Quinn’s mouth fellopen. “Rude,” he said,feigning shock.
I grinned. My jaw wasstarting to hurt from grinning at him so often.
There were a few otherreasons for my jaw to hurt, but I was choosing to ignore those.
“That’s not likely tochange,” I laughed. “You’re fun size. It’s one of your best qualities.”
Quinn huffed, letting go ofmy hand and rolling over so he was turned away from me. “If you’re gonnamake fun of me, you can get out of my bed.”
If I hadn’t seen the wayhe looked at me, I might’ve been worried.
I was still wondering whatthe hell he’dwhispered in my deaf ear last night. Whatever it was, he hadn’t intended for meto hear it. He’d known what he was doing.
I knew what I wanted it tobe.
And I hoped, given enoughtime, he’dbe ready to say it to my face. Or at least whisper it into the other ear.
I reached out, running thetips of my fingers along his spine and earning a shiver in response.
“You’d miss me if I did,” Isaid.
“I would,” Quinn agreed,turning his head back to look over his shoulder. “I want you to stay.”
“I will,” I promised.
And I would. For as long ashe wanted me here, I’d stay.
TWENTY-ONE
QUINN
As soon as I switched myphone back on at a little after eight a.m. Monday morning, the magical weekendof sex and cuddling and feeling like my whole life had finally come togetherstarted crashing down.
Dozens of messages screamedat me for attention—Uncle Vincent, Dwayne, John, and Lucy had all sent me textsand voicemails, each of them warning me that disaster had struck.
I stood in the kitchen,listening to each message with tears in my eyes, desperately wanting Fox to getout of the shower so he could hug me and tell me everything was going to be allright.
I didn’t know where tostart.
The song—mysong, theone I’dwritten myself—had been leaked.
Links Lucy had sent meshowed that it was everywhere, that this wasn’t one or two people hearinga preview copy and bragging about it.
I could’ve listened toit on YouTube if I wanted to, but as my thumb hovered over the play button, awave of nausea washed over me.
I didn’t want to listento it on YouTube, and I didn’t want anyone else to, either.
I’d thought this was over. I’dthought I was heading in today to approve a final tracklist and the mastering,work out any last kinks.
But now I’d missed thishuge event, and I was responding hours late. All because I’d wanted a tinysliver of time to myself.
Where was Fox? How long dida shower take?
I listened to Lucy’s voice messageagain, since hers was the calmest. She was sympathetic, and kind, and promisedme that she’dstillinsist that the song belonged on the album, leak ornot.
I wanted to crawl under thetable and stay there until someone dragged me out. This was too much.
The summons to the HarmonyRecords offices made my stomach turn cold. Iknewwhat I was beingbrought in for.
