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Absolutely nothing.
Aubry laid her hand on his arm, her smile feeling like it would shatter her teeth. “Now, don’t be polite, Quinn. We’re not friends.” She turned to Hope. “We were fucking, but that’s over now. He’s all yours, sweetie.”
She turned around and marched out of the room, bypassing the elevator because the thought of being closed in with herself was nearly as awful as being surrounded by strangers. Outside. I just need some fresh air. She veered right, heading down the hallway and out the side door. The cool night air did nothing to calm the stinging of her cheeks, and she hated that she was blushing furiously, even if it was in anger.
This was her fault. She’d let herself get caught up in the fantasy of Quinn and his big, sexy cock, and she’d compromised all the defenses she’d spent years perfecting. It was so unbelievably stupid. And even when she knew she was being stupid, she’d let him say all the right things and make her feel like maybe, for once in her life, her instincts weren’t right and there were more than a handful of people out there who actually gave a damn.
That he was one of them.
She reached for her phone, needing the lifeline Jules offered, only to remember that, not only was her phone up in the room, but also Jules would be throwing Adam’s mother’s ashes in the Gulf right around now. Calling her with Aubry’s self-inflicted crisis would be the worst kind of selfish.
“What the fuck was that?”
She took a deep breath and turned to face Quinn. She’d known this was coming, even if she desperately wanted more time and distance between them to at least get over the initial sting of him throwing her by the wayside the second Hope walked up. “You shouldn’t be here. Hope might get the wrong idea.”
“What?”
“You heard me.” She wasn’t going to say it again. She couldn’t bear it.
He stalked closer, so damn big and too sexy for her own good. Even knowing she was a sad second rate, she couldn’t stop her traitorous body from perking up at his nearness. He stopped in front of her, a breath’s distance away. “Explain what the fuck you mean, Aubry.”
God, why can’t he just let it go? She took a deep breath and fought to keep the roiling emotions inside her out of her voice. “I don’t think what just happened needs much explanation. It’s pretty clear that you and Hope have a history.”
“What’s your point?”
The last little bit of hope she’d been holding out died a horrible death. I am such an unforgivable idiot. Her eyes burned, but she held back tears through sheer force of will. “Like I said, I’ll let you get back to it. I’m sure your parents would be absolutely delighted.”
“That’s it.” He reached out, looking like he wanted nothing more than to shake her, but he stopped just short of touching her. “That’s all it took for you to jump ship—me talking to a pretty girl who I used to know.”
She didn’t want to hear him refer to another woman as pretty, didn’t want to think that maybe Hope and Quinn used to do a whole lot more than talk—or that they would again. It made her stomach churn. She smoothed her hair back, hating that her hands shook. “Yeah, that’s part of it. But the truth was that this was never going to work. We come from different worlds, and you know it.”
He cursed long and hard. “This isn’t about Hope at all. She gave you the exit you’ve been looking for since last night.” He gave her a searching look. “Fuck, what am I saying? You were never actually in this. You’ve always held yourself back, right from the very beginning.”
“Can you blame me?” Her voice was too shrill, but his comments struck close to home. “This never should have happened.”
“Why?”
She stopped short. “What?”
“Tell me why this never should have happened. Give me one legit reason beyond you being too chickenshit to put yourself out there because you had a rough time growing up and have a hell of a history of building yourself a crazy paranoid bunker to avoid being hurt again.”
She couldn’t believe he was throwing that back in her face. She didn’t open up to anyone—ever—and he was going to use the one time she did against her at the first available opportunity. “That’s not fair.”
“Neither is you flipping your shit because of this.” He motioned at the hotel behind him. “But the truth doesn’t matter to you, does it? You don’t care that this isn’t my world—hasn’t been since before I even met you—or that Hope is my dead best friend’s little sister or, fuck, anything that doesn’t fit in with your twisted worldview.”
Her mind tumbled over itself trying to process that. He and Hope hadn’t… It didn’t matter. He might not have that kind of history with her, but it didn’t change the fact that Aubry didn’t fit, not here and not with him. She straightened, doing her best to look him in the eye. She failed, her gaze landing on his mouth and sticking there. “You’re right. I don’t care.”
