Page 12 of Midnight Oil

"Thought I would lead with the scout stuff hoping it would make me sound better." I stood up and lowered my hand for her to take.

"At least you earned a badge for honesty." She patted her mouth to stifle a yawn before placing her hand in mine. "I think your prerequisite sounds fun. I particularly like the wild foreplay part."

"See, I thought you might say that. I'm always telling myself, I'll bet that Suzy Q is someone who likes to have fun."

I led her inside. It was well past two in the morning.

"I'm going to let you have my bedroom, and I'm going to crash in the guest room." The words sounded stranger than hell as I said them, but I wasn't going to blow it by sleeping next to her. There was no way I'd be able to get through an entire night without fucking her. She was just too damn hot.

"No, I couldn't put you out like that. I'll take the guest room." She pressed her knuckles to her lips to stifle another yawn. "I'm so tired, I could lay down on your kitchen floor and fall into a deep sleep."

"No, take my room. I insist." I walked her down the hallway and stopped at my bedroom door. It felt as I was walking her to her parents' door. I was even a little nervous about the kiss goodnight. But there was no fucking way I was going to walk away, shut myself into the guest room, and climb into the cold, lonely bed without at least a taste of her lips.

We stopped outside the door. She peered up at me with her extraordinary eyes. "Thank you for everything, Quinn. I feel surprisingly calm and not altogether unhappy about the ugly crap I'm going to have to face in the very near future. That's all because of you."

"It has been my pleasure." I leaned down and kissed her, gently at first, then deeper. My tongue swept against hers, and she pressed against me dropping her head back, inviting me to kiss her longer. But I'd already taken my willpower to its limits. I didn't trust myself. This night needed to end like this, with her feeling better about her circumstances, and, with any luck, her thinking better of me. It would be hard to erase the reputation of a bed hopping scoundrel, but hopefully she was able to get a glimpse of the other side of Quinn Armstrong.

It took every ounce of my self control to pull my lips from hers. She crumpled lightly against me as if I had drawn away her breath by ending the kiss.

A glimmer of disappointment crossed her face but she forced a smile. "Thanks again. I can't wait to burrow in that quilt and fall fast asleep. Good night, milord."

"Good night, milady."

Ten

Suzy

As expected, I slept thoroughly and soundly. I opened my eyes to a midday sun. I sat straight up and glanced at the clock. It was nearly noon. I needed to get home. I needed to leave the fantasy and head back into the bleak reality that was my life. I'd worked hard not to think about Tate so as not to ruin the delicious night I'd spent with Quinn. He had behaved so differently than I expected that I was more than a little surprised and pleased. Perhaps I'd let rumors and coworkers' bragging have too much sway in forming my opinion of the man. Maybe he wasn't the player they all made him out to be.

I lowered my feet to the floor. The house was quiet. It was entirely plausible that Quinn was still sleeping. We had stayed up through half the night and that was after a long shift at work. For a terrible moment, I let myself wonder what my night would have been like if Quinn hadn't found me sitting on the bench. I would have had no choice except to walk to the station and ride the horrid public bus, which, after midnight, was occupied with the strangest people. Worst of all, I would have walked into my house, ready to chew Tate out for forgetting me only to find that he was fucking some woman. God, had they fucked in our bedroom? In my powder blue sheets?

I kicked the awful thoughts from my mind. I headed into the master bath, another manly but sumptuous retreat like the bathroom with the soak tub. Straight sharp lines of glass and tile were interrupted by the occasional chrome fixture. Since my overnight stay was unplanned, I would have no choice except to pull back on my costume slash serving uniform.

I washed my face and swirled a dab of toothpaste around my mouth for a few minutes. I stared at the bedraggled looking reflection in the mirror and made some quick tucks and smooth outs of my hair. It was going to have to do. As I fussed with my hair and wiped mascara out from under my eyes, a phone beeped somewhere behind me.

I spun around and noticed Quinn's phone was sitting on the dressing bench between the shower and second vanity. I had no right to look at it but my curious gaze swept over the screen. It was a text from someone named Zoe. "Are we hooking up tonight or not?" That was all the text read. It was a pretty straight forward question, so it didn't require a lot of words. There was no one named Zoe on the work staff so this particular friend was someone outside of the dinner theater.

I laughed quietly but the sound of it echoed off the tile walls. "You silly woman, Suzy," I said to myself. "You knew he was a player. One night of pampering didn't mean a darn thing." I had almost been convinced by his big heartfelt speech about wanting someone in his life to take care of, someone solely connected to him. It seemed there were probably more than a dozen women connected to him, and I was certain each one of them had been treated to a special fantastical night like me. It was probably his special trick, his pick up plan. And what an elaborate plan it was. I nearly fell for it, but I was going to give myself a little leeway on this one considering I had started the night being tossed into a coffee table and finished the night watching a woman trek out of my house with her high heels in hand.

Even so, I wasn't mad at Quinn. There was just something so genuine about the man, it was hard to dislike him. And I'd had one hell of a nice time. My pussy was going to ache every time I thought about it. Maybe all I needed was a subscription to Plaything and some of those magical toys.

I walked back into the bedroom. Quinn had delivered my work outfit and purse to the room. I pulled out my phone and turned it back on. There were three voicemails and two texts from Tate. I ignored all of them and called for an Uber ride. I remembered the street name but not the number on the house so I told them I would wait on the corner.

I changed back into my server's outfit. The smell of barbecued turkey legs and onion wafted up from the flimsy cotton material. I shoved the corset belt into my purse. I was going to look strange enough walking around in an off the shoulder peasant dress. I didn't need to freak out my driver more with a corset belt.

I was more than relieved that Quinn was still sleeping. I hurried and finished dressing, then walked out to the kitchen to search for a piece of paper and pen. There was a notepad and pen in one of the kitchen drawers. I pulled it out and wrote him a quick message.

Hey, Quinn, thanks for the fun night. It really helped. See you at work. Suzy

I decided to keep it brief and informal without any flirty embellishments. That was more for me than for him. He already knew last night was just one in a long line of one night stands, but I needed to reinforce that notion in my own head. Otherwise, it would be pretty damn easy to get lost in the delirious, delicious idea of being Quinn's permanent lover.

I had gone to bed tired but also slightly disappointed that Quinn hadn't wanted to sleep with me, that he was happy to provide me with an awesome dose of pleasure but he didn't want to climb into bed with me. Now I was glad we hadn't been more intimate. It would have been much harder to accept never having his attention again after having him in bed. I was sure a long, naked, wild night of lovemaking with Quinn Armstrong was unforgettable. The last thing I needed right now was to have my head clouded with dizzying erotic daydreams of my time with him.

I walked quietly to the door. My quickly hatched plan of a fast, no strings escape was dashed. Unlike the shabby front door of my rental house, where the deadbolt no longer worked and the only thing keeping us from thieves and murderers was a thin, breakable chain, Quinn's front door was controlled by a keypad. Damn rich people and their fancy electronics.

I spun and around and looked toward the glass doors leading out to the deck. The same keypad security system controlled that door too. I startled when a door down the hallway opened. Quinn walked out wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. I'd caught glimpses of his naked chest when he was pulling on his tunic and armor in the dressing area, but I'd never had a full, unobstructed view. A tingle of heat swirled through me, and my heart did what I could only describe as a butterfly dance. He was male perfection from his broad shoulders down to the trail of dark hair that bisected his six pack. His hair was messy from a long morning of sleep, but it looked good on him.

His gaze dropped to the purse in my hand. "Were you sneaking out?" He smiled but there was a sprinkle of hurt in his tone.

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