Page 55

"I got accepted to all of them, and Dad had the tuition check ready to send to Arizona," Rae said, her gaze switching from his chest to his face repeatedly.

"But then...that happened. And I guess..

.I thought I must've had the wrong idea.

I thought you were into me. Actually, I was pretty sure you had been for at least a little while.

But then I guess I thought I must've been wrong.

That you were only doing it as a favor or something. "

Quinn put his hands over his face and released a long breath. Rae had wanted to be with him enough to leave the state for him? Enough to follow him across the country? And he’d never known it.

Goddamn, that memory plays differently now.

He laced his fingers over hers where she rested her hand on his chest. “I’d ask you why you never told me, but that’s a little hollow coming from me, huh?”

If he had just told her the truth when she had first brought up that little deal they’d made, if he had just told her how he really felt, that might have changed everything .

But then again, that might’ve changed everything.

They were both in good places. His dream of playing ball and getting out of poverty and doing it on his own had come true.

Rae was successful, too. She was so independent, and most of the baseball wives he knew basically followed their husbands and let their ball career dictate everything.

It was a show of support, of course, sort of like being a military wife.

But would Rae have been happy if she’d been with him through it all?

Would she have been happy following him all over the country and giving up her chance at ever having her own career?

He didn’t doubt she would have supported him, but would she have been unhappy just helping him live his dream and forgetting about any of her own?

Those long years spent apart suddenly felt more necessary than tragic. They’d both made a life they were happy with. And now they had each other. Now they could have it all.

“I would have loved it, Rae, if you would’ve come with me.

I wanted you to, I wanted to be with you.

Back then, I couldn’t imagine four years without you.

It almost made me want to say no to a scholarship and college just to stay near you, but I knew I couldn’t,” he said, then rolled to face her.

“But there will always be what-ifs. Fuck knows I’ve got about a million of them when it comes to you, but we’re here now. ”

“It’s just hard not to imagine how different the last ten or eleven years might have been if I’d gone with you.

I was heartbroken when you left. It’s like I never actually thought you’d leave without me.

You’d been a part of my life, a part of me for so long.

I had to learn how to live without you.”

Quinn reached out, cupping her chin in his hand and she leaned into it. He kissed her softly. “Well you won’t have to do that again. You’re coming with me this time.”

Rae nearly laughed, “Quinn, you live across the country and are on the road all the time. I have a career here and my family. You want me to just pack up and leave all that behind? ”

This was a conversation he’d been dreading, but the solution seemed simple now. She wanted him. He needed her. So they would be together. However they could make it happen.

“Yes, I do,” Quinn said, resting his hand back on her hip. “The way I see it, your family and everyone has had you for the past several years. I’ve been generous letting them all have you.”

“Oh, have you?” Rae mused, a smile playing at her full lips.

“Yes,” Quinn was now speaking into her neck as he alternated between kissing, licking, and biting. “You’re mine and I’m yours, and I say you’re coming with me. I don’t want to share what’s mine anymore.”

With a pleasant sigh, Rae arched into him again, and he dipped his head to lick around her nipple. He loved how her body always responded to his tongue.

“That’s an awfully big decision to make for me,” said Rae, her fingertips lightly tracing the hard muscles of his back.

“Do you not want to come with me?” Quinn nibbled at the soft skin of her breast.

“You might have to convince me it’s a good idea.”

Quinn slid his hand down her belly and between her legs, feeling where she was still wet. She bit her lip with a quiet moan, and he spoke with lips pressed to her skin, “I think you’ll find I can be quite persuasive.”

With a soft shove, Rae pressed his shoulder so that he rolled onto his back and she fell gracefully on top of him.

“Actually, I have something in mind.” Quinn looked up at her curiously.

Her long hair fell over one shoulder, barely tangled, and he couldn’t help running his hands through it.

“I read this magazine article one time,” she began, a mischievous little smirk quirking up her lips.

“Oh yeah?” Quinn returned her playful grin.

“Mhmm,” she looked up as if trying to remember. “Some unbearably sexy pro baseball player claims he knows all the secrets to ‘bed-breaking’ sex, and,” Rae’s gaze swept over her bed from the headboard to the bottom posts, “I can’t help noticing my bed is perfectly intact. ”

Eyebrow still cocked with intrigue, Quinn gave a devilish grin, “Are you challenging me?”

“I am.”

“If I break your bed, you’ll come back to California with me?” Quinn couldn’t believe this sexy woman on top of him was real. And she was all his.

“That’s my condition.” Rae stared back at him, eyes both aroused and playful.

Quinn's eyes wandered to the headboard, then he gently slid Rae off of him and onto the bed.

He could feel her eyes on him as he wandered to the head of the bed and rocked the sturdy wood of the headboard.

This was going to take some serious work, especially after a long night of drinking.

But he just knew he had to take Rae with him when he left.

If this was her condition, he'd find a way.

A cocky grin pulled up the corner of his lips as he fixed his gaze back on Rae. She was peering up at him through her long eyelashes, biting her bottom lip. He gave the white oak one more shake and heard a small creak. "Oh yeah, I got this."