Page 53

“Oh, please,” Rae rolled her eyes. “How is it my problem that other guys were attracted to me? I’m not the one who went around shoving my hands down the panties of everyone who looked at me.”

Quinn felt his face twist into an incredulous glare before he could help it.

“I did not shove my hands in girls’ panties.

And okay, you say the attention you attracted wasn’t your problem?

You think we didn’t all know that was exactly your intent when you wore those skimpy little skorts and tight tops?

Come on, you loved being able to make guys drool and fantasize about you.

And trust me, it fucking worked. You wouldn’t imagine some of the shit those guys talked about wanting to do with you behind your back! ”

Rae scoffed. “Really, Quinn? Wearing certain clothes means I was asking for whatever sick fantasies you guys came up with? That’s original.”

She took a step closer to him and he stood up straighter and swallowed.

Her sudden closeness reminded him through his fog of anger and frustration that he’d come here to apologize, to get her back, to make up for being a dick earlier.

Not to criticize her and act like a dick again.

Shit , why was he attacking her for things that had happened over ten years ago?

“Did it ever occur to you that I wore those skorts and tops because I was sick of being seen as just another one of the guys?” Rae questioned. “I wore them because I liked them, sure, but maybe part of me wanted to actually be thought of as a girl for a change.”

“We knew you were a girl, Rae. We just didn’t think you wanted us to act like it. You wouldn’t want us to treat you differently just because you were suddenly...you know, a babe.”

Rae raised her eyebrow and he could tell she was trying not to let the smirk pull at her lips. “A babe, huh?”

“We might have had conversations about it.”

“Conversations? Like that locker room bullshit you pulled tonight?” Rae countered, scathingly.

Quinn put his hands over his face and groaned.

"Rae, please, I'm so sorry. I know I shouldn't have talked about you like that, but...I got jealous, okay? Your ex was going on about how much you just couldn’t wait for him to get home and that you were all over him all the time. I just- we have been having the best sex that I have ever had. Like every day. For almost a month now. I don’t like thinking it was ever like this with you and some other guy. I want to know that I’m the only person who can make you feel like that.

I've never felt this before. Being near you at all, Rae, is a fucking dream.

" He stepped closer and closed what was left of the gap between them.

Reaching out his hand, he touched the side of her face as he peered deep into her eyes.

The usual bright blue was darkened as she stared back at him, unyielding.

"But being with you, being inside you…" His mouth twitched with a smirk as he watched the small intake of breath at his words.

"It's all I can think about. You've got me hooked, and I don't want to do or think about anything or anyone else. "

Rae let his hand rest on her face and he slid his thumb gently over the arch of her cheekbone a few times before she stepped back abruptly. Quinn dropped his hand down to his side with a sigh.

She eyed him warily. "How do I know that's not just who you are now?

How do I know when you go back to L.A. that you won't just jump right back into your little 'bad boy of baseball' routine you've created over the last few years?

How do you know you won't regret tying yourself to one woman the first time you see some hot model who wants to throw herself at you?

" Rae was pacing in front him now. Three steps, turn, another three steps, turn.

"Don't you think there's a reason it didn't work with all those girls?

" said Quinn, now taking his hat off so he could nervously run his hands through his mess of hair.

"I didn't want to be with them. Ever since high school, all those girls I was with were a distraction from how bad I wanted you.

Rae, you're the only girl who has never left my mind. "

"' All those girls'," Rae repeated, stopping her pacing to glare at him with her arms crossed over her chest. "Speaking of all of those girls, don't you think it's a little ironic that you're the one who seems to get jealous all the time?

You're the one who's been messing around with who knows how many women, and yet you get jealous of the one guy I’ve been with in the last few years and had a relationship with. "

Quinn knew he got jealous easily. Of course he did.

He used to fantasize about Rae being his girl for years.

Ever since that day at the ballpark when she'd given him a kiss on the cheek with his hat on.

He started coming up with excuses for her to wear his hats more often or offer his team shirts and sweatshirts that had his last name on them.

He wanted everyone to see her with his name on her.

He was possessive. He wanted to stake his claim on her but was always so sure he wasn't good enough. So he pretended.

"Yeah, I do get jealous easily, Rae," Quinn nodded. "I get jealous because- and I don't mean this in a way that's meant to treat you like an object or a prize- I get jealous of those guys because you're mine . You've always been mine. Everyone seems to get that except you."

Rae scoffed and rolled her eyes, looking off to the side.

"Don't believe me?" Quinn pressed, voice rising.

"Nothing about those other women ever mattered.

I could try to make a connection, try to feel something deeper, try to want more than a night or two with them.

But it didn't matter. You set the bar a long time ago, and none of them ever came close.

" He grabbed her around the waist, forcing her to be near him, even though she resisted the embrace at first. "And no one else ever will, because I'm yours.

You've made your claim, whether you know it or not.

You, Raelyn DeRose, belong to me. And I belong to you.

So you'd better get that through your head, because it's not changing any time soon. "

Her body was tense and defiant against his. Quinn knew she was still mad, but these last words had forced her to make eye contact. There was a spark in her eyes, though he wasn't entirely sure if it was more fight flaring, or if she'd been turned on by what he'd said. Maybe both.

"Is that so?" One of her eyebrows raised as she continued to glare at him. "If I've been yours for so long, why didn't you do anything about it before now? If I belonged to you, even back then, why would you let me go out with all those guys you hated so much?"

The fire in her voice was intoxicating. Quinn was still holding her close to him, though he could feel her body pulling away.

He tightened his grip on her, grabbing her hips and pressing into her.

She put her hands on top of his as if to pry his hands away from her, but instead just rested them there, still fuming.

Quinn watched her chest rise up and down with her exhilarated breath.

He watched her nipples go hard beneath her thin camisole.

"You know why, Rae," said Quinn, his voice low and husky. "I never thought I'd make the cut. I saw all the guys you went for and I was nothing like them."

"That's a bullshit answer, and you know it." Rae lowered her voice. "I may not have known I wanted you since we were thirteen, Case, but at least when I realized what I wanted, I went for it. I didn't sit around for five years and wait for it to fall into my lap."

Is she talking about the night I brought her home after the bar? Or...graduation night?

Quinn searched her face for clarification. He swallowed then fought back, "You didn't want me, Rae. You just didn't want to still be a virgin when you got to college. "

"Why do you think I chose you? By the sounds of it I could've had anyone," Rae challenged. "Why didn't I pick Jett or Chris or...anyone else if it was really just about wanting to get fucked for the first time?"

Now Quinn's breath was coming in shaky and he was struggling to keep it steady.

This time it was his quick intake of breath when she'd said 'fucked' that had her grinning mischievously.

She didn't usually talk like that, but damn, it did things to him.

His cock was getting hard, pressing against the zipper of his jeans.

He traced his eyes down her face and neck, and to where her nipples were visibly poking into the fabric of her shirt.

"Why did you choose me?" Quinn rasped, watching the steady rise and fall of her breasts.

"Because I wanted you , Quinn Casey. Because you're mine....and I'm yours."

Quinn's eyes flicked up from her chest to her fiery gaze.

It sent an electric shock through his whole body.

His hands shot up from her hips into her hair, tangling his fingers as he pulled her in hard and crushed his mouth onto hers.

His tongue slid into her mouth and wrestled with hers.

Quinn felt frantic. He couldn't get enough of her.

He couldn't be close enough to her. He needed her- everything, all of her, all at once.

He trailed his mouth down her jaw and bit the nape of her neck.

When she moaned, she arched her body into him.

"You are mine," he whispered against her skin.

"It's about damn time you figured it out.

" His hands dropped down to the bottom of her little white camisole and he slid his hands underneath it, cupping both breasts as he brushed his thumbs over those sweetly pointed nipples.

The whimper that slipped out of her lips made his pants feel tight as his cock hardened for her.