Read Online Indelibly Intimate by Regina Cole - Free Book Online Page A

help at the convention as she’d promised.
    After she dressed, she eyed the wallet she’d tossed atop his clothes last night. She’d promised to help at the convention and he’d promised her money back. Feeling like a shit, and a desperate one at that, she grabbed a single hundred-dollar bill from his wallet.
    I’ll tell him about it in the note. It’s not stealing if he promised it to me. Shit, I feel like a scuzzy ho-bag. I should have taken the change when he offered it. Too damn little, too damn late.
    After grabbing a pen and a wrinkled scrap of paper from her bag, Quinn scribbled the message. She left it on the side table then shouldered her purse and walked into the bright sunlight feeling like the world’s biggest asshole. Why the fuck had she jumped him like that? She’d used him, plain and simple. He didn’t deserve that, not after being so nice to her.
    Shame dogged her steps from his door all the way home, from the chilly shower in her dark apartment to the employee entrance of Buzzard’s. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t shake the guilt. Especially whenever she glanced down and remembered the beautiful tattoo on her leg.
    “Just made it, LaBrea. Get to work.”
    She didn’t even acknowledge Tony’s self-satisfied tone or the words themselves. She stowed her purse, donned her apron and trudged out to the dining room. Even Yancey didn’t yank her chain. Her don’t-fuck-with-me expression was firmly in place, with no sign of budging today at all.
    Kim was already there, seated at a four-top, marrying the ketchups. She gave Quinn a smile and patted the seat next to her. “You look like you need a hug. C’mere.”
    Quinn slogged over and flopped down across from her friend. Laying her cheek on her folded arms, she said, “A hug is the least of my worries. You got a time machine?”
    “What has Guy done now?” Kim’s sympathetic voice was accompanied by the rasp of a metal lid against the top of a glass ketchup bottle.
    “It’s not what Guy’s done. It’s what I’ve done. I feel like a fucking skank.” Quinn stared down at the floor as she spoke, trying like hell not to look at her leg. It was impossible. The brilliantly colored phoenix mocked her with its beauty, despite the lingering redness and slight swelling.
    “Hey, don’t beat yourself up. It can’t be that bad.”
    “I slept with a man I met yesterday.”
    The clink of bottles silenced abruptly.
    Quinn raised her head with a sigh. “Told you.”
    “Quinn, why the hell would you do that? I’m not saying you shouldn’t move on from Guy, because you know how I felt about that asshat, but you met this man yesterday? He didn’t pressure you, did he?”
    “No, nothing like that. I know it was a stupid idea. I’m not sure why I did it.” Even while Quinn said the last sentence, she knew it was a lie. He’d been kind and he was gorgeous, and she’d wanted to feel in control of her life for one night. He’d given her that and she’d taken it all and run away at the first opportunity.
    She groaned and covered her face. “I’m a horrible human being.”
    “No, you’re not.” Kim pried Quinn’s fingers away from her eyes. “You’re a great person who’s made some bad choices. You did use protection, right?”
    “Yeah.” Quinn raked her bangs away from her forehead. They flopped back into place as soon as her hand fell away. “I left before he woke up.”
    “You stayed over at his house?” Kim’s dark brows climbed high. “You should probably start over. How’d you meet him?”
    And over a table full of Heinz’s finest, Quinn told Kim the story of how she’d met Hamilton, his generous offer of a tattoo and a place to stay and how she’d landed in his lap face-first almost immediately thereafter. Not her favorite list of accomplishments but if anyone would get it, it was Kim.
    When Quinn was done, Kim stood. “Come on. Help me get these bottles in place. It’s almost time to open.”
    Quinn followed