Hope
"I wish you would reconsider going to the hospital," Max grumbled, rubbing away a bead of sweat from his brow with his forearm. He placed the needle back on the little tray, having finally finished sewing my skin back together and frowned at his work. "As it stands you'll have a scar, but if I had the facilities I could –"
"I'll be fine," I whispered, not wanting to think about it. "Thank you."
"Do you understand how close you came to hemorrhaging?" he demanded then. "An inch lower and this could be a very different outcome!"
"Yeah," I whispered. "I know."
"You have thirty-six sutures on your face, Hope," Max shot back, clearly unimpressed with my less than stellar response. "Thirty-six!"
He didn’t need to keep reminding me.
My face was held together by thick black stitching crisscrossing from the highest point of my cheekbone to the lowest point of my jaw. With a scar curved like the metal wiring inside a bra, I knew what I looked like.
A monster.
"I know, Max," I choked out, my emotions threatening to get the better of me.
"Who did this to you, Hope?" Max finally asked, his voice showing the tiniest hint of cracking. "If you tell me, I can help you in the right way."
I opened my mouth, ready to spout some lie to appease the paternal instincts inside the man, but was saved by the knock on the door that distracted us both.
Seconds later, we were greeted by the sight of Noah as he stormed through the front door, not waiting to be invited inside, with Hunter hot on his heels.
The moment I laid eyes on him, my heart jackknifed in my chest.
The feeling of dread that had settled in the pit of my stomach when I walked away from him tonight evaporated into thin air.
He was okay.
They both were.
But they were arguing.
Over what, I couldn’t make out, but it was clear by his body language that Noah was mad as hell right now, and his anger was directed entirely at Hunter.
Ignoring Noah's furious glare, Hunter shoved Noah's hand off his shoulder and stalked into the kitchen, halting only when Max stood in the kitchen doorway, blocking his path to me.
I looked to Teagan's uncle who was glaring at Hunter like he was the biggest piece of shit on the planet.
It was then I realized that Max thought Hunter was responsible for my injuries.
Nothing could have been further from the truth, but knowing the truth was so much worse than his unspoken assumption, I kept my mouth shut.
"I didn’t invite you into my home," Max stated grimly as he pushed his glasses onto his nose. "So I suggest you do yourself a favor and leave."
"Appreciate what you did tonight, Doc," Hunter replied calmly. "But I'm not leaving without her." Pausing, Hunter pointed to where I was sitting for emphasis. "So I suggest you do yourself a favor and step aside," he added, attention returned to the ageing doctor. "And we all live happily ever after."
"Men like you make me sick," Max snarled. "Thinking you're invincible. Going around hitting on wom –"
"Whoa, Max," Noah broke the tension by saying. "You've got the wrong end of the stick here, man." Stepping between both men, and potentially saving Teagan's uncle from a beating, Noah clamped his arm on Max's shoulder before leading him out of harm's way, leaving an open path to me. "We'll talk outside."
When both men had disappeared from sight, Hunter walked in achingly slowly, stopping midway in the kitchen, his entire focus on me.
There was twice as much blood on his clothes since I left him in my parent's kitchen tonight. The busted lip and the bruised cheekbone he was sporting assured me that much more carnage had occurred since then.
More secrets.
More death.
Standing tall in the middle of the kitchen, Hunter tilted his head to one side. "Hope." His voice was gruff and raspy as he crooked his finger and said, "Come here, baby."
I willed myself to feel the emotions required to make sense of the world I was standing inside – to find the common sense that would assure me that I needed to run.
I couldn’t.
That part of me, my conscience and upstanding moral fiber, had died on that kitchen floor, and the only thing that made sense now was the urgent, desperate need I had inside of my heart to be with him.
In every sense of the word.
Like a skittish foal, I scrambled clumsily towards him, not stopping until my arms were around his waist, head bowed in shame.
Hunter sighed heavily, and then I felt his hand close over the base of my throat, his thumb trailing up and down the side of my neck.
Having a man's hand pressed to such a vulnerable part of my body should have terrified me.
Instead, it was disturbingly thrilling.
He wasn’t hurting me.
He was claiming me.
His other hand moved to cup the back of my head and I felt myself sag against him.
"Look at me," he ordered gruffly.
I shook my head and stared down at the blood on his boots. "I can't."
Knotting his fingers in my hair, he gently pulled my head back, forcing me to crane my neck up and look at him.
With my fingertips digging into his hips, I forced myself to open my eyes and look at him.
Exposed and vulnerable, I braced myself for the horror I was sure I would see in his eyes.
It never came.
I watched him watch me, taking in every stitch, cut, and bruise on my face.
Finally, when I couldn’t take the intensity in his blue eyes a second longer, he lowered his forehead to mine and kissed a hard, territorial kiss to my lips.
The heat from his mouth burned a hole straight through me, and in this moment, I drew strength from his presence.
"What happened?" I forced myself to ask, unsure whether I truly wanted to know, but needing to hear it all the same. "The body?"
"It's taken care of," he replied, tone gruff. "We're in the clear."
An immeasurable amount of relief coursed through my body.
We're in the clear.
In the clear.
We had so much that we needed to talk about, so many things to clear up, stories to line up, but when he looked at me like that, I lost all track of reality.
"Come on." Hunter kissed me hard once more before stepping back and holding his hand out for me. "Let's get out of here."
Without a second thought, I placed my hand in his and let him guide me out of the house.
When we stepped onto the front porch, and were faced with Max and Noah, I watched as Hunter stretched his free hand out to Max.
"I understand the position we put you in tonight," he said. "You didn’t have to help us. But you did, and I'm grateful for it."
"Yes, well, I didn’t do it for you," Max grumbled. "Her father's an old friend of mine."
"Your motives don’t matter to me," Hunter replied curtly. "I still owe you."
Max looked between me and Hunter for the longest moment, before releasing a weary sigh. "Have whatever happened to her tonight never happen again, and that will be recourse for me."
Hunter nodded stiffly. "Don’t worry. It won't."
"Words are cheap," was all Max replied before turning around and disappearing back into the house.
"You calmed down yet?" Hunter asked Noah, who was still scowling at him.
"Nope," Noah shook his head. "Not one fucking bit." His words said one thing, but the resigned tone of voice in which he spoke them told a different story. "Jackass."
Hunter smirked. "You'll get over it." He threw his arm over my shoulder and tucked me into his side. "You ready, HC?"
"Yeah." Wrapping my arm around Hunter's waist, I melded my body to his as we walked down the porch steps. "I'm ready."
"Stay safe, asshole," Noah called after us.
"Always," Hunter called back, tightening his arm around me as he led us to his black Ford Explorer parked across the street.
"Where are we going?" I asked when we reached the passenger side of his truck.
He unlocked his truck and yanked open the passenger door, gesturing me inside. "I'm taking you home."
"To your place?" was my immediate response. "Because I don’t want to be without you tonight." I knew how desperate I sounded and I didn’t give a damn. It was what it was; a messy, clusterfuck of a night, but one I had every intention of ending with him.
With shaky hands, I closed the truck door and pressed my back to the cool metal, using my body to make my feelings as clear as possible. "You're taking me home with you, right?"
I wasn’t going back to Denver tonight.
Not when my home was standing right in front of me.
I watched as Hunter rubbed a hand over his stubbly jaw, eyes locked on me. "I said I was taking you home, didn’t I?" Closing the space between us, he pressed his big body to mine, hips pinning me to the metal, and growled, "Do you have any idea how much I love you?"
"Yeah," I whispered, body burning with heat, as I wrapped my arms around his waist and tugged. I was tall for a woman, but this man made me feel tiny. He was just so tall, and strong and male. Craning my face up to look at his, I breathed, "I think I do."
"Seeing you tonight," he confessed, thumbs stroking my cheeks. "Lying on the ground, drenched in blood, with that bastard on top of you?" He clenched his jaw several times before he spoke again, "I've never been more goddamn scared in my life…. "He pressed a kiss to my cut and whispered, "And the only damn thing I could think was 'you're too late again'."
"Hunter." Unsure of what to say to comfort him, I pulled him closer to my body, unable to get close enough to the only place I wanted to be. "I'm okay." If I could crawl inside him right now, I would.
"Are you?" he asked in that direct way, blue eyes locked on mine, staring into the deepest part of my soul. "Because I'm not." He exhaled a shaky breath as he ran his hand through his hair. "It was like my world had ended right there in that kitchen," he admitted, voice torn and hoarse, before bowing his head. "And I keep thinking that when I go to sleep tonight, I'm gonna wake up in the morning and find you dead."
"That's not going to happen," I choked out. "I'm here. I'm real. We both are."
"I will keep you safe, sweetheart." he declared, hands cupping my face. Leaning closer, he stroked my nose with his. "Nothing's gonna touch you." When he looked at me again, there was a glint of unknown danger in those blue depths. "Never again," he promised, eyes glittering with treachery and darkness. "You have my word on that."
Heart racing, I could do nothing but reach up and cover his hands with mine.
The intimacy of this moment was too much.
It was all too much.
"I don’t want your word, Hunter," I whispered, entwining my fingers with his, as we stood in the street. "I just want you." A deep shudder rolled through my body and I had to take a moment. "What you did tonight?" I croaked out, finding my voice again. "What you did for me–"
"I did what needed to be done, HC," he cut me off by saying. "And I'm gonna keep doing what needs to be done. Taking care of business." I felt his thumb trail small circles across my cheekbone. "Making shit safe for you. Making you safe."
"What about you?" I blurted out. "Who's going to keep you safe?"
"I can take care of myself." He smiled, but it didn’t quite meet his eyes. "Been doing it for a long time now, sweetheart."
"Not anymore," I whispered. "Never again, in fact."
Hunter arched a brow. "What are you saying, HC?"
"I'm saying you have me."
And then I kissed him.
I heard the sound of tires screeching from somewhere nearby, but nothing could distract me from this moment – from him. Nothing could take me away from the man who had altered my world.
"Tomorrow," I whispered against his lips, making promises in the darkness. "I'll tell him tomorrow." I felt his body stiffen, and watched as his eyes clenched shut. "Don’t you believe me?"
"I believe you mean it tonight," he replied, voice hoarse, blue eyes piercing into mine.
"You'll see," I told him. It was like my heart had made the switch many months ago, right along the same time as my body, and my brain and pride were only catching up now. As for my conscience? It had been given its pink slip. Taking his hand in mine, I pulled it to my lips and kissed his raw knuckles. "I'm yours."
In a world full of uncertainty and pain, I knew I would go down in flames to keep this man safe. To be with him.
My heart demanded nothing less.