“Don’t listen to her, Betsy.” He patted the hood.
As if I needed another sign that this is a horrible mistake I’m going to regret.
She was already starting to regret it. “Why can’t we just rent a car?” At least then there’d be some sort of contingency in place and the vehicle would be somewhat reliable.
“No.”
She blinked. “What do you mean, no?”
“I’m speaking English, sweet cheeks.” He waltzed around and opened the passenger door. “Now get that hot little ass up in here and let’s get this show on the road.”
Knowing she’d created this situation of her own free will only made it more annoying. She set her computer case onto the bench seat and climbed up after it, having to grab the “oh shit” handle to haul herself into the truck. Quinn didn’t give her a chance to get settled before he slammed the door behind her and strode around to climb up into the driver’s seat.
It was only when they pulled away from the curb that his words penetrated. She turned to glare at him. “What is your obsession with my ass?”
“Have you seen it?”
Is he joking? She glared harder. “I don’t like you.”
“Well, hell, I don’t like you, either. But I’m not blind, and I happen to be an ass man.” He sent her one of his grins that she hated so much and slipped a pair of Aviators on. “And yours, sweet cheeks, is perfection.”
Her stomach gave a funny lurch, and warmth that had nothing to do with the disgusting heat outside curled through her. It was so dumb that a compliment from this man was enough to make her feel a little squishy, but apparently she was more starved for attention than she ever could have guessed. “Just don’t be getting any ideas.”
“I have all the ideas in the world. Do you want me to describe them to you?”
“You wouldn’t.” He totally would. Before he could follow through on his—hopefully empty—threat, she rushed on. “I don’t know if that kiss curdled your brain or what, but I have no interest in flirting with you, let alone going further. I’d rather seduce a snake.”
“More like a python.”
He’s insinuating… Her damn cheeks heated and she put a few seconds into seriously debating just throwing herself from the moving vehicle.
She slid her sunglasses into place, using the shield to glance at his lap. Python, my ass. He’s probably got a micro peen that’s inversely proportionate to how huge he is everywhere else. She’d seen the term on a show once and looked it up, and…there were some things a woman just couldn’t un-see. It made her perversely happy to picture Quinn with one of those little anteaters.
Aubry checked the time. She’d been in the truck with him a grand total of three minutes. This didn’t bode well for the next fourteen hours and fifty-seven minutes. What am I going to do?
In any other situation, she’d just whip out her computer, stick in some headphones, and ignore everyone around her, but that wasn’t an option with her motion sickness. I am a bundle of issues.
Quinn whistled a few bars of a popular country song. “Besides, that wasn’t a kiss.”
“Pretty sure I was there. Your lips touching mine equals a kiss.”
“If that’s your idea of a kiss, you’ve been missing out. Now, why don’t you come over here and cozy on up? We should start practicing for the wedding.”
Practicing pretending they were dating.
I can’t take any more of this conversation.
“Maybe later.” She dug around in her bag and came up with her headphones. She plugged them into her phone and pulled up the audiobook she’d downloaded for just this occasion. She glanced at Quinn, wondering if the book would be enough to block out his overwhelming presence just a few feet away. It was the latest in an erotic thriller series, which shouldn’t have worked as a genre, but the author was phenomenal. Hot sex scenes and scary serial killers should be more than enough to keep her distracted.
She didn’t like her chances, though.Chapter FourAt first, Quinn was kind of glad when the vicious little redhead popped on her headphones and turned to stare out the window. Despite all his bluster, he wasn’t interested in spending the next fifteen hours trading barbs. But somewhere around hour three, the music on the radio stopped being enough to occupy him and his mind started wandering.
Wandering right to the woman curled up on the seat next to him.
He hadn’t been lying about her ass being phenomenal. She must be doing squats while she played that damn game or something, because every time he caught sight of her in jeans, he wanted to take a bite out of those sweet cheeks. Her ass was the kind that he’d lovingly term “grabbable.” The kind of ass that would fit his palms perfectly, that he could use to hoist her higher onto his body until she wrapped those equally sexy legs around his waist and…