The uncontrollable something that every website said was the telling factor—that the animal overcame the man. An attraction so strong, the shifter had a difficult time not having sex with their mate the moment they met. “If I’d been his true mate, I wouldn’t be sitting here now, and he wouldn’t be gone.”
“That’s not true,” Deb denied quickly. “Jason didn’t carry me off until our second date.” The woman blushed even after seven years of marriage and Paige’s eyebrows rose. That must have been some date.
“He would have known. He would have said something.”
Deb’s eyes narrowed. “He didn’t say anything?”
Now it was Paige’s turn to blush. No way, no how was she telling her best friend that her baby brother had practically ordered her to climax as he’d licked and sucked on her nipples. “No, just that he wanted to see me again.”
“My brother is an idiot,” Deb muttered under her breath, but Paige heard it anyway.
Paige smiled her first genuine smile of the day. “No, he’s just a man.”
“An idiot man.” Deb’s mind raced. It wasn’t her place to tell Paige that she was Quinn’s true mate. Even she couldn’t overstep that boundary. Her brother was doing a bang up job—of losing his mate. It was time to get the family involved and knock some sense into the man before he lost his chance with Paige. She couldn’t do anything right now because Quinn wasn’t here. As soon as he returned, however, all bets were off. In the meantime, she didn’t want Paige to be alone, brooding and worrying about why Quinn hadn’t called her yet. “Come on, come by the house and have dinner with me and Jason and the kids. You know you want to see Amy and Joseph.”
“That’s not playing fair, Deb. You know I love your children. But I repeat, I don’t want to have dinner with you.” Paige repeated what she’d been telling her friend for the last two hours. Deb had already offered to go to the movies with her, take her out to dinner, and even go bar hopping. Secretly, Paige thought Deb just wanted to do that and was using Paige as an excuse. She’d been very tempted by that offer, but she’d turned it down along with all the others.
She knew Deb didn’t want her to go home and worry about why Quinn hadn’t called. Which was exactly what she intended to do in—she looked at her computer monitor to see what time it was—in exactly twenty-seven minutes. She planned on having a nice quiet evening just like always. But first a stop at the grocery store to pick up another pint—or two—of ice cream. She wouldn’t let herself think about the feel and taste of Quinn. Or the fact that her heart was slowly breaking in two. Just one date. How could she be so enamored with this man after just one date?
Deb sighed and rose from the corner of Paige’s desk that she’d been occupying for the last hour. “If you change your mind, just come on over.”
“I won’t.” She needlessly straightened some folders on her desk. The one good thing about being miserable was that it allowed you to focus on your job in order to forget what caused you the misery in the first place. She’d gotten caught up on some back projects and made some good headway on new ones. The last half hour of the day crawled by. Just as she was about to leave, her office phone rang.
“Hello, Paige.” The deep dark seduction of Quinn’s voice was guaranteed to make a woman lose her breath and Paige was no exception.
“Hi.” She looked out of her small cubicle to make sure no one was watching. It wouldn’t do for her fellow workers to see her drool into the phone.
“I’m glad you answered, baby.”
The endearment made her feel as if she’d been sprinkled with stardust. Alive and excited. Crap, how did she cave so easily?
Then she frowned, Quinn Blackwood was the type of man who handed out more endearments than the Easter Bunny gave out chocolate eggs. You are nothing special, Paige. Yeah, they’d had a good time—try still pussy-clenching—good time. For one night. So maybe it could be two, if you don’t blow it, that throbbing piece of womanhood urged. Blow, sex. Quinn’s cock. Paige Matthews, get your mind out of the gutter. “Whatever.”
Quinn laughed and Paige let a smile lift the corners of her lips. She did sound like a surly teenager. “I told you I’d call you, Paige. I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner.”
She wasn’t about to tell him she’d waited anxiously all day and had planned on having a Ben and Jerry binge once she got home.
“I had to go out of town this morning, so we can’t go out tonight.”