Leaving Bluestone (13 page)

“She’s in pain and lashing out.”

“Then she must be in pain a lot, because that’s her usual reaction to everything. What do you want me to do?”

She put him to work, just to keep him busy since she’d done almost everything else. When she looked out the window over the sink, she saw his brothers and brother-in-law standing around the grill—which wasn’t lit—drinking beer. She glanced at the clock. Just after eleven in the morning, and they’d been drinking before breakfast as well.

Quinn saw them too, and scowled. To distract him, she sent him to let his mother know the casseroles were warmed.

The kitchen was swarmed, people loading their paper plates, and there was no place to escape. Quinn and Lily edged to the side of the room. Lily had no appetite anyway. And when Liam, Jared and the brother-in-law came in, Quinn cupped his hand around her elbow and drew her outside.

“Have we stayed long enough?” he asked with a rough laugh.

“Just a little longer.”

“Women came up with these rituals, didn’t they? These funeral rituals, the food, the flowers. That’s how you know what you’re supposed to do.”

“I don’t know. I think it’s a time when most people feel helpless, the people in the family and the people close to them. The only thing they know to do that makes a difference is to offer the food, and show our respect to the memory of the person who died by the flowers. I don’t know how it all started, but that’s probably why.”

He laced his fingers through hers and leaned his head back against the chair, his eyes drifting closed. Her gaze traveled to their linked hands. When had he started feeling so comfortable holding her hand? Would it continue after they returned to Bluestone? And the kissing? Would he finally, finally make love to her?

Suddenly, she couldn’t be back in Bluestone quickly enough.

“You should probably eat something,” she said when some of the guests began to spill out onto the deck, probably needing the fresh air as well.

“I’ll get something at the airport. I don’t want any of this food.” He stood and reached a hand to her. “We need to go catch a plane.”

Leaving wasn’t as easy as he hoped. His mother tried to guilt him into staying, then he had to seek out each sibling to say good-bye. Lily followed in his wake, and finally they were out the front door. He heaved a huge sigh as he opened the door for her, and practically ran around to the driver’s side. With only a cursory glance at the house, he pulled away and sped down the street. They had already checked out of the motel, but needed to retrieve Lily’s rental car.

“You know how to get to the airport?” he asked when she got out at the motel.

“I have my GPS, but this is my first time driving in another state, and I’m not exactly used to cities.”

“Follow me, then.”

***

They’d managed to get a flight home together, and Quinn slept most of the flight in the aisle seat. When they arrived at Brainerd, they drove home in separate cars, but Quinn parked in front of the landing and got out to walk her to her door. For a moment, Lily thought he would come inside with her and spend the night, but instead he thanked her for coming, for being there for him. He didn’t even kiss her good night. Instead, he got in his truck and drove across the street. She saw him go into the bar to check things out, but didn’t wait for him to come out.

Things were going to be back to normal, it seemed.

She didn’t see him until she went to dinner at the bar and grill the following day. She had been relaxed when she came in off the lake—she’d missed the fresh air and the sound of birds after only two days away. She couldn’t imagine what Quinn must feel like. She wondered if he’d gotten out on the water this morning. His boat had been in its slip when she left with her first launch, but that wasn’t unusual.

As she marched up the steps of the bar, the back of her neck tensed. She’d spent the night with Quinn, had kissed him, had been no more than an arm’s length from him for two days. But now they were home, back to “normal.” How were they to act with each other now?

She took a deep breath and pressed the door open. Quinn was behind the bar and didn’t look up. He was talking to Leo and smiling a little, looking better than she’d seen him since he got word his father was dying. Relaxing a bit, she bellied up to the bar. Warmth lit his eyes for a moment before they shuttered. Okay. So now she knew how to act, though her stomach pitched. Nothing had changed, not here anyway.

“Hey,” he said, pulling a glass from beneath the bar and reaching for the gun to dispense her pop.

“I’d like something fried, too.”

He scowled. “You’re going to drop dead before you’re forty.”

“I’ve had a long day on the lake. I need the calories.”

“It’s not the calories I worry about. It’s the cholesterol. And the sugar.” He slid the pop in front of her.

Well, at least he cared. “I’m plenty healthy. Fry me some fish and chips, my good man.”

She got a quirked mouth before he turned to place her order.

“Up for a game of poker tonight?” Leo asked from the other end of the bar.

Lily gave Quinn a questioning look. He shrugged.

“Sure,” she said. Her pulse tripped. Spending time with Quinn in front of Leo, who knew them both too well. Would she be able to hide how she felt?

***

“So Beth didn’t run this place into the ground while I was gone,” Quinn said as he sat with Lily, Leo and Beth around the poker table. Maddox was on tour and Beth had taken his place after some cajoling. He shifted in his chair, still feeling alien after his trip. How long would it take for him to settle back into his routine, or would he ever be the same person he’d been, now that his father was dead?

“I think business actually picked up,” Beth retorted, inspecting her cards. “God, you suck as a dealer.”

He grunted and looked at his own cards. Not much better.

“So he actually has a family?” Beth asked Lily. “He didn’t hatch from an egg?”

Lily grinned across the table at Quinn. “Well...”

He didn’t react. She’d tell what she’d tell. He didn’t care one way or the other.

“He has a big family, two brothers and a sister, and only the little brother looks like him.”

“Oh, mini-Quinn?”

“Well, younger. Not little. In college.”

“Are they all snarly like Quinn?”

“Except his sister Rose. She’s very friendly.”

Quinn snorted as Lily shifted smugly in her chair. She had a good hand, then. He replaced her discarded card with one from the deck. Before long they were the only two left in the game, and he watched her evenly, which made her flustered. Interesting. He hadn’t flustered her in poker before.

When she’d walked into the bar tonight, in her fishing gear, her hair in a ponytail threaded through the back of a gimme cap, his heart had given a hard thud, like it was trying to get his attention. All day he’d felt like something was missing, until she walked in. But then self-preservation kicked in and he’d defaulted to their old relationship. She’d seen him at his worst twice now, when Gerry died and when his dad died, and while he trusted her more than any human being, that made him nervous.

But sitting across from her, he remembered how she felt in his arms, how she smelled, how she tasted. Being this confused was driving him nuts, and he was pretty sure he was driving her nuts, too.

Hell, when he was in Kansas, all he wanted was to be in Bluestone. So why didn’t he let himself stay? Gerry was gone, yes, but he loved this place as much as Gerry did. If he hadn’t before, he’d come to love it because Lily did. That was why he worked so hard to do whatever she wanted him to.

So he’d stay. He’d stay and he’d love Lily. The decision made him feel ten times lighter, and he squared his shoulders, stopping himself before he smiled at her.

He couldn’t make his move with Leo and Beth here. He looked from one pile of chips to the other. Leo wasn’t doing so great, but Beth had a decent stack in front of her. And while she may be living with her country singer boyfriend, she was still pretty fiercely independent. She may not need to pay rent anymore, but she didn’t have a lot of money to throw around. A win for her tonight would be nice.

Lily’s pile was pitiful, unlike her. After her first hand, which had actually been pretty good, her tells gave her away and she hadn’t won another hand. He hadn’t seen any evidence of her usual hard-edged play. She almost acted like she didn’t want to be here.

After a few hands, she stood. “I’m beat,” she said. “And I have another early morning.”

Quinn gave a pointed look to her meager stack of chips. “Not like you to quit while you’re behind.”

“I’m not feeling too crafty tonight. Good night, everyone.”

Without cashing in her chips, she headed out the door.

Another hour passed before Quinn could get rid of the other two. He thought he held himself still despite the antsiness that plagued him, but Leo kept sending him these knowing looks. Finally, Beth stood to say good night, not forgetting to cash in her healthy supply of chips. Leo lingered a little longer, like he was waiting to be let in on some secret, but when Quinn wasn’t forthcoming, he carried the last of the bottles to the recycle bin and headed out.

Quinn stood in his darkened bar for another ten minutes, trying to talk himself out of what he was going to do.

Then he strode out the door and across the street to the landing.

Chapter Eight

Lily tossed the tangled sheets aside in frustration and sat up with a groan. She was tired but her mind wouldn’t shut off. She tried to bore herself to sleep with numbers, but her thoughts continued to drift to Quinn and his unreadableness. Honestly. He couldn’t stop touching her when they were in Kansas and now he barely looked at her when she was sitting right across from him. Damned stubborn man. Okay, she’d slept with his best friend, but that was two years ago and Gerry was never coming back and she was lonely. She was lonely and she was in love with Quinn. Even if he decided to leave Bluestone, she wanted time with him.

A knock at the door scared the crap out of her. It wasn’t a polite knock, either, of someone who didn’t know if they were intruding with an after-midnight call. No, it was a demanding knock that sent her heart flying into her throat. She knew even as her feet hit the floor who it was.

The only person it could be.

She padded barefoot to the door in her long flannel nightshirt—the nights were chilly already—and opened the door.

Quinn stood there, shoulders tense in his white T-shirt, hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans for the split second before he took them out and grabbed her, dragging her forward, one hand in her hair, the other around her waist. Then his mouth was on hers, hot and hungry, lips firm, almost like he didn’t want to be doing this but had no choice. When she recovered enough to wrap her arms around his neck, he softened a bit, closed the door behind him and pinned her to it.

Maybe she was dreaming, because this was just as she’d always imagined. He pressed his hips against her, giving her no doubt as to the reality of the situation. She gave a little moan of encouragement, he growled in response, stepped back and swept her into his arms.

Lily was a tall woman, and not one who usually encouraged lovers to carry her to bed, but Quinn lifted her effortlessly and maneuvered her down the hallway without bumping her head on the pictures hanging on the walls. Heart pounding in anticipation, she watched his face, so grim in the dim light, not lover-like at all.

Then she was on the bed, tangled sheets beneath her, and he stood over her, just watching her. Waiting for her to say something? To send him away? As many times as she’d fantasized about this, she couldn’t think of a thing to say, so she reached her arms out to him. The sound he made when he lowered himself over her was pure need. She lifted her mouth to meet his as he held his weight off of her, his hands braced on either side of her, his thighs parting hers, his jeans rough against the bare skin of her legs. She twined her legs around him to bring him closer and—God. His erection was hot and hard behind his fly. She rolled against it, wanting to ease the pressure between her legs. He lowered one hand to her hip, holding her to the mattress. His lips abandoned hers to slide over her cheek, to nip at her ear, to caress the soft skin below. She moaned as his stubble scraped the tender flesh, as his tongue soothed it before coursing down her throat to her collarbone. Who knew kissing that could be so sexy? She shoved the fabric aside to allow him greater access, her skin tingling all over in anticipation of where he’d go next.

Then he was gone, on his heels between her legs, looking down at her. She cast about for what she might have done wrong. Before she could reason it out, he grabbed the hem of her nightshirt and shoved it up. She sat too and helped him drag it over her head and toss it aside. His gaze riveted to her breasts, and she thought she heard him swear before he covered them with his hands and lowered her to the bed again, no longer attempting to protect her from his weight. It was as if he needed to absorb her. His fingers plucked her nipples, his mouth devoured her throat. She managed to slide her hands beneath his T-shirt, over the warm skin of his back. The play of his muscles beneath her palms was sexy as hell, and she dragged his face back to hers so she could kiss him. After a hot, intense kiss, she tugged his shirt over his head. His chest hair rasped her tender nipples, and she arched into it, savoring the sensation.

“You have condoms, right?” she asked, biting the lobe of his ear.

He grunted and nodded, and covered her breast with his mouth. She may have squealed, just a bit, because he reached up and placed his fingers over her lips when he turned his head to the other. God, the heat of his mouth, the play of his tongue, and his hand sliding down her waist to trace the waistband of her panties made her crazy.

He slipped his fingers beneath the elastic. Just the brush of his fingers against her curls made her surge her hips up and cry out. He lifted his head to look into her eyes and then he parted her with a long finger. His touch slid over her swollen flesh. She hadn’t thought she was so close, but when she spread her legs to welcome his touch, the light caress sent her over the edge. She gripped his shoulders as she came, losing herself in the waves of pleasure. When she opened her eyes, he was watching her still, that half-grin on his lips, the bastard.