Taking Him (Lies We Tell)(5)

“Do your zip up,” he ordered, staring out the window. “Then I’ll listen.”

A small silence.

“No,” Ellie said.

Ah, fuck, she was pushing him. Such a bad move tonight when all he’d wanted to do was get drunk and forget about the necessity of having to attend Justin’s wedding. Of having to see his family. His father, his brother, and…Elizabeth.

A sick feeling turned over in his gut, his patience slipping inexorably through his fingers. “Do it.”

“Or what?”

He turned, looked into her eyes. “Or I’ll do it for you.”

She stared back at him, unflinching. Lounging in her seat with her dyed black hair over one shoulder, black-painted mouth pouting, her jumpsuit spread open, she looked vampish and—go on, admit it—sexy. His brain didn’t want to acknowledge it, not about her, but his body had no such qualms. Christ. Now he was getting hard.

“Maybe I want you to do it for me.” She threw the words at him like a gauntlet being thrown down. “Maybe I’d like it.” No escaping the look in her eyes. The look of a woman who knew what she wanted. Him.

Hunter kept himself very still. He’d always known she’d had a crush on him as a young teenager, but as the years had gone by, he’d thought she’d put that aside. Then again, this didn’t look like a crush. There was too much hunger in her eyes. A hunger that called to an answering heat in himself. A heat he didn’t want. A heat he couldn’t stop.

Shit, no. He did not want that heat associated in any way with Ellie Fox. The kid who used to look at him like he was her own personal hero. The one bright spot in his dark, teenage years. Anyone but her.

She made a small sound, as if he’d somehow let slip his response, as if she knew, and she sat forward suddenly. The bright metal of the zip pressed against her soft, white skin, along her stomach, the curves of her breasts. Digging in. Leaving a mark.

His breath caught. “Stop,” he said hoarsely.

She blinked. “What?”

“Don’t move.”

“But…” Her eyes widened and he knew what she saw in his gaze. Oh Jesus, this was getting so messed up. “Hunter…”

He leaned forward, reached for the end of her zip. Getting her covered was imperative, hiding all that white skin away. Turning her back into Ellie, the girl he knew, not some sexual fantasy he hadn’t even known he’d wanted.

“What are you doing?” she asked uncertainly as he began to draw her zip up.

“What I told you I’d do.” Hunter kept his gaze averted, not looking at her, taking care not to touch her or brush against her as he did up her jumpsuit. Only once he’d covered her did he sit back and look into her eyes.

A strange mix of confusion, hurt and anger crossed her face. “Why did you do that?”

“Because I told you to cover yourself and you didn’t.”

Her throat moved as she swallowed. “But… But you… I thought you liked…” She stopped. “I saw it, Hunter. In your eyes.”

“Saw what?”

“You were…attracted to me.”

“No. That’s not what you saw.”

“It was. Don’t deny it.”

“You misunderstood.”

She searched his face. “I know what I saw. I’m not an idiot.”

“Stop pushing me, Ellie.”

“You think that’s pushing?” An expression he couldn’t read flared in her eyes. “No. This is pushing.” And before he could stop her, she moved her hand between his thighs, the warmth of her palm covering his fly. Pressing down on the hard ridge of his cock. Touching him.

For one intense second Hunter was conscious only of the surge of heat that went through him. A heat so intense he went rigid with shock. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t even breathe.

Ellie’s eyes had gone so wide he could see the rim of gray around the outside of her green contacts. “You’re hard,” she murmured, as if she couldn’t believe it herself. “My God… Hunter—”

Instinct kicked in. An instinct that had been protecting him for sixteen years. An instinct that turned the heat of her touch into the icy grip of fear.

Without thinking, his fingers closed around her wrist and he tore her hand away from him. “Don’t touch me,” he heard himself say roughly. “Don’t ever fucking touch me!”

She went pale, looking at him as if he’d turned into some kind of monster. Which was kind of true because he never got angry with her. Never shouted at her or lost his temper. Because she’d had so much of that with her mother, he didn’t want to be the same.

But then Ellie had never touched him like that before. Oh, he’d handled hugs from her. Had held hands with her when she’d been a kid. Had been fine with a casual hand on his shoulder or his arm.

Yet this was different. This was sexual and if there was one thing he hated, it was people sexually touching him without permission.

He turned away, not bothering to apologise. Why should he? She’d touched him like she had the right. Like she owned him. Touched him when he didn’t want her to. She should be the one apologising, not him.

The silence that fell was thick and heavy, falling like a lead curtain between them.

“I…I’m sorry, Hunter.” Her voice sounded shocked but he still didn’t look at her. “I don’t know what I did but I’m sorry.”

He knew an explanation was in order. Something to make things right between them. But he didn’t know what to say because his kink about sex wasn’t anything he wanted to discuss with sweet little Ellie Fox.

A part of him wanted to tell her it was okay, that she’d done nothing wrong. Which was true, she hadn’t. He was the one with the problem. Yeah, he was screwed up about touch but that’s because he wanted to be. Because he liked it. Liz had shown him what he liked, after all.

But he didn’t even want to go there with her. So all he said was, “Let’s get you home.”

Hunter turned on the ignition. And drove.





Chapter Three

The atmosphere in the truck felt like it had been delivered straight from Antarctica.

Ellie sat in her seat, blindly watching the world outside the window, cold solidifying in her veins.

Don’t ever fucking touch me…

Her wrist ached from where he’d wrenched it away, and she knew she’d probably have bruises there the next day.

Jesus, what the hell was going on with him? She’d been ecstatic as she’d put her hand on him, feeling the hard line of his erection beneath the denim. He’d been hard. For her. And the look glittering in his black eyes… She’d been sure it was desire.

Until he’d pulled her hand away as if her touch had disgusted him.

Ellie blinked as the flashing lights of an ambulance whizzed past them then disappeared around a corner, the colours blurring in her vision as the sting of tears threatened.

He’d been so brutal, vehement in his rejection, and she hadn’t expected that of him. Not when he’d been so hard and hot beneath her hand. God, she’d thought it was all on. Thought that after so many years of waiting, she’d finally get what she’d always wanted.

But no. All she’d gotten was disgust.

The truck slowed then came to a stop, and she saw they were already outside her apartment building.

“Come on. I’ll see you inside,” Hunter said casually, as if nothing had happened. As if he hadn’t wrenched her hand away like she’d burned him.

Ellie glanced across at him. His gaze met hers, giving nothing away.

A sudden curl of anger licked up inside her. So as far as he was concerned they were going to go on as normal? No way. He’d gotten her hopes up, showed her a glimpse of what she could have then shattered those hopes in the cruelest way possible. There was no way she was going to let this slide, close up like she normally did when she got hurt. Not tonight. She was in her costume. She was powerful.

“So that’s your plan?” Ellie demanded. “You’re not going to say anything? You’re going to pretend it didn’t happen?”

The expression on his face was unreadable. “Nothing happened, sweetness. Which means there’s nothing to say.”

“Excuse me? How is ‘don’t fucking touch me’ nothing?”

He lifted a shoulder. “An overreaction.”

“That’s one hell of an overreaction, Hunter!”

His gaze flickered away from her then back again. “You’re Vin’s little sister and all of a sudden you’re reaching for my cock? What kind of reaction did you expect?”

“I thought you wanted me.”

This time his gaze didn’t even flinch. “Where did you get that idea?”

“For God’s sake, you were hard! I felt it.”

“You had your tits out, Ellie. They were virtually in my face. And I’m a guy, okay? It’s got nothing whatsoever to do with you personally.”

Oh. Oh great. Freaking fantastic.

Ellie turned around and shoved open the door, wanting out suddenly. Wanting to get away from him and the flat, detached look in his eyes. The look that told her that her fears were right. That he’d never want anything from her.

Hunter said nothing, but she knew he was following her because she heard the truck door close. The beep as he locked it. She wanted to turn and tell him to piss off, that she didn’t need or want him around, but she was too angry to speak.