The Harder He Falls: 2 (So Inked) (17 page)

He stepped into the hallway and the low, pulsing tones of some electronic rock band wrapped around him. The hall was dark, the shop lights were off. The only illumination came from the front windows and the square of fluorescent light coming from the office. He paused to allow his eyes to adjust before moving into the doorway and setting his shoulder against the doorjamb.

Kellie sat with her back toward him, a flat screen computer monitor booting up and makeup spread out over the desk. A pedestal mirror sat within arm’s reach, but she didn’t seem to have made use of it yet. She selected a dark-blue tube and tapped it against her hand. Her sigh slid through the music to his ears, sounding tired.

He’d hurt her and she’d hurt him. He didn’t consider them even, not yet. His transgressions were worse than hers. On one hand, it felt good to have his secret out in the open. Maybe now they could figure out this thing between them, because it wasn’t casual.

Kellie pushed away from the desk and spun in her chair toward him. She froze with one hand on the desk, the other in her lap. She stared at him, her jaw hanging open slightly.

“Hey,” he said through the muscles clenched around his throat, constricting his breathing.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” She bolted to her feet and took two menacing steps toward him. “Get out.”

“Kellie.” He held his hands up. “I just want to talk.”

Her gaze narrowed, making the dark circles under her eyes more pronounced. She crossed the distance between them and got up in his face, a finger jabbing at his chest. “I don’t want to hear your damn excuses. You’re a liar and a cheater. You disgust me.” She said more, but he couldn’t understand the dulcet tones of Korean spilling from her lips. At least he assumed it was Korean.

“Kellie,” he tried again a little louder.

She placed both of her hands on his chest and shoved. He stumbled back, unprepared for her strength.

“Damn it, Kellie!”

“I’m calling the police,” she growled, and slammed the office door shut.

He hadn’t expected a peaceable conversation by any means, but involving the police went a little far. He grabbed the door handle and rattled it. “Unlock the door. I just want to talk.”

“Fuck you!”

“I’m coming in there whether you unlock this door or not.”

“Ha! I dare you.”

“Stubborn woman,” he growled, his patience evaporating.

Stepping back, he dropped his shoulder and threw his weight against the door. The cheap particle board groaned and the hinges rattled in the joints. Again he hit it, and this time the door bowed inward. He sucked in a deep breath, ignored the twinge of pain in his spine and charged again. This time the door buckled and popped open, a crease down the middle where the material had given under the strain.

Kellie stood there, gape-mouthed, staring at the former door.

“You broke my door!”

“Yeah.”

She growled and predictably launched herself at him. Quin grabbed her hands, swept her feet out from under her and carried her back onto the sofa. Kellie squirmed and fought him before her spine touched the cushions, but he had the upper hand and the cooler demeanor.

“I’m going to call the police!”

“Fine, call the police after I talk to you. I’ll fix the damn door, just listen.”

She twisted one of her arms free and clocked him in the jaw with a wildly aimed blow. His teeth knocked together and he grunted. Wrenching her other arm over her head, he captured the flailing appendage and forced it up as well.

They’d tried this game once before as foreplay, and it had been hot as hell. Despite knowing she was pissed at him, being pressed against her at knee, cock and chest, he could feel all of her. The way her muscles bunched right before she wiggled one way or tried to kick out her leg.

“Kellie,” he growled.

She glared back, the fight leaving her. He exhaled and dropped down to his elbows, squishing her generous breasts against his chest.

“Get the fuck off me.”

“Will you talk to me?”

“Fuck you.”

“Then we’re doing this right here.”

Her eyes widened.

He dropped his head forward. “No, not that. Shit.”

Kellie smashed her head into his, pain blossoming along his brow and his already busted-open gash. Curses spilled from his lips, training alone keeping his hands firmly locked around her wrists and her from bucking him off.

He pried one eye open and looked down into Kellie’s dazed face. She hadn’t hit him right. Two red dots marred her cheek. His blood from the new stitches.

“Fuck, doll. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I bought the gym. Did I know who you were when I came in here? Yes, and I deliberately didn’t tell you I bought the gym at first, but then it was easier to not tell you.”

“It just never came up, did it?”

“I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“You didn’t know how to tell me you have a wife and a kid either, did you?”

“I did not cheat on anyone.”

She marshaled her anger and it was clear if she could have sliced into him with her eyes, she would have. “Really? Then what do you call kissing that blonde woman?”

This was going to suck. He drew in a deep breath to fortify himself. “That blonde woman is Penny. Three years ago we had a kid together from a one-night stand.”

“Ha!”

“We never dated or had a relationship. Up until this year we didn’t even live in the same state. I moved here so I could co-parent Josie, my daughter. Penny was at the gym picking her up last night when you saw me.”

“Yeah, sticking your tongue down her throat is totally platonic.”

He frowned. “I kissed her cheek. Penny is married, I wouldn’t fuck that up.”

She continued to glare at him but she no longer strained against his grasp. Pity, because he wanted to be closer to her. Despite being intimately embraced, they couldn’t have seemed farther apart.

Resigned to his fate, Quin released her hands and pushed up to his feet. Kellie sat up and scooted across the couch. He didn’t know if she was trying to get away or make room for him. Regardless, he sank down next to her.

“I didn’t mean to tell you about the gym like this. I didn’t know how to tell you after I met you.”

“Why did you keep that from me?”

“Because I’ve been having problems. Mailbox was broken, deliveries trashed, someone who knows the layout of the gym broke in and messed some stuff up. The building’s been tagged twice. My security cameras smashed. It was a long shot that you might be connected. I just came in to feel you out, and you were so prickly I wanted to needle you a little.”

“You’re an ass.” And yet she didn’t seem any more angry about his lying than kissing Penny.

“I know. I’m sorry.” When she didn’t reply, he continued, “I didn’t tell you about Penny because she’s never been anything to me except the mother of my kid. She’s more like a sister to me than a chick.”

“A sister you boned?”

“Whatever. I have a good relationship with the mother of my child that lets me see her whenever I want, without supervision or limitations. If you want to be pissed at me for being a dad, go ahead.”

“You should have told me.”

“When? Between the times we fucked at my place? Or before I did you in my truck? We haven’t exactly made a lot of time to talk.”

Kellie ducked her head and didn’t meet his gaze.

They’d begun this mutual booty call at her insistence to keep it to sex. There had never been any discussion of getting to know each other beyond what it took to be comfortable getting naked, and that hadn’t been much. He hadn’t exactly pushed them in another direction either.

“Doll, I admit I screwed the pooch. Should I have told you about the gym? Yes. I regret not telling you the moment I walked in the doors. Should I have told you about my daughter? If I’m just a fuck buddy to you, I don’t see how it’s any of your damn business. Seeing as how you saw us together, I do owe you an explanation, but that’s all I owe you.”

Kellie leaned back against the armrest, examining him as if she’d never met him before. The puzzled look on her face was unnerving.

“Do you want me to leave?” He gestured toward the door. “I can come back later and fix that.”

She glanced at the broken particle board. The damage they’d done was already fading from his memory. “Um, whenever you have time.”

He sat where he was. She wasn’t telling him to get out. He stretched one arm out across the back of the sofa and studied her. She was all sharp lines and soft curves, kick-ass attitude and wanton woman, contradictions. It was her strength, her willingness to not back down and stand toe-to-toe with him that drew him.

He slid his arm down the cushion and took her hand from where it rested next to his. She allowed him the touch, to curl his hand around hers.

“Come on, doll, say something.”

“It’s complicated.”

“I know.”

She took her hand back and cradled her face. “I can’t do complicated.”

His gut clenched. He wasn’t ready to let go of her. Maybe in a week or a month, but not now. “It doesn’t have to be. Nothing has to change.”

“What does that even mean?”

“I like you. I like what we have, even if it’s not a full relationship. We’re both busy, the timing isn’t perfect, but we can still do this. Keep it casual, if that’s what you want.”

“I don’t know what I want.”

“Then how about I tell you what I want?”

She turned her head toward him, one brow lifted.

He scooted closer until their hips touched. “Same terms. We’re with each other only, we can do just sex, and if we don’t want to have sex, we can hang out. No expectations though. If one of us is busy, I won’t ask you to change what you’re doing, and I won’t change what I’m doing.”

“What do you want out of this? A fuck buddy? A babysitter?”

“What? I just want you.”

“Really? Because I’m not petite or blonde.”

“Are you jealous of Penny?” He looked Kellie over, from the panty covers she called shorts to the low-cut, billowing tank top that showed off a healthy amount of cleavage. What did she have to be jealous of?

“I’m not jealous of her, but I do have to wonder why you’d want me over her.”

“I’m not attracted to Penny. Shit. She was a drunken one-night stand. That’s it.” He grabbed her hand and placed it over the hard line of his cock. “Penny could flash me her boobs and I wouldn’t react this way.”

Kellie flexed her fingers around the semi-hard length beneath the nylon shorts. Quin locked eyes with her and challenged her to deny what he was saying, but her thoughts were too scrambled to decide one way or the other.

She wanted him.

He was complicated.

There wasn’t enough time in her day to wonder whether he’d cheat or if she was giving him enough time. But they weren’t asking for a lot from each other, and he would be hers. Someone who didn’t want her time, her money or her talent—outside bed at least—and they both got something out of this deal. It was a good business decision, but she wasn’t crunching the numbers in her head. Her heart was stuttering and lurching like a drunken butterfly at the thought of letting him walk out of her life.

Maybe she needed support, someone she could be selfish with.

Quin moved her hand against him, rubbing her palm against his dick. She clenched her thighs together and wrapped her hand around as much of him as she could through the layers of fabric.

“I can’t make promises,” she said as she leaned toward him, her gaze dropping to his mouth.

He cupped her cheek and released her hand to palm her thigh. “I’m not asking for any.”

Fireworks went off across her skin as their lips touched, mouths opened and they each tried to shove the other down on the sofa. Kellie laughed around his tongue. They might set themselves on fire, but they’d fight over who laid the tinder and struck the spark. She gripped his shoulder and swung a leg over his lap. Quin grasped her hips and pulled her closer. She rotated her pelvis in a circle, grinding their sexes together.

His voice was a low rumble against her ear. “I want to fuck you.”

She shivered, loving the roughness of him. She glanced at the clock, responsibility and selfishness warring inside her. “It has to be quick. Do you mind? Pandora will be here in half an hour at most.”

“Fine by me.”

He cupped her ass with both hands and stood. She wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. She closed her lips around his earlobe, giving the soft piece of flesh a swirl of tongue and a scrape of her teeth. He groaned and set her on the edge of her desk. Her makeup was pushed to the side, some of it falling on the floor.

“Do you have a rubber?”

“Purse.” She jerked her head toward the monstrously huge silver bag sitting on top of the filing cabinet next to the desk.

Quin grabbed the bag and dumped it in her lap. She rolled her eyes and stuck her hand inside, feeling around for the retro cigarette case she’d once used for smokes and now repurposed for condoms. She pulled the case out, shoved the bag to the side of the desk and popped the case open. Quin chuckled and plucked one out, only to lay it on the desk in easy reach.