Never Been Kissed(96)

Even in sleep, it seems, Hunter wants to make sure that whoever’s wearing an invisibility cloak, or using an invisibility charm knows that he’s protecting me, that I belong to him now.

He nuzzles my neck, kisses a spot right below my ear.

“You’re going to learn some bad things about me, Sera. Real shitty things about the asshole I used to be. I don’t want it to touch you, but it will. I want you to remember us, like this, before you run off on me.”

“Okay,” I whisper, frowning. I’m so glad he can’t see me in the dark.

“I’m being serious, baby. Judge me on the man I am now, and not the kid I was back then. S’all I’m asking of you.” He pulls me closer into his body, as he pulls in a deep breath of the smell of my hair. “God, I can’t believe you’re in bed with me. And you’re letting me hold you like this.”

I stiffen. Alarm bells clang in my head. Mayday, mayday, mayday. “Why wouldn’t I let you hold me like this, Hunter?”

“You’re so good to me,” he mutters in my ear. “You’re so good to Matty, even after all the shit that’s gone down, you’re still here. With me.”

I stare at the grayness of his face. “I gave you a hand job. That does not constitute me ‘being good to you’. You’re freaking me out. What does the past matter?”

He moves his head, and places a kiss at the corner of my mouth. “It matters, baby. It just does. I’ll tell you when I’m ready, alright?”

“Fine, whatever.” I say, miffed. “Good night.”

“And the hand job was spectacular. I saw the sun at a close-range distance.”

I snort, pulling the covers up over my mouth to muffle the sound.

“You think Aly ever had a juice or candy for me in her purse? Sera, when you kiss me, you kiss me. I’m not a mouth to you; I’m not just a cock.”

I frown, turning into him, so his arm is resting along my waist. “You have those things, you are not just those things.”

“Exactly.”

“I’m not following.”

Hunter tucks some hair behind my ear, hands infinitely gentle on my face, tracing his fingers over my cheekbone, down along the bridge of my nose, to my lips.

“I’m a way to get off, baby. I’m also a paycheck, a guarantee of a cozy future.”

“Where does Matty factor into all this?”

“He doesn’t. She’d ship him off as soon as the marriage license was signed. Not gonna happen.”

“Yeah, over my fraking dead body. Who the hell does she think she is? Lilith?” I rest my hand against the side of his neck, the words I love you choking me with the force they need to come out with.

“Are you talking about one of your shows again?”

“You bet.”

Hunter chuckles in the darkness, the sound so intimate and sexy, I can’t help but snuggle closer, warmth hitting my chest because I can make him do that.

“Which one is this?” I love that he wants to know more about me, about the shows I love to watch. I didn’t know it, but I want to share with him the good parts of my life.

I tell him through two yawns what Supernatural is about. Two brothers have been raised to fight evil, kill demons and all sorts of supernatural creatures that destroy human lives. It’s about sacrifice, and family, and what you do for those you love, no matter the cost to yourself. It’s about angels and demons, and scary creatures that make me sleep with the light on the night of the episode. It’s about forgiveness and weakness and honesty and loss. It’s about hope and the chance for a better life.

“Aren’t you terrified of going to go to sleep every night? What if we lived in a world where all that shit existed?”

“I already have packets of salt in my purse for such an occasion. Salt stops, like, eighty percent of things that go bump in the night. And, and, and the whole show is about killing these things. It’s basically like a manual. I know how to kill everything already.”

“Fuck.”

“What?”

“I just pictured you in leather pants and a black tank. Jesus Christ your ass would look amazing in leather pants. Then I wouldn’t be able to let you out of the house, since every guy with a half a dick would want a piece of you.”

I admit the truth. “I think only you see me that way.”

“Baby, it’s not my fault you haven’t noticed.”

“Right.” I half-fake another yawn until I almost pop my jaw with the force of it. “I’m tired, I want to go to sleep now. Would you shut up?” I yawn again, snuggle closer. “Wait a sec, Hunt. Who’s Jules?”