Chapter Two

Quinn couldn’t believe he was actually contemplating this, but Jules had a point. A fake date would fit all his needs, and Aubry Kaiser, as vicious as she was dangerously attractive, fit the bill.

He skated a glance over Aubry. She was a little alternative for his tastes, with her tattoos and bright red hair, looking like some kind of exotic bird that had wandered into the legions of cowgirls and down-home belles that were Devil’s Falls born and raised. Pretty in a pixie sort of way, but with a mouth more likely to cause pain than pleasure.

Yeah, she was exactly the kind of girl who could hold her own against his family’s barbs. The woman had skin thicker than an armadillo and a don’t-give-two-fucks attitude that impressed him, despite himself.

She didn’t look convinced, though.

He couldn’t blame her, but the reward might be worth spending more time with her—that and the added bonus of getting a chance to see if he could get beneath her skin.

It wasn’t a good idea—he damn well knew that. He had enough complications in his life without throwing a woman like Aubry into the mix. But Jules was right. He needed a date, and this woman would do nicely.

If he could convince her to agree.

He met Jules’s gaze over the top of the table and nodded once. She jumped up so fast she almost knocked Adam out of his chair. “I think I left the stove on.”

“Sugar—”

“Come on.” She grabbed his hand and towed him out of the room without a second glance.

This was Quinn’s one chance. If he missed this pitch, he would have to find a different solution. He removed his arm from the back of Aubry’s chair and did his damnedest to adopt a sincere expression. “I know you don’t like me much.”

“That’s the biggest understatement in the history of understatements.”

Yeah, he kind of thought so, too. He took a deep breath and tried again. “You want to go to this convention and play this game—don’t bother to lie and say you don’t.”

Her mouth set in an unforgiving line. “I wasn’t planning on it. Yes, I want to go, though ‘want’ doesn’t even begin to cover it. Obviously you’ve been too busy lifting rocks or wrestling bulls or whatever you cowboy types do to notice, but Deathmatch is kind of my life.”

He’d noticed. She might be as cute as a pit bull about to take a bite out of the mailman, but even he’d noticed that Aubry cared about exactly three things: Jules, whatever work it was that she did on that laptop she always seemed to be carting around, and Deathmatch. He’d only seen her play it a few times in the past year, but the sheer joy that suffused her face when she was murdering people on that damn game was pretty fucking sexy. Not that he’d ever admit as much. But that was the only time he’d allowed himself to think about what it’d be like if he got her out of those tight jeans and T-shirts with a variety of nerd sayings on them. He’d spent one buzzed night imagining exactly how far down her tattoo descended past her collarbone and, fuck, it had been hot as hell.

But the long and short of it was that he just plain didn’t like her any more than she liked him. And Quinn didn’t sleep with women he didn’t like. It was in poor taste, and ultimately unsatisfying.

He tapped his fingers on the table, disturbed by the turn of his thoughts. In an effort to focus, he said, “What do you need in order to actually go to this thing?”

Her long-suffering sigh made him grit his teeth. He knew she thought he was some kind of knuckle-dragging Neanderthal and, to be perfectly honest, he hadn’t done much to disabuse her of the notion, but it got old sometimes.

Aubry started shutting down her computer. “I don’t like people.”

“That I did notice.”

She dropped her gaze, something almost vulnerable in those amber eyes. “No, I mean like I have near-crippling social anxiety. Put me in the middle of a crowd and you’ll find me curled up into a ball trying to remember that I’m not suffocating to death.”

Quinn blinked. He had a hard time envisioning a situation where she wouldn’t be in full control and delivering barbed commentary, but he knew something about panic attacks. His littler sister had them from time to time.

But there weren’t two women more different than Jenny and the woman sitting next to him.

His sister needed a quiet space and calm words to talk her through an anxiety attack, but when he’d read up on it all those years ago, it seemed like each person was different. Some needed a physical link to hold it together, some complete silence, some needed something else altogether. It was purely personal.

In order for him to deal with Aubry’s potential attacks, he needed to know what was required to bring her down. “So, again, what do you need to do this?”

“Nothing you can give me.”

“And what about work? This is kind of last minute to request time off.”

“All I need to keep up on my clients’ websites is right here.” She closed the laptop. “But that’s irrelevant for a number of reasons. The first being that I don’t like you and you don’t like me, and that’s fine. It’s better than fine. But it means I don’t trust you and you can’t do shit for me when it comes to my anxiety if I don’t trust you.”

She had a point, but he couldn’t let it go. When she stood, he stood with her. “Aubry—”

“I’m sorry that your sister’s wedding is presenting you such an awful conundrum, but I’d be even less helpful at a wedding surrounded by strangers than I would be at DeathCon—and that’s with me wanting to go to DeathCon. I sure as hell don’t have any desire to go to this girl’s wedding. Why don’t you ask one of your lady friends?”

That was the problem. He might have lady friends, but he didn’t have much in the way of friends who were ladies. To be honest, Jules pretty much summed it up. There was no one he…well, “trusted” was a good word. There was no one he trusted to take with him who wouldn’t look too much into the invitation, which would only make a bad situation worse.

“Jules said I would make a good wall, and she’s right. Have you ever seen me walk through a crowded room?”

Aubry hesitated. “Only at Jules’s wedding.”

“Then you know for a fact I can clear a space in front of me. When I walk, people get out of the way.”

Another hesitation. She was cracking. “Only because you’re so gigantic, they’re probably afraid you’re going to trample them to death.”

Yep. He definitely had her interest. He could see it. She must really want to go to this convention if she was actually considering going with him. He took a step back and spread his arms. “So then let me be your wall—both at the convention and at the wedding. What have you got to lose, except missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?”

…

Deathmatch had driven Aubry out of her goddamn mind. That was the only explanation for her actually toying with the idea of saying yes. Either that, or Jules had rubbed off on her more than she ever could have guessed. Aubry might talk a good game, but the truth was when it came to pulling off plans, her friend was the one who threw herself into motion and made it happen. It’s how she ended up owning her very own cat café before she turned thirty, and it was how she’d ended up with Adam Meyer, town bad boy. She was the force of nature. Aubry was the one who sat in her safe little corner and kept up an ongoing commentary.

What if I took the risk? Just this once.

Sure, last time she’d gone out on a limb, her asshole family had chopped the damn tree down, but this wasn’t the same situation. Quinn might be an ass, but he was hardly going to throw her under the bus just for the sake of doing it.

She hoped.

She put her laptop into her bag and faced him. “If I think about doing this—if—I require clear terms.”

“Tit for tat.” His face gave nothing away. “We’ll share a room—both at the convention hotel and at the wedding itself. Don’t look at me like that. You know damn well DeathCon’s hotel has likely been sold out for months, and I’m not going to do you a damn bit of good if I’m staying somewhere else. At the wedding, we’ll share because my family knows me too well to believe I’d wait for marriage to have sex.” Aubry snorted, but he kept going. “You have to sell this. You can snarl and do that adorable snarky comment thing you do, but you can’t look at me like I’m dog shit on the bottom of your shoe.”

He thought she was adorable. She hated the faint heat she could feel in her cheeks at that realization. “I think you’re asking the impossible.”

“Do you? I think you’re just a bit disappointed that you don’t get to experience all I have to offer.” He leaned forward, giving her another whiff of that tantalizing cologne. “I think the lady doth protest too much when it comes to wanting me.”

Aubry burst out laughing. “Oh my God, does that line actually work with women?” She tried to keep her tone light, but she knew she was blushing. Worse, she knew Quinn could see it.

Sure enough, his blue eyes tracked over her cheeks, and his grin made her stomach do a slow turn. “I think it just did.” Before she could screech at him, he continued. “But it’s not meant to this time. This arrangement is purely business.”

As much as she wanted to tell him to take a hike, Aubry would never forgive herself if she passed up this chance. She straightened, took a deep breath, and held out her hand. “Okay, I’ll see what I can do. Deal?”

“Deal.” He ignored her hand and took a step closer, towering over her even though she was wearing thick-soled boots. “And, sweet cheeks, if you’re going to pretend to be my girlfriend, you should know damn well that we seal this with a kiss.”

“What are you, a demon from Supernatural? That’s not how people seal bargains.”

“It is when it’s like ours.”

Before she could do more than sputter, he hooked the back of her neck and kissed her.

Aubry hadn’t been kissed in a truly embarrassing amount of time, which was why she froze and didn’t immediately shove his larger-than-life ass away from her. Or that was what she told herself as her hands came to rest on his chest—his very nicely muscled chest. His hand was hot on her neck, his grip tight enough that she was fully aware of who was in control of this situation, but his mouth was light on hers.

She still hadn’t figured out if she wanted to bite him or kiss him back when he lifted his head and said, “I knew you weren’t all piss and vinegar.”

The almost surprised expression on his face slammed her back into reality. She’d just stood there like a bump on a log and let Quinn kiss her. What the fuck was wrong with her? She shoved him.

Or she tried.

When she pushed on him, he didn’t move, but she hopped back a full foot. “You are insufferable!”

“You say the sweetest things.” He turned and started for the door. “Tell Adam and Jules I’ll see them later.”

She watched him go, wondering if she’d just made a horrible mistake. Oh, who was she kidding? She knew she had. Going to DeathCon with Quinn was a no-brainer. She would be so busy fighting not to have a panic attack and excited about Deathmatch she’d be able to ignore his towering presence. At least in theory.

But the other half of the bargain? How was she supposed to pretend they were in a relationship when she could barely stand to be in the same room with him? And that was ignoring the fact that she didn’t know what the hell an actual relationship looked like. She certainly hadn’t seen one between her mother and the men she paraded through their doublewide when she was growing up. Or from the boys who’d tried to talk their way into her pants, starting around the time she hit puberty.

Hell, the only healthy relationship she’d ever held down was with Jules, and that hardly counted because she liked Jules just fine but had no desire to roll around naked with her.

Not that she had a desire to roll around naked with Quinn. Because she definitely did not. Besides, this wasn’t about whether she theoretically did or did not find the idea of sex with Quinn attractive. This was about pretending she did. His parents or whoever he was trying to fool wouldn’t be convinced if she just stood next to him. She’d have to, like, touch him. Or hold hands. Or kiss. Or…

What do people in relationships even do—besides bang a lot?

Aubry dropped into her chair and laid her head on her folded arms. She couldn’t even model her behavior after Jules and Adam because her friend was such a foreign creature in so many ways. She was so sunny. Aubry couldn’t fake that. She didn’t want to try.

She was just…herself. Cranky and kind of twisted and maybe old beyond her years.

It wasn’t too late to back out. All she had to do was give up DeathCon and there was nothing holding her to that damn wedding. Quinn might not be the most awful person in existence, but she wasn’t inclined to do him this type of favor out of the goodness of her heart. She wasn’t sure she had a goodness of her heart.

But she didn’t want to give up DeathCon.

Now that there was a real chance she could play that demo, she didn’t want to give it up.

Even if it meant playing girlfriend to Quinn at some hoity-toity wedding. Aubry lifted her head. How hard could it really be? There would probably be alcohol there, so that was something. An open bar was too much to ask for, but if she was supposed to be Quinn’s girlfriend, there was no reason he couldn’t foot her tab. It was only fair.

She sat up, feeling significantly better about the whole thing.

“This is doable. It’s only a few days. Really, what’s the worst that could happen?”

There were so many ways to answer that question she didn’t even want to start.