by Alina Jacobs
64
Hunter
“No word from Remy?” I asked Blade. “Or Crawford?”
It had been over a week since they had left. And we hadn’t heard a word from them.
“Just concentrate on your part,” Garrett said, eyes narrowed.
“Shut up,” I hissed at him as Isaac came into the office.
He looked between us accusingly. “Minnie thinks you’re plotting something.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said reassuringly.
“She’s not going to want to be with me if you screw Meg over again,” he said stubbornly.
“It’s more complicated than that.” I leveled my gaze at him.
He gave me an assessing look.
“I liked them better when they were little and cute,” Weston said, ruffling Isaac’s hair. He had started to hit another growth spurt and was sprouting up.
“I want to marry Minnie,” Isaac insisted.
“Holy smokes!” Archer exclaimed. “We can’t all be marrying the Loring sisters. That’s too many Svenssons.”
“If they’re going to move in here, then why not?” Isaac countered.
“What? Who?” Weston demanded. “You’re moving them all here? Where?”
“There are the cottages on the property,” I reminded him.
“Minnie said she didn’t want to live here, though,” Isaac continued. “It would make her uncomfortable, and I don’t want her that close to Calvin and Bruno.”
“We don’t give a shit what you want,” Garrett snapped. “You’re sixteen. You don’t get to start dictating what goes on here.”
“Garrett, stop cursing.”
“Fuck you,” Garrett spat.
“That’s a fine,” I warned.
“I handle the money here,” Garrett sneered.
I was losing control of my brothers.
“Minnie says she wants a house in town anyways. Then I can see her after work,” Isaac informed me.
“What work?” Garrett asked acerbically. “Your job at the coffee shop?”
“I’ve been interning at Weston’s company,” Isaac said stubbornly. “They pay well.”
“You need to go to college. You aren’t getting married.”
And that was why I decided my dream about marrying Meg might just be that—a dream. Once she finds out you were planning on screwing her over, she was going to dump you anyway. This always had an end date.
But maybe not…
I still clung to the shred of hope that after all this time—all the waiting, the fighting—was just part of our epic love story.
After all, we still hadn’t heard anything from Remy or Crawford and maybe never would. If Crawford had rescued our sisters, he would be gloating about it to Greg. Not that I didn’t want my sisters rescued, but if Crawford failed, we would find another way, and I would still have Meg.
She was working alone in her campaign office when I walked up later that evening.
“Here to make my dreams a reality?” she quipped, standing up when I appeared in the doorway. I wrapped my arms around her, sinking into the smell of her, the soft feel of holding her.
“You’re already my dream,” I told her honestly. “Being with you is all I ever wanted—that and to fuck you in your campaign office.”
“We can’t do it here!” she said, sounding horrified, though I could see by her slightly dilated eyes and breathy tone that a part of her was secretly turned on.
“It’s late,” I reminded her, kissing her neck. “No one’s around.” I switched off the light. “Just you and me.” I pressed kisses along the back of her neck. I could feel her resolve crumble. It was all in the way she arched back against me, the little sounds she made. “Someone can come into the office at any time.”
That was a token protest if I had ever heard one before. I reached up to cup her breasts in my hands, massaging them in slow circles. “We would hear someone coming,” I promised. Then I turned her to the window. The lights were off, but I could still see the reflection of our shadows there. “We’ll keep a lookout, see?”
“This is such a bad idea,” she moaned. Which meant that she was an inch from giving in.
I slipped my hand up her shirt and bra. She arched back against me, her bottom rubbing seductively against my growing erection.
“It’s a great idea. I’m full of them.”
She huffed a laugh. “That’s a lie if I ever heard one.”
“You want me to fuck you over this desk.”
She laughed again. “I thought you would never ask.”
“Turn around,” I said roughly, and when she did, I slipped my hand out of her shirt and fell to my knees in front of her. I felt like a damn supplicant in front of a goddess. And to judge by her suddenly wicked grin, my goddess was pleased.
She wanted quick, but at that moment, I didn’t give a damn who saw us. All I cared about was this woman—making her come. Making her mine.
Her suit came off easily, and within a few moments, she was leaning back, hitched up on the edge of the desk, and I was opening her thighs.
Her pussy, already wet, made my dick sit up and take notice. Something funny happened in my heart, too, but I chose to ignore it. Instead, I pressed kisses to the inside of her thigh, parted her slick pink slit, and pressed a kiss inside there too.
“Hunter…” she gasped, leaning back to give me more angle to work with. Her free hand came to rest in my hair, pushing me forward. I went, gladly.
I had always enjoyed eating a woman out, and Meghan was no exception. She was deliciously responsive, with her gasps and little moans, and when I flattened my tongue across her clit, it was like music to my ears. Then, using the end of my tongue, I teased over and around the nub.
Her moans echoed in the shipping container office. If no one could see us, they might actually hear us. That was fine by me.
Her clit was swollen, close. With my free hand, I plunged my finger into her opening, crooking upward to rub her from the inside.
Meghan practically pushed my face inward. I sucked on her clit as she rode out her climax, thighs trembling slightly.
When I pulled off her at last, she looked down at me, breathless, and said, “Don’t tell me you’re done yet.”
I grinned at her. “Miss me?”
“Just your cock.”
“I’m offended, Meg.”
“Guess you can take it out on me,” she purred.
I rose and pressed her to me so she could feel the hot length of my cock against her hip. “I told you I’m fucking you over the desk. I’m going to take you hard too.”
“What are you waiting for, then?” She bent down, hands on the desk, and looked back over her shoulder at me, one eyebrow raised.
I slowly unzipped and rolled on a condom while she made horny, frustrated noises.
Meghan spread her legs for me, deliciously wet and open. I pushed into her pussy in one smooth glide. Meghan bowed over the desk, hair hanging down, poised and perfect.
“I love how tight you are,” I grunted, moving out and pushing back in, reveling in the hot feel of her around me, how she fluttered and tightened like she was trying to hold me in.
“Such a fucking sweet talker,” she said breathlessly.
I aimed my next thrust upward, bringing her up on her toes.
“Yeah,” she gasped. “That’s more like it.”
“You love my mouth.”
“Maybe, but right now I’m a bigger fan of your dick.”
I pulled out then pushed in her excruciatingly slow.
She moaned loudly. “I thought you said you were going to take me hard. Make me feel it.”
For once, I didn’t give her exactly what she wanted. Now that I had her exactly where I wanted her, I was determined to take my time—to draw this out as long as possible. Just in case.
As usual, Meghan figured out what I was up to right away with my steady, long thrusts. She moaned, getting into it, clinging around me and making me feel powerful and also
as if I was at her mercy at the same time.
I reached around to cup her firm breasts in my hand, reveling in the feel of them, in the feel of her. I wanted this moment to last forever, but I couldn’t. My balls were drawing up, and I was close. Shifting gears, I pounded into her with short, sharp thrusts aimed to hit the spot inside she loved the most.
Meghan’s cries mingled with the slap of skin against skin and my own desperate pants. Her screams of pleasure echoed around the small office. I followed after, burying myself into her and loving every second of it.
“Did that satisfy all your fantasies?” Meg asked, voice slightly rough.
“No,” I said simply. “I love you. I love you so much. I want to marry you and spend the rest of my life with you.” I needed her to say it back.
But she just looked up at me, wide-eyed, and said, “Oh!”
Crap.
65
Meghan
“He already said he wanted to marry you… so why are you so freaked out that he said he loves you?”
“This can’t work,” I told Kate as I paced around my apartment. “It’s a disaster waiting to happen.”
“You think everything’s a disaster waiting to happen.”
“We don’t have anywhere to live.”
“Your sisters will be in college in three years, right? So just live separately until then,” Kate suggested, taking another slice of pizza.
“What about his brothers? I am not taking care of all of them,” I said forcefully.
“Then live separately.”
“That’s not the kind of marriage I want.”
“You’re almost thirty-five,” Kate reminded me. “Ticktock.”
Susie patted me on the back. “You’re not that old.”
“Grant travels so much, half the time, we don’t see each other anyway. But it still works.”
“I can’t have kids in that condition,” I protested, picking the pepperoni off my slice.
“Then get a dog.”
“You keep finding excuses not to be with him,” Susie pointed out. “If you really don’t want to, then don’t. But if you do, then you’ll find a way to make it work.”
Did I want to make it work? I had been so used to the pattern Hunter and I had had for years—flirt a bit, argue, he would claim he loved me, I would call him a liar and remind him that he had betrayed me, and I would never forgive him. To actually move forward—well, change was scary. I didn’t like change. I was a small-town girl. I liked everything to stay exactly how it had always been.
But when Hunter walked into my campaign office, it was like all of that fear and doubt melted away, and I just saw him, the man I loved and wanted to spend the rest of my life with, whatever that looked like.
“For you,” he said, brandishing a lush bouquet of pink and blush and champagne-colored flowers. He set them on my desk then kissed me. “And,” he added, “I brought lunch.”
“Cute! Bento boxes!”
“They’re from one of the pop-up shops in the Rural Trust headquarters,” he explained as I untied the ribbon on one of the bamboo boxes made from wood harvested on Ernest’s farm because that was how we rolled in Harrogate.
Hunter grinned at me.
“What?”
“I fucked you on that desk last night. And I kind of want to do it again.”
“Meg!” Frank greeted me from the doorway, making me jump.
Hunter was looking between us, a dark expression on his face.
I patted his hand.
“I finally have all the proper forms submitted to receive an accurate accounting of my financial information,” I told Hunter.
“It’s all about filing the correct paperwork,” Frank said, handing me a large file folder.
“Meg…” Hunter started to say. “I was going to show you, I promise.”
“No you weren’t,” I said lightly. “Just be honest.”
His mouth was a thin line as I opened the folder.
“Well,” Frank said, shuffling his feet. “Ah… I have to go back to work…”
“Did my house paperwork go through?” I asked him.
“Not yet,” he said, “but I’ll text you.”
Hunter let out a small growl.
“Er… email you? When it’s through.”
“Thanks!” I called out as the banker practically ran off.
“You can’t keep scaring men away,” I told Hunter mildly. “You already have me.” I patted his cheek. He still seemed apprehensive.
“Meg,” he said in a rush as I started to scan through the papers. “I didn’t want to tell you because I was afraid it would distract you in the election. I was working on a plan to fix it.”
“I know,” I said, proud of myself for how reasonable I sounded. “You like to be in control. I’m trying to accept the things about you so that I can enjoy loving you.”
“You love me?”
“Of course I—” I sucked in a breath as I read the paperwork. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Hunter winced.
“This isn’t hiding bad news from me. My identity was stolen! He took out credit cards in my name and my sisters'! I’m hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Hunter, what the ever-loving—”
“Look, Meg,” Hunter pleaded, jumping back up and putting a few pieces of furniture in between us. “I already filed police reports. Some of that debt is in the process of being cleared. And your sisters’ debts are almost cleared as well.”
“He went after my sisters, and you didn’t tell me?” I was enraged. “Fuck you, Hunter.”
“I was trying to protect you!” he begged.
“Yeah?” I shot back. “And what if someone went after your little brothers, huh? You’d want to know.”
“I was handling it.”
“They’re my siblings.”
“Meg, I’m sorry!” he shouted, holding out his hands.
“You can’t just throw out an apology and expect that’s sufficient to wipe the slate clean.”
“What could you have done?” he argued.
“I could have known! I couldn’t figure out why my credit cards were getting declined.” I started fretting. “I need to freeze my sisters’ credit. Oh my god, what if their identities are all over the internet?”
Hunter went over to me. “I already have Blade working on it. Barry only took a few loans out in their name, and their identity has not appeared online anywhere. Their credit is already frozen, and I have Owen Frost and Quantum Cyber on high alert for any additional suspicious activity on you and your sisters’ accounts.”
His words barely registered. I was still in shock.
“Is this why Hazel was having issues a couple years ago with her finances when she lost her restaurant building? Was it because of Barry?”
Hunter winced. “I think that was just because Hazel’s not that great with money.”
I turned on him, raising my hand in a threatening gesture.
He held up his hands. “To be fair, neither is Archer. Garrett and Mike keep him on a tight leash.”
I slumped down in a chair. “What am I going to do?”
“Meg,” Hunter said, kneeling in front of me. “I am handling it. Please just let me help you.” He stroked my face.
“I have a hard time giving up control,” I admitted.
He grinned. “No you don’t! You totally gave up control last night when my tongue was in your clit. I’m surprised it didn’t wake the whole town.”
Flirting with Hunter aside, I was still sick about the state of my finances. How could I be mayor if I hadn’t even had any idea that my sisters and I were being robbed blind?
“When people find out, they aren’t going to vote for me,” I moaned to Kate, pacing around my apartment. “They’re obviously going to vote for Hunter. I’m the mess who burned off her hair, and he’s the handsome, helpful billionaire who’s bailing me out.”
“Just keep pushing forward,” Kate insisted. “Hunter loves you. If he wanted to put
your financial failings on blast, then he would have. But instead, he’s trying to help you.”
“Do you trust him?” Susie asked.
I shrugged. “I shouldn’t, but I guess I do. He usually means well. He just goes about it the wrong way.”
But was I just making excuses for him? Was I overlooking the lying, excusing it because I wanted the happily ever after?
66
Hunter
Meg hadn’t seemed as upset as I had expected. She didn’t tell me she hated me and never wanted to see me again. But the next day and a half after, she blew me off, responding to my olive branches with only short, terse text messages.
Hunter: Are you mad at me?
Meg: Just prepping for the debate.
Hunter: So you don’t want me to steal all your secrets?
Meg: Just need to prepare.
That was how all our text conversations went. When I called her, she never picked up the phone. The only thing worse than Meg’s hatred of me was her indifference.
I couldn’t lose her. I sat at my desk in my campaign office and went over all my bad decisions regarding Meg over and over in my head.
“Ready for the debate? You only have a few days,” Karen reminded me. “You know, we could order dinner, and I could help you prepare.”
“Look, Karen,” I said tersely, “I hired you to run my campaign, not sleep with me, not become the next Mrs. Svensson or even the side piece I show off to the tabloids. If you can’t do your job, then get out.”
Karen recoiled as if I had slapped her, then she straightened. “Of course. I’ll email you your notes.”
“Thank you.” I sat back down to brood over Meg. I scrolled through her photos she had sent… the sexy ones. I set the phone down. Was this going to be the rest of my life with her? Wondering if every time I slept with her would be the last, wondering if every time she texted me would be the last?
It was infuriating and took up too much of my brain power. But I couldn’t let her go.
