Love, Diamonds, and Spades (Cactus Creek #2)(24)

Eyes softening, she nodded, replying quietly, “Yes. And while I know this is just going to make you even more overbearing and cavemanish, you should probably know that I feel the exact same way. About you.”

Well, damn.

Steadying his gaze on her liquid blue eyes to try and slow down the now hammering drum beat tattooing the inside of his chest, he brought his forehead down to rest on hers. “Tomorrow’s Valentine concert will probably run later than tonight’s, but I’m heading straight to your house afterward with dessert.” His voice brooked no refusal, throbbing with undeclared emotions now tattered round the edges. “We can watch a DVD, play cards, whatever. So long as we’re together, I don’t care what we do. And if you and Coop are free the next day, I thought the three of us could camp out in your yard like he’d gone on about last week. I got us a big tent so we—”

Quinn grabbed him and halted the rest of his words with her lips.

Surprise immobilized Rylan for all of one heartbeat before he pitched his arms around her and crushed her to him. He never wanted to let go, couldn’t if he’d tried. The pent-up passion she was unleashing slayed his ability to do anything but hang on for the wildest ride of his life.

She kissed them both into a side alley and he nearly swallowed his tongue when she mindlessly slid one knee up his leg. Knowing what her movements were doing to her prim little business skirt was unmitigated torture. Quinn had amazing legs. And she never wore hose or stockings, a fact he knew from looking but not touching per the old ‘nothing below the waist in back and absolutely nothing in front’ rule he’d been tormenting himself with on each of their pseudo dates. He knew she’d been hurt by a lot of jerks in her life and he hadn’t wanted to rush her or make her feel like she had to do anything she wasn’t ready to do again.

But now here she was, ready and offering, and damn it all but he wanted to accept.

Unable to stop himself, he smoothed his hand over her hip until he came in contact with the warm, bare skin of her thigh. Even better than his fantasies. She shifted forward and his knees almost gave out when his fingers slipped under the edge of her skirt completely, dangerously close to curves he really shouldn’t be touching out here in plain view of the world.

He yanked his hand back and pulled away from the kiss at once. Criminy. It would be his luck that the first time he actually got to feel those gorgeous legs of hers they’d be in public, unable to do a damn thing more about it. “Quinn, honey, this alley isn’t all that private.”

It was as if she didn’t care. She leaned forward and slid her lips across his jaw, tracing her tongue down his neck before clamping her mouth onto the hard, beating pulse at his throat.

A coarse groan, soft and low, rumbled out of him.

“I love the sounds you make,” she whispered against his skin.

He’d have made the same declaration to her if he’d had any mind left to voice, but he didn’t. She’d stolen all thought from him when her curious hands slipped under his shirt and flexed into his tense lats before scoring his obliques.

But she didn’t stop there. Her fingertips slid down to tease the gap between his painfully clenched stomach and belt buckle, where much hotter flesh was rapidly gravitating to her fingers.

Christ. He barely caught her wrist in time.

Great, now Quinn let her inner sex kitten out of the cage. He’d seen that hidden fire in her all along, but evidently, he hadn’t known the half of it. “Sugar, I’m seconds from taking you to my truck and just plain taking you,” he rasped, his voice hoarse.

Her blue eyes eclipsed, and all his good intentions shot straight to hell. A ragged curse spilled from his lips.

“You’re supposed to say no, honey.”

“But I want to say yes,” she whispered.

Instantly, everything turned fuzzy. “Good god, woman.” Somehow—and he had no idea how—he still managed to force himself back, his body fighting every step he took.

Until he heard the delicate, feminine sound of disappointment from Quinn. Just that quickly, his feet simply refused to move another inch. He slid his hands around her waist and pulled her back to him again. “I need one more kiss, sugar. One more to make waiting for the rest bearable.”

When her face lit up, his eyelids lowered tenderly. Damn, this was going to be a hell of a long kiss.

“Concerts never start on time anyway,” he muttered as he bent down and captured her lips in a kiss so sweet he didn’t ever want it to end.

A half hour later, during his band’s set, Rylan found himself finally grasping what it meant to sing from the soul as he felt his throaty ballads resonate from depths his music had never ever reached before.

All because of Quinn.





CHAPTER ELEVEN


QUINN LOOKED AROUND at the yard, taking in every detail of the post-Valentine’s Day campout that Rylan had set up for her and Cooper. The new three-person tent, the fire, the dozen new books for campfire storytime, big flashlights to go exploring in the dark later, the massive selection of food, and games to play in the morning.

Her heart expanded like a giant balloon in her chest.

It was amazing. He was amazing.

“How’s that, buddy? Breathing okay?” asked Rylan worriedly as he positioned a humidifier next to Cooper, and then hurriedly switched on the second fan he’d placed next to the camp fire to blow the smoke away from Cooper. He looked up at Quinn. “You think I should get another fan?”