Free Insatiable by Lucy Lambert Page A

sitting on the floor between the couch and the TV, a SpongeBob episode playing on the screen.
    “Hey, guys,” I said, feeling exhausted. It was like that kiss had burned me up on the inside, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it, or him.
    Is he thinking the same thing? I wondered, followed by, It doesn’t matter what he’s thinking about.
    “Quinn!” the kids said, getting up when they saw me.
    They stopped short, looking at me funny.
    “What is it? Did I grow a second head?” I said.
    They giggled. Then Alex took the lead, “You look pretty, Quinn. Like a girl.”
    I put my hands on my hips. “Well, I am a girl. And are you saying I don’t look pretty normally? Because if you are, then you’re in for the tickling of a lifetime.”
    “No!” Charlie said, laughing, “It’s your hair. It’s long. And pretty. What did you do to it?” She tugged at her own hair, which her mom kept trimmed to just below her chin. I recognized that look. I’d given it to older girls myself. That mix of awe and jealousy.
    “Was it for a boy?” Alex broke in. He wrinkled his face at the thought. At his age, girls were still just cootie factories I suppose.
    I looked down and saw my hair resting on my shoulders, still wavy, still a little curly at the end.
    “That’s none of your business,” I said, winking at them. I felt self-conscious, so I excused myself and went to the bathroom.
    I leaned over the vanity and looked at myself in the mirror. I guess my hair looked okay. But what was Ward playing at? I still had that nose. And those freckles. Big, soft eyes with eyebrows that always seemed too thick no matter how often I plucked at them.
    Then I shoved my hand into my pocket and felt the bobby pins. The ones he’d pulled out and then offered to me.
    I didn’t put them back in, but I did grab a hair elastic from the drawer on the left and used it to pull my hair into a ponytail.
    I grabbed the pins from the vanity and looked at them against the pink skin of my palm. What happened back there? What came over me?
    Whatever it was, it had been a mistake. Something I couldn’t and wouldn’t let happen again. I tried to be an adult about it. I had to admit to myself that I found him physically attractive. There wasn’t anything wrong about that.
    It was giving into that attraction that I shouldn’t let happen.
    But I had experience with men who knew they were handsome and knew that women liked them. Experiences and pains I didn’t feel like reliving. I wanted to concentrate on my future, on my career, and on myself.
    I’ll make sure we do everything over the phone or email. The easiest way to get rid of temptation was to get rid of the object of that temptation. Ward and I had had our face-to-face meeting and that should be enough to satisfy the higher-ups back at the C&M.
    I hoped.
    “Quinn! Can we have something to eat?” Charlie called. I squeezed the bobby pins. I still felt confused. Nothing was resolved yet.
    “Yeah, I’ll make something in a minute!” I called back. I liked having the kids here. They were a distraction, of course. But they also made me feel good. But eventually their mother would want them back. I wondered if maybe I should buy a cat.
    I opened my fist and looked again at the pins. It was a kiss, nothing more. And it wouldn’t happen again. Ward was probably busy with another model by now anyway. Someone more suited to him. Basically, someone who was the opposite of me.
    I pushed down on the pedal for the little metal trashcan I kept in the bathroom and tilted my palm over it until the pins fell down into the plastic bag.
    ***
    I was cautiously optimistic when I sat down at my desk the next day. Trish wasn’t there to badger me. There weren’t any intimidating emails from anyone with the ability to fire me.
    And also nothing from Vaughn Ward. No news was good news, right? I congratulated myself, figuring that I got to him.
    Now I could concentrate on the work. Last night while getting the