23. Hunter

Ten in the morning and she was still asleep.

Carrying a completely nude, passed-out woman into your house in the dark at near freezing temperatures isn't on my list of things I'd like to do again. I was certainly thankful that I lived in privacy and didn't need to worry about neighbors calling in a suspected murder.

The weights in front of me slammed back into place as I finished my last set on the lat pulldown machine. My bare chest dripped with sweat, and I grabbed for my water and towel, feeling ten times better after my morning workout. At least one of us would be feeling good.

Across the room, my cell rang. Hoping it wasn't Lottie waking in a panic not knowing where the hell she was, I forced myself up and over to the little table I'd left it on.

Not Lottie.

"Hey," I said, wiping at my chest absentmindedly with the towel.

"How's Lottie this morning? She was a bit… drunk," Mom said, that tone of sternness lingering as if she was focused intently on two things at once. Probably making breakfast.

"Still asleep. She passed out before I could even get her home." Something sizzled in the back of the call on her end. Bacon. "Why on earth did you let her drink that much?"

"She didn't drink that much. She had about the same amount as me," Mom laughed.

"One of you has a tolerance."

"Ah, well. I'm glad she had a good time." A popping sound made her gasp. "Shit, ow."

"Cold water, Mom," I chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah." I heard the faucet turn on as she ran whatever got burned under cold water. "If you were wondering if I like her, the answer is yes, by the way."

I pushed through the doors of my home gym, listening for a second for any movement upstairs before I made my way to the bathroom. "Well, that's a relief. I'll only be with her for the rest of my life," I joked, that pang of an ache hitting me from the lie as I turned on the shower. "Was she… okay? I know she was really worried about leaving her dad for the day." And she was so drunk she might have said something about our arrangement.

"Yeah, she was fine. A little reserved, but when the drinks started coming, she calmed down."

————

Footsteps padded on the wooden stairs as I plated up breakfast. Bacon, eggs, sausage, avocado toast. Everything she'd need to not feel nearly as disgusting as she was bound to feel, along with massive glasses of orange juice, water, and a cup of coffee.

"Oh, thank fuck this is your house."

I turned.

Covered in nothing but one of my t-shirts, the only clue to her intense hangover was her half-lidded eyes and the fingers that rubbed at her temples. Her hair was tied up on top of her head in a messy bun, a few strands hanging loose around her face. Even with the hangover, it was clear that the sleep she'd gotten last night was the best she'd had in weeks.

She looked genuinely beautiful.

"Did you think I'd dropped you off at some random person"s house?" I chuckled, setting her plate down at the small kitchen table.

"To be honest, I don't really remember anything after stumbling into the changing room," she said. Her olive cheeks went pink as she stared at me. "But your shirt kind of tipped me off."

It was the same one I'd offered her back in Texas. That had to be… Jesus, almost a month ago. One month since I'd been able to be intimate with her in the ways I wanted. I understood the reasons but fuck, I wanted her. Especially with her looking like that, in my clothes, in my house.

"It's probably a good thing," I laughed, trying to push the image of her bent over my knee with her bare ass in the air mine to touch out of my mind. "You were a bit out of it last night."

She groaned and lifted her hands, obscuring her face but not before I caught sight of that deepening blush. She slouched into the seat at the glass table. "I'm sorry. I'm not a pretty drunk."

I grabbed my plate from the counter and set my spot next to hers as she slowly began to dig in. "It's fine. Honestly. Though I don't think Dana's going to forget you begging me to touch you."

She paused with her fork half in her mouth. "Please tell me you're joking."

Stabbing one of my sausages, I brought it to my mouth and bit the end off. "I wish I was, for your sake."

"Did you?" she asked, her cheeks still peachy pink as she glanced at me with those beautiful bright eyes.

I took a moment to consider how to answer as I chewed on what was left of the sausage. "Yes and no. Not the way you wanted me to, at least. I'm not that big of a piece of shit."

She blinked at me.

"To be fair, you took off every single piece of clothing and crawled into my lap in the truck," I said. I took in every little minuscule reaction on her face, ranging from embarrassment to abject horror. "We made out a bit, but that was it. I was mainly holding you to make sure you didn't slump over."

Every movement was robotic as she set her fork on her plate and covered her mouth. "Oh my God."

"You passed out on me and I carried you up to my room. I figured you'd probably be freaked out if you woke up naked so I put you in a shirt and tucked you in." I flashed her a little grin. "You kept begging me to snuggle with you. It was very cute, Lottie."

"I'm gonna be sick."

Within a second I was on my feet, opening the cabinet I kept stocked with medicine and hangover cures. I plucked a packet of Alka Seltzers from their box and dropped the two little fizzing tablets into the glass of water in front of her. "Drink this and you won't be."

Her lower lip quivered as she grabbed the glass and chugged half of it in one go. Something about taking care of her, cooking for her, and coaxing her back to her stable self, made my chest ache once again, that familiar bloom of something far too dangerous to consider. I pressed a kiss against the top of her head and sat back down in my chair.

"There's a bathroom just there," I said, pointing to the closed door on the opposite side of the kitchen. "If you still need to, I mean."

"Thank you," she sighed, watching the bubbles rise to the top of her glass as the last of the disks broke apart at the bottom. "For… everything."

"Don't worry about it."

She shook her head. "No, I shouldn't have gotten that drunk in front of your mom."

"She's not upset about it." I cut across the poached egg, liquid yolk pouring over my plate. "She likes you. Even called to check on you this morning."

A little smile broke across her face as she chuckled. "So I did a good job, then?"

I nodded. "You did. Now eat."

We sat in comfortable silence as she slowly picked at her food, her nausea making each bite difficult. She did good, though, finishing her juice, her coffee, and the last of her medicine. The only thing she left was a single slice of avocado toast, and as I brought my chair closer to her and picked it up from her plate, she held out her hands and shook her head.

I popped it in my mouth instead.

The way she watched me felt like I'd won the lottery. I hadn't seen a hint of that brick wall since Texas, and granted she had bigger things to worry about than keeping me at a distance, it still felt like progress. Like there was something between us that both of us could feel, that I wasn't the only one drowning under the looming sense of whatever this was.

I didn't care that she needed a shower. Didn't care that she hadn't brushed her teeth or done her hair or makeup. None of it mattered. She was in my house and I wanted to keep her here forever.

I wanted to keep her forever.

Her phone pinged on the table next to her. I almost expected her to ignore it, assuming it to be just another text from her ex, but she stared at it, reality catching up to her, draining every bit of energy.

"Fuck," she sighed. She turned off the screen and looked across the table at me, her blue eyes wavering. "Dad's doctor wants to speak to me in the next hour."

"Oh. Do you want me to come with you?" I offered. It felt silly, like I was inviting myself to a private affair, but I'd been there through a lot of the ups and downs over the last few weeks.

"It's okay. I don't think it's anything new," she sighed. "Where's my car?"

I had half a mind not to tell her. It was selfish, yes, but I didn't want her to leave. Instead, I took a deep breath and decided to be a somewhat decent human being. "It should be outside. I had one of my assistants drive it over from the spa."

She pursed her lips together and nodded to herself. "And my clothes?"

"By the front door. There's a bathroom just off the foyer on the right." I stacked her plate on top of mine and assembled the glasses, making my move to clear the table. It felt like an ending I didn't want, an ending I shouldn't have to experience. "It's just down that hallway there."

Her chair creaked as she slid it backward. "Thank you." She stood, my shirt falling back down around her thighs, and looked down at me. "For all of it." She seemed to hesitate, though. There was no other movement, just her standing above me, looking down, little pieces of hair around her face still as night. Something flickered in her eyes, something I couldn't quite place, but before I knew it I was opening my mouth to speak what I hadn't been able to stop thinking about.

But her mouth met mine before the words could break past my lips. She kissed me quickly, gently, as if something inside of her compelled her to. I held her around the backs of her thighs, her skin warming my palms. I tried to savor every second that she gave me, but before I could memorize her, she was pulling away. I didn't want to let go.

"I have to go," she whispered.

"I know." I gave her thighs a little squeeze and let go. But the words I'd wanted to say hung quietly in the back of my throat, trapped behind my own walls and insecurities, my own worries that this was far too good to be true. Coupled with the likelihood that she probably didn't feel the same way, I wasn't sure it was even worth it. The temptation was still there though as she walked down the hall I'd pointed her toward, disappearing from my grasp.

I want this to be real.