Chapter 29: QUIN

Twenty-Nine

QUIN

T anner is an asshole and now I'm stuck here with him. I don't know what to think about that. Hopefully I'll only be stuck here for another twenty-four hours considering he just threatened to kick me out.

I hate him so much. How could he just send Avery away like she's nothing? How could he expect me not to get attached? Human beings aren't perfectly rational creatures and contracts can't stop you from falling in love.

I hear the noise of vehicle engines rise and fall as my new friends leave me behind with the cold, red-headed monster and the intruder who comes at night when he's asleep. The man I still suspect might be Tanner Hollingsworth. If it is him, I hate him even more for being that person. For making me cum while being such a demon.

For a few minutes, the house is eerily quiet and I almost convince myself that Tanner fell asleep on the couch or something. Then I hear his footsteps and briefly consider jumping out the window and escaping just so I can avoid him.

He knocks on my door and I pretend to fall asleep. It's a tried and true classic in the Nash house, although it didn't exactly work on Eugene. He can't hear me move and Tanner's hearing isn't so incredible that he can hear my breath. But that doesn't mean he gives up...

"I'm still your boss and I command your presence."

Jeez. Straight to the stupid commanding presence.

I climb out of bed and walk to the door before opening it. Glaring. This is an official conversation, not a personal one. And considering what just happened out there, I'm pretty sure I'm about to get fired from... maybe the weirdest job I've ever even heard about.

Tanner gazes down at me beneath pale, strawberry blond lashes that frame his unnaturally blue eyes. The rest of his skin and hair draw your attention to the intensity of the blue -- more glacier than ocean. As cool as Tanner himself.

"I apologize for the way I spoke to you," he says. I might not have believed him if his cheeks didn't darken earnestly.

"When is Avery coming back?" I answer stubbornly.

"When my mother's temper settles. When I can be sure that Avery's mother doesn't come looking for her."

"I... I won't know what to do here without her," I answer. He keeps looking at me with the most bewildered expression on his face, reminding me of what he said. "I guess our contract is over."

"I said I was sorry," he says.

"But you didn't say I could stay," I reply. "I'll message Juliette. If Avery comes back then–"

He interrupts me. "I want you to stay."

"Why?"

Our eyes meet again.

"Because there's a lot of work to get done around here," he says. There his face starts looking all weird again. Tanner runs his tongue along his lower lips.

"I don't think there is..."

"How can you stand it?" he growls.

"Stand what?"

"I haven't seen you in days."

"I know..."

He's acting so weird. Tanner scowls and then he grabs my cheeks. What the hell? I freeze. He keeps looking at me. The strange expression only grows more confusing.

"Fuck," he whispers. "You're probably already pregnant. There's no point in hiding anything anymore."

I've never heard Tanner say anything like that, so I just freeze as he holds me in place. I freeze until he slowly runs his thumb over my lower lip and a familiar sensation grasps me at my core. I suck in a sharp breath of air which Tanner stops me from exhaling with his lips.

Instinctively, my hands press against his chest and find a firm, solid wall of muscle. Instead of pushing, I cling to his shirt and I let my chaotic, red-headed boss kiss me. Worse than that... I kiss him back.

His lips. I'm feeling his lips. All the times the stranger has broken into my room, I've never kissed him on the lips so I have nothing to compare to Tanner's kisses. All I know is that right now, these kisses feel so damn good. Rivers of pleasure flow through me starting at my lips and shooting straight through my core.

He lets go of my cheeks and stumbles a couple feet out of my door frame. He's so big that he can't stand upright in the door frame and his shoulders are so broad that he can hardly fit through it. Gasping and looking at him like this right after he kissed me, I almost forget how badly I want to kill him.

Then he opens his mouth.

"I need to fuck you again."

Again?

My brow furrows in confusion.

"Come on," he says with frustration. "I'm done playing games, Quin. There's no one here. It's been way too long..."

He gives me a quick once over then continues like he didn't just shake my world. "Take your clothes off..."

I don't immediately obey him.

"Clothes. Off," he growls.

I can't move without asking more questions. He acts like I should be used to this, but I'm not. I still have questions.

"It was you the whole time?"

He scowls. "We're done with the games Quin. I can't anymore. I can't..."

"I'm not playing a game."

I don't mean to sound shrill, but I can't help my reaction. Every emotion I've felt hits me like a late Amtrak train. I'm definitely not playing a game. I have spent so many nights obsessing over this stranger to the point where I worry about break-ins more than I worry about the police catching up to me for my own mistakes.

Then he says it so casually. Like I should have known that my boss would be psychopathic enough to put on a ski mask and climb in through my bedroom window to take my virginity.

Tanner chuckles. "Okay. No game. You can't expect me to believe you didn't know it was me, Quin... Come on."

There's an almost boyish mischief behind his lashes. Confusion hits me. He actually thinks I knew it was him. Our interactions all seem colored by this revelation and I'm too stunned to move or say anything that makes any sense. I just start stammering until Tanner puts his hand over my mouth firmly and then furrows his brow again.

"Fuck," he whispers, looking down at me, taking in all my panic and then perhaps... realizing his mistake. Or at least realizing that he interpreted everything wrong. Tanner doesn't admit faults from what I know about him.

I glare at him because that's all I can do with his hand over my mouth. He bites down on his lower lip nervously.

"So you haven't been fucking with my head?"

I swat his hand away from my mouth because this part I can't hold back.

"Fucking with you?" I say, my voice coming out as a very annoying sounding squeak. "You're the one climbing in through my window and-- doing things to me!"

"Doing things? What types of things are you accusing me of doing?" he says, suddenly seeming physically larger and more imposing. There are only two ways I can even get out of this situation with Tanner. I can step backwards into my bedroom towards my bed, which is a definite danger zone for us. Getting past Tanner might prove even more difficult. He played football in high school and college.

Even if Eugene sometimes told me I was built like a linebacker, most of them are a little taller than 5'2". My throat constricts.

"You know what you did," I respond weakly. "You hurt me."

Now his face goes from red to purple, like I've somehow said something untrue.

"I made you cum," he snarls. "I didn't... I never meant to hurt you."

"Well you did," I snap at him. How could he seriously think this wouldn't hurt me? My heart races as I stare at his face, confusion coursing through me. He's so handsome. So evil. He scared the crap out of me, made me feel so damn crazy, yet now that he's here in front of me, all of those angry feelings twist up in a ball and turn into something else.

He's a monster… why do I want him to touch me?

He grabs my cheeks again and kisses me. Is that what he thinks counts for an apology? I squirm and try to shove his chest again but when my hands contact his chest, I drag him towards me instead and my frustrated whimper turns into a moan.

I pull away from him in surprise, still holding onto his shirt. Tanner looks down at me in confusion...

"You kissed me," he accuses. We're way too close to each other for me to entertain any genuinely intelligent thoughts. The smell filling my nostrils now is dangerously familiar and even without Tanner's confession, there isn't any doubt about his identity.

I should run.

This man kidnapped me. He made me sign a contract under false pretenses. He's a horrible person. He climbed into my bedroom window and fucked me without a condom.

Any sane woman would run.

Unless she could feel Tanner's chest muscles. And looking into his blue eyes. And feeling his bulge pressing against her as he held her close.

He wraps his arms around me and draws my body against his. There isn't any escape from this tension between us. Not anymore.

"If you hate me so much," he whispers, running his thumb over my lower lip again as he looks me in the eye. "Why did you kiss me?"

Tanner doesn't wait for me to answer. He possessively grips my cheeks again and gives me a big, romantic kiss just like the ones in the movies, only better because it's happening to me and it's happening with my sexy, red-headed boss.