Harlequin Special Edition October 2015, Box Set 1 of 2 by Christine Rimmer

going out to dinner with me?”
    Her mother. Of course. “No.”
    â€œIt’s Justice Creek, Chloe.”
    â€œMeaning she
will
know?”
    â€œI’d say the odds are better than fifty-fifty, wouldn’t you?”
    Chloe kept her gaze steady on his. It was no hardship. Looking at him made her think of hot sex. And safety. And that combination really worked for her. “That girl—the mama’s girl I was in high school?”
    â€œYeah?”
    She slanted him a teasing glance. “You’re not even going to argue that I was never a mama’s girl?”
    â€œHey. You called it, not me.”
    And she made a low, rueful noise in her throat. “Yes, I did. And I was. But I’m not anymore. I tried living my life my mother’s way. It didn’t work for me. I’m all grown up now and my mother doesn’t get to tell me what to do or whom to spend my time with.”
    One side of his beautiful mouth curved up then. It was a smirk, heavy on the irony, more like the old, dangerous, edgy Quinn from back in high school than the one she’d been getting to know lately. “
Whom
. Always so ladylike.”
    â€œDon’t tease me. I’m serious.”
    His smirk vanished. “So you’re admitting that your mother’s not gonna like it, you and me spending time together?”
    â€œWhat I’m telling you is that she doesn’t have a say, so it doesn’t matter whether she likes it or not.”
    He reached out his hand between their chairs. She put hers in it, and he lifted it to that wonderful mouth of his. Hot shivers cascaded down her arm and straight to the core of her, just at the feel of his soft lips against her skin. Then he rubbed his chin where his lips had been, teasing her with the rough brush of beard stubble, reminding her of their one night together, making her long to jump up and drag him inside.
    But she didn’t.
    A moment later, he let go of her hand. He started talking again—about his plans for Prime Sports. She told him how much she appreciated the chance to rework the interiors at his house and then she shared with him some of the ideas she and Manny had discussed for upgrading the kitchen and opening up the living-room space.
    A couple of hours passed as they sat there talking quietly under the waning moon. She even told him a little about her failed marriage—no, not about the flowers, and not about the times Ted had struck her. This thing with Quinn was so new and sweet and heady. Sharing ugly stories about her ex would definitely dim the romantic glow. Instead, she tried to explain how disappointed she was in the way things had turned out.
    â€œIt hurts so much,” she confessed, “when something that should have been so right somehow goes all wrong. And I feel... I don’t know,
less
, I guess. Shamed, that I didn’t make better choices.”
    He regarded her for several seconds in that steady way he had. “You said the other night that the guy was abusive...”
    She held his gaze as she shook her head.
    He frowned. “I’ll need more than a head shake to get what you’re trying to tell me.”
    She let out a hard sigh. “Oh, Quinn. It’s a beautiful night. And you’re here beside me. It’s good, you and me, talking like this.”
    â€œYeah, it is.”
    â€œI probably shouldn’t even have brought up my divorce.”
    â€œYeah, you should. Whatever you want to tell me, that’s what I want to hear.”
    â€œThat’s just it. I really don’t want to go into any of that old garbage right now.”
    He gave her another of those long, thoughtful looks. And then, “All right.”
    And just like that, he let it go.
    How amazing. He let it go. She’d grown up with a mother who never let anything go. And Ted? He would hound a person to hell and back to find out something he wanted to know.
    But not Quinn. She said she