Intimate Persuasions (6 page)

She nodded. “I’m sorry. I just don’t want to screw this up.” Looking up at him she said, “I really like you.”

This time Quinn laughed. “Well, I should hope so. We have sex every day.” He laughed harder but was forced to calm himself. She looked so serious.

“No. I mean I
really
like you.” She shrugged. “And I have a history of screwing up a relationship every time I really start to like someone.”

He didn’t like that. He didn’t want her comparing him to her past boyfriends. He took his forefinger and thumb and brought her chin up so that she would be forced to look at him. “Ann, how could you screw anything up? You’re amazing.”

She placed a hand to his cheek. “Quinn, that’s sweet of you to say. But I really don’t want you to regret anything with me. I don’t want you to rush into something and then wish you could take it back.”

“Geez, Ann. You’re overanalyzing this. I like you and you like me. We have amazing, mind-blowing sex, so just move in with me. If it doesn’t work out then you can come back here, no hard feelings. But before you dismiss it entirely, why don’t you give it a chance?”

God, she wanted to.
The idea of going to bed with him every night and waking up to him every morning was fantastic. Well, they already did that now, but then he always had to go home. To live under the same roof would definitely be different.
Should she? Could she?

“Come on, what do you say?”

She stared at him. He was so handsome. And she absolutely loved being around him. Oh, what should she do?

“Annie, please.” His whispered plea came out more desperate than he had intended it to. But he couldn’t help it. Suddenly the idea of her living with him was of the utmost importance. Almost as if he couldn’t be truly happy unless she was there with him.

“Are you sure? Because if you’re not, we can just forget you ever mentioned it.”

He shook his head at her. “Do you like being around me, other than the obvious times?”

“Of course I do. I love being around you.”
Careful with your word choice there girl. You don’t want him to go running for the hills.

“Then say you’ll move in with me. Come on, what do you have to lose?”

You
. She kept the answer to herself. But she answered him anyway. “Okay, I’ll move in with you. Just promise me that if you start to get sick of me you’ll tell me.”

Quinn raised his eyebrows at her. “Get sick of you? Annie, I’m hard for you again already.” He kissed her and laughed. “Right. Get sick of you. As if.”

Chapter Five

“Wow,” Ann said as she sat down across the table from Derek. “I thought you were busy the other night, you guys can’t always be this busy. It was crazy in here tonight.”

Derek laughed. “It happens every so often. It’s like everyone and their mother decides not to cook dinner on the same day.”

Ann reached around behind her neck and massaged her tense shoulders. “I could use a hot bath. What time is it anyway?”

Derek held up his hand and squinted at his watch. “Quarter until eleven.”

Ann sighed, “Well boss man. If you don’t need me anymore, I’m out of here.”

Derek made a gesture with his hands for her to head out. He also was tired. “I’m out of here too. Hang on and I’ll walk you out.”

Ann waited for him by the door and they walked out to the parking lot together. She was getting into her car when he stopped her. “It’s later than usual. Maybe I should follow you over to the hotel. You know, just so I can be sure you get home all right. You know with it being Friday night, Quinn will be at the Roadhouse late.”

She wasn’t sure if they were telling anyone yet. They had only just decided on it that morning. They were going to wait until Sunday to move her things over to his place, because the weekends were always so busy for him at the Roadhouse. But Derek was Quinn’s brother so she figured it was okay.

“Actually, I’m not going to the hotel. I took a few of my things over to Quinn’s. I’m sort of staying there.” She waited for his reaction. He had already given her the brotherly warning.
Would he be okay with this?
They got along really well at work, but she knew that when it came to Quinn, Derek was very protective.

“Staying there? Was there a problem at the hotel?” And he already knew the answer because of the embarrassed way she turned away from him said it all. “Are you two living together now?”

Ann looked back up at him and nodded. “Yeah, I mean he sort of asked me this morning, and I wasn’t going to, but I just don’t know. It’s soon, I know that, I do. There’s just something about Quinn, he sort of consumes my mind.” She shrugged. “I don’t always think rationally when your brother is concerned.”

Derek smiled at her. “Nothing you could have said would have mattered more than to me than what you didn’t say.”

She looked at him perplexed. Sure she knew she was tiptoeing around it, but could she tell him that she was falling for Quinn?

“Derek, I don’t understand. All I said was that he sort of clouds my mind.” His stare made her feel like he couldn’t be happier. He was Quinn’s brother, and probably thought that he deserved a good woman. Did he think that she was that one?

 
His smile only got bigger. “Really? Clouds it huh? Sounds like you got it bad.”

Ann smirked at him. He was really very nice, but she knew he was getting a kick out of her discomfort. “Very funny. Fine. I’m crazy about your brother. Is that what you want to hear?”

Derek placed his hands in his front pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels, obviously very pleased with himself. “Yeah, that pretty much covers it. Now come on, I’ll follow you to Quinn’s. It’s late and those dark roads can be pretty dangerous if you’re not used to them.”

Ann thanked him and closed her door. Starting her engine, she wondered why it was so easy to talk to Derek. Thinking about her past week, she realized just how truly lucky she was. In one week she had found a great job, which she truly enjoyed. She found a sexy and amazing lover! And now she felt like she had an honest to goodness friend in Derek. Suddenly she wasn’t angry at Larry anymore. She was actually grateful for his cheating ways. If he had stayed faithful to her, she might not have met Quinn, and she might not have gotten her job or met Derek.
Hmm. Life works in mysterious ways.

Ten minutes later Ann was getting out of her car. She motioned for Derek to wait before he drove away. She ran over to his window and waited for him to open it.

“You want to come inside?”

He was surprised by her question. She had just told him how exhausted she was. “Ah sure, but I thought you were tired.”

She was. Truth was she was beyond tired. But she felt awkward going into Quinn’s house. Even though she was going to be living there with him, she still felt like she was intruding upon his personal space. Derek was his brother, so if he came in for a little while then it wouldn’t seem so weird.

“I am, but I don’t think I’ll get to sleep right away anyway. I’m too wound up. We could have a beer or something.” She assumed Quinn kept beer at the house. She’d only been over a couple of times before. And then she had just been in the bedroom, although there was that one time in the bathroom, oh and once in the kitchen, too.

“Sure, let me just park my truck. I’ll be right inside.” Derek watched her as she walked towards the house. She hesitated for a moment before putting her key in the door. Derek picked up his cell phone and called his brother.

“Hey man, what’s up?” Quinn asked over the noise surrounding him.

“Nothing major, but we were busy at the restaurant tonight, so we got done much later than usual. Anyway I followed Ann to your place—”

Quinn interrupted him. “Oh, she told you? I was gonna tell you myself, I just got busy.”

“No, it’s cool. She’s nice, I like her, but she seems really nervous. And she asked me to stay. I get the feeling she’s afraid to be alone in your place.”

Quinn was surprised by his comment. “Really?”

“Yeah, so I’m gonna go inside. But I think she’s really exhausted. If you find me sleeping on the sofa when you get home, don’t be surprised.”

Quinn laughed, “Sure man, thanks for helping her out. She…well she matters…a lot.”

Derek grinned as he opened his truck door. “I know. And just so you know, judging from what she told me, the feelings mutual.”

“What’d she say?” Quinn was dying to know.

Derek pretended to make static noises and said, “Oh sorry bro, bad connection. Got to go. Bye.” And he hung up the phone laughing as he walked to the door.

Quinn hung up his phone and a huge smile formed on his face. She had talked about him to Derek, and it must have been good, otherwise Derek wouldn’t have gotten so much enjoyment out of toying with him. He turned his head to look over at the jerk that had been practically molesting Ann on the side of the road last week. He hated the SOB, but suddenly he felt like buying him a beer. If he hadn’t been such an arrogant asshole, he might not have pulled over to help her and then he wouldn’t be deliriously happy.

Quinn went back out to the main bar area and watched as the usual crowd had too much to drink and got way too rowdy. On any other night he would have been fine with it. But tonight all he could think about was that with every beer sold it was going to be that much longer until he got to go home to be with Ann. He looked around at all the people still crowding the place, knowing that it would be hours before he would get out of there.

* * * *

“So, it looks like we have water or beer.” Ann looked up from the refrigerator at Derek, “So, what’ll it be?”

“Beer sounds good.” He reached his hand over and grabbed onto the frosty bottle. Twisting the top off, he took a long pull on it. “Aah, hits the spot after a long night at the restaurant.”

Ann had opted for water and was twisting off her cap, sitting on the breakfast nook stool next to Derek. She sighed before she took a giant swallow. “Yep.”

Derek raised an eyebrow at her. He knew she was nervous but now she seemed downright terrified. “What’s going on, Ann?”

She looked at him, “I don’t know what you mean.”

He gave her a mocking half smile, “Yeah, you do. Look I know we haven’t known each other that long, but, well we see each other every day and I kind of thought we were becoming friends. I mean you’re in love with my brother so—”

“Woah, what did you say? I never…not once did I tell you…I mean I’ve only known him a week…so I’m not. Alright?” She said matter-of-factly.

Derek wondered if she realized how much she had stammered through her little speech. “Sure. Sorry, I guess I just assumed. You know seeing as how you’re, what did you say, ‘crazy about him’ and for whatever reason you are nervous as all hell to be here. But hey, if you say you don’t love him, well then I’ll just tell my bro to quit wasting his time on something that’s going nowhere,” he said it casually as he reached for his cell phone.

Ann’s eyes widened in shock, grabbing his phone she stopped him from dialing. “You can’t tell him that! What’s gotten into you?”

Derek laughed at her, enjoying her little dilemma. “I wasn’t really gonna call him. I just wanted to get you to realize that you are falling pretty damn hard for him.”

Ann dropped her head on the nook’s countertop and groaned. “I know. And because of that it’s not going to last.”

He bunched his brows together in confusion. “Why is that exactly?”

She made a sound that might have been laughter, he wasn’t sure. Then she let out a muffled reply. “Because when I fall for a guy, that’s usually around the time he decides that I’m not worth the whole respect and fidelity thing.” She raised her head up and looked at Derek. “So you see, no matter how great your brother is now, I give it a couple of weeks before he starts sleeping with other women and treating me like a door mat.”

Derek had to bite back his laughter. She clearly didn’t see how ridiculous she sounded and how completely torn up she was. “So, now he’s great and you are
not
in love with him. But, you are ‘crazy about him’ which doesn’t matter because in a couple of week’s time he will become an asshole?”

“Pretty much,” Ann said as she reached over and took a healthy swig of his beer.

Derek nodded, “Yeah, that totally makes sense.”

Ann knew he was mocking her. “Meaning?”

He just shrugged, “Oh nothing. It’s just that my brother hasn’t had very much luck with women treating him right. Because of that he’s been sort of skittish when it comes to relationships.” He took the beer back from her and swallowed some. “Lord knows he’s never asked a woman to live with him before. Not to mention insisting that I give one of them a job.” He winced at her expression. Obviously she thought that she got the job on merit, which now she would have, because she was a fantastic addition to the restaurant. The customers absolutely adored her. But the real reason he hired her was because Quinn threatened to have some very essential body parts hurt in a very bad way.

“He
made
you hire me?” She should have been more shocked, but she really wasn’t. When Quinn wanted something he usually went for it. “Nevermind. It doesn’t matter. If you don’t want me to stick around, I mean—”