Page 5 of Intersect
He rises, towering over me even in my heels, and places his hands on my hips, pulling me toward him for a brief kiss. Closed lips, held there just long enough for me to breathe him in, relish the way his hands tighten. I may not be the only one in need of a goodshag.
“You’re tan,” he says, pulling back just enough to meet my eye. It’s clear from the way he’s looking at me that this is agoodthing.
“I spent most of the day lying out on thedeck.”
He raises a brow. “Redbikini?”
I feel my cheeks heating a little. “Yeah. Well, half of it. No one can see onto her deck and I wanted to see what it was like to have no tan lines foronce.”
He grows still. “You’re saying you laid out topless.” He closes his eyes. “Jesus.”
You’d think I just told him I ran down the street naked. “You’re way more puritanical than I thought you were. Than you used tobe.”
His eyes open and there is something feral in them that wasn’t there just a moment before. “I’m not puritanical at all,” he growls. “Believe me. I’m just trying not to picture it because it’s having an effect on me I’d like to avoid in a public place.” He pulls me closer until I can feel exactly what he’s referring to, and desire snaps in my belly, so sharp it’s almost painful. If Caroline weren’t upstairs I think I’d be tempted to skip dinner. Except until I’ve told him about the dream, no one is skippinganything.
* * *
The restaurant is fancierthan any place I’ve ever been, the kind where all the food looks like art. Even my margarita comes with leaf-shaped foam floating on its surface. Yet it’s a struggle to pay attention to all the careful details with Nick sitting a foot away, creating this painful need in my stomach, making my heart skitter in my throat. I think about the way he pushed me to my back in his Jeep last weekend—his fervor, his lack of restraint—and I want him so badly I feel like I can barely function. Not once, in all the years I’ve known Jeff, did I ever feel thisway.
I stare at the open collar of his shirt, imagine popping the second button, the third, as my mouth moves over his neck. “What are you thinking about?” heasks.
I’m blushing again. This has to stop. “I don’t think you want toknow.”
He winces. “Quinn,” he says, exhaling, “you’re killing me. Talk about something please. Something normal. Or I’m going to drag you out of this restaurant and take you to the nearesthotel.”
Fuck. Yes. Please. He’s watching my face, and I’m pretty sure he’s seriously considering the hotel plan. Except I still haven’t told him about that dream. I can just imagine his reaction to learning I will probably get pregnant the first time I sleep with him. He won’t run, necessarily, but he’s sure going to think about it, and I’m not ready to watch it allunfold.
Instead I ask about the woman who was in his office. It seems like a sad state of affairs when the woman who wants you dead is the easiest thing todiscuss.
“I talked to the police today,” he says. “Security gave them the photo and they’re searching thedatabase.”
I can’t say this inspires much hope. “A woman who can vanish at will doesn’t seem likely to have ever gotten caught in thepast.”
He leans back in his chair, blowing out a breath. “Iknow.”
I run my finger over the glass’s rim, pondering the situation again. “What I don’t understand is why she’s going to the trouble. I’m already dying. What more can shewant?”
“You’re not dying,” he says sharply. “And if nothing else, the fact that she can time travel and she’s still bothering to break into my office and look at your file should reassure you. If you weren’t a threat for whatever reason, she’d know,right?”
I glance at him, wondering if he could be right. I’m not sure what she thinks I’m going to do to her in the future, but she must still be seeing it happen somehow. “I suppose. But if she can do what Rose does…why hasn’t she killed me already? She got into your locked office. She could find me anywhere I was alone and kill me with ease. So why doesn’tshe?”
“We don’t know all the rules,” he says, his mouth slipping up at the corner. “Maybe she needs to wait for the fullmoon.”
A low laugh slips from my throat. “You’re confusing your supernaturalbeings.”
“At the rate we’re going,” he says, “I’m going to end up fighting a werewolf overyou.”
“Wouldyou fight a werewolf over me?” I ask, reaching across the table to swipe a grain of salt off his lower lip. The change in his expression holds me there for a moment. His eyes are dark, drugged, focused on my mouth. Finally he blows out a slow breath. “In aheartbeat.”
I laugh, the sound slightly too high, thrown off kilter by a sudden surge of desire. I would follow him to any of those public places Caroline suggested without a second thought.Pull it together. You still haven’t told him.“I won’t make you do that. We’ve got enough problems with the exes we alreadyhave.”
He frowns. “Which reminds me—Meg knows about you. She got wind of stuff from the nursing staff and I figured it was best to get ahead of thestory.”
I freeze. We just began officially seeing each other two freaking days ago and people he works with already know. Thatcan’tbe a good thing. “What did you tellher?”
“That you were a friend from college,” he says. “She wasn’t happy but she seemed to believeit.”
A friend he’s gotten pregnant.Twice. I wanted to put it off but I have to tellhim.