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Raelyn cast a squinted side glance at him before blinking in shock. “Holy shit, Jett! Good for you,” she said sincerely. “Seriously, have you ever considered doing porn? That thing’s a fucking beast.”

“Would you stop LOOKING AT MY DICK?” Jett’s shouts came out panicked, the last words more of a shrill screech than anything else.

“I’m sorry, but damn ,” Raelyn turned away, but her eyes darted back a few more times, confirming that she had in fact seen correctly that Jett’s penis was enormous. “Why aren’t you working? You realize you have a line wrapped around the building down there?”

“I was supposed to be off tonight,” said Jett, finally getting the towel wrapped around his waist and tucked in.

“I went with Quinn to his mom’s, then we had an incident that resulted in getting covered in mud, so I showered and now I’m going to have to go help out downstairs anyway. The joys of being a business owner.”

She processed this information as she peered at him again from the side. “Do you pass out when that thing gets hard? From all the blood in your body rushing to it?”

Jett let out a heavy sigh, “That’s a bit of an exaggeration, I think.

But thank you. Make sure you tell Quinn that.

He can be famous and rich, Chris can be happily married, but of the three of us guys, I have the biggest dick.

That’s all I need to know in life.” He puffed out his chest and smiled with pride.

“Is Quinn downstairs? I thought you were with him,” said Raelyn, facing Jett again, but not putting her hands down all the way just yet.

“I dropped him off at the hotel already,” Jett replied. He glanced at the clock on the stove top. “Like an hour and a half ago. At least. ”

Instinctively, Raelyn pulled her phone out of her purse and checked it. No new messages. Not from Quinn or anyone. She frowned at the screen. “Maybe my phone’s not receiving texts. It might need an update.”

Without being asked, Jett padded over to the kitchen counter where he’d left his phone.

He shot off a text and seconds later, Raelyn’s phone buzzed.

More confused, and now starting to get a little worried, Raelyn could barely laugh at Jett’s message- On second thought, don’t tell your bf you saw me naked. He scares me.

“I hope he’s okay…” Raelyn stared down at her phone for a few seconds, pondering. If they’d had an incident, whatever that meant, and got covered in mud, he likely had to shower again. But he didn’t take that long in the shower. “Maybe his phone’s dead.”

“Shouldn’t be,” said Jett. “He was charging it in my truck. Pretty sure it was over fifty percent when he unplugged it. That guy gets a lot of phone calls”

“Hmm…” Raelyn chewed the inside of her lip, brow furrowed. “Well, I guess I’ll just go to the hotel. He told me what room it was. I’m sure there’s some sort of explanation.”

“Yeah, I’m sure he’s fine. Maybe he got held up by reporters and had to make a run for it,” Jett suggested. “ Maybe …” Raelyn could hear the conspiratorial tone in his voice, “they ran out of Quinn Casey bobbleheads, and Bobble Corp had to have him flown out for a new replica.”

Raelyn giggled, appreciating the lightening of the mood.

“ Maybe he was trying to set up a sex swing in your hotel room and decided to try it without supervision and got stuck!”

Laughing again, Raelyn shook her head.

“Maybe ...and just hear me out on this one- maybe… he’s Batman.”

Raelyn nodded, smiling. “Yeah, that could be. Money, abs, anger issues…that vigilante urge to carry out justice on his own terms.”

“See? The bat signal apparently comes before whatever weird sex plans you had tonight,” Jett said with a shrug, attempting to conceal his own amusement with himself .

“There’s nothing weird about buying nylon rope in bulk and-”

“Oh God , no! What?” Jett’s look of horror made Raelyn laugh even harder.

“Aw, poor little virgin ears can’t handle that,” she pouted mockingly.

“I’m not a virgin!” Jett insisted through gritted teeth.

“Sure you’re not, Flower,” Raelyn reached up and ruffled his curly hair and he ducked away from her. “Better hold onto that towel.” Raelyn smirked and made her way to the door to back down to the alley.

“Wait, Rae,” Jett grabbed her by the bicep and turned her around. “You can’t go down to the alley by yourself. It’s almost eleven o’clock. I’ll get dressed and walk you out.”

“It’s fine, that’s how I came up.”

“Well, that was dumb. Just give me a minute.” With that, he turned down the hallway to his bedroom. It did only take one minute for him to get on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. He slid on some shoes at the door and walked Raelyn out to the car.

“Let me know when you find him, okay?” Jett said, holding the door open as Raelyn slid into the front seat.

“Will do, Flower,” Raelyn teased and gave a wink. Jett shook his head, exasperated, and shut the driver’s side door.

It wasn’t a long drive back to the hotel.

Quinn was still staying at Hotel Indigo because they had the best safety measures around for guests.

Some false leaks had been made that he was staying in other hotels, which at least kept the cameras from all congregating outside one building.

Raelyn managed to duck into the lobby unnoticed and get the elevator to herself.

She pushed the button for the fourth floor and waited.

Room four-oh-two, right? Four-twenty-two? Two-twenty-four? Shit.

She specifically remembered hearing the number four-oh-two, but she could’ve sworn that the room number Quinn had given her had a twenty in it somewhere.

Oh well. Quinn hadn’t texted her yet asking her to show up, so she wasn’t in too big of a hurry.

She could check those different rooms with the hope that the occupants weren’t complete weirdos.

Stepping out of the elevator on the fourth floor, she spotted the sign that directed which way to go for rooms 400-412, and the other way for rooms 413-424.

It looked like the floor did a full circle, or rectangle, rather, so she supposed it didn’t matter which way she went first. Since rooms were equally close, she opted to start with room 402.

She knocked. Waited. Nothing. Knocked again. Still nothing.

Raelyn whispered a brief, “Sorry if you’re sleeping in there…

” and continued down the hall to find room 422.

As she passed the little nook to get ice and other beverages, she heard a door open and looked up at the sound of Quinn’s familiar voice.

The excitement she felt was stopped short at the sound of a female voice, and the sight of a woman exiting his room in front of him.

Panicking, Raelyn slipped inside the nook and peered around the corner.

No. Fucking. Way.

No.

This is not fucking happening.

Quinn was standing just outside the doorway in a t-shirt and boxer briefs.

He was wearing his fucking underwear and a t-shirt.

In front of some woman. A woman in his hotel room.

She was beautiful, of course. She was petite with dark brown hair that fell in waves down her back, and was wearing black pump heels, a pencil skirt, and an emerald green sleeveless blouse, with her blazer tucked under one arm.

Raelyn’s stomach was an empty pit. It felt like her stomach was falling and falling into endless blackness.

Her heart clenched. It physically hurt. The lump in her throat grew in seconds, and the harder she tried to swallow it down, the larger it seemed to get.

Her eyes burned with tears begging to pour out.

No, no, no, this was not happening again.

Not with him. Not Quinn.

He loves me. I know he does .

So what the fuck...is he doing here? With someone else?

She strained to hear past the rushing in her ears and listened for the words being exchanged that had to, absolutely had to , provide some explanation other than what it clearly looked like.

“... so good,” the woman’s voice came to Raelyn’s ears. Her voice was velvety and warm, smooth and sexy. Of course it was.

“Good to see you again, Mamacita,” Quinn said, his voice full of playfulness and charm at the same time.

Raelyn peeked ever so slightly around the corner of her nook in time to see the two step out of an embrace.

The woman’s hands lingered on Quinn’s biceps.

It made her want to sob and scream and fall apart all at once.

“Tomorrow, then? Eleven o’clock? We can do lunch and then go from there,” the woman said. Raelyn leaned against the wall, standing still as she heard footsteps advancing. Eyes closed, trying to just breathe and keep the inevitable flood at bay, she waited to hear Quinn’s door close.

The click of the door and the electronic beep of it locking behind him sounded through the empty hall.

Raelyn stood still, unsure of her next move.

Should she confront him? Should she walk away and let him figure it out?

Should she confront her? This woman that Raelyn had never seen, but apparently Quinn had and was going to see again?

She swallowed around the lump in her throat, considering how to move forward.

How to handle this. How...how she was supposed to just carry on once this had officially come to an end.

The thought of their final goodbye brought the first sob out.

She put a hand over her mouth and tried to keep control.

She thought of how little sense this made.

How she knew, she knew Quinn loved her. Loves her.

Was this really just some act between them?

Was this something fun to do while he was benched?

The questions seemed absolutely ridiculous, but what else could she think?

Closing her eyes again, she was taken back to the doorway of Emerson’s office at the law firm.

The woman lying on his desk with her legs wrapped around his waist. His pants slung just low enough on his hips that he could fuck her.

She remembered that entire scene, and how humiliated she had felt.

She hadn’t wanted to face him, talk to him, be anywhere near him.

She hadn’t wanted to give him a chance to explain or try to excuse it like he had the first time.

Raelyn considered going to Quinn’s door and knocking.

Then she imagined him opening the door for her to see the scene of whatever had just happened in that room.

Jett said he’d dropped him off close two hours ago now, and she was just leaving.

What kind of mess had they made in that hotel room?

Had they shaken picture frames off their spots on the walls like she and Quinn had only days ago?

Knocked over lamps? How tangled were the sheets?

No. She did not want to see that. She wanted to get as far away from that as possible.

Having found the motivation finally to push herself off the wall and head back to the elevator and out to the car, Raelyn concentrated on her breathing until she was comfortably behind the wheel again.

Then she let it out. The tears, the sobs, the struggle to catch her breath.

Her chest was tight and her heart felt like it was shattered into a thousand broken in pieces.

Her stomach was still dropping out of itself into nothingness, and she had no idea where to go from here.

The chime of her phone in the passenger’s seat made her gasp and pause. She slowly reached her hand over to look at the screen.

Quinn: Hey, baby. I’m so sorry that took so long. I promise to make it up to you when you get here. You want it soft, we can do it soft and slow. You want it rough and wild, you know I can do that, too. I love you. See you soon.

Closing her eyes with silent tears streaming down her cheeks, Raelyn felt the last piece of her heart break.