After Hours Seduction (The Men 0f Stone River Book 1) Page 3

  From the beginning, being with him had been fun and exciting. One weekend when they were dating, he tried to fly her to Paris for dinner. Katie had declined politely, mildly horrified at the thought of spending all that money on a whim.

  Her family was solidly blue-collar. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t imagine herself assimilating into Quin’s jet-set lifestyle. It was possible she had a chip on her shoulder. About fitting in. Years ago, a friend had once called her a reverse snob for judging her wealthy bosses without really knowing them. The comment had stung, because it contained a grain of truth.

  As pleasant as it had been to have a man like Quin shower her with attention and lavish her with gifts, she didn’t need all those things to be happy. What she liked about Quin wasn’t his money—it was him. But it seemed to her that he had used the expensive presents as a shield, a way to keep her at arm’s length. She could never get through to him with a meaningful, genuine connection.

  At five till nine she scooted down the stairs. He was waiting for her at the bottom looking darkly handsome and brooding. “Do you want to see the water?” he asked. “The moon is full. Should be a good view.”

  “Sounds wonderful.”

  Exiting the house was awkward. There was a moment when she was sure he was going to take her arm or link his fingers with hers. In the old days that would have been normal. Now, not so much.

  Quin kept a hand resting on the stair rail as they descended. For a man who’d had his entire knee replaced six weeks ago, he moved with impressive grace. But she knew that an elite athlete wouldn’t take kindly to the limitations of his current situation.

  “We’ll take a trail through the woods,” he said. “It meanders a bit, but it’s been cleared, and it’s easy to follow even in the dark.”

  “Sounds good.”

  The path, strewn with pine needles and last autumn’s leaves, was wide enough for two people to walk side by side. Here in the great outdoors—enveloped in the peace of a quiet summer evening—Katie felt a huge, poignant sadness for all she had lost. She couldn’t make Quin be the man she wanted him to be.

  As long as she reminded herself that he wasn’t part of her future, perhaps she could get through this six weeks unscathed. Her heart clenched with regret. For a moment, she wasn’t sure which she missed the most, the friend or the lover. Was it possible to resurrect the friendship and avoid the temptation to tumble back into his bed?

  The fact that her pulse was all over the map said no.

  Eventually, the trail led out of the woods into a clearing.

  “Watch your step,” Quin said. “We’re close to the edge.”

  Just ahead was nothing but darkness, although the moon was full and bright. The pitch-black ocean was an unknown expanse. A little tingle worked its way down Katie’s spine.

  She had a love/hate relationship with water. After almost drowning in a neighbor’s pool when she was seven, she had always struggled to enjoy getting in the water. On the other hand, she was more than happy to sit and watch the tides go in and out.

  Now that she and Quin were away from the trees, she could hear the crash of the sea on the shore below. This part of the coastline wasn’t immensely high. Even so, the rocky promontory where Quin had built his house commanded a stunning view. She had glimpsed it on her arrival. She would enjoy the sea for as long as she was here.

  Tonight, though, was different. Quinten had led her to the edge of certainty. The brink of safety. She shivered and wrapped her arms around her waist. Her stomach flipped and flopped with excitement or fear or a combination of both.

  Their silent contemplation was not entirely comfortable. The rifts between them were gone but not forgotten. Quin was still an enigma. And Katie still wanted a man who would love her in a forever kind of way.

  Since Quin wasn’t likely to change, maybe this was a chance for Katie to find closure and learn how to relate to him in a new way.

  She touched his arm briefly, barely making contact. “Will you tell me about the car accident?” she asked.

  At her side, she felt his posture stiffen. His voice was low and gravelly when he responded. “I don’t remember much. The doctors say I may never recover those moments. All I know is that Dad and I had a driver that day. We’d been visiting Farrell up here and were headed back to Portland. Somewhere east of Bangor, another vehicle crossed the center line and hit us head-on. My father was killed instantly when he was thrown from the car. No seat belt. My side of the car took the brunt of the collision. My right leg was crushed.”

  “Oh, Quin. I’m so sorry.”

  He shrugged. “I’ve had surgery, more than once actually. Pins. Reconstruction. You can imagine. Finally, they said they had done all they could.”

  “And then?”

  “I convinced myself I had to get back out on the slopes. It was stupid, I know, but I was desperate. Skiing is my life.”

  “But you crashed.”

  He chuckled, though there was no real amusement in the sound. “Crashed and burned, you might say. I didn’t go back to square one. Instead, I fell backward at least a hundred miles. The leg was so jacked up this time that a replacement was my only option.”

  “And the skiing?”

  His profile was beautiful and remote in the moonlight. “No one knows.”

  They stood there, both contemplating those three awful words. She couldn’t imagine Quin not being able to glide down a black diamond slope. “It must have been even harder grieving your father in the midst of all that,” Katie said.

  He moved restlessly, likely because his leg was hurting. “Surely you remember my father’s reputation. He wasn’t an easy man.”

  “I knew how people talked about him at work, but with his sons...” She trailed off, not quite knowing how to express what she wanted to say. Mrs. Stone had died when Quentin was born. The boys had been raised by their father and his drill sergeant brand of parenting.

  Katie had her own issues with Quinten’s stern parent, but now was not the time to rehash old wounds.

  Quin shoved his hands in his pockets and kicked a small stone over the edge. “I loved my father, I suppose. I didn’t want him to die. But the business is a lot easier now that it’s just the three of us.”

  Katie had always been able to read people. It was one of her gifts, and one that wasn’t always pleasant. Right now, she could tell that Quin was hurting, physically and mentally. She wanted to comfort him, to bring back his rakish smile and devil-may-care personality.

  But any move on her part to initiate physical contact, no matter how innocent, would escalate rapidly. She and Quin shared a powerful attraction, even now, after two years apart. It shimmered in the air between them, almost tangible.

  “We should go,” she said, suddenly aware of the danger in this late-night walk. “I was up early this morning. I’m beat.”

  Quin nodded slowly. “Of course.”

  They didn’t speak as they reversed their course. All her excitement about seeing Quin again had coalesced into a painful knot in her stomach, mostly because she had stood at this exact emotional precipice before.

  It was like eating six cones of cotton candy at the county fair. The crazy choice was fun and deliciously indulgent at the time, but always ended up hurting you in the end.

  Back at the house, they climbed the stairs. When Quin unlocked the door and stepped aside, Katie brushed past him, only to pause in the foyer. “Good night, Quin,” she said.

  For a fleeting moment, his guard slipped. She saw the hunger in his gaze. The intensity of it lodged a lump in her throat. Long seconds passed during which she was absolutely certain he was going to kiss her.

  Instead, after breathless moments, he caressed her cheek with the back of his hand, his hard fingers warm against her chilled chin. “I’m glad you’re here, Katie. Good night.”

  Then he turned his bac
k and walked away.

  * * *

  Katie had trouble falling asleep, despite her fatigue. When she’d agreed to this unorthodox plan, it was under the misguided notion that she had mastered her infatuation with Quinten Stone. Apparently, she was as prone as her ex-lover to making dumb decisions.

  She wanted to jump back in her car and escape to Portland.

  The night was long and not particularly restful.

  When morning came, she felt hungover and apprehensive. Was it possible that Quin read her as easily as she did him? Did he know how much she wanted him still?

  Over breakfast, neither of them said much. Mrs. Peterson interrupted the uncomfortable silences, bustling in and out with fresh coffee, additional hot biscuits and second helpings of eggs and bacon.

  At one point, Katie leaned forward and whispered to Quin. “I usually eat yogurt and granola at home.”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “Are you complaining?”

  “Heavens, no.”

  The quick exchange lightened the mood.

  Finally, the wonderful meal was over, and Quin showed her the makeshift office setup. All the amenities were there. The only eyebrow-raising moment was seeing how close his desk was to hers in the small converted downstairs bedroom.

  Shoving aside a host of inappropriate emotions, Katie turned on the top-of-the-line laptop and uploaded the files she had brought via flash drive from Portland. “I’ll email some things to you,” she said. “A lot of it has to do with the first and second quarter financial reports. Zachary wants you to look over them, and then Farrell needs you to sign off on some preliminary designs.”

  After that, the morning settled into a routine. With both of them busy—independently but in the same close quarters—it might have been awkward. Fortunately, once Katie immersed herself in work, the hours flew rapidly.

  She and Quinten were just getting ready to head to the dining room for lunch when Zachary showed up in the doorway.

  Quin frowned. “I thought you were in Portland.”

  “I was. Now I’m here. I brought the chopper.” He glanced at Katie. “Have you told her yet?”

  “Haven’t had a chance. She only arrived yesterday afternoon. We’ve spent this morning getting up to speed on everything I’ve missed.”

  Katie looked from one brother to the other. “Told me what? That sounds ominous.”

  Zachary perched on the corner of her desk, one leg swinging. “You could say that. We’re starting to believe that Stone River Outdoors has been the target of corporate espionage.”

  Her eyes widened. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Unfortunately, we are,” Zachary said. “I’ve stumbled across irregularities in a few of our accounts. Farrell has seen a couple of his most promising ideas pop up in the marketplace. The first time, we wrote it off as coincidence. After all, two people can have the same idea at roughly the same moment. But then it happened again.”

  It was Katie’s turn to frown. “Why didn’t Farrell tell me any of this?”

  “He’s been trying to keep it under the radar to see if anyone at SRO tips his or her hand. Plus, we didn’t want to place you in danger.”

  “Danger?” Katie laughed until she realized that Quentin and Zachary weren’t the slightest bit amused.

  Zachary spoke up again. “Farrell and I started to wonder if the crash that killed Dad and injured Quin was not an accident at all.”

  She sucked in a sharp breath, her gaze darting to Quinten. He’d barely said a word. “And what do you think?” she asked.

  He ground his jaw. “That’s the hell of it. I was recovering from the crash, so I wasn’t dialed into what was happening. The guys didn’t want to worry me when I was having my leg pieced back together. And then, of course, I pulled my dumbass stunt out on the ski slopes.”

  Zachary winced. “Yeah. A few weeks ago, we told Quin everything. It’s true the doctor wants him to take it easy. A side benefit of having you here, though, is that you and Quin can take a look at all the departments remotely and see if you notice any unusual activity or red flags.”

  Katie gnawed her lip. “I understand how Farrell’s department runs. That’s my baby. Quinten controls a whole lot of stuff I know nothing about.”

  “I can teach you,” Quinten said. “You’re one of the smartest people I know.”

  Zachary nodded. “Quin is right. Plus, you’re an outsider, so you might notice something the three of us have missed.”

  “I can’t believe this,” Katie said. “It sounds like a spy movie.”

  Quentin stood and waved them all toward lunch. “We hope we’re wrong. We hope we’re just being paranoid. The evidence is piling up, though. Somebody may be trying to take down Stone River Outdoors.”

  Over corned beef sandwiches and thick wedges of watermelon, Katie took a quieter role as the two brothers joked and laughed and eventually dedicated themselves to serious business. Zachary knew Mrs. Peterson, of course. When he teased her, the older woman’s cheeks turned pink.

  Even a stranger could see that Zachary and Quinten were clearly siblings. They shared the same broad shoulders and lanky build. But Zachary’s eyes were brown, and his hair was chestnut. He probably inherited his coloring from his mother.

  There were personality differences, too. Quinten was intense, competitive. Zachary climbed mountains and was also an incredibly athletic man, but he bounced from one activity to the next—whether it was racing sport cars in Abu Dhabi or navigating the Amazon in search of new experiences.

  Zachary popped the top on his second beer. “This will be it for me. I still have to fly back to Portland later.”

  Quinten lifted an eyebrow. “I thought you’d be spending the night.” He glanced at Katie. “My brother’s house makes my place look like a shack in the woods.”

  “He exaggerates.” Zach grinned. “But it is pretty damned awesome. I’ll show you around sometime,” he said to Katie.

  A change in Quin’s expression told Katie he didn’t like that idea. Maybe because his middle brother had a reputation for playing the field—a large field. She smiled at Zachary. “I’d love to see your home when you have a chance. And what about Farrell’s?”

  Quin relaxed visibly. “Farrell has the biggest chunk of land...his choice. It starts at the ocean and runs inland, narrower than what Zach and I have, but long. From the air, our houses aren’t that far apart along the coastline. When we’re in the mood, we can even walk from one to the next.”

  Katie nodded. “And yours is the farthest south, because I didn’t see the others as I drove in.”

  Zachary interrupted before Quin could respond. “Yep. It’s the whole birth order thing. Farrell’s is first, or northernmost if you like. Then me in the middle. And Quin, here, brings up the rear.”

  Quin made a rude gesture.

  Katie laughed. “I thought middle children were supposed to be the peacemakers.”

  Zachary shrugged. “I never did like people telling me who I was expected to be, whether it was a book or my dearly departed, God-rest-his-soul father.”

  After a beat of silence following Zachary’s unexpectedly revealing comment, Katie folded her napkin and scooted back in her chair and stood. “I want to help, any way I can.”

  The brothers rose to their feet in unison. “You already are,” Quin said. “The three of us couldn’t think of a single other person more capable of helping out with our situation than you.”

  Zachary shook her hand. “Thanks again, Katie.” He grabbed his keys and phone from a nearby table. “Let me know if anything comes up.”

  Four

  Let me know if anything comes up.

  Zachary’s parting words echoed in Quentin’s head for days. He knew Zachary was referring to possible clues about espionage, but where Quentin’s mind went was a whole different ball game.

  It was only the secon
d week of Katie’s intrusion into his routine, and already Quin felt out of sorts. His brothers had been extremely generous in not berating him for the time he’d been away from work. They had shouldered the burden of his responsibilities and had kept things running. That additional load meant his siblings had been tied down far more than usual.

  Now it was Quin’s turn to deal with important company issues and let Zach and Farrell get back to what they did best.

  Unfortunately, that meant Quin had to utilize Katie’s considerable talents. Now that she was here, under his roof, he wasn’t sure he could handle it. Though he had no residual animosity about the way their relationship ended, it would be a foolish mistake—on several counts—to let personal feelings and urges creep back in.

  Katie was an employee of Stone River Outdoors. An employee at the highest level. It didn’t matter that he still responded to her physically. She was off-limits. Not only that, but she had made it very clear two years ago—he wasn’t the kind of man she wanted in her life on a permanent basis.

  He couldn’t fault her logic. He was a selfish bastard. He’d put his desire to pit himself against the ski slopes ahead of what was good for his family. Now he had to deal with the consequences.

  At this particular moment, he was taking a break from the claustrophobic in-home office on the pretext of stretching his muscles. Katie had worked quietly all morning, barely paying any attention to him at all. Didn’t matter. All he could think about was dragging her down the hall and into his bed.

  After a cycle of reps on the rowing machine that left him sweaty but still restless, he moved to the leg press. His range of motion improved daily. For any normal person, the speed and breadth of his recovery would be cause for celebration.

  But Quin had never been satisfied with normal or ordinary. He’d spent years in search of extraordinary. Better, stronger, faster.