Page 38 of Chasing Temptation
“Yes. She decided for some fucked up reason that we’d wait for Christmas. She read some shit in a magazine about delayed gratification. Fuck knows. All I do know is that Christmas better fucking hurry up and it had better be fucking good,” he sulks much to our amusement. That is until I remember something.
“Aren’t we all going away for Christmas?”
“Yep.” A wide smile forms across his face.
“You’d better have a room at the other end of the house,” Trey complains.
“Oh, like you can talk. I have it on good authority that this room’s not all that soundproof. Isn’t that right, Joe?”
“Correct. Although I doubt you two have heard a peep from us yet.”
“You not getting any either?” My fingers twitch to wipe the smug as shit look off Trey’s face.
“She’s worried about my stitches.”
“I thought you had them out?”
“I did,” I groan.
“Maybe tonight’s the night. Just wait until you knock them up, Erica can’t get enough.”
“Oh fuck off, you smug shit.” Ben throws a paintbrush at Trey. He doesn’t see it coming, and it connects with the side of his head.
“Chance would be a fine thing.”
Before I know it, the smell of burning bacon filters down to us and two angry sets of eyes turn on me.
“You promised us breakfast. You’d better have more,” Ben calls as I run from the room before the smoke alarm starts blaring.
Sadly, I don’t have any more, but a quick visit to Uber Eats and I’ve got a breakfast made for kings on its way to the flat. They’ve agreed to help me pull a changing rooms job on our bedroom; the least I can do is feed them.
With the three of us barely stopping for breath, we manage to have the room papered, painted and put back into place with an hour to spare to meet the girls.
Ben races off home to get ready while Trey heads downstairs to do the same.
I stand in the doorway to our new bedroom and hope that I did the right thing. I know this place isn’t where we’ve chosen to live, but with Quinn not returning to her job and not really knowing what she’s going to do next, it might be where we live for a while yet so I want it to be as homely as possible for both of us.
Hoping I’ve achieved just that, I head for the shower and attempt to remove any evidence of paint from my body so she doesn’t suspect anything.
Lauren’s booked us a table at a fancy pants bistro for our work Christmas meal. The place looks like an old warehouse with all its pipework and ventilation being used as part of the decoration. All the fittings are copper and the lighting is a little dark as Trey and I make our way to the maître d'. He shows us to a private function room up a flight of stairs where I find a few of my colleagues who all come over to greet me and see how I am after I disappeared from work two weeks ago.
There are a few wives and girlfriends here already, but the one I’m desperate to see hasn’t arrived yet.
“Should have known they’d be late,” Ben says, coming over to join us with a handful of pints.
The minutes tick by before a silence falls over the room. Wondering what’s going on, I look towards the door where everyone else seems to be staring and my breath catches in my throat.
Standing between Lauren and Erica is my girl, but she doesn’t look anything like I’ve seen before.
Her hair has been styled into an edgy inverted bob, her eyes are dark and smoky, and her lips are fire engine red. But as breath taking as that is, it’s the dress that I’m pretty sure has stopped every conversation in the small room. It’s leather, low cut and skin fucking tight. It just about hides her breasts, nips her in at the waist and skims down her round hips and shapely thighs until it stops just below her knees, revealing milky calves and one serious pair of strappy fuck-me heels.
“Pretty sure your gentle lovin’ is gonna end tonight, man,” Ben whispers in my ear, but I barely register the words. I’m too lost to Quinn.
She doesn't look anywhere in the room but at me. A slightly unsure smile graces her lips and I just about manage to keep my feet rooted to the spot and not drag her off home before tonight’s really begun. How the fuck am I meant to look at her like that and not do anything inappropriate?
Trey breaks the moment between us by dragging everyone’s attention to him and Erica when he pulls her into his arms and slams his lips down on hers. We’re in a room surrounded by people who know they’re a couple—the public claiming of his girl is a little much, but each to their own.
Lauren disappears into Ben’s side, together greeting people they saw only yesterday at work like it was a year ago. All the while I can’t take my eyes off Quinn. My mouth waters, my muscles clenching with my need to go over and drag her out of here to be alone.
