Page 38 of Temptation
Quinn raised her eyebrows. “Don't you dare come over here, you bitch. Don't you dare ruin my plans.” She muttered. Seeing Joel was typing, she sat back and watched the show.
You blow up my life, and I'll blow up yours. Do you think Tenn will stay with you?
You need to stop and fucking think rationally for once. Do you want to be out on the streets with nothing?
Rhyme is good friends with Quinn's brother and will fire us to keep Quill happy.
I'm doing what I have to do to stay with you and keep my life intact. It was fucking cuddling! She's in her room, and I'm in mine.
Did you kiss her?
No.
Did you want to?
Stop. Stop fucking torturing yourself and me. We have an entire weekend together coming up in Atlanta. Do you want me to cancel it?
No.
Then stop behaving like a child. I don't want to fucking hear about this anymore. Go to bed, Viki.
Viki didn’t bother to respond, and after a few minutes to be sure, Quinn took screenshots of everything and sent them to Deedee and then to Tenn.
Worth the most uncomfortable two hours I've ever sat through.
Oh, you should have been on this end. Come over tomorrow, and I'll show you the video.
Quinn’s heart skipped a beat. As worried as she was about the speed of their relationship and the fact that they were technically both still married, she couldn’t deny it was extremely nice to feel wanted and to know he was just as interested in her as she was in him.
Sure. I have a couple of appointments tomorrow morning; I'll swing by after.
I get to hold you for as long as I want.
Deal lol.
Quinn plugged in her phone and lay in bed. At first, she felt guilty about how excited she was to see Tenn again, but then she figured Joel wasn’t feeling guilty about what he was doing, so she let it go and snuggled into her pillow. She was looking forward to seeing where things with Tenn would go. Quill was rarely wrong about people, and she trusted her twin.
Chapter Nineteen: Losing the Plot
Tenn hugged Quinn goodbye and watched her drive off before heading back inside the house and cleaning up the mess left behind from putting up the cameras. He was returning the ladder to the garage when Viki pulled up, looking extremely angry. Since that seemed to be her default mood lately, he decided to ignore it and went to the kitchen to make himself a frozen pizza for supper. He was going to have to Quinn up on her offer to teach him to cook, he decided as he preheated the oven. Not that he hadn’t tried before, but maybe Quinn would have more luck than his mom did.
When you reached fifteen in the Aston household, one of your chores was to cook supper one night a week. His mom had a massive bookcase full of recipe books, and her thought process was if you could comprehend reading, you could comprehend following the instructions in a cookbook, but Tenn had dyscalculia, a learning disorder that made it hard to understand number-based information and math. Math and any school courses that required math, he barely scraped by, and when it came to following a recipe, the quantities in them were often misread. Too much or too little of an ingredient was very common in his cooking.
For some reason, while measuring something with a ruler or measuring tape involved measuring about thirty times, he could spatially tell distances very quickly just by looking, which helped tremendously with his artwork, where he excelled. He was the black sheep in his family. Del was athletic, Ginny was an aide in the White House - on the wrong side of politics as far as his parents were concerned, but they were still very proud of her - and Kota was a rising star in the banking industry.
They were proud that their youngest son had made a name for himself and had a copy of his book prominently displayed on their living room coffee table, but they didn't understand why the history of architecture needed a book. He had been the quiet, nerdy one in his home, surrounded by so many loud and boisterous personalities that he would retreat to his room with his sketchpads or video games or wander the streets with his camera.
Viki came into the kitchen and began banging cupboards and drawers as she made her extreme displeasure known. Tenn ignored her and continued scrolling through Quinn’s social media; children having temper tantrums shouldn't be indulged. When the timer on the oven went off, he took the pizza out on a cutting board, cut it into four pieces, put two on a plate, and sat at the kitchen table. Viki continued to open and loudly close cupboards, and when she slammed a cupboard shut so hard it bounced back open and hit the cabinet on the other side, Tenn had enough.
“What the actual fuck is your problem?” He kept his voice low and calm as he levelled her with a glare. “Use your words, Viki.”
“Nothing! Not a goddamn thing is wrong! What could possibly be fucking wrong?” She glared back at him, breathing hard, clenching and unclenching her fists.
“Then stop behaving like a two-year-old having a tantrum.” He returned his attention to the pizza and heard her scream. He looked up in time to see her swipe her arm over the counter and send the remaining pizza flying into the wall. Something inside him snapped, and he slammed his palm onto the table. The loud bang seemed to snap her out of it because she jumped and stared at him with tear-filled eyes.
“I'm sorry.” She whimpered. “I don't know what came over me.”
“I don't give a fuck.” He growled. “Clean it up.” He watched as she swallowed and nodded. His appetite was gone; he stood up and threw the rest of his pizza in the garbage as she grabbed some paper towels. “I don't know what the fuck is going on with you, but either figure it out on your own or get help.” He slammed his dishes into the dishwasher before walking toward the stairs to the basement. “Oh, and Viki?” He waited for her to look at him and pointed at the corner. “I installed cameras.”