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“I’ve tried to convince him to sell them,” Quinn said from behind her. He sneaked an arm around her to offer a glass of wine. “Hell, if he’d just stick an exorbitant price on a few of them, half my clients would decorate their houses with Ben’s pictures and he’d be set.”
“Molly says he likes to keep that part of his life private.”
“Well, considering that his sex life is tangled up with my sister’s career, I suppose he’s got to keep something out of the public eye.” He touched her elbow. “Come outside and see the view.”
The deck was small, just enough room for a café table and two chairs, but the view made her sigh. The mountains rose up through a veil of pale green aspen leaves. The highest of the peaks still glowed pink with snow in the setting sun on a few of the northern faces. “It’s so peaceful.”
Lori took her first sip of wine and closed her eyes to savor the cool sweetness as she inhaled the greenness of the trees. She felt the heat of Quinn’s body draw closer, and suddenly his lips brushed her shoulder. Eyes still closed, Lori just breathed.
“I hope I didn’t ruin the evening,” he said, the words shivering over her skin.
She shook her head and took a longer sip of wine. When he dragged his chin over her shoulder, the barest hint of stubble scratched her chin.Roughness,she thought, and that one word recalled the plans Quinn had revealed for the night.
Her lungs ached when she took too deep a breath.
Rough. He wanted to be rough with her.
“You’re so beautiful,” Quinn murmured, mouth still on her skin. His hands settled on her upper arms…as if he was holding her, trapping her against the wooden railing. “So pretty.”
She didn’t want to break the spell, the sudden danger that shimmered on the air, so Lori didn’t even bother to voice her protestation that she wasn’t pretty. Let him have his fantasy, too. She wanted to be delicate and helpless, and he wanted her to be feminine and beautiful. Perfect.
And then he pressed his body into her, already hard with lust. The railing pushed into her belly, his hands tightened around her arms, and the fantasy blossomed, swallowing up real life. She was powerless in the face of his strength, and his mouth on her skin made her beautiful.
Lori rested her glass on the rail and arched her head to one side. His lips and teeth and tongue strayed from her shoulder to her neck, sucking and biting along the way. She didn’t press into his erection, she just stayed still and let him do as he wanted. Finally, he pressed his hips more firmly to her backside, sucked harder at her neck, and she had to part her lips to breathe.
She barely noticed when his hold slid lower, but she definitely noticed when he pulled her arms behind her back and wrapped one hand around both of her wrists. Oh, God. The hot jolt that shot through her stirred up so much tamped-down need that Lori’s brain went dim for a moment. She had a vague thought that she might have moaned but couldn’t be sure. Her mind was too busy rejoicing that someone had finally done the thing that she’d been too embarrassed to ever ask for.
His other hand brushed between her shoulder blades a moment before the distinctive sound of a lowering zipper pierced the silence. Her bodice loosened just a bit, and then he stopped.
The reflection of the sun had deepened to umber. The trees shaded the balcony from view and deepened the patio to an even-darker shadow than the rest of the world. Would he strip her here? Fuck her against the rail? Lori’s eyes rolled, trying to determine whether anyone could see them. Quinn didn’t seem to care. He spread his fingers wide over her chest and slid his hand beneath her dress.
“You were very rude tonight,” he whispered as he cupped his hand gently over her breast.
Lori bit her lip and shook her head.
“Yes, you were. Flaunting your old lover in front of me.”
He was really going to play this game, invest in the fantasy and not just go through the motions. Lori squeezed her thighs tight together at the sheer pleasure of it. “I’m sorry,” she breathed.
“I don’t think you are.” He rolled one nipple lightly between his thumb and forefinger.
“I am.”
He teased her for a long moment, still soft and slow. “I don’t find your apology…sincere.” He whispered the word and squeezed her nipple hard at the same time.
Gasping, Lori arched suddenly away from him, and the hand on her wrists tightened. He hadn’t really hurt her, it had just been the shock of the sudden, inescapable pressure that made her shy away. But Quinn couldn’t know that. He stroked her nipple gently with the pad of his thumb.
“You need a safe word,” he said.
“A what?”
“A safe word. Because then—” he bit her earlobe, increasing the pressure until she gasped “—then you can tell me no as often as you want, and I won’t stop.”
Oh, good God, she couldn’t take this. Her clit was too tight already, primed to seize up at any moment. The thought of moaningNo, Quinn, please don’t. Please…
The intensity of her reaction to the idea scared her.
I can’t,she started to say, but strangely enough, the words that came out were, “Sunset.My safe word issunset.”
