"Okay. But I'll sort dinner tomorrow." His lips grazed my throat before he let me go. Then he stepped away, and I watched him get down on the floor with Josh and start playing cars with him, making the noises and everything.
Jesus. The man was killing me, or at least giving my self-control a serious hammering. I ignored the tingles from having his lips on my skin, which wasn't easy, and dished up.
After dinner, I gave Josh a bath and put him to bed. He fell asleep halfway through his story. I wasn't tired, not after my nap earlier, and headed back to the living room. Hunter had just turned on the dishwasher.
He turned to me when I walked in.
Our gazes locked then dropped, traveling, taking the other in, like it was the first time we'd laid eyes on each other. Not like I'd just sat with him chatting while we ate thirty minutes ago, which had also been weird. I was struggling big time with our new arrangement.
I had no idea what he was thinking, or feeling. He gave none of it away. He just aimed those blue eyes at me, intense, deep, so damn deep, fathomless. There was so much going on behind them, too much. Too much for me to get a handle on.
I swallowed, hard.
Jesus. The man was perfection. Seriously perfection. Rough, growly, dirty perfection.
"Movie?" I blurted, because how long could we just stand there staring, no one saying a damn thing?
He lifted his beer to his lips and took a sip, swallowed, inked neck working, and somehow, that was sexy, too. "Sure."
Excellent. Watching a movie meant we didn't have to talk, which was a good thing. A very good thing. But Hunter didn't seem in the mood to talk either. He tagged the remote, handed it to me to pick what I wanted to watch, then grabbed my hand, pulling me out of the chair I'd just taken and brought me to the couch. And like the weak-willed woman I'd recently become, I went with him without a single word of protest.
He sat, pulling me down, too, and tucked me into his side. Right into his side, so there was no room between us. His heat surrounded me, his scent. The hardness of his body against my softer one felt amazing, and I fought back a delicious shiver. I instantly became enthralled with the way his chest rose and fell, the way his breath brushed the top of my head with each exhale.
"You gonna pick a movie?"
I heard words coming out of his mouth, but with the way I was superglued to his side, the way my entire body was zeroed in on his, I didn't actually hear the words, I felt them. They hit me right between the thighs, making my nipples tingle. I forgot what he said.
"Lulu?"
I twisted to look at him. "What?"
He grinned. "Movie?"
"Oh . . . right." That grin did things to me as well, things that felt way too damn good to be healthy.
I flicked through the movie channels and picked something with plenty of action. I decided this was the safest way to go. Avoiding anything with romance and or possible love scenes would stop any awkwardness.
I was wrong. There were sex scenes. Several of them. And they weren't fade-to-black, either. They were also sexy as hell.
As the heroine of the movie wrapped her arms around the hero, his body rolling on top of hers, while some beautiful song played in the background, my heart started to race faster, harder. I wriggled against Hunter, trying to get some distance between us. I was burning up and having all that hard heat plastered against me was not helping.
His hand snaked down to my hip, fingers digging in. "Stop."
I twisted, looking up at him again. "I beg your pardon?"
"Beg all you like, cupcake, you aren't going anywhere. So stop fighting and fucking relax."
"You're bossier than you used to be," I snapped.
He took another sip of his beer and shrugged. "I'm a lot of things I never used to be. That doesn't change the fact that where you are now is where you're supposed to be."
Oh God.
He looked back at the TV, watching the movie like he hadn't just said what he had. I was still trying to process, and he'd moved on, chuckling at some cheesy one liner, while cars exploded all over the screen.
I woke up sometime later, plastered against Hunter's side. The TV was off, and the lights were dim, like we'd left them. He was on his back on the couch, and my body was half on him, half on the couch on my side. One of his hands was on my ass, the other in my hair. My knee was cocked, lifted over him, and his thigh was between mine, the heavy muscle right there, providing enough pressure to give me very happy tingles. He shifted and his thigh rubbed against me. It felt good, so damn good.
I was still sleepy and confused and before I knew what I was doing, I'd shifted my hips against him, seeking more. Then I did it again-and again.
What the hell was wrong with me? What was I going to do, lie here and dry hump Hunter's thigh until I got off?
I moved my hips again.
Yep. Looked that way.
I knew the minute he woke, because the hand on my ass curled deeper, fingers digging in. By this point, I'd worked myself up enough that I didn't really care about much more than reaching for the orgasm that was already building.
"You wanna come, Lulu?"
Oh yeah, the way he said that, the way his voice sounded rough and gravelly from sleep, was pure sex. Shit, I was sure I had a mini orgasm right then and there.
"Yes." I shouldn't be doing this, I should get up and walk away, but I wasn't going to. Why fight it?
"You in a hurry, baby?"
"Yes." I thought I might explode and not in a good way if he didn't give me the release I needed.
"You okay like this?" His voice dipped lower. "Not too sore?"
"I'm fine," I whispered.
The hand at my ass slid down the back of my yoga pants, inside my panties, cupping my behind as the other slid down the front. He made a rough sound when he found how wet I was.
Jesus, it felt good.
I lifted my face so I could see his, and the way he looked at me was hot and fierce and had my inner muscles squeezing in anticipation.
He watched me, eyes locked on mine as he slid a thick finger through my slit, spreading my juices, working me up. I moved my hips wanting more and he gave it to me, growling softly as he pushed a finger deep inside me. I whimpered, burying my face against his shirt when he started moving, sliding in and out, slow and deep. I tried to thrust my hips against his hand, but he controlled my movements with the hand on my ass. Then he slid in a second finger, stretching me wider, thumb joining the action, and my entire body rolled, undulated against his. I lifted my knee higher, so my legs were spread wider, asking for more.
"Fuck," he rasped. "I want that stiff little clit under my mouth."
I wanted that, too. Badly. But all I could do was moan against his shirt.
I was close, so close. The scent of my arousal drifted around us. The wet sound Hunter's fingers made while he worked me, our harsh pants, were all I could hear.
My breath hitched and I moved my hips against his hand the best I could. "I'm close," I gasped.
"I know, baby." His intense gaze stayed on me, the hand on my ass holding me tighter, holding me down as he did another swipe over my throbbing clit. The building pleasure peaked. I moaned helplessly as I came around his thrusting fingers. "That's it, Lulu, come all over my hand, let me feel it."
He continued to hold me gently as I came, until I went limp on top of him, body quivering with the aftershocks. He removed his hand from the front of my pants, but the one on my ass stayed, big and warm, the hold unmistakably possessive.
And right then I didn't care.
I let my heavy eyes drift shut.
I felt him kiss the top of my head, then I let sleep claim me.
I was lying in bed, cocooned in blankets, light creeping under the curtains, and listening to Hunter's low voice drifting in from the living room. Smiling to myself when it was followed by Josh's sweet, excited one. His short answers and out of control giggles were what I'd woken to the last three mornings.
It warmed me in a way I hadn't felt in too long to remember.
I loved it. Too much.
We had a kind of routine going. A routine that just sort of happened. I didn't sleep in, not usually, not since I'd been on my own. I didn't sleep heavily either. Being on edge all the time, afraid, made that impossible. But for the last three mornings, I'd woken to those voices in the kitchen. The reason for my sudden ability to sleep like the dead hadn't escaped me. It was Hunter.
For the first time in a long time, I felt safe.
So now we had this little groove going. Hunter gave Josh breakfast, and after I ate and showered, we'd hang out. He hadn't gone into the office, but he was on the phone and his laptop a lot. He was also tense. I got the feeling the hunt for Pierce wasn't going that well.
The second day out of the hospital, Hunter took me to see my mother. I'd lied and told her I'd been in a minor car accident. She'd stared at me for a long time, tears in her eyes, and I knew she didn't buy it. But she didn't question me further, either. She also didn't question why she was still in the hospital and not at home like Pierce had promised, or her husband's whereabouts or absence. I didn't know what Pierce had told her, the excuses he made, if he'd even bothered when she called to tell him she'd seen me, but it was almost like he didn't exist to her anymore.