backward. “Whoa! What’s with the stink-eye? Seriously, what did I ever do to you?”

She smirked. “It’s not about what you did or didn’t do. It’s about what you want to do—well, not to me, per se, but to women in general—and what you want to do is completely controlled by that.” She pointed at his crotch but kept her gaze fixed on his.

He gave her a cocky grin. “Well, at least you noticed I have one. Envious, toots?”

“You’re such a tool.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “The more I’m around you, the harder it is to believe you and Gage are related. For one thing, I think you swear more than your brother does, and that’s saying something considering he plays hockey for a living.”

“Gage is the polite one.”

“Yeah, I totally get that.”

Arms still firmly crossed, he seemed to appraise her. His scrutiny made her insides squirm like tadpoles teeming in a pond. Well, that and the modicum of guilt building inside of her for disparaging her brother’s teammate.

“So tell me something,” he drawled. “Did you acquire your sunny personality in engineering school, or do you come by it naturally?” His smirk deepened, making one dimple appear. She felt an overpowering urge to scrub it off his smug face.

“No, I learned it in common sense school—someplace you obviously didn’t attend.”

“Oh, ow. Burn, Sunshine.” He covered his heart and laughed, then spun and headed toward his wing. With a backward glance, he said, “This has been fan-fucking-tastic. Let’s do it again real soon. And yeah, I owe the swear jar five bucks for that. Totally worth it.”

With that, he jogged down the hall. God, it was only her second day, and she wanted to throttle him even more than she had on day one. This wasn’t going to work out. Suddenly, Daisy’s bubble gum room was looking a hell of a lot better. Damn it, even Gage and Lily’s couch held more appeal than Sarah’s sumptuous suite if it meant not living under the same roof as Quinn “God’s-Gift” Hadley.

Why not go back to Gage’s? She could take care of Liz during the day and let Quinn handle the nights since he was stuck here anyway. As her mind ran through various scenarios for setting that up, her phone rang. She hadn’t loaded in Liz’s number yet, but the Colorado area code was a dead giveaway Liz was calling, looking for hot tub rescue. Sarah answered it. “Ready to get out now?”

“Well, well, well, she does answer her phone,” said a sinfully silky male voice.

Sarah’s jaw clamped down like a pair of fully locked vise grips. Damn it!

“Sarah? My love?”

I am not your love! “What the fuck do you want, Wolf?” she hissed. She was already kicking herself for being so damn stupid. Of course he’d figure out a way to get a local number. She shouldn’t have expected anything less; he’d proved how adept he was at deceit.

“My sweet, fierce little ball buster. It’s one of the things I love best about you, you know.” His chuckle slid a greasy chill along her spine. How had she never seen this side of him before? “What I want, Sarah, is that dirty mouth of yours. God, I’ve missed it.”

Her cheeks blazed, sending sparks skittering across her scalp. Every hair stood on end. Every nerve ending zipped, then zapped, and not in a good way. “I told you I never wanted to hear from you again,” she gritted out. “What part of that did you not understand?”

He tsked. “I understood it all, love, but what you didn’t understand was the part where I said you don’t get to walk out on me. I’m coming to Colorado to bring you home, Sarah.” Another slimy laugh. “Oh, you thought I wouldn’t know you’d run to your brother’s, didn’t you?”

“How’s Ingrid?” she snapped, trying to keep the tremors from her voice while she reined in her shallow breaths. Calm. Stay calm. You can do this.

His voice frosted over, turning to ice. “Ingrid has nothing to do with us.”

Sarah’s hand flew out. “There is no us, Wolf, and Ingrid has everything to do with it. What world do you live in?”

Without missing a beat, he smoothly said, “Why, Wolf’s World, of course.”

Movement in her peripheral vision drew her gaze to the hallway entrance. Quinn was lasered in on her, his mouth a hard, straight line, as if he was trying to bite back words. Damn it! Now I’m flinging all my dirty laundry in front of Sparky, who looks like he’s going to fire my ass. Can this get any more fucked up?

“We’re done, Wolf,” she bit. “Don’t waste your time coming to Colorado, and do not ever call me again.” She hung up, raked her fingers through her hair, and pushed a huge breath through her lungs. Setting her phone down, steadying her shaking hands on the kitchen counter, she psyched herself up to look Quinn’s way.

He hadn’t moved. He was frozen, like a hulking statue. She darted him a quick glance. “I need to get your mom out of the hot tub.”

“You okay?” His unnaturally soft voice both warmed and threw her at the same time.

Without looking at him, she waved a dismissive hand and pivoted toward the patio doors. “Never better.”

On the counter, her phone rang. She came to a sagging stop.

“Sarah?” Quinn called, his voice gentle and filled with concern.

“What?” she rasped.

“I’ll get my mom. You take care of your phone—or not—and maybe figure out what, or if, I should know about … whatever’s going on with you.”

Nothing! You don’t need to know anything! Quinn brushed past her as he headed toward the doors, and his just-worked-out masculine scent enveloped her, oddly pleasant. As she watched his retreating back, a thought jolted her. Wolf was capable of finding out where Gage lived. The thought of staying put at Quinn’s morphed into a necessity. For everyone’s sake.

Da fuck was that? Quinn’s stomach was wound into knots after hearing the wobble

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