Authors: Niobia Bryant
Red Hot (14 page)
Kaitlyn continued down the stairs and across the paved yard to Quint's shed. She knocked on the metal door lightly and stepped back in case it swung out.
And it did.
Quint looked down at her; his handsome face was filled with surprise.
Kaitlyn was surprised by her nervousness. There wasn't much that rattled her. Not much at all. Except this man.
“I hate to interrupt you,” she said, looking past him briefly into the shed. “Uhm . . . I wanted to talk to you about Lei.”
For a moment Kaitlyn actually thought he was going to send her on her way.
“Can we talk in here?” he asked. “Is that okay?”
Kaitlyn looked past him again. The shed was no more than ten feet by ten feet, and there was a large worktable in the center and several carved wooden frames in another corner. Along the back was an armoire partially covered by a large white drop cloth. Amid these items there wasn't much space left.
But she stepped inside and pulled the metal door closed behind her.
C
HAPTER
9
HAPTER
9
Quint turned his back to the door as he set his tool on the center of the huge piece of wood before turning back to face her. He was so tall that his head completely blocked the ceiling light and caused the interior to darken. She came up to stand beside him. And in the few seconds after she did, it was hard to deny the intimacy of being side by side with him in a place so small and contained. And warm.
“You did that?” she asked.
Quint nodded.
“I didn't know you were so clever with your hands,” she said, looking up at him.
And Quint looked down at her. The light from the ceiling illuminated his eyes. “Oh, you didn't?” he asked, kind of flirty and cocky.
Maybe an offhand reference to her reaction to his touch in her kitchen?
Kaitlyn's body tingled as they continued to stare at each other.
“No, I didn't, Quin-ton,” she said lightly and teasingly, hoping to lighten the mood. She was the first to look away as she lightly traced her finger along the grooves of the wood.
“My grandfather taught me to work with all types of wood when I first moved to South Carolina from New York,” he said.
Kaitlyn's eyes filled with understanding. “Oh, that's why you're so rude. It's an East Coast thing. You're not a country boy,” she said.
“And that's a bad thing?” Quint asked. He smiled and his dimples deepened in his chocolate cheeks.
Kaitlyn completely lost her breath at the sight of him.
“I don't believe in stereotypes,” he said, picking up one of the tools lying on the untouched center of the wood.
“Funny, you seemed to have attached quite a few to me,” she said.
Quint glanced briefly at her over his broad shoulder. “I think you've attached quite a few to yourself.”
Kaitlyn held up her hand. “Not another lecture, please,” she said. “I have a father and four older brothers for that.”
“Oh, so I'm not the only one telling you to grow upâ”
“An-y-way,”
Kaitlyn said loudly, cutting him off with a wave of her hand. “I wanted to know if I could organize a pajama party weekend for Lei and a few of her friends.”
Kaitlyn said loudly, cutting him off with a wave of her hand. “I wanted to know if I could organize a pajama party weekend for Lei and a few of her friends.”
Quint rose to his full height with his slashing eyebrows dipping as he eyed her. “Did she ask you to?”
Kaitlyn moved to sit on the wooden stool by the door. “Did you make this too?” she asked before sitting on it.
“Yes,” Quint answered patiently.
“You're really good,” she said, lifting the drop cloth to sigh at the sight of the armoire with Lei's name engraved on the front doors. “Is that for her birthday?”
When Quint didn't respond, she looked over at him. He was standing there, staring at her.
“Kaitlyn, can you focus?” he asked.
Kaitlyn's natural instinct was to flash one of her beguiling smiles, which usually got her whatever she wanted from a man. Any man. Except Quinton Wells. So why bother?
“I'm focused. What's up?” she asked, sitting up straight on the stool as she crossed her legs.
His eyes dipped down to take in the move.
Kaitlyn arched an eyebrow. She knew the leggings she wore put emphasis on the hips and thighs she inherited from her mother. Had Quint noticed? He was rude and judgmental at times, but he was still a man.
“Did Lei ask for a pajama party?” he asked again.
Kaitlyn uncrossed and then crossed her other leg, but this time Quint missed the move as he focused his attention on his carving.
“No, no, she didn't,” she said, sliding back off the stool as she eased around his body to stand on the other side of the table. “She was looking sad about her mom not coming, and she's turning thirteen, and I thought maybe something extra girlie and extra fun would be needed to focus on what's really important . . . her birthday.”
“She talks to you a lot, huh?” he asked.
Kaitlyn nodded as she bent slightly to study the intricate details of the carvings. “Girl things. PMS. Boysâ”
“Boys!” Quinton said sharply, his handsome face alarmed.
“Yes, and clothes. School. You know, things a little girl does not want to tell her daddy.”
“She's not old enough for some little boy to be sniffing at her skirts,” he said sternly.
Kaitlyn twisted her lips. “But she doesn't wear skirts,” she said.
“You know what I mean.”
Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. “Don't worry, Quint. Lei is not interested in the grungy little boys in class. She's more worried about which one of Mindless Behavior is the cutest each week.”
“Mindless Behavior?” Quint asked.
Kaitlyn sighed as she picked up one of the tools. “Four cute little boys who sing in a group.”
“Oh.” Quint looked up at her and then reached out with his hand. “Careful, that's reallyâ”
Kaitlyn cried out as the blade of the tool sliced into the flesh of her index finger when she lightly touched it. She instantly dropped it as her blood began to seep from the cut.
“Shit,” Quint swore as he stepped over and held her hand. He studied the cut. “I hope you don't need stitches.”
The combination of Quint's nearness and the thought of stitches made Kaitlyn's knees give out a little bit. She leaned her hip against the table for support as Quint released her long enough to jerk off his long-sleeved tee. He wiped up some of the dripping blood before tearing off a strip of the bottom with his teeth to bandage her finger.
Kaitlyn barely felt the steady throbbing of her wound as she closed her eyes and dragged her suddenly parched tongue across her lips to keep from the total impact of Quint's now-bare upper body. The man had the physique of an Olympian.
His body is bananas.
“I need to keep a first aid kit back here,” he said.
Kaitlyn opened her eyes and looked down at his hands applying the pressure before she looked over at his body again.
“I grew up on a horse ranch. I know better than just picking up tools. I wasn't thinking. I was distracted.. . .”
Her words faded off as she looked up and found Quint's deep-set eyes on her.
“By what?” he asked.
“Huh?”
“What distracted you?”
Kaitlyn couldn't look away from him. “You,” she admitted softly.
His eyes deepened in intensity.
“No, I meantâ”
The rest of her words were swallowed into his mouth as Quinton dipped his head to cover her mouth with his. The first feel of it was softness before he wrapped one arm around her waist; then he swiftly lifted her body up to hold against the length of him as he first touched her lips with his tongue.
A shiver raced across Kaitlyn's body and she moaned in hunger as she brought up her uninjured hand to press against the back of his bald head.
“Oh, my God,” she moaned into his open mouth in between a dozen small kisses, which were electric and fevered and urgent.
Every pulse point on her body ached and throbbed. Her heart pounded. Their chemistry was off the charts, and she honestly wondered if she had ever felt something
so
intense and
so
wicked.
so
intense and
so
wicked.
Quinton backed them up until her back was pressed against the chilly metal of the shed's back wall. Her gasp was a mix of the shock of the cold mingled with the heat they created. She broke their kiss to take in deep breaths as they stared across the short distance at one another.
She brought her hand up to press against his chest.
And she loved that he seemed as affected as she was.
Glazed eyes.
Pounding heart.
Arousal. Desire. Want.
Quint used his strength to lift her body higher against the wall. Her small but plump and pert breasts were now sitting in his face.
Kaitlyn arched her back and raised her shirt above her head to fling it onto the wood shavings covering the floor.
“I knew you wore some sexy shit,” he said low in his throat as he took in the black sheer bralet. The lingerie did nothing to hide that her areolas were large and brown, and her nipples were thick and hard as they strained against the material.
“So you thought about me in some sexy shit?” she asked.
Quint didn't answer. Instead, he dipped his head and sucked her nipple hotly through the material.
“Oh, my God.
Yes!
” She sighed as she jerked his head back and freed her nipple to completely tear open the front of her bra.
Yes!
” She sighed as she jerked his head back and freed her nipple to completely tear open the front of her bra.
The move shook him as he looked up at her in surprise. He increased his intensity before rubbing his smooth face against her cleavage. He moaned as he extended his tongue and flickered it against her nipple.
Kaitlyn's clit pulsated as heat infused her body.
Quint turned his head to press his face against her other breast before tracing the outline of her entire areola before circling inside the bumpy brown skin of it, until his tongue dragged against her taut nipple.
Kaitlyn cried out.
“I wanna be inside you,” he whispered against her skin as he let her body slide down his.
She gasped at the feel of her hard nipples against his hard, contoured chest. “Quinton,” she sighed in pleasure as his hands massaged the fullness of her buttocks as he pressed kisses to the side of her face.
Kaitlyn tilted her head up; and as if synced into her desire, Quint kissed a trail to her throat before pressing his lips to her racing pulse.
“Yes,” she whispered with each kiss. Each and every kiss. “Yes . . . yes . . . yes.”
Quinton gently jerked her leggings down around her hips.
She felt the cold metal of the wall against the bare flesh of her ass and her eyes opened, jarring her from the sexual daze she was in. Even with her heart pounding, she shook her head and struggled for her composure.
“I can't do this. We can't do this. I'm not sexing some dude
in a shed,
and we not even dating, going out, chilling. No! No-no-no-no-no. I am not going out like that.
No.
”
in a shed,
and we not even dating, going out, chilling. No! No-no-no-no-no. I am not going out like that.
No.
”
Quint let his head fall back as he released a frustrated breath through his mouth as he held up his hands and stepped back from her. “Hey. No problem. âNo' means
no.
”
no.
”
Kaitlyn jerked her leggings back up and snatched her shirt from the floor. She slid it over her head with wood chips stuck to it and all.
“Nothing like that. Definitely not nothing like that. I just . . . I got caught up in the moment. I can't frontâyou sexy as fuck, but I just never did one-night stands. That's not me.”
Quint turned from her, and Kaitlyn knew he was waiting on his erection to die down.
“I'm not a tease. I just didn't think,” she said into the silence.
Quint grabbed his shirt and held it over his crotch before he faced her. “Hey, don't apologize and explain. It's cool. Honestly, I'm glad that one of us came to our senses. Even though I know it woulda been hella good, it woulda been a mistake because I'm not looking for a relationship.”
“Yeah . . . yeah, you right,” she said, covering up her disappointment as she moved past him to the door of the shed. She had to get the hell out of there . . . ASAP! “So . . . uh . . . uhm . . . Lei's slumber party?”
Quint wiped his face with his hand. “That's cool. I understand she rather hang out with her friends than chill with her pops,” he said good-naturedly.
“Okay.” Kaitlyn turned and opened the door.
“Kaitlyn.”
Her heart pounded in her chest as she turned.
“Just let me know how much you need to throw her a really nice party,” he said as the light cast shadows against his chest.
“Sure,” she told him, and then hurried to leave the shed and close the door behind her.
She allowed herself a moment to lean back against the door. When she stopped Quint, she had foolishly thought they could spend a little time together and get to know each other first. But he just admitted that sex was all it would have been for him.
She felt even better for not letting things go too far, but it was never an easy pill to swallow when any man saw you as the jump-off/one-night/no-strings-attached chick. That wasn't Kaitlyn at all.
Not even a week of spending time in romantic Paris had made her give up the panties. There was no way she was handing over her goodies that easily to any man.
Not even Quint Wellsâthe man with the body that seemed to be chiseled in stone.
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