Inner Harbor
Page 55

"Good." He set the wine he carried on her coffee table.
"But," she said, with what she considered admirable patience, "neither was it wise. We're both sensible people."
"Speak for yourself, doc. I stop feeling sensible every time I get a whiff of you. What is that you wear?"
She leaned back when he leaned in to sniff at her. "Phillip."
"Sybill." And he laughed. "How about if I attempt to be civilized and not cart you off to bed until you're a little more awake?"
"I appreciate your restraint," she said tightly.
"And so you should. Hungry?"
"What is this almost pathological need of yours to feed me?"
"You're the analyst," he told her with a shrug. "I've got the wine. You got some glasses?"
She might have sighed, but it wouldn't have been constructive. She did want to talk to him, to put their relationship on an even footing again. To ask his advice. And, she hoped, to enlist his help in persuading Seth to accept her friendship.
She took the two short, thick glasses the hotel provided, lifting her eyebrow when Phillip sneered at them. He had a damn sexy sneer.
"They're an insult to this very delightful wine," he said, as he opened the bottle with the stainless-steel corkscrew he'd brought with him.
"But if they're the best you can offer we'll just have to make do."
"I forgot to pack my Waterford."
"Next time." He poured the pretty straw-colored wine into the glasses, handed her one. "To beginnings, middles, and endings. We seem to be at all three."
"Which means?"
"The charade's ended, the teamwork is established, and we've just become lovers. I'm happy with all three aspects of our very interesting relationship."
"Teamwork?" She picked the aspect that didn't shame her or make her nervous.
"Seth's a Quinn. With your help we'll make that legal and permanent, and soon."
She stared down into her wine. "It's important to you that he have your name."
"His grandfather's name," Phillip corrected. "And it can't be nearly as important to me as it is to Seth."
"Yes, you're right. I saw his face when I told him. He looked almost awed. Professor Quinn must have been an extraordinary man."
"My parents were special. They had the kind of marriage you rarely see. A true partnership, based on trust, respect, love, passion. It hasn't been easy wondering if my father broke that trust."
"You were afraid that he had cheated on your mother with Gloria, fathered a child with her." Sybill sat down. "It was hideous of her to plant that seed."
"It was also hell living with the seeds in me that I couldn't quite stomp out. Resentment for Seth. Was he my father's son?
His true son, while I was just one of the substitutes? I knew better," he added as he sat beside her. "In my heart. But it's one of those mind games that nag at you at three A.M."
If nothing else, she realized, she'd eased his mind on that one point. But it wasn't enough. "I'm going to ask my mother to corroborate my statement in writing. I don't know that she will. I doubt that she will," Sybill admitted. "But I'll ask, I'll try."
"Teamwork, see." He took her hand in his, nuzzling it, which had her turning her head to study him warily.
"Your jaw's bruised."
"Yeah." He grimaced, wiggled it. "Cam still has a damn sneaky left."
"He hit you?"
The absolute shock in her voice made him laugh. Obviously the good doctor didn't come from a world where fists flew. "I was going to hit him first, but he beat me to it. Which means I owe him one. I'd have paid him back then and there, but Ethan got me in a choke hold."
"Oh, God." Swamped with distress, she got to her feet. "This was about us. About what happened today on the boat. It should never have happened. I knew it would cause trouble between you and your family."
"Yes," he said evenly, "it was about us. And we worked it out. Sybill, my brothers and I have been pounding on each other as long as we've been brothers. It's a Quinn family tradition. Like my father's waffle recipe."
Distress continued to ripple through her. But confusion ran with it. Fists and waffles? she wondered, pulling a hand through her disordered hair. "You fight with them, physically?"
"Sure."
To try to compute it, she pressed her fingers to her temples. It didn't help a bit. "Why?"
He considered, smiled. "Because they're there?" he suggested.
"And your parents allowed this type of violent behavior."
"My mother was a pediatrician. She always stitched us up." He leaned forward to pour himself more wine. "I think I'd better explain the whole picture. You know that Cam, Ethan, and I are adopted."
"Yes. I did some research before I came…" She trailed off, glanced back at her laptop. "Well, you know that already."
"Yeah. And you know some of the facts, but not the meaning. You asked me about my scars. It doesn't start there," he mused. "Not really. Cam was the first. Ray caught him trying to steal my mother's car one morning."
"Her car? Steal her car?"
"Right out of the driveway. He was twelve. He'd run away from home and was planning on going to Mexico."
"At twelve he was stealing cars with plans to go to Mexico."
"That's right. The first of the Quinn bad boys." He lifted his glass to toast his absent sibling. "He'd been beaten, again, by his drunk father, and he'd figured it was time to run or die."
"Oh." She braced a hand on the arm of the sofa as she lowered herself again.
"He passed out, and my father carried him inside. My mother treated him."
"They didn't call the police?"
"No. Cam was terrified, and my mother recognized the signs of continual physical abuse. They made inquiries, arrangements, worked with the system and circumvented it. And they gave him a home."
"They just made him their son?"
"My mother said once that we were all hers already. We just hadn't found each other before. Then there was Ethan. His mother was a hooker in Baltimore, a junkie. She relieved boredom by knocking him around. And then she got the bright idea that she could supplement her income by selling her eight-year-old son to perverts."