Page 37 of Jinx

My heart hammered behind my ribs, magic straining.

“Touch him. Take him.”

I can’t.

I fought the incessant urging, but Quinn was oh, so alluring. I got lost in his amber gaze, the color deepening to a rich bronze when he successfully gained my full attention. He stepped closer, closer than he’d ever been, and his rich cologne made my breath hitch. Black pepper and bergamot, like a heady tea.

“I’m not ready to let you out of my sight,” he said. “You’re coming home with me, and you’re going to eat dinner there.” The rasp in his low voice was hypnotic. “Say ‘yes, sir’.”

My skin prickled with heat, his quiet command stirring desire deep inside of me. I realized then that Quinn was fighting his own battle. What had just happened made him feel out of control, and now he was desperately trying to take it back. I didn’t think he’d ever admit it, ever let himself appear vulnerable, but my heart knew it, and in this moment I could give him what he needed.

“Yes, sir.”

His growl of approval sent a rush of liquid heat through me. “Good girl.”

25

QUINN

I’d been a damned fool for thinking I could keep a wall up between Cordelia and me. The only reason I’d texted her in the first place was that Bellamy was two seconds away from losing his mind. I needed him as the buffer so I didn’t have to think about her. So I didn’t have to think about how badly I wanted what I’d never have. But when she suddenly called and sounded terrified, whatever weak masonry I’d built around my heart crumbled. I would’ve scaled Olympus to get to her.

When I found her, my beast begged me to give in. To pull her close and confirm with both hands that she was in one piece. He knew that doing so would spark the connection to her, and I was forced to remind the piteous idiot of how agonizing it would be when that connection was inevitably severed.

We’d survived torture, but we wouldn’t survive that.

Did it stop me from momentarily losing my grip? From stepping dangerously close to her? Did it stop me from demanding that she let me take her home, and then growing painfully hard when she showed how obedient she could be for me?

No, and I couldn’t afford to make any more mistakes like that.

After she was seated in my Audi, I took a minute to compose and center myself. I buttoned my waistcoat, rolled my sleeves to my elbows, and smoothed my hair back into its bun. Now she kept stealing glances at me as we drove north, leaving downtown Glenoakes behind and following the country road until everything was forest.

When I flicked my gaze over to her, she had her arms crossed stiffly over her chest, hands tucked in tight. A pretty flush colored the creamy skin revealed by the dipping neckline of her top. I couldn’t seem to tear my eyes away, gripped by the insistent need to know how far that tantalizing blush spread.

“So,” she blurted too loudly, advertising her discomfort. “Do you have any ex-girlfriends I need to be worried about?”

I couldn’t stop the bark of surprised laughter, and she cringed back into her seat like she hadn’t meant to open her mouth and have those be the words that came out. “No. No exes.”

My answer had her straightening back up, electric blue eyes going wide with curiosity. “Wait, really?”

I raised an eyebrow, giving her a sidelong glance while I watched the road. “You think I should have a line of exes?”

“What? No!” That enticing pink crept over her skin again. “I’m just surprised because if you don’t have any exes, then you’ve never had a girlfriend which is crazy because you’re freaking gorgeous with the whole ‘sexy professor’ thing you’ve got going on but that’s a horrible assumption because maybe you’re still with her and oh my god you may not even like women and I really need to stop talking now.”

My lips had curled into a satisfied smirk by the time she ended her nervous rambling. I liked her this way, flustered and innocent. The urge to reach over and trace the crimson across her cheek and down her neck was almost unbearable. I fought a groan at the growing discomfort in my jeans, my dick straining against the zipper hard enough to leave an impression.

I cleared my throat and changed the subject. “Tell me why you were so scared.”

She sighed, turning her face to the window. “It’s stupid,” she said. “I probably freaked myself out over nothing.”

“Cordelia.” Her name came out as a warning, the rasp in my voice catching. Even in my periphery, I could see the full-body shiver that swept over her, and she turned to face me again. My eyes caught hers before returning to the road ahead. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”

“Yes, sir,” she whispered almost instinctively, and I swallowed a growl of approval. This girl was going to be the death of me, and I just might welcome it by the end. “I was leaving the library after work,” she started. “First, it was a guy at the fountain, and then a couple of minutes later, a woman. I’m sure I just overreacted, but their eyes were…weird.” She hesitated and started twisting strands of her hair together in a messy braid. “It had to be a trick of the light, but their eyes were dark, and it just reminded me of the guy who grabbed me at the club. I panicked.”

My whole body tensed. “Dark?”

She nodded with a weak shrug. “I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s like they were filled with shadows. The whites were gone. They were just these black pits. Demonic. It scared me.”

Unease trickled through me, and my grip tightened on the steering wheel. She was describing shade, something only Others could recognize.