“Your influence, I take it,” Tobias drawled, fingers rolling towards their son as he forgot his demonstration and settled back in to play.
“It’s not nice.” Quinn’s fingers raked through the nap of the rug. Gaze bouncing from one primary bright object to the next, she refused to meet the one she felt searing along her skin.
Lips clamped over the refusal that skittered over her tongue when he grabbed her arm, she stood with his careful show of assistance. Brought against his towering form, kept still in his warm shadow, she shivered though she smiled at her little ones when they looked her way. She shouldn’t feel so flush, so out of sorts when he was this close, yet it took a ridiculous amount of willpower not to breathe in the rich spice of chocolate and chilies that hung around her. Tobias turned her to face him, fingers under her chin forcing pale grays to meet twilight evergreen.
“Go and get dressed.”
“Why?”
“Do as I say.” There was no command hidden beneath his words, but the hard gleam in his eyes promised much if she didn’t follow. Touch gone in an instant, he went to the kids and crouched among their strewn toys. Speaking in quiet tones to them, he teased out their pleased giggles before he rose and left the room.
Abandoning Quinn to do his bidding, trusting she wouldn’t defy him again.
Sucking her teeth, Quinn hurried after him, hating that she had to scurry to match his strides. Despising that her gaze became drawn to the length of his long legs, took in the breadth of his shoulders and tightness of his ass hidden beneath expensive slacks. None of it was fair. Not the way he made her feel or how much he doted on the kids. “I’m already wearing clothes.”
“You look like a lunatic.” Each curt word slung in her direction ended in a whip crack of distaste. He didn’t slow or pause, never deviating from his course.
Fingers going to the collar of the dark purple blouse, she couldn’t argue that it clashed with the soft pink of her skirt. Quinn also couldn’t deny that the words stung more than she counted on, leaving her fumbling through feelings she didn’t understand. What did she care what he thought? The most important part was playing with the kids and getting the hell out of that room.
The same one he led her back to.
“What does it matter how I look? You’re just going to rip them anyway.”
Tobias stopped and dragged in a breath, eyes drifting shut as if he counted to calm his temper. It did nothing to help when he met Quinn’s gaze again. Chin tipping to the side, he took in the many people surrounding them, from Meghan and the woman Rebecca at one end of the hall, to the black garbed males still crowded in front of their bedroom door.
Too fast to follow, the shock didn’t register for a breathless second. Slammed against the wall of his chest, head exploding in a shower of incandescent tendrils, Quinn struggled to regain the breath that he knocked out of her. More than a little queasy as she drifted, time and space churning around her, Tobias tangled her up in his arms.
The hard snick of the lock turning signaled he’d moved them inside the bedroom. Each inhalation laden with the hot ash of anger, they became more ragged. Clawed fingers scraped over his neck and chest, ready for the brawl she expected.
“Hush, little bird. I don’t want to fight,” Tobias said, pinning her wrists to his chest with one hand. Palming her ass under the short skirt with the other, he jostled her higher so he could meet her gaze. “If you wanted my attention, all you had to do was ask.”
“That’s not—”
Quinn shrieked when he cut her off with his lips crashing into hers. Struggling against his kiss, she kicked and writhed to break his hold. All she managed was to grind against the growing bulge held at bay by the placket of his zipper. No matter how she moved, he countered it. Turning what should have been the beginning of an all-out war into a sensuous struggle. Even when he pressed her back to the wall, one of her legs slung over an elbow to keep her open while he moved his hips in agonizing circles, he met her growls and snarls with more attention.
She hated it.
Hated it even more that she reveled in it.
Already she was wet, soaking through both their clothes until the slick fabric became smooth as silk and twice as divine where it rubbed against her. Rough palm cradling her breast, the pinch of his fingers made her squeal and buck, but not to get away no matter how she might try to convince herself otherwise. Not even when he began pulling at her clothes, tearing the skirt and blouse just as she predicted in his eagerness to get rid of them.
“Stop. Please, stop. This is…” Quinn trailed off on a low groan when his head dipped down, capturing the neglected flesh of her other breast, laving at the nipple though he had to pull her up to his mouth. Away from the delicious grinding of his cock. That made her keen more than the hard nip he gave the swollen nub.
“Do you really want me to stop?”
When she didn’t answer, he paused all his torments. Holding her aloft, keeping them both still, he brought his head up to look her in the eyes. Deep evergreen and pale grays clashed, her brows and kiss reddened lips tumbling down as he continued to stare. Not moving, not demanding. Their hard breaths mingled in the space between them as he waited.
Words refused to form on her lips, dying to ash on her tongue when they coalesced into nothing more than wanton pleas. She didn’t want him to stop, wanted to shriek and scream, and cry out his name as he shattered her into a million pieces over and over again. Wanted to taste his skin and feel his rumbling sounds, the ones he gave to her and no one else.
When had she come to want it?
“I didn’t think so.”
“No! You’re in my head, this is you.”
“Oh, is that it,” Tobias asked, one dark brow drifting upwards. Lips crooking into something hard, the brittle edge of his smile held as he dropped Quinn to her feet. Left her to stumble when he stood back, arms spread wide to give her space. “All right then.”
Slack jawed, she watched him with wide eyes as he walked backwards from her. Eyes narrowing in an instant when he began to undress with the swift, efficient movements he reserved for when he was angry. The closer he came to the barren bed, the more skin he bared, until he fell backwards onto the mattress naked.
