Battle
Goddamn but she was perfect, and she was driving me nuts. If that was love then it was some sweet fucking torture, because it was breaking me as much as it was making me. She was putty beneath my touch, her body soft and warm, desperate for more, just like I was.
I kissed her long and hard, my tongue sliding over hers, my teeth nipping at her bottom lip and sucking it into my mouth as my hands held her body tight to mine, almost molding us into one. My cock was throbbing in my jeans, desperate to sink full-hilt into her. I’d only tasted her sweet juices the night before and felt her body trembling around my fingers, but I knew she’d be the best I’d ever have. Knew that from the way her body responded to my touch, bucking back on my hand and grinding down on me to find her release. She was going to be wild and I was going to make her come in a hundred different ways. But not right then. Not with her friend’s little kid in the room.
I pulled out of the kiss, because if I didn’t I was going to lose all control, and I stroked a thumb across her lips, red from rough kisses. She panted against me and I could feel her heart beating in her chest; I could practically hear it, it was beating that loudly.
“And here I was thinking I was the whore.”
Quinn jumped back from me and we both turned to find her friend Gracie standing at the foot of the stairs and looking in at us. She looked like shit and nothing like the woman who’d been at the clubhouse the other night.
Quinn took a step away from me but I reached out, wrapped a hand around her waist, and dragged her back to my side where she belonged with a possessive growl.
Gracie smirked. “Easy there, cowboy. Next thing you know you’ll be pissing on her to mark your territory.”
“If that’s what it takes,” I replied.
Quinn looked up at me. “That won’t be necessary,” she said with a shake of her head and an eyeroll.
“Watch the attitude,” I replied darkly, “unless you’re ready to be punished.”
Her cheeks flamed red, and fuck me but I loved seeing her like that—all embarrassed and lost for words.
“Well, I for one don’t want to see that,” Gracie said, coming into the room. “So Quinn, baby, if you could tone down that attitude for Mr. Caveman here, that would be great. I don’t think Bonny-May needs a lesson in biology just yet.”
Gracie headed over to where her kid was sitting in her playpen, her arms reaching up for her mom. Gracie leaned over hesitantly, kinda like she was afraid of touching the kid.
“She’s missed you,” Q said, separating herself from me so she could go closer.
“Yeah?” Gracie asked, still staring down at her daughter, who was starting to get upset at no one picking her up. “How could you tell?”
Quinn moved next to her friend. “She was looking for you. Everywhere we went, she kept on looking around.”
“She was probably looking for the nanny.”
Quinn looked over at me with a raised eyebrow before looking back at Gracie. “You don’t have a nanny.”
Gracie started to laugh then. It started out slow and quiet but built like a tidal wave until it was flooding the beach and tears were drenching her cheeks. “Well, we did until Richard decided to fuck her.” She dragged both hands over her face and forced herself to stop crying. “God, it’s not even like I care, you know? I hated him anyway. He fucked like a jackrabbit and smelled like my dad’s cologne, for God’s sake. I should be glad he’s gone!”
“So why aren’t you?” Quinn asked.
It was the million-dollar question, considering since I’d known her all she had done was bitch out her old man and fuck other people. I couldn’t see why she gave a shit that he’d left, but then a woman like her was normally the one that left them high and dry, not the other way around.
“I don’t know,” Gracie said with a shrug.
The kid had started to cry by then, her arms still reaching for her mother, who refused to pick her up. Quinn leaned down and scooped her up, but the kid didn’t want her, she wanted her mom, and she made it clear that was who she wanted by pushing at Quinn and crying harder.
“I do love her,” Gracie said, her chin trembling. “It’s not like I don’t, you know?”
“I know! Of course you love her!” Quinn said, her voice going high-pitched like she was trying not to cry. Fucking hated hearing her like that.
“I just don’t know how to love her. Does that make sense?” Gracie looked at Quinn. “She ruined everything, but I can’t help but love her. I feel like I’m going insane with how much I love her, but she’s ruined everything. I was happy before she came along. I liked my life, and now it’s all changed—it’s all broken and I don’t know how to make it okay again!” She started to cry harder, her shoulders shaking as she put her face in her hands and sobbed loudly.
Quinn turned to me, pushing the kid—who was by then also crying loudly—into my arms, mouthing an apology before turning back to her friend and pulling her into a hug.
I stared down at the kid in my arms, her wide saucer eyes staring up at me as her little fists beat my chest, her mouth open in a wail of frustration at being dropped in my arms and not her mom’s.
“Come on, kid,” I grumbled, and headed out of the room.
