by Addison Cole
She spotted Grayson first, standing at the forge, holding something over the red-hot coals, and then she saw Hunter leaning over a table near the back of the room. His back was to her, his shirt stretched tight over his muscles. She suddenly felt like she was interrupting him for something that wasn’t nearly as important as concentrating on his work.
Grayson turned to set the glowing red metal clamped in the end of what looked like heavy iron tongs on an anvil. He lifted his safety goggles and raised his chin. “Hey, Jana. Come on back.”
Hunter turned, and the surprise in his eyes quickly faded as a smile spread across his lips, instantly warming her all over. Her annoyance at his talking to Brock faded with each step as he closed the distance between them.
“Hey there.” He leaned in for a kiss. “I wasn’t expecting to see you. Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I, um. I just came from boxing practice.”
“Ah,” he said, as if he knew why she’d come. “Let’s go into my office and talk.” He turned to his brother and said, “We’ll be right back.”
He led her around the equipment, and when they passed the table he’d been leaning over, she glanced over and stopped to get a better look.
Hunter followed her gaze. “It’s just something I was working on for you.”
“For me?” she asked softly, her eyes focusing on the script lettering, which read, Jana’s Dance Studio. Her eyes shot to his. Ohmygosh.
“There’s only you, pretty girl.” He placed his hand on the small of her back and guided her toward the table.
Her heartbeat quickened as she took in the distressed metal mounted on planks of rustic wood. Delicate metal flowers were sprinkled over the upper right corner of the sign, and beautiful lettering that curled at the edges spelled out her hopes and dreams. Hunter had created an image of a dancer with her hand over her head and her legs crossed as she stood on her toes and arched back gracefully. The time he must have put into the sign and the thoughtfulness of the design brought her emotions rushing forth. Her eyes dampened, and when she lifted her gaze to his, she felt herself tumbling into the well of affection she saw there.
“Do you like it?” His eyes filled with hope.
“Hunter,” she said breathlessly. “Like doesn’t even come close to how much I adore it. You must be so busy, and you still went to all this trouble.”
He stepped closer, tucking the lock of hair she was nervously twirling behind her ear. “Baby, you have revitalized my creativity.” He lowered his voice and said, “In more ways than one,” with a seductive tone. “There’s nothing I’d rather do than make a sign for my girl.”
My girl. The words swirled inside her.
“Thank you. I…No one has ever done anything like this for me before, and you’ve already given so much of yourself. You’re letting me rent the space, and—”
“Baby, don’t you get it?” He searched her eyes. He did that a lot lately, searching for answers that she thought only he could see. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.” He lowered his lips to hers.
“Grayson?” she said against his mouth, wondering how she could have ever doubted that they were right for each other.
Hunter smiled. “He left when you looked at me like you wanted to tear my clothes off.”
His mouth moved over hers, swallowing her laugh in a smoldering kiss that left her head spinning and her body humming.
“What did you come to tell me?” he asked, gazing at her sweetly.
His words were still swirling in her mind—Baby, don’t you get it? There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you—making any further thought, beyond her need for another kiss, impossible.
“Nothing important,” she whispered as she went up on her toes, and he met her in another soul-binding kiss.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
THE COOKOUT WITH their friends and siblings was exactly what Jana needed. Hunter was glad he’d pushed her to go, when he knew all she’d really wanted to do was climb into bed and forget about the hellish time she’d had giving her notice to Marco. He watched her laughing with the girls as she bounced baby Hannah on her hip.
“She looks pretty natural with a baby.” Pete draped an arm over his younger brother’s shoulder and lowered his voice before saying, “You know, babies are contagious.”
Hunter laughed. “Funny. When my oldest brother gave me the sex talk, he made it perfectly clear how to avoid that situation. Maybe you should have taken your own advice.”
Pete looked down at Bea sleeping soundly in the playpen. “She’s the best thing that’s ever happened in my life, besides Jenna, of course.”
“I never thought I’d say this about any woman, but that’s how I feel about Jana. My girl has changed my life in too many ways to count.” Bea sighed softly in her sleep and Hunter’s heart squeezed, knowing, without a shadow of a doubt, that if Jana were to get pregnant, he’d be proud to step up to the plate, marry her, and raise their children together. His eyes sought Jana again, and when he saw her whispering something to Amy, he imagined coming home to her every night, waking with her every morning, and he realized…they were already there.
“That’s how you know she’s the one. Before Jenna, I never really gave women the time of day, like you.” Pete leaned in closer and said, “Grayson’s the same way. Matt and Sky are the only normal ones in our family when it comes to dating.”
“The heck with that,” Hunter said. “I think it’s totally normal to wait for the right woman.”
Blue and Grayson crossed in front of Jana as they neared.
Grayson’s eyes jumped between Hunter and Pete. “Why does it look like you guys are talking about me?”
“We were. I was thinking that since the sculpture and the model of the gazebo are almost done, I could swindle you, Blue, and Pete to help me get the space out on Route 6 ready for Jana’s studio.” He knew that seeing progress, having her vision come to fruition, would help ease the pain of still having to finish out her four-week commitment to Marco.
“I can swing it,” Grayson said.
“For Jana? Absolutely,” Blue said. “I can move my schedule around and clear a few days, but you need a permit.”
“Already done. I got it when I first mentioned it to her.”
“Pretty sure of himself, isn’t he?” Grayson said to Blue.
Hunter lifted his chin in a silent miss you as Jana smiled from across the quad. “Always.” He nudged Pete. “You free to help?”
“Why not. This could be fun.” Pete eyed Caden, who was bouncing Summer on his shoulder a few feet away. He raised his voice and said, “As long as Caden will be there wearing his sexy tool belt and boots.”
“Anything for you, sweetheart,” Caden called to Pete.
Ten minutes later they’d recruited Jamie, Kurt, Sawyer, and Tony and had a plan to meet the next morning to begin the renovations.
“IT’S TIME,” JENNA whispered in Jana’s ear. It was nearly midnight and the babies were asleep in their playpens on Bella’s deck.
“But Theresa is here, and she was nice enough to consider letting me use that space. I don’t want to upset her.” Jana had seen Theresa down by the pool earlier, locking the gate.
“She went to bed hours ago,” Bella said. “We’re not going to wake her, and besides, I’m done pranking. Chunky-dunking is not a prank.”
“Maybe not, but it’s definitely against the community rules,” Jessica pointed out.
“Yeah, but I guess it’s not really a prank. Besides, it’s tradition. Come on,” Amy said, carrying a bunch of towels. “The guys will watch the babies, and I’ve got…” She pulled a tube of cookie dough out from beneath the stack of towels. “Cookie dough!”
“Okay, but I’ll feel really bad if she catches us after how nice she was to me.” Jana followed them down to the pool.
It was so dark that they couldn’t see but a few feet in front of them. They clung to one another, whispering about the babies and how they needed this break. They huddled togethe
r as Jessica unlocked the gate, because she was deemed to have the softest touch. And she did, because she made almost no noise whatsoever as she held it open for the girls to pass through. They pulled the gate closed behind them.
Jenna began taking her clothes off right there by the gate, while the others hurried down to the other side of the pool, where the steps were, and stripped in silence.
“Here I come,” Jenna whispered loudly as she ran naked from one end of the pool to the other, making the rest of them laugh.
They descended the steps in a huddle of giggles and hushes.
“This is freezing cold!” Bella whispered.
“Shh. Just get in. You’ll get warm soon.” Amy gave Bella a little shove, sending her sprawling into the water, chest deep, earning more laughter and another round of shushes.
They formed a circle in the middle of the pool, treading water while Leanna and Jessica gathered the Styrofoam noodles and handed one to each of the girls.
“I feel so privileged to be included in your chunky-dunking, but I have to tell you. I can’t believe you do this all the time and the guys behave. Honestly, I can’t believe Hunter didn’t follow me down here.” Jana had never been chunky-dunking with them before, but Sky had told her all about their midnight jaunts into the pool.
“Speaking of Hunter,” Jenna said. “Ames, grab the cookie dough. I want to ply her with sweets so she spills her guts.”
“I’m on it!” Amy swam to the edge of the pool to retrieve the cookie dough.
“He’s my brother,” Sky reminded them. “Please be discreet with the things I definitely don’t want to know.”
“Like I’d share the yummiest parts of him with anyone?” Jana thought about the way he looked at her, like he wanted to consume her and care for her at once, and the things he said that made her heart turn inside out.
Amy handed her the cookie dough. “Yummier than this?”
“Sorry, girls, but…definitely!” Jana took a hunk of cookie dough and passed the rest to Leanna. “But don’t worry, Sky. There’s plenty of PG stuff I can share, like how in the heck we’ve come so far so fast. It seems like just yesterday we were fighting over everything, and we only fell into bed when we were arguing—”
Sky held her hand up and said in a harsh whisper, “No bed talk. Brother, brother, brother.”
“I wasn’t going there,” Jana whispered. “What I mean is, your brother surprises me every single day. I never knew I could care about anyone as deeply, or as fast, as I’m falling for Hunter.”
“That’s a good thing,” Bella said quietly. “Love has a way of finding us even when we don’t want to be found.”
“You can say that again,” Leanna said. “With Kurt I feel like I’ve discovered who I really am for the first time.”
“That’s it exactly,” Jana said, forgetting to whisper.
“Shh!” Jenna and Bella said in unison. “You’ll wake Theresa.”
Jana cringed. “Sorry,” she whispered. “But that’s exactly it. He calls me on my bull, but he does it in the most wonderful ways.”
“Aww.” Amy reached for the cookie dough. “That’s so sweet.”
Theresa’s porch light went on, and all the girls gasped.
“Get to the far end of the pool,” Bella whispered.
They huddled together in the corner of the pool.
“Get your boobs off of me,” Bella whispered to Jenna.
“Oh, like I can control them?” Jenna giggled.
“Shh!” Amy put her hand over Jenna’s mouth.
“Let’s get out so she doesn’t catch us.” Leanna headed for the stairs with all the girls on her heels. They were quiet as they wrapped towels around their bodies and walked along the fence line with their clothes bundled in their arms, hiding in the shadows.
Bella pressed her finger to her lips, then opened the gate as quietly as she could. They slipped out and walked along the far side of the grass up toward the cottages.
“Were we that loud?” Amy whispered.
Huddled under the cover of the trees, they stared, wide-eyed, at the beacon of light coming from Theresa’s porch. Before anyone could answer Amy, the light went off and there was a collective sigh of relief.
“Oh my goodness,” Bella snapped. “Do you think she did that just to piss us off? Like she knew we were chunky-dunking?”
“Well, you did call a truce,” Jenna reminded her. “And chunky-dunking is against the rules.”
“Whatever.” Bella stomped across the grass.
Hunter stepped off the deck, and even in the dark Jana could feel the heat of his wanton stare.
“Here comes your hunky heartthrob,” Sky whispered. She strutted past Hunter and sang, “I know all your secrets.”
“I swear she doesn’t!” Jana said with a laugh, as the other girls headed for the quad.
Hunter’s lips curved up in a smile that nearly made her towel catch flames.
“Pretty girl, do you know what kind of torture that was?” he whispered to her. “Knowing you were down there, naked and wet, and I had to pretend I wasn’t yearning for you every single second you were gone?”
Heat roared through her as he grabbed her butt beneath the towel and backed her into the darkness beside the cottage, out of eyesight of the others, and kissed her hard. His hands were everywhere at once.
“I need to be close to you,” he said between urgent kisses.
“Holy cow!” Bella’s voice carried from around the front of the cottage.
“Shh!” Amy said. “You’ll wake the babies.”
Pete and Caden’s laughter sparked a chaotic din of exclamations.
Hunter broke the kiss, leaving her bereft and trembling with need.
“We’re not done,” he promised. He kissed her quickly before taking her hand and walking around front to see what all the commotion was.
Standing in the light from the cottage window Bella stared up at Theresa’s house, her face red with anger. Amy, Jenna, Leanna, Jessica, and Sky were bent over in fits of laughter, as were their men.
“You look like Smurfs!” Grayson said.
Jana looked down at her arms and legs, which were tinged a bright shade of blue, like the other girls’.
“We’re blue!” Her eyes shot to Hunter.
He spun her around so her back faced the others, opened her towel, and his eyes blazed as he drank in her blue skin. “Man, that’s hot. Zoe Saldana has nothing on you. Come on Na’vi girl, let’s play Avatar.” He closed her towel and dragged her toward the truck, calling out a goodbye over his shoulder to the others. “I’m taking her home to wash the dye off.”
Hunter backed her up against the passenger’s side door, crashed his mouth to hers, and kissed her until her legs went weak.
“You are gorgeous.” He opened the truck and lifted her in, then came down over her, pressing all those hard muscles against her. The friction fried Jana’s brain cells. Somewhere in the darkness of lust she realized they were still parked at Seaside.
“Drive,” she panted against his mouth as his hands moved over her flesh, threatening to make her give up any remaining care about being caught.
He made a guttural sound and reluctantly went around to the drivers’ side. Jana was lost in a fog of desire, her body buzzing with need. Hunter sped out of the parking lot, taking turns at breakneck speed. There were no streetlights, no cottages to tell her where they were as he zipped down backstreets. The truck rattled to a stop and he cut the engine. She knew Hunter was too possessive to chance anyone seeing them. Hunter fisted his hands in her hair and crashed his mouth to hers.
“How did I get lucky enough to be the man you picked?”
Her heart swelled with his words. “Like you’d have it any other way?”
As she gazed into his eyes, the adoration and deep emotions she saw made her feel like this was her first time. Like she was eighteen all over again. But she wasn’t that girl any longer. She wasn’t even the woman she’d been a month ago. The ache consuming
her wasn’t about sex and consumption; it was about respect and fulfillment, wanting to be closer in every way possible, wanting to experience all of Hunter, the physical, emotional, and everything in between. It was her heart that spoke the loudest, and her trusting words fell easily from her lips. “Take me, Hunter. All of me.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
HUNTER COULD HARDLY believe he’d finished the sculpture in time for the competition. He’d been so wrapped up in Jana that his creativity had flowed like a river, and he was able to spend the last two weeks getting Jana’s studio ready. It took a few days for him and the guys to build two rooms for classes and extend the registration desk. He’d since painted and was getting the final touches ready. He’d found furniture online from a designer in Harborside, just a short drive from the Cape. He’d ordered wooden chairs with elaborate carvings of trees and giant leaves as backings, and then he’d designed two end tables using wood and iron to complete the lobby area.
He’d finished making the sign, and Jana had loved it so much she’d ordered business cards with the same design. He’d stopped by earlier to check out the landscaping. He’d hired a crew to make the entrance as beautiful as Jana. They’d come close, but nothing could top his girl.
He glanced at her now, as she stepped from the truck, her pretty painted toes on display in a pair of cute leather sandals. She wore tan shorts with a blousy top, which went well with Hunter’s tan pants and short-sleeved white button-down shirt. Her hair fell loose, like a mane down her back, just the way he loved it. She was beyond gorgeous, and she no longer looked like she wanted to throttle him and have sex with him all at once, like she used to. As he came around the truck, she looped her arm into his, looking like she wanted to climb beneath his skin.
