Page 104 of Wretched Lies

“I won’t lie. I’m slightly terrified of your family, but I’ve never felt more loved.”

“Good,” he says, taking my hand and leading me out of the diner. “Like it or not, you’re a Griffin now.”

I squeeze his hand. “I like it.”

Chapter 34

Reid

I’ve always enjoyed waking up early. It gives me time to still my mind, something I’ve been getting better at in the four weeks since Quinn’s rescue. Bathed in the warmth of the rising sun, I pause to appreciate the small things. Like the tiny mole on Quinn’s collarbone, and the faint scar on her elbow where she fell climbing when she was little.

Her breathing remains steady and shallow, but a smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. “Do you mind keeping the noise down.”

“What noise?” I whisper.

She peels open her eyes. “You, loving me loudly.”

“Guilty as charged.”

Quinn grabs hold of my t-shirt and pulls me with her as she rolls onto her back. “Want to make some more noise?”

I slide a knee between her legs, then the other. My morning wood rests on her sleep shorts as I bracket her head with my forearms. “Aren’t you afraid we’ll wake up the neighbors?”

“Why? Are you planning on making me scream?”

We’re challenging each other in the best possible way.

Quinn hadn’t wanted me to bring her back to the Griffin homestead when we’d landed in Chicago, but she’d been so desperate for a shower and a soft bed that she’d agreed to stay for one night. I’d bathed her and held her while she slept, and when she’d awoken the next morning, we’d made love slowly, gently, and quietly. I was worried about hurting her or the baby. She was worried about disturbing the rest of the house.

I would have happily moved out if it was what she’d wanted, but then she’d met Connie, who’d mothered Quinn like she’d never been mothered before. By contrast, Maddie and Lily had welcomed her like a returning warrior, and one they made sure my brothers didn’t overwhelm.

Slowly, Quinn’s settled into our new home, but we’ve been more reserved than we were back in the log cabin.

Quinn sucks in her lower lip. “I think I heard Maddie and Hunter having sex yesterday,” she admits. “Although it could possibly have been Mace and Lily. I thought the noise was coming from the library, but I haven’t quite worked out how sound travels.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t Ash?” I tease.

Her jaw drops. “Does he have a girlfriend he sneaks in?”

“Never,” I say. “I just thought, you know, maybe he was on his own.”

She squeezes her eyes shut. “No, no, no,” she cries out. “Please change the subject. I don’t want to hear about any of your brothers’ sex lives.”

“You brought it up.”

“I know. I just needed to remind myself that we’re all adults, and we know we’re all having sex.”

“Everyone except Ash.”

She hits my shoulder. “Stop it,” she hisses. Her finger trails across my lips and I suck it into my mouth. When I curl my tongue around the tip, it earns me a groan. Her grey eyes blow. “It just got me thinking how competitive your brothers are.”

I release her finger. “Go on.”

“Whoever it was enjoying themselves yesterday, they were really vocal. We used to be like that. Back in the log cabin, you made me scream so hard I thought I’d burst a blood vessel,” she says, wrapping her legs around me. As she presses her feet to the back of my thighs, she grinds against me and I respond in kind. “I want you to do that again, but you’re going to have to fuck me hard, Reid Griffin. Show your brothers what you can do.”

“Are you sure it’s not you who’s being competitive?”

“Maybe,” she says as she slides her hands down to my waistband and pulls down my boxer shorts.