Quinn (The Beck Brothers 3)

“Quinn, can I speak with you in my office for a moment?” Peter asked.

Quinn glanced back at him. Margot could see his whole body tense. “Let me get Margot settled in first,” he said.

Margot glanced at Peter who was frowning hard at Quinn’s back. She wondered what Peter wanted to speak about with Quinn. She would try to ask him afterwards. Once in their office, Margot went to sit at her desk. She leaned her crutches against the wall next to her desk and turned on her computer. Quinn took her empty trashcan, flipped it upside down, and stuck it under her desk.

“Put your foot up,” Quinn murmured. “Do you need anything else before I go talk to Peter?”

Margot propped her foot up on the trashcan then lifted her gaze to Quinn, who was standing beside her. She gave him a small smile and shook her head. He hesitated a moment before cupping her face with one of his big hands. He ran his thumb over her bottom lip as he bent down and lightly replaced his thumb with his lips. Margot’s eyes slid closed and her pulse sped up. She hated to admit that she has been missing his kiss. She only kissed him while they were making love, but he ruined other men for her. She doubted she would find another man who kissed her the way Quinn kissed her. Then there was this...this tender, gentle kiss filled with emotion. She did not understand it, but loved it just the same.

Quinn pulled back much too soon in Margot’s opinion. He did not go far, only backing up enough that he could look into her eyes. His hand still cupped her face and his thumb repeatedly stroked her cheekbone.

“I’m sorry,” Quinn whispered, his dark chocolate eyes swirling with emotion.

Margot frowned in confusion. “For what, Quinn?” she asked gently. Margot tentatively brought her hand up to cover his. When he did not pull away, she settled her hand more firmly over his.

Quinn swallowed hard. “Everything in London. I feel like it was my fault,” he rasped. “I acted like a complete ass and I couldn’t even come up with the courage to apologize to you until now.”

Margot sighed heavily before grabbing the back of his neck and pulling him down for another, more thorough kiss. He moaned low in his throat when their tongues met, and her whole body responded to the noise and the kiss. She couldn’t help it; Quinn just turned her on...big time.

Quinn once again pulled back first, giving her a couple of smaller pecks at the corner of her mouth before straightening up. She grabbed the hand that was falling away from her face, kissing his knuckles, and then looked up at him.

“You do not need to apologize, Quinn. Nothing was your fault,” Margot said.

He rolled his lips in and nodded. Margot was not sure if he believed her or not, but at least he was not arguing. “I’ll be back.”

Margot nodded and let him go, and he walked out of their office without a backwards glance. What was Margot supposed to think now? What did that kiss mean, if anything? Did he want to be with her? That was the kind of kiss Margot would expect a man to give to a woman he cared about. Could Quinn possibly care about her? She hoped so because she was really starting to care about him.

~~~~~

Quinn walked into Peter’s office and shut the door behind him. Peter motioned toward the chair sitting in front of his desk. Quinn took a seat and waited. Peter watched him for a moment from behind his black framed glasses, steepling his fingers in front of his mouth.

“You doing alright, Quinn?” Peter asked cautiously.

“Never better,” he replied dryly. Peter knew damn well he wasn’t alright. What an ass.

“Do you know why I wanted to talk to you?” Peter asked.

Quinn just gave him a bored look. He had a few ideas.

Peter sighed. “Quinn, the way you yelled at me on the phone when you got to London is unacceptable, especially since you did it in front of Margot.”

Quinn raised an eyebrow. “What does Margot have to do with it?”

“Well, I don’t want her to think that it’s okay to talk to me like that, because it’s not,” Peter said giving Quinn a pointed look. “And between you and me, I want to ask her out, so I don’t want her to think I’m a jerk.”

Quinn fought the urge to assert his dominance and tell Peter to stay away from his woman, but it wasn’t his place to say anything. Margot and he were not together, even though they had sex - that was none of Peter’s business. It was also none of Quinn’s business if Peter wanted to ask Margot out, he wouldn’t stop him. He knew that Margot would most likely say no, but he wasn’t going to tell Peter that.