Mile High Weekend (Opposites Attract Book 1) (7 page)

Quinn grinned and tried not to be distracted by the fact that she was so interested in what his tongue was up to. “Are you saying I have a tell
…
baby?”

She gave him an eye roll. “Yes.”

Quinn tapped the ring with his tongue, sucked it for a second, then said, “Hmm. Maybe I should just take the damned thing out, then.”

Ginnie’s eyes fixed on his mouth for a moment, her own bottom lip visibly moist. “Don’t.”

Quinn stifled a groan.  The way she exhaled the bossy little command had a hardline to his crotch.

“Why? You think I should leave it in so you can keep reading me so easily?”

She muttered something that sounded like, “I need
some
way to keep you in line.”

Quinn stifled a chuckle and told a half-truth. “Nothing is
wrong.
I was just wondering what kind of
friend
would pay to watch you get hot and bothered just to piss of your husband.”

She pursed those pretty lips of hers in a way that Quinn was sure was meant to cover a smile.   Her own little tell.

“I think you mean
fake
hot and bothered.”

Quinn shot her a sly grin. “You sure you didn’t like that a little bit for real?”

“Are you sure
you
didn’t like it?” she countered.

“No. I’m quite sure that I did, actually.”

A flush crept up from under her tight collar, and she took a big gulp of champagne before answering.

“I was talking about my brother, actually. Jase hates Lawrence. He’d love to see him put in his place.”

Jase. 

Quinn had all but forgotten his obligation to the man.  Guilt hit him in the gut, full force. 

Paid to look out for her, but lusting after her instead.

“Brother?” he replied innocently.

“Yeah,” Ginnie said. “My big, protective brother. A little too protective sometimes, actually.”

No shit,
Quinn thought.
He’d want to throttle me if he knew how I was thinking about you.

And just like that, he realized that he needed to put the parameters back up.  Quickly.

She was the target.  He was the shield.

Be the undercover bodyguard you’re being paid to be. Not the need-to-get-some-action fool. Jump into the role and see it through. No more thinking about putting her on a sink. Naked. Pants around your ankles and –

Quinn cut off his thoughts forcefully.

He just wasn’t sure how the hell he was going to manage it.  He needed her to like him, too.  At least enough that she wouldn’t send him packing before the end of the weekend.

What a place to be stuck. Between a rock and a…soft place.

“So,” Quinn said slowly, “If big brother Jase is so protective, how come he let you take a trip to Vegas by yourself?”

She arched a critical eyebrow at him. “
Let
me?”

Quinn crossed his arms. “Uh huh. If I had a sister as sweet and pretty as you are…I doubt I’d let her out of my sight. Never know what kind of weirdos and perverts are out there.”

She gave him a pointed look. “I think you know
exactly
what kind of weirdos and perverts are out there.”

He grinned. “Hey. I’m not the one who enjoyed myself a little too much in bathroom.”

Ginnie’s face glowed pink, and for a second, Quinn thought he’d won this particular round.  Or that he’d crossed a line.  Then she snapped open her purse, pulled out a tiny bottle of airport-approved hand lotion, and held it out.

“What’s that for?” Quinn wanted to know.

“For you.”

“For me?”

“So you can go back to the bathroom and enjoy
your
self. And just FYI…your hands are a little rougher than you think they are.”

Quinn narrowed his eyes and clicked his lip ring.  He had a half-dozen snappy replies at the ready, but she didn’t turn his way, and she was wearing a pleased, self-satisfied smile that he couldn’t stand to wipe off her face.

You’re a big, giant suck, Quinn.

Slowly, deliberately, he opened the bottle of lotion and sniffed it.  Its scent was Ginnie’s.  Or at least the top layer of her heady, intoxicating smell.  Quinn had been close enough to her to know that underneath that was a sweeter, feminine scent that was completely her own.

He took another big inhale, then squeezed out a generous dollop of lotion into his palms.  He set the little bottle in his lap and began to rub his hands together.  He did that slowly, too, for her benefit.  She might be pretending not to look, but he was sure she was watching.  So he worked the cream between his knuckles, across the backs of his hands, then up his wrists.  There, he focused the rub into a lazy back forth motion reminiscent of one thing and one thing only.

You want auto-erotic, you
get
auto-erotic,
he thought smugly.

He snuck a glance at Ginnie’s profile.

Yep.  Definitely paying attention.  She’d sucked in her bottom lip and her chest was rising and falling a little quicker than was normal.

Quinn started to tell her she shouldn’t dish it out unless she could take it, but the plane jerked abruptly, sending the remaining champagne flying.

Frightened cries – including a little yelp from Ginnie – erupted throughout the plane, and then the fasten seatbelts sign flashed, followed by the captain’s voice over the loudspeakers.

“Attention passengers,” he said, his words calm. “We’ve hit a large pocket of turbulence.”

The plane bucked again, the speaker cut off, and a second generalized murmur of concern rose from the seats around them.  The cabin vibrated heavily for several seconds, then smoothed out again.  The calm only lasted for about twenty seconds before everything started to shake for a third, far longer period.  Long enough that even Quinn got a little nervous.

His eyes sought Ginnie.  Her face was frozen straight ahead, her body stiff, and Quinn forgot about his own worry.

“Hey,” he said softly. “We’re going to be fine.”

She didn’t look at him. “I
am
fine.”

“You look a little tense.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted. “My dad was a pilot. I know exactly how safe we are.”

“You dad was?”

“Yes. When I was a kid – back before my mom died – he used to take us all over the world. I think I must’ve missed a whole year of school over the course of my childhood.”

Then she snapped her mouth shut and turned away, like she couldn’t quite believe what she’d said.

Quinn was really tempted to ask a few questions.  She had to be talking about her biological father.  Which made Quinn very curious.  In the time he shared a cell with Jase, the other man had spoken to him ad nauseam about the foster parents he shared with Ginnie.  Dad worked construction, Mom was a book keeper.  In all those conversations, Jase had never brought up his own biological parents, and he’d definitely never mentioned hers either.

He could feel the pain of the tiny bit she shared and Quinn wanted to know more.

So you can do what? Kiss it better?

The loudspeakers squawked, and the captain spoke again, still even-toned. “Sorry folks, but it looks like this turbulence is being caused by a very sudden, severe winter storm. We were hoping to skirt around it, but it’s become unsafe to do so. As a precaution, we’re going to be making an unscheduled stop at a small airport here in Huntingdon, Colorado. Your flight attendants will be through in a few moments to collect any trash or unwanted items. We should be on the ground within forty minutes. Further information on overnight accommodation and rescheduled flights will be available at the ticket desk in the airport. We do apologize for the inconvenience.”

Before the captain even finished his speech, the cabin filled with noisy complaints.

Not that Quinn could blame them.  Anyone on his or her way to a what-happens-in-Vegas weekend wouldn’t be thrilled about losing a night of debauchery.

He stole another glance at his companion.  She was looking a little green, and the hand closest to Quinn was opening and closing nervously. 

And he didn’t care what she said – something had clearly scared her.

Nine

The plane rumbled under Ginnie.  It made her chair vibrate.  Then it bumped hard enough to make her strain against her seatbelt.

And she was glad.

It gave her an excuse to keep her eyes forward and her mouth shut.

Which she needed help with.  Apparently.

She had no clue why the comments about her parents had slipped out.  She hadn’t seen or heard from the man in over a decade, and she could count on one hand the number of times she’d brought them up voluntarily.  Because Ginnie had one, simple – very solid – rule about discussing her biological parents. 

Don’t do it. Ever.

Even Jase, who knew nearly every little thing about her, wasn’t well-acquainted with the early years of her childhood.  And she liked it that way. 

She’d overcome the troubles in her past.  Just like she was about to overcome the ones in her present.

So why had she mentioned her mother at all, let alone the father she hated?  Why had she used a man she hadn’t seen since she was eleven years old as an excuse to not be affected by a bit of strong turbulence?  She could’ve easily said that she and Lawrence flew all the time.  Because that was true, too.  Hawaii, Whistler.  Even South America.  They’d done plenty of travelling. 

But she
hadn’t
said any of that. 

And that’s what scared the shit out of her.

She cast a sidelong glance at Quinn. 

His lids were down, but she had a funny feeling he was keeping his eyes closed for
her
benefit.  To give her the space she needed in the claustrophobic state brought on by her offhand remarks about her dad being a pilot and her mom being dead.

Which was silly.  Because how the hell would he even know that she needed the space?

Ginnie prided herself on being able to maintain a cool exterior under even the most strenuous circumstances.  Like having her marriage forcibly ripped out from under her.  With the exception of what she’d shared with Jase, she’d kept the details to herself.  Kept her emotion in check.

Somehow, Quinn – a virtual stranger – made that impossible.

And for some reason, she also had to keep reminding herself that Quinn
was
a stranger.  Because as much as his presence unnerved her –
well, unnerved her
body
anyway –
she also felt oddly at home with him.  Warm.  Easy.  It made no sense at all. 

Just like the way her body responded to him.  To the sound of his voice.  The way he’d brought her to the brink, then sent her over the edge, inside that tiny bathroom.

Unnaturally natural. 

But she didn’t want that undeniably satisfying physical encounter to be the reason she’d dropped her guard.  It was ridiculous.  Weak.  Plenty of people had meaningless sexual escapades.  Especially when a little under the influence, on vacation, and on the rebound.

But inside, Ginnie knew she wasn’t most people.

She was a girl who had just discovered that her life had been barren of sexual satisfaction for twenty-four years.  All the experience she’d built up with Lawrence had been…nothing.  She’d been missing out.  And Quinn had given her a glimpse of something better.

Even right that second, as the plane started its rapid decent, she had to fight an urge to reach out and clasp his open hand, which rested between them. 

His well-moisturized hand.

God, had
that
been distracting.

His fingers working over the back of his hand.  And the palm of his hand.  Rubbing up against the nails and over the knuckles.  Kneading and smoothing.

A trickle of renewed need wriggled through Ginnie, from her lips all the way down to her knees.

She could easily picture those hands of his working open the button of his jeans, reaching in to close around his erection.  It would be supple and hard.  And his hands would be smooth from the lotion she’d mockingly tossed his way.  The perfect contrast.

The plane bumped to the ground, sending Ginnie’s skirt flying, and as she remembered that she wasn’t wearing any underwear, another image popped into her head.  It was of herself, turning to Quinn, straddling him right then and there. 

She closed her eyes, but it only made the vision more vivid.

Her thigh wrapped around his hips, his hands on her waist.  His pierced tongue caressing her body.  And the jostle of the plane, thrusting them together, again and again.

The trickle of desire threatened to become a raging river.

“Ginnie?”

“Shit!”

The enticing vision flew away as Ginnie realized that Quinn’s eyes were open now, and he’d fixed her with a half-concerned, half-amused smile. “You all right?”

“Yes!”
It wasn’t quite a gasp. Was it?
“Why wouldn’t I be all right?”

“Because I just said your name and the response was a curse?”

“I thought you were sleeping. You startled me.”

“Uh huh,” he replied, disbelief clear in his voice. “Just so you know, …they announced a full minute ago that we’re allowed to get off the plane now.”

A full minute?

Ginnie glanced around and saw that First Class was nearly empty already.  Even the flight attendants seemed to be missing.

“You’re a very bad First Class passenger,” Quinn observed, still sounding amused. “We’re supposed to be allowed to priority deplane.”

Ginnie narrowed her eyes. “If we’re allowed to get off the plane, how come
you’re
still sitting there?”

Quinn’s smile grew. “Maybe I was waiting for you.”

“Or maybe you were just waiting to use that line.”

“Only one way to find out. Get up and see if I follow you.”

In spite of the way she screamed at it not to, Ginnie’s heart skipped a beat.  She unbuckled her seatbelt, came to her feet, and looked down at Quinn, her arms crossed over her chest.

“Hmm. Now it looks more like
I’m
waiting for
you
,” she stated.

Quinn stood up, too, his wide body taking up most of the space between the seats.  He lifted his arms up in a lazy stretch.  It provided a momentarily distracting view of one lean hip.

Dammit.

“Still waiting,” Ginnie said, forcing her eyes up to his face.

“Just the way I like it.”

“Ha.”

Ginnie spun away and marched up the aisle, but Quinn was hot on her heels.  Literally.  She could feel his warmth as he followed closely behind her.

His hand found her elbow, stopping her hurried flight.  Familiar.  Possessive.  Enticing. 

Heart-thumping-ly terrifying.

“You making big plans here in Asscrack, Colorado?” he asked.

“I think the pilot said it was called
Huntingdon
,” Ginnie corrected dryly.

“The pilot also said we were going to Vegas,” he reminded her. “So I’m not sure we can trust him to be right about
any
thing. And if you don’t have big plans…”

“My plans involve pajamas and a hot bath.”

Quinn’s eyes dragged over her, and Ginnie warmed.  Was he picturing her in her pajamas?  Or in the bath?  If he was…Did he like what he saw?

His gaze steadied after a second, and he winked. “You sure you won’t be needing me again?”

“Again?” she countered. “I wasn’t aware that I needed you in the first place.”

“Right. I forgot that you have your lotion.”

“The lotion doesn’t do it for me.”

It wasn’t what Ginnie intended to say.  She’d meant to vehemently deny any kind of need whatsoever.  And Quinn picked up on the slip right away.

Without warning, he slid his hand from her elbow to her wrist, twisted her sideways, and pushed her against a row of seats.  He pressed his body flush against hers.

Ginnie glanced up and down the aisle.  They were alone.

Where had all the other passengers gone?  And where were the damned flight attendants?  Where was her shield against the intensity in Quinn’s amber eyes?

“Genevieve?”

“Yes?” she whispered.

“What
does
do it for you? What
do
you need?” he asked, soft and sexy.

Ginnie swallowed nervously. “Need is a strong word.””

“Now who’s arguing semantics?” he teased.

“I’m not – ” She cut herself off and tried again. “I don’t need anything.”

“So you didn’t need me back there in that bathroom? You merely
wanted
me?”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re pretty damned good at twisting people’s words?”

“Yep.”

“Are you going to let me go anytime soon?”

He inched closer. “Nope.”

“No?”

“Not until you agree to indulge my desire to hang out with you here in Asscrack.”

“You realize how wrong that sounds?”

“Yep.”

“And if I say
no
to indulging you?”

“I’ll follow you around until you have no choice but to say yes instead.”

“I’m pretty sure that even Asscrack, Colorado must have a law against stalking.”

He grinned a lopsided grin. “And
I’m
pretty sure I can find my way around that law.”

Ginnie shook her head. “I should’ve known the second I laid eyes on you.”

“Known what?”

“That you were a criminal.”

He reached up to trace a lazy finger down her cheek. “Would that bother you? If I was on the wrong side of the law?”

“Yes.”

It was a lie.  At that moment, she wouldn’t have cared if he was a trained assassin, out for her blood.  All she wanted was for his hand to continue its gentle ministrations.  Cupping her cheek, sliding to the back of her neck…Then those fingers of his found her jugular and she knew he must be able to feel the way her pulse was thrumming.

“You sure about that answer?” he asked teasingly.

No.

The word popped into her mind.  But it didn’t make it out.  Quinn’s palm slid to her chin and his lips crashed into hers and his tongue drove through her mouth in a ferocious exploration that made Ginnie’s head spin and her toes curl. 

But its intensity was short-lived.

Quinn jerked back, and Ginnie’s eyes flew open to see a thick hand on his arm, yanking him away.  A firm but authoritative voice accompanied the aggressive maneuver.

“If I were you, I’d keep my mouth shut and my eyes to myself. And let go of the girl. Quickly.”

A protest built up in Ginnie’s throat, but died quickly when Quinn gave her a quick headshake as his arms dropped to his sides. 

Why?

He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would just lie back and take it.  Whatever
it
was.

And then Ginnie got a full view of the man who’d issued the warning.

He was a cop.

Or something like it.  An airport official with a uniform and a sidearm and a two-way radio fastened to his shoulder and a patch on his chest that said is name was Gilligan.  TSA, maybe.  Probably.

And when he moved slightly, Ginnie realized he wasn’t alone, either.  Three other men accompanied him.  Two stood back with their hands resting a little too casually close to their weapons.  And a final one, who reached for Ginnie, closed a none-too-gentle fist on her elbow, and pulled her even further away from Quinn.

And she was too surprised – and too scared – to protest as the tight-lipped guards stepped between them – deliberately she thought – and shuffled them from the plane.

No one said a word as they marched down the stairs directly onto the tiny tarmac.  The ground was coated with snow, and it still fell from the sky.  The blank scenery and the cold air momentarily distract Ginnie. 

Asscrack, Colorado.

And they really did seem to be in the middle of nowhere.  Unlike the airport she’d come from, and presumably the one where she was supposed to be headed, there were no twinkling city lights on display.  The only sign of civilization was a few dull glows in the distance.

She paused for a second to stare out at the nothingness, and the airport security man gave her an impatient tap on the shoulder.

“Move,” he grunted.

All this? Seriously? For a little bathroom action? What are they going to do, throw us in jail? Shit. What if they
do
throw us in jail? What if we’re labeled as sex offenders? Shit with a cherry on top. If I get a police record because of this…Maybe they’ll just fine us. But what if it’s a big fine? Like, hundred grand. I don’t
have
a hundred thousand dollars to…
Ginnie’s thoughts trailed off as they got closer to the rundown air terminal, she saw that what they didn’t lack was an audience.  A line of passengers from the plane stood waiting at a counter.  And every one of them had his or her eyes fixed out the window, gawking at them.