Scorch: A Soldiers of Fortune Romance (Military Bad Boy Romance) (29 page)

"Wow how longs it been since you guys have seen each other?" Hudson's words cut through the hanging silence, and the cheer in his voice is so amazingly out of place given the situation, even if he doesn't realize it that I cringe; "Probably not since the wake or-" 

"Yeah it's been a
very
long time." Quinn's words are sharp and quick, and her eyes darken as she stares daggers at me. 

Yeah, she's pissed. I suddenly realize I'm still staring at her like a complete asshole with my mouth hanging open, and so I force myself to smile. Great, now I'm grinning like a douchebag at a girl who very clearly wants to either drop through a hole in the ground or push me into one; possibly both, and I can't say I really blame her. 

"Uh, hey, Quinn." I cough uncomfortably. She's wearing this incredible navy blue bridesmaids dress that brings out the storm in her eyes and shows every single one of her curves and-

- And wow, I'm having thoughts about her wardrobe bringing out the 'storm in her eyes'; what the fuck is wrong with me? 

"Hey
Logan
." She spits out my name like its a bad taste in her mouth before she turns to Hudson and plasters a smile on her face; "Well, I need to go make sure we're all set up with the caterers. You ready for this, big guy?" Hudson grins and all I can think is how envious I am of how cool and collected he is right now. As opposed to, you know, me, who's tongue-tied and sweating bullets. Fuck, isn't that
his
job today? 

Quinn turns back and gives me one last quick and withering glance before she turns on her heeled foot and storms out of the greenhouse.

Well, that went well. 

*****

"Quinn, hang on!" The sprawling rose bush and hedge gardens of the Archer estate are a great place to have a wedding, but they're also a great place to lose this girl if she won't slow the fuck down for one Goddamn second.  

My mind spins as I stalk after her. OK, so we're two people who slept together, who definitely shouldn't have ever slept together;
definitely
. But shit, like that's the first time something like that has ever happened between two consenting adults? We're both grown ups here, and so we saw each other naked; big deal, right? I mean, it's funny, right? We're going to just laugh about this, right? 

I finally catch up with her and grab her by the arm, but she whirls and shakes loose of my touch. There's a fury on her face as she looks at me with this wild mix of hurt and fierceness, only made more-so by the auburn hair framing her face and the ice-blue of her eyes as she glares at me; "Did you
know?!
"  

Yeah, no, we're definitely not going to be laughing about this.

I've cornered her behind one of the hedge-rows in the back gardens, but the way she whirls towards me has me suddenly feeling like the cornered one. I clear my throat; "What?" 

She huffs and crosses her arms across her chest and stares at me with fire in her eyes, and she'd almost look adorable if I wasn't at least half sure she was maybe about to stab me; "Did you
know
who I was that-" She closes her mouth quickly and looks around before she glares at me again; "
that night?
" She hisses out. 

There's something about her tone that digs under my skin, as if she's accusing me of
wronging
her honor or some bullshit; as if she wasn't a completely willing participant in everything that happened that night a week before. 

...A
very
willing participant, I might add. 

"You mean when we fucked?" I'm crass on purpose, trying to dig into her right back, and I grin when I see that it works as she blushes bright scarlet and rolls her eyes as groans loudly in disgust. 

"
Yes
, Logan, when we-" She shakes her head and looks away again. 

"No, Quinn, I didn't." 

"No?" She's got that fucking accusatory tone in her voice that's getting under my skin like a splinter. 

"No, Jesus, of course not." I say it
way
too fast and with
way
too much force.

Her eyes narrow at me; "Well what the fuck is
that
supposed to mean?" 

"I mean I'd never have done that if I knew it was
you
."  

Oh, yeah, much smoother; asshole.

Quinn clearly has the same opinion of my answer as she snarls at me; "You lost the beard."  

"Yeah, I-" She's still frowning at me, but hey, it sounds like at least a
half
concession towards mutual fault here. I mean shit, it's not like I
purposefully 
showed up beaten to fucking pulp at
her
apartment that night. 

I clear my throat, trying to salvage this in some impossible way; "Your hair looks, uh, different than than before." She looks like she's almost about to concede -
almost
- but then I of course open my mouth again; "And I mean, you look a lot older now than back at your Dad's wake- "
Fuck
. I wince as she shakes her head at me and I bring my hand up to push it though my hair; "I'm fucking this up pretty badly aren't I." 

"With flying fucking colors, yeah." 

I mean it's true; I hadn't seen her since her father's funeral like five fucking years ago. But shit, looking at her now, would I have even said no to a girl like this even if I knew? I mean she's a knockout to begin with, but it doesn't help that while that bridesmaids dress
teases
at what's beneath, I actually
know
what she looks like naked. And the thought of her naked is making me harder than it should right now, given the situation.  She brings a hand up and pinches the bridge of her nose as she takes a deep breath; like this whole thing is some sort of
headache
she just has to deal with; "Look, lets just get through this thing." 

"And a cheers to the happy couple!" I grin, trying to lighten the mood. She smirks, but then that flush comes back into her cheeks and she shakes her head again. 

"Look-" She stabs a finger towards me, still keeping her distance with her back up against the hedge behind her; "Not a word, to
anyone
about-" 

"Quinn, I'm not going to-" 

"To
anyone
, Logan." She almost looks scared, like I'm some dirty little secret that might come tumbling out, and I can't tell if that amuses or pissed me off more. 

"Look I fucking get it, ok?" 

"Good." 

"
Fine.
"

Ah yes, this is progressing just like an adult conversation should. 

"Look, I have too much going on up here in my head to even
think
about this right now, OK?" She squeezes her eyes shut and shakes her head; "I'm about to stand up with my sister while she gets married and I have an insanely busy first day at a new position tomorrow." Her arms are still crossed over her perfect chest, and she's still glaring at me like I'm some sort of bad guy; "At my Dad's-" She stops and frowns; "At
your
fucking company, actually." 

I'm about to open my mouth when she shakes her head, cutting me off; "You know what, it's like you said; let's just get through this, ok? Cause after this,
I
don't have to see
you
, and
you
don't have to see
me
until at least Thanksgiving or some other family gathering." 

Ah, fuck; she doesn't know.

I almost want to laugh, except I think I might be too surprised to.

Quinn shakes her head; "And until then, we can drift back off to being strangers, OK?" 

Well, this is about to get even better.
 

She
knows
that her new job is with Archer Holdings in the company's new humanitarian healthcare outreach program. What she
doesn't
know is that it's
my
program, and what's quickly dawning on me is that as of tomorrow, I'll be working side-by-side with this girl for the next three months. 

She stops as she notices my silence and narrows her eyes at me; "Oh,
what
is it, Logan?" 

Oh yeah, this little meltdown is about to go fucking nuclear.

Click here to read the rest of Burn
: A
Soldiers of Fortune Romance!

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Aubrey Irons enjoys writing about bold, sassy, and intelligent women and the dominant, cocky, and quite typically forbidden alpha males who love and lust for them; gripping stories, happy endings, and enough heat to keep things extra steamy! In the real world, Aubrey is kept plenty entertained by her own tattooed Marine husband, their precocious and adorable three year old, and one
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ill-behaved puppy.