Behind Your Back, стр. 43

“It’s too bad they can’t see how amazing you are,” I say.

“Well, as long as someone thinks I’m amazing, that’s all that matters.” She smiles and presses her face forward. I think she only means to give me a peck of gratitude, but our mouths have other ideas.

Once I get a taste of her, I need more. She has to grab my chin and force my face away.

“No. We can’t. That’s not what I brought you up here for.” She rolls off the bed and then crouches down. I turn onto my stomach and scoot so I can see what she’s doing.

“I might not be able to decorate my room how I wanted, but that didn’t stop me from being a little rebellious.” She takes a box out from under her bed and drops it on the white frilly comforter. It’s simple and black, like a footlocker, only smaller. She holds up a finger for me to wait and then goes into her closet and emerges with a key.

“I knew the maids would find this, but they could never find the key, so my mom could never snoop. I hid things under the floorboards in our last house, but that didn’t work here.” The flooring is laminate and covered in plush rugs.

She fiddles with the key and then pops the top. The box is filled with pictures and jewelry and even a few clothes. I pick one photograph off the top and look at it. It’s Saige when she was a teenager and there’s a hoop through her septum, with little balls on the ends of it. It’s… sexy. Very, very sexy on her.

“Oh yeah,” she says, taking the picture from me. “I was sixteen when I did that. I wanted to get my nose done, but there was no way to hide it really. That one I could just flip up. Never got caught either.” She pulls out a little box and shows me the jewelry.

“I’d almost forgotten about it. I wonder if I still have the hole.” She unscrews one of the little balls and proceeds to try to thread the thing through her nose. She winces a few times, but gets it through.

Fuck.

“You like?” she says, smiling at me.

“Like is an understatement. Why don’t you wear it anymore?” She shrugs and takes it out, unscrewing the other ball back on. She holds it out in her palm.

“Put it in your pocket. Maybe I’ll start wearing it again.” And doesn’t that just turn me on even more than I already am. If she’s not careful, I’m going to have to fuck her here, even if her parents are downstairs.

She pulls out some of the other things, talking about rebellions both big and small.

“It was mostly stupid stuff. Typical. I never did anything really bad. And I was very good at not getting caught,” she says with a smirk.

“I have no doubt you were.” I’d tell her about my own youthful indiscretions, but I have to be Quinn. Not Sylas.

“Anyway, I just wanted you to know that even though they’re my parents, I’m nothing like them. I don’t want the same things they want.” It’s like she read my mind from my earlier thoughts.

I reach out and stroke her cheek.

“I know. You’re everything they’re not.” She can’t know how true this is.

“Why thank you,” she says, leaning her face into my hand. We stay like that for a moment and then she seems to shake herself.

“Okay, we can’t stay up here for too long or Mom will send Martha to check something and she won’t knock before she barges in. She’s Mom’s eyes and ears.” I have no doubt about that.

She puts the things back in the box, except for the ring that’s now safely in pocket and locks it before putting the key back in her secret hiding place in her closet. I wish there were some way to come back here and steal the box so I could have all the time I want to with it. I want to crawl inside her life. I can’t deny it anymore. I want her body, but I want everything else too. I want her past. Even if I’m going to leave. It doesn’t stop me from wanting.

She moves toward the door, but I don’t get up from the bed. I just want to stay here for a few more minutes.

“You coming?” she asks, hand on the doorknob.

“Yeah,” I say, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and standing.

When we make our way back downstairs we find Bridgette and Beaumont arguing softly. They cut it out the second they see us coming down the stairs and put on fake smiles.

“Well, I think we’re going to get going,” Saige says. “Thanks for dinner, Mom.” She leans forward and gives her mother a kiss on one cheek and then the other.

“Thank you, Mrs. Beaumont, it was lovely,” I say.

“You’re very welcome, it was wonderful to see you again.” Her tone leaves a little bit to be desired in the “wonderful” department. Saige is saying goodbye to her father with a hug. It’s clear the two are much closer than Saige and her mother. I shake Beaumont’s hand and he squeezes just a little too hard. I let him do it and hide my wince.

Finally, I’m out the door with Saige and glad for it.

“You survived,” she says, putting her arm around my waist.

“I did. And it wasn’t even that bad. You had me very worried there, Saige.”

She pushes her hip into me and I almost stumble. She just laughs.

“I’m going to get you for that.” I swing her around in front of me. We’re right in front of the house and I’m sure her parents are watching. Fuck it.

“Oh yeah?” she says, looking up at me, her face full of defiance.

“I’m going to get you so good.” I slide my hands down her back and grab both her ass cheeks, making her jump.

“Then let’s go back to your place.” I back her up until she’s pressed against my car. I’d love to work her over right in the driveway. It would really stick it to Beaumont, but I know that wouldn’t go over very well.

So instead I reach around her and open the door, shoving her playfully into the front seat. She protests, but it’s a cute sound and she’s not serious.

I wait until she’s all the way in and shut the door. Something moves in my peripheral vision and I see a face at one of the gigantic windows watching me. Beaumont. His eyes are hard, but he smiles as he holds a drink in the air, like he’s toasting me. I just nod and get in the car.

Twenty-Two

“Don’t you have any friends, Quinn?” Saige says in a quiet voice. As soon as I got her home I fucked her against the door because I couldn’t wait. And then in the kitchen. It took us a while to actually make it to the bedroom, but we got here eventually. The fire she ignites in my body is satiated for the moment and she’s resting on my chest and drawing patterns on my skin with her fingertips.

“Would it matter if I said no?” I ask. She looks up at me. The lights are off, but the early light of dawn is filtering through cracks in the curtains, bathing us in greyish light.

“No,” she says, not looking up at me. “But you seem like someone who would have friends. You did so well hanging out with mine.”

I sigh and she stills her hand, looking up at me.

“I do have friends.” She searches my eyes, as if looking for what I’m not saying.

“But you don’t want me to meet them.” It’s not a question. I look up at the ceiling and rub my eyes.

“It’s complicated, Saige. My life is complicated.” Another truth. I’ve given her far too many truths, along with some lies that are starting to feel like truths.

She thinks about that for a minute and then runs her hand over my head in such a sweet gesture, it makes something in my chest ache.

“I can handle complicated,” she says before pressing up and kissing me with the same softness she stroked my head. “I can handle complicated for you.” She speaks against my lips in a whisper.

I open my eyes and find her so close that she’s all I can see.

“You’re going to change my life, Saige Beaumont.” The words are out of my mouth before I can swallow them back down my throat.

She blinks and then moves back.