Blood of Eden

Chapter 9

The door swung open and she saw Quinn standing in the hallway with a doorknob in his hand and a grin on his face.

"Want this?"

Her eyes drank the sight of him in as though they'd been separated for a lifetime instead of merely minutes. The innocence of his posture was betrayed by the desire in his eyes as he watched her. She could feel the heat of his body spike and a shudder of heat traveled the length of her spine in response.

"I want something."

She reached over and grasped his shirt, hauled him into the bathroom and kicked the door shut with her foot. She pushed him up against the broken door and inhaled a deep breath that took in his aroma and sent her into a spin.

She was around a foot shorter than he was and that was saying something. She was tall for a woman so he was just tall, period.

Her hand rested above his heart and she could feel it pounding under her palm. She inclined her head back and looked up at him. She was the aggressor in this seduction but she wanted to give him the chance to take control of her. She liked to be the boss but sometimes it was just fun to let someone else take the lead.

She could see a war raging in his eyes as he stared down at her. His jaw muscles twitched as though he were trying to hold himself back. He failed miserably.

She had expected fire and ice, explosions and passion, so when his lips just skimmed hers, Katherine felt her world tilt. His lips were full and soft and he did nothing more than move them slowly across hers, breathing into her mouth and accepting her breath into his.

Katherine had never felt anything like it. It was sensual, yes, but more than anything it was a sharing of life, of breath, of souls. She took his breath into her and savored its taste.

Her heart beat wildly in her chest but it didn't interrupt her absolute focus on him, on his lips and his breath. She felt herself yearning for more but reluctant to break this moment. The intensity of this bond was earth shattering and she never wanted it to end.

A knock at the door brought it to an end.

A waitress stood outside the door looking puzzled at the gaping hole in front of her. She looked even more confused when Quinn handed her the doorknob without a word and, holding Katherine's hand lightly, steered her down the hall and out the front door of the restaurant.

♀♀♀

They spent the rest of the morning and afternoon ignoring what had happened in the bathroom, choosing instead to leave the encounter open to interpretation. Katherine didn't want to think about it yet, not until she had time to herself to focus. If she didn't, she felt as though the thoughts in her head would overcome her and she would lose any semblance of self-awareness she had.

Instead, they spent the day following leads that Quinn had picked up on while following Raphael. The bastard had idiosyncrasies that would baffle Freud. He seemed to be immune to regular human / wolf necessities like sleeping and eating, which only somewhat surprised Katherine since she already knew he avoided showers like the plague.

His trail ended on the outskirts of St. Luc. Tired, hungry and ready to find that shower that Raphael so detested, Katherine voted that they return to her hotel, shower and then meet up with her brother and the other trackers for a briefing.

Quinn's reaction to her suggestion was intriguing. He showed all the excitement for meeting her brother that she would have thought would come from the shower idea and all the reservation at being alone with her in a hotel room that she would have assumed he'd have for meeting a member of her family. The man was just hard to figure out.