Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Stace

I shouldn't have let the kiss go so far, but I'd completely lost control when her lips met mine. She tasted divine. As if she was some ethereal creature dropped to earth. She certainly looked like it.

Hunter had been right there with me and I knew if we'd gotten naked, we would have fucked, and it would have been incredible. Probably the best sex of my life. But I couldn't think about after, when she'd inevitably tell me that she had a good time, but she didn't want anything further from me. She'd leave and then cut off contact. Or she'd do it slowly, ghosting me over the course of a few days.

Even more than I wanted sex with her (and did I ever), I wanted time with her. If I had to wait for her to get there? I'd damn well wait. I couldn't take chances with this. With her.

So I'd stopped, as much as that had sucked. I'd stopped and removed my body from her lush curves that were making me lose my mind. She was confused as hell, and I couldn't blame her. I was confusing myself.

I'd explained my reasoning and I could tell she was annoyed and frustrated with me.

That was fine. As long as she knew that I was serious about her and that I wasn't giving up.

Awkwardness filled the apartment as we cleaned up from dinner. I was almost ready to eat again, but I'd wait until she left to take down the rest of the leftovers.

Silence filled the room as I waited for her to tell me that she was going home.

But she stayed. The kitchen was clean, and she wasn't leaving. I asked her if she wanted some ice cream.

She hadn't said much, but she nodded. I got us two bowls and we sat on the couch with Buck. I let Hunter pick something to watch even though I didn't think she was paying attention.

"What's going on in that pretty head of yours?" I asked her when I couldn't take the silence anymore.

"Nothing," she said immediately.

"I don't believe that for a second. It's okay, you can tell me." She ate some ice cream before answering.

"I know I said it before, but I've never met anyone like you. And as much as I know should leave, as much as I think what you want isn't going to happen, I don't want to stop coming here. I don't want to stop seeing you. I like you, Stace. Can't that be enough?"

She had a valid point, even if I didn't like it.

"It can be enough. If you don't want me to flirt with you and annoy you and tell you how much I want you, I will stop. I don't want to harass you. But I don't think that's the case." I knew it wasn't the case. There had been two of us participating in that kiss. And she had asked me to fuck her.

Hunter let out a frustrated sound and rubbed her forehead.

"I don't… I…" she trailed off and then shook her head.

I couldn't help but smile.

"Stop it," she said without turning her head.

"Stop what?"

"Stop smiling."

"You're not even looking at me."

Hunter scowled into her bowl. "I can feel it."

"That's cute."

Hunter lifted her bowl as if she was going to throw it at me, but she didn't.

"So cute and so violent."

"Do you want me to get violent? Because I will. I know I don't look it, but I know how to throw a punch. I may not have broken a bully's nose, but I could if I had to." She finally faced me.

I'd heard that one before. "Okay. Show me how to make a fist."

We both set our ice cream bowls aside and she turned on the couch to face me as I did the same.

Hunter took her right hand and made a fist, closing her thumb around her fingers exactly the way you were supposed to so you didn't break your fingers.

"Okay, I'm impressed. Where did you learn that?"

She made a fist with her left hand and held both up in a ready stance.

"I took a self-defense class in college and then got really into kickboxing briefly. This was before I was doing yoga. I guess I still have the muscle memory." She made two quick jabs that weren't close enough to worry about.

"Now you make a fist." I showed her my fists.

"Let me guess, you learned to fight your brothers in addition to bullies?"

I smiled and nodded. "Yup. Tor and I fought a ton when we were kids. Our parents were at their wits end. They did karate and everything but then we did boxing and worked it out in the ring. We still spar together every now and then." Some of my best memories with Tor were when we were competing together. These days it was on the softball field or the basketball court during a pickup game. Things could get intense during family game night too, though.

Our ice cream melted as I told Hunter more stories about growing up with Tor and she told me about her college days and meeting Reid and Cade. The tension between us was still there, but to a lesser degree. I still wanted to lean over and kiss her until she begged me to get naked, but I resisted. Not an easy task. Every time she laughed or tilted her head a certain way or I was aware of her body I had to talk myself down.

It got later and I wondered when she was going to say she needed to go home. I wasn't going to kick her out, if she was waiting for that. She'd be waiting forever. If she wanted to stay here, I'd make her a key tomorrow.

"Is it bad that I don't really have any big career aspirations?" she asked me. It was cozy having Buck between us, but I wished her head was in my lap and I was playing with her hair. Only Eli had ever let me braid his hair when it was longer, and I hadn't gotten in much practice other than on sports teams. Hunter had the kind of hair that begged to be braided and twirled and run through your fingers like strands of gold.

"No, I don't think there's anything bad about that. I'd bet you that a lot more people are pretending to have career aspirations than actually do. It seems more likely that people get into a job they can tolerate and just sort of talk themselves into pretending it's what they had in mind for their lives. Like when you have to apply for a job and write a cover letter about how much you dream of working for XYZ company." That had always seemed ridiculous to me. The company knew you were lying. The applicant knew they were lying. It was one big performance.

"Hmmm," Hunter said, pondering. "You're a really honest person, Stace."

I grinned at her. "I know. It makes a lot of people uncomfortable. I'm lucky I've got a face that puts people at ease or else I'd be in real trouble." Many, many times I'd been able to smile my way out of a tricky situation. It always made my parents sigh and roll their eyes.

"You should have been the lawyer then," Hunter said, leaning her head against the back of the couch and smiling at me. Buck's head was in her lap again as her fingers stroked a path between his ears.

"Definitely not for me. I think you have to be a bit more ruthless. Or able to put aside your personal feelings."

Hunter snorted. "Or just don't have any feelings for anyone but yourself."

"Personal experience?" I knew both her parents were lawyers.

"Oh yeah." And we were back to her parents again.

"I'm so tired of them taking up space in my life. They think because they're family they get to claim me. Control me." A lot of parents thought that way. Thankfully not mine.

"Have you ever considered going no contact?" I asked. That was something I'd wondered for a while.

"I mean, yes. But I don't think I could. I can handle them in small doses. Those are fine. It's when they demand more, and they always demand more. But this year for the holidays I'm going to put my foot down. I'll do Thanksgiving and Christmas, but nothing else. I'm not going to yet another cocktail party where they shove me toward someone's son and pretend that I'm someone that I'm not. It's like…if they pretend that I'm the daughter they wanted that I'll give up one day and they'll win. Sorry. I know I keep saying the same thing on repeat." She cringed and I gently moved Buck onto the floor. He was indignant, but I slid into the space he'd vacated and put my arm around Hunter.

"Come here," I said, nudging her to get closer. After a moment of hesitation, she leaned her head on my shoulder.

"You're so warm," she said, leaning more into me. I'd love to pull her right onto my lap, but that would lead to other things that I'd already had to put the brakes on earlier.

Hunter exhaled a long breath. "If I stay like this I'm going to fall asleep."

"Go ahead. I'm not on call tomorrow, but I might respond if they need me." I had my regular shifts, but then if I wasn't doing anything, I was also ready to go. It seemed like the right thing to do since I was unavailable a lot during the week and with family obligations, and it was a way to meet your minimum amount of calls for the year, not that I was ever in danger of not meeting that percentage. When I'd first started, I'd gone too hard and had to pull back. Now I was really strict with myself. It had taken some work.

"No, I can't stay," she said, patting my arm. I moved it and she got to her feet, yawning.

"Are you going to be good to drive home? I could call you a ride and bring your car over tomorrow." I'd seen too many accidents where people thought they could drive home and crashed behind the wheel.

Hunter stretched her arms. "I'm fine, it's not that far."

She met my eyes and she must have seen something in them. "I can call a ride."

"Thank you."

Not that she couldn't get in an accident in someone else's car, but I wasn't going to think about that.

The tension that had stretched between us after the kiss and the conversation on the couch returned and I didn't know how to say goodnight to her.

Hunter put her shoes on and scrubbed Buck on his head before leaning down and giving him a little kiss, ducking away when he tried to swipe her face with his tongue.

"My ride will be here in two minutes," she said, standing up.

"Okay," I said, wanting to put my hands in my pockets or shuffle my feet or something.

"Tonight has been…something," she said.

I let out a huff of a laugh. "Yeah, you could say that." Her hair was all mussed so I stroked a few strands off her forehead.

"I meant what I said, Hunter. I want to seduce you." I watched the words hit her and savored her reaction. It never disappointed.

"You are a confident woman, Stace," she said.

"I go after what I want," I said, stroking her cheek.

She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and shook her head slowly.

"You're going to be very disappointed."

I smiled again. "Oh, I don't think that I am."