Paige finally flopped down on the bed in her room; everything about this place suddenly overwhelmed her. She felt like Belle from Beauty and the Beast and Hunter was the Beast, forcing her to stay against her will. The only problem was that he wasn’t an unsightly hairy animal, he was a handsome man, and the six years that passed since he disappeared out of her life, had done nothing to him. He looked just as he did when she first saw him and unlike the happy ending in fairy tales, her ending was going to be anything but happy. Hunter had had already paid up her debt and when they arrived at the airport she used some of the money to buy a few new items of clothing for both her and Joshua, and with no means to pay him back; she was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Hunter was so right, she thought, she was foolish to run blindly into such an arrangement, not knowing who the other man was. God, if she knew it was him, she would have run in the complete opposite direction. What made it worse, was that he now knew the truth about Joshua, and she could already see the custody battles that awaited her once he decided to claim his place in her son’s life.

She must have drifted off eventually, because when she woke up it was already dark outside, in a panic she launched off the bed and rushed out the room an down the stairs, and that’s when Joshua came running to her, flinging his arms around her leg.

“Mommy, guess what!? Mr. Hunter said I can have a pony!” her son exclaimed excitedly.

“Oh is that so?” she said kneeling down next to him without sparing Hunter a glance, “what did I teach you about taking gifts from strangers?”

It started, Hunter was going to buy her son with gifts and luxuries, things she would never be able to afford, if she was going to have to live the next month paying off her debt so she could be free she was going to have to put a stop to this.

“He’s not a stranger, he said he’s your friend and my friend,” Joshua said with a pouty lip.

“I know sweetheart, but how will you take care of the pony, we are only visiting here,” she tried again.

“I told Joshua he will always be welcome to visit here, so the pony can stay here for now,” Hunter interrupted.

Paige took a deep breath and stood up, trying her best to stay calm, “I’ll think about it, right now he needs to go bathe and get ready for dinner and bed.”

Hunter nodded then smiled down at Joshua, “I’ll show you the cattle tomorrow champ,” he said and ruffled his hair, before leaving her and Joshua to themselves.

Much later, Hunter stood in the study contemplating the situation. The last person he expected to ever see again was Paige. If it wasn’t for her mother’s interference back when he met her, they would have been good together. There was a point of time where he felt she was the one. But her mother threatened him more than once, initially he thought it would blow over and that she was merely protecting her daughter, but when she finally went as far as to send a message to him in the form of a gangster shoving a gun in his face, his inner hero cowered like a possum and he left that very same day.

A slight knock on the door drew his attention and he turned around.

“Paige,” he said surprised, “I assume Joshua is settled?”

“Yes, he’s sleeping,” she paused and looked around then directly at him, “I have decided to stay for the month and pay back the money by working for you, then by the end of the month, I will go back home.”

Still just as headstrong and stubborn as she was when he first got to know her, he thought and poured them each a glass of Merlot, handing a glass to her. He had to fight against the sudden urge to pull her into his arms, unfortunately a lot of water had run into the sea since the time they were lovers and now she was a grown woman. He could somewhat understand how she must have felt when he left her with nothing but regret, but what stopped her from tracking him down on social media when she found out she was pregnant? He had the right to know, and now on top of that, she basically sold herself online to marry some stranger and in doing that exposed her – his – son to danger.

The mere thought of what could have happened if she landed in some sleazy pimps hands infuriated him, and in that moment he felt such contempt towards her. He had no idea what to do, but if he was going to work at keeping his son safe, then that would be his only goal.

“Is that so?” he asked her and smirked, “I appreciate the offer, but the contract is binding,” he said and stepped closer to her, “you can be glad you ended up here, because sweetheart, this is as good as its going to get.”

“Hunter, if I had known you were the one who,” she fumbled for words, “who hired me, I would never…”

“Never have come,” he interrupted, “I know that all too well. I’m sure I was the last person on this planet you would have wanted to see, for one, I suppose I broke your heart, that’s a given, and secondly, exposing the fact that Joshua is my son, leaves you at a disadvantage.”

He saw the hurt that flashed through her eyes, but he would not allow her to get to him.

Paige clutched the stem of the wine glass so tightly I her hand, she thought she could actually snap it and shove the sharp end into Hunters’ heart. He was going to ride this contract out, make her life an absolute misery and then steal her son from her.

She fought back tears as she looked down at the dark red liquid in the glass then took a sip, it was as bitter as the essence of regret that ran through her soul.

“No, I wouldn’t have come. But I can tell you this, I spent five years raising my son all by myself, with no help from anyone, and if you think you can just barge into our lives and start throwing punches and threaten to take my son from me, I can guarantee you, I will fight you every step of the way,” she said mordantly.

She hated that she found herself in this situation, and the realization of how bad this will look on her rap sheet considering the fact that she accepted an online marriage proposal to a stranger she technically never met, for financial gain, was something social services would have a field day with. If she had to be honest to herself, Hunter stood a good chance of winning custody of her son and if she was going to take him on, she was going to have to consider changing her approach.

She took a deep steady breath and then placed the glass down on the table beside her, “Hunter, it’s been six years since you left me, without a single word, what did you expect me to do? You moved on with your life, I was just a glitch in your sabbatical matrix, one you were very happy to erase. If I had known that there was the slightest chance of us being together, I would have attempted to contact you,” she said and although it was an attempt to sideswipe him, her words sounded sincere even to her.

The expression on his face, gave her hope, because suddenly the ruthless mask he wore a minute ago was replaced by something she could only discern as realization maybe even compassion , which meant he had a heart after all.

She stepped closer and lowered her eyes placing her hand on his chest. God this was harder than she thought, here she was playing her victim card and pasting it on thickly so that she could play on his emotions, and although it was working on him, her heart was making a ninety degree turn against her better judgement.

“I never asked for you to leave, you left at your own accord. Men like you come and go out of a girl’s life. Do you know how many unwed mothers there are, and almost ninety percent of those children have no father, it was no different for me. I just had to get up from the ashes and make it work, for the sake of my son and my own sanity.”

For the first time in her life she was able to express herself and to be able to voice her feelings felt as if a weight had lifted from her shoulders. She withdrew her hand from Hunter’s chest where he stood like a statue looking down at her and took a step back.

Hunter processed this information slowly and as Paige stepped away from him, he instantly felt the absence of her touch, and without a second thought, he stepped forward and cupped her face then looked into her large, expressive eyes that still contained that sense of mystery he fell in love with when he first met her. He admired the angular features of her face, and her high cheek bones and noticed that she still had that slight pout of her mouth, which was hard to ignore. The years may have brought on a slight physical change, she was larger than when he first met her, and her breasts were also bigger, but even now, his own body reacted just like it did back then. He knew he was being impulsive and foolish but he was suddenly desperate to kiss her.

His fingers threaded into her hair as he slanted his lips against hers, and traced his tongue along the seam of her lips; he felt her body relax against his. She tasted just as he remembered her, distinctively sweet, it was almost too perfect to be true, and as his need grew, so did the passion that manifested in this simple kiss. The hunger and need he felt in her kiss matched his own reckless need and with her body pressed against his there was no denying the truth. She still turned him on, and she still wielded the power to reduce him to nothing but a sex crazed male, who had to use every ounce of his self-control to prevent himself from grinding against her.