Three Way, the Novel (12 page)

“Nebraska? Isn’t that all corn fields and football games?” he chuckled.

“Pretty much, I grew up on a farm but my parents both valued education. I dropped out though.”

“How did they feel about that?”

“Not too happy, hence my move to Seattle.”

“Make sense. So what do you plan to do here? I mean other than the whole waitress at a strip club thing.”

“I’m not sure. I haven’t figured that out yet,” I said. “I know, I should know what I want to be when I grow up now that I’m grown up, but nothing seems that interesting to me.”

“I have a feeling you know exactly what you want to be,” Quinn said, looking over at me. “Why are you hiding it?”

I blushed and looked out the window at the passing landscape. I looked back at him, took a deep breath and said, “I don’t want you to think I have no ambition.”

“Come on, tell me. There’s no way I would think that about you.”

“Okay, I’ll tell you. I’ve always wanted to have a family. That’s it.”

“Stay at home with the kids? Take care of your husband?”

“Yup,” I said. “I know it’s not a popular opinion these days, but I’ve always wanted to take care of my family.”

“It’s not a popular opinion, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, Margot.”

“Seriously?” I asked, surprised. “My parents acted like I told them I wanted to live on the streets begging for money when I told them.”

“People fear what they don’t know, and sweetheart there’s nothing wrong with wanting to care for the people you love. I admire it.”

I settled in and felt that familiar warmth and safety I always had with Ryker, only this was more of an emotional comfort whereas Ryker’s was a physical one.

We drove until we found a beach Quinn knew of. We parked and walked down to the sand, dug our feet in and played in the surf.

The sun was shining and the wind blowing off the ocean was cool and smelled like salt…my new favorite scent.

After a while we packed up and drove until it was near dark. Quinn found a quaint bed and breakfast on a beach down the road so we decided to stop for the night.

We unloaded our bags and walked to the front door. We knocked and waited until the door opened and an older woman opened it.

“Are you looking for a room?” she asked and stood to the side to let us in.

“Two rooms, please,” Quinn replied, glancing down at me. I nodded approvingly. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust myself with Ryker’s brother, but there was an undeniable attraction between the two of us that I wasn’t prepared to address just yet.

“Will the honeymoon suite be acceptable?” the women smiled. “We’re full up other than that. There’s a really big bed though, plenty of room for the both of you.”

Quinn looked at me and raised his brows in question. I checked the time and realized it was too late to go farther that night so I said, “I’m sure it will be fine.”

Quinn got us checked in and we took the stairs to the top floor where we found a magical little room complete with a king sized bed, a massive tub and a turret with a window seat.

“I could live here,” I said and spun around taking in all the details.

“It is rather charming, isn’t it?” Quinn said with a smile.

“You want to get changed in shifts?” I asked, just dying to get into my comfy pajamas.

“You go first,” he told me.

I took my suitcase into the bathroom and got changed. I swept my hair back into a pony tail and washed my face and brushed my teeth. It was amazing how good that simple act made me feel, it was refreshing.

I opened the door and caught Quinn pulling a fresh tee shirt on over his head. His back muscles rippled in the low light of the single lamp and I couldn’t help but stare.

He was absolutely gorgeous, just like his brother but with no tattoos and no scars. Less feral than Ryker, but powerful in his own way.

“Get a good look, sweetheart?” he asked with a smirk and turned around. He dragged the tee shirt down over his perfect bumpy abs, covering up the V that dipped towards his hips as if pulling my gaze lower.

I gulped, blushed a furious red, felt a stab of guilt and said, “I wasn’t watching you, you just happened to be in the way.”

“Sure, keep telling yourself that,” he said in a lazy bemused tone. “Now do you want the side closest to the door or the window?”

“I should probably take the couch.”

“I won’t stand for it, I’ll take the couch if you don’t think you can handle being in a bed with me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well obviously you don’t trust yourself to keep your hands off me, so I’ll do you a favor and take the couch tonight.”

“I can keep my hands off you,” I sputtered. “I’m Ryker’s girlfriend.”

“That you are,” he said, “so use that as your shield and we can both have a good night’s sleep in the bed.”

“Fine,” I replied and eyeballed him to judge his intentions. He seemed sincere about staying away from me. Just in case he wasn’t, I built a small pillow wall between the two of us and slid in against it.

He laughed and got into bed on the other side. He turned out the light and I heard his breath grow steady as he headed to sleep.

“Sweetheart,” he said after few moments.”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“The way I see it, Ryker’s not here. We don’t know where he is. So if you want some physical comfort, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

I wanted physical comfort, but I couldn’t cheat on Ryker. Then again, he had told me to turn to Quinn in my time of need and god how I needed it right then.

I sighed and hugged my arms against my chest and rolled away from him. “Fine, you can hold me but nothing else.”

“That’s enough for me,” he said and pushed the pillow wall away, leaving the space between us wide open. He rolled over and pulled me into his huge arms, let me settle in against his wide chest and held me like that until his breathing deepened and he fell asleep.

“I’m so weird,” I said to nobody in particular.

“Why’s that?” he asked and I started. I’d thought he was sleeping.

“This, what am I doing?”

“Ryker and I have shared everything our entire lives,” Quinn said with a sleep voice. “This is natural.”

As much as I wanted to disagree with him or beat myself up for finding comfort in the arms of another man, I just couldn’t.

It felt so right to be there in his arms, and Quinn seemed to be a different side to one person. He and his brother were so similar and yet so different…and I was deeply attracted to each of them for different reasons.

How could I contain what my heart felt, especially when Ryker had left me without a trace? How could it be that life would bring both men into my path without meaning for me to have both of them?

Quinn mumbled something in his sleep and drew me closer to him. I felt his body heat melting away any tension or guilt I had and I convinced myself that this was enough for the two of us, this was the only line we would cross.

But I’d lied to myself before, and when I woke with his hardness pressing into my back and his hands sliding along my stomach, I knew I’d lied to myself again.

Chapter Twenty One

I felt the wall of pillows kicked down to the bottom of the bed and leaned down to try and rebuild it so I could wiggle away from Quinn’s incredible body and that hardness that seemed to burn into me even through the layers of our clothing.

It wasn’t easy, Quinn’s arms were still wrapped around me and I didn’t exactly want that to end.

But I squirmed forward, reached down and dragged a couple pillows up to jam into the space between us.

I could hear him breathing though, a steady rhythmic reminder that Ryker’s gorgeous and unbelievably hot brother was just a couple pillows away from me.

I sighed and punched my own pillow, fluffed it up and closed my eyes. I could see Ryker’s face every time I did; he still stayed with me me in my quietest moments.

I missed him so hard it ached. My heart clenched when I thought about him and how I’d had him and he’d left me.

Why had he left and where had he gone? The questions drove me nearly crazy and wouldn’t stop rattling around and around inside my head.

I kept going over that last night with him and wondered if I’d missed some clue that I’d upset him. But his note didn’t seem to be about me at all.

What if he was in danger because of the club? Had the Hell’s Warriors done something to him? Had one of those guys hurt him or had the rat that Sergei mentioned done something to him?

I tossed and turned, my body twisted up with concern over the man who had stolen my heart right out from underneath my nose.

I’d never intended to fall for a badass biker dude, but here I was, all ate up over the fact that he’d left.

“You gonna roll around all night, sweetheart, or do you want to climb on my dick and get this over with?” Quinn’s deep voice rumbled from the other side of my pillow wall.

“Get over yourself, I was thinking about Ryker,” I snapped and jerked away from the pillow pile.

“Close your eyes and call me Ryker,” he chuckled. “I don’t care, but stop moving around and sighing dramatically. We’re supposed to be on this trip to get your mind off my brother, not have you losing sleep over him.”

“Fine, I’ll go to sleep,” I said in a harsh whisper.

Moments later I heard him start to snore lightly again and there in the darkness he could have been Ryker. They sounded the same.

I closed my eyes, ignored the images of Ryker dancing across the back of my lids, and forced myself to breathe deeply and slip back into sleep.

***

I woke with a huge headache and an even bigger ache in my heart. I felt around, the wall of pillows was gone but the bed was empty.

“Quinn?” I asked in a panic and sat up. One brother had already abandoned me in the middle of the night; I didn’t want to make it a double. “Quinn? Are you here?”

I stood up and tapped lightly on the bathroom door and it swung open. He wasn’t in there either.

I rushed to the side of the bed where my phone was charging and checked it. There was a text from Quinn.

We missed breakfast so I went to get something, wanted to leave you sleeping, beauty. See you soon. Q

I didn’t know if he went for breakfast for himself or for the both of us. It was hard to tell if he was being a selfish jerk or super sweet.

I decided to err on the side of caution and land on selfish jerk. It felt like I’d keep a better eye on my heart if I assumed that about the men in my life.

I ran myself a hot bath in the over sized claw foot tub in the bathroom. It had a huge one-way window that overlooked the beach and the ocean and all the way to where small island dotted the horizon.

It was stunning and the day seemed okay but I could see dark clouds rolling in.

I took off my pajamas and slipped into the hot water. I was generous with the luxurious bubble bath and inhaled deeply the scent of lavender. A hot bath had been exactly what I’d needed and I cursed myself for not thinking of it earlier. I should have been having one every day since Ryker left.

Or hell, two a day even.

I drained some of the cooling water, dumped the last of the bubble bath under the tap and turned it on again. Scalding hot water topped up my bath and I actually groaned at how nice it felt.

I leaned my head back on the little inflatable pillow and let my worries soak away.

“Oh sweetheart, why didn’t you wait for me?” Quinn’s voice broke into my daydreaming.

“Quinn!” I shrieked and sat up, covering my breasts with my hands. “What are you doing in here?”

“I brought you breakfast,” he replied with a cocky smirk, holding up a paper bag from a bakery. “I could bring you…dessert first if you want.” He said that with a suggestive wink that made me heat up more than the bath water.

“I think not,” I replied, still covering myself. “You need to get out.”

“As you wish, sweetheart,” he chuckled. “Your bagel will be on the table out here when you’re ready.”

“Thanks,” I stuttered and watched him leave, taking a moment to appreciate the way his gorgeous ass filled out his jeans. I was used to seeing Quinn in a suit for his work at the family business, but I could get used to casual Quinn. It suited him, and gave me something to look at.

I finished up my bath but didn’t stay in the water too long. Quinn had kind of broken my relaxation and my stomach was growling too loud to soak for long.

I toweled off and pulled on my pajamas again. I’d forgotten to bring my clothes into the bathroom with me so they would have to do.

I opened the door and found Quinn lying on the bed with a bagel in his hand and a grin on his face.

“Yours is there,” he said, nodding towards the side table against the window. “There’s cream cheese too, I didn’t know what you liked so I got savory and sweet.”

“Thanks,” I replied. “That’s really nice of you and I didn’t mean to be so cranky in there. I’m sorry.”

“Hey it’s okay, I get it. You’re missing my brother and it’s natural to attach all your horny feelings to me since we look so much alike.”

“That’s not what I meant!” I protested and glared at him as he laughed and took a big bite off the bagel.

He watched me as I spread strawberry cream cheese around mine and nibbled it gently near the window. I was looking out at the beach and thinking I’d like to get a walk in before the clouds hit us and we were pelted with rain.

I glanced back at Quinn and he had finished his breakfast but was staring at me like a starving man. Naked hunger covered his face and I was immediately struck by how unbelievably hot he was. I felt my own raw desire rise up inside of me and I had to look back out the window and take a big bite of bagel to keep myself from saying something I’d regret.

Like come over here, or let me ride you.

God, I was like a bitch in heat, I couldn’t control the lust that was growing in my heart. I loved Ryker, I knew I did, but I couldn’t deny my feelings for Quinn.

And Ryker had told me to turn to his brother for comfort if anything ever happened.