Page 74 of Havenfall Harbor
“What do you mean?” Griff tries and fails to sound as if he doesn’t know what she’s alluding to.
“Why were you hairy eyeballing that guy?” She hooks her thumb over her shoulder, meaning Bill.
I snort, but school my features. Griff was, in fact, giving him the eyeball. I’m interested to see how he’s going to handle this question.
Griffin
Shit,it’s not like I’m going to tell Quinn I was intimidating him because I didn’t like the way he was looking at her. I also don’t want her knowing that that vampire has an open dislike for humans other than drinking their blood. He sees them as a food source, nothing else. I don’t want her to have another reason to be uncomfortable here.
“We have a history?” I blurt, when I can’t figure out what else to say.
“You guys dated?” Her eyes are a little wide, but I don’t sense an ounce of disapproval or unease.
I scowl when Evan—my supposed friend—roars out a laugh. “Not that kind of history,” I amend.
Quinn narrows her eyes on Evan while he’s still mid belly laugh. “What’s so funny?” She pokes her finger into his side. He’s quick enough to catch her hand before she can pull all the way back.
“I never have any clue what’s going to come out of your mouth. You surprise me at every turn.” He grins down at her. I watch as his mood shifts. The curl of his lip falls a little as he swallows and wets his bottom lip. I know for certain he’s thinking about kissing her. Hell, now I’m thinking about kissing her.
Quinn seems comfortable joking about a relationship between us, but I’m not sure she’s really let the thought sink in as a real possibility. At least she doesn’t seem against the idea. Quinn clears her throat and tucks her hair behind her ear, breaking the moment between her and Evan.
I think back to the night I had her pinned in the kitchen. I was seconds away from stealing her mouth, the icy water spilling against us barely registering, but the warmth of her hand against my chest was like a punch straight to my gut. The knee to the balls could have been considered foreplay, I was already so fucking hard. I knew if I didn’t leave then, she probably would have had to kick me out to get me to go.
When we reach the third floor, Quinn hesitates near her door. Her eyes are clear as she glances down the short hallway that will lead to my room. Even though it’s killing me not to say anything, like demanding she go right to our place, I just slow my steps and walk beside her, letting her come to the decision on her own, or at least I hope she will.
“Someone fixed the knob.” She looks over at Evan, expecting a reply.
“Yeah.” He nods and crosses his arms over his chest, waiting her out, I presume. Quinn bites the corner of her lip as she squints her eyes a bit. When she opens her mouth, I’m already preparing to tell her no, she can’t just stay over there. But I don’t have to.
“I’m taking the couch tonight, you get the bed.” Quinn’s shoulders raise a little, as if she’s worried about what I might say.
I snap my mouth closed and rearrange my thoughts. I can either let her think I’m going to let her sleep on the couch, or I could push her a little further, see how she responds. “I have a compromise,” I offer, while heading over to my door. I pull out my key and slip it into the lock without looking at her.
“A compromise?” She sounds intrigued as she comes closer.
I push the door open and look around quickly. I don’t always lock my door, but I did today mostly just for Quinn. After a quick perusal I know no one has been here, so I push the door the rest of the way open and allow her to enter before me.
Once Evan is in and the door is secured behind him, I divulge my plan. “The bed is big enough for the both of us. You won’t even know I’m there.” I walk away then, before she can tell me to go to hell or some other nonsense.
I hear her small gasp, but Evan is quick to add, “You’re not leaving me out of this little slumber party.”
I head straight to the kitchen. I could have ordered blood at the bar, but I didn’t. There’s something about being close to Quinn that makes it harder to palate the bagged stuff when her warm blood sings to me.
As a measure of precaution, I force myself to drink two bags now. If she was in my bed, I’m not sure I could fight the pull of her song. I’d probably seduce her, and then I wouldn’t ever know if she was really willing. I’m not going to risk that, not yet anyway.
The blood is cold, but it goes down smoothly, and in a matter of seconds, I’m done with both bags.
I leave Evan to deal with Quinn, since he’s much better at coaxing than I am. I’d probably end up making her feel like she didn’t have an option otherwise. Thankfully, as the blood hits my system, I feel a sense of calm coming over me. I’m much more controlled when I’m feeding properly, plus I’ve had several drinks tonight that diluted my own blood. Confirming my thoughts, I get the urge to piss almost immediately. My kidneys are already working hard to expel the waste fluid from my system. I make a quick detour to the bathroom before heading back into the living room to see what kind of mess I left Evan with.
Chapter 22
Quinn
“The bed’sbig enough for the both of us. You won’t even know I’m there.” I almost snort at the absurdity that he thinks I wouldn’t know he was in bed with me.
“You’re not leaving me out of this little slumber party,” Evan chimes in. If I didn’t think Evan was close to kissing me earlier, and didn’t sense the mutual attraction from Griffin, I would seriously think I’d been friend zoned. My head starts to play the doubt game. Maybe I have been friend zoned, maybe for some reason they’re both just really comfortable with me.
With both of them being supernaturals, I question myself and my judgment at every turn. While I didn’t date any shifters or vampires, I did have several girlfriends who did, not to mention I was friends with several myself, but maybe I’m not interpreting their behavior correctly.
