“Come here.” He turned, his grin radiating warmth across my insides as I stepped to him and dipped my own toes in the water. “Let’s take a picture.” Hunter’s fingers were fiddling with the button on my shorts, and before I knew it, he was pushing the denim down my legs and tossing them in the sand.
“You’re insane. Is it safe?” I giggled, splashing in the neon waves, succumbing to the sensations of the moment.
“Of course it is. I do my homework, and I’d never put you in harm’s way, remember?” He grinned and pecked me on the lips before pulling me out into the neon water. His hands pulled my tank over my shoulders leaving me naked in the moonlight. “Lay back.” His roughened palms guided me down and I felt my hair fan out in the water around me. “Fucking amazing,” Hunter hummed and trailed a fingertip through the wet curls that swam around my neck, down over my chest, and across one pebbled nipple.
I sucked in a quick breath of the cool night air and closed my eyes, trying to swallow my nerves and relish the situation. I heard his familiar click click, but it sounded like a song in the breeze amongst the chorus of wind ruffling the overgrown palms. “I feel like I’m in a dream.” I fanned my hands out in the water, a smile flickering across my lips and causing warmth to rise from my toes up to my cheeks.
“You look like a goddess.” His soft voice hummed as he clicked away, before I felt beads of water trailing across the concavity of my stomach, across my already beading nipples, then across my collarbone. I heard the zoom of his camera and felt my nipples tighten in response, my pussy growing wet in the water as he photographed me surrounded in a pool of glowing neon.
“This is it.” Hunter clicked and then swirled my hair around one shoulder. “Turn your face to the side, eyes open. And speak. Tell me everything running through that pretty mind and don’t pay attention to me.” His grin flicked up sideways and I knew then I was in trouble.
“Do it.” His voice deepened and flipped my tummy until I did what he’d asked.
“I feel like a child. Naked and free, floating in a dream where no one else exists,” I murmured and my eyes fluttered open to catch the bright gleaming moon centered in the sky.
“Mmhmm.” One fingertip traced the curve of my waist and shot fireworks into my veins.
“When I was a kid, my mom would work all night and then get home and drink, pop pills, go on these rants. She would fight, and I would escape. I was always turning her off, escaping to fantasy.”
Hunter’s hands slid down my pelvis, and I felt his rough thumb slide between my soaked pussy lips and massage my hardening clit.
Soft pants fell from my lips.
“Keep talking.” Hunter pinched at my clit in warning. I sucked in a quick breath and lost my balance in the water. “Do it, Princess.”
My eyes flicked to his then back to the glaring moon as if it were my own erotic guide.
“When I got older, I was left alone so much. I had so many questions, I started reading dirty romance books.” His thumb worked rougher circles at my clit. “They became my escape.” I moaned and remembered the nights spent in my childhood bed, the smell of the book’s pages in my nostrils as I escaped to far off lands with dashing men to rescue me from the hellhole that was Clearview, Illinois.
“Keep going,” Hunter ground through his teeth as he zoomed and clicked, my arms floating above me now so my back was nearly arched in the water, my neck covered in a pool of neon at my throat.
“I’d run my hands down my legs and imagine fucking Highlanders in the woods of Scotland.”
“Yeah, baby?” Hunter hummed and his fingers worked faster and harder at my clit as his camera flicked fiercely.
“They were always strong, mean, rough with me, taking away my control,” I gritted as Hunter thrust his thumb inside me and fucked at the hard ridge of nerves buried there.
“Yes, yes, yes,” I repeated, my eyes shuddering closed against the too bright lunar light as my orgasm flooded my system. My nerves tingled and sparked with energy from the moon and the organisms and the magic of the night.
With his camera thrown behind his back, he was suddenly kissing me with punishing force, hauling me up the shoreline, his towering form above me.
“Swallow my cock.” His heavy hand was on my head and guiding me to his thick length. With the glow of neon pressing at my vision, I grasped the base of his dick and pressed him into the back of my throat, hearing him grunt and feeling him thrust into my mouth as I took his full length.
I flicked at the stiff ridge and trailed my tongue up the throbbing vein that ran underneath the shaft before I swallowed him completely again. His heavy hands at my hair fisted at the strands and held me in place, the head of his cock choking my lungs of oxygen until my eyes were brimming with tears and his hands released.
I pumped up his length with my fist again, added my other fist, and marveled at the sheer size of his thick girth. I couldn't even fist him in one hand, how had he ever fit inside me? I squirmed in the sand, remembering the delicious feel of his cock and ran my tongue from the base to the beautiful crown, hollowing my cheeks and tasting the salty essence of his pre-cum.
“That’s it, Erin. Oh, fuck yeah, that’s my Princess.” His rough hands pulled at my hair and suddenly he was coming across my chest, my boobs glistening with his semen, the evidence of our dirty fucking right here on the most beautiful beach in paradise.
“Fuck,” Hunter grunted and was pulling me out of the sand and into his arms almost instantly. He wrapped a hand in my sopping hair and pressed his lips to mine, swallowing me in a kiss that rivaled all of the passion I’d ever felt before.
I threaded my hands in his own damp hair and pushed against him, desperate to feel him inside me again when I registered that he was still hard. He'd spilled semen across my chest and was still thick and ready as ever. “Please, I need you,” I hummed and nipped at his lip, pushing him back against a gnarled palm growing sideways out of the sand.
Hunter turned and twisted me against the tree, propping my ass on the thick trunk until I was perfectly aligned with his still throbbing cock. “I've never fucked twice in a row before. You're so fucking sexy you drive me insane,” he cooed as his forehead fell to my shoulder. His lips caught mine and I registered the moon and the stars and every other thing I’d been looking for all those nights in my dreams right there in his sizzling green eyes.
I had him. He was right here.
“God dammit, Erin. Feel so fucking good,” he growled and bit my lip before his hand fisted at my thigh and his pumping grew short and erratic. “The feel of you squeezing around me, your fucking body connected with mine makes me think this is right where we're supposed to be.” He bit savagely at my neck and I let out a quick yelp as my fingernails dug into his rock hard deltoids and his fucking sped up. One thick finger thrust between us and was rubbing at my clit until the over-stimulated bundle exploded and my eyes closed to find bright white light firing off all my nerve-endings in an orgasm of earth-shattering pain and pleasure and desperate lust.
Hunter's second orgasm in as many minutes followed as a groan radiated from his powerful chest and his hands gripped my waist while his hips worked a measured rhythm. He came in long waves, his thighs shaking as he held me against him, emptying into me without a single concern in the world. I heaved laboring breaths, the sticky humid heat and Hunter’s sweat slicking my skin as I held this strong virile man in my arms.
“I could hold you all night,” his deep voice murmured a minute later when our breaths had finally quieted.
I smiled a slow delicious smile, and pulled my short fingernails across the taut muscles of his back. “Me too.”
Hunter's lips trailed up my neck, kissing and sucking as if tasting the most decadent dessert he’d ever been given.
I grinned up at him, my orgasm still pumping love through my veins.
“Hmm…” His eyes darted up and down my form before landing on my tousled wet hair. “Love you, Erin.” His eyes sparkled with sex in the moon
light and I sighed. Feeling more full than I ever had in my life and in every single way.
“I love you too.” My heart squeezed as energy radiated from the depths of my toes through my fingertips, pumping love every beat of the way. What I didn't know then was by this time the very next weekend, Brant would be gone and I would have a target on my head.
nine
After an exhausting red-eye home from Belize, we landed in Chicago and I slept for an entire day to recover from the weekend. I left Hunter’s apartment early the following morning after returning home to finally get back to life and take care of things I’d left unsettled at home. Bills, apartment shopping, divorce papers.
I still had them. They were sitting on the table in my office, wide out in the open. I’d already signed them, just hadn’t sealed and stamped the envelope yet. And now apparently I couldn’t; I was expected to remain at a standstill if I was going to let Hunter take down my husband.
I sped in the door after meeting my mom for a quick lunch, one where she’d pressed me for further details on Brant and my future, when he would be home, how often we talked, if we thought therapy could help. She'd commented that perhaps I wasn't fulfilling the duties of a good wife, or perhaps I no longer satisfied him, suggesting I could take better care of my appearance and that more spa days might help get his attention and make me feel “sexy”. I’d finally gotten so angry I’d stomped away, rage clogging my throat and feeling utterly drained. She'd never understood me, she never even bothered trying, but making a break with my own mother felt unbearable when she was the only parent I'd ever had to love.
I ran a hand through my long hair and dropping my purse on the floor. Hunter required I be back to his house by dinner tonight. I was only ever allowed a few hours on my own at a time, supposedly for my safety, and he'd even bought me pepper spray. I'd relented to carrying it only after he'd mentioned I should get a concealed weapons permit too. I’d told him I didn’t believe in fighting violence with violence. He’d simply given my naivete an eye roll and shoved a second can of pepper spray in my bag.
I grabbed a banana on my way through the kitchen and ate it in a few bites as I headed up to the master bedroom to jump in the shower. I was out ten minutes later and dressed in comfy lounge clothes with a towel on my head and walking to my office, intent on booking travel arrangements for a trip Hunter and I were set to make this weekend, when I heard my phone blurting loudly through the hallway.
I hurried, recognizing Hunter’s ring, and dug through the gallon-sized bag that was my purse to find my phone with six missed calls, all from Hunter.
“Jesus.” I pressed the call back button just as another call came through. “Hello?” I murmured, knowing he’d be upset. The ten fucking minutes it’d taken me to get a shower and he had needs.
“Cancel this weekend until further notice. I’m sending a car to get you earlier. Bring a bag with shit.”
His voice was gone. He’d already hung up. Again.
Damn hm.
I wanted to call him back and demand an answer, but I knew it was useless. Hunter was as stubborn as the day was long and arguing with him never did anything to my benefit except frustrate me and then turn me on.
My phone vibrated in my hand a moment later with a text.
“Sorry, Princess.”
I rolled my eyes as a smile pulled the corners of my mouth. Of course I would forgive him for being curt. He didn’t need forgiveness. I loved that and all the other demanding things about him. He had passion. I loved a man with passion.
I waited on Hunter until after dinner. I sat quietly at first in my room, and then in the kitchen over tea, until I’d turned to red wine. I was now sloppy and stumbling barefoot across the dark house, ready to curl into my bed not giving two fucks where Hunter was or why he hadn’t sent the car like he’d said.
After spending the whole day waiting on him, mulling over all the possibilities of why our photo shoot this weekend in New York had been canceled, I was just snuggling into the cool sheets of my bed later that night, surfing Hunter’s website yet again that showcased dozens of his photos and various medals of prestige, and I felt quiet tears fall down my cheeks. Maybe I was drunk, maybe I was being emotional, maybe I was burned by a dishonest husband and a mother that criticized too much, or maybe deep down I knew something was wrong.
Maybe it was all those things. The emotions swirled in my stomach until my bones chattered and the cool night nipped at my toes.
“Hunter, where are you?” I mused out loud, talking to myself through the cloud of red wine and heartache.
“I’m sorry.” His voice filtered to the edges of my hearing and I sighed, letting my eyes fall closed, succumbing to his wonderful image, his intoxicating scent.
“I missed you.” I stretched, entertaining the haunting vision of him in front of me. “I wish you were real.” I brushed a fingertip to his jawline and whispered it along the stubble I could nearly feel beneath my fingers.
“Erin.” His hand caught my wrist. “I am real.” He placed a kiss on the underside of my wrist before hauling me into his arms. “Are you drunk?” He groaned into my neck, and it wasn’t until I inhaled the soft smoky scent that curled around my nostrils and fogged my brain that I knew he was really there.
But there was something else about his scent. Something familiar, like fireworks, but so out of place. My eyes widened in the darkness as realization dawned. Hunter smelled like gun powder.
“What happened to you?” I tried to focus my eyes in the dark night, my hands tracing his chest and biceps feeling for anywhere he could be harmed. “Did someone shoot a gun?” My eyes widened as the slow reality seeped into my brain.
“I'm fine. I met JW at the shooting range.” His eyes darted away and left my insides feeling hollow. “I’ll tell you more later, but we have to go.” He hauled me from the bed and pushed me into my walk-in closet. “Pack what you can't live without.” He opened a drawer and shoved a handful of panties into the nearest bag he could find. I swallowed the anxiety that vibrated through my muscles and pushed a few shirts and jeans in the bag.
Within a few minutes, Hunter was wrapping me in a warm sweater, kissing his way up my clavicle and along the curve of my neck, and once bundled against the chill of the dark night, I was spirited off by Hunter. Again.
I lived in the four-story walkup that was Hunter’s mansion for the next three days, wrapped in his cotton-white sheets, where I discovered the map of his scars, and hummed against his lips that I loved being shut-in with him. The world could fall to pieces around us and I wouldn't care.
One afternoon, Hunter and I worked opposite each other at his kitchen island. He was lost in his pictures while I worked on his website, beefing up my meager design skills to give his business a fresh look. His head popped up and he asked, “Erin, can you run down to my office and grab the black folder in the top right drawer?”
“Sure.” I stood and placed a quick kiss on his upturned lips before striding down the long hall to his office. Rifling through the pile of paperwork in his drawer, I found a stack of photos of Hunter in fatigues in the desert. Hunter's vibrant smile drew me to his face in all of them. He stood out in the groups of soldiers carrying weapons or messing around in the barracks. Curious, I lifted the stack and flipped through a few more until one of a teenage Hunter and someone else caught my eye. Hunter's smile was unusually tortured. Gone were the flashing bright white teeth as if he was mid-laugh, and instead stood a disgruntled young man, hiding.
He'd already begun to fill out, no sign of the scrawny underdeveloped teen he'd spoken of that day at the diner. He was tall and lean with faintly etched muscles dusted with golden hair. And his body was clean of tattoos, other than the Roman numerals etched at his knuckles. The first ones he'd gotten to cover the scars given to him by his mom's boyfriend. Before her boyfriend had killed her.
My heart twisted for the boy he'd been, the one that looked haunted as he stood in this picture next to a man that equal parts sav
ed his life and then ruined it so callously. Anger boiled as I searched for the familiar Hunter I knew somewhere in the lost green eyes of the boy in the photo.
The door opened then and Hunter peeked in, a worried frown on his face. “What'd you find?”
“A picture.” I flipped it for him to see. An odd mix of emotions crossed his face.
“JW was there for me a lot through high school. He made sure I graduated. I didn't get it; my mom didn't give two fucks about school. But thank God he did.” He pulled the picture from my hands and flipped it over. “After my mom died, I thought I would die with her. I had no one until JW brought me into his home, gave me a warm meal--even when my mom was alive she didn't give me that.” He laughed ironically then shoved a nervous hand through his blonde locks. “JW paid for the funeral. He claimed the body of my mom because I was too young. JW stepped forward. Gave her a pretty grave over a hill.” Hunter's eyes drifted and glazed with something down deep. “I never forgot that.” Hunter's eyes cut back to me. “JW gave my mom the burial she deserved. She may have been a junkie but she was lost in herself, I couldn't blame her for that. She'd hold me at night after one of her strung-out boyfriends started crashing the house and taking what little money we had. It was fucked up, but she was all I had."
I knew him; I felt his pain; I was him. “You don't have to explain,” I said, my gaze flashing between Hunter's soulful eyes and JW's calculating ones in the photo. “It almost seems like he was grooming you to take over as boss someday.” The thought ran errant through my mind.
“He was.”
My heart raged in my ears at his admission as I looked up to the man standing over my shoulder.
“He knows now it will never happen,” Hunter said, the frown deepening on his otherwise beautiful face. "He's been different the last few years. He's on edge. You can see the gears turning behind his eyes. The guys told me he's making rash decisions. Quick to pull the trigger.” Hunter pushed a hand through his blonde hair with worry. “I have no idea what's changed.”
Blindsight: Part Two Page 5
