At Your Most Beautiful Harper Bliss (classic reads .TXT) 📖

Quinn unbuttoned Maya’s blouse with one hand, exposing her upper body. She kissed the swell of Maya’s breast. By the time she had to let go of Maya’s hands to hike up her skirt, Maya was more than willing to keep her hands above her head—she’d tie them to the bedpost herself if she could. She relished Quinn’s easy power over her. Just as she relished all the new—or forgotten—sensations being with Quinn had brought her.

Quinn, who had never relented in her pursuit of Maya. Who had only needed one photo shoot with Maya to feel that spark again, to fan the flames they’d been forced to extinguish between them ten years ago. Maya had felt it too, but just like back then, she had to be the spark killer. Quinn was too reckless for that kind of responsibility.

And now, as it turned out, so was Maya. Because being with Quinn was reckless and mind-blowing and a touch crazy, but it was also the only way it could be for Maya now. Just like, right now, the only thing for Maya to do was lie on Quinn’s bed with her hands above her head, her skirt wrinkling underneath her because Quinn had pushed it all the way up, with her panties nowhere to be seen.

It was all exactly as it should be, Maya thought, as Quinn’s fully lubricated fingers slid between her legs. With her other hand, Quinn imprisoned Maya’s wrists again, while she gazed into her eyes. More newness. More of Quinn’s beautiful thought processes at work—maybe being under time pressure enhanced her creativity. Maya should have been in a taxi half an hour ago. She was going to be ridiculously late for her own class. In all respects, it was an utter disgrace, but she didn’t care. How could she when Quinn’s fingers slid inside her and made her feel like this? When Quinn looked at her like that, as if there was only one woman left in the entire universe that was important to her, and that woman was Maya.

Chapter 44One Year Later

“Win,” Ethan uttered while he pulled himself up with the help of Quinn’s leg.

“That child is as crazy about you as his grandmother is,” Angus said.

“Come here, you.” Quinn picked Ethan up and put him in her lap, knowing he would only stay a few minutes. A sixteen-month-old toddler, she had learned, didn’t much care for staying in one spot for a long period of time. He always had places to be and new, exciting things to discover.

Ethan briefly put his head against her shoulder and everyone in Maya’s living room cooed as though Ethan had just won the Nobel Prize for being a baby. Most people present here today would actually believe he deserved a prize, simply for being alive—Maya most of all.

“Feel free to hand him over if he’s bothering you,” Tommy said.

“How could this cute little man ever bother me.” Quinn put her arms around Maya’s grandson and gave him a cuddle. She’d done her fair share of babysitting over the past year and she had grown very fond of the child. In that respect, the year had not gone as planned at all. Not that Quinn ever had a grand scheme mapped out for her life, apart from trying not to get too heartbroken again and sell a picture once in a while, but for someone without a natural affinity to children, she had made a huge exception for Ethan. The kid had gotten under her skin and nowadays, when she didn’t see him for a week, she got antsy. Sometimes, when Maya was teaching and Quinn was in Manhattan, she’d drop by Tommy and Beth’s by herself just to see him.

“Tell me about it,” Griff said. “He basically stole you from me.” She leaned against Roxanne’s shoulder. After her ‘year of no’ ended, Griff had wasted no time asking out the cute barista from the coffee shop on the corner. Quinn had never been able to establish whether Griff had actually waited until the clock had struck midnight on the last day of the year—she strongly suspected she might not have, but what did it even matter?

Roxanne patted Griff’s head. “It’s okay, baby. You have me now.”

“I might move to Manhattan as well,” Griff said. “Not because I can’t live without my former roommate, but because the commute is killing me.” When she’d needed a new assistant producer a few months ago, Beth had offered Griff the job. She had not merely taken it, but embraced it as though her life depended on it. “Have you ever tried writing a book on the L-train? Let me assure you, it doesn’t work.”

As predicted, Ethan wiggled his way out of Quinn’s lap and waddled to the corner of the carpet where a bunch of his toys lay.

Quinn watched how her mother followed the child with her gaze. Brooke and Maya had taken Ethan to the Bronx Zoo a few weeks ago and no one had gotten hurt. Upon their return, Quinn had declared it a miracle, because they could joke about these things now.

“I’ll get the grill going,” Quinn’s dad spoke the words Quinn had heard him say so often.

“I’ll give you a hand.” Tommy rose.

“Oh, for crying out loud,” Maya said. “What is this? Men grilling outside on the deck while the women do the dishes inside?” She shook her head. “That’s not how things are done these days.”

Quinn’s father looked confused. “You don’t want me in charge of the grill?”

Maya huffed out some air and sipped from her champagne. “Oh, go on. Do what you like, just don’t be too… manly about it.”

Angus burst into laughter. “I would help, but this suit is simply too extraordinary.”

“We’re all just a bunch of clichés,” Griff said. “Quinn’s moving in with her girlfriend. Mine’s moving in with me already after only a few months of dating. How lesbian can you get?”

Quinn watched her mother shuffle around in her chair.

“Griff’s been a