I heard his pants unzip and the rustle of a foil packet. “Mmm?”
Grasping my hips, he lifted me up and when I sank back, it was with him inside me.
“Quinn,” he groaned, sucking in a loud breath.
My head tilted back into his shoulder, and his mouth fell on my neck, biting and sucking. My back bowed from the pleasure.
“Move for me,” he muttered in my ear.
Leaning forward, I did as he asked, slowly, until he eventually grabbed my h*ps and took over. He ground his h*ps into me and stilled, and when he moaned my name, I felt it deep in his chest, and I’d never heard anything more beautiful on his lips.
Waking to darkness, a hand pressed into the small of my back, rubbing soothingly. My eyes opened to Travis sitting on the edge of the bed.
“I’ve got called out to work,” he whispered. “I’ll be a few hours, but I’ll come back.”
I nodded, leaning into the kiss he pressed on my lips, opening my mouth to the thrust of his tongue with a moan. He pulled back reluctantly.
“Travis…”
“Shh.” He tapped a finger to my nose gently and his lips curved up. “Don’t get dressed. I like the thought of you nak*d in bed.”
The door clicked shut behind him, and I knew that if I didn’t leave now, right this very moment, I never would.
I shifted reluctantly from the bed that was still warm from his body and covered with his scent. I picked up the pillow he’d briefly slept on and placed it at the end of the bed so I wouldn’t forget it.
The duplex was silent as I slid on my underwear and walked inside my wardrobe. I yanked my suitcase from the top shelf. Forgetting I’d loaded it with text books from my uni days, it fell down on top of me, and I shrieked with pain. I grabbed at the hanging clothes, but they came off their hangers and landed with me on the floor. I pushed the suitcase off with a huff, and as a final insult, the wheel caught my toe. Hissing, I grabbed at the clothes strangling me and threw them towards the suitcase.
The light switch came on inside my room and I froze. The wardrobe door flew open, and Mac’s eyes found me on the floor in my underwear, my suitcase and a pile of shirts at my feet and textbooks splattered open everywhere. Dressed in only a tiny satin slip herself, she took in the entire scene with pursed lips.
I cleared my throat. “I was just uh…”
“Save it,” she hissed and started pushing buttons on the phone in her hand. I heard someone answer the phone. “You were absolutely right. You better get your butt over here pronto... Uh huh... You better believe I’m gonna sit on her.”
The call ended, Mac tossed the phone over her shoulder, and my eyes followed its descent onto the carefully placed pillow, watching it bounce off and fall to the floor. My eyes flew back to Mac. Her arms were folded, anger almost steaming from her skin. And then the yelling started.
“What the fuck, Quinn? I mean, What. The. Fuck?”
I stood up. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I waved at the books. “I was just trying to tidy up.” I nodded at her phone on the floor. “So uh…who was on the phone?”
She arched a brow, ignoring my question. “Tidying up? At three am?”
I forced a chuckle. “Is that the time? It feels so early.”
Henry appeared by Mac’s side, clad in only a pair of aqua blue boxer-briefs. My eyes went wide at how beautifully his underwear matched his eyes. Then I realised I was wearing hardly anything myself and his eyes were busy.
“Well damn. This is what I’m talking about,” he joked with a grin.
“Sister, asshead,” Mac snapped out.
His eyes fell on my suitcase and the dregs of clothes hanging out the sides with a frown. Confused, his eyes returned to mine. “Quinn? What’s going on?”
“Quinn’s doing a runner.”
I glared. “I was cleaning.”
Henry raised his brows, starting to look a little hurt. “In the middle of the night?”
I scratched at the back of my head, wincing. His eyes fell on my chest, and I hastily folded my arms over my bra. “Yes. In the middle of the night. You should both go because I’m not dressed.”
“I’ve seen it all before,” Mac said.
“Well me too now,” Henry offered.
“Sister!” Mac snapped at Henry.
“Christ, Mac!” he yelled. “I may hold some kind of manwhore status in your eyes, but I’m not a goddamn letch.”
I cleared my throat. “That wasn’t Travis on the phone, was it?”
“No, it was Lucy.”
My eyes shifted to her phone, and narrowing her gaze, she followed my line of sight. Pursing her lips, she lunged for the phone, and I found myself diving after her.
“Ooomph.” Mac fell to the floor with a thud beneath me, and her arm stretched out for the phone.
“No!” I yelled, clawing my way over her to reach for the phone.
“Arrghhh,” she squealed when my elbow caught her in the eye.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. My hand clutched around the phone, and my shout of relief was short-lived when I was rolled and Mac was breathing heavy in my face.
“What the hell is going on here?” came Jake’s growl from the bedroom door.
We both froze and turned. Jake was standing there, bare chest heaving as though he’d run a marathon. I was thinking that maybe our yelling might have woken up the entire duplex when I heard Cooper from beside him say, “Shut up, idiot. Naked chicks wrestling.”
Ignoring all of them, Mac got in my face and growled, “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t ring Travis right now.”
Panting, my arm outstretched to hold the phone from Mac’s grasp, I closed my eyes against the tears, but I felt one roll out the side and down my cheek as I whispered softly so that only she could hear, “Because if he knows, they’ll shoot him.”
The lovely golden shade of Mac’s face paled, and she scrabbled backwards off me in shock.
“I’m sorry,” I choked out. My eyes blurred as they took in all of them standing there, feeling utterly horrified I’d brought this hell into their lives. “I’m so sorry.”
Mac nodded towards the door. “Everyone out.”
No one moved.
She arched a brow. “Did I just speak Klingon? Out. Now.”
All three of them left the room with reluctant frowns, and scrambling to my feet, I grabbed a shirt from the floor and shrugged it on. Bracing myself, I lifted my chin and faced Mac.
“Right.” She jabbed a finger in my chest. “Time for a chat.”
***
Chapter Seventeen
Standing off the side of the open stage behind the bulky width of Travis, I peeked around his shoulder, carefully eyeing the Melbourne festival crowd. Was he out there somewhere—watching me? Travis said the first rule was to trust your gut, but mine was so busy doing gold medal winning backflips that it was unreliable. My deadline was up in two days, and Mac, Lucy, and now Evie who’d been apprised of recent events, hadn’t been able to agree on a solution.
Even though Travis was working, I slipped my hands into the waistband of his pants and held on. He didn’t unfold his arms but he tilted his head and leaned back slightly, his body shielding me from the brisk wind. I shivered at the protective gesture.
“Cold?” he asked.
I nodded. “A little,” I replied, because I was. Melbourne was chilly and I hadn’t packed accordingly. My mind had been focused on more pressing matters.
“Where’s your jacket?”
“I left it in the hotel room.”
Travis unfolded his arms and peeled his work jacket off. “Put this on.”
I slipped it on and he turned patiently and started rolling up the sleeves. The warmth of his scent wrapped around me, and I bit down on my lip as I breathed it in.
“Quinn,” he said.
At the warning tone in his voice, I looked up from watching his hands work to see his eyes on my lips. He turned back, the hard edge returning to his eyes as he once again folded his arms and glared at the crowd.
After my escape plan went south, not even managing to even get dressed or make it out of the wardrobe, Mac had taken me hostage. We’d waited for Lucy in tense silence because every time I opened my mouth to speak, Mac glared at me.
“Quinn. Did you think running would stop them looking for you?” Mac had asked.
“Of course not,” I replied, “but it would stop them going for any of you.”
Lucy growled her anger. “Fuck me sideways. That’s dumb. You’re being dumb. Dumb as dog shit.” Her look had been one of utter disappointment. “After everything, you still couldn’t ask for anyone to help you?”
My body bristled in the face of her disappointment. “And risk any of you getting hurt because of me?”
“How would they even know you spoke to us?”
“I have no idea. What if my phone’s bugged? Or my bag? These are the kind of people that have people in their pockets—like the police.”
“Oh, that is it. I’m ringing Travis,” Mac ground out.
“Wait.” I grabbed her arm. “There’s got to be another way out of this.”
Both of them folded their arms and faced me, waiting for me to tell them what it is.
“I just haven’t worked out what it is yet,” I hedged.
Mac grabbed for her phone.
“You can’t,” I burst out. “I don’t want anyone involved. Not any of you, not Travis. I didn’t want this touching anyone. It’s my mess. Mine. I’ll fix it.”
“That’s not how we roll, Quinn.”
“It’s how I roll,” I told Mac. “I have no idea what David is dealing with, but you know the person he is. These people he owes money to have guns, and all of you, you’re high profile people. Evie stands out in the middle of a stage,” I whispered furiously, “and Travis and Jared stand right off the edge, in full view of everyone. He threatened to shoot people if I talked or if I didn’t get the money.”
Lucy sank heavily onto the bed. “We need to get the money. Rick and I have savings.”
“Are you kidding? We need to take these bastards down,” came Mac’s solution.
“No. I need to talk to them. That’s all. I’ll just explain I don’t have the money and that it’s got nothing to do with me.”
“You think they’ll be happy with that?”
“Maybe,” I muttered.
Evie yelled, “Last song!” and it brought me back to the present.
I glanced sideways at Mac. I knew what was churning through her mind. It was the same thing as me. The deadline was getting closer and my idea to just explain I didn’t have any money was sounding like a really shitty one. She returned my look with a glare and a nod at Travis, her actions informing me that if I didn’t tell Travis, and soon, she was going to.
My lips pressed tightly together, and I returned her nod. It was then I realised Travis had caught our silent exchange, and his brows were pinched together in a frown.
He looked between the both of us. “What’s going on?”