Page 38 of As You Crave It

She thought she heard him mumble a curse under his breath. But he smiled and waved. Reid and Gemma both waved back, smiling at them. Reid waved again, motioning them to come over and join them.

Quin refused at first, but Celia stood. If they were sitting with his siblings, then maybe the conversation would distract her from wanting him to spread her over the table. “Quin, we might as well sit with your brother and sister. There’s no sense in us taking up an extra table when there are people waiting outside.”

“I guess so. Arlo, is it okay if we join Reid and Gemma?”

“Yes, of course, we’ll just move a couple of chairs.”

“We won’t be in the way of the staff?” Quin asked, as if trying to find a reason to not sit with them.

“No, of course not. They’ll be fine.” Arlo scurried off, signaling to a few of the servers to help accommodate their request.

When they were alone, Quin turned to her. “You okay with this?” he asked.

“Yeah, of course,” she said. “I like your brother and sister.”

“I mean, it’s going to be tough to show me how to be a boyfriend with my siblings around. I might have to call in another date. Just to make sure the lessons stick.”

“Oh, really?” she asked.

“Yeah, I feel like you’ll owe me another one.” He leaned in and skimmed her ear with his lips. “Especially since I have a feeling I know what’s going to happen after dinner.”

Her heart pounded in her chest and she nodded. “I guess so.” She looked up at Quin. And suddenly, she just couldn’t help herself. “Maybe we can talk about it later when you take me back to your place.”

Quin couldn’t hold back his smile as he followed Celia to the table with his brother and sister. He thought that the change in plans would put a serious cramp in trying to get Celia back into his bed, but her last statement put her right back in there. So, fine, they would join his siblings, have a nice dinner with Celia and then he would take her home and do some not-so-nice things to her.

He watched the swivel of her hips as she walked a couple of steps in front of him. He was thankful for the low light of the restaurant so that no one could see his growing erection. With just a few words and touches, and that light kiss on his lips at the table, Celia had completely turned him on. He normally had more self-control, but when it came to her, he had absolutely none.

When they reached the table, Reid and Gemma both stood. “Guys, you remember Celia Evans, right?”

“Of course, we do,” Gemma said, giving Celia a light hug as the servers worked quickly and efficiently to add two more place settings to the wooden table. “It’s good to see you again.”

Reid winked at Quin, and he knew they were amused since they knew he’d hooked up with her before.

“Good to see you guys, too,” she said as she sat and Quin pushed in her chair. “You both look great.”

“And so do you.” She turned to Quin. “You said you had a date, but I didn’t think it was Celia.”

“Yeah, sorry if we interrupted your date,” Reid commented.

“It’s fine,” she told them. “It’s not really a date. We’re just friends.”

Quin nodded, but something bothered him about the way Celia classified their date. She was full of mixed signals. Even after she’d told him to take her back to his house, he had no idea what she wanted.

Quin looked at his siblings. “What are you guys doing here? I thought you were cooking tonight.”

“I was going to, but I was kept at the distillery longer than I’d hoped.”

“Anything wrong?”

“Oh, nothing, I’m just anxious about making sure the quick-distilled batches are good and ready to go out.”

Gemma had come up with a way to quickly distill and age their rum. It had been necessary to fill the demand that had grown and almost crippled them, and they’d significantly shortened the amount of time they needed between batches. Turning at least a year-long procedure, to make one of Gemma’s fine batches, into one that took only a month, without affecting the quality. It was something they were all nervous about. Quick-distilling was popular with big, mass-produced rum brands, but they had been desperate to keep the quality and integrity of their small batches intact. But they were confident that Gemma had cracked it. Quin was proud of his younger sister. Her invention had the potential to revolutionize how fine, high-quality rum was made. But she was so quiet, so humble about it. She just wanted to make good rum.

“Yeah, we decided to come here for a quick bite, and imagine our surprise to hear Arlo call your name across the restaurant.” Quin glared at Reid’s shit-eating grin.

“How have you been, Celia?” Gemma asked.

“I’m good. I moved back to town recently for work. So I’m still trying to get my bearings.”

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