Free Insatiable by Lucy Lambert

problem. Not at all.”
    Mary’s relief was palpable over the phone, the tension and worry leaving her voice. “You’re a lifesaver, really. And please, let me pay you this time.”
    “How about you just send a few boxes of mac & cheese up with them and we’ll call it even? I have to replenish my stores.”
    I should be paying you , I wanted to say. She had no idea what sort of trouble she had just gotten me out of. The least I could do was look after Alex and Charlie for the night.
    I could feel Vaughn standing behind me, feel his eyes on me. His confusion, like Mary’s relief, was palpable. And like Mary’s relief, I enjoyed it. “Just send them on up right now if you like. Alex knows where I keep my spare key. I’m sure they’ll be fine until I get there.”
    Mary continued thanking me until I told her she shouldn’t waste any more time talking to me. I ended the call and slipped the phone back into my pocket.
    “Did you enjoy that?” I asked him.
    “Yes. Didn’t you?”
    I didn’t answer his question. “Good. Because it’s never happening again.”
    “Is there a problem?” Vaughn said. The concern in his voice sounded real, surprisingly. I had to give it to him, he was good at what he did.
    And he’s a damn good kisser, too! My lips still tingled. I wasn’t about to admit that, though.
    “Nothing that can’t be solved with a box of mac & cheese,” I said. “And now I really am going. As far as I’m concerned, none of this ever happened.” I walked down the stairs, watching my hand slide along the banister.

Chapter 9
    V AUGHN
    I could still taste Quinn on my lips while I watched her walk down the stairs and disappear.
    I thought about calling out to her, but knew that I shouldn’t. She liked doing the opposite of what I said, and asking her come to back now would just push her further away.
    I rubbed my bottom lip with the tip of my finger, pulling my thoughts back to what it felt like to kiss her. I thought I’d gotten just a touch of that heat inside her, and it burned me.
    My head was all sorts of messed up. A flurry of thoughts and desires blew through my mind, and all I could do was go sink into the wingback chair closest to the window.
    I hadn’t really caught much of her phone conversation. I gathered someone had asked her for help and she jumped at the chance. Probably because she knew that I had her dead to rights. I had sensed that desire inside her, that need to move things up to the next level.
    And now that she had denied me again, it made me want her even more.
    I tried not to think about how it worried me that she made me feel the way she did. How every other time I’d felt that way about someone it never worked out. How I always managed to sabotage myself.
    I smiled at the irony. I was rich and successful. A few magazines even thought I was handsome. And in spite of all that there was still something inside of me that was broken. Something that so many other people without my circumstances had.
    And what was that about mac & cheese? I couldn’t figure Quinn out, not completely, and I knew that made up good portion of my attraction to her. One of the things that drew me to her.
    And I thought that maybe she experienced something similar with me, but that it was also one of the big reasons that made her push me away even in the middle of a kiss.
    Maybe someone hurt her in the past? Someone that I reminded her of? I wondered.
    It was all too much to think about. Especially right now, what with my new app launch coming up. If anything, I should have all my efforts focused on that. I couldn’t, though.
    Maybe I just need to get her out of my head, I figured. That hadn’t gone so well earlier with that lingerie model earlier, but I could give it another try. There was that movie junket tonight.
    Starlets and alcohol. The perfect way to get your mind off anything.
    I grabbed my phone to find the details.

Chapter 10
    Q UINN
    I got back to my condo and found Alex and Charlie