Quinn shakes her head. “No. No. No fucking way.” She reaches into her pocket and pulls out her hidden phone. She taps out a message and hits send. “See? Your phone didn’t do anything. You’re not him.”
“Lass, it’s me. The service for these things is shit. That’s why you got the message to run so long after I’d sent it last night.” The phone buzzes in my hand. “See?”
Those details strike the mark, but it’s still not enough. She snatches the phone from my hand and looks between the two. All of our messages are there.
“Holy shit,” she breathes. Her skin has gone sickeningly pale. “What the actual fuck.”
“Quinn, I’m sorry.”
“Holy shit.” She grabs a pillow from the bed, and I tense, certain she’s about to leap on me and start denying me air. I’d let her. I fucking deserve it. But she doesn’t do that. She just places the pillow over her face and lies back. “Holy fucking shit!”
Her voice is muffled, but I understand it all the same.
I take a step back as the lass lets out a scream and kicks her legs. Aye, I deserve that.
“You are a piece of shit!” she screams into the fabric.
Aye, I deserve that one too.
But when she pulls the pillow away and screams the next sentence, my heart actually breaks. "I fucking hate you, Aven Slade!"
So why is she smiling?
Chapter Thirty-One
Quinn
Itoss the pillow away from me and leap into his arms. “Oh, you big, wonderful jackass!” I pepper his face with kisses as I feel lighter than I have in days. “I can’t believe it. Is it really you?”
But instead of sharing my joy, Aven scrapes me off him and deposits me on the bed as he looks at me, bewildered. “Lass, are you even listening? I’ve lied to you. I pretended to be someone else, and I slept with you without your knowledge.”
I raise my hand and count the points on my fingers. “You were deceptive for good reason. I can only imagine you were trying to protect me from Desmond. And I didn’t care who was behind the green suit.”
He shakes his head, still unable to process my reaction. He moves to the bedside table and pulls a familiar book from the drawer.
“Hey, I didn’t know you were into smut. That’s a really good one.”
He looks from me to the book. “This is yours. I took it from your room the night I left the phone in there. That’s how I got the idea to chase you.”
His confusion clicks into place, and I realize what sort of reaction he expected.
“Aven...Clancy raped Charlotte’s twin sister when she was in a coma. That’s why it was so hard for her to forgive him for his lies. You haven’t done anything wrong. If anything, I’m relieved the indecision is finally over.” I stand and step into him, and my tension relaxes when he doesn’t back away. “Making the choice between the two of you was killing me, and now I don’t have to choose.”
He licks his lips. “So...you aren’t going to tell me you never want to see me again?”
“On the contrary,” I say with a grin. “This was the best possible outcome. If anything, I’d like to see more of you.”
He takes my hands in his and gives them a squeeze. “If you ever want to see me, just open your bonnie eyes, lass. I won’t leave your side again.”
His warm hands cup my face and draw me in for a kiss. The world tilts on its axis as two fantasies meld into one incredible moment. Things I valued in two men have combined within one incredible man that I don’t want to say goodbye to at the end of this retreat.
“Whatever this is between us...it’s real, isn’t it?” I whisper against his lips. “I’m not just imagining it or writing stories in my head?”
“Aye, lass. It’s real.” He squeezes my hands and places a kiss on my forehead. “For better or worse, I’ve fallen for you completely. I fought it at every turn until I couldn’t anymore.”
I laugh when I remember that first meeting with Green Guy and how nervous he was. “You really did try your best to be a good boy.”
He lowers his mouth to my neck and gives it a nip.
