Page 33 of The One for Forever

My eyes fly open.

Holy shit. That wasQuinn.

At the same moment that I make the connection, the orgasm hits. Pleasure jolts through my body. My release splashes onto my bare stomach and my hand, which keeps on stroking, drawing out every last drop. My thoughts are scattered for a few long, blissful moments.

Then I realize what I just did.

Fuck.

I just got myself off to thoughts of my son’s best friend. My current client. A girl I’ve known since she was a teenager.

But Iwasn’tthinking about the girl. I was picturing the sexy, sophisticated woman.

And God, is she sexy.

I grab for a discarded T-shirt on the ground to clean myself up. Then I sit on the edge of my bed, staring into the dark.

But all I see is Quinn.

In that strapless gown at the gala, delicate shoulder bones on display. What is it about those shoulder bones that does me in? Yet she’s equally beautiful in a sweatshirt and jeans, hair upin a messy bun. Her intelligent eyes when she’s analyzing, teeth pressing into her plush lower lip as she thinks.

My imagination shifts to a scene from my dream. Quinn, with all her womanly curves and full lips, telling me she wants me. Her soft, velvety mouth opening up to my tongue, her hand reaching into my pants to stroke my cock.

Even though I just came, my dick twitches again with interest.

“Nope,” I say aloud, jumping up to pace my bedroom. “This is not going to be a thing.”

But it is.It isa thing.

I want her.

This isn’t the first time my body has betrayed me, especially since I’ve entered the other side of forty.

I try to push the thoughts and images away, wearing a path in the rug from how long I’m pacing. But my mind is in full rebellion, spinning away from me.

Quinn on her knees for me. Quinn naked and riding me. Quinn gasping as she spreads her legs and begs for my cock.

After a shockingly short time, I’m hard again.

I brace myself against my bedroom wall with one hand, the other wrapped around my erection. Jacking myself rough and fast. Maybe one more orgasm will sate this desire. Because Ican’thave Quinn. She’s the very definition of off limits for me. These are fantasies I won’t ever be acting out.

But now that I’ve got those images in my head, I can’t unsee them. I can’t erase that head rush I experienced when I climaxed to thoughts of her. Sweet, beautiful, intelligent Quinn.

My son’s best friend.

9

Something is up with Rex.

It’s been two weeks since the day we spent at Bennett Security texting with the anonymous witness. The source hasn’t surfaced again yet. I’ve been back to trial prep, plus working on my other cases. In many ways, Rex has been his usual self. Superhero-level handsome and charming. He opens the door for me on our way into the office in the morning or into the courtroom if I have an afternoon hearing. He’s a stalwart presence by my side. As reliable as ever. Even if having him around me all day, every day is unusual in itself.

But underneath, there’s something different about him. It’s not just the fact that he’s my bodyguard now. It’s in the way I feel him studying me when he thinks I’m not looking. The intense, inscrutable glances he gives me when we’re alone together. The darkly flirtatious tone in his deep voice. The way his hand seems to twitch toward me as we’re saying goodnight at the end of the day.

And whenever I look back at him after he drops me off at my building, I swear there’s a hint of hunger in his dark gray irises.

It’s enough to make my poor, lovesick heart hopeful.

But that was the old Quinn. I’m not that starry-eyed girl anymore, obsessed with her friend’s father. I’ve been handling his proximity pretty well, if I say so myself. It’s like exposure therapy. The more he’s around, the stronger my defenses.

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