Page 28 of Playboy For Hire

We stood next to each other in the darkness, just staring out at the night and the occasional passing car, inhaling second-hand smoke from another guest’s cigarette twenty feet away. I wished Quinn would talk to me, but if the best I could offer was to stand next to him, that’s what I would do.

Behind us, the revolving doors spun. I turned, hoping it wasn’t another smoker.

It wasn’t. It was Brandon and Julie, laughing and talking and kissing, clearly a little drunk.

“Quinn!” Julie exclaimed when she saw him. “Did you see my ring? Isn’t it to die for?”

She tugged Brandon over to us and thrust her hand out. I took a quick look—it really was a giant rock—and then looked at Quinn. His eyes went from the ring to Julie’s face, and his features realigned into something I was sure was supposed to be a smile. It looked more like a grimace.

“It’s beautiful,” he said softly. “Congratulations.”

Then his eyes darted to Brandon, and for a moment, they were filled with so much naked pain that it hurt to look at them.

“Congratulations to both of you,” Quinn said, and suddenly, I got it.

The pain in Quinn’s eyes, the strain in his voice, the way he was barely keeping it together. I was looking at heartbreak. And Quinn wasn’t interested in Julie. She was a woman, and his cousin besides. Which only left one person to have caused Quinn all this pain.

Julie didn’t seem to notice any of this. She just squealed again and said, “I had no idea what he was going to do. He’d joked about proposing so much that I thought it would never actually happen.”

“I’m just lucky she said yes,” Brandon said. His words were warm, but his smile was cold and distant. “I’m sure you’ll be lucky like me someday too.”

The way he said it, it was like he’d slammed a door in Quinn’s face. I couldn’t take it anymore. Julie’s happiness, Brandon’s coldness. It was too much for me, which had to mean it was unbearable for Quinn.

“Oh, I don’t know,” I said brightly. I tugged Quinn’s hand to make him look at me. “I feel pretty lucky every day, just having you.”

With that, I leaned in and kissed him. Quinn froze as my lips hit his, but I slid an arm around his waist, and felt his body give a little against mine. His lips were softer than I’d expected, supple and full, and I was surprised again by how normal it all felt. My eyes were closed, and if I didn’t know any better, I wouldn’t have been able to tell I was kissing a guy.

Quinn sighed softly, and his lips parted. My tongue pushed into his mouth, gently at first, then more boldly as he kissed me back. It felt good, which was weird, but I didn’t have time to think about that now, because I was keenly aware of Julie and Brandon watching us from two feet away.

I placed my other hand on Quinn’s chest, feeling the contrast of his body heat against the cool night air. He hummed softly in the back of his throat. I nipped at his lower lip, only pulling back when I judged our audience to be thoroughly uncomfortable with how much affection we were showing.

Quinn looked slightly dazed when I broke the kiss, and to be honest, my chest felt a little funny. Like I couldn’t quite get a full breath of air. It was a good kiss. Better than I’d expected.

But maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Quinn was a friend, after all. Kind of, anyway. And I liked making people happy. Of course it felt good to make a friend feel better.

I turned to Julie and Brandon and grinned sheepishly. “Sorry. I guess we ought to get a room too.”

“That’s what we’re about to do,” Julie said with a laugh. “We decided we’d taken up too much attention inside. Time for us togo back and—oh, look, our car is here!” She pointed to a black sedan that had just turned into the hotel’s front drive. “See you guys later. Quinn, let’s get drinks soon, okay?”

With that, she headed for the car. Brandon followed after her. He didn’t say anything at all, but he did give Quinn an inscrutable look before sliding into the backseat. Quinn and I watched in silence as the car pulled through the driveway and back out onto the street.

“What was that?” Quinn said, once the car had disappeared down the block.

“I think that was an Audi? Though I didn’t look too closely.”

“Not the car,” Quinn said impatiently. He flicked his finger back and forth between the two of us. “What you just did.”

“Oh.” I laughed. “Well, that’s called a kiss. Sometimes, when two people like each other very much—”

“I know what a kiss is, asshole. I mean, what the hell possessed you to kiss me? I told you that you didn’t have to do any of that.”

“I’m sorry?” I meant it, but I was a little confused. “I know what you said. But clearly there’s something going on between you and Brandon—”

“There isnothinggoing on between me and Brandon.”

“Maybe not now, but there definitely was in the past. And you were obviously upset, and I thought, well—I thought maybe if I kissed you and made it look like I was head over heels for you, Brandon would think—”

“I don’t care what Brandon thinks of me,” Quinn said, his words so quick and angry that he might as well have scrawled ‘LIE’ inbright pink highlighter underneath them. “And I don’t need your pity.”

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