Stroke of Luck

“Come to me, baby,” Quinn said. “I’ll take care of you.”

He opened his arms, and she surged into them. They closed around her, and she felt safe in his warm embrace. Protected.

He kissed the top of her head. “I’ll love you.”

She smiled and gazed up at him. “Yes.”

“For a month,” he continued. “Then it’s over.”

Her chest compressed. She stared at him, shaking her head.

“But I love you.” Tears streamed down her face as she stared into the depths of his midnight eyes.

He continued smiling, his eyes still glowing with warmth.

How could he look at her like that, his face filled with love, oblivious to her pain? How could he love her and yet exile her from his life?

Her heart sank as she realized it was because he didn’t really love her.

* * *

Quinn’s chest ached as he stared at April’s face awash in the moonlight. He’d fallen asleep with a smile on his face, watching her. Feeling close to her.

Then he’d awakened to her murmurs. She’d become restless, then she’d shocked him by uttering her ex’s name clearly. She’d shifted and turned in her sleep, then cried out, “But I love you.”

Fuck, could it be that she still had feelings for that jerk, despite all he’d done to her?

His stomach knotted. She had been with the man for two years. The guy might have treated her like crap, but if she had genuine feelings for him, if she actually loved him …

Quinn knew that Maurice was actively trying to get her back. If she loved him, he might be able to convince her that he would change. That he’d be faithful to her. Because sometimes love is blind.

April shifted again, then rolled toward him. Her hands glided over his naked chest, sending tremors of need through him, then she snuggled in close and sighed. He closed his arms around her, unable to resist.

But when her lips trailed across his skin in soft kisses, he stiffened.

“Is something wrong?” she murmured.

“Do you even know whose arms you’re in right now?” He rolled away from her. “Do you even care?”

Fuck, she’d just told another man that she loved him. Sure, it was in her dream, but that didn’t make Quinn feel any less rejected. In real life, she had chosen Maurice over him once, and it looked like she was going to do it all over again. She was going to break his heart all over again.

She stared at him, confusion in her eyes. “I don’t understand.”

He just shook his head and pushed himself from the bed, needing to get away from her.

20

r /> April watched Quinn go, wondering if she should go after him. She glanced at Austin uncertainly. The moonlight washed across his face, and strands of his sandy-brown hair curled over his forehead. But his eyes were closed.

Hesitantly, she shifted on the bed, but his hand grasped hers.

“I don’t know what started all of that,” he said, his voice raspy from sleep, “but I suggest you let him stew for a bit. He probably had a bad dream that put him in a mood. Better to see how he is in the morning.”

She lay down facing him. “I’m worried that maybe he’s jealous. He seems to like the three of us being together, but … I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t like that I like it so much.” She bit her lip. “Maybe his suggestion that you two share me was supposed to be a punishment of sorts.”

“Do you think it’s a punishment being with me?” His tone was serious, but there was a teasing glitter in his teal eyes.

“No, of course not. I’m really enjoying what we’re all sharing together. But I was nervous at first.”