by Arianna Hart
Marley laughed at her own joke, it felt good to smile again.
“All right, I’m off. I promise I’ll come to visit you more often, I love you.”
“Marley?” a voice called from behind her.
Marley jumped a foot in the air and almost wet her pants at the sound of her name. She spun around, heart in her throat, to see Hunter standing on the other side of a marble angel.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, blood pounding in her veins at the sight of him. The sun sent streaks of fire through his golden hair; sunglasses covered his light blue eyes and he looked every inch the Golden Boy the press had dubbed him.
“I came to pay my mom a visit. I haven’t been here since she died. I figured it was about time I came around,” Hunter said, looking a little sheepish.
“I just wanted to talk to Seamus for a little while, but I’m done now. Don’t let me stop you from visiting with your mom,” Marley said, avoiding his eyes. She was uncomfortable after their last exchange, and she was dying to know how much of her conversation he had overheard.
“I can come back later. Come on, I’ll drive you home. How did you get here anyway?”
“New York City has one of the finest mass transits in the country. You should try it some time.”
“Not on your life. I don’t like anyone in the driver’s seat but me. Especially the way those cabbies drive. Man, I should spend a day with them to learn some new tricks for the next race.”
“Just a part of the atmosphere. If the cabbies weren’t rude maniacs, the tourists wouldn’t get their money’s worth. In any case, I’ll take the ride back. These sandals weren’t meant for walking long distances.”
Now that she knew she wasn’t going back on the bus she could take her shoes off and get a little relief.
She sat back down to unbuckle the strappy sandals when she heard Hunter gasp.
“What the hell happened to your feet?”
“I got blisters from walking from the bus stop to the cemetery, that’s all. A little cold water and bandages and I’ll be fine.” She could feel the tickle of liquid oozing from the popped blisters down her instep. She was thankful she wouldn’t have to make the return trip on public transportation.
“Why didn’t you just call a cab?” Hunter asked as he bent down and scooped her up in his arms.
“Hey! What are you doing? I can walk,” Marley yelped as Hunter carried her down the hill with ground eating strides.
“Sure you can, you can do anything. Did it ever occur to you to ask for a ride? Or take a cab, for God’s sake. Did it? Why do you have to be so damn independent and never ask for help?” He shook his head in frustration.
“It didn’t occur to me to ask for a ride after you just reamed me out, no. As for taking a cab, it’s a long trip out here, it would have cost me a bundle just to get here, and I wouldn’t have been able to get another one to go home.” Marley had no idea what his problem was. It was her feet that were throbbing with pain, not his.
“Figures!” Hunter growled.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that you would rather give in to your mother’s emotional blackmail, cut your feet to ribbons, or do just about anything before you would ask for help. It isn’t a crime to need someone, you know.” Hunter opened the truck door and practically threw her in the seat.
“I know it isn’t a crime to ask for help. I just don’t like to depend on people too much,” Marley said softly. After their earlier fight, she didn’t want to start another one. Perhaps it would be a good idea not to jump down his throat for a change.
“Why, Marley? Because you think it will make you weak?” Hunter asked, lifting her chin so she had to look him in the eye.
“No. Because I don’t want to get used to depending on someone and fall flat on my face when they leave.” If he wanted the truth, there it was.
“You have to trust sometime, Mar. You can’t go through life all alone, hiding from your feelings.”
“Why not, you’ve been doing it for ten years. It seems to be working for you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hunter took his hands off her face and started the truck.
“It means that you have been running away ever since your mother died. You haven’t exactly been forming meaningful relationships over the last ten years.”
Hunter shook his head. “It’s not the same at all. You are afraid to trust a guy because you think all men are like your mother’s boyfriends. I’ve been establishing a career.” He pulled out into the building traffic and headed back towards the bridge.
“Baloney. You took off as soon as you could to get away from all the memories of your mother. You could have come home more often, stayed longer, but it was too hard for you because then you would have to deal with the fact that she was gone. You run from place to place, race to race, keeping yourself busy so you don’t have to think about it.”
“You have no idea what you are talking about. Besides, we aren’t talking about me, we’re talking about you and your fear of love and trust.”
“That’s not true, I love you, but I know you are going to leave anyway. Sometimes love isn’t enough,” Marley whispered.
“What? What did you say?” Hunter asked, his voice urgent.
“I said I loved you, okay? Are you happy now?”
—
Hunter pulled over to the side of the road, causing the driver of the car behind him to give him a typically New York one-fingered salute.
“You love me?”
“Yes! How many times do I have to say it?”
“A lot. This is the first time this has ever happened to me, I want to savor it.” Hunter felt all the frustration leak out of him. All he could do is stare at her while the feelings washed over him.
“Hunter, my feelings don’t change the situation any. I need to stay for another semester, and you are going to leave by Christmas.” Marley turned her head away from him again.
He pulled her resisting body across the seat of the truck and cuddled her on his lap. “We can work it out. I can wait until you are done with school, then you can come on tour with me. With the money from the insurance policy we can buy one of those R.V.’s that are like rolling houses.” Hunter was warming up to his plan.
“Hunter—“
“You can be my business manager, handle all of the money stuff while Rick takes care of smoozing and publicity. I don’t think you’d be a very good smoozer, honey.” Hunter could picture them on the road together, her cheering him on at the race.
Holding her in one arm while he held a trophy aloft with the other.
“Hunter, listen to me—“
“We can keep ownership of the bar so we have something to fall back on when I get too old to race. You could train Tiger or Oscar as a manager, they are both trustworthy.”
“Hunter, stop!”
“What?” He pulled himself reluctantly out of his fairy tale.
“That’s not what I want,” Marley’s eyes pleaded with him.
“You don’t want to live with me?” Hunter ached with hurt and confusion. Didn’t she just say she loved him?
“Yes, I do, but I don’t want to travel all over the country following you from race to race like some groupie. I can’t live like that. I spent my entire life never knowing how long we were going to stay in the same apartment or who was going to be at the kitchen table when I woke up in the morning.”
“It wouldn’t be like that. We’d have a home, it just wouldn’t have a picket fence out front,” Hunter cajoled.
“I want that picket fence. I want to put down roots; I want to have a family. I want to be home every day wearing an apron that my kid made me in school. I don’t expect you to give up your dreams, but I can’t give up mine either.”
“I’m not asking you to give them up, I’m just asking you to postpone them for a little while.”
Hunter hated the pleading in his voice.
“I don’t know if I can.”
Chapter Fourteen
Hunter carried Marley up the stairs to their apartment. She didn’t bother arguing this time, she was afraid to break the tense mood that had settled between them. They had lapsed into silence after Marley managed to burst Hunter’s bubble. She was surprised he didn’t just slow down and push her out the door when they got back home.
He took the keys from her shaking hands and unlocked her door, then set her down gently on the recliner. She could hear him moving around in the bathroom, but was afraid to ask what he was up too.
This whole love thing was so complicated! Was she supposed to just give up and follow him because she loved him? Was that what love was all about? Giving up your dreams for the other person? And if it was, why couldn’t he give up his dreams for her?
“Here, put your feet in this. Do you have a first aid kit?”
“I have some bandages and ointment in the medicine cabinet,” she said as she gingerly put her feet in the water. “This is hot!” she yelped, pulling them out.
“I want to wash them first, then you can put them in the cold water to get rid of the swelling.” Hunter put her feet back in the water.
“Who are you? Doctor Feelgood?”
“Ha, ha. Now keep your feet in there while I get some soap and towels. You never know what is crawling around the floors of those subways.”
“Thanks, I hadn’t thought about that,” Marley said, the thought making her feel a bit squeamish.
Hunter returned with his supplies and tenderly cleaned her bloody feet. She was amazed at how gentle his touch was; he barely hurt her at all. His fingers grazed her bare calf as he softly patted her feet dry, sending surges of something that was definitely not pain through her system.
Her eyes followed his form as he emptied the dirty water out of the basin and filled it again. He had the God’s honest best butt she had ever seen. His shirt stretched tightly across the expanse of his back when he reached into the cabinet for a glass. She could see the muscles ripple with every movement. She hoped he was coming back with that cold water soon, she was starting to overheat.
“Put your feet in here, and take some of this stuff,” he said handing her a glass of water and two pills.
“The swelling should go down soon.”
“Thanks.” Marley swallowed the painkillers and watched him as he sat on the arm of the chair. “Where did you learn so much about taking care of boo boos?”
“On-the-job training. Working around the track tends to cause any number of bumps and bruises. If I didn’t learn how to take care of myself I’d spend all my time running back and forth to the first aid tent.”
“I didn’t realize it was that hazardous to your health.” Yet another thing she should have thought of before falling in love with him.
“It’s not really, you just get banged up when you work around heavy machinery. As long as you’re careful you don’t get more than scraped knuckles and bruised elbows most of the time.”
“Unless you crash,” Marley said quietly.
“Yeah, unless you crash.” Hunter fell silent and toyed with her hair. “Scootch forward a little bit and I’ll give you a massage.”
“Scootch?”
“You know, move.”
“I figured that out, I just never heard the word before. You must be spending too much time south of the Mason-Dixon line,” she teased.
“Do you want the massage or a grammar lesson?”
“I’ll take the massage, thanks.” Marley wiggled forward so Hunter could fit in behind her on the chair. He finally had to lift her up and put her on his lap to get comfortable.
Marley leaned into his touch; he really did have great hands. His strong fingers kneaded and stroked the tension out of her shoulders. The straps of her tank top slipped down her arms, but she didn’t care, it felt so good to just relax under his ministrations.
His hands slipped up under her shirt, stroking the muscles of her back, turning her to jelly. As his large hands crept around her ribcage, her breathing became shallower. His fingers slowly moved ever higher until they grazed the lower slopes of her breasts.
When Hunter delicately licked her ear then nibbled on her lobe, she groaned and sank back against him.
She felt his erection growing against her bottom, and she wiggled against it.
It was Hunter’s turn to let out a groan this time. He squeezed her breasts and kissed his way down her neck. Marley offered no resistance when he pulled her shirt and bra off. Instead she lifted her arms higher and pulled his head closer.
His breath feathered her face, and she was surrounded by his spicy scent. Her pulse was throbbing in her veins, and she couldn’t help but arch her back as Hunter played her nipples like a master musician.
Hunter continued to torment her senses, squeezing and pinching her nipples with one hand, the other roaming over her ribs and stomach. His wandering hand seemed to follow no path that she was aware of, so she mentally urged it to go lower.
As if he could read her mind, Hunter’s hand slid to the waistband of her shorts, unbuttoning them one by one. She silently begged him to hurry, but it didn’t work this time around. When her shorts were unfastened, Hunter used one finger to trace the outline of her panties. She was sure she was soaking wet with wanting him so badly. His finger moved everywhere but where she most needed it to be.
“Raise your hips,” he directed into her ear. She gladly complied.
When she was in nothing but her panties, she made a move to turn around, to touch him, but she was denied the chance to get him as aroused as she was.
“I want to touch you,” she groaned as his finger slid under the elastic at her thigh.
“You will, later.”
Hunter’s finger finally touched her sensitive nub, sending shock waves through her system. When he inserted one long finger inside her and continued to torture her with his thumb, she thought she would shatter on the spot.
“Hunter!”
“Come for me, baby, I want to feel you fly,” he growled in her ear, using his other hand to tease her nipples.
“Hunter!” she screamed again, closing her eyes and bucking her hips as he pumped his hand furiously. She came with a million stars exploding behind her eyes. Breathless.
“Oh, my God,” was all she could say.
“It’s not over yet,” Hunter warned as he lifted her boneless body to the floor long enough to strip down and take care of protection.
Hunter sat and pulled her back onto his lap. She was still facing forward and wondered what he was up to now. After the last experience she wasn’t about to second-guess him.
“Spread your legs,” he ordered.
Marley opened her legs on either side of his large hairy ones, feeling wanton as she did so. Apparently they weren’t open enough because he spread his legs as far as the chair would allow, opening up her body even more.
Again he began his assault on her senses, spiraling her up higher and higher. Her underwear had disappeared, and she neither noticed nor cared. Just when she thought she could stand no more of his stroking and teasing without exploding into tiny pieces, Hunter lifted her hips and impaled her on his shaft.
That was all it took to send her over the edge yet again. She could feel her muscles clenching around him deep inside her. For a moment she wanted nothing more than to stay like that forever. She had never felt so complete or so content as she did at this moment, with Hunter filling her, surrounding her, loving her.
“Hold on, honey, this race isn’t over yet.” Hunter thrust up from beneath her, rubbing her in all the right places, causing her to fly even higher than she thought possible.
Unbelievably, impossibly she felt another climax building. Marley let this one sweep her on whatever path it chose, overwhelmed by the feelings carrying her along like a leaf in a gale force wind.
Marley felt Hunter’s heart hammering in his chest.
She could feel his excitement building, as his breathing grew more labored. She drew fo
rth a last iota of effort to clench her nether muscles tightly, and that was all it took to send Hunter bucking and thrusting over the edge. For the first time she was able to feel him reach his finish.
—
Hunter was so far beyond sated that not an inch of him was willing, or able, to move. The only exception was his lungs—attempting vainly to replenish the oxygen he’d depleted while holding off long enough for Marley to have one last orgasm.
He knew right then, with a ferocity he couldn’t explain, that he wanted Marley with him for the rest of his life. He didn’t know how he was going to convince her of that, all he knew was he had too.
His mother had always said that as long as you had love, you had everything. They would figure something out; they had six months in which to do it.
For the first time that week he thanked God for the terms of Pop’s will.
“Are you thirsty?” Hunter asked her, nuzzling her ear, delighting when she shivered.
“Yes, but the kitchen seems so far away right about now. And you know, my feet really hurt,” Marley said in a lazy, sultry tone of voice that sent the blood pumping through his veins again. If she had even realized she had feet for the last twenty minutes he’d eat his shorts.
“I’ll get us some water, why don’t you start the shower so we can wash some of this sweat off? I’ll make sure your feet don’t bother you any more,” he said giving her a little hip thrust so that she couldn’t miss his intentions.
“It worked last time, I’m game.”
“Honey, after that bout, and with the temperature in this apartment, we are both pretty gamy,” Hunter teased, slapping her bare butt when she stood up in mock indignation. He only proved his point when his palm slid across her derrière.
“You know, I bet most men don’t tell their lovers that they stink after having just made love to them. At least they don’t in any of the romance novels I’ve read.”
“That’s because they are written for women who don’t want to hear about real sex,” Hunter said, going to the kitchen to get two bottles of water.
