Blood Ties (Book 3 of The Blood Bond Series)

26. Pool Party

Four Months Later

The pool party at Adam's home was separated into two parts. The earlier afternoon version was made up of employees and their families from Payne Media Management, and the evening—like it was now—for family and friends.

It was like the afternoon was the performance for the humans, and now was the cast party afterward where everyone could let loose and be themselves again. Adam had hired someone to man the grills and bring catered side dishes, because he barely knew how to make food for one person. Much of what he'd learned about cooking was for Quinn's sake, and that was mostly breakfast and pastas. She'd taken to going to the gym to keep in shape, and she was enjoying weekly dance lessons since she had a bit of time before she'd be back in college. Since summer courses started in a week, the pool party doubled as a Back-to-School bash as well, since she would be too busy with classes and the play. Quinn had already auditioned and gotten a part in The Secret Garden and would be playing the supporting role of Mary, the maid. She had a few good singing parts and a solo that would knock the socks off the audience if done well. It was a real showstopper, and she preferred the fun of the part to the lead that had the pretty lyrical numbers and got all the glory. When the curtain fell, it was always the one with the solo that bowled you over that they remembered.

Quinn sat in a comfortable lawn chair and wondered if she wanted to get into the pool again or check out the hot tub that was attached. It had been stupid-hot earlier in the afternoon, so it had been turned off for the most part during the human party. Now that it was getting cooler and the sun was setting, she toyed with the idea again before deciding to get something to eat and figure it out later. It was cooler, but probably not cool enough to really enjoy the heat on her skin.

"Hey, baby."

She looked up to see Adam was already there, a plate in hand. Since no humans were around at this stage of the party, she was the only one actually eating. Quinn held out her hands, taking it from him before he was settling in behind her. She scooted forward, and he wrapped his arms around her waist before lifting a fork with potato salad on it. He kissed her neck as she took a bite and started chewing.

"Having a good time?"

She looked around. Everyone she knew that was a vampire was there, including Eli and Cassie, who'd arrived by private jet earlier in the week. Charlie and Nia were present, all of Adam's aunts and uncles and a few of their kids, along with Delia and Michael, who Quinn had met a few weeks after coming to live in L.A.

Even her parents had come earlier to the barbecue in the afternoon before they decided to head back to their hotel. They were visiting her, and Adam had offered to let them stay there at the estate, but they had very different sleep schedules because of the Swains being used to getting up so godawful early, so Adam put them up in a hotel that Eli owned for free. It was the least he could do. They were also given a driver for the week, the one that Adam usually used on business. Since he'd taken the week off with vacation time—plus the business was now in his name—the driver hadn't had anything else to do, and was given the task of chauffeuring them around. It was probably the most fun the man had had in years. Instead of waiting around to be called for boring meetings only to wait in the car to drive Adam to another boring meeting, he was taking his passengers to tourist attractions that he probably hadn't visited in over a decade.

"I am." She swallowed a delicious, creamy potato before spearing a bit of meat on a fork. It was the best food that money could buy, and worth every blessed penny, in Quinn's opinion. "You?"

"Mmhmm," he hummed into the skin over her neck.

At first, the Swains had been a little leery about Adam. He looked much older than Quinn, but he was so gregarious and kind to them, they soon forgot the 14-year difference between them, Ed even calling him son earlier that afternoon. Maybe they'd cottoned onto how serious the two were, because it showed. When Adam did something, it was with Quinn in mind, and she was always very aware of him, whether standing next to her or in the background.