Cruel Seduction (Underground Kings 2)

I open the door wide, and she barges in with a big smile on her face. “Oh man, you should have seen Sebastian stomping down the hallway. I never in my life have seen him so discomposed.” Quinn tosses her head back, her blonde hair catching the faint light left from the sun burning through the window.

“Sebastian is serious usually? Really?” That comes as a surprise to me. I know he had to be tough in prison, but when he was with me before Kendrick set him up to take the fall for something Sebastian didn’t do, Sebastian went out of his way to make me smile. He always joked, always made sure when he saw me, I smiled.

Because every time he saw me, my willingness to smile disappeared along with the will to thrive because of Kendrick. When Kendrick got his brother out of the way and sent Sebastian to prison, that is when things got worse. The abuse, the weird language he’d use when he spoke to me, like how my behavior needed to be perfect or how much I was worth. It was like I was going to meet someone important.

Quinn dumps the clothes on the bed and lays out a few shirts, jeans, new underwear, and tank tops with a built-in bra. I have small breasts, and tank tops work fine. “Sebastian is probably one of the most serious guys I have ever met. Obsessive too. All the guys here have their thing. Jaxon is intense. Owen is an asshole. Heaven is the flirt. Grayson is more of the quiet type. Sebastian is the serious one, the one who obsesses that everything needs to be perfect. He must know everything about everything. He seemed a bit flushed running down the hallway.” Quinn wiggles her brows, telling me she knows exactly what went on in this room.

“Well, whatever happened in here fell short since he ran out as if he was terrified to touch me,” I say with a bit more of a bite then I intend. “Sorry, I don’t mean to sound rude to you. It’s directed toward him.” I grab a pair of simple black silk panties and slip them on under my towel. “We finally have our chance, and he—” I stop speaking, not knowing what else to say. “I don’t know. His reaction took me by surprise is all.” Next, I wiggle into a black pair of comfortable joggers and then turn around, giving Quinn my back when I pull a crop top over my head. There is a statement on the front that says, “Ask me about wiener.” There is a hot dog floating beside it, and it makes me chuckle.

“Can I tell you something, and you can either ignore it and call me crazy or think about?” Quinn asks, plopping down on the bed. She digs into the other bag and pulls out two beers and tosses me one.

Beer.

I haven’t had beer since before Sebastian went to jail. Kendrick wouldn’t allow me to drink. I twist off the top, and with a hesitant tilt, I pour the bitter bubbly concoction in my mouth and swallow cold, and my eyes water.

And then I let out a loud, unlady-like burp. I gasp, horrified. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. It’s been years since I've had beer. I can’t stop drinking it. Jeez, you must think I’m disgusting.”

Quinn giggles as she twists off the top of her beer, then she sets it down. “No, I think it’s refreshing to have another woman here. It’s me and those guys 24/7. I’m surrounded by testosterone.” She groans, laying dramatically on the bed with her arm over her face. “I keep forgetting I can’t drink because I’m pregnant. I’m not forgetting that I’m pregnant, but it’s still so hard to wrap my head around. Here, take mine.” The sigh that leaves Quinn is so sad, I almost feel bad for her.

Almost.

I squeal with excitement and crawl on the bed next to her as if she is my best friend. I haven’t had any female company since Kendrick, and I am long overdue. “You’re pregnant? Oh, wow. That’s amazing. How far along are you? When are you due? I’m so happy for you!” To be honest, I was a little envious too. I've wasted the prime years of my life on Kendrick, and I’m not even sure if I can get pregnant. I am older than Quinn, younger than Sebastian by a few years, but still, I have a yearning for children, and if Kendrick had his way, he’d take that from me too.

He drugged me so many times, gave me so many pills, I don’t even know what they were. Who knows the damage that has been caused on the inside? Those are the scars no one can see, only the things I can feel.

I happily snag the beer from her hand, double fisting the cold bottles. I haven’t done that since college.

“Drink for me, new friend, for I am nothing but an incubator,” Quinn soughs theatrically and places the back of her hand on her forehead. “They better be cute.” She pokes her very flat stomach.

My eyes almost fall out of my head. “They? You have more than one! I’m so jealous.”

“You won’t be when I’m as big as this house. Jaxon always must out do himself. He couldn’t knock me up once, nope, he had to do it twice.”

“Still, must be nice to be with someone like that. So open and carefree with respect and trust. It sounds comforting.” I sip my beer, ignoring Quinn’s pitiful gaze. She has a lot of questions but doesn’t want to offend me by asking. “You want to speak freely, remember?”

“Ah, right.” She slaps her hands on the bed and sits up, wrapping her arms around her legs and lays her cheek against her knee. “Sebastian loves you, Gabriella. Really, genuinely loves you. The way Jaxon loves me. I know you don’t believe it because he just ran out of here like the devil was b

urning his heels, but that right there proves how much he loves you. He has searched for you ever since he got out of prison. Night and day. He set up alerts on his computer for women who have died. He filtered it by age and physical description. He wired into ever traffic camera. There was so much information, it was impossible for a man to do it all on his own, but he never gave up on you. Isn’t that what love means? Not giving up on the person you love. He did that for you, and while you found him instead of him finding you, I have never seen him happier than how he is with you. You’re ready to jump with him, but he is afraid that if he jumps with you, it will be too high of a jump and you’ll regret falling with him. He wants to give you time to heal.”

“I don’t need time to heal. I just need him. I’ve had plenty of time to heal; living every day with a monster does that to someone. I know it seems impossible for me to want to move on, but I want to live again. I want my life to go back to normal. I can’t say I won’t have hard times, I know I will, but I want to spend them with Sebastian. Seven years is too long to go without him, I can’t go another seven years.”

A wicked smile forms across Quinn’s lips as a plan unravels in her eyes. “You know, the guys are doing a game night. It’s typical for a Friday. Why don’t we go in and have fun? I’ll doll you up, tell them we are going to hit the small town of Trinidad and paint it red? Only not really because bars don’t really exist here; just a nice restaurant and a grocery store.”

“I don’t want to leave the house.” The first thing I think of is Kendrick. He could find me. Right now, he has no idea where I am, and if I stay, within these four walls, he’ll never know.

“We aren’t leaving. It will get Sebastian off your ass.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“Then I’ll have one of the other guys flirt with you, like Heaven. He’s harmless, but he will get the job done.”

“I don’t want to make Sebastian jealous with another guy. Another guy has been between us already. That feels dirty. Why can’t I just go up to him and say I want him, and I don’t want to dance this dance without him?”

“Because that’s what he is supposed to do to you, girly.” Quinn slaps my knee and stands, and by how she digs through her bottomless bag and pulls out makeup, I have a feeling what tricks she has up her sleeve aren’t going to work.

Sebastian will not be the one to end this dance between us because he is afraid to hurt me. I have to take charge.

I need to dig down deep and find the woman I used to be.