Page 31 of Never Again

Sniffling, Bailey said, “It was still a vicious attack.”

“Of course, it was,” Quinn said, once again gesturing for her to continue.

“After the vicious attack,” Bailey once again began, only to release a heartfelt sigh and a sad shake of her head when he added, “That you barely survived.”

“It was a close call,” she murmured in agreement before continuing. “That was followed by realizing that you couldn’t keep me safe and taking me away to an undisclosed location where you have fond memories, leaving you struggling to stay away from me, but realize that you can’t.”

“It’s a one-room cabin,” he reminded her.

“Which will just speed this up and leave you struggling to resist me,” Bailey said with a helpless shrug.

“Jesus Christ,” Quinn said, rubbing his hands roughly down his face.

“I know,” she said, nodding solemnly. “This is going to be a struggle for you.”

“What else?” he asked as he dropped his hands away.

“Did I mention the lingering touches and wistful looks from across the room?” Bailey asked.

“That really went without saying,” Quinn said, gesturing for her to continue as he reached into his bag and pulled out a bottle of water and handed it to her.

“Thank you,” Bailey said as she tossed the last bite of s’more in her mouth and accepted the bottle. “Now, where was I?”

“Lingering touches,” he said with a resigned sigh.

“That just leaves you with no choice but to fall madly in love with me,” Bailey said with a pitying look.

Nodding slowly, Quinn said, “And you have experience with this?”

“With incredibly handsome men falling madly in love with me?” Bailey asked, noting the way that he went still as she continued. “It happens all the time,” she said with a heartfelt sigh.

“Didn’t the bodyguard get shot saving her?” he pointed out.

“I’ve decided that we’re going to skip that part,” Bailey murmured absently as she took in their surroundings now that she was finished with her snack and really wished that she’d stayed in the truck when she saw the pitch-black woods surrounding them.

She hated camping, which, unfortunately for her parents, she didn’t discover until after they took her camping for the first time. That was quickly followed by her brother deciding that hiding in the woods at two in the morning to scare the hell out of her was a bad idea.

“That’s very generous of you,” Quinn said dryly.

“It’s the least that I can do for making you fall in love with me.”

CHAPTER17

“So, I’ve been thinking,” came the announcement as Bailey dropped down on his back with a satisfied sigh that left him groaning. God, she was a mean little thing, Quinn thought as he turned his head, determined to ignore the woman who had been driving him crazy over the past week.

She never fucking slept for more than two hours at a time. She was like the Energizer-fucking-Bunny. He’d honestly never seen anything like it. He was used to going without sleep and grabbing ten minutes here and there just to get by, but Bailey…

She just…

God, the longer that she stayed awake, the more energized she became. He honestly wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take, morning, noon, and night, she kept fucking going, talking his ear off one minute, and the next, she was sitting in the corner, staring down at the computer that he’d been forced to hand over to save his sanity, her fingertips flying over the keyboard, leaving him praying that she didn’t stop because when she did…

“I think I’m ready to learn how to kill a man,” Bailey said as he lay there, frowning in confusion right around the time that the bitter aroma of the only thing that was going to save his sanity reached him, immediately sending terror through him as he carefully, yet really fucking quickly, turned over onto his back and snatched the cup of coffee out of her hands before she could make this day even more memorable.

“I didn’t offer to teach you how to kill a man,” Quinn bit out with a glare as the little pain in the ass carefully shifted down the couch until she was sitting on his legs, “I offered to teach you self-defense.”

Frowning adorably, Bailey asked, “Isn’t that the same thing?” making him swallow hard as he stared helplessly at her as a thought occurred to him, one that had him praying that he was wrong, but he already knew that he wasn’t.

“You already Googled how to kill a man with your bare hands, didn’t you?” he asked, taking a sip of coffee before moving to place it down on the coffee table, only to narrow his eyes on the little pain in the ass when she moved to grab it.

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