Hunter was coming out of the police station when Claire got out of her car. It was after two a.m. He’d texted her hours ago and told her the bones of what happened. Robert Potter had been fooling everyone for a long time. Hunter figured at that point that he’d been impersonating his brother for years…and the reason no one had noticed, the bounty hunter suspected, was because Richard was dead. When Hunter was talking to him, what really convinced him that he was talking to Robert was when he called his mother “Mommy.” Hunter told Claire the old men at the bar had told him only Robert did that. When Robert was in Richard’s persona, he spoke very formally, like the uncle. A man that spoke like that was very unlikely to call his mother, especially a woman he reportedly despised, “Mother.” Hunter told Claire that he held the other man at gunpoint while Levi called the police, but before they got there, Robert had tried to attack him and Hunter had to kill him. Claire didn’t care about that, right or wrong, all she cared about was that Hunter was okay. When she saw him look up at her and grin, she practically sprinted the length of the parking lot and into his arms. He picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him, hard. When they came up for air and he lowered her to her feet he said:

“Wow! What was that for? And what are you doing here?”

“That was because I’m so happy you’re okay and I’m here because I had to see you were okay for myself. I’m sorry…did I overstep?”

Hunter laughed and pulled her into his chest. Kissing the top of her head he said, “No, baby, not at all. I was just surprised to see you.”

She looked up at him. “I went to your apartment first. I thought you’d be home by now. When I couldn’t reach you on your phone I got worried and came here.” Hunter pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at it.

“I’m sorry. They confiscated my things for a while. Harley just convinced them to give them back, and let me go.”

“Are you kidding? The man you shot is responsible for over a dozen murders. Surely, they’re not trying to charge you with anything, are they?”

Hunter slid an arm around her shoulders and they started walking toward her car. “Harley says they won’t bring any charges. I have Levi as a witness to what happened. I think they’re just worried about Richard. Apparently, he had some kind of pull with the higher-ups in the F.B.I. and that’s why Robert wasn’t caught a long time ago. They were keeping important testimony sealed and walking on eggshells around this family. I told them now that Robert’s dead, they should start looking for Richard. I don’t think they’ll find him, alive.”

“Well, I’m glad you had Harley to make them let you go. Is she still in there?”

“No. She took off while I was getting my personal effects back. Levi took her back to the ranch.”

“I’ll bet you’re glad that’s over,” she said as she unlocked her car door.

Hunter nodded, but pulled out his keys and handed them to her. “There’s one more thing I need to do this morning before I go home, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course I don’t mind,” she said. “Nothing that will get you shot or arrested though, right? Because I swear I’m beginning to think I need to carry my pipe around with me again.”

Hunter laughed. “Not this time. I have to go and talk to my mother before she reads any of this in the news.”

“You’re going to wake her up at almost three a.m.?”

Hunter smiled, sadly this time. “She won’t be sleeping. Since my brother died, she wakes up at two a.m. every morning. It’s the time I knocked on the door that night.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Claire put her arms around him and hugged him tightly. When she pulled back she said, “I hope this brings both of you the closure you needed.”

He smiled again and said, “You can bet it will.”

* * *

Hunter watched Claire drive away before getting on his bike. There was only one thing about what he’d done that day that he regretted, and it was lying to her. He started the bike and as he drove out of the police station parking lot, his mind went back over what happened that day. As soon as “Richard” said “Mommy,” Hunter knew it was Robert that he was talking to. When he pointed his gun at him, Robert continued to try and stay in character. It was only when Hunter told him to stand up and turn around that he started to protest.

“Face away from me,” Hunter had told him.

“Why?”

“Because I have the gun and I’m telling you to.”

Robert turned around slowly and when he felt Hunter untucking his shirt from his pants, he tried to step away. Levi had gotten in front of him then and with the threat of another gun in his face, Robert held still as Hunter pulled up his shirt and looked at the tattoo. It was a phoenix, rising from the ashes. Hunter’s stomach rolled once he had confirmation and without warning to his prisoner, he took him to the ground. Levi calmly stepped out of the way and covered him, letting him handle it his way. Hunter rolled the big man underneath him onto his back and straddled his chest. He pressed the gun into the side of Robert’s face, and the piece of shit smiled at him. “Why? Why would you want to kill those innocent women, and why the fuck would you kill my brother? You could have just run.”

“That was your brother?” Robert asked with a smile. “He was my first kill with a gun. Damn, it felt good to see his chest explode and know that I’d done that. I enjoyed it so much that I tried it out on my own brother, or whatever it was.”

“You fucking sick bastard,”

“And for the record, those bitches were not ‘innocent.’ They were whores, like Mommy dearest, and they are right where they deserve to be now, burning in hell. If only I’d had the balls to choke the life out of that miserable bitch who gave birth to me…and it.”

“You’re going to burn in hell,” Hunter said.

“I’ll send your love to your brother when I get there.”

Hunter couldn’t say at that point if he’d meant to pull the trigger, or if it had been a reflex. The result was the same. Robert Potter wasn’t going to hurt anyone else, ever again. The man that took Hunter’s brother from him and his mother’s golden boy was dead and burning in hell and Hunter felt satisfied by only one thing…he knew that the monster would never run into Brett there.

* * *

Hunter spent hours with his mother. He felt bad about keeping Claire waiting and sent her a text telling her she could go home. She’d texted him back and told him to take his time, she’d be there when he got home. His mother was torn between relief that the man who killed Brett was off the streets, and sadness that Hunter had killed him. He wasn’t the first person Hunter had ever killed. She didn’t know about the gang-banger he’d shot just recently, the night that he’d gotten shot. She didn’t know about a lot of things, but those were things that she didn’t need to know. They talked about Brett mostly, about what life was like when he was alive. They talked about what a great father he would have made and how all their lives were better for having known him. It was getting close to noon when she finally said, “My goodness, you’ve been up all night, haven’t you? Let me fix you some lunch and then you can go home and get some rest.”

“Well, actually, Claire is at the apartment, waiting for me.”

“Hunter Donovan! Are you kidding? Why didn’t you tell me that? That poor girl. I like her so much. Are you two serious?”

Hunter laughed. “Too tired for the inquisition, Mom.”

She smiled. “You like her a lot, though, I can tell. I haven’t seen your eyes light up like that over a woman in…well, ever. I didn’t spend much time with her, but I liked what I saw. I think she’s a keeper.”

He shook his head. “Maybe, Mom, we’ll see.” Hunter thought Claire was a keeper too, but, he wasn’t quite ready to tell his mother that.

She smacked him on the bottom like he was still six years old and said, “Go home. Be with your…what do they call it now? Old lady?”

He threw his head back and laughed. His mother was something else. As soon as he left, she’d be on the phone to his aunt too. “Let’s just call her Claire,” he said with a smile. He kissed her on the cheek. “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too. Hunter…?”

“Yeah?”

“You know that I’m every bit as proud of you as I was your brother, right?”

He smiled again. It warmed his heart to hear that, even if he thought she was lying. His life wasn’t half as accomplished as Brett’s had been, but it was a good life, so that was okay. “I know, Mom. Thanks.” He felt a lot better once he left his childhood home. He rode his bike the five miles back to his apartment, expecting poor Claire to either be gone, or asleep. When he walked in and smelled food and found her in the kitchen, he was surprised. When he realized that she was wearing only an apron that said, “Kiss the Cook” in front and was open down the back, he was thrilled.

“Damn, girl, you wear that apron a hell of a lot better than Anna ever wore it.”

Claire giggled. “Anna, your eighty-year-old housekeeper?”

“I think she’s only in her seventies, but yeah. I mean, she filled it out more in the back…”

She laughed. “Shut up. Here, taste this.” Before Hunter could protest, she stuck a spoon in between his lips. Whatever it was, tasted amazing. It was kind of minty, but meaty at the same time.

“What is that?”

“It’s the braise for the meat I put in the oven.” She turned back toward the stove and Hunter’s eyes feasted on her perfect ass.

“How long does that meat have to cook?” he asked her, sliding his hands around her waist and kissing her on the neck.

“It’s still got about an hour,” she said, letting her head loll back into him so that his lips could continue to graze her neck. “I’m sorry, I made the cake first…” she said, breathlessly.

“Oh, you did?” His lips were still against her soft, succulent flesh. He wanted to eat her for lunch. “Well, have you ever had dessert before dinner?”

She giggled. “Never.”

“You need to loosen up,” he said as he spun her around to face him. She still had the spoon in her hand. He took it and set it down behind her and said, “You need to enjoy life—eat the dessert first.” His eyes had spotted a cake next to the stove on the cooling rack. It looked like she’d just finished slathering it with chocolate frosting.

“Oh, I do, do I?”

“Mm-hmm,” He held onto her with one hand and reached over with the other, dipping his fingers into the cake and pulling out warm chocolate covered in frosting. Claire was laughing nervously as he slid his hand down the front of the apron and slathered it between her breasts.

“Ooh! It’s still warm.”

“It’s about to get a lot hotter,” he said with a grin. He slid the tie loose on the apron and pulled it off her. Once that was on the floor he lifted her underneath her arms and sat her up in a clean spot on the counter. He leaned down and kissed just above the chocolate and then he ran his tongue down between her breasts, licking the chocolate from her salty flesh. Fuck, she tastes good, dipped in chocolate. Claire whimpered and arched her back. The harder he licked, the more excited she got. She grabbed his head with her hands and wrapped her fingers in his hair while he cleaned the mess off her chest. When he finished licking off all the chocolate, he moved his mouth over to one of her nipples and began licking and sucking at that.

“Mm,” he said, loving how the vibrations of his voice against her hard nipple made her shudder. “You taste even better without the chocolate.”

She laughed. “Maybe I’m more vanilla.”

“You think? Let’s see…” Hunter left her sitting there and went to the freezer. When he pulled out a small container of vanilla bean ice cream she laughed nervously and said:

“Maybe not. I’ve changed my mind. I’m sure I’m chocolate.”

Hunter had a mischievous grin on his face, like a little boy with his hand in the cookie jar. He pulled the lid off the ice cream and stuck his hand down into it. It was freezing, and creamy, and he couldn’t wait to taste it on her. When he touched his hand to her breast, she squealed and wiggled her bottom into the counter. “Hunter, it’s cold.”

“Is it?” He swiped some onto her other breast, making her squeal out his name again. Then he slid that hand down the front of her, leaving a trail down her abdomen, and landed between her legs, using his fingers to paint the lips of her pussy with it while she alternated between gasps, squeals, whimpers, and moans.

Hunter started with the cold nipple and over the next several minutes, he used his tongue and lips to clean her up. When he reached her pussy, she opened her legs wider and let him dive in. The taste of the vanilla mixed with her own sweetness went straight to his already hard cock. He licked all the ice cream off her lips and inner thighs and then he buried his tongue inside of her and wiggled it around before bringing it back out and making sure she was clean from one end of her sweet pussy to the other. Once he’d cleaned off all the sticky substance he said, “I’m ready for my main course now.” Claire was panting and barely able to speak. She nodded and said something unintelligible. Hunter smiled and lifted her down off the counter. Taking her by the hand, he led her down the hall to his bedroom. She lay down on the bed and watched him get undressed. He loved the look of lust in those aquamarine eyes as they drank in his body. He lay down next to her when he was naked and kissed her softly on the lips.

“I love you, Claire.” Her eyes instantly filled with tears. “No. No tears, those are happy words,”

She nodded. “I know. Thank you. I’m so happy. I love you too.”

Hunter let his tongue slide in between her lips then and tasted his main course. He kissed her for a long time until they were both out of breath and covered with a fine sheen of sweat. That was when he straddled her and let his thick, throbbing cock enter her tight tunnel. He held onto her hips and for a while he moved in and out of her slowly, and sweetly, kissing and sucking at her lips as he did. That only lasted a while, however, before he couldn’t stand it any longer. He lifted one of her legs and rested it on his shoulder and then tipped her hips slightly to one side. Foreplay was over—he was fucking his old lady. He had to control the laugh when he had that thought. He didn’t want to have to explain to Claire why he was thinking of his mother while he was making love to her.

They both came together and afterwards as they lay wrapped up in each other’s arms Hunter said, “I know you love your place out there and normally, I wouldn’t invite myself to live with a woman…”

“Well, now that Dad will be gone for a while, I do have a vacancy in the cottage.”

“Whew, I was afraid you were going to tell me that the Inn was full.”

She kissed him softly and said, “It will always have a vacancy for you. I love you, Hunter.”

“I love you too, baby.”