I lean in to brush my lips against his. "Forever and always."
***
"Promise you'll call me as soon as you land."
"The second." Alexa's voice is giddy on the other end of the line. "Paris, Sadie. I’m going to Paris."
"I know." I try to temper my voice. As excited as I am for her to be taking this semester off to go explore Paris, I'm also heartbroken. After losing Hunter two months ago and now faced with the prospect of losing her too, my heart is sinking to my toes. My studies and the occasional visits with my mother are all I have left.
"You're going to come visit me, right?"
"I'll be there during Christmas break." I balance the phone on my shoulder as I place three green apples in the shopping basket in my hand.
"I'm boarding. I have to go. I love you." Her voice cracks before the line goes dead.
I stare at the phone before placing it back into my purse. After picking out a few more pieces of fruit and a prepared pasta salad I pay for my purchases.
The air is crisp as autumn settles over the city. I pull my lilac scarf around my face as I rush the few blocks to my building. A quiet evening of studying awaits me.
I fumble with my keys as the lights near the street flicker on. It's only five o'clock in California. I imagine Hunter picking Cory up from pre-school and taking him for an ice cream before they go back to their place to make dinner. Remembering the way they smiled at each other the day I met Cory is the source of my strength these days.
After precariously climbing the three flights of narrow stairs to my walk up apartment I turn the corner, balancing the bag of groceries in my hand while I again search for the key to my door.
I look ahead. The bag drops to the floor. The apples roll around my feet. The plastic container of pasta bursts open. My eyes are locked on the wall near my door. He's sitting there. It's him.
"Hunter?" I whisper into the dimly lit hallway.
"Sunshine." He jumps to his feet. "You're finally home."
I drop my computer bag and my purse and lunge at him full force. He catches me in his arms, pulling me tightly into his chest. "You're not real," I murmur. "It's not really you."
Chapter 20
"It's me." He tilts my chin up with one finger before his lips brush against mine. "Look at you. You're so beautiful."
"How are you here?" I smile up at his face. "How did you find me?"
"I went to your parent's house. Your mother told me your address." His entire face is beaming. "I thought you'd never get home."
"You should have texted me." I giggle at the idea of him sitting on the floor for hours waiting for me to arrive.
"And miss seeing that expression on your face?" His strong hand cups my cheek. "I'd wait a million years to see that."
"How long can you stay?" I push the key into the door. I desperately need to get him inside. I need to be close to him. I need him to hold me.
"Forever." His hand covers mine as he turns the lock. "I'm back."
My heart feels as though it's dropped into my chest. "Cory," I whisper. "You left him."
"No chance." He pushes the door open with his foot. "He's back at my place here fast asleep. My mother is there watching him."
"How? I thought Christina wouldn't let you take him away?"
We both turn as one of my neighbors steps out of her apartment. I giggle as I realize my groceries and school bag are littering the hallway.
"You go inside. I'll get that." He smiles as he scoops up all of my things from the floor.
I step inside my apartment and cover my mouth with my hand. This is my dream come true. This is what I've waited for.
I spend the next fifteen minutes watching in silence as he sorts through the groceries, tossing the garbage in the bin in my kitchen. He carefully washes the fruit and wipes the remnants of the spilled pasta salad from my bag.
"Hunter?" I say his name. The name I love so much.
He turns and cocks a brow in response.
"Why did she let you take him?" I need to know. I don't want this to be about us. I don't want to fall even deeper in love with him to discover he has to race back to her when she decides she wants him back.
"I'm adopting him," he says it stoically. "She agreed to let me become his father legally."
"In exchange for what?" I know it's a heated question but based on what I've learned about Christina this past summer I know that nothing comes without a price in her world.
"My apartment in New York. A lot of money. Visitation with him once a month."
"You paid her to get him?" The words roll off my tongue before I realize the full impact of them.
"Sadie." He moves so he's standing directly in front of me. "Cory likes to talk. He talks a lot."
I furrow my brow in confusion. "Yes, but what does that –"
"He talks about Princess Sadie non-stop. Probably because I talk about Princess Sadie non-stop." He tilts his head to the left.
I smile at the mention of Cory's name for me. "Yes, but still. Why would that suddenly matter to her?"
"It was only a contributing factor." He reaches to grab both my hands in his. "She found her element in Los Angeles. She was suddenly someone. It wasn't about being Coral's little sister or Cory's mother. She went out every night and met a lot of different guys."
"You took care of Cory?" I ask even though the answer is crystal clear.
"She asked me for the money. She wanted to give him up." He shudders as he says the words. "She realized that I'd never really give her what she wanted."
"So you get full custody and she gets visitation?" it seems too good to be true. It means that he can have Cory and I can have him.
"I get my dream." His lips brush against mine. "I get my Cory and my sunshine."
I melt into his arms as he scoops me up and carries me down the hallway. I point towards my bedroom and he lowers me gently onto the bed.
"I've waited so long to have you." He pulls at my clothes, baring my body in just a few seconds. "There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't imagine your taste, the smell of your skin, or the feeling of being inside you."
I pull at his shirt but he's too eager. He pushes me onto the bed, spreading my legs wide. "This is beauty," he whispers into my folds.
I whimper at the first touch of his lips on my cleft. I feel as though I'm floating as he pulls my clit between his teeth, gently biting it before sucking it gently into his mouth.
"Hunter," I whimper through clenched teeth. "That's so good."
"It's perfect," he pauses. "You're so perfect."
He laps at me greedily while I pull on his hair. I can't stand the intensity. He's so bold and brazen with my body. I've missed this so much. I've missed everything about him.
I push my heels into the bed, raising my hips to meet his tongue. He pushes a finger inside me. I gasp at the sensation. I'm already so close to the edge. He knows how to push me to the brink and hold me there.
"I want to come," I murmur under my breath.
"Now. Please, yes." He breathes into me.
I fall over the edge as I grip his head, pushing his mouth onto me, wanting him to suck me inside of him.
"I have to fuck you, sunshine." He pulls his clothes off quickly. "I've been so hard for so long."
I stare down at his erection. It's so large, so full and so hard. I crave the feeling of it within me. I need to feel it now.
He crawls over my body, his face lingering over mine. I feel him glide the tip of his cock over my slick cleft. I whimper as I try to push my hips off the bed.
"You're going to get tired of me fucking you." He pulls his lips across my forehead. "I can't get enough of you."
"Never," I cry as he pushes into me. I gasp at the intensity. It's so much. It fills me in every way so completely. I feel so whole. So raw. So open.
He leans back on his heels as he pulls my hips into his lap. His thumb circles my clit. I moan at the sensation.
"Fuck," he groans under his breath. "Nothing is as sweet as
this."
I moan in delight at his words, at the very touch of his thumb on my center and his body inside of mine.
He pulls me into his lap. I scream at the feeling of his cock being so deep. It's so much. Too much. "Hunter, I can't."
"You can." He rocks his hips up and down on the bed. His cock is pushing deeper and deeper with each thrust.
I find my own rhythm and push him down. He growls as I take control of him. I lean forward so my breasts graze his chest. I look down at his face. His perfect, beautiful face as I ride him to orgasm. I scream as I plummet over the edge, feeling him release within me at the very same moment.
***
"Your presence is requested for lunch, Princess Sadie." He kisses me on my nose as my eyes flutter open.
"What time is it?" I glance at the clock on my bedside table. "I'm late for class."
"No." He runs his fingers across my forehead. "It's early. I made you some breakfast. You have plenty of time before your first class. I checked your schedule on your computer."
"What day is it?" I run my hand across my eyes. I still feel as though I'm dreaming. Hunter Reynolds in my bedroom can't be real.
"Thursday. You have a two hour break at lunch so I was hoping you could come over for peanut butter and jelly with me and Cory."
"Yes." I pull in a deep breath to hold back a wave of tears. "Peanut butter and jelly is my favorite."
"You're my favorite, sunshine." He leans down to kiss my lips softly. "You are my everything."
Coming in June...
More Exposed by Deborah Bladon
Hunter and Sadie's journey continues six months in the future.
It couldn't have been as easy as I wanted it to be. That's not how my life works. Loving Hunter Reynolds, waking up next to him and planning a life with him was my entire existence.
Every fragment of that life shattered when his past collided with our future. When the one secret he withheld from me came barreling into our lives.
He was everything I've always wanted. He told me he couldn't breathe without me. What happens when my very breath is stolen because of him?
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PULSE Preview
"You can come up to my suite right now." The casual way he reaches out his hand is almost too tempting to resist.
"You think it's that easy?" I raise a brow. The inner rush of the martini is pulling my defenses away. I wanted a one-night stand. That's why I'm here. He's beautiful. Maybe the most attractive man I've ever seen. All I have to do is tell him what I want and he can make it a reality. I know that he can. His body not only suggests it, it screams it.
"I know it is." He leans in close to me, his breath tracing a warm path across my neck.
"Do you do this a lot?" It's a loaded question.
"Do what?" His tongue playfully runs over my chin before he brushes his lips effortlessly across mine.
"Pick up women here for one night stands?" I move forward a touch, hoping to catch his lips with mine again but he pulls back. A small smile forces his full lips slightly apart.
"Is that what I'm doing?" His beautiful blue eyes slowly rake over my body.
"You are, aren't you?" My breath hitches as he slides his arm around my waist and I feel his arousal instantly.
"You want to fuck me," he whispers the words slowly into my ear. I shudder as his breath slides across my neck. "You want me to lick you until you scream, over and over again."
I pull back hoping that with the slight bit of distance I'll find my breath. "That's..." I stop talking the moment his hand moves down my back.
"The minute you walked in and saw me by the bar, you imagined being under me." His hand moves lower, skirting the edge of the hem of my dress. "You knew that before the night was over you'd be on your knees sliding my cock into your mouth."
"I want that," I confess softly. One night with a man like this was all I wanted when I arrived in Manhattan two weeks ago. One night of pleasure unlike anything I'd ever experienced. This was the man who was going to give me that. I knew it as soon as he turned and looked at me.
"We're going up to my suite now," he pauses and I realize he's waiting for my name.
"Jessica," I offer. I want to be Jessica to him. I'm Jess or Jessie to everyone else. I want to hear my real name on his lips as he's lost in pleasure.
"I'm Nathan," he counters.
"How old are you?" I don't know why the question escapes from my lips. I don’t care how old he is.
"Older than you." His hand brushes the back of my thigh.
I smile at his response. "How do you know I'm old enough?"
"Old enough?" He cocks a brow and his face shifts slightly. He's even more devastatingly handsome than I first realized.
"Old enough," I repeat.
"I watched them card you at the door when you walked in." He motions behind me to the entrance of the club. "They wouldn't have allowed you in the door if you weren't at least twenty-one."
I'm twenty-three but he doesn't need to know that. He doesn't want to know. I can tell. Only one thing matters to him.
"Do you live here? You said you have a suite." I realize I'm stalling. I want this to last. I want to savor every moment this man is pressed against me. I want to drink in every part of him. I may never get another night with a man like this.
I moan as I feel his finger run lazily over the silk of my panties.
"Are you done with the questions, Jessica?" He stares directly into my eyes.
"Yes. Why?" I cringe internally, hoping that my incessant rambling hasn't turned him off.
"Because I really need to fuck you."
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About the Author
Deborah Bladon has never read a romance hero she didn't like. Her love for romance novels began when she was old enough to board the bus, library card in hand to check out the newest Harlequin paperbacks. She's a Canadian by heart, and by passport, but you can often spot her in New York City sipping a latte and looking for inspiration for her next story. Manhattan is definitely her second home.
She cherishes her family and believes that each day is a gift for writing, for reading, and for loving.
Exposed - Part Three (The Exposed Series, #3) Page 6
