Love in Slow Motion

46. Reed

46 REED

I’ve lost sight of Quinn. I can’t find her anywhere, and I can’t go looking for her because we made a deal that we would do our best not to spend the whole night in each other’s orbits. It’s one thing to make our family think we’re just really good friends by hovering around each other, but it’s something else entirely if everyone at the party starts to notice that she’s spending more time with me than she is with her own husband.

I glance around the room, trying to see past all of the unfamiliar faces. There are a few I recognize from going into town, and some I recognize from back in the city, people who came all the way out just to say they were at Madison Lynch’s 4th of July party. But they’re all blank faces to me. Because I’m looking for her.

And then I see her. She’s a spot of navy blue over by the kitchen, chatting up a woman I recognize as an old friend of my mother’s. Her hair is hanging down around her shoulders in waves, and I have to look away before I start reliving this afternoon in my head, when she rode me to orgasm and then let me put her on her back for round two and fuck her into the couch until she blew out her vocal cords screaming.

Nothing has ever been more perfect. And tonight is the night I’m going to ask her to move in with me. She already knows how I feel about her. Now all I need to do is convince her that when we get back to Boston, she should live with me, and be with me, and spend the rest of her life with me. She won’t need the money or the house. We could leave right now.

I think I’ll be able to pull it off. This week has been…incredible…and I know she feels it, too. I know that when she was riding me earlier, biting back tears, that she was trying to run from the fact that she’s in love with me.

I know she’s loved me as long as I’ve loved her. It’s just taken her this long to figure it out.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

My mother has appeared at my side, a glass of champagne in her hand, her face the perfect mask of kind cordiality as she waves at someone across the room.

My stomach protests. Does she know about Quinn and me? I’ve always been a little suspicious that she had cameras around the lake house, but I don’t have any evidence. If I thought my mother was watching, I certainly wouldn’t have railed Quinn in the middle of the living room.

“Tell you what?”

She tilts her face up to me. “That your restaurant closed.”

Now, this. This I knew was coming. Especially after Sabrina found out. I asked her not to say anything to Mom, but in a room full of socialites, it was just a matter of time. I wish Quinn was here now, standing beside me, keeping me strong while I face the disappointment of my mother.

“I didn’t want to upset you. It’s temporary. I’ve got a new place in the works.”

“But your business partner was arrested . You don’t think that’s something you should tell me about?”

Someone in a group of people nearby turns their head toward us.

“Mom, this isn’t the best time.” I turn to face her, needing to get the rest of the people in this room out of my line of sight. I just need to focus on my mother, the woman who’s done so much for me. “I just… I didn’t want you to be disappointed. So I tried to wait to tell you until I had my next step figured out. I didn’t want you to think I failed.”

Her eyebrows pull together. “Is that what you think keeps me up at night, Reed? Do you think I pace my bedroom, worrying that your business endeavors won’t work out?”

I can’t keep myself from looking around the room. I know most of these people are business contacts of my mother’s. She’s so well-known and successful as a businesswoman that people crawl over each other to be in her sphere of influence. I look back at her.

“I mean, yeah. Pretty much. I know how important it is to you that we?—”

“That you be happy.”

My words die in my throat. She steps closer to me, reaches up and presses her hand to my cheek. “My dear, darling firstborn. You have always been so different from your brother and sister. You’ve always been a romantic. I know. You got it from your father.”

My heart squeezes. My mother almost never speaks about my dad. According to her, there’s nothing to say. They met in the wilds of Australia, had a lovely time together, and then chose to go their separate ways. As far as I know, he doesn’t even know I exist.

“When you came back from that culinary program in Paris with stars in your eyes, I knew you would choose a different life. I want you to keep choosing a different life.” She takes one of my hands in hers, gripping it tight. “I always want you to move passionately in the direction of your dreams, do you understand? Your brother and your sister, they fall so easily into their roles because what they want is security and fame. But you, you want something else. You don’t need my blessing, but you always have it.”

My eyes slip back to the kitchen, to Quinn, a smile on her face, the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen. Mom wants me to go after what I want, but if she really knew, would she still be so accepting?

I bend and kiss her on the cheek. “Thanks, Mom. Believe me, I’m going after what I want. And as soon as I know what’s next, I’ll let you know.”

She smiles back at me. And then her smile fades and she becomes Madison Lynch again. “Fireworks go off at nine. I need to make sure everything is arranged.” She gives me a little nudge. “Go have a good time.”

As soon as she scampers off, I turn for the kitchen. Maybe enough time has passed that no one will notice if I go and stand by her.

But Quinn is gone. The packed kitchen is full of people who definitely aren’t her. I stop in the middle of the room, looking all around but not seeing her. Maybe she needed a breather. I glance down the hall leading to the bedrooms, but there are a lot of people down there. If Quinn was looking for quiet, she definitely didn’t go that way. I turn the other way, toward the hall that leads to the master and the basement.

There are people heading for the dining room, but nobody, that I can see, going for the basement. I imagine Quinn down there, in that space that has become ours this week, and I move toward it quickly.

Halfway down the stairs, I come to a halt. I can hear noises, a quiet, soft grunting and a feminine moaning. It must be someone from the party. Sure, these are all very well-to-do professionals, but they’re also humans, and sometimes humans like to fuck at parties.

Out of pure curiosity, I silently take the rest of the steps down to the basement and stick my head into the dark. Whoever it is, they’re going at it on the love seat. In the moonlight, I can make out the shapes of two people, fucking doggy-style.

I start to back out, but in the time it takes me to move back up a step, my eyes start to adjust, and I can see the faces of the people having sex. They don’t even realize I’m here, they’re so into each other.

Chase and Amina.

I immediately turn and move up the stairs, my brain trying to erase what I saw. Chase using her, the same way he’s used every woman he’s ever been with. The way he used Quinn. I expect that shit from him, but I’m surprised that Amina would settle for a man she knows is married when there’s a whole house full of unmarried men, ripe for the taking. Chase is just really that manipulative.

Back out in the hall, the anger rises in me. What if I had been Mom? What if someone went down there and saw them together? He’s supposed to be pretending to still be married to Quinn. Does he think it doesn’t matter anymore now that the week is almost over?

Well, it does matter.

I need to find Quinn before she finds them .