Chapter 23
Natalia
“Shit!” The woman mumbled as she bent to pick up the trench coat pooled around her bare feet. “I thought someone else was staying here.” She seemed to have a British accent.
I blinked a few times, at first stunned at the turn of events, but then in an attempt to unglue my eyes from the statuesque redhead. She was drop-dead gorgeous. Tall, thin, with creamy porcelain skin, perky boobs, and legs that ran for miles. I didn’t tend to be overly self-conscious, but standing in a room with her fixed that real quick.
Before I could form a coherent sentence, the woman spoke again while pulling on her coat. “I’m so sorry. I’m in the flat next door. A guy I work with sometimes stays in this one, and I knew he was in town. When I asked the doorman who was staying in this apartment, he told me it was him.”
“How did you get in here?”
She pointed over her shoulder. “The door wasn’t locked. I knocked first, but no one answered, so I opened it.”
“Who are you?”
“Brooke. Brooke Canter.” She cinched her coat at the waist. “I do apologize. I thought you were someone else. I’m mortified.”
The dread that settled in my belly knew the answer, but I asked nonetheless. “Who did you think was staying here?”
“Hunter Delucia.”
Seeing my face falter, the woman’s eyes closed. “Shit. Hunter is the sublet here, isn’t he?”
I nodded slowly.
“We used to…” She shook her head. “Never mind. I should get going.”
Before I could say anything else, the embarrassed woman scurried back out the door. I, on the other hand, seemed to be immobilized.
***
“Such a goddamn idiot.” I jabbed my finger at the elevator panel a second time, grumbling to myself. The damn thing wasn’t moving, and all I wanted to do was get the hell out of here before Hunter showed up. I shouldn’t be so upset, but I couldn’t help it. It was stupid of me to expect that someone who’d proposed we have a short-term affair hadn’t had others. It didn’t even sound like she’d spoken to Hunter since he’d arrived in town weeks ago, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.
The elevator car finally started moving. In my haste to get out of the apartment, I thought I might’ve forgotten to grab my new cell. As I dug frantically in my purse to check, the elevator doors slid open on the ground floor. Frenzied, I found my phone, grabbed my roller bag, and stepped off, without first looking up. Which was the reason I crashed right into a man.
Of course, that man had to be Hunter.
He grabbed my shoulders and steadied them to keep me from falling over. “Hey…where you running off to?”
He said it playfully and with a smile on his face, but when he got a look at my scowl, his smile wilted fast.
“Move.” I demanded.
“Natalia? What happened? What’s going on?”
“I’m leaving.”
“Why?”
“You don’t need me here.”
“What are you talking about? Why are you so upset?”
His hands were still on my shoulders. “Let go of me!”
He lifted his hands in surrender. “Okay. But talk to me. What’s going on?”
I leveled him with a scathing look. “I met your neighbor.”
His brows drew down as if that wasn’t enough information. Who knows? Maybe it wasn’t. I hadn’t gone door to door to see what other women he was fucking on the floor. I rolled my eyes. “Brooke. The redhead.”
Hunter’s eyes shut.
I waited until they opened again to finish my description. “And she’s a natural redhead, in case you’d forgotten. Lucky me, I got to verify that first-hand.”
I started to walk around Hunter, but he grabbed my arm. “Natalia.”
Stopping, I answered like a sullen child. “What?”
I’d been speaking to his chest, and he kept quiet until I looked up into his eyes. His tone was firm, yet calm. “Let’s talk about this. You can decide to go after, or you can stay, but either way, please hear me out.”
I was weary, and he read it on my face.
“Please,” he pressed.
Our lives were intertwined through mutual friends. It only made sense that things end on a better note than my storming out. I nodded, and the look of relief on his face made me realize he was a lot better at controlling his temper than I was.
Almost as if he was afraid I might change my mind, he pushed the button to call the elevator, slipped the handle of my roller bag from my hand, and put his other hand at the small of my back to usher me inside the car.
You could’ve heard a pin drop on the ride up. Yet even being pissed off and hurt, I found sharing a small space with Hunter had an insane effect on my body. He was just so right there. He filled a room with his intoxicating smell and the way he planted his feet wide in that masculine, alpha-male way.
I was relieved when we arrived at his floor. I needed air that wasn’t shared with this man to keep my head on straight. Our silence continued as we walked down the hall. Still feeling off kilter, I didn’t even realize we’d passed the door to his apartment until he was knocking on another door.
“Why are you knocking?”
Before he could respond, the stunning redhead swung open the door. Her eyes lit up to find Hunter on the other side, until she caught the look on his face and me standing next to him.
“Brooke.” He nodded.
She looked between the two of us. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“When was the last time we saw each other?” Hunter asked, again in that calm but firm tone.
“A year ago, maybe?”
“How about the last time we talked?”
She shrugged. “A few emails on the Cooper project, but I don’t think we’ve spoken in a year either.”
Hunter nodded. “Thank you. I’m sorry to bother you.”
His hand still at my back, he guided me to the next door. His hold only briefly loosened so he could unlock it, and then he was ushering me inside. Setting my luggage down, he turned to face me, brushing the hair from my eyes.
“What happened?”
“I was in the bathroom, and I heard the door open, so I thought it was you. When I came out, she was standing in the living room and had just let her coat drop to the floor. She was completely naked.”
He nodded and seemed to contemplate that information for a minute before speaking again. “If I’d been waiting for you and some dude let himself in and I walked out and was greeted by his cock, I’m pretty sure I’d be pissed off. Pretty sure he’d also have gotten a black eye before I stormed the fuck out.”
Ten minutes ago, I couldn’t have imagined he could say anything to make me feel better. But somehow, him putting himself in my place alleviated a lot of the anger. I was still hurt, but he’d cooled my fire.
“Did she have to have such an amazing body and be such a knockout?”
“She doesn’t hold a candle to you. Not by a mile.”
Either he had poor vision or was a good liar, because he sounded pretty damn sincere.
Reaching out, he took one of my hands in his. “It was once after a holiday party a long time ago. I didn’t even know she was in town and wouldn’t have cared if I had.”
I nodded.
He pulled me to him, and I didn’t fight it when he wrapped his arms around me for a long, tight embrace. Somewhere along the line, I lost the rest of my fight, and I hugged him back.
“Sweet pea,” he lowered his head to my neck. “Never knew what it smelled like until I met you, and now I can’t stop smelling it everywhere and thinking of you.”
***
Hunter took a shower after the drama had passed. He’d been at a construction site all morning and then traveled all afternoon to get home. The entire week I’d been imagining we’d rip each other’s clothes off the minute we were finally alone in his apartment, but the impromptu visit from the neighbor had dampened the expected mood—at least until he emerged from the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel and looking insanely hot.
I’ve never been a good poker player. I wear my emotions on my face. Hunter caught me visually gulping his body, and perhaps I unknowingly drooled a little as I stared at the carved lines of his chest. Jesus. Men didn’t look like him in real life. Maybe the men on the advertisement painted outside the gym I belonged to but seldom visited…but not real, live men. His abs were defined and neatly cut into eight peaks and valleys that I wanted to trace with my tongue. If it were possible, his broad shoulders looked even wider without a shirt, and I couldn’t even begin to explain what the deep-set V that disappeared into his low-hanging towel did to me.
“Are we good?” Hunter’s voice was hoarse. “Because if you keep looking at me that way, I’m going to bend you over that couch you’re sitting on and give you the rest of the tour of my body from the inside out. But I’d rather not fuck you the first time when you’re pissed off.”
My eyes jumped to his, and he smirked. “Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to fuck you pissed off. Preferably with both of us pissed off. Just not the first time.”
I swallowed. “We’re good.”
He kept the distance between us, which made me think he needed it to keep his control. “You hungry?”
Taking a lesson from his playbook, I arched a brow in response.
He chuckled. “You’re going to be the death of me. I just know it.” He scrubbed both hands over his face. “Did you eat dinner yet?”
I actually hadn’t, but food wasn’t on my priority list at the moment. “I’m not that hungry.”
“I’ll order us something.” While he was talking, my eyes dropped back down to follow the light line of hair that ran from his belly button into his towel. Hunter mumbled as he walked to the bedroom, “You’re making it very difficult to do the right thing.”
***
Hunter grabbed two throw pillows from the couch and tossed them on the floor. “Alright if we eat in here?”
“I’d like that.”
He put on some background music and grabbed a bottle of wine while I unloaded the takeout Chinese food. I loved that one night he made me dinner and served it on the kitchen island, and the next he handed me chopsticks and a container. There was something so intimate about eating at the coffee table. I’d ordered cashew chicken, and he’d ordered shrimp chow mein. Every once in a while, he’d hold out his container, and we’d swap and exchange smiles.
When I wasn’t running away from him literally or figuratively, I really did enjoy his company.
“How was your trip?” I asked.
“Busy. The client changed his mind about forty times before settling on what I’d proposed in the first place.”
I flashed a cheeky grin. “Sounds familiar—you must bring that out in people.”
He chuckled. “How was your week? Visit with the ex go okay?”
I set the container down. “It never does.”
“What happened?”
“I take her to visit her father because I care about her. Garrett uses Izzy as an excuse to talk to me and tries to pump her for information. She’s starting to see him for who he is.”
“That sucks. Sounds like he doesn’t appreciate what he has left.”
“Yeah. He really hurt her this time. On the drive home, she pretty much told me she wants to stay with me even after Garrett gets out.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“Honestly, I hadn’t given it any serious thought until she mentioned it. Until recently, she’d spent much of our time together silently hating me from her bedroom. But when she put it out there, I realized I can’t see my life without her in it anymore. And as much as she tries to push me away, she wants a mother figure in her life. Maybe Garrett and I can work it out.” I shrugged. “It works for plenty of divorced couples that the mom keeps custody and the kids visit the dad on the weekends. I happen to not share DNA with her, but I don’t see her as any different than my own.”
Hunter looked at me funny.
“What?” I said.
“You’re a great mom.”
I felt my heart squeeze. A great mom. No one had ever said those words to me. “Thank you. Like I’ve told you, I don’t have a clue what I’m doing, but I try to always put her first.”
Hunter set his container down on the table and finished the last of the wine in his glass. “Come here, MILF.” He held out a hand to me.
When I placed mine in it, he somehow maneuvered to tug me up and onto his lap so I straddled him.
“Never fucked a hot mom before.”
I smiled. “You’re so crass.”
Hunter locked our fingers together, and his face turned serious when he looked into my eyes. “We okay?”
“Yeah,” I sighed.
“Your eyes are saying something different.”
“What do you mean?”
“They either tell me you want me or tell me you want to run away from me. There’s never an in-between with you. When I was a kid, me, my brother, Derek, and all the neighborhood kids used to play this game called Red Light Green Light 1-2-3 where one person was ‘it’, and the goal was to get to him while he sang red light green light 1-2-3. But at any time, it could yell red light and turn around. Then everyone had to freeze in place and stop advancing.”
My forehead crinkled. “I know the game, but what does it have to do with me?”
“You’re it. I keep advancing, but I feel like any minute you’re going to yell red light again, and I’m going to need to freeze—possibly with a bad case of blue balls.”
While his analogy was a little crazy, he wasn’t that off base. I’d been sending him hot and cold signals since the first day I met him, looking for any excuse to run the other way. But it all boiled down to one truth.
I looked at our joined hands and raised my eyes to meet his. “You scare the crap out of me, Hunter. But I can’t seem to walk away.”
He held my gaze. “It’s not an adventure without a little fear.”
At that moment, I truly decided to take a chance. I’d been burned, but I’d healed. I’d been pushed down, but I’d gotten back up. I wasn’t ready to think about the rest of my life anyway, so why not enjoy an adventure? Taking a deep breath, I quietly sang to Hunter, “Green light, green light, 1-2-3.”
There was a hesitant look in his eyes, and his forehead crinkled.
“I got rid of the red light. It’s all green from here on out.”
Hunter cupped the back of my neck and pulled me down to him. Our lips collided in a kiss that began differently than all of our others. Normally we started with pent-up frustrations that took the form of clashing of tongues and teeth. But this time it wasn’t building frustration that fueled our passion; it was the release of the frustration that had been holding us back.
Our kiss was slower, deeper, more sensual. The kind of kiss that makes you feel like you’ve never really been kissed before. I felt his cock swelling between my parted legs and unconsciously began to rub myself up and down on it as our kiss intensified.
Hunter’s fingers fisted in my hair, and he groaned. “Slow down, babe.”
“I don’t want to slow down anymore,” I whispered, grinding down harder.
If I’d had my way, we’d have finished what we started right on the living room floor. But apparently Hunter had other ideas. He lifted me from his lap and scooped me up into his arms.
He never took his eyes off of me as he walked us to the bedroom. “I need to be inside you in the worst way, but you riding me on the living room floor—as tempting as that is—will not bode well for a solid first performance. Although you can be damn sure that’ll be happening this weekend at some point. Right now, you’re going to get my mouth first so I can make sure you’re taken care of before I embarrass myself like a teenage boy when I finally get inside you.”
Hunter set me down on the bed and started to undress. First came the shirt. He lifted his hands behind his head and tugged, pulling it off in one fluid motion. Sitting on the edge of the mattress, I was eye to eye with his happy trail—and boy, did it make me happy. Next came the pants. My eyes stayed glued to his hands as his fingers worked the button and zipper of his jeans. The sound of every metal tooth separating vibrated in the pit of my belly.
Hooking two thumbs into the sides, he pulled them down his thick thighs and stepped out, kicking them out of the way. When he stood back up, wearing only black boxer briefs, my mouth fell open. Hunter was packin’ an enormous bulge, the tip of which was peeking out from the top of his underwear band. Moisture glistening at the top of the crown mesmerized me.
“Fuck.” Hunter groaned. “You have no idea how bad I want to fist a handful of your hair and fuck that open mouth of yours.”
I looked up from under thick lashes. “What’s stopping you?”
He bent his head back and mumbled something to God before beginning to undress me. My body tingled from head to toe as he slipped off my sandals one at a time, dropping a kiss on the top of each foot before moving on to my jeans. He slid them down my body and rubbed his fingers appreciatively over the lace of my panties before taking those, too. When he removed my shirt and bra, I was too captivated by the way he was looking at me to even realize the last of my clothing had come off. His eyes darkened and dilated, eclipsing almost all of the baby blue with heated desire.
As he dropped to his knees, his voice was gruff. “Lie back. Spread for me, Natalia.”
I’d always wondered why he chose to call me Natalia, instead of Nat like everyone else. Yet the way my name rolled from his tongue at that moment made me grateful that he did. Nudging my knees open, he feathered tender kisses up the inside of my thighs. By the time he reached the apex of my center, my legs were shaking. After such a gentle climb up, I’d expected to feel a sweet kiss or the warmth of his tongue between my legs. But there was nothing gentle about the way Hunter dove in.
My back arched off the bed at the unexpected roughness and desperation of his touch. He lapped at my arousal, sucked hard on my clit, and buried his entire face in me. It was like he’d been starving and snapped when he took a taste of his first meal. The build inside of me was as fast and furious as Hunter’s appetite.
“Hunter.” My breath shook.
“Come on my tongue, baby.”
Oh God. “Hunter…” I moaned his name.
He responded by slipping two fingers inside while his mouth moved up to focus on my throbbing clit.
He pumped in and out a few times.
“Oh God.”
“Your cunt is so tight. I can’t wait to have you squeezing my cock.”
That was all it took. It didn’t matter that I normally hated that word. The desire in his strained voice made it sound sexy as hell, and it threw me over the edge. My orgasm crashed hard, pulling me under with a powerful wave that seemed to go on forever. Hunter’s relentless tongue never stopped working and fell into rhythmic unison with his pumping fingers to draw every last contraction from my body.
Even though I’d been lying on my back, exerting no energy, my body had a sheen of sweat, and I could barely breathe when he finally slowed.
“You good?” Hunter kissed the sensitive skin above my pubic bone.
“I’m…I don’t know what I am. My brain hasn’t started to function yet.”
He chuckled and climbed farther up my body, kissing just below my belly button. Then he lifted a knee up on the bed to get leverage and hoisted me from the edge all the way to the top, just missing the headboard. The girly, anti-feminist part of me that I hated to admit existed loved that he could hurl me around like I was a feather.
Hunter climbed over me, hovering above with his weight on his forearms on either side of me. “Will it bother you if I kiss you after that?”
No one had ever asked me that question. But Garrett had always gotten out of bed to brush his teeth afterward, and I’d done the same after oral sex, even though we’d never spoken about it.
“I’m not sure. Are you saying you’d rather not?”
Shifting his weight to one arm, he reached down between my legs and rubbed his fingers against my wetness. Going slow, almost as if he wanted to give me a chance to stop him as his hand neared my face, his fingers traced my lips, coating my mouth with my own juices. His eyes traced his fingers as if he was spellbound.
“Lick your lips,” he groaned.
The way he looked at me made me bold. Watching him watch me, I ran my tongue slowly from one end of my top lip to the other before bringing my tongue back into my mouth. I closed my eyes and sucked my own tongue, swallowing before opening again. Then I did the same thing to the bottom.
“That’s the sexiest fucking thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” His mouth crashed down on mine.
Any modesty I had about kissing after such an intimate act went out the window, seeing the effect I’d had on Hunter. He kissed me for the longest time, long, lush, passionate strokes of his tongue that had me lost in the moment all over again. He ground his erection against me, and I slipped my hands into his underwear to dig my nails into his ass.
“Need you,” he groaned.
He pulled off his underwear and reached to his end table for a condom. Using his teeth to tear the foil, he sheathed himself in one motion and spit the wrapper to the side before returning to settle between my legs. I spread wide, knowing it had been a very long time for me.
My eyes were riveted to the man trying his hardest not to come undone before me. He lined up the wide crown of his cock at my opening and ever so slowly pushed inside. I’d seen the outline of it, saw the tip of it peeking out from his underwear, so I knew he was large. But feeling it stretch me as his hips rocked back and forth, easing inside, had me realizing I’d misjudged his girth.
I licked my lips at the thought of how wide he was.
“Jesus Christ,” he breathed. “I’m trying to go slow.”
My eyes fluttered closed as he thrust in deeper.
“Look at me, Natalia,” Hunter commanded. “Watch what you do to me.”
Fighting my natural instinct to hide inside myself, I held his gaze. Hunter moved in and out of me, each thrust going deeper and deeper until he seated himself fully. The way he looked into my eyes made me feel like he could see right into me. It scared me to feel so open, so vulnerable, but at the same time, it was beautiful and made me feel safe. I finally realized why I’d been so terrified. It wasn’t because I was afraid to fall for him—it was because I’d already started to. And no matter what we’d agreed upon, we were sharing more than our bodies.
His arms began to shake.
My nails clawed at his back.
His thrusts grew harder and faster.
I watched as his jaw tensed while he barreled closer to his own release. The sight of this man coming apart was nothing short of magnificent. Hedonistic. Mind-blowing decadence.
“Fuck,” he roared, sinking so damn deep that I gasped.
I clenched around him, another orgasm hitting suddenly, just as Hunter bucked one last time and came inside of me. Even through the condom I could feel the heat of him pouring into me.
We held each other, our gazes never breaking stride, as we caught our breath. When he eventually pulled out, he kissed me softly on the lips and then the forehead before getting up to dispose of the condom and grab a towel to clean me up.
Returning to bed, he lay on his back, pulling me to his chest and wrapping two arms around me to hold on tight. “That was incredible. I’m glad you didn’t run away again.”
I smiled, though he couldn’t see it. “Me too. You wore me down, and now you’ve worn me out, Mr. Delucia.”
“Took a year, sweetheart.”
“Yeah. I guess it did. But I’m here now.”
He kissed the top of my head and snuggled me closer. “Good. Stay for a while.”