Loving Quinn Novel by North Rose

(Annora)

Quinn?” My voice is horace as I croak out his name. Shock and joy courses through my body as I realize who has come to save me.

“Hey buddy, this is between my wife and I, back off.” Kyle spits at Quinn, his words slurring in his drunken state.

Fantastic. Kyle has to start on the whole wife thing. Great. All I need now is for my first love to know I used to be married to this drunk **ole.

“That may be, but she doesn’t seem to want your hands on her. So, I am going to ask you to back away from her,” Quinn says. His eyes look at Kyle with disgust.

His voice is deeper than it used to be and it sends delicious shivers of desire down my spine. Now is not the time for that so I shove those feelings aside. I will think more on it later after Kyle is gone.

“Just who the hell do you think you are? Coming over here butting into other people’s business like this.” Kyle screeched,

I watch as Quinn’s jaw flexes in what I can only describe as suppressed anger. His green eyes glitter with it. This man is far more in control of his emotions than his younger self ever was. The Army did him a favor there.

“Let go of the lady’s hand now or I will make you.” He growls venomously at Kyle.

As if just realizing he is still gripping onto my wrist, Kyle drops my hand instantly. He looks between Quinn and I then takes a few steps back. Sadly that is whe common sense fails him yet again.

He tries to lunge at me but Quinn grabs his arm before he can do anything more than take at stuttering step forward. Rage contorts his features into a disgusting mask as he turns his head to look at the man keeping him from hurting what he has always deemed as his.

Me. The wife he abused and cheated on. The woman who married him despite her misgivings. My mind is more clear on who and what Kyle Wells is now more than ever before. He is a monster in a human disguise.

“I don’t think you want to do that, mister. Didn’t your parents ever teach you not to hit a lady?” Quinn growls at him.

A look of pain crosses Kyle’s face. I look at where Quinn is gripping his arm and see that his grip looks very tight. I should call for security but I am getting too much satisfaction from watching someone put Kyle in his place.

“This is my wife and we are just having a marital dispute. No one asked for your help, so back off a**ole,” Kyle hisses at Quinn.

I roll my eyes at that statement and sigh heavily. That was one of his favorite lines when we had a fight. It is just a marital dispute, we will get past it.

“She didn’t seem to want you touching her. She may not have asked for help but her body language screamed for it. Now will I need to call security or will you walk away on your own.”

Kyle’s face paled at the mention of security. He knows that if security gets involved then the police will get involved. I will mention the restraining order and he knows it. For the first time since he came up to me tonight, clarity seeps into his eyes.

“Kyle? What is going on here?” A shrill female voice asked from behind Quinn.

Oh, goodness gracious, just what this situation needs. Lana Wells to join the fray. The new wife who is jealous of the old wife. I can see the look of rage in her eyes when she sees Kyle’s hand wrapped around my arm. Yet, with Lana here now, Kyle will put his charming mask

back on. With luck, that will have him leaving me alone to go smooth things over with his

wife.

“This isn’t what it looks like, Lana. Annora was flirting with me, and I had to defend myself,” Kyle lied to cover his tracks.

“Why can’t you leave my husband alone? Are you so jealous of us that you have to flirt with

him in public? Do you know how pathetic that makes you look?” Lana screamed at me.

Quinn rounded on her while still holding Kyle’s arm. “This man was in the

process of slapping her after she repeatedly asked him to let go of her arm. I don’t know you lady, but if

I were you, I would look a little closer at the situation.”

“Who the hell are you? Oh, you are a soldier,” Lana says as she notices his attire. Her attitude changes instantly. Gone is the angry harpy. Say hello to the flirty s**t. She steps up next to him as ber eyes travel over his uniform.

That makes me look at him closer. There he was in his dress uniform. Something about Quinn standing there in uniform made my knees turn to jelly. I never really imagined what he did for our country before. Never really grasped that the boy I knew back then would be a soldier now. Why had I not connected the dots in my head until now?

“Who I am is none of your business. Knowing my name is the least of your concerns. I think you need to get your husband home so he can sober up.” Quinn says with disdain dripping from his voice.

Lana’s face turns red with embarrassment then she looks at me. Anger swiftly replaces her embarrassment. She opens her mouth to talk but closes it again. A smirk forms on my lips as she steps away from Quinn. His eyes are cold as he stares at her.

“Come on, Lana, let’s go back to the party.” Kyle yanks his arm out of Quinn’s grasp. He wobbles to Lana then he pulls her away from us.

Finally, I can breathe again. I take a deep breath then look at my arm. I will have a nasty bruise for sure. It will be the last one I let that man ever give me. I will call my lawyer in the morning.

“Will you be alright?” Quinn asks me once they are no longer in earshot.

I look up into his sea-green eyes as he takes a step closer to me. I feel the air being sucked from my lungs as my dream becomes a reality. Quinn really is standing in front of me after all these years. My knees decide at that moment to give out on me, but before I hit the floor, I am pulled up against his hard chest. Then before I know what is happening, Quinn scoops me up in his arms bridal fashion, and we are walking to a bench that is against the wall.

Quinn sits me on the bench then walks away, leaving me with my thoughts. He is here. The man who stole my heart at eighteen. The man who left at the end of the summer to go join the United States Army. What he didn’t know was he left me with a precious gift. Grace, our daughter, whose eyes are replicas of her father’s

How am I going to tell him about Grace? Just be like ‘Oh hey, remember that summer, yeah we have a kid together.” No, that **t won’t work at all. I could have and should have tried harder to find him. I could have hired an investigator, done a DNA search, anything I could have to find him. Instead, I just raised Grace and didn’t look for him.

Does that make me a horrible person? My heart says so, but my mind knows I did all I could to make it to where I am now. I got through medical school with a baby thanks to my parents moving to England. I got through residency thanks to my family banding together to help me. They say it takes a village to raise a child. In my case, it was true. I owe them so much.

“Here, drink this,” Quinn’s voice startles me.

I look up to see him holding a glass of water out to me. With a trembling hand, I reach up and take it from him. My eyes tracking his movements as he sits down next to me. Oh, how his muscles ripple under that uniform. Twelve years did him good.The physical exertion of the army has made his once toned body one of such power that I can feel heat rushing to my cheeks.

I am a renowned Pediatric surgeon, for g**d’s sake. One look at him and I am reduced to a blushing teenager again. This man just oozes sex appeal.

“Was that man really your husband?” Quinn asks me.

I hear a slight tinge of jealousy in his voice. He glances down at my hand as if he is checking for a wedding ring.

“Once, but no longer. As you can see, there is an obvious reason for it,” I tell him.

“How long?”

“Too long,” I tell him as I finally look into his eyes.

“Will I sound like an a***hole if I tell you I am glad you are divorced?” Quinn asks me.

“Not at all. I am happy I am divorced too. Marrying him was a mistake.”

“Was he always like that? Drunk, belligerent, and abusive?” Anger shines in his eyes as he asks the question I knew he would.

I shake my head then take a sip of water. “He was charming when I first met him. A little arrogant, It wasn’t until after we got married that he let his mask slip and I saw his truet

face.”

“Did he ever hurt you physically?” He clenches his fists as he asks me that question.

Telling him won’t change what happened. I don’t want him to know what Kyle did to me, not during our first meeting after so long apart. “I don’t want to talk about this, Quinn.”

“Annie…”

His voice causes things low in my body to tighten. Memories of the past rush through my mind. Then images of me peeling him out of that uniform to get a look at all those glorious muscles. I can feel heat rush to my cheeks, so I look down at my hands.

“Annie, look at me.”

I look back up at him hesitantly. Those beautiful eyes of his were always my weakness. Seeing him again proves that hasn’t changed. The look he is giving me makes me tremble. I would love to just have him hold me like he used to. Spend all night talking to each other.

“Quinn…”

My voice is breathy which makes me look back down at my hands. He reaches over and uses a finger to lift my face to look up at him. There are questions in his eyes that I don’t want to answer. I can tell he wants to know more about the abuse I lived through with Kyle.

“You look good in that uniform.”

Quinn smiles at me. “Do you think so?”

I nod my head as I can’t seem to find the words. It is like my brain is short circuiting just being near him. Forming coherent thoughts seems to be impossible the longer I sit here with him. I keep imagining him t***ss in his hotel room.

“Come walk with me, we can go outside to get some fresh air.” He stands up then holds his hand out for me.

I take it and feel like I have been struck by lightning. He places his hand on the small of my back and leads me to a side exit where a large balcony is. It looks out on the gardens. We walk down a set of stairs and find a stone bench.

The fresh air helps cool me down but it does nothing to stop me from admiring the way he moves as he sits next to me. This new version of Quinn is doing all sorts of bad things to my insides. My heart is beating faster, there are butterflies in my stomach, and I don’t want the night to end.

I jump a little when his large hand covers mine. He rubs his thumb slowly over the back of my hand and I relax. I haven’t felt this comfortable with another man other than my father and brothers, Kyle never made me feel like this.

“Feeling better?” His voice is soothing.

4 look over at him and smile. Relief flashes through his eyes. I want to just throw myself at him so he can just hold me like he used to. I just sit where I am and stare at him instead.

We sit in silence for what feels like forever. I am almost hypnotized by the gentle stroke of his thumb over my hand. There is so much I want to ask about his life, so much I want to tell him about mine. One very important detail about my life needs to be revealed to him.

However, my thoughts just keep circling back to how f**ng amazing he looks in that uniform. I want to see what is under it so badly. To touch his skin, lick a trail down his stomach, and dig my nails into his back as he does what I have dreamed of for years.

“Come dance with me,” Quinn says as he suddenly stands up, his hand outstretched for mine.

My thoughts make me look away as he stands up. When I am sure my eyes won’t betray my dirty thoughts, I look up at him. There is a small smile on his face like he knows what I was thinking but he doesn’t say anything.

Thankfully, “I am not sure that is a good idea,” I tell him as I stand up. My eyes flick to the ballroom to see if Kyle is still lurking around.

“He won’t hurt you again, I promise,” Quinn whispers. How does he know what I was thinking?

“How can you promise that? You will leave after tonight, I will still be here,” I tell him.

“Do you really think I will walk away after I have finally found you again?” He asks me in the deep rumbling voice of his I could never resist for long. D

Then before I can react further, he pulls me against his body, but instead of kissing me like I am expecting, he wraps his arms around me in a hug. A hug that sends chills down my spine in a good way. I never knew until now how much I missed being in his arms, How much just that one action made me relax more than anything else in the world.

I have found my safe place again.