Chapter Eleven

"Ivy."

She saw the way Hunter looked at her after they discovered the man who'd visited her father was a loan shark.

"I don't want to talk about it." She rushed toward the entryway and pushed through the screen door.

"Ivy, stop."

She kept walking. The thump of his footsteps on the floorboards pushed her faster.

"Ivy!" He grabbed her by the arm. When he spun her to face him, she tried to pull away, but he gripped her waist and held her.

She stared up at him, heart pounding, but not from what she knew about her father's affairs or the loan shark who'd visited him.

From Hunter's demanding touch.

God, she'd never been that woman who whimpered over the rough types, but the way he seized her had her panties flooding.

Behind them, the screen door banged shut. Instead of moving away from her, Hunter dragged her around the corner of the big wraparound porch, out of Meadow and Colton's sight.

"You can't just drag me around like a piece of furniture!"

He glared down at her. "You can't just walk into a man's room and steal clothes from his closet."

She raised her jaw a notch. When she'd gone into the bunkhouse looking for Hunter, one of the guys told her he was out working on the ranch, so she'd gone exploring. After finding the room he shared with Marks, she nosed around a bit.

Opening the small cupboard that held his belongings, she caught the scent of his masculine bodywash or cologne. It smelled so good that she poked around looking for another one of his shirts that carried his scent.

The tees he had hung up amidst a chambray shirt and that fantastic leather coat he'd worn on the plane from Germany didn't interest her. Then she saw the duffel on the floor and found the jersey tucked next to a bottle of good foreign cologne—the source of that delicious scent that drove her crazy.

She liked how the shirt looked on her…and the way he looked at her when she was wearing it.

His eyes darkened with an undeniable want and forced all thoughts of the trouble happening on the ranch out of her mind.

Without thinking twice about what she was doing, she hooked her hand around his nape and yanked him down. His mouth crashed over hers with abandon. The low growl on his lips rumbled through her, slipping low between her legs.

He yanked her flush against his hard body. She gasped at the steel of his cock and couldn't stop herself rubbing against it.

"Goddammit, woman. You're a torment."

"You haven't seen anything yet." She backed him up against the log wall of the house and went on tiptoe, lips tilted up for his kiss.

His eyes glimmered, stealing her mind a split second before he took her mouth in a kiss that curled her toes inside her boots.

With a hand planted on her ass, he pulled her close and ground his hips into hers. Need rushed through her body. Her pussy clenched and juices flooded her panties.

Running her hands down his chest, she made sure to brush her fingertips over his nipples. They pebbled at her touch.

His tongue swept through her mouth, stroking her into a frenzy. Goose bumps prickled over her skin, sending her own nipples into sharp points. The ache inside her too intense, she rubbed her breasts against him.

She wanted him. Needed to feel his touch and the thick length of his cock pounding inside her again.

The rumble in his chest spread. Tearing from the kiss, he turned his head aside. "Walk away from me, Ivy."

She anchored her hands on his chest and firmly shook her head. "I want you."

A primal noise burned in his throat. "I swore I wouldn't lay my hands on you again."

"That was a stupid thing to do."

He jerked his head around and fixed her in his gaze.

Her heart jogged in her chest. "Take me to bed. I need you to help me forget everything that's happening in my life."

His chest heaved. Nostrils flared. "Goddammit, why did you have to choose that shirt?" He scooped her off her feet as if she weighed no more than the jersey alone.

Her insides melted in anticipation. Lips grazing his tanned throat, she whispered, "Around the back there's a door that leads to the kitchen."

In a few strides, he circled the porch to the back door. He nudged it open with her cradled in his arms. Each step he took toward the hallway leading to her bedroom had her insides throbbing harder.

As he entered her room, she skated her lips up his jaw to his mouth. He kissed her hard and with enough passion to send a thrill through her system.

He devoured her lips and tongue. He claimed the breathy moans escaping her in rough pants.

Letting her slide down his hard body, he continued kissing her until her knees threatened to buckle. Then he walked her backward to her bed.

He stopped. "What happened to the kiddy stuff?"

"I put everything away in my closet." That morning, she'd tucked her stuffed animals away on the top shelf and shoved anything that didn't fit with the grownup version of herself away in the drawers.

Now her space was minimal but still had feminine touches like a few pastel throw pillows. When she'd arranged those on the bed, she hoped with all her heart that Hunter would spread his delicious scent all over them so she could curl up with them at night and remember everything about…this.

He took her by the hips and tossed her onto the bed. Fists curled at his sides, he stared down at her for five long heartbeats.

She thought he might walk out and leave her aching for him.

She needed him to erase the emptiness inside her and make her feel anything again.

Their gazes locked and held. Then he reached for his belt and yanked open the buckle.

Her insides lurched with want. She bent one leg and tore off her cowgirl boot, tossing it to the floor with a small thump before she went for the other.

Abandoning his fly, Hunter raised his hands to the buttons of his shirt. Each one he popped left her feeling more hot and bothered. As soon as she spotted the line of tanned, chiseled skin running to the love trail of hair leading down into the waist of his jeans, her breaths came faster.

She shoved her jeans down her hips. When she made a move to lift the hem of the jersey she wore, his gravelly voice raked over her senses.

"Leave the shirt on."

Oh god. Her pussy squeezed with fresh want. She cast aside her jeans and wiggled out of her panties.

His stare snagged on her bare thighs. Slowly, she parted her legs to give him a better view.

With a snarl, he ripped off the rest of his clothes and crawled between her thighs. Holding her stare, he caught her knees and yanked her hips off the bed, lifting her pussy to his hard cock.

Probing at her soaked folds with the swollen head, he gazed down at her, a tendon in the crease of his jaw flickering with the effort to hold back.

"I need this. You. Take me!" she cried out.

He threw one of her legs over his bulging shoulder…and slid balls-deep in one smooth glide.

"Oh my god!" She curled her fingers into his muscled back and rocked her hips upward to meet his thrust.

He froze. The pulse in his neck hammered.

"Ivy." His fingers flexed on her hips. "Fuck!"

She lost herself in the glittering depths of his steely gray eyes. When he slowly withdrew his cock through her clenching walls and slammed home again, she couldn't restrain the cry bursting from her lips.

He churned his hips faster, grinding the head of his cock deep against her G-spot. Her pussy drenched him. Her insides pulsated. Panting breaths coming faster and faster, she rolled her body against his, urging him on.

Pounding into her in a wild rhythm that would either incinerate them both or send them floating in the clouds of bliss, he took total control.

Her body rocked with every thrust. "Kiss me!"

He hovered over her. For long seconds, he held back. Then his eyes hooded, and he closed the gap between their mouths, taking control of the kiss too.

* * * * *

Ivy curled her body around him and it fit him like a goddamn glove. Like she was made for him.

He broke the kiss and rolled with her. She sucked in a gasp as he settled her on top of him.

She fell still, eyes wide and her lips parted. "You're…so…" She tested out a roll of her hips. "Deep."

His eyes almost rolled back in his head at her sexy comment and the sexier way she began to ride him. Her toned thighs tightened. The jersey slipped lower on one shoulder, giving him a peek at the top of her breast.

Fuck, she was gorgeous. Desirable. Smart.

And harboring a secret about her father's activities if he had to guess. But he'd get to the bottom of that after he gave her a screaming orgasm.

Latching on to her hips, he guided her upward on her knees. She slid up the length of his cock until only the mushroomed tip was inside her slick heat.

Then she dropped slowly, taking him to the root.

They shared a groan. Her head dropped forward, thick waves of hair brushing against his chest. He couldn't tear his gaze away from her beautiful face—or stop fucking her if he tried.

She took him over and over again. Each stroke made him harder. When he realized how damn close he was to losing his grip on control, he pressed the pad of his thumb over her clit.

With a cry, she tossed her head back. He lost it, thrusting his cock inside her while strumming her hard clit again and again.

The tension bowed her back. She whimpered what he thought sounded like his name. Then she left no question in his mind as she screamed it.

"Hunter!"

"Oh, Ivy. Fuck!" He yanked her down on top of him and claimed her lips as he rocked his hips and brushed her hard nubbin until he felt her jolt of release, followed by rhythmic tightening of her inner walls around his cock.

He thrust hard—high. The angle, the expression of ecstasy playing over her beautiful face, stole the last shred of control he had.

On a muffled roar, he let go. Spurts of cum exploded from his cock, showering her pussy as she orgasmed around him. He swept his tongue over hers, tasting her surrender.

It was sweet. Intoxicating.

Addicting.

He sank his tongue into her mouth and stole the little keening noises she made.

With a final jerk of his hips, he filled her pussy with his cum.

Fuck. Twice now he'd taken Ivy bareback. The sensation was exquisite—and the protectiveness it triggered stunned him.

This feeling in his chest…the hard knot in his throat that made him want to roar until the mountains shook with the force…came from him and him alone.

He closed his eyes and floated on the fog of lust. Ivy collapsed on top of him, her breathing harsh in the silence of her room.

Slipping his arm around her back, he drew her tighter into his arms. She snuggled against him, fitting like the piece of a missing puzzle.

What the hell happened to the SEAL who functioned without emotion? Who disconnected from any and all feelings that actually touched his soul?

Friends, he could do. Hell, friends with benefits too.

Ivy didn't check either of those boxes.

After a long minute, she rolled off him. As she climbed out of bed and headed toward the en suite bathroom, his football jersey rode high on her curvy hips. When she walked away, he got a fantastic view of her rounded ass cheeks peeking from beneath the bottom of the shirt.

His still-stiff cock twitched against his abs.

Hell. Twice he'd fucked Forest's sister. While his respect for Forest knew no bounds, even in the realm of death, Forest wasn't here to object.

Forest. Dammit, his friend would want him to watch out for Ivy.

Seeing her phone cast off on the floor, he grabbed it. "I hope I never have to explain this…" He tapped a few buttons to get around the lock code. In seconds, he had a tracking GPS on her device.

He really shouldn't trifle with Ivy at all.

Colton saw him sneaking out of her bedroom window and even if he'd warned Hunter off her, what he thought didn't matter either—Hunter did what he wanted, and few people in the world had ever been able to stop him.

The bombshell beauty sauntering out of the bathroom to rejoin him in bed was separate from his job on the ranch. He was here to ensure that no more attacks befell the Gracey family or anyone else.

His focus shifted from his inner turmoil to the stunning woman climbing into bed. Ivy's eyes were softened by the smile she wore.

Suddenly, she stopped mid-crawl. Without seeing her face, he knew she was staring at his scarred leg.

Very slowly, she leaned down and brushed her lips over the worst of the puckered scar. When she straightened and met his steady gaze, his heart pounded.

He had two choices. He could reject her, get up and leave and never return. She'd seen too much—things that had nothing to do with the physical appearance of his leg.

Or he could accept that unutterably tender kiss as a stroke of solace and acceptance.

He opened his arms. She stretched out on top of him. Cupping her head against his chest, he buried his nose in her soft hair. For a long minute, she was silent.

When she spoke, her voice was barely a wisp of its normal strength, as if she was unsure if she should mention what just happened.

"Meadow told me that you were injured the same day that Forest died."

"It's true." His voice sounded like a croak. How much did he share with her about the topic? How much did she already know—or want to know?

In the end, he didn't tell her that Colton and Forest returned to a bombed-out village to find a woman with the intent to rescue her. That Forest died for his heroics. Or that a retaliatory strike came afterward and had killed so many of their brothers and laid out Hunter for months.

When he pulled in a deep breath to begin talking, he never expected the words that followed to come out of his mouth.

"I grew up in New Jersey. My father was a stockbroker in the Twin Towers."

She had been smoothing her hand over his chest and stopped the movement.

"He was in the tower when it fell on 9-11."

"My god, Hunter. I'm so sorry."

"I was lucky to have him for the number of years I did. He was a great father too—always involved in my education and sports I enjoyed. We loved watching the Yankees together."

"I'm glad you had that time with him."

"The story goes downhill from there. What I didn't know was my parents had been trying hard to have another child. With no Dad, it meant that dream died with him. And well…Mom kind of lost it. She killed herself six months later."

"Oh god!"

In a rush, he told the rest of the story before he could reconsider sharing it. "I went to live with my grandparents on my mother's side. They were stricken by the loss of my parents too, and they were already old when I went to live there. There was no money for college, so I went into the Navy after high school. I planned to finish out my years there until retirement—or die serving my country."

She pushed off his chest to search his eyes. What he saw wasn't pity—it was admiration.

"Forest went into the military to have that extra feeling of family that he'd lost here. I would guess that you did too."

He gave a jerky nod. "I didn't think about it at the time, but that's exactly what I found. A brotherhood, a family I chose for myself."

Then almost all of them were killed too.

He didn't say what he was thinking, and neither did Ivy, but the sympathy in her face echoed it just the same.

"I know you think that I'm only a princess, but I do understand what you've sacrificed in the line of duty."

"No. No. I was wrong. You're way more than that, Ivy."

She blinked rapidly. "I wasn't fishing for compliments."

"I know that, baby. My first impressions of people aren't usually wrong—but I'm man enough to admit I was wrong about you."

How did he ever miss the depth to this woman in his arms? Her eyes were that of a much older soul and filled with understanding and forgiveness for his slights against her.

She kissed him tenderly and then rested her cheek on his chest again. "Not entirely. Everyone protected me."

"You're lucky you had that. I didn't. I have Colton. I had your brother. A few others I call my brothers who I haven't seen in a long time. That's it."

She raised her head and stared into his eyes for a long minute. "You have me too."