Page 22 of Rehabbing the Beast
Chapter Fourteen
“So how long does theofficial courting ritual last?” Seth asked two weeks later. They had been the best two weeks of his life. Each day he spent as much time with Quinn as Siobhan would allow, and each day his feelings for her grew stronger, as did the beast’s need to have her. Seth had always been strong of body and mind, but every minute spent in Quinn’s presence threatened his control like nothing else ever had.
Ever since that first kiss, Seth had craved more. More kissing. More touching.More. And while he loved sitting beside her, holding her hand, gazing into her eyes, his need to have her in other ways continued to grow with an intensity that was beginning to scare him. The daily dips into the icy cold lake weren’t helping enough.
Nor were the grueling workout sessions he put himself through when Quinn and Siobhan were doing their thing. He found the men in the village were more than willing to help him regain his strength and mobility, especially when it meant they got to beat the crap out of him every day. They were careful to keep those little sparring sessions amongst themselves, however, and kept the blows below the shoulders where the bruises could be easily hidden from Quinn’s assessing gaze.
“Oh,” Quinn said, averting her eyes. It was a look Seth had become familiar with, the one she gave him whenever she wanted to avoid a particular subject, like her family. For whatever reason, she no longer seemed determined to hide the emotion in her eyes around him like she once had. Or maybe he was just better at reading it.
“Quinn?” he prodded, regulating his breaths to keep his tone even.
“Well, technically, all you have to do is ask Gran for my hand in marriage.”
Seth stared at her. All this time he’d been playing extra nice, thinking he was appeasing the old woman and following her courting rituals to gain her favor. All he’d had to do wasask? The beast let out a mournful moan and dropped his ears.
“Forgot to mention that, did you, Cupcake?” he said, his tone soft and oh-so-dangerous.
Quinn averted eyes and bit her lip. “Not exactly.”
“Not exactly?”
“Don’t be angry with me, Seth,” she said, biting down on her lip harder. Now that she wasn’t trying to completely hide her feelings from him, he noticed she did that a lot. It drove him crazy, because all he could think about when he saw her biting that full bottom lip was that he wanted to do that, too. There were, in fact, quite a few parts of her that he and his beast wanted to bite and lick and sink their teeth into.
“It’s just that, well, I’m really enjoying this time with you. You know, going out to dinner, taking long walks, sitting in the boat and looking up at the stars.”
Her response puzzled him, until an idea occurred to him. “And you thought that would stop when your grandmother gave her permission?”
She nodded, looking sheepish. It was all he could do not to crush her in his arms and kiss the daylights out of her. “Yes. That’s how it usually works, right? As long as a man is courting a woman, he takes her places, brings her flowers, stuff like that. After her family approves the marriage, he doesn’t have to try so hard anymore.”
“I see.” He could, kind of. She liked the romantic stuff. He could do that. He wasn’t the smoothest guy in the world, but he was a quick learner. Anything that made Quinn happy was more than worth the effort.
“This is all kind of new to me,” she explained shyly, suddenly finding the hem of her shirt very interesting. “I’ve never been on a date before, and—”
“I’m sorry, what did you just say?” He couldn’t possible have heard that right. Quinn was twenty-five years old. He knew she wasn’t a high-profile type of girl, but to have never dated?
“You’ve never been on a date before this? Seriously?” She shook her head, the color in her cheeks deepening. “No dinner? No movies? No dancing or county fairs?” She kept shaking. “How does something like that even happen?”
She kept her head down and studied her hands.
Seth was thunderstruck. She was so beautiful. So kind and funny and intelligent. How could everyone fail to see that? How could they not have been knocking her door down all this time?
Then he thought about the men in the village, about all the male therapists at the rehab center and he knew. Theyhadbeen beating at the door. She’d just never opened it before. Not until him.
His voice was thick when he spoke again, and he had to clear his throat a bit to get the words out. “I promise, Quinn, that for as long as you let me, I will never stop courting you.”
“Really?” The smile she gave him filled him with so much warmth and love, his chest swelled. Even the beast rolled over onto his back and offered his belly.
“Yeah. Now let’s go see your grandmother.” If he had to keep the ring in his pocket for much longer it was going to make a permanent indentation in his leg.
The brilliance of her smile faded, and Seth felt a sudden chill. She put her hand on his thigh. “Seth, wait. We need to talk.”
He sat back down and eyed her carefully. “Don’t start a conversation with ‘we need to talk’. It never bodes well.”
She gave him a small smile. He squeezed her hand, doing his best to hold down the heavy feeling of dread stealing over him.
“I love you,” she blurted out.
The swelling in his chest grew, along with a renewed spark of hope. “A much better conversation starter,” he murmured.
