Page 6 of Chasing Temptation
Chapter Three
I’m still awake when the sun starts to rise over the hills in the distance, and I’m still none the wiser as to what to do. I could start knocking on doors, but if this little community is as tightknit as I imagine it to be then I’ll totally lose the element of surprise. Quinn can’t have been the only one who knew about the goings on inside that school building, so my guess is that everyone around here is either stupidly loyal or as dodgy as the men in Quinn’s life.
Putting my seat back up, I grab my phone and find a message from an unknown number.
Swiping it open, I find an address staring back at me. My brows draw together until I see that the address is for a house in this village.
A small smile of achievement twitches at the corner of my lips that Eddie does care after all. Maybe he really is the kind of guy Quinn thinks he is. Putting it into the SatNav, I find that it’s only three minutes away.
I’m sitting out the front of what I assume is Quinn’s old marital home before I get a chance to blink. It’s a million miles away from her flat in London and just seeing the sheer size of the place helps me to understand her that little bit more.
She must have left everything behind when she ran. Well, everything aside from those damn twinsets. Even those make sense now. I bet it’s all the women wear around here—that and a set of pearls around their necks while their husbands are up to all sorts.
Disgust curls at my lips at what’s been happening here for probably longer than anyone wants to admit.
I sit and watch the house for a while. It’s silent. The only clue that someone might be home is that there’s a Porsche and an Audi parked in the driveway. I don’t particularly want to sit out here all day. It’s going to become seriously fucking obvious that I’m watching the place soon.
My stomach rumbles, reminding me that I didn’t eat for most of yesterday due to the intended swanky meal for Erica’s birthday, so I decide to try to find somewhere to get some food and come back later. Thankfully it gets dark pretty early these days—plus it’s grey, raining, and foggy up here. I’ll be much more inconspicuous under a cloud of darkness.
* * *
“What the fuckis going on, Joe?” Lauren shrieks at me when I tell her that I’m not going to be at work today. I’m sitting at a table in the first cafe I found about twenty minutes from the village.
I let out a large sigh. I don’t have a fucking clue where to start.
“You’re really starting to worry me.” Her words make my heart hurt. For a long time, Lauren was the single most important person in my life. The day I stumbled into Johnson and Son’s offices in the hope of finding a job, I didn’t think my entire life would change.
Okay, so her cuntbag of a dad basically blackmailed me into befriending her, but that was never my reason for truly wanting to spend time with her. The second I spotted her sitting behind her desk, looking like someone had just run over her puppy, something called to me. I was drawn to her in a way I’ve never been with anybody else ever, until Quinn. There was even a time, not all that long ago actually, that I thought there could have been more between us. She was my rock, she had been for years, and my broken heart got a little carried away with itself. Watching her hooking up with the guy who’d put that sad look on her face the day I first met her was a bit of a slap across the face. I was under the stupid illusion that she was mine, and it hurt having the guy who basically brought us together swoop in and steal her from under my feet.
It didn’t take me all that long to realise that I was living in a fantasy land. She was never mine to have. She was my best friend, and when I really thought about that, it was exactly what I wanted. What Ineeded. It wasn’t until I fell for Quinn that I realised that what I felt for Lauren wasn’t real. The love I had for her was as my best friend. It wasn’t real love. I was yet to feel that back then.
But now? Now I’ve had a taste of how incredible that can be, and like fuck am I allowing it to slip through my fingers.
“I’ve...uh...I’ve met someone,” I admit for the first time. I’ve kept Quinn a secret, mainly because I knew it was what she wanted. She was right every time she told me that we shouldn’t have been doing what we were, because the facts of it are that we’re student and teacher, no matter my age. It’ll still be seen that she’s taking advantage of her position and she’ll be the one in the wrong, no matter how much I might have chased her. But also, I was worried that if everyone knew, if I even mentioned it, then it might not be real. Crazy, I know, but I’d found this little burning light, something I didn’t know I needed until the moment I laid eyes on her, and I didn’t want to ruin it by having my friends nosing in on my business.
A loud shriek comes through the phone. “Shut the fuck up. You have not. Where? Who is it? Name? When can I meet them?” she asks, exactly as I expected her to. In all the time we’ve been friends and even living together, I’ve never once mentioned someone of any significance in my life. This must be somewhat of a shock.
“One step at a time, yeah. I’ll tell you all that stuff when I’m back—”
“Where the hell are you?” she interrupts.
I let out a long, pained breath. “She’s got some shit going on with people from her past. I’m...uh...trying to smooth the situation over.”
“You...playing peacekeeper. Now that I’d pay to see.” She laughs, and my stomach drops to my feet. If only it were that simple. “I hope they’re expecting a bad boy with ink to show up or you could be in trouble.”
I refrain from telling her that my art of choice isn’t really an issue right now, but I don’t want to drag her into this. It’s bad enough that Quinn’s in the middle of it.
“Things are...complicated. I’d really appreciate it if you’d keep this to yourself for now, but I promise that as soon as I can, I’ll tell you everything you want to know and I’ll even let you meet her.”
“You’ll let me? Wow, I feel so privileged.” Sarcasm drips from her words, but I can’t care right now. I’ve got bigger issues than pissing off my best friend.
“Listen, I’ve got to go. I’ll call you when I can, just tell Ben I’ve got the shits or something, yeah?”
“I’ve got you, just…” she hesitates, and I hold my breath, waiting for what’s going to come next. “Just don’t make me regret it.”
“I won’t. Love you.”
“Hmmm... You too. Bye.”
