Page 12 of Against the Clock

“It’s just one night, Roman.”She held her hands in front of her.“Please.”

Rosie’s innocent laughter floated through the air, and I knew what I had to do.

“Fuck,” I muttered on a breath, closing my eyes.

“I promise we won’t be in the way.You won’t even notice us.”

I bit the inside of my cheek at the thought of being in the same apartment as Quinn andnotnoticing her.That was like watching a giant meteor come crashing toward Earth and not understanding how you got knocked out when it hit you.

“Fine,” I said sternly.“But I have some conditions that I will not budge on.”

“Okay, whatever you want.”

Don’t fucking go there.

“First—I’m going to order pizza, and you guys are going to eat.Second—you two will sleep in my bed, and I’ll take the couch.Third—I will go with you to drop her off at school in the morning.”I paused before adding, “and no matter what, you will tell me if anything happens that I need to know about.If you see something, hear something, smell something—anything that feels off—I need to know about it right away.Deal?”I held out my hand and waited for her to take it.

She started chewing her lip again, not bothering to shake my hand.

“Can we compromise on the bed part of it?”

“No.”

“Roman,” she sighed.“I do not want to put you out and make you sleep on the couch.We’ll be fine sleeping in the living room.”

“First of all, you’re not putting me out.I’m offering it.Second, you’re not both going to fit on the couch, and there’s no way in hell that I’m letting you sleep on the floor.”

“But—”

“No, Quinn.Those are the conditions.Either take them or leave them.If not, I’ll call your brother and tell him what’s going on.”

She narrowed her eyes at me and folded her arms across her chest.

“You wouldn’t.”

“Try me.”

I took a step toward her, encroaching on her space enough to feel the heat radiating off her body.I wanted to reach out and touch her, caress the soft skin on her face and assure her that everything would be okay.

She shook her head and let her arms fall.

“Fine, you’ve given me no choice.I accept the conditions and thank you again for letting us stay here.”

“You’re welcome,” I replied, ignoring the tingles that rushed through me at the thought of having Quinn stay the night with me.

It took Rosie telling Quinn that she was hungry before we snapped out of the trance that we had fallen into and stepped away from each other.

“How does pizza sound?”I called over to Rosie, taking a breath of Quinn-free air as I tossed the stuff from the paper bag into the fridge.Even if a five-year-old was on board with sushi, I didn’t have enough for everyone and still lacked the groceries I would need to make something edible for dinner.

“Can we get extra pepperoni?”she squealed excitedly.

“Is there any other kind of pizza?”I joked, pulling my phone out of my pocket to call in the order.

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