Forever

Chapter 2-7

“I can see how heartbroken that makes you.”

“Yeah. Congratulate me, Mrs. Mann. It’s mine.”

“Congratulations, Mark. I’m so pleased for you. When do you close?”

I told her. “But it will need a lot of work.”

“To make it less pink?” She chuckled. It was a warm sound.

“Yes. I get a toothache just looking at the walls and carpeting. I don’t think I can count on moving in until the middle of November at the earliest.”

“Tell me what you plan to do with it.”

“The walls need repainting. I know someone who’ll get a kick out of looking through paint chips. The carpeting will have to go. If the rest of the floors are hard wood, I’ll have them refinished.”

“If they’re not?”

“I’ll have them put in. And maybe an area rug in front of the fireplace.” I smiled to myself. That rug would be for the times when I wouldn’t be able to wait to get that sexy spook into my bedroom and on my bed.

“That sounds like a nice idea.” Quinn’s mother fortunately had no notion of where my mind had gone. “What else?”

I began ticking off the pieces of furniture I had, and the ones I’d had to put in storage.

Time passed quickly, and even with traffic, it wasn’t more than half an hour later when I pulled up in front of her Tudor-style house. It was still Daylight Saving Time, but it was starting to get dark earlier, and the house was lit up. A male figure stood by the front door.

“Didn’t Novotny trust me to get you home in one piece?”

“That isn’t Gregor, Mark.” She unbuckled her seatbelt.

“It isn’t?” I looked closer. I was surprised to see Quinn. Wasn’t he supposed to be at State?

“Turn off the engine. You’re staying for dinner.”

“I am?” But I was talking to thin air. She’d already let herself out of the car and was walking toward her son, who crossed the lawn with lithe strides to meet her. He bent to kiss her cheek.

I switched off the ignition and got out of the car.

“You left your lights on, Mark.”

I swore under my breath, leaned in and shut them off, then slammed the door shut.

“You’re looking tired, sweetheart.” His mother rested her palm on his cheek.

“I’m very glad it’s Friday, Mother. It’s been a long week.” He covered her hand with his own, then turned his head to place a kiss on her palm. “I was at State today. You know how that can be. On top of that, my car needed to go in for its eighteen-thousand-mile tune-up. It’s a good thing your message let me know that Gregor was in town. I called him and got a lift.”

“Mrs. Mann!” Novotny stood at the top of the steps, his hands on his hips. He was backlit by the light above the door, and I couldn’t see his expression, but his tone of voice told me he’d been ready to call out the Marines. Did he think she’d been in danger of some sort? She’d been with me, dammit.

“I’m coming, Gregor.” She squeezed her son’s hand and turned to go toward the house.

I sauntered up to Quinn. “Mann. I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

“Mother’s message also let me know she was going to look at a condominium with you. What did you think of Aspen Reach?”

I fell into step with him, and we walked toward his mother’s house. “The community is okay.”

“Only okay?”

I grinned at him, but he didn’t grin back.

“What about the condo?”

“Barring any unforeseen difficulties—and I don’t think there will be any, they’re desperate to unload it—it’s mine.”

Mrs. Mann paused and glanced over her shoulder. “Goodness knows Francesca worked hard enough to sell it. And that wasn’t all she was selling.”

“Francesca?”

“Yeah. And you should have—” I was a couple of steps past him before I realized he wasn’t beside me. I turned to face him. “Quinn?”

“Should I be jealous?” He brushed back the hair that was always falling over his forehead and into his eyes. He didn’t wait for an answer, just pushed past me and strode up the steps.

“She isn’t my type, Mann.” I followed him into the house and shut and locked the door. “Unless she’s hiding them behind blue contacts, she doesn’t have hazel eyes.”

“And you mean to say that if she did, you’d find her…interesting?” he sniped.

“Quinn, what…” Everything had been going well. Didn’t he…like me anymore?

“Well, if you want to f**k her, don’t let me stop you, Vincent.” He shrugged and started to turn away from me, and I grabbed his arm.

“Are you kidding? You think I’d do something like that to you?”

“Why not? You’re…” Abruptly I realized that Portia Mann was right, he looked dead beat.

A quick glance around showed me we were alone in the hallway, and I shut him up with my mouth. I expected him to struggle or at least to stiffen in my embrace, but instead he gave a sigh and relaxed into me.

“Mann, what the f**k?”

“I just needed to know…I’m sorry. It’s been a b***h of a day, ending an all-time b***h of a week.”

“You’re gonna”—scare me—”piss and moan one time too often, and then—”

“You’re going to leave me?”

“No. CIA i***t. I’m gonna knock you on your ass.”

“You’ve already knocked me on my ass.”

“I have?”

“Didn’t you know?” He kissed me. “I’m disappointed in you,” he murmured against my lips.

“Damned spook. Come on. Novotny will think I’m molesting you.”

“Speaking of which—”

“Molesting you?”

“Smartass.” His hand curved over my butt and squeezed. “No. Gregor. He drove me here. I don’t have my car, and I’m going to need a ride home.”

“No problem. I’ll drive you back to your town house.”

“I knew I could count on you.”

You bet your ass you can, baby. “Want to stop and check out my place on the way back?”

He looked puzzled for a moment, and that brought home more than anything how tired he was. “Oh, your condo?”

My condo. I liked the sound of that. “Yeah.”

“Mother said something about it being in a gated community.”

I showed him the remote that operated the gate into Aspen Reach, then replaced it in my pocket. I’d lifted it from the Dashwood witch’s shoulder bag when she’d been busy showing his mother and me into the condo, but he didn’t need to know that.

“But you don’t have the keys yet.” He lowered his voice. “Right. What am I talking about? You were able to get into my town house. That condo should be a cinch.”

It was nice to have my abilities appreciated. I grinned but didn’t say anything.

“When you look like that…God, I want to kiss you again.”

“I thought you were tired.”

“Quinton!” Mrs. Mann called from the dining room. “Mark! Dinner is getting cold.”

“Jesus, we were making out in my mother’s front entry! We’re coming, Mother.” He cut his eyes toward mine as I opened my mouth to say something heavy with innuendo. “No snide remarks, Vincent.” He stroked the curve of my ear, then dropped his hand to my shoulder and urged me toward the first floor john so we could wash our hands.

“I left a message on your voice mail.”

“I was at a meeting. Mother’s message also mentioned that since you insisted on driving her home from Aspen Reach, she was going to insist you stay for dinner, and if I wanted to keep our usual Friday arrangement, I should hop to it and call Gregor.”

“Very clever woman.”

“Yes, she is.” His pride in her was obvious.

And maybe another time I’d tell him about her portrayal of a sugar momma.

We went into the dining room and waited for Mrs. Mann to be seated before sitting down ourselves. Novotny had already placed dinner on the table. He took a seat opposite me and curled his lip.

“Shrimp scampi. I hope you don’t mind a little garlic, Vincent.”

“Nope.” Had he done that on purpose, so my lover would be reluctant to kiss me? “Keeps the vampires away.”

“Pass the scampi, please, Mark.” Quinn smiled at me. He would be having it too.

I sent Novotny an insouciant smile, and he scowled.

* * * *

We finished dinner, and after giving me a hard look, Novotny had gone into the kitchen to load the dishwasher. Once that was done, he’d take his cup of coffee and retreat to his lair upstairs somewhere.

We sat in the small parlor at the back of the house, listening to a Cole Porter CD and finishing our coffee.

“I had the opportunity to meet him once, you know,” Mrs. Mann murmured. “He was very charming.”

“You’ve known some very interesting people, if you don’t mind my saying so, ma’am.”

“Yes, I was quite fortunate.” She started to say something else and then looked at her son. He was sitting beside me, his legs stretched out and his head resting on the back of the loveseat. “Sweetheart, you look so tired.”

“I’ll be fine, Mother. I just need a solid night’s sleep.”

“In that case, I think you’ve had enough coffee, Quinn.” I took his cup and stood up. “Mrs. Mann, can I bring your cup to the kitchen?”

“Thank you, Mark.”

“Pushy so-and-so,” Quinn muttered as I walked out of the room, and I grinned. He couldn’t call me worse in front of his mother. I returned in time to hear him say, “I left word at both State and Langley that short of a national emergency, I wasn’t to be called this weekend.” He yawned. “Sorry.”

“Perhaps we should call off our Sunday ride.” His mother sent a glance my way, and I gave a minute nod.

“I’m not an invalid, Mother.” He was starting to sound petulant, a sure sign he was more exhausted than he wanted to let on.

“C’mon, tough guy. I’ll drive you home.” My home. I was going to keep him in my apartment, and I’d turn off his cell phone so that even in the event of a national emergency he wouldn’t be disturbed.

Mrs. Mann walked us to the front door and out to the steps. She kissed her son’s cheek, and to my surprise, she kissed mine as well.

“Drive carefully, Mark.”

“Yes, ma’am. Always do.”

She stood at the door, watching until we gave a final wave and drove off.

* * * *

“Life Saver, Mark?”

“Huh?” I was humming under my breath. I’d decided to drive straight to my apartment in DC, skipping the visit to Aspen Reach. “Oh, yeah, sure.” The garlic. I held out my palm, felt the mint drop into it, and popped it into my mouth. Pep-O-Mint, as I’d suspected.

A quick glance showed him doing the same just before he tipped his head back against the headrest, and closed his eyes.

Dammit, I really wasn’t used to seeing him this tired, and I didn’t like it.

I stamped down heavily on the gas pedal and got him home, stripped, and into bed.

“I’m sorry, babe.” Quinn yawned so hugely my jaws ached in sympathy. His minty breath washed over my face.

Take that, Novotny. There’s nothing you can cook that Life Savers doesn’t make a mint to neutralize.

“It’s okay.” I drew the covers around him. “What’s the point in showing you where I’ll f**k your brains out if you aren’t awake enough to appreciate it? Go to sleep.”

He mumbled something, and then a soft snore whispered past his lips.

Quinn was a few years younger than me. The dossier I kept on him had nothing about his inability to bounce back from an assignment.

I should have gotten to the bastard who ran Prinzip before Quinn and killed him harder. If he hadn’t had Quinn kidnapped….

I stripped, shut the light, and got into bed with Quinn. He rolled over into my arms, murmured a few words, and sighed, a warm gust of air over my collarbone.

“Yeah, this is nice,” I whispered in his ear. “ ‘Night, Quinn.”