Page 65 of Hard Hitter

Over Quinn’s shoulder she spotted Emerson whose jaw was clenched, eyes piercing into the back of Quinn’s head. His steely gaze flicked to Raelyn and he drained his bottle of Heineken before dropping it into a bottle bin. Emerson walked out from behind the bar, past where she and Quinn were still in a close embrace and shoved out the door. When she looked back to Quinn, his triumphant smirk was undeniable.

Oh...that was just some show to get the upper hand then?

“Quinn,” Raelyn pulled his attention away from the door that had just closed. “Quinn, can we talk for a second?”

“Sure.” Raelyn was immediately annoyed at how quickly the heat that she’d thought was so genuine had evaporated from his demeanor. He placed a hand on the small of her back and led her outside and away from the makeshift pub. Turning to her, he asked, “What’s up?”

“What the hell was that?” Raelyn snapped, gesturing over her shoulder toward the converted shed. “This isn’t some kind of competition, and I don’t exactly appreciate you using me like some object to prove a point.”

“What? No. Baby, you wouldn’t believe the kind of shit that guy was saying,” Quinn said, looking past her, no doubt trying to see where Emerson had stalked off to. “He didn’t even tell me who he was and then starts bragging about his ex who was all over him all the time. He knew I was with you and did that just to make me look like an idiot. Like we’re just two buddies exchanging stories about our girls.”

“Exchangingstories?” Raelyn questioned, rearing back. “You were talking about me- aboutus- to some guy whose name you didn’t even know?”

“No, not like that. I told him about our first date. How I finally got the girl I always wanted.” Quinn smiled at this and tucked her hair behind her ear, leaving his hand there to lightly brush his thumb across her cheekbone. His expression darkened just slightly. “I guess he knew it was you somehow and decided to make up some shit about this ex of his who just always wanted him, just waiting for him to come home so they could fuck. Must’ve known I’d put it together eventually.”

Raelyn truly hoped the lighting was poor enough that Quinn didn’t see her cheeks redden. Though she didn’t know specifically what Emerson had told him, she doubted very much that he’d made it up. Their relationship had been very physical. There were emotions, too, but they tended to express their feelings for each other in a physical way. Almost aggressively so. She was that way with Quinn now, too, only the emotions and feelings were incomparable to what she’d felt with Emerson.

Being with Emerson versus being with Quinn waswantversusneed, heat versus fiery explosions all over her skin, being together versus being completely consumed by each other. It wasn’t the same. Not by a long shot.

She must have been silent for several moments, because it took her a moment to register that he’d asked her a question.

“Hm?” Raelyn blinked up at Quinn.

His brow furrowed. “Was it true?”

Oh. That.

Raelyn hesitated. “Quinn, it really doesn’t matter now what things were or weren’t like. I’m with you now and we’re happy, right?”

The humorless laugh Quinn let out was accompanied by an equally humorless smile. “So it was.”

“I don’t know what he said,” Raelyn said defensively, “but it doesn’t matter now. I don’t want to be with him anymore. I wantyou, Quinn.”

Quinn took his baseball hat off to swipe a hand through his hair, then scrubbed his hands down his face. He let out a sigh and gave a small nod, “Okay.”

“Okay?” Raelyn raised an eyebrow. Replacing his ball cap, he turned away from her, but she caught his hand, pulling him back. “Hey,” she wrapped her arms behind his neck and went up on her toes. “I mean it. I don’t care what he said, and neither should you. You’re the one I want. Nothing that happened in the past can change that.” She snatched the baseball hat off his head and put it on her own. “I’myourgirl, Quinn.”

A reserved smile curved his lips up. She’d consider that a win.

“Let’s give it another half hour and then set up that Uber,” Raelyn suggested. “I’m sort of looking forward to getting you home.”

Quinn grinned mischievously. “I like how you think. Let’s make it fifteen minutes.”

Chapter 20

Far more than fifteen minutes had passed when Raelyn thought again about setting up a ride for her and Quinn. She was sitting on one of the benches around the fire and Quinn was standing on the miniature patio off the pub-shed with another drink in hand as he laughed and made conversation with more of Brody’s friends. She had just finished off her second bottled water when someone joined her on the bench.

“Raevyn Noir?” Emerson extended a wine glass filled with a deep purplish-red wine. It was her favorite wine that her family’s winery sold- it was even named after her, or at least the spelling had been inspired by her name.

Raelyn glanced at the glass. Truthfully, it sounded delicious, but accepting anything from Emerson suddenly felt like accepting candy from a stranger in a white panel-van. Narrowing her eyes at her former fiancé, she asked, “What do you want?”

“Just saw the bottle behind the bar and thought I’d offer you some before it ran out,” Emerson replied, innocently.

No, it was feigned innocence. Raelyn knew by now that this man didn’t do anything selflessly. There was always an agenda, a goal in mind, something in it for him.

“Oh, is that all?” Raelyn asked skeptically. “You’re not hoping to provoke Quinn? Hoping he’ll look over here and see us talking like we’re old friends?”

“What if he does?” Emerson shrugged. “He doesn’t own you, Rae. He can’t tell you who you can and can’t talk to. You’d thinkyouwould be the jealous one. Dude’s been with some solid tens.”

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