Chapter Ten
I groaned and pressed my palms harder into my eyes.
This was it.
Karma doing its job and doing an excellent one at that.
Me being on my knees on the floor with my face held in my hands after being hit in the back with a door and forced down to said knees. This was my penance for throwing that damn rock at Quinton’s head. That stupid rock and that one incredibly bad decision, it would haunt me for a very long time. At least it would haunt my memories because I thought and hoped this would be the last of it since karma had finally decided to take its pound of flesh out of me. I hoped this would be the last of it.
“Get up off the floor,” Quinton growled.
I assumed he had been growling at me. Unless he was talking to Julian. I didn’t think Quinton would be talking to Julian like that because I didn’t think Julian would put up with it. So Quinton wouldn’t waste his time growling at him.
Me, though?
Quinton would certainly growl and bark orders at me, and he wouldn’t think twice about it.
I removed my palms from my face, but I was too late. Apparently, I had taken too long for Quinton’s liking because he stormed up to me. I heard his cowboy boots as they stomped across the floor. He grabbed me under my armpits and hauled me up to my feet. Quinton moved me around as if I were no more than a piece of furniture and a light one at that.
“What the hell are you doing on the floor like that?” he asked me.
He placed me firmly on my feet, but he didn’t let me go. No, instead he moved into my back, pressing his chest to my back. He wrapped his arms around my chest as he buried his face in my neck. I felt the touch of his lips as he gently pressed them into my bare skin. I shivered at the contact, it felt good. Too good, in fact, when we were in front of other people.
I loved it when Quinton touched me, when he kissed me. But now was definitely not the time. I was still getting used to him touching me, kissing me, but I wasn’t quite ready to put on a show for everyone else just yet. Maybe I wouldn’t ever be ready for that.
If you had asked me weeks ago which one I thought would be into PDA, it wouldn’t have been Quinton. I would have said the twins. But not Quinton. He was hostile and aggressive, overbearing and, at times, a ruling dictator. He thought he was king of the castle and we were all his lowly subjects here to do his bidding. He could be one seriously cold, scary dude at times. Then there are other times, times where he was sweet and incredibly kind if you were capable of seeing past that layer of ice he kept himself shrouded in. But he didn’t let that kindness and sweetness out as often as I would have liked but when he did it was almost always directed at me. I just hadn’t expected him to bring it out in front of other people. He’d surprised me.
I reached up with a shaking hand and brushed the hair out of my face. I flung it back, in Quinton’s direction. I hoped some of it smacked him in the face.
I found Julian with my eyes. He hadn’t moved from his place on the floor. His hands had moved, though. He’d placed them on the rug beneath him at his sides. He looked like he was about to stand up but was just waiting for the right moment to do so.
His lips were pressed together in a tight line. His entire body was strung tight and he looked dangerously close to springing to his feet and exploding. He was not a happy person at this moment and I couldn’t blame him in the least for it. He’d given me exactly what I had asked him for, answers to my questions and an explanation. Yeah, I hadn’t liked the ending but that didn’t mean I had to go and yell at him. He’d taken the time to explain some things to me that weren’t exactly fun for him to talk about and I’d gone and thrown it in his face. Not a very good way to repay him, something I was very aware of. I was developing a really unhealthy habit of emotionally exploding all over the people near me. Something else I had to work on.
I didn’t want to make excuses for myself, but I was emotionally exhausted and didn’t think I had it in me to be nice all of the time anymore.
I owed him an apology. I didn’t like owing him one. I didn’t like owing anyone anything.
I looked him straight in the eyes and said, “I’m sorry, Julian. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. You’re allowed to feel how you’re feeling and you should be able to be honest with me without having to be worried about my reaction. Thank you for sharing what you did with me, I really appreciate it. I appreciate your honesty. And I’m sorry. I promise you, I’m sorry.”
All the sad truth. I was sorry for yelling at him and I was sorry if I made him feel like he shouldn’t share anything with me anymore. I didn’t want that.
But blaming me for his problems with Tyson? I did not think so. I would not take responsibility for that. No freaking way. They had bad history and not any of it had to do with me.
I was sick and tired of this Annabell chick and I in no way wanted to be compared to her. I knew they had issues because of what she’d done to them. Would I have to spend the rest of my life living under the weight of what she’d done? I hoped not. I seriously hoped not. That wasn’t a cloud I thought anyone would want hanging over their heads.
That must have been what he was waiting for because he stood up in one fluid movement as soon as I had stopped speaking. He came at me in a rush, not stopping until he was less than a few inches away from me. His fingers twitched, like he wanted to reach out and touch me in some way but was too afraid of my reaction to him to do so. I can imagine after my yelling at him he probably felt like I’d flinch if he reached out to touch me. I wouldn’t have flinched away from his touch. In fact, I would have probably leaned into his touch, welcomed it.
But I wasn’t about to admit that out loud and in front of an audience. Not while Quinton had his arms wrapped all around me. I knew Quinton wouldn’t step back and away. I didn’t think Quinton backed away from much, he wasn’t going to start with one of his brothers. Not right now, he wasn’t.
“You don’t have to apologize for raising your voice, honey.” Julian said in a low voice. “You can yell at me all you want to. Right now, I deserve to be handed a piece of your anger. In no way are you to blame for my issues with Tyson and I should not have suggested that you were.”
Quinton’s arms tightened around me, almost to the point of pain. “Motherfucker,” he breathed out harshly against my neck. I heard the unmistakable rage in his voice.
Oh boy.
This was not good. Quinton could be volatile in any situation, even a pleasant one. Depending on what came out of Julian’s mouth, I could find myself witness to anything. What I needed, really needed, was for everyone except for me to hug it out, then get out of my room. I wasn’t tired, and they probably knew that, but I planned on using a nap as an excuse to get rid of them. I was ready for some time to myself. Heck, maybe I would even take a nap just because I could.
I had to get rid of them first.
Fat chance.
I sighed, long and heavy. I was starting to get another headache. Why were they constantly giving me a headache? Why couldn’t we all just play nice and get along? I didn’t think that was asking too much. Guess I was wrong.
“I didn’t mean it,” Julian said quickly as his eyes skirted to Quinton’s face hidden in the crook of my neck and then back to my eyes. “I still get emotional when I talk about her. It’s not about her, necessarily, but more so the situation she put us all in. It hurts me to know that, because I went for it with her, my relationship with Tyson will never be the same. That’s on me and has got nothing to do with you. Thinking about Annabell and Tyson made me angry with myself and I took it out on you. And for that it’s me who should be apologizing.”
I nodded. I believed him. He looked so sad, so sincere. I wanted to hug him. I did no such thing.
“Don’t sweat it,” I told him, and I grinned at him. “You forgive me. I forgive you. Bam. Problem solved. Time to move on.”
I really wanted to move on. I wanted to hang out in my bedroom and relax, get reacquainted with my new space.
“Did you really just say don’t sweat it?” Quinton mumbled against my neck, his lips brushed against me with every word spoken.
I shrugged, embarrassed, and pulled away from him. He let me go reluctantly and I could tell he didn’t want to let me go. If we had been alone, I wouldn’t have pulled away from him.
“Yeah,” I said. “I said don’t sweat it. I was trying to make light of the situation and now you’re trying to ruin it.”
From his place on the loveseat, Addison started to laugh. I shot him a dirty look before taking that last step and moving into Julian.
His eyes widened in surprise as I placed my hands on his chest, palms splayed flat against the soft, smooth material of his shirt.
If I were him, I’d be surprised too. This was a bold move for me. I couldn’t remember ever actually having touched Julian before. He’d touched me, of course. He’d just rubbed goop into my face an hour ago. Before today, I could remember only two times where he’d touched me, but I could be forgetting something. Once before, he’d rubbed his special treatment into different places on my body. And just before this, he’d picked my naked and beaten body up after a really rough session with Vivian. Both had happened on the day she’d died.
Those were the only times outside of today that I could remember Julian having touched me.
And I had never, not once that I could remember, reached out and touched him.
Until now, that was.
I was very well aware of our audience and even though it made me incredibly self-conscious, I forced myself to forget the others.
This was my moment with Julian. He needed my reassurance, my acceptance of his apology. What he didn’t need was me letting my embarrassment over the eyes that were right then watching over our every move, scrutinizing every little thing. The flick of an eye, the curving of a lip. Their eyes would see it, take it in and digest it. Maybe they would even tell the others all about it.
That thought bothered me more than knowing we were being watched did. I didn’t want to be talked about. I didn’t want my every move to be cross examined as if I were on trial here. I shook my head in hopes of clearing my thoughts.
It worked.
Thank the Gods, however many there actually was, be it none, one, or twelve. I didn’t think I believed in much of anything, but whatever. Sometimes you just needed a holy deity or object to give thanks to. I wasn’t about to choose one I didn’t believe in when I could simply lump them all together.
Julian’s body was tense as he waited for me to move, to do something. I could feel Quinton behind me, his heat a tangible thing despite the fact that we weren’t touching. He was waiting, watching, wanting to see what I’d do next. Quinton wanted me to embrace Julian, I could tell. He wasn’t shy about letting me know that he wanted me to embrace all of them.
I moved in before I could manage to talk myself out of it, and I knew that if I waited I would talk myself out of it. His eyes were wide in his face, showing off too much white. I ignored this and placed my lips against his smooth cheek in a soft, quick kiss.
The moment my lips left his cheek, I removed my hands from his chest and took a step back. And another step back. And another one. I kept stepping back until I ran into something. Well, not something but rather a someone.
It was Quinton.
Always Quinton.
I knew that no matter what, where we went or the situation we found ourselves in, I knew Quinton would be right there with me. Always.
My rock. My protector. My safe haven.
I looked back at him over my shoulder and smirked at him. His dark eyes dropped to my smirking lips and they heated.
And that was my cue to move things on from here. I didn’t want Quinton to put his tongue in my mouth. Really, I didn’t.
I was a liar, even to myself.
I reached up and dragged a fingertip through the smelly mess on my cheek. There was a decent amount on my finger and I didn’t care what that meant for my face.
I whirled around, struck out with my finger and flung it at Quinton. It landed with a plop on his nose and forehead and I couldn’t keep the giggle inside of me. I wasn’t the giggling type but felt it was necessary for the situation, it was appropriate. The look of disgust mixed with horror on his face made it worth it, worth having let out the girlish giggling.
“What the?” He said and paused mid-sentence. His nostrils flared, and he gagged. “What is that smell? Oh my god. It’s horrible. Ariel, what did you just fling at my face?”
My giggles turned to out and out laughter. I laughed so hard I had to wrap my arms around my middle and I was bent slightly forward. My body shook uncontrollably, and I had no desire for it to stop any time soon.
Served Quinton right. If I had to have it on my face because he had insisted, then he should have to suffer right along with me.
Seemed only fair.