Danger Zone (28 page)

“If you don’t want to do what Mac wants…what
do
you want to do?”

Quinn shrugged and snorted. “That’s the kicker. I’m not really sure. I focused so hard on rebelling that I don’t know what I want. I just always knew what I
didn’t
want. Usually it was the exact thing Mac pushed on me.”

“There had to be something you were interested in,” she prodded.

He stared at his shoes. “I liked helping the lower classmen during the last couple years.”

Helping his fellow students? “You mean you tutored?”

He chuckled as if it were some cosmic joke. “Yeah. Freaky, huh? Me. A tutor?”

She grinned and pictured the line of freshman—girls—all lined up to have Quinn as a tutor. “Not at all. I can see it very clearly.”

“Some of the incoming students needed help in math and science. Refresher courses, you know, and I made extra money tutoring. I’m not stupid, you know. I never was. Mac just always treated me that way.”

Ellie flinched at the word
stupid.
She knew she wasn’t stupid. Knew her common sense and other abilities compensated for her dyslexia, but sometimes the word still got to her. She crossed back to the window, her secret burning a hole in her heart. Turning, she forced a smile. “Beer money?”

Shaking his head, he laughed. “My reputation precedes me.”

“You never told Mac that you tutored, did you?” she asked. “Because he would’ve approved. And you didn’t want his approval.”

He came toward her, so tall and delicious her mouth watered. His faded jeans hung low around his hips and his tight T-shirt hugged his chest and biceps. The outside was just as beautiful as the inside.

“Your brother doesn’t know you. Not at all, Quinn. You should sit him down and talk to him. Really talk to him and show him the Quinn I know.”
The Quinn I love
. Her heart flipped. She loved him. No question about it now. She’d fallen hard.

He brushed his thumb along her bottom lip. “How about I talk to him another day? How about we do something so that right this minute I can forget he even exists?”

When his lips grazed hers, Ellie lost all train of thought.

Quinn moved forward, pushing Ellie steadily back toward the bed. He pulled his lips away from hers long enough to strip both their shirts over their heads before kissing her again. These were his lethal kisses. The slow, deep ones that made her hum inside. The ones that made her lose track of everything but Quinn. Not much compared to having his tongue in her mouth, stroking her, playing her until she burned for him. Every touch imbedded in her memory as if it were engraved in stone.

After making quick work of her jeans, which he laid on a pile on top of their shirts, he stepped back and looked at her. Her black bra and thong didn’t do much in the way of covering her, but she liked the smile on his face.

He opened his mouth and she stopped him with a finger to his lips. “Shh,” she said. “No words this time. Just our bodies.”

Quinn nodded slowly. His gaze intensified as desire smoldered in his eyes. He shucked his jeans and underwear and stood before her. In all her years in Hollywood, in all the hours she’d clocked at the gym, she’d never run across a more beautiful male in her life. From his broad shoulders, to his six-pack abs, to his narrow waist. Not to mention the erection that had its place in the Guinness Book of World Records. Every inch of Quinn screamed virile male. He made love like one too. He was fierce, raunchy and carnal.

And apparently, so was she because she didn’t mind when her took her hard. The way he looked at her, touched her, as if he’d die if he couldn’t have her. She’d never dreamed that something so primal could be so emotional too.

Standing in front of her, Quinn waited until she met his gaze. The curve of his lips sent her heart thudding loudly in her chest. He was doing it with just a look. Unbelievable. She was wet from one hot look and a sexy grin.

When his fingers brushed her skin as he unclasped her bra, a rush of tingles swept from head to toe. Goose bumps rose on her flesh as he eased the bra off her shoulders. He circled each nipple with his thumb and her breathing faltered.

Payback time. Ellie stepped closer until his erection teased her belly. She caught his attention when she smoothed her thumb over the head of his penis and slicked the drop of moisture around and around. Without further delay, he stripped the thong down her legs and tumbled her to the bed. It was so unexpected and so totally Quinn that she laughed.

“Shh,” he said, because he loved to tease her.

She might’ve responded if he hadn’t kissed her so thoroughly. Somehow, he’d eased between her legs. A place he fit perfectly. In that moment she realized no one else would ever do. No one would ever make her feel so hot, sexy. So cherished.

He hovered at her entrance as he kissed her, his slick tongue dancing with hers in perfect rhythm. Pulling away, he stared down at her, his gaze intense and full of emotion. The moment stretched on until he moved his hips, seeking entry.

Ellie opened her eyes wide.
Condom!
But she didn’t say it. Somehow Quinn knew. Or he remembered, because he shifted away from her. His wide-eyed, tight-lipped expression was one that would be with her until the day she died…so cute that Ellie burst out laughing.

“Oops,” he said, hopping off her. He scrambled for a condom in his toilet kit, found one, slipped it on and pounced on her. Naturally, she was still laughing. “Not that funny,” he whispered in her ear.

She slid her arms around his neck “You didn’t see your face,” she told him. “It was very funny.”

“What happened to no talking?” he said, grazing his lips along her jaw.

“No talking about sex,” she corrected.

He looked in her eyes. “So if the topic is baseball, I can talk when I fuck you?”

“Quinn!” She smacked his shoulder, mildly affronted at his use of the F-word. But he didn’t know that she considered these intimate moments making love. He didn’t feel the same way. Now was definitely not the time to think about it. Now was the time to enjoy him for the hours they had remaining. “No, you may not. Now it’s no talking. Period. About anything.”

His brows lifted. A challenge. He pressed against her entrance, but she shook her head
no.
Those dark brows of his quirked in question
why?

Ellie lifted her head and kissed him. In a move she’d learned while doing a film, she leveraged her leg over his calf and flipped Quinn onto his back, straddling him. His nostrils flared. His eyes got darker and his hands got busy touching everything in front of him.

Oh, yes, the man liked what he saw. For some reason, she hadn’t had the pleasure of being on top until now. Probably because Quinn made her come so fast, it hadn’t been necessary.

The way he held her breasts in his hands, the intense expression in his eyes as he touched her made her acutely aware of their time together. How would she get along without him when he left? How would she survive without his touch?

She fought back the sting in her eyes. Because she didn’t want to ruin the moment, she forced a smile and guided him inside her. As usual, the first time was so tight and intense she wanted to cry out. It felt as if she couldn’t expand anymore to take him, but she always did. And it always felt exquisite, meant to be.

When she looked down at him, he was focused on her, watching, touching. Every inch of skin tingled where he stroked. Inside and out. His gaze never left hers and when it did, his blatant appreciation of her body nearly melted her.

Ellie rode him slowly. Every delicious slide brought her closer to completion, but she didn’t want to come. She wanted to stay on the edge with him, just like this, with her body humming and every cell alive and sizzling. She wanted him as hot as he was making her.

With his jaw locked tight, he gripped her hips and drove up inside her, hitting a cluster of nerves at her core that almost set her off. She was so close it wouldn’t take much more to explode.

Grabbing his wrists, she trapped his hands on the pillow, bringing her mouth next his. She licked his bottom lip and he shoved up inside her. She nipped his earlobe and he thrust harder. Every time he tried to kiss her she backed off. She wanted to be in control. But when he lunged for her mouth a third time, he didn’t let her stop him. He sat up and covered her lips with a need she felt clear to her toes, sweeping his tongue against hers in a slick, sensual dance. Holding her so closely that her breasts flattened against his muscled chest.

Finally, he pulled away, held her face in his hands. His intent gaze said so much. The desire in his eyes went beyond lust and stalled the breath in her lungs. As if he understood her need to own this moment, he lay back down, bringing her with him, kissing her so hot and heavy that she gasped for air.

She moved on top of him again, harder and faster, her knees hugging his hips, squeezing him tightly. With every stroke she saw more emotion in his eyes. It was almost more than she could take. The bond they shared struck her soul-deep and sent her senses soaring. She was close, right at the edge. He was too, she could tell. Two more strokes and she was a goner. One…

“I love you,” he rasped.

Boom. Total meltdown. Every molecule erupted inside her core and sent pounding waves over and back again. Quinn thrust deeply one last time, baring his teeth, clenching his jaw and digging his head into the pillow as his climax hit him just as hard.

After every last spasm had wrung her out, Ellie collapsed on top of him. Quinn’s words echoed in her ears. She was strangely calm when she should’ve been panicking. Maybe he thought he loved her. Or loved the woman he thought she was. The fact remained that he didn’t really
know her.

Another fact loomed large. She loved him too. She couldn’t run from it, though God knew she’d tried. Love was the emotion she’d seen in his eyes. The same thing he’d no doubt seen in hers. His heart thundered as she lay on his chest, as they both fought for breath and let the moment sink in.

She didn’t have too many options. Any way she looked at it, she lost. She had to pretend. She was great at pretending. For their little time remaining, she could be everything he wanted and once he left, he wouldn’t know the difference. Actually, if she looked at this the right way, it was perfect. He was leaving and he never had to know the truth about her. The problems only started if he stayed and that wasn’t going to happen.

Didn’t that just break her heart?

Quinn couldn’t believe his ears.
I love you?
Had he really said it out loud? In the middle of sex? That might have been the girliest thing he’d ever done in his life. “I tried not to say anything,” he whispered. “I’m sorry, I really tried.” Holding Ellie tight, he felt her tense. “It was in my brain and I couldn’t keep it in.”

She lifted her head and looked down at him, her hair a blond curtain around them, her green eyes soft, but intent. “Did you mean it?”

“Fuck yeah, I meant it. What kind of question is that?” Jesus, had he blown this? He’d never told anyone he loved them. No one. What if she didn’t—

“Don’t get your attitude all up,” she said, a smile creeping across her face. She stroked his cheek and his stubble rasped against her thumb. “I love you too.”

Every thought stopped. Had he heard her right? “You do?”

She brushed her lips over his. “To quote a phrase. ‘Fuck yeah,’” she whispered. Pulling away, she scolded him with dark eyes. “And tell me you didn’t just apologize for saying you love me.”

“No, I didn’t.” She loved him! Goddamn, what a feeling! He ran his hands up her arms and down her smooth back. He loved having her on top of him, having her at his fingertips. “I apologized for not keeping quiet. But knowing that those little words set you off, I see very good things in your future.” He saw even better things in
their
future.

She laughed and the sound wrapped around him, warmed him with a sense of peace. In that moment, he realized it was peace that had been missing from his life, and Ellie had given him that with her attitude and her smile.

“So, I was thinking,” he said, “Once I convince Mac to sell the company, I’ll go back to London, get rid of it and come back to you.”

Her eyes opened wider. “I thought no one could pay you to live in Los Angeles?”

“I thought you were getting out of the business. I thought you were going to the Midwest to get closer to race-car central.”

She shook her head and moved off him. “I can’t,” she said, avoiding his gaze. Someone may as well have thrown a bucket of ice on her. “That was just a stupid fantasy. I’m not going anywhere.” After fluffing the pillow, she leaned back, but she still wouldn’t look at him.

“Why are you giving up on yourself when you won’t give up on me? I heard the excitement in your voice when you talked about being behind the wheel. Hell, I could see it on your face and I wasn’t even in the car with you. You were meant for it. Just like Trace.”

Narrowing her eyes, she finally faced him. “You’re telling me you won’t freak out every time I’m behind the wheel of a car?” She turned and leaned on an elbow. “What’s the difference between stunt work and race-car driving?”

“Stunt work involves a whole lot of shit I know nothing about. At least, I know about race cars. I know how they’re built and I know driver’s safety.” Oddly, she still seemed unconvinced as she leaned back on the pillow. Why? Quinn got up and tossed the condom in the trash. Of course, she did have one big reason that would change her mind.

“You’re worried about Ashley, aren’t you?” he asked.

She nodded, her gaze meeting his. “I can’t just leave her. I don’t know how long she’ll be in a coma and she’ll need me when she comes out of it.”

Quinn admired her unfailing loyalty. He climbed on the bed and kissed her softly. “What if she…” No, he couldn’t say,
never comes out of it
. “You can’t stay with her for…”
Forever
. But he couldn’t say that either. The look in Ellie’s eyes stopped him. She refused to consider the possibility. “She’s lucky to have you for a friend,” he said instead.

“I’ve always been lucky to have her,” Ellie whispered. She rolled away and headed to the bathroom. Her somber attitude struck a foreign chord.

He was definitely missing something. Ellie had to know she couldn’t live her life based on Ashley’s coma.

His cell phone rang and he checked the number. Mac. Great, just what he needed. “What?” he snapped.

“Don’t be a little shit, Quinn. If anyone is entitled to a bad attitude it’s me because I’m the one with the bruise on my face.”

Quinn flexed his sore fist. He should’ve felt guilty for popping his brother, but Mac had asked for it. “Sure hope you didn’t call for sympathy,” he said.

“Hardly. Meet me in the trailer tomorrow afternoon at one and we’ll discuss the details of selling FRD.”

Quinn sat up, but kept his voice neutral. He didn’t want to give anything away or say something that might change Mac’s mind. “Fine.”

“Fine.” Mac hung up, leaving Quinn to stare at the phone.

Hell, he should’ve hit his brother months ago.

Tuesday morning, Ellie had to be on set at 7:00 a.m., so Quinn went along for the ride. He wanted as much time with her as possible before leaving town. They hadn’t talked yet about how they were going to make their relationship work. Quinn didn’t know how long he’d have to remain in London after the company changed hands. It all depended on the terms of the deal. All of those things started with what he and Mac decided today.

Driving into the studio, Ellie had been suspiciously quiet. She may have been thinking about Ashley or the fact that he was leaving town in thirty-six hours. Neither of those things fostered happy thoughts.

“How about a nice romantic dinner tonight? Just the two of us. Maybe some candlelight. Soft music.”

Her lips curved into a smile, but she didn’t take her eyes off the road. “Trying to go out with a bang, huh?”

“We’ll do that after dinner.”

She laughed and the sound had Quinn’s chest feeling heavy. He didn’t want to leave her. Not for a second. Without even trying, she’d caught him in a trap; one he didn’t want out of. Her smile faded and the same serious expression clouded her features.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” he said.