Fool Me Once

“So? In case you missed the memo, I’m single. He can look at me however he damn well pleases.” She lifted her chin. “In fact, I can look right back. Maybe I’ll ask him out.”

She was trying to provoke a response. He knew that and he could still feel control slipping through his fingers. He inched closer, until their chests touched with every inhale. “You would.”

“Yeah, I would.”

“He’d take you somewhere fancy, but not too fancy.” He unbuttoned the top button of her jeans, and slid the zipper down. “One of those trendy fucking hipster places with Asian fusion food.”

She gasped when he slipped his hand into her panties. “I’m surprised you even know what Asian fusion is.”

“I’m a cowboy. That doesn’t mean I don’t pay attention.” He groaned when he found her soaked. “He’d make polite conversation—nothing too titillating—and order you some fancy-ass wine selection.” He pushed a finger into her, stroking her as much as he could with her jeans restricting his movement.

“I happen to like wine.”

He knew that. Quinn palmed her, pushing a second finger into her. He worked her, watching her lips part and her breathing pick up. She was so fucking responsive it didn’t take much to get her to the edge. “And at the end of the night…” He stroked her clit the way he’d learned she liked it, circling and then thrusting into her and then circling, again and again. “At the end of the night he’d drive you home and kiss you politely before leaving you on your doorstep. Every single fucking thing about that night would be polite.”

Aubry’s back arched, and he knew he had her. Quinn picked up his pace, just slightly, lowering his head to rasp in her ear. “You don’t want polite. You want a hot fuck in the shower, on the bed, in the cab of my truck. You want me to finger you like this, and you want to get off on the fact that there isn’t a damn thing between us and anyone who walks down that hall. Hell, I bet if I slid down your jeans, you’d turn around and let me fuck you right here.” She clenched around him and she buried her face in his shoulder as she came, her moans barely muffled. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“Holy shit.”

He turned in time to see none other than Kurt standing in the hallway, his gaze fastened onto the spot where Quinn’s hand was buried in Aubry’s jeans. He stepped forward, putting himself between them. “Get lost, kid.”

“No, wait.” She disentangled herself from him and buttoned up her pants, shooting him a look that would send a weaker man to his knees.

It just pissed Quinn the fuck off. He put a hand on the wall, blocking her from Kurt with his arm. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Free country.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Actually—” Kurt broke off at his glare.

He focused back on Aubry. “We’re not finished.”

“I’m pretty sure we already had this conversation.” She ducked under his arm but then seemed to think better of it. “Sorry this is so awkward, Kurt. But I’m, ah, I’m taking the stairs.” She turned around, dodged around Quinn, and disappeared up the stairs, leaving him staring at Kurt like an asshole.

There was nothing to say. He couldn’t warn the other guy off because Aubry was right—she wasn’t his. They weren’t even technically hooking up right now because she’d called the whole damn thing off. He made an effort to unclench his fists and reclaim some of the happy-go-lucky attitude he was usually so good at, but he failed miserably at both. “She’s not interested. Get lost.”

“Yeah. No problem.” Kurt backed away as if facing off with a grizzly. He nearly tripped over his feet as he hurried around the corner and, if the sound of his footsteps pounding on the ground were any indication, he started sprinting the second he was out of sight.

Quinn headed up the stairs, determined to talk some sense into Aubry. The fire between them wasn’t anywhere near burned out and she damn well knew that shit. Maybe she couldn’t do sex without emotional attachments, but they could be friends who had sex.

He was reaching and he knew it, but he didn’t give a fuck.

It turned out, he didn’t have to go far to find his fiery redhead. Aubry sat on the top stair, three floors up, her head between her knees. As soon as he caught sight of her, he rushed up the remaining stairs to crouch before her. “What’s wrong?”

“So. Many. Stairs.”

He bit back a laugh. “We’re on the fourth floor.”

“I know.” She raised her head. “I overestimated my cardio skills. Turns out, I have no cardio skills. DDR did not prepare me for eleventy billion stairs.”

“I see.” He adopted as serious an expression as he could manage. “Would you like me to carry you?”

For a second, it looked like she was actually considering it, but she ultimately shook her head. “How am I going to escape the zombies if I don’t have sweet cardio skills? This is something I’m going to have to work on. I can’t rely on a trusty steed to be in my vicinity at every hour of every day.”

He wasn’t sure if he should be insulted she’d just called him a trusty steed, but he couldn’t resist such a perfect opening. “I have something in particular that you should be riding.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. I’m sitting here worrying about the inevitable zombie apocalypse and you’re thinking with your dick.”

He was pleased to note she looked less winded now. Apparently verbally sparring with him was exactly the distraction she needed. “We already talked about this. I’ll cover your ass while we’re in San Diego. So, yes, you will have your trusty steed next to you at all times.” He was probably an ass for using her insane fears to further his agenda with her, but so be it. “You hungry?”

“Not for brains.” She made a face. “And not for company, either.”

He figured. Being around people wasn’t her natural inclination, so she’d need some time to recharge before they did anything else. Still, he couldn’t help asking, “Is there any other panel or whatever that you want to see while we’re here?” From what he understood, these convention things were hotbeds for new information for the gaming community. Surely there was something else she was interested in besides that demo?

And if she had to cling to him while he got her there, well, he was okay with that, too.

But she was already shaking her head. “There’s nothing they’re showing that I won’t be able to find on the Internet in a few hours anyways—without having to deal with the crowds.”

He would have been lying if he said there wasn’t a little disappointment that rose at that, but he brightened almost immediately when he considered that meant he’d have her all to himself. “Well, then, let’s get back to the room and order some grub.”

And if he played his cards right, there’d be more than just food on the menu.

Chapter Twelve

Aubry wasn’t sure when her brilliant plan to create some distance between herself and Quinn stopped feeling so brilliant. Maybe it was when Quinn had put himself between her and the rest of the people who were too freaking close and definitely too freaking loud. Or maybe it was his getting jealous of that dude Kurt was kind of cute in a caveman sort of way.

The fact he fingered her to orgasm in a hallway, where they were then interrupted, definitely had something to do with it, though.

She was already starting to doubt her ability to keep her hands off him as he closed the door of the hotel room behind them. It didn’t help that she was riding high off accomplishing the impossible. She’d done it. She’d gone to DeathCon. She’d played the alpha demo. It had been better than she could have dreamed. She didn’t miss out because her anxiety was too much to handle.

All of it added up to her feeling virtually indestructible.

She wanted Quinn, and she wanted him now. And from the look on his face he knew it, too. Damn it. She should have been sated from her earlier orgasm—or the many that had come in the last few days—but the truth was she wanted him all the more because of it. It didn

’t make any sense¸ but she was past trying to rationalize anything that had to do with this man.

To distract herself, she thumbed through the room service menu, barely registering the printed words. She was too busy listening to Quinn move around the room, slowly drifting closer to her. She knew that’s what he was doing the same way her body called out for his, the glaring emptiness between her thighs demanding to be filled.

She turned around to find him standing an arm’s distance from her. His gaze skated over her body in a move she was convinced she could actually feel. “I think it’s time we had a talk.”

“Talking is for the birds.” She grabbed the front of his shirt and towed him to her. Or, rather, she towed herself to him because his feet didn’t actually move. She didn’t care. Nothing mattered but what was about to happen. Aubry went up onto her tiptoes and kissed his neck, his jaw, the dip below his bottom lip. “We both talk too much.”

He hissed out a breath when her nails dug into his shoulders. “That’s the fucking truth.” Quinn palmed the back of her head and kissed her, harsh and hard and exactly what she needed. His other hand unbuttoned her jeans and shoved them off, and she was only too happy to help by stepping out of them. It left her in only her T-shirt and panties, but even that was too much of a barrier between them. Aubry broke the kiss long enough to yank her shirt over her head and toss it somewhere behind her, quickly followed by her bra and panties.

Quinn laughed. “Eager, aren’t you?”

“Stop gabbing before I change my mind.”

“Heaven forbid.” He snagged her waist and brought her up against him. The feeling of his T-shirt against her bare breasts was almost unbearably erotic, and she arched against him. He cupped her ass, lining them up in the best way possible, the ridge of his cock rubbing against her clit.

Aubry moaned, but this whole thing was too controlled. She wanted more. She wanted the possessive and furious Quinn that she’d gotten a glimpse of in the stairway. Good thing I know at least one of his triggers. She leaned up to whisper in his ear. “What did you say to Kurt after I left?”

Instantly, his grip on her ass tightened. “If you’re thinking I gave him your number, you better think again.”

“Pity. He seems nice.”

He pulled back enough to look at her face, his expression thunderous. “Don’t talk about another man when you’re naked with me, peaches. It’s bad form.”

“Is it?” She feigned innocence. “Maybe I’m just exploring my options. Rumor has it guys like Kurt are great in bed because they feel like they have something to prove. I bet he’s excellent at oral.”