Chapter 25Hunter

Chapter 25

Hunter

M a would say, "Hunter James Bj?rnsson, don't you ever sweep a lady off her feet without askin' if she wants to be swept first!"

But as soon as Goldie starts to walk off, I'm on my feet and plucking her off the ground, holding her luscious body tight against my chest, something inside me unwilling to let her get away from us again.

Well, that sounds like you're planning to take her back to the homestead and keep her locked in the shed, weirdo , I think to myself. I'm quite grateful I didn't say, You ain't going nowhere, little lady out loud, because that's one-hundred-percent the energy I'm bringing to the table right now.

I force a chuckle. "Oh, sunshine, if you want a bath, you're going to get a bath, all right. But if you're gonna be staying with us, well…the tub ain't how we best like to wash up and you know that."

"But," she says, and good heavens, if sunshine isn't the perfect nickname for her, because she's sunshine personified. She even smells like sunshine. Sunshine and, in the here and now, sunshine and sex, and I damn near let out a growl of desire as my cock grows hard again for her.

"When in Rome, you do as the Romans do. When on this mountain, you do as the Bj?rnssons do," I tell her.

I heard her when she said she can't stay forever. I heard her and I'll respect that…if we can't change her mind. But the need inside me to change her mind is downright primal. Glad I picked her up bridegroom-style instead of just slinging her over my shoulder.

She looks up at me with those huge blue eyes, and the panic and fear in them stops me in my tracks.

"Do you want me to put you down?" I ask, though it damn near kills me.

She shakes her head. But the panic and fear remain. Damn it all to hell, I scared her.

"No, you can carry me, but I'd like to go back to the cabin…" Her voice shakes the tiniest bit. "Please."

"We'll take you back to the cabin," I assure her, because as far as I'm concerned, what this woman wants, this woman gets. "But we need to let the others know we found you first, and they're not at the cabin."

"They're not?" she asks as Brooks goes around me and starts ahead of us, holding back branches so I can pass through with her, keeping her safe and sound. She's already got some scratches and scrapes from when she ran through the woods by her lonesome earlier that we'll get Lynx to tend to. "Oh. They're probably off doing their chores, fishing, whatever, right?"

"Nope," I tell her. "After Brooks left to check your campsite, we divvied up the mountain and spread out to search for you, agreeing that if we didn't find you in an hour we'd meet back at the swimming hole. They're probably wondering where the hell we are and worried sick about you."

I glance down at her, and she smiles this smile that makes my heart do something it's never done before. Never. "All of you were out searching for me?"

"And I swore I'd bring you back," I say, sidestepping the question. Because no, not all of us were looking for her, and the slight bit of sadness in her eyes, mingling with the panic and fear, tells me she already knows that. That beautiful smile of hers fades, and I want to pummel Luke for being the reason it does.

But this whole thing depends on no one pummeling anyone, because absolutely none of us want a Susie May repeat and that's for damn sure, so I tamp that irritation down, trying to remind myself that anything Luke does, he does with good intentions.

"What's going on in that head of yours, sunshine?" I ask, because I can't stand to see that troubled look still in her eyes. "You still worried about Luke? Or is it more than that? You don't regret—"

She shakes her head, nuzzling against me. "I don't regret a thing."

Her eyes flood with lust and a joy-filled grin bursts onto her face. She's telling the truth.

"Good, 'cause I don't either. And neither does Brooks. Do you, bud?"

"Not a damn thing," he says.

"But I can't stay if—"

"Trust me, okay?" I give her ass a little squeeze and a moan slips from her lips.

You like that, do you, Miss Locke?

I try not to smirk, making a mental note to get my hands on her backside whenever I can.

"We're almost there," Brooks says over his shoulder. "You'll see. Everything's gonna be just fine."

Her face scrunches up. "We can't be almost there. Or if we are, the others must not be there. It's quiet. The other day, when I found you all there…you were loud."

My mouth twists into its crooked smile. "You mean the other day when you were sneakin' a peek and gettin' an eyeful?"

"I…"

"He's just teasing you, Gold," Brooks says. He pushes through some bushes and I follow.

"See?" I whisper to Goldie, brushing my lips across her ear as I do. "Everyone's here."

But she was right. They're mighty quiet. All off on their own, downright solemn, eyes downcast. Even Luke's here, which comes as a surprise. He's not going to the big cave, despite all his bluster. But I didn't expect him to be here waiting, either.

That is, until I call, "Looky who we found!"

Everyone comes to life all at once, whooping and hollering and swimming in our direction. Except Luke. Of course.

But that's fine. I meant it when I told her soon enough he'd be begging for her kisses. I see the glimpses he sneaks at her—glimpses that are filled with curiosity, not animosity. He's a tough nut to crack, but if anyone can crack a tough nut it's my dear sunshine.

As all our other brothers rush through the water toward me and Brooks and Goldie, I pass her to Brooks and hold up a hand. "Hey!" I call over a chorus of Goldie's back! and You found her! "Everybody stop losing your shit. I mean, cool your nuts. I mean, er, settle down. Please."

I give them a second.

"Now!" I clap my hands together. "Goldie is back."

"As we can all see, since we have eyes," Clay chortles. "Now, come on over to me, sweetheart, so these eyes of mine can get a good look at you. I've almost damn near forgotten what you look like."

As if there was even the tiniest sliver of a possibility any of us would ever forget what she looks like, even if she was gone a million years.

"First things first." I level Clay with a get-in-line look. Though Lord knows that man ain't ever gotten in line in his life. Can't take nothing serious. But he presses his lips together at least. "Me and Goldie and Brooks just had ourselves a, um…we had a men-age-a-troys ." I glance at Goldie, whose face is the same glorious pink it was when she got off. "Did I pronounce that right?" I whisper to her. "I've only ever seen it written in books, never heard it said out loud."

She gives me a sweet smile. "Not quite, but it's a tricky one."

She rattles the correct pronunciation of the word ménage à trois off her tongue like she's French born and bred, and Lord, it does something to me. I'm too in love to be embarrassed at my own wrong pronunciation, which was very wrong, turns out.

I didn't just think the word love , did I?

Well, shit, I think I did.

I survey my brothers, all of whose eyebrows are way up, except for Luke, who is studying the red, flaky bark of a pine tree like it's got the entire Bible carved into it and he's trying to find the exact verse to condemn us for the sins we've just committed or something.

"Anyway. Brooks found Goldie, and they had sex, and then I found them, and we all had sex—well, um…not me and Brooks, obviously, because, ANYWAY. We both had sex with Goldie, and as we were discussing this morning at the family meeting, we all want her, and now we know she wants all of us. So she's going to stay for a spell, and she and she alone will determine how long that spell will be. And this will be nothing like with Susie May, because there won't be any ultimatums or fighting over who gets her 'cause we all do. And we can all just be happy and enjoy each other's company while she's here."

Luke doesn't say anything.

No one says anything.

Everyone just sort of blinks at me, like I stopped speaking English and was instead talking in some kind of language from another planet altogether.

Then, all of a sudden, Clay lets out a whoop, slaps his hands together, and then smacks the water, making a giant splash. "If that's the case, I'll enjoy your company over behind that big ol' pine tree right now, sweet thang…er…sweetheart."

"Um," Goldie says, then whispers something to Brooks, who sets her down. "Actually, I have a few things I'd like to say."

"You go ahead, snapdragon." Brooks rests his hand on her shoulder, giving it a couple of comforting pats.

"I have friends. They're brothers, like all of you. There are ten of them, like all of you—"

"Do you have this, um, kind of arrangement with them too?" Ash says, and the way he holds his hand over his heart, like he's covering it to protect it already, gives Goldie a look in her eye that worries me, like she sees it and it scares her.

I don't move a muscle because I can't bear her seeing that I'm inclined to hold my heart as well, and have that look turned on me.

"No, definitely not," she insists, and I'm so fucking relieved that the air whooshes out of my aching lungs and I realize I was holding my breath.

"Besides," she continues, "my best friend Winnie claimed them long ago, and they her. But that's not the point I'm trying to make. I'm saying that I got to work with them for a long time and see how close they are. How important their bond is. I never had siblings myself. I'm an only child. But I know what the Hammer brothers mean to each other, and I know that you all, well, you're each other's whole lives, pretty much. And I ran out of the cabin this morning because…I do want all of you, as crazy as that seems. But I won't come between you. I refuse to be the girl who destroys your relationships or the peace of your household. I will not. So yes, I'll stay, but only…" She shudders out a breath and I can see how much this matters to her. "Only if we can agree to a few rules."

"Alright, nope, that's it, you can't just—" Luke begins, but I cut him off.

"Let her finish, dickhead."

"But she can't just barge in and start making rules—"

"Let her finish , you dickhead ," I say again.

Luke glares, and it's not a surprise Goldie calls him Grumpy.

"Thank you, Hunter," she says, the way she says my name filling my chest with a soft, sweet, floaty feeling. "Although maybe don't call each other dickheads on my account? Now—I am not this Susie May heartbreaker you all keep mentioning." Goldie says it gently, looking at Lynx, then Buck.

Then, more firmly, directed right at Luke, she adds, "I'm not. And if I'm going to stay here on this mountain with all of you, even a minute longer, the first rule is that Luke can't leave and go stay in the big cave or anywhere else. I won't drive anyone away."

She rushes on before Luke can protest, even though he's opening his dumb mouth to do so. "And the second rule is that this will be…just…like…a friends-with-benefits type of thing. Okay? We all have to agree to that. No broken hearts. Friendship and sex. No love, no catching feelings. No one gets hurt. Well. Except my lady bits, because damn, y'all are some big boys."

I will not name names, but at least three of my brothers are flat-out drooling. Having had friendship and sex with my sunshine, I can't say that I blame them.

Goldie looks at me and nods, as if to say she's done.

"Everyone agree to Miss Goldie's conditions?" I say.

There's enthusiastic agreement from everyone except Luke, who does exactly what she's asked him not to do. Without a word, he hoists himself up onto the bank and grabs his towel. And he starts to leave.

Fuck. He's going to ruin everything.

"Where are you going?" Goldie asks. The way her voice catches makes my fists clench.

But then Luke stops, and glances over his shoulder at her.

"Back to the cabin," he growls. "All I ask is that you stay out of my way. Sounds like you'll be so busy getting fucked by these bozos that it won't be a problem. But you ignore me and I'll ignore you. I don't want your sex and I sure as shit don't want your friendship."

She winces and I swear, it squeezes my heart. It's as if I can feel the rejection she feels, the pain she feels. I can't make sense of it, but my heart just beats different for Goldie, in a way it never has for anyone before.

And I heard her. Just like I heard her when she said she's not staying forever. I heard her saying this is just going to be friendship and sex.

But I can't stop my damn heart from wondering if it could be more.

If it could be real love. LOVE, with all capital letters. Goldie could be ours and we could be hers.

I don't know what brought her to this mountain. But my stupid, stupid heart is whispering that it was fate.

I shake my head. That is stupid. I don't even believe in fate.

Besides, this is just temporary.

I've had friendship and I've had sex, but I've never had a woman to call my own. Every beat of my heart is telling me that Goldie is the one for me. And I wouldn't mind a bit if she's the one for all of us, as long as she's mine.

This is temporary, I tell myself, glancing at her. This is temporary .

But while it lasts, I'm going to do everything I can to make my sunshine the happiest woman alive.