by Alina Jacobs
“Hunter,” she said at the same time.
“Look,” I told her. “I overreacted.”
“No you didn’t. I told you…”
“I don’t want to lose you,” I said. “I don’t have a big, grand gesture planned. I don’t have flowers or a car or a new house. I just want you back in whatever way you’ll have me.”
Meg stepped up and wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me down for a kiss. “You know I can’t quit you, Hunter,” she said, smiling up at me. “You were always there for me. Maybe it wasn’t exactly above board, but to be fair, you were there.”
“My family’s a wreck,” I reminded her. “I’m a wreck.”
She snorted. “My life is a disaster. I have a whole ecosystem growing in my car, and I’m planning on sleeping in my office tonight.”
“I’ll drop out of the election if that’s what you want,” I offered.
“What? Absolutely not!” she exclaimed. “I’m going to beat you fair and square.”
I looked down at her. “Are you sure you want me back? You could have—”
“Who?” Meg said, raising an eyebrow. “Walter? Who was out there committing fraud with Karen of all people?”
“I don’t know. There are nicer guys out there.”
“The feral bunny guy? The fish guy? The practical joker with the lasagna?”
“The who?”
“Never mind. Honestly, Hunter…” She held a hand to my forehead. “I’m a little concerned at this sudden onset humbleness from you. Did you catch something from the alligator?”
“I’m just tired,” I admitted. “Enola made us scour the house all night.”
Meg let out a peal of laughter. “That was nice of Greg to take them in.”
“He doesn’t know yet. It’s going to be a surprise,” I said grimly. “I expect to hear all about it.”
Meg, still laughing, laced her fingers with mine.
“Are you seriously forgiving me, just like that?” I asked her.
“Are you seriously forgiving me just like that?” she replied, smiling up at me.
“I feel like it should be a little harder,” I said. “I’ve literally been waiting for this day for years.”
“I’m still going to have to be taking care of my sisters, and you’re going to be taking care of your brothers, so it’s not like it’s going to get easier, but it is nice to have someone to commiserate with,” she said, pressing her face to my chest.
“Isaac thinks he’s marrying Minnie at age eighteen,” I said.
“Over my dead body,” Meg said, glaring up at me.
“Hey,” I protested, holding up my hands. “I’m trying to shut that down.”
“I think I do need to find someplace else to live, though.” She wrinkled her nose.
“We could just keep having sex at your office.”
“I’m not opposed to that, but I’m not sleeping on the floor.”
“Wait, you know what? I have the perfect idea!” I said, smiling craftily.
“There’s the Hunter I know and love,” Meg teased. “The one who always has a slightly illegal idea brewing.”
“Who, me?” I protested pulling her close to me. “This is a perfectly above-board idea. It will solve your problem of not having anywhere to live and my problem of wanting to be as close to you as humanly possible without starting a riot in my household.”
“I feel like I’m not going to like this idea,” Meg said as I pressed kisses to her hair.
“Relax, I have the best ideas.”
“Okay, scratch what I said about grand gestures,” I told Meg as I tried to put the least amount of my weight as possible on the flaking car seat. “I am buying you a car. This is absurd. And it doesn’t smell right.”
“Just roll down the window,” she said, pointing at the hand crank.
“And it sounds like it’s going to fall apart.” The car made a wheezing noise.
“Ignorance is bliss!” She cranked up the radio. “Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise,” I said. “Just drive in the general direction of the estate house.”
Meg was thoughtful for a moment. “You want me to live on the farmstead!” she shrieked.
“It’s a surprise, Meg!”
“I’m right, aren’t I?”
“It makes sense! It’s close to my house—just a quick drive.”
“I’m not living in a barn,” she said stubbornly.
“Relax. I’m developing the land into luxury farming condos. Everyone will have a townhome with a plot of land for a garden, chickens, and other small animals. Just come take a look. I already had Olivia draw up some preliminary architectural plans.”
Meg parked the car on the abandoned farmstead property. We stepped out, and I inspected my suit for any damage her car had done.
“It is pretty out here,” Meg conceded.
“And,” I added, “if you lose the election, you can hide out here and nurse your wounds.”
“I am not losing,” she retorted.
“Well, it’s going to be close,” I said diplomatically.
She sniffed.
“Use your imagination,” I said, sweeping my arms out. “Think beautiful brick townhouses. There are two to a row, so every townhome is a corner. You can pick wildflowers, and I can live here with you and still be close enough to my brothers to deal with them. What do you think?”
Meg regarded the property. “Maybe it’s not the most standard arrangement,” she said, “but our relationship is all that standard.”
“You’ll never be bored with me,” I promised her.
“You are anything but boring.” She smiled up at me. I wanted her to look at me like that always.
“I love you, Hunter,” she said sincerely. “I’d spend my life with you in any way possible.”
I swept her in my arms, kissing her. “I love you so much, Meg,” I murmured against her mouth. “Now let’s find you another car because that station wagon is not acceptable for my girlfriend.”
I breathed a sigh of relief when we were safely back at the Svensson estate. “We’re going to junk that car.”
“We could just let it return to nature,” she joked. She looked around. “Where are all your brothers?”
“School or work. Remy should be around. Remy!” I yelled when we walked in.
“I will give the girls credit,” Meg said, snickering. “I’ve never seen your house this clean.”
“My house is always clean!”
She laughed. “It’s a frat house.”
“It is not that bad!” I countered.
Meg kissed me in response.
“I want you,” I murmured. I kissed her hard, slipping my tongue into her mouth and pressing her against the wall.
She was breathing hard when she pushed me away. “We don’t want to freak out your brothers.”
Posted on the bulletin board next to the tablet that opened the gate was a note from Remy: “Gone to Manhattan to help see the girls off.”
“Guess we’re alone,” I said, grinning.
83
Meghan
“Funny you should say that,” I told him, “because there was one other fantasy I had about you. Now where is your bedroom?”
He picked me up, and I shrieked as he carried me upstairs.
“I’ve never been up here,” I said. “Damn, this is a nice house!”
“I’ll give you the grand tour,” he said, kissing me hungrily, “after I get a tour of you.”
I tried not to giggle like a schoolgirl as he carried me down the hall. I didn’t get all that much of a view of the house in between having the breath kissed out of me.
Hunter pushed through a bedroom door then set me down and pushed me up against it. I groaned, one leg coming to wrap around his waist. He must have liked that idea because his hands hooked firmly under my ass cheeks, and he hefted me up.
That show of strength turned me on. Wrapping my legs around his waist, I held on as he walked us both t
o the bed.
For once, we took our time undressing each other, stopping to kiss and stroke along the way. Hunter unzipped my dress slowly. Then, when my breasts were bare, he bent his head to suck and nibble at one nipple and then the other.
I spread my fingers up the length of his torso, reveling all over again in the wide flare of his shoulders, the sprinkling of chest hair. Mine, all mine, I thought greedily.
Hunter caught the direction of my gaze, looked down at himself, and flexed his pecs. I burst out laughing.
“What?” he complained, and I silenced him with a kiss.
“You and your big ego!” I joked and used his moment of inattention to roll us over. Straddling his hips, I backed up and started to unzip his pants.
Hunter’s irises were wide and dilated. He looked at me with such reverence that I couldn’t keep from mouthing off at his stiff erection the moment it was exposed. “And other big things.”
“I hope you’re not laughing at that,” he said.
I licked a line up his shaft, kissed his head. There was already a bead of pre-come there. I lapped it off, grinning at the little growl of appreciation he made. “Nooo, I’m going to enjoy this.”
Hunter sat up and pulled me up to the head of the bed with him. He kissed me again, his big, warm hands floating all over me—around my back, down my ribs, and finally to the vee between my legs.
I sighed in pleasure, opening up to him.
“Wet already?” he mused, his fingers dancing between my inner lips.
I caught my breath and shallowly rolled my hips into his touch. He pulled me into another kiss as the tip of one finger floated over my clit.
I shivered. “Hunter…”
“Yeah…” he said, and I mentally applauded myself for pulling that throaty little rumble out of him. “You ready for me, Meghan?”
“Give it to me. Please, I want you.”
He rolled on a condom. Then Hunter shifted, I wrapped my legs around him, and he pushed into me like he belonged there.
“Harder,” I gasped. “Hunter, I need to feel you… feel you everywhere.”
He did exactly as I commanded, with long, deep thrusts that made every point inside me want to sing out. I hooked one ankle around him, rolling my hips up as he plunged inside me.
Our pace built, hot and frantic. I clung onto him hard, my pussy clenching around him, just on the edge of release. I came with him deep inside me, and it was more than just a physical height. It felt right.
Hunter followed soon after, and we held each other for a few moments, breathing hard.
Neither one of us were in the mood to fall asleep. His hands floated over my ribs, teasingly moving down south to just over my mound and then back up again.
He kissed just under my ear. “Meghan…?”
“Hmm?” I murmured, not sleepy but just enjoying the moment. Having Hunter naked and around me almost felt too good to be true.
“Did I meet all your fantasies?”
I blinked. “Well…”
He sat up and looked at me. “Seriously?”
I licked my lips. “Fucking you is always good,” I trailed a finger down his bare chest. “But I told you I had a fantasy.”
His hands tightened on me.
“I want you all the way,” I whispered, nipping his bottom lip. “I want to feel you come in me.”
Hunter’s eyes widened, then understanding lit in them along with a wicked smile. He kissed me hungrily.
I reached down; he was growing hard already just by the thought of taking me from behind. The thought of him taking me that way sent new tingles through me too.
He rummaged around in his nightstand and came back with a small vial. Then he grinned and pulled me into a kiss as his hands traveled south.
Hunter had already proven he knew his way around my body, but the way he opened me up, patient and hot, made me fall in love all over again.
When at last I was ready—full with his fingers and panting for his dick—he pulled me against him, back to front.
He entered me from behind slowly, giving us both time to adjust. My mouth dropped open, panting as he was fully in.
“Are you good?” he asked.
“So good,” I breathed, shifting just a bit to feel the stretch. “So full. Oh, Hunter…”
He kissed the side of my neck, his free hand floating to play and stroke my pussy. Then he began to move.
It wasn’t as frantic as it was before, but the pace he set was hot and dirty. I had never been touched like this, the fullness in my ass and his hand rubbing my clit. I melted against him, became a moaning needy puddle as he fucked me.
I hit my climax in no time at all, and he rode me through it but didn’t stop for a moment. To my surprise, I found myself rising again.
His thrusts became harder, and I took it, reveling in the way he lit me up inside. I came a third time, and he followed right after like two people tipping off the edge of a cliff, his come hot inside my ass.
At last, we fell back to the mattress together, fully spent.
“You sure you want me back,” Hunter murmured as I lay my head against his bare chest.
“I love you,” I told him. “Also, after a performance like that, I’d be stupid to let you go another time.”
84
Hunter
“Election Day! Election Day!” my little brothers yelled.
I rolled over to ignore them as they jumped and screamed into my room… then my arm hit something soft and warm.
Oh shit!
Meg sat up then screamed.
My little brothers also screamed.
“There’s a stranger in Hunter’s bed!”
“Hunter has a woman in his bedroom!”
They ran out into the hall.
“Did we seriously just sleep away the afternoon and all night?” I pulled her down to me.
“We had a rough few days,” Meg replied, rolling over and snuggling against me. “Guess we better go vote.”
“Meg,” I said, tipping her chin up. “You deserve to be mayor. And I’m voting for you.”
She kissed me. “Well, I’m not voting for you.”
I blinked in disbelief as she swung her feet over the side of the bed. “I thought we were doing an exchange.”
Meg snorted as she walked naked to my shower. “This is politics, baby. I don’t play.”
There was chattering from the dining room as Meg and I walked downstairs. It immediately stopped when we walked in. Penny and Avery were jumping up and down, barely containing their glee.
“It’s kind of adorable that you’re so happy they’re back together,” Blade remarked.
Avery shot her fiancé a look. “Uh, no, we had money riding on this.”
“There’s breakfast casserole and orange juice,” Josie offered. “I’m going to help people drive to the polls. We’re running a carpooling volunteer service.”
“No more bus?” I perked up.
“You weren’t down here to sign up for anything,” Garret informed me. “So you’re on bus duty.”
I spent an entire day’s worth of trucking senior citizens around Harrogate while answering various questions like if I was officially back with Meg, and was that actually a real alligator, or was it computer-generated graphics?
“That should be the last load,” Remy said that afternoon after we pulled away from a retirement home.
“I need a nap.”
“Sounds like you slept all day yesterday,” he said, punching me in the arm.
“I’m shocked I haven’t heard from Greg yet.”
“He was coming apart when I left him,” Remy said, grinning. “I think it’s probably going to be a delayed reaction. Kind of like you and Meg!”
“I don’t know,” I said. “What if it goes south again? I mean, it’s complicated with her sisters, and I’m still responsible for all our little brothers. What if she decides again that she doesn’t want to put up with it?”
“Life is complicated. But love do
esn’t have to be,” my brother said.
“I don’t know what to do.”
Remy snorted. “You’re the big-shot lawyer.”
I shrugged helplessly. “So?”
“So…” Remy said. “Seal the deal!”
85
Meghan
This time I had the big party in the town square. We were all waiting outside for the results to be tabulated in after the polls closed that evening. There was a stage set up with a local band playing nineties cover songs. Numerous stalls served food and drink, and people were still placing bets on who was going to win the election and by how much. Even the Svenssons were out—the kids were running around, and Isaac was fetching Minnie various snacks and drinks.
“That better not be alcoholic,” I warned Minnie as she took a sip from a large cup.
“Ugh, Meg!” She rolled her eyes. “Of course not! I want to be able to remember the night when you trounced Hunter.”
My stomach churned. Ida had insisted on this party. If it had been up to me, I would have just stayed huddled in my campaign headquarters. What if I lost? It would be humiliating.
Would I still want to be with Hunter if that happened?
I thought about it. Yes, actually, I would. If the town really wanted him as mayor, then that was what they wanted. Maybe it would be fine. It wasn’t as if I was going to leave my sisters. Besides, Hunter had offered to drop out, but I had told him not to. So if he won and became mayor, that was on me. It wouldn’t be too bad. After licking my wounds, I could start a nonprofit, or I could take up gardening in the new home he was giving me.
But a big part of me desperately wanted to win.
I needed a distraction to keep my mind from spiraling out. I grabbed a corn dog from one of the stands then headed over to talk to Susie and Remy.
“You look so different without your beard,” I remarked.
“Yeah,” he said, rubbing his jaw. “Feels different. I might keep it, or I might grow the beard out. What do you all think?”
