He glowered at her. “Looking so fucking hot that every guy in here is probably ready to come in his pants.”
She felt her lips curve up and was too drunk to stop them. “Are you?”
“Jana.” He crushed her to him again, and his masculine scent permeated her senses, sending ripples of desire straight to her core.
“This isn’t you, Jana. You don’t do this.”
“Yes, I do. I met you on a night like tonight.” Oh shit…
She felt his entire body go rigid against her. And she swore to erase that night from her memory so she never, ever brought it up again. He’d been so angry when she’d accidentally called him all those other men’s names after he’d said sweeter things to her than any man had ever said before.
He put his mouth beside her ear and said, “You like me better when we’re fuck buddies?” A chill hung on the edge of his words.
Her temper flared at her own words coming back at her, but as his hands moved up her waist, she got distracted from that anger, and when they brushed against the sides of her breasts, she rested her cheek against his shoulder. She wanted his touch, needed his touch. Only Hunter’s. Hunter’s touch made the noise and indecision fall away. His hands traveled slowly down over her hips, making it hard for her to hold on to anything but the desire to be consumed by him. When his hands clutched her ass, she gasped.
“Is that what you want, Jana? A good, hard fuck?” His hips gyrated against her belly, causing any remaining brain cells to shatter.
She opened her mouth, but no words came. Her body wanted what he offered, but her heart, her stupid, needy heart, wanted more—from him, only him—and that scared the shit out of her.
His hands moved down the back of her thighs and toyed with the edge of her dress. “You know I can give you that.”
She closed her eyes, trying to decipher his tone, trying to read between the lines. But the lines blurred, and all she was left with were her desperate, warring emotions. Her greedy heart wanted Hunter, all of him: his caring touch, his possessive protection, and his sexual prowess. But panic roared through her meadow of love, trampling all over the beauty and safety of it and leaving behind darkness she couldn’t comprehend.
He pressed a kiss just below her ear. “Say the word, Jana, and I’ll take you home and give you what you need.”
The song ended, and Jana sensed people moving away, but she didn’t want to part from him as they moved to a silent beat. With panic clinging to her heart and her mind whirling, she forced what she truly wanted from her lips.
“Take me home, Hunter.”
Chapter Seventeen
HUNTER CUT THE engine in front of Jana’s house. After trying to practically climb onto his lap as they drove away from Undercover, Jana had passed out leaning against his shoulder. He shifted her gently so she wouldn’t fall as he got out of the truck. He gathered her in his arms, struck by the angelic look on her peaceful face, contrasting sharply with the short dress and spiked heels. That was Jana, one big contradiction, even when she was asleep. He lifted her easily and kissed her forehead. She might be stubborn and antagonistic, but he’d seen her when her guard was down, and he knew this was a facade. She could push him as far and as hard as she wanted, but hell if he didn’t want to make her his even more than before.
She snuggled against his chest as her arms wound around his neck.
“Keys,” he mumbled. They’d left so quickly after he told Sky he was taking Jana home that they must have left her purse behind.
“Under the mat.” She pressed her hand to his chest and blinked up at him with sleepy, sexy eyes.
Damn if he didn’t get a little shiver. She’d gotten to him, all right. Hook, line, and sinker. He couldn’t resist pressing a kiss to her pink lips.
“We’re going to have a talk about safety, pretty girl.”
“No talk,” she slurred as her eyes closed. “Sex.”
He crouched, holding Jana tightly against him as he retrieved the key from beneath the mat, unlocked the door, then pocketed the key and pushed the door open.
“We’re going to talk about that, too,” he told her, though the cadence of her breathing told him that she had already passed out again.
Jana’s house was dark and quiet and smelled like her: Sexy, feminine, and too fucking desirable. He’d been inside her house the other night, but he’d been so overcome with desire, and then, in the bedroom, he’d been bowled over by his emotions, unable to see or think past them. Now he took a moment to look around. The house was only slightly bigger than it looked from the outside, but Jana’s essence was everywhere. The living room curtains were partially closed, willowy and colorful. The pale blue couch clashed with an orange armchair, and the armchair definitely did not match the tie-dyed pillows tossed haphazardly on the chair and floor. The walls were painted pale yellow, but as Hunter turned down the hallway toward the open bedroom door he’d spotted, he noticed that the hallway walls were pink. He smiled to himself. Her furnishings were as busy as her life.
He stopped at the threshold to Jana’s bedroom and tried to make sense of the sight before him. He wasn’t sure if he was looking at something from a Dr. Seuss book or a fancy high-end catalog. How the hell had he missed all this the last time? The bedroom walls were a muted gold color. A pear-green dresser boasted iron handles in the shapes of flowers. He recognized them because he’d made them to fill a special order from the Eclectic Shop. That made his chest warm. Jana must like armchairs, because there was another one in the small bedroom. The black and white plaid seat cushion conflicted with the pink and purple paisley upholstery that covered the back and arms of the chair, but somehow the gold frilly pillow made it fit right in with the rest of the mayhem in the bedroom. At the head of the double bed—Who sleeps in a double bed instead of a king? One glance at the sleeping woman in his arms answered that—decorative bright green and blue curtains hung from a metal twisted vine rod that he also recognized, as it had come in as a special order from the same store as the dresser handles.
He drew his brows together and wondered if she’d known he was the one who’d made them.
There must have been fifteen pillows on the bed with crazy patterns, in every color and size under the sun, piled on top of a fuchsia blanket, which was folded halfway down the bed, with a bright orange blanket beneath, also folded, and finished off with an olive-green blanket lying across the foot of the bed. Even the sight of all those covers made him hot. It was summertime. Who slept under that many blankets?
He took a few steps, quickly scanning the rest of the room. A bright orange lamp sat beside pottery pieces of various sizes. Surprisingly, they were all in the same electric color. The entire room came together with a painting hanging over the dresser that looked like a child had painted mad streaks of the colors sprinkled throughout the room. He sat on the edge of the bed with Jana in his arms, thinking he’d just learned more about his girl than she ever could have told him.
Hunter carefully slipped off Jana’s heels, hoping not to wake her. He set them on the floor and debated changing her out of the dress. Her breasts were vying for release from the binding material, plumping over the low neckline. Distracting himself from making the decision, he rose again with her in his arms and tossed the pillows to the floor, then pulled back the soft blankets and sheet. He couldn’t imagine sleeping beneath that many blankets, and wondered why she needed them.
As he laid her on the bed, she sighed softly. Now he had another dilemma. He didn’t want to leave her. Like, really didn’t want to leave her. And it wasn’t because he was worried she might throw up in her sleep and choke or anything as chivalrous as that. He just wanted to be near her. To hold her and wake up with her in his arms. He’d wanted that since the day he’d met her all those months ago. He sat beside her on the edge of the bed and brushed her hair from her forehead. Even the first time they’d hooked up, when she’d called him the wrong name and he’d wanted to throttle her, he’d been disappointed when she’d snuck out while he was asleep.
Weeks later, when Sky and Sawyer got together, he went to see Sawyer fight—and Jana walked in. He’d been drawn to her even more strongly than before. They fought, they challenged, they pushed each other to the limits, taking what they wanted and asking for nothing in return. Yet every time they’d come together since, she’d left him wanting more. He couldn’t explain it, but he sure as hell couldn’t deny that she had a string around his neck, and every time she walked away, she tugged a piece of him along with her.
He headed into her calm-within-the-storm bathroom, which was layered in pastel blue and yellow with a white tile floor and claw-foot tub, needing to figure out if he should stay or go. She had asked him to have sex. That’s kind of like an invitation.
He was careful not to mess up her sink as he washed up. When he returned to the bedroom, Jana had pulled the sheets up over her shoulders. She looked so innocent, with her hair spread out beneath her. His body ached to hold her, and really, he shouldn’t leave her alone, right? He took off his jeans and T-shirt, tossed them onto the chair, and slipped beneath the sheets. Lying on his back, contemplating his decision to stay when she hadn’t asked him to, he locked his hands beneath his head.