Part 20 (1/2)

The terrible sound returned.

Now came a knock on Quentin's bedroom door. Sarah went cold, and realized that she was naked but for the weight of the emerald chain on her collarbone. She'd pulled off her clothes and flung them somewhere when Quentin had set her down in bed earlier in the night, because she'd vaguely recollected that she'd lied to him that she slept in the nude. Now she s.n.a.t.c.hed one of his long-sleeved s.h.i.+rts out of his closet, shrugged it on, and opened the bedroom door for Martin.

In a T-s.h.i.+rt and sweatpants, hair mussed but the ubiquitous gla.s.ses on, Martin strode past her and knocked quietly on the bathroom door. ”Q,” he said. The door opened, Martin slipped in, and the door locked behind him.

Sarah stood in the dark with her arms folded across her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, staring at the locked door. She didn't want to put her ear to the door, but she didn't want to be left out, either. It hurt so much to be snubbed. She didn't belong to Quentin, and he didn't belong to her, but she cared about him. She deserved to know what was going on.

There was more coughing and more of the terrible sound, and Martin speaking low. Then the door opened, spilling light into the hallway and making her blink. Martin put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed briefly. ”He's okay, kid,” he told her. ”Go back to bed.” He padded across the carpet and closed the bedroom door softly behind him.

The bathroom light clicked off and Quentin met her in the dark. ”I'm okay,” he choked in a strange, gravelly voice. He pushed her in front of him to the bed and drew her under the covers beside him. ”You sleep in the nude,” he said, claiming the s.h.i.+rt she wore and throwing it across the room.

”You're supposed to, too,” she protested, feeling a T-s.h.i.+rt and boxers on him.

”I may have to get up again”-he stopped, pounded his chest, and cleared his throat several times-”and cough up my other lung.”

Her eyes hadn't readjusted to the dark. She couldn't see his face. She reached out to put her hand on his chest, over his heart. ”Is this the asthma?”

”This is the asthma.” He cleared his throat again. ”s.e.xy, isn't it?”

Maybe he was still thinking this way, that their relations.h.i.+p was all s.e.x appeal and business, but Sarah had moved way beyond this. She didn't want to care so much about him. But there it was. She rubbed his chest soothingly. ”Don't lock the door on me.”

”I have to.”

”Why?”

”Don't get too close to me,” he said. ”The record company sent you.”

”If I were your girlfriend, you'd let me in.”

”You're not my girlfriend,” he said, and coughed. Then his body convulsed in a coughing fit.

She pressed her body to his quaking chest and curved her arms around him. His coughing subsided.

He said roughly, ”I wish you were.”

She scratched his scalp with her fingernails and stroked the waves of his hair, tugging her fingers through the tight curls at his nape. He settled his head against her chest and let her hold him. Soon he was asleep.

She lay awake for hours, listening to his healthy, even breathing. Finally she fell back asleep. But immediately, it seemed, she awoke again in the room bright with morning light, and listened to Quentin's shower.

When the hissing water shut off, she stumbled out of bed to wash the lake out of her hair. They pa.s.sed each other in the hallway to the bathroom, her naked but for the necklace, him naked and beautiful, with wet curls. As his arm brushed against her arm, he said, ”Gulp.”

She stepped into the hot shower and slowly came back to life. This meant that her brain began functioning again, but also that her nipples hardened and her s.e.x ached for the naked man she'd just pa.s.sed, and pa.s.sed up.

She slicked the shampoo out of her hair and opened her eyes. His dark, blurred form leaned against the wall outside the shower, arms crossed, watching her. He couldn't have seen much because the shower door was translucent gla.s.s, but her body thrilled that he was watching her at all. She stepped close to the gla.s.s and slowly pa.s.sed her b.r.e.a.s.t.s near it, where they'd be clear through the mottling, as if she were innocently rinsing under the shower stream. Seeing him s.h.i.+ft positions uncomfortably, she suppressed a laugh. And rolled the door open. ”You had your turn,” she said.

He wore cargo shorts and the green camo T-s.h.i.+rt. His eyes were still on her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. With effort he lifted his green eyes to her face. ”I had my turn in the shower. I didn't have my turn at you.” He stepped forward to take her mouth with his.

She drew him into the shower stream, then reached out to roll the door closed behind him. His T-s.h.i.+rt darkened and stuck to his solid chest.

He pushed her out of the hot stream and against the cold marble wall. His soft lips ma.s.saged hers, then traveled to her ear, making her s.h.i.+ver. His hand slicked down her torso, traveled around to her front, and cupped her mound. ”If you were my girlfriend,” he said in her ear, raising more goose b.u.mps, ”I'd put my mouth right here.” He worked his thumb on her c.l.i.t to emphasize his point.

”I'm not your girlfriend,” she said weakly.

”You look like my girlfriend. Let's see if you taste like my girlfriend.”

He went down on his knees and still had to bend a little to get under her. Spreading her thighs with his warm hands, he began to tease her with his tongue, and then to suck her. And then she wasn't sure what he was doing, because she'd never experienced anything like it. She felt herself open.

He stopped. ”Sarah,” he said gently.

”More!”

”Breathe,” he ordered her.

She took in a ragged gasp, but it was hard to worry about pesky things like breathing when her center radiated heat. He must have sensed that she was too dizzy to stand, because he held her with both strong arms and laid her on the marble floor of the shower. Sliding his forearm underneath her b.u.t.tocks so he had her just where he wanted her, he gave her the most intimate kiss.

The feeling was incredible. It was so good that she could hardly stand it. But she could and did stand it, because when she tried to s.h.i.+ft away from his hungry mouth, he held her more firmly. She had no choice.

Then came a moment when she was hyperaware of everything touching her: hot water splas.h.i.+ng over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, cold marble under her back, warm arm under her a.s.s, Quentin's hot tongue. She knew she was about to come. She put her hands in his hair. That wasn't enough. She wanted to give back what he gave. But when she reached toward his shorts, he took both her wrists in one hand in that familiar, delicious grip.

There was no release but her screams. She bucked under him. Still he held her. He pressed his mouth to her until she stopped.

Moving to the inside of her thigh, he kissed her even then, as if he regretted it was over. She took a shuddering breath of wet air.

A pounding sounded out in the bedroom, on the bedroom door. Erin's voice called, ”Q, where's breakfast?”

Quentin bit down on Sarah's thigh so hard that it almost hurt. ”I'm gonna skin me a fiddle player,” he grumbled. Then he rolled open the shower door and called, ”Step one, take eggs from refrigerator. I'm in the shower.”

”That's the point!” Erin said.

Sarah whispered, ”She heard me. She knows we're in here together.”

He rolled the shower door shut. But by this time, cold air from the room whirled in the shower, mixing with the hot spray. Sarah s.h.i.+vered and weakly tried to sit up. He pulled her into his lap and warmed her with his strong hug. ”There's no reason to feel caught,” he whispered. ”This is what we wanted, to make her jealous.”

Sarah giggled nervously. ”Don't you feel caught?”

”Yeah, but I'm not sure it's a bad thing.” He kissed her gently, his tongue playing at the corners of her mouth, as if he planned to do this all morning.

With a reluctant sigh, Sarah said, ”You need to go after Erin. You're supposed to get her back. You have to go after her and string her along.” Sarah reached down to unb.u.t.ton and unzip his shorts, this time without resistance. She reached her hand past his boxers and around his big, solid c.o.c.k. ”But first, I could return the favor.”

He closed his eyes, took in a deep breath through his nose, and exhaled. ”I can't let you do that,” he said, pus.h.i.+ng her hands out of his shorts.

”Why not?” she coaxed him.

”Because my self-control has limits. If you got me off in this shower, I'd have to have you right here. Or maybe I'd bend you over the bathroom counter, depending on how things worked out. And you don't want that.” He rolled the shower door open again. She s.h.i.+vered in the cold draft.