Quinn (The Beck Brothers #3) (7 page)

“Quinn! Mon dieu! I am so sorry!” Margot cried.

Quinn squeezed his eyes shut.
Christ.
He felt like a fool. He heard her feet
hit the floor in front of him as she climbed off the bed. He couldn’t believe
he just freaked out like that. He was so embarrassed. He thought that since she
was able to touch his shoulders and head that he was doing okay. He was wrong.
So
wrong!
The last time he
had such a strong reaction was back when he was in high school on the baseball
team. One of his teammates gave his ass a pat after he got a home run. Quinn
turned around and socked the kid in the face, kicked off the team for that.
 

“Quinn?” Margot murmured quietly. He could hear the anguish
in her voice and he hated it. “It was too much, non? I am sorry. I feel
horrible,” she whispered.

Quinn swallowed hard and lifted his head. Margot crouched
down in front of him with tears streaming down her rosy cheeks, her hazel eyes
filled with sorrow, shame, and guilt. It broke his heart to see her so upset
over something that she had no control over. He knew she didn’t mean to do it,
that she was just acting in the heat of the moment. Just as he had no control
over how he reacted.

“It wasn’t your fault, Margot. Don’t cry,” Quinn rasped as
he reached out with one hand to brush the tears off her cheeks. She turned her
face against his hand so that she could kiss his palm.

Quinn sighed. “Maybe we shouldn’t do this anymore, Margot.”

Margot frowned. “Quinn...” she started to argue but Quinn
cut her off.

“Margot, I’m just too screwed up for this. It’s better just
to let it go now,” he muttered, letting his hand and eyes drop from her face.

Margot shook her head. “I do not believe that,” she said
tightly.

“It doesn’t matter what you believe.” He snorted softly.
“Just leave me alone, okay?”

Quinn thunked his head back against the wall and shut his
eyes. He didn’t want to see the hurt in her eyes. He was so humiliated and
pissed off at himself. He was just starting to think he might have found a
woman worth pursuing further, and then he went and fucked it up. He was going
to be alone forever. No woman would want to be with a man they couldn’t touch
for fuck’s sake. He was a fucking mess. He wished he could just go the hell
home.
 

Quinn sagged in relief when he heard the hotel room door open
and snick shut. Margot was giving him the space he desperately needed. It was
odd how she always seemed to know exactly what he needed. It was a shame that
he couldn’t be with her anymore. He was really starting to like her, as crazy
as that sounded.

Quinn opened his eyes and glanced around the room.
What a
fucking nightmare
. He
shut his eyes again and his cousin’s face flashed through his mind, along with
the searing pain that Quinn associated with him.
Dammit.
He shoved the heels of his palms into
his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. He felt like his ten-year-old self
all of a sudden, frightened and panicked, with no one to turn to.
Fuck!
Quinn got up off the floor and grabbed a
pillow off the bed, and lay down on the floor. There will be no sleeping in the
bed with Margot tonight; he needed plenty of space, and he certainly couldn’t
handle any more touching right now.

Chapter
4

Margot gave Quinn an hour to calm down and collect himself.
She hung out in the lobby and called her mother before heading back up to the
room. She still had so many emotions running through her. She was convinced now
that Quinn was abused in some way when he was a child. The way he freaked out
when she touched his rear end made her think it was sexual. It was going to
kill her when she found out for sure. No one should ever have to go through
something like that, and definitely not a child.

When Margot walked into the room, it was dark. She felt her
way over to the lamp on the dresser and turned it on. She became instantly
furious to see Quinn curled up on his side with a pillow on the floor next to
the bed, with no blanket or sheet. Margot marched over to him and shoved her
hands onto her hips.

“Quinn!” she barked and kicked the bottom of his foot.

Quinn jolted awake. His head lifted from the pillow and he
squinted against the light to look at her. “What?” he asked, disgruntled.

“Get your derrière on that bed right now! I will not have
you sleeping on the floor!” Margot said angrily, glaring down at him.

“I’m fine on the floor,” he mumbled and adjusted his pillow,
laying his head back down.

“Quinn Beck!”

“Go away, Margot,” he grumbled in exasperation.

Margot ground out a frustrated noise before reaching down
and grabbing his wrist. She pulled with everything she had but he didn’t budge.
Mon dieu, he was heavy!
She should have known, the man was all muscle and muscle was heavier than fat.

“You might as well let me go, Margot. You don’t have a
chance in hell at moving me,” he snorted.

“I will start touching you all over then.” Margot bluffed,
hoping he didn’t call her on it. She did not think she could really do that to
him. She was not that mean.

Quinn’s eyes flew open and pinned her with an angry stare.
“You won’t like what happens if you do,” he snarled.

Margot’s heart fluttered wildly at his threat. She did not
think that he would hurt her, but he was still scary at the moment. Now what?
Did she push it? He looked like was ready for a fight. His body was coiled
tight and ready to defend against attack.
Better not to push it.

“Please, Quinn, sleep on the bed. I do not like seeing you
on the floor,” Margot tried gently.

Quinn jaw bulged on one side as he clenched his teeth. He
just shook his head before dropping it back down to the pillow and closed his
eyes.

Margot stomped her foot. “Merde! Why are you being so
difficult?”
 
She snapped irritably.
“I promise I will not touch you again. You do not have to worry about that!”

Quinn groaned and scrubbed his face roughly with his hands.
“This is not about you, Margot!” he said angrily and sat up.

“Then what is it about if it is not you being afraid that I
will touch you?” Margot demanded.

“It’s none of your goddamn business!” Quinn shouted at her.
“Just leave me the fuck alone, dammit!”

Margot flinched as the harshness of his tone at first but
then she bristled. “Fine, Quinn, do not tell me what your problem is, but you
will not speak to me that way, it is unacceptable and unnecessary. I do not
care that you do not like me, I do not deserve to be yelled at like that.”

Without waiting for him to reply, Margot went and turned out
the lamp, stomped around to the other side of the bed, and climbed in. She did
not have to deal with him being a jerk to her. If he wanted to spend the rest
of their trip on the floor, that was his prerogative. Margot was so angry that
she wanted to scream.
He was so bullheaded!

“I’m sorry, Margot,” he murmured into the dark after a few
minutes of silence.

Margot did not even bother answering. If she opened her
mouth, something snarky would come out, and they would end of fighting some
more. She really did not want to fight with him. What she wanted was him in the
bed with her, touching her, making her feel good, but that was not going to
happen anytime soon, if ever again. Margot had no idea how long she stayed
awake, but she found it hard to fall to sleep being as mad and irritated as she
was.
  

The next morning, Margot awoke to Quinn crying out. She sat
up and moved to the side of the bed where she could look over the edge at him. He
was lying on his back, his head thrashing back and forth on his pillow. He kept
whispering ‘No’ over and over. His skin glistened with sweat and his breathing
was quick. He must have been having a nightmare. Margot was about to wake him
up but she never got the chance because he ended up waking up on his own. His
eyes flew open and he pulled in a sharp breath. After a moment, he sat up and
rubbed his face roughly before shoving his hands into his hair. He propped his
elbows on his bent knees and just sat there.

“Why will you not tell me what the problem is?” Margot asked
quietly.

Quinn let out a startled gasp as his head whipped around to
look at her. He obviously thought he was the only one awake.

Quinn cleared his throat before answering. “My family
doesn’t even know what my problem is, so do you really think I would tell you?”
he said, a nasty note to his tone.

Margot tried not to bristle but it was hard. “Maybe if you
told someone it would not haunt you like it does,” she bit out harshly.

He laughed bitterly. “It will forever haunt me, whether I
tell someone or not.”

“Then what does it matter? Just tell me what it is.” Margot
sighed in exasperation.

“No, dammit! Stop fucking badgering me about it. I’m not
telling you shit about my life!” Quinn snapped angrily as he got to his feet.
He stormed off to the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind him.

Margot sighed heavily and dropped her face into her hands.
This trip was not going the way she hoped. Instead of getting closer to Quinn,
she seemed to be pushing him away. She raked her hands through her hair then
got out of bed. As she was rummaging through her bag for something to wear,
Quinn came out of the bathroom. He went to his bag and pulled out what looked
like gym shorts and a wife-beater.

“Are you not going to the seminar?” she asked with a frown.

“No. I’m not,” he muttered.

“Where are you going to go?”

“To the gym, I didn’t get to work out yesterday and I need
to go,” Quinn insisted, yanking his T-shirt over his head, revealing his
magnificent torso before he pulled on the gray wife-beater.

Quinn pushed his sweatpants off, kicked them aside and
pulled on his black gym shorts. He went over to his laptop bag and pulled out
an iPod Touch, an armband holder, and ear buds. He finished up by putting on
his socks and sneakers. Then without a word, he started for the door.
He was
just going to leave without a word to her?

“Quinn?” Margot called after him.

Quinn stopped with his hand on the doorknob. He turned his
head slightly giving her his profile to let her know he was listening. Margot
opened her mouth to apologize about last night but something else entirely came
out.
   

“How long will you be gone for?” she asked, feeling stupid.

“Probably a few hours,” he replied. He pulled open the door
and walked out, letting it snick shut on its own momentum.

A few hours at the gym? What could he possibly do in the gym
for a few hours? Margot huffed and sat down on the end of the bed, crossing her
arms over her chest. If Quinn was not going to the seminar, neither was she.
Margot decided to go do some sightseeing since she doubted he would want to go
with her now that they did not seem to be on friendly terms. Margot took a
quick shower, blew dry her hair, got dressed, and headed out onto the streets
of London.

~~~~~

Quinn was coming up on his fifth mile on the treadmill,
running at a decent clip. He already lifted weights and now he was doing his
cardio. The weights helped relieve some of the anger and stress he was holding,
and he had
Stupified
by
Disturbed
,
blasting
in his ears. That band always seemed to help, and at the moment, he was trying
to run away the rest of his emotions.

Damn Margot
.
Why did she have to keep pushing his buttons? Why did she want to know about
his past so badly? Was she looking for some kind of hold over him or was she
just genuinely concerned and curious? Quinn would say the latter. Margot didn’t
seem to have a mean bone in her body. Why the hell did she care anyway? He
wasn’t anything to her. They only slept together once, he wasn’t her boyfriend.