Under the Boardwalk

He placed a finger over her moving lips, trying like hell to ignore the erotic sensations that just touching her inspired. “I’m a cop. I was also a kid once. I know how cruel other kids can be, and you don’t need to make excuses about your feelings. They’re yours and you are entitled to them. But I don’t think you need to worry about Sam. She’d be happy to play along and tell the other kids where to go if they dared to make fun of her.”

“That’s probably true. In psych lingo, I’m probably just transferring my fears and insecurities onto Sam. In my family, normal didn’t fit in. I didn’t fit in.” She shrugged. “But Sam already has been through the hell of being different. If someone makes fun of her, she can handle herself a lot better than I ever did.”

He laid one hand across the back of the couch and turned, slanting his head toward her. “Now that’s the truth. I really wouldn’t worry. Sam wants to be there and she already knows exactly what your family’s like. They adore her and she already loves them. If it works out, it’s a perfect solution.”

Leaving me as the misfit once again, Ariana thought.

“Now tell me about the stuffed-shirt boyfriend your family mentioned.”

She laughed, grateful he’d changed the subject to something that wasn’t quite as painful. Not anymore. She didn’t like her cousins giving her a hard time over Jeffrey, but she was fine with sharing that part of her past with Quinn. “Like the family said, he was a pompous ass. But he was everything they weren’t.”

“Conservative and normal?” he guessed.

“Yeah. And I needed that at the time.” She stared out at the water, the turbulence there somehow familiar. “He was a break from the insanity at home, and I thought if he got to know me first, they wouldn’t seem so different, or at least he wouldn’t care.”

He reached out and massaged her shoulder. “What happened?”

“My father asked him one of his infamous questions. He used to hit up any guy who walked into the house with one.”

“What did he ask poor Jeffrey?” Quinn, not the least bit fazed, was laughing already.

“He asked him if he had enough goods to satisfy his girl,” she said, shaking her head at the memory. “Jeffrey turned five shades of red and changed the subject, and my father told him he’d take that as a no.”

Quinn burst out laughing. “I assume that didn’t go over well?”

She sighed. “Jeffrey gave me an ultimatum. He told me to choose between my family and him because there was no way he’d have a life that had anything to do with those wackos.”

Quinn visibly cringed.

“In other words, if we got married and had kids, my parents wouldn’t be acknowledged as their grandparents. He was headed into corporate America, where his family was already established, and he said they’d all see my relatives as a liability.” She shrugged, but the memories were far from casual. Reliving them truly hurt more than she’d thought they would.

Quinn’s eyebrows drew together, his expression one of outrage. “He’s a jackass,” he muttered.

A smile pulled at her lips. “Yeah. He actually thought I should consider myself fortunate he was willing to continue to see me at all, considering my bloodlines.”

Quinn rolled his eyes. “I take it you told him to go to hell?” Because as far as he was concerned, the man wasn’t fit to step into the Costas home, let alone have a worthy place in Ari’s life.

And you are? a voice in Quinn’s head asked. He hadn’t struggled with that internal self-doubt in years, and fought against allowing his damn insecurities to resurface now. He wasn’t that unwanted kid in foster care anymore, and damned if he’d act like it.

“Oh yes, I did,” Ari said, her eyes finally lighting up with the memory. “And then I packed my bags and left for Vermont. I transferred, finished up school there while working my way through, and then I got a job teaching at a local college.”

“Never to darken your parents’ door again until now,” he finished for her with the ending Zoe had already told him. “Why?”

She swallowed hard. “You don’t ask easy questions, do you? It must be your cop training.”

He raised one eyebrow and waited.

She rose and paced the hardwood floor in front of the sliding glass doors. “I was running away, is that what you wanted to hear?”

“I want to hear the truth,” he told her. “Besides, sometimes running isn’t so bad as long as you face what you were running from eventually.”

“Well, I had no allies at home. At least I didn’t feel like I did. Not even my twin. Zoe was just like my parents. She was always up for a good con, and I thought she was wasting her life. She thought I was an uptight prig and should loosen up, and I thought she ought to grow up and do something worthwhile.”

She inhaled deeply and Quinn could feel her pain. But he had a hunch she’d never discussed this aloud, and the only way for her to deal was to face things. She’d need to come to terms with her past before she discovered how wrong she’d been about her sister. “So you two argued?” he asked.

“Oh yes. And then I left. I just shouldn’t have stayed away.”

Gratitude for her honesty overwhelmed him and he was glad he’d opened up to her first.

“I’m sick of talking about myself,” she said.

He grinned. “Then come here.” He held out a hand toward her. “And we can do something besides talk.”

She started her walk across the room, determined and sultry in her steps, but not before turning to the glass doors once more.

He stared at the beach, seeing his backyard from Ari’s perspective. Sliding glass doors overlooked the sand, and he realized how fortunate he was to have been able to purchase this place at auction. He also recognized how much he missed living here.

“So this is your home,” Ari said, interrupting his thoughts. “I knew the hotel room didn’t reflect the real you.”

“The real me?” Quinn asked. “Just who is that?” He wanted to know how she viewed him, what she saw when she looked at him, especially now that she knew he was a cop.

She came up to him and settled close by his side, curling one leg beneath her. Finally a relaxed smile twitched at her lips. “You’re a bundle of contradictions, Quinn.”

“Men like to be as mysterious as women,” he joked.

“Well, you did a good job. And I kept asking myself, which is the real Quinn? Is it the guy who tackled me on the beach? Damon’s goon? Or Sam’s guardian angel?” Reaching out, she caressed his cheek, cupping his face in her hand. “And that sterile hotel room didn’t provide any answers. Now I know it’s because your so-called room wasn’t really yours.”

He studied this woman who seemed to want to understand him as much as he wanted to get inside her head. “Nothing at the casino is real. It’s all part of the job, which reminds me.” Though he hated to break the bonding moment between them, work called to him. “We need to talk about how things are going to be once you go back to the casino.”

“In what way?” she asked curiously.

“We don’t want Damon suspicious of me, so you’re going to need to play your part. Continue to look for information on your sister, ask the right people the right questions, but do not get into serious trouble.”

“Trouble? Me?” She shot him her most innocent look.

He rolled his eyes, laughing. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. But if you need an example, no lock picking and no snooping around Damon’s office,” he ordered her.

“I can handle that.” Despite their banter, her intent gaze indicated she understood how serious he was.

And he wasn’t finished. “And when it comes to us, as far as the employees and Damon are concerned, you still need to cozy up to me, pretend to use me to find out what happened to Zoe.”

She licked her lips and he knew something big was coming. “What did happen to my sister?” she asked, her voice tight with emotion.

Finally. She had finally asked the question Quinn knew had to be brewing inside her.

“I mean if you’re a cop, then what was Zoe doing being involved with you?” she asked. “I know my mother said she borrowed money and Zoe was working to help pay back the loan, but why would Damon want her… killed?” Ari swallowed hard, the words obviously difficult for her to say.