasn’t sure she had a goodness of her heart.
But she didn’t want to give up DeathCon.
Now that there was a real chance she could play that demo, she didn’t want to give it up.
Even if it meant playing girlfriend to Quinn at some hoity-toity wedding. Aubry lifted her head. How hard could it really be? There would probably be alcohol there, so that was something. An open bar was too much to ask for, but if she was supposed to be Quinn’s girlfriend, there was no reason he couldn’t foot her tab. It was only fair.
She sat up, feeling significantly better about the whole thing.
“This is doable. It’s only a few days. Really, what’s the worst that could happen?”
There were so many ways to answer that question she didn’t even want to start.
Chapter Three
“What do you mean, you don’t fly?” Five days out from their trip, and she was just now springing this on him? Quinn could barely credit the words coming out of the crazy woman’s mouth.
Aubry crossed her arms over her chest and somehow managed to glare down her nose at him, despite the fact that she barely came up to his shoulder. “Do you know how horrible death would be in a plane crash?”
“Sorry, no. I don’t spend much time thinking about how different ways to die would feel.” He’d noticed she seemed to see serial killers under every rock, but he hadn’t actually thought she’d have a problem with one of the most common modes of transportation. Silly him. He put his phone down, already regretting having shown up at her place to negotiate this.
But he’d thought it’d be a simple cut and dried thing—he’d book the flights and she’d get the rental car from San Diego to Napa Valley. He was fine with footing the larger bill… Or he had been until she threw this totally unnecessary wrench into his perfect plans. He glared. “You do realize that more people die in car crashes every year than in planes going down—as in, exponentially more.”
“I’m aware.”
Of course she was. It seemed like the type of fucked up little fact she’d keep tucked into her back pocket. “Then what’s the problem?”
“Don’t you start with logic and that nonsense.” Aubry paced around the tiny kitchen counter. Hell, everything in the apartment she used to share with Jules was tiny. The few times he’d been here, he’d felt just as uncomfortable as he did now, as if one wrong step would send him crashing through some breakable item. It made him feel big and clumsy, and he hated it.
“You would seriously rather spend several days in closed quarters with me than risk a tiny chance that our plane might fall out of the sky in a ball of fire?”
She went paler, if that were even possible. “That’s not funny.”
“No, what’s funny is that your fear has no fucking basis in reality and it’s going to cost us days of travel for no reason. E
xcept, no, it’s not funny. At all.”
“I knew this was a mistake.” She turned and plopped down onto her well-worn spot on the couch. It was practically a little nest, with a blanket curled around her body and a set of Xbox controllers in front of her on the coffee table. Hell, even her cell phone was already sitting on the cushion next to her.
She spends a shitload of time here, all playing that damn game.
She’ll be crushed if she isn’t able to play that stupid demo.
He looked away, uncomfortable with the sudden desire he had to make sure she got her chance. He appreciated her passion, even if he didn’t always understand it. She wasn’t the type of girl he usually hung out with. She obviously didn’t like the outdoors or getting any kind of dirty, and he’d bet his left nut she’d never been on the back of a horse.
But she loved that damn game. If it was Jenny, he’d want someone to step in and help her out so she could do something she loved without her anxiety getting in the way.
The only reason you’re doing this is because she reminds you of your sister, whom she’s nothing like at all…Yeah. Sure.
He forced himself to unclench his hands and release as much tension as possible. “If we do this, we do it on my terms.”
“I’m not trying to negotiate with you here. I’m flat out telling you that I won’t fly.”