Ashton Hill Fools

"What is wrong with you?" Quinn berated herself as she flew upstairs and away from the temptation of Grayson Ryde. She had a little girl to look after and a career to get back to, she couldn't have a fling with Mr. Traditional, Mr. Stable, Mr. one-of-the-most-eligible-bachelors-in-the-country. He was as solid and stable as this house. He was Ashton Hill Royalty, for god's sake, and she was... what? She was transient, she ran from relationships and commitment, she ran from anything that tried to dip below her surface and see what was really there.

Quinn's attraction to Grayson scared her, but the fact that she liked him as a person, as well as admired his body, scared her even more. She lectured herself on how important it was to keep her distance from him, especially now, as she got into the car beside him and they set off to pick Noah up from school together.

"Okay, let's talk," she said into the silence. "Maybe if we get to know each other properly we will find that we don't actually like each other, and this... crazy attraction, or whatever it is, will disappear."

"Here's hoping," Grayson chuckled. "But I think we might be kidding ourselves that it's going to go away easily."

"Let's talk Rheagan then," Quinn said. "No danger of me wanting anything to do with you with her in the air around us."

"I can already see the steam coming out of your ears," Grayson chuckled.

"Rheagan is my half-sister, from my mum's second marriage. My Dad had left a few years before. Mum never told me why, and he never wanted anything to do with me, so when my step-Dad came along I thought it would be like it always was. He was a good man, worked hard and provided for us; life was bearable for a while there. He made me feel wanted and loved, not the child of a demon who had made her mother give up all her dreams of fame and fortune. While he was around nothing seemed so bad or so awful. He had a heart attack when I was ten and Rheagan was about five," Quinn began the story of Rheagan's life, including her own. A story she'd never told anyone before.

"That's when things started to spin out of control. Mum put all her grief and love into Rheagan from that point on. She could do no wrong, and, when she did wrong, it was always someone else's fault, mainly mine, because I hadn't been watching out for her or looking after her well enough. My mum created a monster in Rheagan, something she would never admit. I had to follow the rules, but Rheagan could do no wrong. By ten she was a brat, by thirteen she was uncontrollable. I started to withdraw, became a study freak in the back of the library, all worn out sweaters and smudged face from the dusty books no one else wanted to read, while Rheagan became the most popular girl in school, once Lara Collingwood graduated, that is," she laughed. "Rheagan hated Lara Collingwood for nothing more than the fact that she was pretty and popular and a year older. I was gone by the time that happened though, but I heard enough about it to not be surprised. I was in the city when Mum called me back, because at sixteen Rheagan had left home and moved in with her twenty-four-year-old boyfriend."

"Wait, what? She told me she was modelling in the city at sixteen and only went to school part-time, which was why she went to college later than her friends. I didn't suppose she was living with said boyfriend and doing those things," he said as if realising the truth.

"If it helps, I'm sure she believed everything she told you. She craved that sort of life, fame and fortune. I still can't believe she walked out on the wedding. You were her ticket to all she ever wanted, and she just left?" Quinn looked at him suspiciously as he pulled into the school carpark to wait.

"Don't look at me like that; I never laid a hand on her in anger. I gave her everything she asked for, even surgery to enhance her already prodigious beauty. It cheapened it in my eyes, but she was desperate to get it done, so I agreed. She lived a pampered life with me, trust me," Grayson defended himself.

"She always bought into her own lies. I think she honestly believed she loved you until something better, edgier, more dangerous caught her eye, possibly illegal..." Quinn said.

"They call people like that sociopaths," Grayson grumbled.

"Look at you with the big words, who would have thunk it," she laughed. "All I'm trying to say is, it wasn't anything you or Noah did, it was her. She wasn't the type to stick around."

"Are you, Quinn? Do you stick?" he asked, piecing her with a gaze that wanted the truth.

"I don't stick," she admitted. "It's why I can't take care of April. I have my job, my career. I'm on the road all the time, I just... I don't stick," she said, stopping herself from falling into the trap of admitting she'd never had anything to stick around for before.

"At least you're honest about it," Grayson said, stepping out of the car as the school bell rang and moving toward the preschool building. Quinn sat staring after him and waiting.

"Well, that seemed to have fixed that nasty zing, didn't it, April," she turned around to look at the sleeping baby, feeling torn about that fact.

*****

Chapter 5

After a tense weekend of practically avoiding each other, Quinn and Grayson started a new week with Quinn filling in as a temporary nanny while Grayson went back to work where he could concentrate and catch up on everything he had let pile up. He dropped Noah off at school in the mornings, and she would be there to pick him up and bring him home. Grayson would arrive home in time to spend some time with Noah and have dinner with him before heading into his home office to work, again, leaving her to deal with the night time rituals before Grayson put his son to bed, and often did a late-night work out in the gym. Not because he needed the extra work out, but to help him burn off the frustration and energy that living with Quinn in such close proximity created in him.

"Honestly, Noah," Quinn shook her head as her phone started to sing for the third time that afternoon, as it had done every afternoon that week. "Here, you answer it, it is Daddy," she said, passing the boy the phone and hitting the accept button as he climbed into his car seat.

"Hi, Dad," Noah smiled widely into the phone, and Quinn listened, knowing all the questions being asked. "Yes, she was there when I came out... No, I didn't have to wait... Yes, Dad, and the teacher says we have to remember you that I need a gazillion cupcakes for tomorrow," Noah laughed when Grayson groaned so loudly that even Quinn could hear him.

Quinn had finished buckling April into her car seat and moved around to Noah's side of the car. She wiggled her fingers, indicating that she wanted the phone, and Noah passed it over without telling his father.

"It's me, there is no need to groan at your child, just get one of your minions at work to call the bakery and order some and drop them off at home, problem solved," she sighed.

"You really don't know anything about kids, do you? You can't buy cupcakes for preschool, you've got to make them with your kids. Hang on, I'll see if I got an email about it," he said, and Quinn tucked the phone under her chin as she buckled Noah into his booster seat. "The email came in last week, I ignored it because I thought Mother would handle it. Twenty-four cupcakes and an Easter bonnet for the parade for the Senior Citizen's visit," Grayson groaned again.

"Fine, we'll go shopping on the way home, and your new temporary nanny will make the cupcakes. What's an Easter bonnet?" she asked, making him groan even louder.

"I know you can cook. but can you even make cupcakes?" he asked.

"I think the better question is, can you? And where would you find the time to make them with your busy schedule?" she asked, knowing that he had an evening meeting and dinner with his family scheduled for tonight.

"I can't. And I don't have time, even if I could," Grayson admitted and silently cursed his mother again for leaving him in the lurch like this. "Text me a list of what you need and I'll pick it up before I come home."

"Don't be silly, I can have them made by then, and you and Noah can ice them together when you get home, so you will be following preschool orders to make them with your son. I'll call Annie about the Easter bonnet thing, one of her boys is in the same class," she said. "Don't worry about it; I have it all under control." She rolled her eyes heavenward as she heard him hesitate as if to argue with her.

"I don't want you dragging Noah around town shopping for ingredients," he said.

"It's a supermarket, Grayson, shopping is hardly an extreme sport," she sighed again loudly.

"Stop doing that!" he snapped.

"What?" Quinn was seriously confused.

"Sighing into the phone!" he growled in a deep husky voice. "I've been trying to resist temptation here, Quinn, but you're not making it easy for me with all that heavy breathing and sighing!" he growled, making Quinn blush and her body react to his deep husky voice.

"Heavy breathing?" she scoffed, even though she couldn't deny the sighing. "I can see where Noah gets his vivid imagination from," she said as if she could deny the fact that his husky voice hadn't affected her in the same way. "Grayson, I can't stand here in the school carpark having this conversation with you right now!"

"No, I suppose you can't," he said in a husky voice. "Personally, I'm glad I'm in my office and sitting behind a desk." He said, giving her imagination something to work with.

"You're not playing fair. You know this..." Quinn shut Noah's car door and walked around to the driver's side. "Flirting," she said in hushed tones, "Isn't a good idea."

"Fuck good ideas!" he said with more force than he'd meant to. "If we don't do something about this thing soon I'm going to combust!"

"You don't mean that," she said with a hint of sadness in her voice. "I need to go now. See you when you get home," she ended the call.

"Home," Grayson said, staring at his phone. Home, where she would be in the kitchen making cupcakes with his son and preparing a dinner for his family and fulfilling all of his needs, bar one, he groaned and ran his fingers through his short hair. They shouldn't take it any further, they were so wrong for each other, but, God, he wanted her in the worst way!

Grayson tried to concentrate on the work on his desk. They were rebranding the company. His father had died before he'd even been involved with Rheagan or considered having Noah. He'd been CEO for six years, sharing the company leadership with his brothers. It was time to put their own stamp on it, he had agreed, but that was before the arrival of Quinn Thomas in his life and his mother's pulling the rug out from under him. Now it seemed he didn't know what he was doing anymore. Not at home, not at work, and definitely not with his temporary nanny.

*****

Quinn had a new respect for stay at home mothers. The kitchen looked like a disaster zone from any of the real-life battles she had covered. Noah was on a sugar high from licking the sides of the bowl. April needed her nappy changed and was grumbling, albeit quietly, and the only success, twenty-four cupcakes, stood cooling on a rack. On top of all of this, she still had to cook dinner for Grayson and his family.

'First things first,' she prioritised. She got Noah settled in front of the television with one of his favourite shows, then she picked up April and, dropping a kiss on her blonde curls, headed toward the stairs to take her to the nursery to change her. She'd barely made it to the first step when the door flung open and Thorn walked in holding the hand of a tall, beautiful, obviously pregnant woman.

"Hard day, Quinn?" he cocked an eyebrow at her, amusement in his eyes.

"You have no idea," she sagged and stepped back off the step to greet him properly.

"This is my wife, Lilly. I assume Grayson told you what was happening this afternoon," he gave her another head to toe look and grinned.

"Just that he had some work thing to do and that you would all be staying for dinner," Quinn replied in a tired voice.

"Don't let him tease you like that," Lilly stepped forward. "Let me take her, you look like you're about to drop from exhaustion."

"I was just on my way up to change her," Quinn hesitated.

"Oh, I'll do that for you. I come from a big family, trust me, I know my way around a change table," Lilly reached out her hands toward the baby.

"It's not going to be pleasant in there, I'm afraid," Quinn winced as she took the child.

"No problem, I'm sure I've handled worse. Besides, the rest of the gang have just pulled up," she said over her shoulder as she continued to walk up the stairs. The foyer of the large house seemed substantially smaller as Byron and his wife, Caroline, came in, followed by a harassed-looking woman with a clipboard who looked around.

"I take it Grayson is upstairs changing?" she snapped, as a man dressed all in black and two very stressed looking young women walked in behind her.

"That would be a no, he's not home yet," Quinn said at a total loss as she looked around at the room full of people.

"You," She pointed a pencil at Byron. "Show Emmanuel this magnificent library. That was the reason we had to come all the way out to the middle of nowhere today, and you," she poked a pointy finger into Thorn's chest as she advanced on him, "Get your brother here, now!"

"What am I? My brother's keeper?" Thorn asked.

"No, you are not," Grayson said, stepping through the door and taking in the people surrounding Quinn, who looked more than a little shell-shocked. "Hi," he said directly to her, ignoring the others in the foyer.

"Hi," she smiled lopsidedly and shrugged.

"You look like you had a fight with the flour," he commented, and she looked down at her shirt and grimaced as his mouth twisted into a smile.

"Cupcakes," she shrugged.

"Shit! I forgot," he grumbled. "Is there much left to do?"

"Lots," she didn't seem to be able to get past one-word answers as his eyes bored into her.

"We're on a schedule here, Grayson!" clipboard lady snapped. "You're already late, and I need you changed and in that goddamn library in five minutes!"

"Jeans and a white button-down shirt, right?" he asked, dropping his laptop bag on the foyer table and starting toward the stairs.

"Yes, hip, casual, no shoes," she turned at the sound of shouting from the library and moved toward the sound. Quinn turned back toward the kitchen, she couldn't let his brothers and their wives see it in a mess, but Grayson grabbed her arm, halting her.

"Let me go, I need to clean up the flour I had a fight with, as you so eloquently put it," she tried to pull her arm away, despite feeling the zinging electricity of his touch on her skin.

"Where's Noah?" he asked.

"Watching television," she said, and Grayson gave a quick glance to Thorn, who nodded and went in search of the little boy.

"Where's April?" he asked, his eyes having that same heated look they had when he walked in.

"Lilly took her to change her for me," she explained, thinking that he was questioning that she wasn't doing her job as his temporary nanny properly.

"Good, then you can spare me a few minutes of your time," he said in low tones and began pulling her up the stairs with him.

"I guess," she frowned, thinking she had embarrassed him by looking the way she did when his work colleagues and brothers arrived. She followed him into his bedroom, and she briefly took in the masculine space before his hands were around her waist, pulling her to him, and his mouth was on hers, kissing her.

Her mind went numb as she automatically kissed him back. She had thought about their one and only kiss, dreamed about it even, but it paled in comparison to the hungry need of this kiss. She let her hands roam over his broad shoulders and back as his hands scooted up her ribs to cup her breasts and brush his thumbs over her puckering nipples. Her hands floated down to his hips, her stretched out thumb very close to his obvious erection.

"That was all I thought about since we spoke this afternoon, I've been next to useless at the office!" he growled as he broke the kiss and rested his forehead on hers.

"I burned the first batch of cupcakes because I was daydreaming about you," she admitted in the face of his honesty.

"What was I doing in this daydream?" he grinned.

"This, pretty much," she whispered.

"We were doing a whole lot more in my head. This is tame compared," he gave a soft chuckle. "It's inconvenient, crazy, and we both have a million reasons not to do this," his fingers brushed her cheek, and one ran across her bottom lip. "But I don't care; I want you so badly I'm willing to take the risk."

"I know, and I'm willing to admit I want that too, but our reasons for not going there are sound. I want this more than you know, but..."

"But you're going to let me take you to bed, aren't you Quinn," he brushed his lips against hers again.

"I don't think I can fight this thing alone," she sighed. "If you're so sure it's worth the risk, then there have to be ground rules. I don't stick, Grayson, you know that. This has to be some adult no strings fun for two people who have a strong attraction to each other. Just sex, understand? I'm temporary."

"Relax, Quinn, that's all I'm asking for here," he said. "If I were looking for someone to share my life and not just their body, no offence, but you wouldn't be that woman. You're not what I'm looking for."

"Why? Because I'm the least traditional, likely to stay at home woman you know?" she teased, even though she felt a sting at his words.

"But you're by far the sexiest woman I've ever met, even covered in flour. I want you so badly I can't think straight, even at the office!" he groaned.

"One last rule," she said, trying to remain the rational one. "Outside of this room we act normal. Do the normal things we usually would and treat each other same way we always have."

"Normal? What's normal to you? Nothing about this has been normal for me," he questioned her.

"I look after the kids and the house and you... well, you do what you do," she said, not knowing what he did exactly. He was a businessman, and a very successful one, that was the extent of her knowledge.

"Doing you is pretty high on my list of priorities," he grinned. "But if I am not downstairs soon, Cilla will send Thorn or Byron up to get me, and I'm not sure either of them seeing us in bed is within your rules of engagement." His took his hands from her and stepped back, holding them up as if in surrender.

"We have really bad timing," she thought back to their first kiss being interrupted before they went too far then as well.

"We really do," he agreed and looked at his watch. "Which jeans and which shirt?" he asked, walking into his closet.

"Wow, you have more clothes than I do!" Quinn said, following him in and moving to a stack of designer jeans, picking up a pair and discarding them.

"You live out of a suitcase, everyone has more clothes than you," he laughed, undoing his tie and loosening the top buttons of his shirt. Quinn concentrated on the pile of jeans.

"These," she said as he flipped through the white shirts he owned. She held out an old pair of jeans faded from too many wash cycles and torn slightly over one knee. "Nothing is sexier than well-worn, well-fitting old jeans," she explained, turning to look at him. "Wow!" she breathed, realising he had stripped down to his boxers.

"I thought I'd thrown these out. Are you sure about this?" He asked.

"Trust me; I work with pretty men all the time. I know what sexy is," she said, leaving him in no doubt that she thought he was it. "Now shirt," she flicked through the few white shirts, pulling off a plain shirt with gold buttons as the point of difference. "This one, roll the sleeve to half way up your forearm, and don't wear that watch. Wear the one you had on Friday," she instructed.