It took exactly forty-nine minutes before Quinn wanted to scream just to break the silence in her apartment. Detective Garza had checked every inch of her living space to be absolutely certain it was safe, and she supposed she should be thankful the man had an obviously high tolerance for the free-range dust bunnies in the back of her closets and under her bed. Probably, she should also be thankful for the more-obvious fact that her apartment had been both unoccupied and undisturbed.

Too bad for her she was funneling all of her energy into trying to blot out the memory of Ice’s cold, dead stare when he’d set his sights on her this morning and smiled.

“Come on, come on. Get it together,” Quinn muttered past her ragged nerves and racing pulse. Yes, this morning had been terrifying, and God, yes, the very real possibility that he might come after her or Luke or someone they cared about was even more frightening than that. But Ice had meant what he said when he’d threatened her and Luke. She knew it in her bones and breath and blood. Something was holding him back, and it sure as hell wasn’t a conscience.

She just prayed that the intelligence unit made good on their promise to stop him before Ice made good on his promise to torture her and all of her friends, then slowly end her life.

Snatching her cell phone from the kitchen counter, Quinn paced the hardwoods beneath her bare feet. She needed something to keep her overly active mind calm and occupied. She’d already showered and changed into a pair of yoga pants and her favorite big, off-the-shoulder T-shirt after Garza had left to take Luke home. She could call Parker to keep her brain busy, she supposed. Although they’d exchanged a handful of texts since his accident, she’d been a little remiss as far as actual phone calls. But Parker knew her as well as he knew his own reflection—one word, and he’d be able to hear her tension from the moon. Quinn had admittedly danced around calling him for that very reason. He hadn’t exactly been blowing up her phone from his brother’s cabin, either, but still. Even if her life was a shit storm right now, she owed the poor guy a check-in text, at the very least.

Except she knew that, while texting Parker would make her feel better in the sense of being a good friend, it wouldn’t calm her. What she needed right now was to breathe. Not just to think everything would be okay, but to believe it.

What she really needed, above all else, was Luke.

Quinn’s cell phone vibrated against her palm, making her jump, and the accompanying text message that flashed across the top of her screen didn’t do anything to calm her pounding heartbeat.

Hey. It’s me, checking in from Omaha. Are you okay?

Quinn took a breath. Considered going the I’m-fine route. Went the fuck-it route instead.

Truth? No.

Barely a beat passed before her phone vibrated again.

Okay, then buzz me up.

She blinked, but surely Luke didn’t mean…

Are you serious? You’re downstairs?

Yes and yes. I even come bearing gifts.

Quinn padded over to the intercom and pressed the button to allow him access to the lobby. She barely had time to pull her hair into a sloppy twist, let alone try to wrestle herself into a bra, before a soft knock echoed from her front door.

“It’s me, Quinn,” Luke said, as if he’d known her heart was tapping away in full force on the other side.

She checked the peephole, slid the chain from its mooring, flipped the dead bolt, and tugged the door an inch from the frame. God, she’d never been so happy to see someone in her entire twenty-seven years. “Um, hi?”

“Hey. It’s just me. I promise.”

Holding a loaded grocery bag in each hand and balancing a small duffel on his (hello, gorgeous) shoulder, Luke smiled at her.

Quinn let him in without thinking twice. He crossed her threshold, quickly letting her thump the door shut behind him and do up every last one of the locks before he said, “I know it’s not much, but I had a six-pack of beer in my fridge and one of my grandmother’s chicken pot pies in my freezer. I also grabbed some chips, some fruit, and some cans of cat food on my way over. I’m sure you’re usually prepared, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have extra. That way maybe poor Max will get a shot at the good stuff before Galileo hogs it all. No offense, buddy,” he added, lowering the bags in favor of placing a quick scratch behind the cat’s ears. “But you’ve gotta let that poor girl eat, too.”

What…the…hell? “How are you here?” Quinn finally managed past the heavy haze of shock clouding her brain. “I thought Garza was bringing you home for lockdown.”

“He did,” Luke said, picking up the bags and heading into her kitchen like please and thank you all rolled into one. “Then he brought me back here.”

“Seriously? Are we even allowed to do that?”

Luke shrugged. “I didn’t ask permission. But Garza agreed it seemed dumb for the intelligence unit to keep tabs on both of us separately when they could keep track of us together with half the patrols. Plus, I saw the look on your face in that conference room, Quinn.” His voice quieted. “I know you’re scared. You shouldn’t be alone.”

Something she couldn’t define jabbed at her chest. “I’m a big girl. I’m fine.”

He put the beer and the pot pie in her fridge before turning to look at her with that ice-blue stare that saw everything. “I know you’re a perfectly capable person. Just like I also know you’re not okay.”

A pop of frustration sizzled through her veins. Okay, so she wasn’t made of Kevlar like Isabella or Addison, or even Shae. Still. “Look, maybe I’m not thrilled about…this…” She gestured to her apartment, and the fact that she was standing here in her kitchen, which should be terribly empty at this time of day when A-shift was at the fire house, frightened out of her goddamned mind. “But I don’t need a babysitter.”

“Is that why you think I’m here? To babysit you?” he asked, so honestly that Quinn’s answer just shoveled on out.

“Why not? Everyone else thinks I need looking after. Garrity wants to keep tabs on all my feelings. The RPD literally won’t let me out of their sight. I get the safety part, I really do.” Anger and fear and frustration combined to form a great big emotional cocktail in her rib cage, and damn it, she wouldn’t cry. She wouldn’t. “I just hate feeling so fucking helpless. I’m not helpless.”

Luke took a step toward her. Her stopped just shy of contact, though, as if he wanted to be close to her, but wanted to look her in the eye even more, and hell if that didn’t make her chest ache harder.

“I know you’re used to taking care of other people,” he said. “You’re very good at it. But a really bad thing happened to you, Quinn. Needing someone to take care of you a little while you figure out how to cope with that is okay. It doesn’t make you helpless. It makes you human.”

Her throat knotted. “I don’t need…”

She stopped, the argument feeling too hollow for her to finish giving it voice. The truth was, she did. She did need help. Right now, in this moment, she needed Luke.

Quinn closed the slight space between them, her hands finding his shoulders, her belly brushing the spot between his hips. “How are you so calm all the time?” she asked, and his answer was immediate.

“I’m not always calm.”

There was no helping the laugh that flew past her lips, which loosened her tension at least enough to strengthen her focus on the moment. “You are ridiculously calm. You’re always ridiculously calm. I’m over here, losing my mind and vomiting my fear all over the goddamn place, and you’re just standing there…perfect.”

Luke’s eyes blazed with sudden emotion Quinn didn’t expect. Her heart twisted at the sight of it, her pulse tripping even harder as he slid his callused hands up to cradle her face.

“I’m not perfect. I’m a liar. You think just because you can’t see my fear that it isn’t there, but that’s not true. I’m scared just like you. I stay awake at night, just like you. And fuck, I want this, just like you, so no. I’m not perfect. I’m not perfect, because I want you like I want my next breath. I shouldn’t”—his hands moved to cup her neck, pulling her close enough to feel the heat of his words, of how much he meant them, on her skin—“but I do. And do you want to know the biggest sign of all that I’m not perfect? I’m not holding back anymore.”

And then he kissed her.

* * *

Luke had made more risky moves in the last week of his life than he had in the last ten years combined. But as foreign as it felt, as downright dangerous as he knew it should be, he didn’t want to hold Quinn at arm’s length anymore. He wanted to ease her fear. To hold her close. To strip her bare and take in every inch of her, every curve and every nuance, and he wanted to let her see him right back.

He wanted to let her in.

She sighed against his mouth, the soft vibration making him bite back a moan. Luke pressed his fingers against the hot skin where her neck met her hairline, holding her steady as he dragged his tongue over the line where her top lip met its counterpart. Quinn opened easily, her tongue meeting his for a provocative game of give and take that quickly had his cock growing hard behind the zipper of his jeans. Instinct combined with something even stronger, though, and Luke forced himself to slow down.

He might not be able to erase Quinn’s fear entirely, but he could give her other things to remember. He could take care of her.

Starting right now.

“Follow me.”

Without waiting for an answer, he took a step back, grabbing her hand as gently as the need in his bloodstream would allow and leading her to the large, well-cushioned chair in her living room.

Luke looked at the windows along the wall a handful of feet away, taking in the sheer curtains covering them and the amount of afternoon sunlight and privacy they allowed into the room, and yeah, this would do. In fact, it was perfect.

“You want to have sex in my living room?” Quinn asked, and even though her voice didn’t carry any reservations, he still answered with a nod meant to reassure her.

“I want you to be able to see.”

She followed his gaze to the ample daylight spilling in from the windows. Her gold-blond brows tucked just enough to mark her confusion, but Luke didn’t hesitate.

“There are things in your memory that scare you. I know I can’t replace them.” He paused to kiss her, to ground her in this moment, here, now. “But I can make you feel good, Quinn. I can give you new things to remember. Better things. All you have to do is let me.”

Her blue eyes went wide. She nodded, a tendril of hair tumbling down from the knot at the crown of her head, and impulsively, Luke reached out to capture it between his fingers.

“You are so beautiful,” he said, although Christ, the words were honestly tiny in the face of how he meant them.

Quinn coughed out a laugh, her cheeks coloring a shade of pink that made Luke want to do the most wicked things he could think of, just to keep that blush in place.

“You don’t believe me?” She hardly struck him as vain, but still. She had to know she was pretty.

The color on her face intensified. “I don’t know. I guess I never gave it a ton of thought.”

“Oh, we’re fixing that right now.” Turning her toward the mirror over the nearby side table, he stood behind her, catching her stare in the reflection. “Do you see yourself?”

“Of course.”

“No,” Luke said. “Do you see yourself? Do you see how pretty your skin is when you blush?”

He traced the apple of her cheek with two fingers, smiling when her body proved his point.

“I guess,” she said, but oh, no, that wasn’t going to be good enough.

Luke reached down for the hem of her shirt, lifting it slowly, first over her hips, then higher, until it was over her head. He wasn’t prepared for her not to be wearing a bra, and fuck—fuck—this whole thing just might kill him. But Quinn needed to see everything he saw, exactly as he saw it, so he forced his resolve into place even though his cock was hard enough to be damn near painful right now.

“Look. Look how beautiful you are. How strong.” His fingers coasted over the muscles on her shoulder, finding the hollow where they met her neck. He tasted the spot, his mouth curling into a smile when she shuddered. “How sweet.”

Quinn did as he asked, her eyes unmoving from the reflection in front of them. Luke tugged his own shirt over his head, partly because he didn’t want her to feel self-conscious and partly because he wanted selfish access to her, skin on skin. He pressed his chest against her back, his hands tilting her head gently to one side as he explored the warm stretch of her neck with his mouth. Her pulse hammered against his tongue, her breath moving in shallow sighs, but he refused to speed his movements.

“I could take all day to show you how pretty you are. Here.” Luke traced her earlobe with the edge of his tongue before pulling the soft skin past his lips. “Here.” His fingers found the indentation below her throat, right where her collarbones joined above her heart. Quinn dipped her head back, her eyes still on their reflection in the mirror as she arched up in search of his touch.

God, he couldn’t deny her. “Here.” Reaching up, he cupped her breasts, running his thumbs over the tight, rosy points of her nipples. Her moan twined around his, and the sound made Luke’s cock jerk at the small of her back. The contrast of his darker skin against her cream-colored body, the flush of her nipples that grew deeper with every pass of his fingers, the way her eyes glittered in the mirror—all of it combined like an erotic slideshow.

And Quinn watched every move. She watched as he dropped his mouth to her ear and whispered all the filthy things he wanted to do to her. She watched as his hands moved downward from her breasts, skimming her waist, then the flare of her hips before reaching the waistband of her pants to lower them.

His heart hitched when he realized—sweet Jesus—she wasn’t wearing panties beneath the black cotton. Something primal broke free in his chest, moving his fingers on a direct path to the spot between her thighs. But Quinn didn’t seem to mind his impulsiveness. On the contrary, she parted her legs wider, tipping her hips up for more contact.

“Please,” she whispered, and funny how one sound, one tiny syllable, could wreck him so fucking thoroughly. Wrapping one arm low over her belly, Luke parted her legs with his other hand, flattening his palm over the tidy strip of blond curls leading to the bare, sweet skin of her sex. He brushed his fingers over Quinn’s slick folds only once before his hot, reckless desire to give her what she wanted won out. Luke curled his fingers to cup her pussy, pressing his middle finger inside her body with ease.

“Ah!” The cry that rushed out of her was more sound than actual word, and his balls pulled up tight at the greedy clench of her inner muscles around his finger.

“See?” he ground out, hearing the gravel in his voice as he began to work her in slow, sure strokes. “Look how pretty you are. How wet. How pink and perfect.”

Quinn’s eyes were nearly navy blue in the muted sunlight streaming in past the curtains. Sliding her arms over his, she anchored his hold on her belly and his fingers between her legs, urging him deeper with a push of her hips. Luke retreated only to add another finger to the first, letting his thumb slip up to graze her clit as he fucked her with his fingers. Her nails dug into his forearm, harder with each thrust of his hand, and before he could control anything about his movements, he withdrew from her body and swung her toward the chair.

“Keep watching.”

Guiding her down over the cushions, he knelt between her legs, pulling her forward until her ass was on the very edge of the chair. The blush on her face was a complete juxtaposition with the provocative picture of the rest of her, naked and needy and open, and goddamn, Luke had never wanted anything as much as he wanted this woman right now.

He fit his shoulders between Quinn’s thighs, leaning in to run his tongue over the seam of her pussy in one long glide. He smiled against her body, making sure she saw it in his eyes as he lifted them to meet her stare.

Luke felt the way she was looking back at him in every part of his body.

With his pulse flying faster in his veins, he channeled all of his attention to Quinn. The sweet, musky taste of arousal that belonged only to her, the unchecked sounds she made when he explored her with his lips and tongue, all of it combined to form a deep-seated desire in his gut. Pressing her legs farther apart, he licked her in slow circles and faster, firmer flicks, finally closing his lips over the tiny bundle buried deep at the top of her sex.

“Oh God. Please. Please, please,” Quinn cried, her hips arching off the cushion beneath them.

Luke pulled back, but only far enough to say, “Watch. Watch how pretty you are when you come.”

He returned his mouth to her pussy, a spiral of dirty pleasure uncurling at the base of his spine at the way she moaned so openly. Her skin was so soft, so slick with want, that Luke let his fingers play at her clit as he buried his tongue deep inside her for a better taste.

Quinn made a sound, part pleasure, part need. Her hips shifted, her knees falling wider as the cradle of her body jerked higher against his mouth, her ass lifting up in invitation. A dark, half-forbidden yet highly sexy sensation sparked in Luke’s mind as he realized what she was wordlessly asking for.

And there was no fucking way he wasn’t going to give it to her.

Circling the pad of his forefinger over her clit, Luke dropped his mouth even further. Quinn sucked in an audible breath as his opposite hand cupped the curve of her ass, the breath becoming a moan as his pinky finger brushed over the ring of muscle centered low between her legs.

“Luke.” Her exhale coasted over the bare skin of his shoulder, and damn, she was watching him as intently as ever. “Show me. Make me come.”

His composure evaporated with those five little words. He stroked the slippery skin at the apex of her thighs while lowering his mouth to trace slow circles over her tight, sweet hole. Quinn’s body tensed, just for a heartbeat, before she began to move with him in obvious pleasure. Luke tested and took, the movement of both his fingers and his tongue growing firm with intention as her cries grew more ragged. She clutched at his shoulders, her hands sliding up to hold him exactly where she wanted him, his tongue at the entrance to her ass and his fingers teasing the rigid knot of her clit. Finally, her thighs began to tremble, and—yes, fucking yes—she came undone with a screaming cry.

“There. There you are,” Luke murmured, his dick as hard as iron at the sight and smell and taste of her orgasm. “See? So goddamn beautiful.”

Quinn went lax a minute later, and he shifted back to look at her. With her disheveled hair and her flushed skin and her erratic breaths, she was pretty enough to be painful.

But then her eyes glinted, and within seconds, she’d pushed forward to tug him to his feet.

“Quinn. What are you—”

“Shh.” The borderline sassy command sent an involuntary smile to the edges of his mouth, but the gesture turned into a want-soaked moan when she quickly removed his pants, then his boxers, pausing only long enough to grab a condom from the spot where they’d blessedly stashed a few in her side table drawer the other day. She treated him to a minute’s worth of sheer heaven with her fingers, cleverly rolling the condom onto his cock as she did, and a pulse of surprise rippled over him as she turned to push him into the chair.

“Now it’s my turn,” Quinn said, straddling his lap and balancing her weight between her shins. The wet heat of her pussy brushed over Luke’s insanely sensitive cock, and okay, yeah, he was going to last about four more nanoseconds if she kept that up.

“Your turn for what?” He dug his fingers into the armrests for focus. But then Quinn leaned forward, notching the crown of his cock just far enough inside her pussy to make him forget his fucking name.

“To let you watch.” Her hips lowered another beautiful, excruciating inch. “Show me what you need, Luke.”

He levered up to fill her in one swift push. “I need you.” He gripped her ass, lifting her over his dick only so he could seat himself to the hilt again.

“Just you.”

Quinn’s eyes blazed, her lips parted in surprise and desire. But Luke’s thoughts were hazy, the carnal part of his brain too wrapped up in the pressure of the sweet spot where his cock was buried to process anything else. Keeping his hands in place, he guided her into a steady, provocative rhythm. She answered easily, spreading her fingers wide over the arms of the chair, leaning back just enough to give Luke an unimpeded view of where they were joined. The sight of his cock sliding all the way home, the eager sighs that turned into moans, the pure pleasure on her face, all made his need intensify. He thrust into her over and over, speeding his movements to the beat of her cries, slipping one hand between them to stroke her clit as he watched her fuck him.

“You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Come for me, baby. That’s what I need.”

Luke thrust deep, filling her pussy until no space at all remained between them. Holding Quinn in place, he let her roll her hips, grinding against him until his cock hit that hidden spot inside of her. Curling her arms around his shoulders, she pumped her hips against his in a hard, steady motion, taking what she wanted and giving him what he craved all at the same time. Luke’s climax began as hers ended, the squeeze of her inner muscles triggering a chain reaction he had no hope of controlling. His orgasm rushed up from the base of his spine, stealing his breath and his ability to move as he held her close from shoulders to chest to hips. Vaguely, he was aware of calling Quinn’s name, of her body tightening in another burst of release, but those things seemed small in comparison to the one feeling taking over his chest and his mind.

Even though it was neither safe nor smart in any way, Luke wanted to let her in and never let go.