Loving Quinn Novel by North Rose

(Annora)

I sit at the kitchen counter in silence. Grace is at a friend’s house for a sleepover, since

school will be out for the rest of the week for teacher conferences. I have the entire house to

myself for the first time in weeks. Yet, I sit in my kitchen staring at the necklace I placed on the marble surface hours ago rather than relaxing with a book. My mind is racing through all those memories from that long ago summer.

I sent Quinn an email before I left the hospital to tell him I needed to keep professional between us this time around. I regretted it instantly as my thoughts were consumed with images from the past. My mind kept going to that last night with Quinn. That was the night I gave him the St. Michael’s medal.

We spent that night talking about how we envisioned our lives in the future. Planning out what we would do after we went our separate ways. We planned to meet up in England. anytime he had leave from his duties and if my schedule was free. We both knew it was just a dream, but we dreamed it anyway.

Then we spent the rest of the night tangled up with each other on the small bed in the

room’s corner. Much later, before I had to sneak back to my grandparent’s house, I gave him the medal. The look in those sea-green eyes made me happy. He put it on right away, then told me he would keep it with him always.

I now know that he was true to his word.

I blink my eyes as I feel tears fall onto my hand. Brushing my cheeks with my hands, I am surprised to find that I have been crying while I remembered that last night with Quinn. I pull out my phone to check for a response to the email I sent him. There is no response from him, which makes my heart constrict painfully. He is doing what I asked by not responding, so why does it hurt? I quickly compose another email telling him we need to tai.

I need to tell him about Grace before he finds out another way. Quinn needs to hear it from me. We have a daughter together. I also need to talk to Grace about her father. What will it be like to finally introduce her to the man that helped create her? Will he be angry with me for not trying harder to find him?

** it. I text him my address, then tell him to come over as soon as he gets the message. I will tell him tonight. In a state of panic, I stand up off the stool and rush up to my room. There is no way I am going to have Quinn in my house while I am in my pajamas. Yes, he

WJ 1/6

has seen me naked before, but that was over twelve years ago. Before my body went through

motherhood.

1 take a shower, leave my hair to dry, and dress in casual clothes. I pick out a pair of gray pants and a black silk shirt. Ok, maybe that wasn’t casual, but I am going with it. When there was still no response from Quinn, my resolve wavered.

Wine will help me drown the disappointment. I wouldn’t blame him if he decided not to come by after the email I sent. Playing it cold and safe then hot and demanding is just s*id. I** never should have sent that email in the first place.

y way down to the kitchen to pour myself a glass of white wine. As I pass the door,

I make my

the doorbell rings. My heart flutters as I hope it is Quinn on the other side of the door. With a shaky hand, I open the door, disappointment and anger flood my body as I see Kyle on the other side of the door. Fantastic, just what I don’t need.

“No, you are not allowed to be here. There is a restraining order keeping you away. Why are you here?” I demand from him. I put one foot on the inside of the door as I close the gap to show him less of the foyer.

“We need to talk. I want you to drop the restraining order and let me come home.” Kyle smiles at me as he whips a bouquet of roses from behind his back.

I sigh heavily at his words. This isn’t the first time he has tried this in the last two weeks. “Kyle, we are divorced. Remember? You are remarried now. Go home to your wife. You know, the woman you cheated on me with. If you don’t leave, I will call the police. This violates the restraining order and your probation.”

“I don’t care! I love you, and we will be together again. Let me in now!!” Kyle screams at me as he tries to push his way inside.

Before he does that, an enormous figure steps up behind him, pulling him back. The light from the front porch shows me Quinn’s face. His face is contorted in anger as he turns Kyle around to face him. “I believe she told you to leave.”

“Who the **?” Kyle stuttered before his face showed recognition. “You are that a**e. from the fundraiser. What the f***k are you doing at my house?”

“This isn’t your house, Kyle! It never was,” I tell him as I step into the doorway.

“You are still my wife, so that makes this my house, you f**g b**h!”

Quinn punches Kyle in the nose, the gut, then pushes him over into the grass. The look he gives me afterwards is apologetic, like he is sorry for punching my ex-husband. Hell, I find it s*y despite myself.

“I am going to call the police,” I tell Quinn. I reach into my pocket for my phone.

Kyle groans as he stands up off the grass. “I will leave. Don’t call the police, please.”

“If this were the first time you have violated the restraining order, Kyle, I would let it go. It isn’t, and I am done with you coming here.” I call the police, explain the situation, then thank them for sending someone out.

Kyle lunges at me, but Quinn steps in front of me to block Kyle’s efforts. “If you want to hit someone, how about you hit me? I promise you will not like the result of me defending myself against you.”

Kyle lunges at him anyway. The result was amazing to watch. Quinn hit him once across the causing him to crumple in a heap on my front stoop. To say I was satisfied with the result is an understatement. Kyle getting knocked out made a shiver go up my spine in excitement. If that makes me a bad person, I will deal with it later.

“I think he will be fine right there until the police get here,” Quinn says with a laugh.

Oh, goodness, I am in trouble already and he isn’t even inside.

‘Hey, I have an idea. Have you had dinner yet?” Quinn asks me.

“No, I was going to fix something, but then he showed up.” I tell him as I point to Kyle.

“I will go grab something and then when I come back, we can have that talk that you wanted to have.” Quinn stepped off the front stoop and jogged down the sidewalk to his car before could think of what to say.

Well, it is nice to know that some things don’t change. He always did stuff like that, and it used to annoy me so much. He would decide something and then just go do it, whether or not I agreed. Tonight, however, I find it useful. This would give me space to have Kyle carted away by the cops without feeling embarrassed in front of Quinn. The police arrived twenty minutes later. While one officer put Kyle in the back of the squad car, the other asked me all the typical questions.

“This violation will get him some jail time,” one officer said.

Quinn came back as they were asking me how I knocked Kyle out cold. I sighed and pointed at him as he joined me on the porch. He gave the officer his version of the story, his name, and contact information. After a few more questions, the police left. They gave me a copy of the report, then drove off with my crazy ex-husband.

“Well, this wasn’t how I was hoping tonight would go,” I told Quinn with a laugh.

“How did you want tonight to go, Annora?” Quinn turned to me with a lift of one eyebrow.

Why does he have to sound so**y when he says my name like that? Why am I still so attracted to this man after all this time? “Well, I will tell you that over dinner. Is that

chicken I smell?”

“It was the closest thing I could find,” he says with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Come on inside then.”

I let him inside then lead back to the kitchen. My mind whirls as I walk, hoping he won’t look around at any of the pictures on the wall of Grace. I will tell him after we eat. That will give me time to work out how to tell him.

“Your home is cheerful,” Quinn tells me as we walk back to the kitchen.

*F*k, he looked around.

“Tell me why you sent me that first email, Annie,” he cut straight to the point like always.

“Sit down while I get plates so we can eat.” I point to the booth-like table in the kitchen’s bay window.

Quinn sits down where I told him to. Seeing him sitting at my kitchen table in his business. suit makes me pause on my way to the cabinet. I must blink a few times to clear my head. He has changed in so many ways, yet he is still the same in others. His face is leaner, more defined. Those beautiful eyes are that same sea-green, but with a guarded look to them. His hair is darker than it used to be, yet it still looks as silky as it always did.

Oh, that body of his is all new.

A low chuckle pulls me out of my musing. “You are staring at me, Annie.”

Can a girl be blamed for ogling this man?

I move to the cabinet to grab two plates, open a draw to grab forks and spoons, then with a

blush still on my cheeks I walk to the table. I sit the plates on the table and go to sit down, but Quinn stops me in my tracks as he grabs my hand. Looking down into his eyes, I find them no longer guarded, but full of emotion. My heart beats faster as he stands from the

c***ed seat.

up

I haven’t had another man look at me with that look in, well, since he did that long ago summer. Things low in my body tighten in anticipation. I lick my suddenly dry lips as he pulls me in close to his body. Quinn’s eyes follow the movement of my tongue with his eyes. Holy heck, I am in trouble. I would love nothing more than for him to take me right here in my kitchen.

He wraps his arms around me, but instead of kissing me like I thought he would, he just

way and holds me close to his body. I feel his lips brush over my hair briefly before he steps away sits back down.

“What was it you wanted to talk about?” Quinn asks. “In one moment, you tell me we need. to remain professional, then in the next you want me to come over.”

I guess

I deserved ice water dumped on my libido.

I sit down across from him, swallowing hard as I compose myself. “I panicked when I sent that email to you earlier. When you handed me that medal, all I could think about was how

life will never be the same.”

my

“I didn’t come here to upset the balance of your life, Annora,” he tells me. Then he opens the takeout bags to serve us.

“Why did you come here?” I must know his reasons for moving to California now.

“Aaron and I settled here because it is a central location for most of our businesses. Then when we heard about the veterans’ program at Mercy General, we knew we made the right choice. We want to do everything we can to give back to fellow soldiers. This program was once the best on the west coast,” he tells me. He plates up a piece of chicken, some mashed potatoes, and a biscuit for us as he talks. He places one plate in front of each of us.

“Oh, let me get you something to drink. I have white wine, tea, water, or orange juice.” I jump up and rush to the refrigerator.

Water will be fine, thank you.”

I grab two glasses and fill them both with ice water. “I was shocked to see you today.”

“I found your name in the employment records for Mercy General while we were negotiating the sale.” Quinn looks up at me as I sit back down at the table. “Running into you at the fundraiser was like being hit by a bolt of lightning.” Quinn took a drink of water, then just

stared at me.

He felt it too then. That same jolt I did when I looked into his sea-green eyes for the first time after all these years. It was just like the first time I saw him by the lake.

“Do you think we have a chance?” I ask. I push my plate away since I no longer have an appetite. All I can do is focus on him.

“For what?” The unguarded emotions in his eyes gives me the courage to continue.

“To recapture what we had that summer? After all these years, all we have been through while apart?” He studies my face as I talk, then his eyes flicker to my lips as I lick them

again.

“If you keep licking your lips, I am going to kiss you,” his voice got deeper in that s*** way it used to when he was aroused.

“Then kiss me already,” I demand. –Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

Quinn takes me at my word. He stands swiftly from his seat, walks to me, then pulls me up from my seat until I am flush against his body. The second his lips touch mine; I know nothing will ever be the same again. I will not let him walk away again.

This man is my home. I have been lost without him all this time this book is really good so far. But how often will we read, this summer and 12 years ago? And how was it possible that he didn’t see the pictures and that a child is living

Heidi Kärblane

Quinn, dont mess up! Be a gentelman, and grateful after big news