3.2010
unedited!
The hardest battles are fought
within...
He opened the door—
And stopped dead in his tracks
as somebody all but fell into his arms. Somebody…a woman. And
not Theresa.
He caught her just above her
elbows, automatically steadying her.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice
soft and low.
Then she lifted her face and
Quinn found himself gazing into the biggest, brownest eyes he’d
ever seen in his life. Feeling a little dazed, he studied her
face while she stammered out another apology.
Quinn barely heard it.
He was too busy staring at her
mouth. A very pretty mouth, a cupid’s bow mouth slicked with
deep, vibrant red. Under his hands, he could feel silken smooth
skin and unable to resist, he stroked a thumb along her inner
arm.
Her skin was soft, soft and
warm. He was also pretty sure she had the creamiest, most
flawless skin imaginable. Her shoulder-length hair was a shade
caught between blonde and brown, nondescript, but for some
reason, he found himself thinking about tangling his fingers in
that hair and holding her head still while he kissed that
red-slicked mouth.
Well, hello…he
could all but feet his libido kicking up as he stared at that
mouth. Every last one of his senses tuned in on her—
The way she looked…sex and sin.
The way she smelled…sex and sin.
The way she sounded…sex and sin.
The way she felt…the way she
might taste. Sex and sin. He knew it without a doubt. She’d
taste like sex and sin.
His mouth was all but watering.
“Ahhh…excuse me,” she said,
tugging against his light hold.
“Uh…yeah.” He uncurled his
fingers and let go, although he hated every second of it.
She immediately backed away,
putting a good five feet in between them and eying him
nervously. In that moment, he was acutely aware of the fact
that he hadn’t bothered shaving that morning, or the morning
before. He was also acutely aware of the wrinkled state of his
gray T-shirt and the worn jeans he wore. He hadn’t gotten into
the habit of wearing the unofficial uniform worn by most of the
guys who worked for Gearing, but he’d swapped out the black
T-shirt that read Bond Enforcement for a plain
one. Wearing those particular shirts outside of work had ended
up causing him a headache or two so when he remembered, he
changed out of them before leaving the office.
She continued to stare at him,
her face expressionless and her eyes measuring. She might have
just continued to stare at him indefinitely if Theresa hadn’t
come bustling down the hall. “Quinn?”
Tearing his eyes away from the
unknown woman, he smiled at his landlord. It no longer seemed
so weird to smile at somebody—as in he didn’t worry his face
might crack if he wasn’t careful. Still, the smile on his face
did feel odd. “Hey, Theresa. I didn’t know you had company.”
She beamed at him. “This isn’t
company. This is your new neighbor. She just moved in to the
upstairs apartment. Sara…I’d like you to meet Quinn Rafferty.
Quinn, this is Sara Davis.”
Sara.
Neighbor.
Staring into Sara’s dark brown
eyes, his heart sank just a little. Great.
Some people collected books.
Some people collected
knickknacks.
Some people collected coins.
Theresa collected lost souls, as
evidenced by the fact that he was living in her basement after
she’d charmed him into changing her tire outside Dierburg’s a
few months earlier.
The last woman to stay in that
apartment had ended up being a battered woman hiding out from
her ex. Before that, it had been a girl who’d been all of
nineteen, with two kids and a third on the way. When that one
had left, she’d ended up stealing from Theresa and skipping out
on the piddling amount of rent that Theresa had coming.
If Sara Davis was living in
Theresa’s upstairs apartment, that made her pretty much off
limits. It didn’t matter that his dormant sex drive was all of
sudden flaring up on him.
The last thing Quinn needed to
be around was another lost soul, not when he still struggled to
find his own.
