Big Girls Get the Blues (8 page)

Quinn flinched and straightene
d in his seat, and gave me a hard look.

I slid my gaze to him and smiled as I took another bite.  “Oh get over it!” I mumbled through meat and cheese
goodness
.  “This is far better than even that, and you know it!”

He shook his head and started in on his burger.  We sat in silence, the only sounds coming from our eating.  I have to admit, I groaned a little every time I took a bite of burger.  The fries were good too, and I’d have to check and see what brand they had been, and the olive oil.  But I’m a carnivore by nature.  If a meal doesn’t have a slab of meat in it, I’m looking for something else to eat.

Quinn finished his food before me, and threw his container away and placed his plate in the sink.  Then he sat down and watched with unfettered fascination as I put away the rest of my burger and fries.

I didn’t like being watched while I ate, but the look on Quinn’s face was as if he was actually enjoying seeing me eat.

The man was probably used to his usual bevy of gorgeous, stick thin girls that would’ve taken one or two bites of their fries, shredded their napkin, and then said they were full.

When I crunched down on my last fry he scooped up my to-go container and plate, and then sat back down, looking me square in the eye.

Shit, he wanted to talk…

I was about to tell him he could go to hell, but he said, “You really have to come back to the club.”

Oh…good, he wanted to just talk about the club.  That I could do.

“No,”
I said, not
sounding very convincing.  After all, why else was I here? 

I looked at hi
m
sitting there, looking gorgeous and so damn yummy.

Oh, yeah…there was that too…

“Last night I walked into the club and the place had maybe five customers.”

Christ on a crutch…it had been a Friday night and the place had been deserted.

“Two of the dancers were testing out a new cage-match number.  Broke some glass, some chairs and a table.”  He handed me a paper towel in place of a napkin.  “I had to pull them apart and hose them down in the kitchen.”

I placed my hand over my mouth, trying to hold back the belly laugh that threatened to explode from my mouth.

“Then I threatened the rest of the staff with jail time.”

I dropped my hand from my mouth.  “You what?”

His brow furrowed.  “I told them all that
if
there was another fight instigated on the grounds that I’d have both parties arrested, and would press charges.”

Oh boy…

“You do know you just lost half your staff, right?”

“Huh?”  He looked so damn adorable when he was confused.  I just wanted to reach out and run my hand through his short, thick black shock of hair.  I had to literally
grab my hand and hold it still with the other not to do so.

“We have some…not so legal kitchen workers.” I cringed at saying “we.”

Quinn gave me a level stare.

“Teddy pays them the same as everyone else, just only in cash.”

“It’s still illegal.”

“Teddy’s a softy,” I said, feeling my temper rise.  We were talking about Teddy, not some sweat-shop owner.  “He can’t just let someone starve if he can give them a job instead!”

Quinn’s glower softened.  “So why is it they won’t come back?”

“They will, just not until…”  Not until I call them personally and promise Quinn, the big bad ex-cop, won’t get the authorities involved.  Every illegal in the US of A has a severe allergy to law enforcement of any kind.  “I’ll call them, okay?”

“So you’re coming back?”  He leaned closer, his deep brown eyes so very intent on me.

“I-I…I didn’t say that.”

He licked his lips.  I shivered.

“There’s also the new dancer.”

It was my turn to look intensely at him.  Tammy Fay had mentioned a new, hot dancer.  Was he really going to
s
ay come back and be mine, or I’ll find someone else to sleep with?

I gulped.  “What about her?”

The Obsidian Butterfly, Concetta something-or-other, was pretty famous on the west coast and Las Vegas.
  Teddy had been pretty happy she had taken a short term contract with him and was sure he’d double his profits—even though her contract stipulated she got a heft
y
cut off the top.

Quinn dropped his gaze from mine, and I could suddenly think…and breathe.

“I met her last night, and she isn’t what she seems.”

I laughed.  “Yeah, I’m sure she’s a lot different than the strippers you’ve met in the Burgh.”

He nodded his head.  “Have you ever seen a stripper dressed in a three thousand dollar business suit?”

Oh…

“And she arrived in a limousine with a driver and two matching security gorillas.”

Okay, that was excessive.

“And when she got out of the limo she was talking on her iPhone, in Spanish, about a shipment coming in.”

Oh crap…

Drug dealer.  That’s what that all added up to.  At least, that’s the way
it
added up to me…and apparently to Quinn too.

He shook his head.  “But after that she was very polite and professional, all business.”

“So why do you need me?”  I was going to go back…sooner or later.  I already saw the writing on the wall.  But I wanted to know why he wanted me back so badly.

He ran a hand over his face and let
out
a deep breath.  God he looked good when he was
uncomfortable.

“This Concetta Rivera”—Rivera, that was her name!—“Said it was going to be extremely busy while she was performing at the club, and since the place was a mess—”

“She saw the fight?”
I
interrupted.

He shook his head.  “But she heard it from outside.  Said she would come back tonight to get a better first impression.”

“So you need me to reign in the staff, and get things under control by tonight.”  I sounded kind of matter of fact about it, my voice low and flat.

“Teddy needs you, the whole place needs you.”  He got up and moved over behind me, and his hands gently touched my bare shoulders.

I closed my eyes.  Was this all just a ploy to get me back at the club?  If it was, that was okay.  I’d take what attention I could get from the handsome bastard, and then just go back to my old, lonely life after he left.  I could do that.

But if it wasn’t…

He pulled me physically around on the stool and stared down into my eyes.  My body burst into flames at his touch, and tingles glittered through me, up and down my spine, over every square inch of flesh, and settl
ed
in my stomach, making my sex heat up and squirm.

He leaned in and took in my scent, like I was something delicious.  Then he leaned further in and kissed my neck, right under my ear.

Oh god, just that smooth touch of his lips on my flesh made my mind
go blank with lust and need.

“I need you,” he rasped as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close, his mouth still on my neck, tongue licking lightly at my skin, tasting.  “I need you desperately.”

I’d wanted to hear that from a man for so long that I felt a physical shock go through me at finally hearing it.  And from the man I wanted to hear it from the most.

I felt something inside me open.  I
t
wasn’t a sex thing.  It was an emotional thing.  I felt tears well up in my eyes, and my breathing started to come in little ragged hiccups…but there it was.  Just that fast it happened, solidified around me, in me, and now I was changed inside and out.

I was in love with Quinn.

My heart swelled and pounded in happiness, and then broke on its next beat.  It knew where this was heading, didn’t want to go there ever again…but it had no choice.

What pathetic, stupid creatures we are.

I drew his mouth to mine and wrapped my arms around his neck.  The kiss was deep and
heated, and he tasted so very good.  Even over the residual taste left by the burger, Quinn had a taste all his own.  I licked up into his mouth and he pulled me closer, so very close.

He was hard and ready, and I could already feel I was more than ready.  My panties were already soaked.  My body was screaming out its need for him.

I reached down and started to unfasten his belt buckle, wanting nothing more than to have him inside me.  But his hands found mine and stopped them.  I looked up at him, confused.

“I haven’t had my desert yet,” he said, his drowning deep brown eyes burning with a naughty light.

He picked me off my stool
—lord he was strong—
and sat me on the cool counter of the center island.  His hands pulled my wet panties off me and over my heels before I could protest.  And in a flash his strong, rough hands pulled up the front of my tight skirt, baring my
sex
to him.

I knew what was coming next.  His tongue was amazing…I’d never had such amazing oral sex as when he’d gone down on me on Teddy’s desk…I wondered if Quinn had told Teddy that part?

But instead of hitting his knees and burying his face in my lap like last time, he just stood there, gazing down on my naked sex. 

I fucking blushed.  I felt the blood flood my face and burn.  It was so embarrassing to have him staring at such an intimate part of my body.
And not be touching it.

WTF?

He placed a hand on my belly, and slowly slid it down from the lace of my top
until his fingers caressed my nude flesh. 

I shivered.  Just that small, slight tough made my hips undulate, and my breath catch in my throat.

He smiled and slid his hand further down, until his fingers slid over and through my feminine lips, until they passed them by and all there was left was the weight and heat of his palm cupped over my dripping wet mound.

Please, please…don’t make me beg…

His free hand roved over my generous bottom, caressing, squeezing…and then his palm moved away from my sex and the roving hand slid up to my quivering pussy and he pushed two fingers into me, making me jerk and gasp. 

His fingers were so thick and
rough;
my body squirmed and clutched at them.  They moved further up into me, and probed until they found my spot.  And just like before, I came the instant his fingers touched that spot.

I rose up and gasped, hyperventilating at the pleasure he was giving me with only his fingers.

He smiled with
satisfaction
and a look of ownership. 

I didn’t want to like that look on his face, but I couldn’t
help
it.  I fucking loved the way he was looking at me.

He pulled his fingers from me and I yelped at their absence.  He brought a finger to his lips and took
it
into his mouth, sucking my fluids from his digits, one at a time.

I needed his cock inside me, and now.

But he darted down to his knees and so very gently blew across my sex.  I squirmed and writhed, until finally he leaned and licked slowly up my pussy.

My head fell back and I howled with delight.

His hands took hold of my ample ass and pulled my lower body apart, to get better access.  I groaned and tried not to whimper as his tongue slid into me, tasting, teasing, and then feasting on my pulsing sex.

I ran my hands through his hair, messing it up, and pulling his face into me all the more.

My climax came without preamble, and I writhed in its powerful wake, barely able to hold onto reality as pleasure rode me like the most powerful of drugs.

“Fuck me, Quinn…” I choked out, my throat dry and hot, my voice no more than a breathy rasp.  “Fuck me now!”

What he did next kind of surprised me.  I’d thought he’d pull open his jeans, slap on a condom, and voila, just take me there and then on the kitchen island.  But what he did do was stand up, wrap my shaking legs around his hips, and then pick me up, using my ass as leverage, his hands almost painful on my bare flesh.

I barely had time to grab hold of his neck with my arms before he started carrying me out of the kitchen, down a hallway that lead to the side of the house.  Everything in his apartment was on one floor, so the bedroom had probably been the dining room back when a family lived in both the upstairs and downstairs.

He strode into a darkened room, where the curtains were drawn, but the afternoon
l
ight still snuck in.  The room seemed soft and warm, and I only got a cursory glance at the bed before he laid me gently on it. 

Immediately we started pulling at each other’s clothes, between kisses.  And we both got so frustrated at the slow progress we were making we snarled at the same time.

I smiled and made a time-out signal with my
hands.  “Play postponed until we’re properly undressed?”