Chapter Six

Saylor

Hunter made me weak.

All day long his mere presence chipped away at my vow of sologamy. Okay, maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but I was supposed to be reinventing myself so I had a chance of a career. I wanted to ’gram it until I got a decent job offer that was a little more upmarket than the dross I was currently writing.

I had no idea how my Instagram followers would feel if they discovered I’d gone from insta-dumped to insta-lust.

After breakfast we were like kids as we played in the snow. The skies cleared and everything sparkled brighter and whiter than it did in Chicago. My mood, especially. Hunter was great with the camera, setting up shots and taking care that those images didn’t contain two sets of footprints in the snow.

We built a snowman with a twig for a nose and took a photo where I’d wrapped my scarf around the snowman’s neck and mine. After that shot, Hunter stood very close, carefully winding the scarf back around me and letting a little bit of snow run down inside the layers of clothing against my bare skin. I shivered, he laughed. But I almost needed the chilling trickle of snow to calm the way my body heated and hummed when I looked at him.

We had a snowball fight. He got me good, exactly the way he used to when I was a kid and he’d just grown into a gangling, awkward teenager. I chased him with a fistful of snow, and he let me catch him. We wrestled to the ground and rubbed snow all over each other. It sounds silly, but it was the sort of fun I’d stopped having because that wasn’t the way Rex liked his fiancée to behave. I began to learn just how influenced I’d been by Rex’s scowls and disapproval.

In the afternoon we drove carefully into town. The road from the house was treacherous, but the main highway had been cleared. We stocked up on food, and wine, and then Hunter led me into a shop filled with Christmas decorations.

“We’ll cut a tree tomorrow. Grab anything you want. Go crazy,” he said, gesturing to all the beautiful trimmings.

I didn’t go crazy, I went slowly, with a plan. And the best thing about Hunter was that he didn’t try to hurry me along, he just acted as my congenial packhorse when I loaded him up with boxes of decorations. I went with white, silver and lilac because those were supposed to be the colors of my wedding and I couldn’t quite let all that planning go. Making my way around the shop I was aware of Hunter, from the heat that drifted off his body, affecting me in a way Rex never had.

Back in the car I felt nothing but relief at Rex’s PA having saved me from what would have been a terrible life-altering mistake. Marrying Rex.

We cooked together that night in a kitchen that soon felt too small to contain both of us. Hunter consumed me in ways no man ever had. I couldn’t keep my eyes off him. The line of his strong jaw mesmerized me when he rubbed it as he considered things like how much garlic to use, or that time when I caught him simply watching me as I browned the beef in the pan.

His eyes, as gray and wise as an ancient wall, made my insides shiver. I made it through the cooking. I made it through the moments when he took hold of my hips and shifted me out of the way because I always seemed to be in front of the cupboard or drawer that he needed to access. I even made it through the food he held to my lips and encouraged me to taste.

Hunter was one hundred percent focused on me, and the attention spun my world.

We sat down for dinner with candles lit. Outside it snowed again. Hunter had discovered the switch for the exterior lights and the snow turned golden as it drifted through the yellow glow. The woods were illuminated with spotlights set in the ground and the entire effect was magical.

After dinner we sat by the fire armed with wine and an assortment of amazing hand-made chocolates. When I reached for a second one—salted caramel with a light sprinkle of gold dust—I heard Rex’s voice in my head. Are you sure you need that? I hesitated, my hand hovering over the chocolate box. Rex was a prick.

“Eat it,” Hunter said, as if completely aware of my internal dilemma.

I snatched my hand back to my lap. “I was just thinking how Rex would have asked me to consider whether I really needed to eat a second chocolate.”

“Rex’s advice is shit. I know you can’t just wipe him from your mind, but anytime you recall something he’s said, you should do the opposite.” Hunter picked up the chocolate, considering it like it was something mysterious he’d found in the grass, and he wasn’t sure whether it was trash or treasure. Then his mouth tipped up into a sexy grin. He lifted the chocolate to me. “Open up.”

That voice had dropped an octave, and his two years living in the UK added something arousingly British to his vowels. Those two things combined meant his request was probably the hottest thing I’d ever heard.

I swallowed past the tightness in my throat, opened my mouth, and Hunter held the chocolate in the space between my lips.

“Now, close your mouth and hold the chocolate between your teeth. No biting into it, no chewing. We’re going to enjoy it together.”

My stomach fluttered, and everything down low throbbed as I gently took hold of the chocolate with my teeth. Hunter stroked my cheek with his fingers and it might as well have been my pussy he’d touched because my arousal shot up hard and fast. He traced the line of my lips with the tip of his finger, then leaned toward me and did the same with his tongue.

Fuck. I should not be doing this, but the man was the sweetest sin and my body was so hungry for him that I didn’t care. The heat of my mouth softened the chocolate and all I could smell was its sweet scent. He licked again, over the surface of the chocolate, then sat back.

“Exquisite.”

I couldn’t speak and I tried to tell him with my eyes that I agreed. Saliva pooled behind my teeth. I’d be drooling soon, and I didn’t care one bit.

“Lick,” he said, before sliding his lips over the chocolate to meet mine.

I licked, and sucked, working my tongue around chocolate, trying to find my way into his mouth. The heady scent of rich, dark cacao and caramel filled the space between us. Hunter was right. The chocolate was exquisite, but I was fighting to get to something even finer.

“Let go,” he said.

I didn’t know if he meant the chocolate or if I should just go completely wild and maybe rip off his clothes, because that was the idea this chocolate kiss gave me. My teeth parted, releasing the chocolate to Hunter’s control. Maybe he was going to take it for himself. But, he didn’t. He used his tongue to push it into my mouth, leaving a chocolate track in its wake, and as we kissed and dueled, the chocolate shrank until it was a small button of soft, salty caramel.

He sucked my tongue, hard, until it was clean, and then he got down to the business of really kissing me. The sweep of his tongue, soft nibbles and sharp, stinging nips. The kiss built in intensity until he was fucking my mouth and I could scarcely find a moment to draw breath. In no time, my entire body trembled with desire. His hand on my shoulder eased me back on the massive sectional sofa and when I was almost flat, I froze. Alerted by the stiffness in my body, Hunter broke our kiss.

I put my fingers to my mouth which had never felt so kissed, so ravaged, so wanting more. I was shocked at the depth of my arousal, the intensity of my want. “I can’t imagine what it would be like sharing a plate of spaghetti with you,” I said, trying to turn what we’d just done into something trivial.

“More than happy to show you,” he said, and I could tell by the way he looked at me that his want was just as vital as mine.

With reluctance, I rolled away from him and stood. “I need to do some work. Fix photos. Upload. Show the followers what the life of a sologamist is like.”

Hunter pushed his hand through his hair until it stuck out in various directions, making it look even more sexy than usual. “You don’t have to do that, Saylor. They aren’t owed your daily life in pictures. This is insane shit. No wonder Matt has been so worried about you.”

“This is how I live. I created this, and it pays the bills. But like any relationship, it needs regular feeding. It almost gave me the writing gig I wanted so much. That opportunity went down the toilet with Rex’s engagement ring, so I’m back to square one, building up my solo life, and making it look enviable. Making it look like something that might help other women celebrate their own single lives.”

I hurried from the room without waiting for his response. I was teetering on a ledge that I was happy to tumble off, straight into Hunter’s arms. What sort of woman goes from breaking off her engagement straight to kissing chocolate out of the mouth of her childhood crush? Hunter probably had a string of women in apartments from the coast to coast in the US, across Europe, all the way to London. Any attraction he felt towards me was probably driven by convenience and proximity. And, I was acting like a slut.

I wanted to be a slut.

With Hunter.

My brother’s best friend.

My ex-fiancé’s cousin.

The fires of hell never felt so close, and welcoming.