A feeling twisted in her chest, making it hard to breathe. She blinked. Was that…homesickness?
“Obviously you don’t get it.” Quinn hesitated. “Damn. Okay. Look, those people are well-dressed monsters. They deliver verbal barbs like it’s an Olympic sport. I know you have thick skin and all, but the thought of one of them striking home on you makes me want to bundle you up and take you back to Devil’s Falls before they get the chance.”
Aubry blinked. Out of all the possibilities she’d considered, the fact that he thought he was protecting her had never entered into it. She was a warrior goddess—at least online. She didn’t need protecting. But the notion still warmed her cold little heart. “Quinn, I wouldn’t say I could handle it if I couldn’t.” She wasn’t afraid of not being able to handle it, exactly. But these people were so far from her people, it was almost laughable.
“I’m sure you think you can, but you haven’t met my family.”
“Trust me.” She didn’t like thinking about where she came from—went out of her way not to think about it most days—but the curiosity on his face was indication that he actually wanted to know. Plus, the best way to reassure him was to show him that she’d been raised in a house not that different from his own.
It was a lie. Their little trailer couldn’t be further from the rich folks he kept talking about, but mean was mean was mean. “My mom had very particular ideas about what my role in life was—mainly to stay the hell out of her way and not hurt on her buzz or scare off her man of the week. No, don’t look at me like that. It wasn’t bad growing up with her for the most part—mostly because I found Deathmatch in my formative years—but when she was liquored up, she was downright vicious. She could single out a person’s weakness inside of ten seconds and she never hesitated to go straight for the heart.”
It felt weird to talk about it, but not in a bad way. She trailed off, waiting for Quinn to jump in with… Hell, she didn’t know—some sort of reaction—but he just motioned for her to continue.
“I was supposed to marry a nice boy with a wad of cash and take care of her the rest of her life, but I got all these ‘funny ideas’ about feminism and getting my own job, and so when she found out I applied to colleges out of state, she lost her shit. We had…words…and I left in a hurry afterwards.” Words where her mom told her that all the college in the world wouldn’t change the fact that she was, at heart, a mean trailer trash little bitch.
Aubry shook her head. “Long story even longer, we don’t talk much anymore—and by much, I mean at all.”
He turned those blue eyes on her, the look of anger searing away the little pain that talking about it had brought up. “She doesn’t deserve you.”
“In that, we agree.” She shrugged. “The point is if my own mother can’t knock me down for good, your family sure as hell can’t.”
That wasn’t completely true, though. A small, disgustingly weak part of her wanted their approval.
It doesn’t matter what I want. I won’t get it. Best to know that going in.
“If at any time you change your mind, say the word and we’re out of there.”
When had anyone ever made her an offer like that? To put her first, completely and without caveats?
Never.
Jules would happily walk through fire for her—and she’d return the favor without a second thought—but that was different. Jules was the sister she’d never known she wanted. Quinn was…something else altogether. She took a deep breath, trying to ignore the steady warmth pulsing through her at his words. “That won’t be necessary.”
“All the same.” He reached over and squeezed her thigh, the move comfortable and reassuring and—
I like Quinn Baldwyn.
Chapter Fourteen
Quinn’s stomach was in knots as he pulled up to the hotel in Napa Valley. He’d seen his family less than a month ago, but this felt different. Important. The fact that Aubry had revealed her hellish upbringing only made it more so. He knew she was trying to reassure him, but it only made him that much more determined to spare her from this whole fiasco.
He parked, fighting down the urge to ask Aubry for the third time if she was sure she wanted to do this. She wouldn’t thank him for the question, and it would probably just piss her off. To distract himself he reached over and pulled her across the seat and into his lap. “Hey.”
“Hey.” She settled there, straddling him, her amber eyes seeing too much. “You wouldn’t be stalling, would you?”
Definitely. He toyed with the edges of her shorts, running his hands up her sides to inch her closer. “Are you complaining?”
She rocked against him, her grin doing funny things to his stomach. “It’s been hours since I had you last. I need my Quinn fix.”
“Good to know we’re on the same page.” He palmed her ass, bringing her closer so she lined up where he wanted her. Her sigh was a reward in and of itself, but he wanted more. He wanted to lose himself in her body until this whole damn wedding passed and nothing mattered but the next looming orgasm. Quinn leaned in to kiss her—
And froze when someone rapped on the window to his truck.
He looked over and cursed under his breath. “My sister.”
“Oh good. This is exactly the kind of first impression I wanted to make—necking with the bride’s brother in his almost-broken-down pickup.” He half expected her to scramble off him, but she just seemed to get more comfortable, offering Jenny a finger wave.
Quinn bit back a grin at the scandalized look on his little sister’s face and rolled down the window. “Hey, Jenny.”
“You’re late.” She looked over her shoulder as if expecting someone to materialize—probably their mother. “The rehearsal dinner is in an hour and you haven’t even checked in yet.” She barely spared Aubry a glance, but, out of all his family, he could guarantee that it wasn’t rudeness so much as panic. Her eyes were too wide and her breath was coming too fast and too shallow.
Shit.
“Hold on, peaches.” He slid Aubry off him and opened the door enough to slide out of the truck. “Breathe, Jenny. I’m here now and I’m not going to hold up your special day.”
Her laugh was high and hysterical. “It’s not my day and you know it. It’s Mother’s.”
Hell, he did know it. Their mother had always looked at Jenny like her second chance at youth, driving her to participate in everything from cheerleading to beauty pageants—things his sister never would have chosen for herself.
“Sit down.” He guided her to the seat of his truck and adjusted her so that her head was between her knees. It wasn’t a totally stable position, but it was the only one he’d found that helped her when she started to lose it. “Breath, honey. That’s right, just like we talked about, nice and slow.”
It took a few minutes, but she finally stopped shaking and raised her head. “I’m okay.”
“Good.” He glanced over her shoulder at Aubry but didn’t want to let Jenny start thinking too much again and send herself into a secondary panic attack. He kept his voice low and soothing. “Just remember that you’re marrying Brad, and that’s what you want. The rest is just fluff.”
Jenny shook her head. “It’s not fluff. It’s one of the biggest social events of the season.”
When she said shit like that, she sounded exactly like Mother. Not that he’d ever tell her, because it would crush her. He sighed. “What do you need from me?”
The question calmed the remaining turmoil in her blue eyes so similar to his own. “Check in. Get ready. Be fifteen minutes early.”
He didn’t particularly want to do any of that, but her request reminded him of the main reason he was here in the first place—to support his little sister. She might not think the rest of it was fluff, but he knew better. He’d just forgotten it for a little while. “Will do.”
“Okay.” She took a deep breath. “Okay, good. Who’s your friend?”
He hadn’t planned to introduce her to any of his family off
the cuff, but it might actually be a blessing in disguise that Jenny had shown up. His little sister dealt with surprises about as well as Aubry did. “This is my date, Aubry.” He stepped back, allowing Jenny the freedom to hop down and turn to face Aubry.
She must have taken her cue from him, because she offered her version of a bright smile and offered her hand. “Pleasure to meet you.”
Jenny took Aubry’s hand, doing her best not to ogle the redhead. “It’s nice to meet you. Quinn hasn’t told us a single thing about you.” She elbowed him. “You’ll have to correct that as soon as we get a few minutes.”
“Of course.”
Jenny bounced up to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Fifteen minutes early. Don’t forget.”
“I won’t.”
“See you soon—see you both soon.” Then she was gone, probably rushing off to check something else off her to-do list.