Fearless Heart, page 19
A few shocked gasps sounded, and I grinned, shuffling forward quietly as I peered around the corner, desperate for a peek at my wife, the badass. Quinn’s back was to me as she faced off with Chelsea, who stood surrounded by her bridesmaids.
My ex’s face was bright red, her lips pressed in a thin line. “Whatever. You can have my sloppy seconds. I moved on to someone better. Thank God I cut that dead weight back in high school because he hasn’t amounted to anything. You’re just too desperate to see it.”
My jaw ticked, anger flooding me, but not for the reason I would’ve thought. Turned out, I no longer gave a shit what she thought of me, but I’d be damned if I sat back and let her talk about my wife that way.
But before I could take a single step forward and put an end to this, Quinn snapped back at Chelsea. “What I see is a washed-up prom queen who’s mad her ex moved on and found someone else—someone who doesn’t have to count using her fingers.”
I watched as all the bridesmaids’ mouths dropped open, and I had to smother a laugh. Damn. My kitten’s claws were sharp tonight, and that shit was making me hard.
Chelsea fisted her hands at her sides, her face turning a mottled red. “You—”
“I’m not done,” Quinn cut in, waving a hand through the air, the light glinting off her wedding band. “I’m going to try to explain this to you using small words so you can understand—Ford’s a firefighter. That means he saves people’s lives for a living. He’s a literal hero. Your husband sells used cars, so how about we stop throwing stones when we live in glass houses, m’kay?”
I didn’t know what was hotter—that Quinn had my back without hesitation or that she stood up for herself to a woman like Chelsea, who loved cutting others down. Someone so much like her parents. And if she could do it to Chelsea, maybe she could do it with them, too.
The entire purpose of our coming here—of my side in this farce of a marriage—had been to show my ex I wasn’t the man she claimed I was. But now that that time had come, I couldn’t care less. Not when my wife stood there in that red dress, my ring glinting on her finger, and my cock hard as steel for her.
I couldn’t wait a second longer and strolled around the corner toward them. “Evening, ladies.”
All gazes snapped to me, Quinn’s included, and God, she was so fucking beautiful, all anger and indignation on my behalf.
I was going to fuck her so hard.
“You don’t mind if I steal my wife, do you?” I said, settling in behind Quinn and wrapping an arm around her waist. I dipped my head to hers, pressing a kiss to her temple and murmuring, “You about ready to come—I mean go—kitten?”
Before she could answer, I slid my other hand into my pocket, my finger hovering over the button on the remote. And then I pushed it.
Quinn’s body jolted against me, and I bit back a grin. She placed her hand on top of mine, her nails digging into my skin, and I wasn’t sure if she was telling me to leave it on or turn it off. Didn’t know which I’d prefer, either. There would be some definite satisfaction from making her come like this. Right here.
But after the night she’d had—after the edging I’d put her through—I wanted to be buried deep inside her when she finally exploded, so I turned it off, and she sagged back against me.
“Ready,” Quinn managed through a tight throat.
“Nice wedding, Chels. You and Gary deserve each other.”
“It’s Barry!” she yelled after our retreating forms, but I couldn’t be bothered to even offer a wave, in too much of a hurry to get my wife…somewhere. Anywhere. Just as long as I could be inside her.
“Where are we going?” Quinn asked, breathless, her hand gripping mine as she kept up with my long strides.
“We’re finding an empty hallway or bathroom or coat closet or whatever the fuck. I’m not picky.”
“For what?”
“You know what.” I pressed her hand to the front of my pants, letting her feel exactly what she did to me. “After watching you all night, and then that? There’s no goddamn way I’m waiting.”
“We can’t have sex here,” she said, though her voice lacked any firmness. She wanted this just as badly as I did.
“Don’t tell me I can’t fuck my wife wherever I goddamn want. Not after I’ve been tormenting both of us all night. Not after you walked away from that douchebag at the bar. Not after you told Chelsea off. And not after I watched you do it all while wearing my ring. So pick someplace, wife, because I can’t wait another minute to be inside you.”
We turned the corner into a darkened hallway, and she came to a sudden stop before spinning to face me.
“Here,” she said.
The music from the reception hall carried to us, growing louder every once in a while when someone opened the door before quieting again. We were no longer in the main walkway, but we were still out in the open. Still near enough to the party that someone could walk by at any moment and see exactly what we were doing.
But I was too far gone to care.
I reached down and gripped her ass, tugging her up against me. “Wrap those gorgeous legs around me, kitten. This first one is gonna be quick, just to take the edge off. Then when we get home, I’m going to spend an hour with my face buried in your pussy and see how many times I can make you come.”
“After what you’ve put me through tonight, you better.”
I grinned and undid the fly of my pants, pinning her against the wall as I kissed my way up her neck. “Tell me how much you loved our new toy.”
“I hate it,” she said, her fingers fumbling as she tried to undo the buttons on my shirt before she groaned out a frustrated huff and yanked the sides apart, sending a button flying. “Need to feel you.”
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered, my cock throbbing with the need to be inside her. “You need this bad, don’t you, kitten?”
“Yes.”
“You think you can take me with it still in you?”
“Yes.”
My cock twitched at the thought…how tight she’d be like this, and I needed to get inside her or this was going to be over before it even started.
I reached under her skirt and groaned when I found her soaked panties. “Oh, fuck me. Fuck me, how are you so goddamn wet? These panties are ruined, aren’t they, baby?” I slid them to the side and pressed the toy against her clit as I thrust two fingers inside her.
“Oh God,” she said, her head falling back to the wall, eyes fluttering closed. “Only because someone thought it was a good idea to tease me for three fucking hours.”
“But it felt so good, didn’t it?”
She bit her lip, glaring at me with her horny murder eyes and refusing to admit just how much she loved it.
“Don’t worry. I’m going to make it feel even better because we’re done waiting.” I slipped my fingers from her and pulled out my dick, notching myself at her entrance. “I need to fuck you.”
“Yes. Now.” Her voice was breathy, need laced in each word, and all my self-control evaporated.
Without waiting another second, I sank deep inside her, groaning at how tight she was. How fucking wet. She was ready for me, all swollen with need, her cunt already pulsing around my cock.
“Oh my God,” she breathed, eyes wide and locked on mine.
“You had me hard all fucking night, kitten.” I gripped her ass in my palms, my hips slapping against hers with each punishing thrust. I couldn’t keep this gentle or sweet or slow. Not now. Not after everything that had happened tonight. “Watching you fight off your orgasm. Knowing how bad you needed to come. But I wasn’t going to let you until you had my cock inside you. Not until I could fill you up.”
“Ford.” She delved her fingers into my hair, pressing our foreheads together as she panted against my mouth.
“Don’t even care that someone could find us. Someone could walk around that corner right now, but I don’t fucking care. Let them see me give my wife exactly what she needs.”
She slid her gaze toward the open end of the hallway, her fingers tightening in my hair and her pussy clenching even harder around me.
“You love that, don’t you? Love the idea of someone finding you getting fucked against a wall. All because you made your husband so wild with need, he couldn’t wait to have you. Couldn’t wait to be buried in your perfect cunt. You feel how much I want you? How hard you make me?”
Quinn whimpered into my mouth, her lips parted, eyes glazed as she clung to me and nodded.
“My wife needs to come, doesn’t she?”
“Oh God, yes. Please, Ford. Please.”
I groaned low in my throat, barely hanging on when her pussy was rippling around me and she was begging me to make her come.
“Then do it, wife. Come all over my cock so I can fill up this pussy.” I slipped my hand into my pocket and pressed the button on the remote, the sudden vibration making us both groan. And that was all it took.
She moaned my name, her eyes rolling back as she came around me and took me with her. I captured her lips, slipping my tongue into her mouth as I spilled myself inside her, the overwhelming urge to say those three little words nearly choking me.
Instead, I swallowed them down and whispered how beautiful she was, how much I loved feeling her around me, what a good girl she was when she came for me. All the while hoping she could hear every underlying word I didn’t say. The ones I couldn’t say aloud.
Not yet.
Not when we were supposed to be temporary.
Not when this wasn’t ever supposed to be real.
Not when I had no idea if she felt the same.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
QUINN
Ford:
Make sure my dinner’s warmed up when I get home.
Quinn:
Excuse me?
Ford:
Your pussy, kitten. Make sure your pussy’s warmed up for me. I’m starving.
Quinn:
omg
A smile twitched on my lips at Ford’s last text, but even filthy messages from my husband couldn’t make this day better.
I should have known Dr. Dicknose’s stipulation was too easy. That he would never agree to sell his practice if I simply showed up with a marriage license. Not with the way he viewed women as second-class citizens. He’d only told me that because he assumed it was never going to happen for me. So imagine his surprise when I’d taken it to heart and actually found a husband.
But our time was almost up. I’d tried not to think about it when Ford and I were together—especially when it had started to feel a little too much like it was real—but the expiration date Ford and I had set at that first dinner was days away. Which meant it was now or never.
After weeks of avoidance on my boss’s behalf and an official offer on mine, I’d finally confronted him this morning. Told him I was tired of waiting. Tired of tiptoeing around what we both knew was the entire reason I’d agreed to come here in the first place. The entire reason I’d agreed to help him dig himself and this clinic out of the hole he’d placed himself in.
Sitting behind his desk with his hands folded neatly on top, that fucker had looked up at me with a pitying expression and told me point-blank he had no intention of fulfilling what he’d promised.
He didn’t want a woman taking over his practice—married or not.
And that was it. End of.
Everything I’d worked for…my dream… Gone. In a flash.
The smart thing would have been to confront him at the end of the day, but since I had done it first thing this morning, I’d had to sit with this for hours, making my anger increase by the second. And I was certain it was written all over my face.
Thankfully, Ford had a shift at the fire station today, so he wouldn’t be by to take me to lunch. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see him. Worse was that I did.
I’d never had the kind of relationship Ford and I shared. Never had someone to confide in. Someone to count on. Someone who saw me for me.
Someone who took me as is, flaws and all.
Those were the good things my brain told me. But more often were the all too familiar whispers that had been with me my whole life. Telling me that I wasn’t good enough. That the only reason he was in this with me in the first place was because of that contract. That he couldn’t wait to get out.
But lately…I’d begun to wonder if maybe he didn’t mind being married to me. Had begun to wonder if he might actually like it.
And now, somehow, I was going to have to tell him we’d done all this for nothing.
We hadn’t needed to get married to attend Chelsea’s wedding and show her Ford wasn’t who she claimed he was. It didn’t matter anyway—she’d thought what she wanted to, despite us showing up as a committed couple, but Ford hadn’t seemed to care.
I’d known from the beginning that this was an unbalanced partnership, but I’d jumped in without thought. I figured he owed me, considering my entire life trajectory was off course because of him. But now, none of it mattered.
I wasn’t going to get this clinic, whether Ford was my husband or not.
Which meant there was no longer a reason for us to stay married.
That thought pierced my stomach, sending it rolling. Where I’d once detested him—or more accurately, detested what he stood for because it was something I thought I could never have—now, I couldn’t see my life without him. I didn’t want to see my life without him.
In the short time we’d spent together, he’d become my best friend. And somehow, I’d done the dumbest thing in my life and fallen in love with him.
When we’d entered into this, I’d snorted when he’d suggested that I’d fall in love. But I’d had no idea the difference he’d make in my life. No idea how easy it’d be to fall for the man.
Well, the joke was on me, because I was well and truly fucked now.
I glanced at the clock, realizing it was fifteen minutes after closing time. Since I hadn’t had any patients this afternoon, I’d shut myself in my office, trying to figure out how I was going to go home and tell my husband he no longer needed to be. That the expiration date on the contract we’d scribbled on the napkin didn’t matter because this wasn’t going to happen anyway.
I didn’t want to tell him. I wanted to stay in this fairy tale a little longer.
But I couldn’t avoid it forever. Eventually, Ford would come looking for me, wonder what was wrong—I’d never be able to hide that from him. The guy was more astute than he looked, and it would be better if this came out on my terms.
I gathered my things and grabbed my purse before heading out of my office. Walking down the hallway, I raised a brow at the light coming from Dr. Dicknose’s office. Since he didn’t like to stay two minutes past closing time, it was highly unusual for him to be here this late—especially when Alicia was already gone and all the lights in the rest of the clinic had been shut off.
With my luck, he’d stayed just to rub it in again before I left. One last dig at stupid little Quinn, who actually thought her father’s oldest and dearest friend would welcome her into the fold with open arms.
Well, fuck him. I was going to walk by with my head held high and not even spare him a glance.
I knew this wasn’t sustainable. I wouldn’t be able to weather this for the next who knew how long. Because eventually, he would find someone to buy the practice, and I’d have to sit back and watch someone else living my dream all over again.
Maybe it was time to look for something else.
Maybe it was time to leave Starlight Cove.
Just the thought of that had my stomach twisting, an ache settling in the back of my throat. Growing up here, I hadn’t loved it. I’d struggled to fit in. To find my place. Always feeling like an outcast, even with my peers. But now that I’d been back, I was beginning to wonder if that hadn’t had more to do with my parents and what they told me—what I believed—than it did with the town. Than with me.
Because in the few short months I’d been back, it had begun to feel like home.
An image of Ford popped up in my mind, and I amended my thought. It wasn’t Starlight Cove that felt like home. It was him. He was the one place I felt free to be unapologetically myself. He was my safe place to land.
And I was going to have to find a way to tell him we no longer had to be together without letting him in on the fact that I’d somehow, beyond all reason, fallen in love with him along the way.
Even though I swore I’d walk by Dr. Dicknose’s office with my head held high and not spare him a glance, curiosity got the better of me, and I looked inside his office.
It took me long moments to register what I was seeing.
The man who’d been a constant thorn in my side since moving back…
On the floor.
His feet peeking out from behind his desk.
Body still and unmoving.
It was one of those split seconds that felt like an eternity. The moment at the beginning of an emergency when you had to decide the best course of action.
I didn’t think. I didn’t pause.
I dropped my bag, rushed over to him as I pulled my phone out of my pocket, and dialed 9-1-1. And then I dropped to the floor next to his still body and started compressions.
Ford
Hearing the clinic’s address as the scene we were being dispatched to was one of the scariest moments of my life. I knew, logically, that Quinn wasn’t the one who was having an emergency. It was a doctor’s office, for fuck’s sake, so needing emergency services there wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.
But logic didn’t have a place when I was in love.
And I would never admit it out loud, but when I’d stormed into the building, eyes scanning for her, and found her over Dinsmore doing chest compressions, I’d never been more relieved in my life. She’d been sweating, out of breath, and had looked up at me with a flurry of emotions in her eyes.
