Was she trying to protect Brandon? He couldn’t quite follow the logic. All he knew was that when Quinn said he was a potential mate, his heart and his beast shouted, yes.
“I have to ask you something,” Quinn said. “Are you and Marigold together?”
“No,” Luke answered. Her surprising question took him off guard.
“Good.” She rose up on her tip toes and kissed his cheek. “Then I don’t feel bad about doing that. Thank you for sticking up to Trey for me.”
He could still feel the soft warmth where her lips had landed on his face.What are we waiting for?his wolf asked. But both he and the animal knew the answer. Quinn thought he was a bear shifter. Making a move on her would be wrong without her knowing the truth about him. Gerri Wilder’s words kept playing in his mind.No one can know. Not even Quinn.
Luke touched his cheek. “No need to feel guilty.” Disappointment creased her brow. He wanted to kiss away every worried line and make love to her in a way that she’d never feel disappointment again. Not while he was with her.
“Great,” Quinn said. Her mouth turned down at the corners. “The first secret corridor is just down here in the wall of my dad’s study. We can start there.”
He followed her, chilled by the lack of warmth in her voice, into a large room with wood paneled walls, floor to ceiling bookshelves, a large picturesque window overlooking a monstrous view of the land, an brown leather loveseat in the middle of the room with a coffee table, and two smaller chair on either side. In front of the window, was a dark oak desk and chair. The room, while seemingly masculine, had smaller touches of a woman. The curtains were sage green, billowy and diaphanous. The lamp on the desk was Tiffany’s in style. Hell, maybe it was a Tiffany’s lamp. Luke wouldn’t have known the real thing from a knock off. There was a calendar on the desk featuring kittens and puppies.
“Cute,” Luke said, indicating to the calendar.
“I like puppies and kitties,” Quinn said, her voice small like a little girl’s.
Damn it, he wished he could smell her. He needed to know if she desired him as much as he desired her. She turned to fidget with something in the bookcase, and the gorgeous view of her rounded ass made his mouth water and his dick swell to attention.
Oh, what he would do to that sexy as fuck body if given a chance. He imagined shoving her up against the wall and licking her from head to toe. He would fuck her so well her legs would buckle and the only thing holding her up would be his cock. He wanted to…goddamn it, he wanted everything with Quinn Orson. Why had the mating gods chosen to be so cruel? Why had they placed this goddess of a woman in his path only to make her impossible to have?
“Here it is,” Quinn said. She pulled a book a quarter way out on the shelf and with a slight click, the shelf opened like a door. She smiled wistfully as if reliving a nice memory. “It’s been a while since I’ve been in here.”
“I should go in first.”
“Do you think some monster is lurking in the walls?”
He could hear the teasing in her question, but there was also a note of apprehension. “Better safe than sorry.”
Luke walked inside the wall, surprised at the spaciousness of the dusty corridor just beyond the door. His body went as stiff as his cock when he felt Quinn behind him. “You shouldn’t stand so close,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” she told him. Her tone was hurt, but very quickly it turned to anger. “Actually I’m not sorry. I feel like I’m getting mixed signals from you. If you don’t like me, just say so.”
Luke turned around to face her, the secret corridor suddenly feeling so much smaller. “I like you,” he said.
Quinn stepped into him. Her pouty lips trembled. “Prove it.”
Luke’s claws bit into his clenched fists as his wolf tried to surface. He bolstered his self-control and forced the beast back. “Be careful what you ask for.”
