Chapter Eight

Quinn let Aubry have her space the next morning when they collected the truck. To be honest, he needed some space, too. He’d had her countless times through the night, her body an addiction he hadn’t known he possessed until he felt that first orgasm. But once would never have been enough. Hell, he’d lost count and that still wasn’t enough.

He turned to watch her put her bag into the cab of the truck. Today she wore a red plaid dress that should have looked ridiculous, but on her it worked. His body went tight imagining what she might be wearing—or not wearing—underneath it.

There’s no reason I can’t find out.

No reason except all of them. He never should have crossed the line with her, but he’d done more than step over it. He’d nosedived right into oblivion. There was no going back now, not until they finished this trip and got back to Devil’s Falls. With the familiar town around them, they’d fall back into the way things used to be. Maybe. Even now, he couldn’t quite imagine trading edged insults with her like they used to. Not when he knew how she tasted.

He paid Larry and grabbed his keys. By the time he made it to the truck, Aubry was already in the cab and looking everywhere but at him. He decided to let her stew a little and they headed out of El Paso without a word. Thirty minutes later, the tension left her shoulders and she reached for her headphones.

That was when he pounced. Keeping his eyes on the road, Quinn unfastened her seatbelt, hooked an arm around her waist, and towed her over to sit against him. She gave a seriously impressive snarl. “Are you trying to get me killed?”

“Nah, I just had a little entertainment in mind.”

“If you think I’m going to sit here without a seatbelt—Oh.” She accepted the half of the belt he offered her and dug into the crease in the seat for the second half. Once it was clicked around her waist, she gave an audible sigh of relief. “Okay, what were you saying?”

“You have a serious set of neuroses.”

“Not wanting to die in a car crash isn’t being neurotic. And I’m following the law.”

“Car crash, plane crash, serial killer. What else are you afraid is going to kill you in imaginative ways?” He ran his hand from her knee up the inside of her thigh as he spoke, edging the hem of her dress up until he caught sight of a pair of Wonder Woman briefs. Her nerd credit was off the charts, and he was really digging it.

Not that he’d say as much to her.

“Uh, well.” Her breath hissed out when he cupped her through the cotton fabric. “There’s always the off chance that a mutant breed of alligator is going to show up and start picking off people.”

“Texas has been in a drought for years.”

“Don’t muddy my fears with logic.”

He kept stroking her, not putting enough pressure behind it to do anything but drive her to distraction. “I seem to remember something about mutant cannibals, too. What do you have against mutants?”

“Nothing if they’re students of Professor X.”

He huffed out a laugh. “I understand that reference.”

She turned so fast, she almost toppled over. “Did you just make a nerd joke at me? I’m pretty sure you just made a nerd joke at me.”

“Did I?” He knew damn well he did, but her reaction was pretty fucking priceless. Before she could get too distracted, he slipped his hand into her panties. “What else?”

“What else what?” She spread her legs a little, giving him better access, her eyes half closed. He liked Aubry like this, soft and hot and wet for him.

He pushed a single finger into her. “What else are you afraid is going murder you in cold blood?”

“Werewolves, vampires of the non-sparkling variety, pretty much every stranger I meet, guys who think stalking is a compliment.”

Her voice changed on the last one, and he went still. “You have much experience with that?”

“I don’t have to. I’ve been on this nifty little thing called the Internet.”

Her other fears ranged from insane to pure nonsense, but that one grated on him. He didn’t play games online, but Daniel and his cousins did, and Quinn had seen firsthand how some of the little dickweeds they played against responded to Daniel’s lady cousins. How much more abuse did Aubry field because she was better than ninety-nine percent of the other players—mostly dudes?

Her hand closed around his wrist. “Maybe we should just—”

“Peaches, look at me.” He waited for her to do it before he spoke again. “I won’t pry. I’m just going to make you feel good for a little bit. Okay?”

She looked vulnerable for the first time since he’d met her, but the expression quickly passed, replaced by the Ice Queen mask she liked to wear. “If you insist.”

“Lose the Wonder Woman briefs.”

“What do you have against Wonder Woman?” But she was already lifting her hips and sliding them off.

He reclaimed his hand’s place between her thighs as soon as they were gone. “She’s standing between me and what I want.”

“Oh.”

“Tell me something.”

“You’re chatty today.”

Yeah, he was, but apparently the best way for them to hold down a conversation was with his hand between her legs, so he wasn’t going to let the opportunity slip past. “You spend all of your time in front of one screen or another.”

“Mmm.” She pressed her lips together. “I didn’t hear a question in there.”

“How the hell do you have such a rocking body? Because I’m really digging the muscle tone you have going on in your legs.”

Aubry laughed, the sound low and amused. “DDR.”

It took him a few seconds to compute—or maybe he was just distracted by sliding a second finger into her. “Dance Dance Revolution? You’re shitting me.”

“It’s great cardio. Now, as fun as this has been, you promised me some entertainment.”

She could play like she was humoring him all she wanted. She was the one who draped her left leg over his lap, leaving herself completely open to him. Aubry gave a smug smile. “How long do you think you can last before you pull this ancient beast over to the side of the road and have your wicked way with me?”

“Aw, was that a challenge?” He pumped his fingers into her, her body welcoming him in a way he was already starting to crave.

“And wave the red flag in front of your bull?” She hissed out a breath. “God forbid.”

He leaned over, still keeping his eyes on the road. He circled her clit and then palmed her again, liking the way she felt against his hand. “I’m going to fuck you until you can’t walk right—when we get to San Diego. Until then, you’ll have to deal with the poor substitute of my fingers.”

…

Time lost all meaning for Aubry. There was only the cab of Quinn’s truck, his hand between her legs, and his voice in her ear. Her dress was bunched up around her hips, her lower body bared for anyone that drove past them, but she didn’t care. All that mattered was the orgasm he kept looming until she started begging. Only then did he let her come…and start the whole process over again.

They took a few breaks, but they happened in a blur. She went through the motions as quickly as possible so she could get back into the truck and the man who was so damn skilled at assuaging the ache in her core that beat in time with her heart.

It was somewhere outside Phoenix that she lost it. Aubry knocked his hand away and went for the button of his jeans. He started to stay something, but she snarled, “Shut up.” She freed his cock and slid down the seat so she could take him into her mouth. Her seatbelt pulled at her hips, but she was so beyond caring at this point. It was still buckled. That was enough to keep her fear in check.

Quinn’s curse was music to her ears. One hand threaded through her hair, cupping the back of her head as she swallowed him down, down, until she couldn’t take any more. She wasn’t about to let that deter her, though. She fisted a hand around the base of him, stroking as she sucked. There was nothing but the need to drive him as crazy as he’d driven her.

“That’s it, peaches. Suck me hard.” His voice was downright guttural, and she was the cause of it. Aubry moaned, stroking him faster. His hand on the back of her head went tense. “I’m close.”

A warning. A promise.

She sucked harder, keeping up the motion that made his thigh clench. His cock swelled in her mouth, his curse in her ears, and then he was coming. She kept sucking, swallowing him down, a purely feminine part of her satisfied in a way she’d never experienced before. She looked up at him, his blue eyes dark, his breathing coming as hard as hers, and knew that she could make him lose control again now whenever she felt like it. Yes, he could do the same to her, but that power was downright intoxicating. She gave him one last stroke before she sat up. “Damn, Quinn. Just…damn.”

He recovered enough to give her a cocky grin. “Pretending to be my girlfriend isn’t so bad, is it?”

“Sure.” His words tried to douse her feel-good mood, but she fought off the feeling. This wasn’t real. She knew that. He knew that. Anyone who mattered knew that. Yes, they’d had sex and were going to keep having sex until it reached its natural conclusion. But that was all there was. She’d be a fool and a half to forget that.

Aubry couldn’t quite make herself move away from him, though. And then he took the decision away from her and draped his arm across her shoulders, tucking her against his side. “Get some sleep. We have a few hours yet, and I know you didn’t get much last night.”

He was right, but he hadn’t, either. She frowned. “Are you going to be okay to drive?”

“I’m bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. If I start getting sleepy, I’ll start playing with you again.” His grin widened. “That’s sure to wake me right up.”

She shivered at the thought of waking up to that. The man was insatiable—and she liked it. She yawned. “If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.” He guided her head to his shoulder. “Now close your eyes, because I’m telling you right now, you’re not going to get a wink of sleep once we check into that fancy hotel they have you set up in.”

She was sure there was no way she’d manage to pass out, but the next thing she was doing was opening her eyes as they exited the highway into the outskirts of San Diego. It was late enough that they’d missed rush hour, so Quinn was able to navigate to the hotel the convention had booked for her without too much trouble. She expected a normal room, but she followed the instructions the lady had given her at check-in to a freaking suite.

Aubry walked into the room and spun a slow circle, whistling under her breath. “Toto, we aren’t in Kansas anymore.”

“Thank God. Kansas is a terrible place.” Quinn strode over to look out the floor-to-ceiling windows that afforded a view of downtown. “Damn, peaches, just how good at this game are you?”

“I told you. The best.” She hesitated. “Well, one of the best.” There were still players out there better than her. She pinched herself, hardly daring believe this was real. She walked into the bathroom and whistled again. There was a walk-in shower and a tub that made the one at the B&B look like a bucket in someone’s backyard. This is insane. There has to have been a mistake. There wasn’t. She knew there wasn’t. The whole situation was almost too surreal to be possible. Who would have thought she’d make it here when she started playing Deathmatch in that shitty little trailer all those years ago? Not her. Not anyone from where she’d grown up, either.

“What time is your thing tomorrow?”

“Noon.” Most hardcore gamers she knew were night owls by necessity. Even if they worked in web design like she did, most people had to hold down some sort of day job with normal hours and play in their time off. So the developers were giving a nod to that by starting in the afternoon.

“Give me a few to take a shower and then we can go get some grub before we settle in for the night.” He reached into the shower and turned on the water. “I’m starving.”

She took a slow breath, doing her damnedest to convince herself that the walls weren’t really closing in. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather order in.”

“Peaches.” He waited until she looked at him to continue. “You have me at this shindig to ground you, correct?”

“More like to put your mass to use as a walking wall between me and the rest of the world.”

The edges of his mouth quirked up, but his blue eyes stayed serious. “Consider dinner a trial run. I’ll protect you from any mutants that might show up—of both the cannibal and reptile variety.”

“Zombies.”

He frowned. “What?”

“In big cities, it’s zombies.” When he just stared, she felt compelled to explain, no matter how stupid he would no doubt find it. “If the zombie outbreak were to happen in Devil’s Falls, I have a pretty decent chance of surviving, despite having next to no applicable skills outside of the internet. Y’all like your guns as much as you dislike outsiders, and so the chances of the town battening down the hatches until it all blows over, without so much as one casualty, is highly probable. Here in San Diego? We wouldn’t stand a chance.”

For a second, she was sure he’d rip her argument to shreds, but he finally just shook his head. “As crazy as that is, it kind of makes sense.”

“It’s not crazy. And having a zombie plan is just good business. The CDC even went so far as to put out ads about how to survive a zombie apocalypse a few years ago.” She made a face. “Though they technically did it so people would actually pay attention to their advice, it still holds.”

“In that case, I won’t let any of the walking dead near you if you’ll share a meal with me in an actual restaurant.” He looked so damn serious, not like he was making fun of her at all.

She bit her lip. “But there are so many…people…in restaurants.”

Quinn leaned in close enough for her to catch a whiff of his cologne. Her toes curled and her body went tight in anticipation. But he just whispered. “If you make it through dinner without bolting, we can come back here and I’ll fuck you on every single surface this hotel room has to offer.”

Her breath stalled in her lungs. “I thought you were already going to do that.”

“Nah, I was already going to fuck you until you couldn’t walk right. This is something else altogether.”

She wasn’t sure she followed the logic, but Quinn had already more than proven he was capable of driving her out of her mind with pleasure. She’d be an idiot not to take him up on what he was offering. Besides, he had a point. They needed some kind of trial run before the demo tomorrow. This would do as well as anything.

He’d be her anchor. She tried and failed to ignore the fluttering in her chest at the thought.