After Sunset

Chapter Five

FOR A COUPLE of minutes after Quinn opened her eyes, she was so disoriented, she didn't recognize her surroundings. Her eyes were aching, her head was spinning, and her mouth was so dry, it was almost as though she'd eaten a handful of sand.

She closed her eyes and rested her head on the soft pillow. When she felt movement beside her, she sat up with a start, which summoned a pounding headache that left her weak and feeling sick.

"Are you all right?"

Dylan's voice echoed around the room, and Quinn turned to face her as she recalled the events of the previous evening. Some of it was blurry, but she remembered the amount of alcohol she'd imbibed.

Dylan sat up and looked at her. Her short, pixie, hazelnut hair was carelessly tousled, but rather than make her look odd, Quinn thought she looked attractive. She felt a little weird for noticing.

"I have a hangover," she said.

Dylan got out of bed, reached for her crutch, and headed to the bathroom. The cast on Dylan's leg concealed her flesh from her toes to just above her ankle. Quinn had never entertained intimate thoughts about Dylan, but seeing her in nothing but a T-shirt and what she could only imagine was a pair of panties underneath, she felt the hair on her arms rise. Quinn temporarily forgot her hangover as she watched Dylan's long, slender legs leave the room.

Quinn had never been attracted to a woman, but there was something about Dylan that she'd been drawn to from the very first day they'd met. Dylan had an appealing androgynous physical appearance that Quinn couldn't see enough of.

The first time she'd noticed Dylan at the park, her eyes had followed Dylan everywhere. She'd found herself observing and noticing things she'd usually never notice in a person who was scarcely on the fringe of her awareness.

When she'd talked to Dylan, her curiosity had turned to intrigue. She still wanted to make herself believe that she was just interested in friendship with Dylan, but the way she sometimes felt when they were together made her doubt it.

She knew Dylan liked women and had initially meant to disclose that she was straight, and then they'd been in her bedroom that night after the family dinner, and Dylan had touched her.

Dylan softly running her fingers over her face and looking deeply into her eyes made Quinn finally understand why she'd felt so different over the years. In that single instant, everything had changed.

She'd placed her hand over Dylan's slender waist, and Dylan leaned in and gently pressed their lips together, confusing Quinn. Before either of them could explore further, they'd been interrupted.

Dylan stepped back into the room. "How badly do you want to get rid of that hangover right now?"

Reminded of her hangover, Quinn's headache suddenly felt as if it had intensified during the couple of minutes she'd been thinking. "What do you have in mind?"

Dylan grabbed a pair of blue faded jeans from the floor, and Quinn watched her dress. She was glad Dylan's back was to her because she would've been unable to conceal her undeniable hunger for something she could barely even identify.