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“I...” Their eyes clashed, and she felt desire tight in her gut, pull its way all through her body. Why was it like this? Why was he like this?

“I’m not going to give up,” she said.

“Good for you,” he said. “Good for you.”

“Don’t leave,” she said.

“Miss Sullivan,” he said, a slow grin spreading across his face. “I came out here to get laid tonight, and that pretty blonde in there is going to do the honors. So unless you’re volunteering to fill the position, I suggest you let me back to my business.”

Her whole face felt like it was on fire. Like it had been sprayed with hair spray, and someone had lit a match on it. She felt exposed and horrified, because she didn’t actually think that he would want to take her to bed, but she had the horrible feeling that perhaps he saw that at one point in her life she had wished that he would take her.

They’d barely ever spoken to one another. He was a lot older than her, and she’d always been too embarrassed to ever approach him at the moments when they had been in the same vicinity. He had been a fantasy, nothing more. She had known, always, that he wasn’t actually something she was going to have in reality.

But... But. Old longings died very, very hard.

Even when the person was infuriating.

“I am not volunteering,” she said, absolutely certain that she was the color of a beetroot.

“Well, then. I bid you good-night.”

And he left her standing there feeling utterly defeated, and she howled, kicking the side of Smokey’s, and then hopping up and down when her foot hurt.

She covered her face with her hands. She didn’t know why she felt things this deeply. It had always been something that...

She used to follow her dad all around the ranch, talking, laughing. Weeping when a sheep had a lamb that died, raging when the chickens got killed by a fox. She’d felt everything, always. Until he’d left. Until all of her feelings had been whittled into a sharp point. Until the only thing driving her had been rage. And then once she’d reached the dead end of all that anger, she’d decided that she had to protect herself. Her goals. She just didn’t want to be hurt again, and she didn’t want to hurt other people, either.

She’d leaned in to her education. It felt like protection. Like a shield protecting her from the things outside of herself, and the feelings in herself.

It was just simpler that way. And the truth was, she couldn’t just...turn her feelings off. She wished. But her anger had protected her, until it had become uncontrolled. And inside... Yeah, inside it was still her go-to. A release that didn’t leave her hurting.

Though it did sometimes leave her feeling sorry.

Which she didn’t like, either.

The door opened, and Rory appeared.

“What happened?”

Rage boiled inside her.

“He’s just impossible. I legitimately can’t tell if he’s actually dumb, or if he’s...”

“It doesn’t matter. You don’t need to get Levi Granger on your side.”

She sighed. “Unfortunately, Rory, I think that I do. Because I’m pretty sure that if I don’t... I’m pretty sure that if I don’t I’m not going to be able to get anybody on my side, and if I can’t get anybody on my side...we might as well give up now.”

One thing Quinn couldn’t do was give up. So that meant that she wasn’t done. Maybe Rory was right, though. Maybe Levi wasn’t the place to start.

She would go back in, and she would talk to other people. And then she would go down to the county herself tomorrow. She would make sure this happened. She was determined. And when Quinn Sullivan was determined, God help anything that got in her way.

CHAPTER THREE

“SEE YOU AT the end of the day, Cam,” Levi said as he headed out the door, into the early, pink morning.

He felt...angry, sure, and filled with restless energy. He hadn’t gotten laid last night. He’d been really looking forward to it, too, because it had been a while.

Sex for him was more of a rare indulgence than he would like, but he was busy, and he didn’t bring women back to his house. A holdover from when his siblings were young.