The Proposal (A Billionaire Romance)

by Nikki Wild

  I blinked in confusion.

  It hadn’t really occurred to me that he’d go straight for that. All these questions, all these concerns about the time we’d spent apart…

  “Business…” I murmured, realizing that he was getting to me. His leather jacket was discarded again, and those rippling muscles were clearly out on display. I couldn’t help but trace his rugged, hardened physique with my gaze.

  I wondered if coming here had been a mistake. Spit in the drinks or not, I was probably safer back at the bar…

  “Yes, business…” He repeated, a faint smile curling at the edges of his lips. The smug bastard could see the effect he was having on me.

  I swallowed quickly.

  “You’ve come to my town for something, and we both know this isn’t a social visit. I want to know why you’re here, and how you found me.”

  “Tell me you’re smarter than that,” I toyed.

  “Right,” he answered calmly. “The girls.”

  “The girls?” I asked, sipping my drink. Selfishly, I needed to know how useful Hunter would be to my case. My memories painted him as being particularly sharp and perceptive, but if he was going to be a proper ally in this case…

  “You’re not the first detective to sit here asking me questions about our little investigation in Tucson, Sarah… I’m not interested in playing games here.”

  “So, that was your investigation,” I confirmed aloud. I fought how my core warmed as his voice trickled over the syllables of my name. “But why you? Why them, and why now?”

  “You know why,” he answered quietly, his eyes stern as he regarded me coolly. “That’s why you came here.”

  “Your sister.”

  “That’s right,” Hunter nodded calmly. “Eight years ago, the Devil’s Dragons MC helped me find her. In exchange, I joined the club as a junior enforcer…”

  “You never told me much about her,” I pressed. “That might help me here, with this.”

  Hunter’s haunted gaze turned inward.

  “My sister… she was vacationing in Cancun when they took her. She was always so careful, always sticking to the safer, touristy places… The bastards took her and her best friend right out of their damn hotel room. We never found the other one, but we did find my sister…”

  “Who took her?” I asked.

  Hunter’s gaze darkened. “The fuckers call themselves Víboras Verde,” he explained. “The Vipers of the Green. They’re a Mexican cartel, one of the rougher ones. Until then, they’d only dabbled in kidnappings…”

  “Sex trade?” I asked, as respectfully as I could.

  “None other. Turns out, there’s plenty of money to be made in selling pussy to discerning buyers, and there’s a lot less overhead compared to the drug trade. No fields of illegal plants, no chemical labs, and if you set up somewhere nice the product comes to you…” Hunter laughed mirthlessly. “We found her before she could disappear into that particular hell… but she was never the same again.”

  I reached forward, placing my hand on his. His posture didn’t change, but his fingers absentmindedly parted around mine.

  “What did they do to her?”

  “She never told me the details. Poor girl abandoned her life and disappeared into the world. I hear from her sometimes…”

  I nodded, unsure of what to say.

  “I… I’m sorry, Hunter.”

  He smiled sadly, refocusing our topic.

  “So, this cheerleader kidnapping thing absolutely stunk of their handiwork. I reached out to some contacts and confirmed my suspicions… With the new passport laws and all the goddamned violence there’s less tourists heading down into Mexico. The cartel has been getting bolder every day. They’d started placing manpower across the fence. Began abducting people from this side of the border…”

  “So you went after them,” I stated.

  Hunter nodded. “I grabbed my men, and we high-tailed it to Tucson. It’s a little outside my network, but we’ve got relations with the underground scene out there. I knocked on some doors, and we started our own investigation from our side of the law.”

  “And you attracted attention.”

  “Damn right we did,” he smiled nostalgically. “Police sure do have a tenuous grasp on logic… ‘Sure, these biker guys look suspicious. Showing up AFTER the disappearances and making a big ruckus… OBVIOUSLY they’re the culprits!’”

  “You don’t think that looked a bit strange?” I asked, taking another swig of whiskey. “You guys came out of nowhere and started rattling cages.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” Hunter chuckled. “Either way, we got results. Confirmed a few things. Got a few leads. Hell, I even approached the local authorities against the better judgment of the club… I was rewarded with a nice fat threat of an obstruction of justice arrest if I stayed in town.”

  “They didn’t believe you?”

  “I don’t know what the fuck is going on with that police department, but they instantly dismissed my findings. Maybe they couldn’t get over the fact that a bunch of renegades could run a better investigation than their prized officers…”

  Hunter glanced at our empty drinks and stood up, stretching briefly. A moment later, he returned with an open bottle of Jack Daniels, halfway refilling our glasses before setting it down on the coffee table.

  We ceremoniously clinked glasses together, both taking heavy swigs of the whiskey.

  “So, what did you do then?” I asked.

  Hunter thought on his answer for a moment. “With all the police and media attention in Arizona the Cartel shifted their focus east. We chased our lead, caught wind of their people nosing around the border in New Mexico and Texas. Figured we could do some good work back here…”

  “So this is your usual base of operations?” I asked, glancing around the house. “And the bar? That’s yours?”

  “Both temporary gifts, thanks to some free bodyguarding to a pair of clients with real estate out here,” he noted. “It’s a temporary situation. Texas isn’t exactly where the Devil’s Dragons want to call home.”

  I wanted to ask about that, but there were more pressing things to know. “You’ve been chasing these people for a while,” I thought aloud. “It’s a lot to risk when you don’t have the support of the law.”

  “I don’t give a flying fuck about the law,” Hunter answered with conviction. “Not since the law intervened in club operations and took away the love of my life…”

  Involuntarily, I swallowed.

  I was the love of his life?

  He seemed to realize what he’d said, because Hunter immediately downed another mouthful of his liquor.

  “I told myself that I didn’t need them,” he quickly followed up, adjusting the topic at hand. “If they weren’t willing to have my back when I practically brought them the answers to their problems, then I figured they could at least stay the fuck out of my way.”

  I leaned forward, unable to clear my head of what he’d just said. Hunter thought I was the love of his life…

  “But now you’re here,” he whispered.

  With a glance, he read my thoughts.

  A sly smirk crossed his lips.

  “I knew you still carried a torch for me,” he murmured as he leaned forward as well. “There hasn’t been a goddamn day that I haven’t thought about you, Sarah…”

  I felt a pressure in my chest as I maintained my ground, unwilling to pull away from him. Our gazes were locked onto one another, our lips tantalizingly only a foot away…

  All those years that we’d been separated by distance, mystery, and the hardships of life… and now, my beloved Hunter was right here, achingly close…

  “You know that I never stopped loving you.”

  I dug down deep, finding the strength to move past that comment… no matter how hard it was to do so. I tried to steer my headspace back to the case at hand, back to business.

  “You know where the cheerleaders are?” I asked him matter-of-factly.

  Fo
r a split second, Hunter almost looked disappointed. His eyes mischievously flickered with something hidden, and he leaned back slightly.

  “No, Detective, I have no idea where your missing pretty little white cheerleaders are,” he quipped. “Although it’s safe to say that you probably won’t find them by now… I think they’re long gone… Used up… Dead, if they’re lucky.”

  I always knew when Hunter was hiding something from me, and it was written all over his eyes. As cool and apathetic as he was trying to play this, I could tell that he was holding something back…

  And it made me angry.

  “What aren’t you telling me?” I insisted.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Don’t play this game with me, Hunter,” I warned him, the glass of whiskey long forgotten on the coffee table. “You’re sitting on something solid, something that can turn this thing around for me. I know you are. Why won’t you tell me?”

  His eyes darkened. “Sarah, I’m only doing what I’ve always tried to do… protect you. Whatever you think I do or don’t know, it’s for your own good. I won’t let you get hurt out here.”

  I jumped up from the couch, my hands in the air. “This is classic you, isn’t it?” I shouted. “I try to reach out to you, to be real with you, and you just wall me out. I told you last time that you’re a damned big block of ice…”

  “Ah yes, I remember that one. You did always have such a way with metaphors,” Hunter observed slyly.

  “It’s like when we were kids, and you were joining the Devil’s Dragons! I tried to convince you I could handle it, and you tried to shut me out… just like you are now!”

  Hunter rose from the couch, his eyes fierce and uncompromising. “Everything that I have ever done between us has been to keep you safe,” he told me. “You’re playing with matches in an oil field, Sarah. This road you’re on, trying to find out what happened to those girls… you’re gonna get burned out here. For fucks sake you’re pretty enough that they’ll probably take you too, and if you think what they do to women is bad, you should see what they do to cops… I can’t let you go walking into danger like this.”

  “What aren’t you telling me?” I demanded, flashing him my angriest look. “I’ve come all this way to see you again, and I’m not leaving without answers even if it means I drag you out of here in handcuffs. Tell me everything.”

  Hunter drew close.

  “Fine. If it matters so much to you… if that’s the real reason you’re here… then I’ll do it. I’ll tell you everything I know. On one condition.”

  I steeled myself. “What’s the condition?”

  Before I could react, his lips crashed against mine. I felt myself swept into the heavy embrace of his hard, comforting arms, and for just that kiss, I gave in.

  I gave in hard.

  After what felt like years, I pulled back, gazing at him with a glance that was meant to be scathing. However, I suspected it was more vulnerable than anything else.

  “I can’t do this,” I told him.

  “That hasn’t stopped you before…”

  Indignantly, my surprised eyes narrowed to slits. “Fuck you, Hunter.”

  Hunter drew closer, his arms wrapping around me again. I felt my resolve weaken against the warmth of his body, and the pleasure of being in his embrace again…

  With a savage grin, he whispered:

  “That’s the idea.”

  Eight

  Hunter’s lips against mine again melted away eight years of fear, indecision, and reluctance. Every passing lover that I had taken in the intervening time was just a warm-up for this reunion…

  His hunger was as strong as the day I’d seen him last. No words were spoken; none were necessary.

  Apparently, we shared the same thought, because we began ripping each other’s clothes off at the same time. While he effortlessly tugged my shirt off, my fingers hooked under his own, fingertips scraping along what felt like rock-hard abs…

  Hunter tugged my jeans down my thighs, and soon they joined my shirt on the floor. In a flurry of kissing and grinding, he had me up against the wall, my wrists pinned above my head. I struggled to match my lips to his, but he hung tantalizingly back, unwilling to let me have what I needed so desperately.

  But I’d gotten his shirt off of him, and my half-lidded eyes gazed down his sculpted abdominals. His rippling six-pack practically sucked the breath from my lungs.

  Hunter’s hips pushed into mine, and I could feel the searing heat of his familiar package against my moistening core.

  I trembled beneath his domination, and the smug fucker smiled into a hot, heavy kiss. Our tongues began their familiar dance together, the muscle memory from years long past flaring up to stoke the dormant fire in our hearts.

  It was as if the time had never passed.

  We instinctively remembered what the other liked best – Hunter would push up against my hips just the right way, his breath teasing against my lobe, and I undulated between his body and the wall with just the right motions to spur him onward.

  After a few minutes of furious kissing, he couldn’t take it any longer… and neither could I.

  His grip released, and I pounced, taking every inch of newfound freedom that I could gather. With my lips firmly meeting his, I grasped at his package though his black denim, stroking the outline with my fingertips.

  Hunter groaned in contentment, and the distraction was just enough time to begin unbuckling his jeans.

  The thick, massive cock that I missed so much sprung from its fabric prison the second that I tugged his jeans down his thighs.

  It even looked like it had grown very slightly since I’d seen it last – a little wider and longer than I remembered…

  Without wasting a second, I began stroking the firm, erect tool. Kissing into his neck with my hand teasing him down south, I felt his body shudder with my touch.

  That’s right, Hunter, I thought.

  You always loved my hand around your cock…

  I wanted to stay in charge, so I took the initiative. Before he gained enough self-control to place his hands on my shoulders, I dropped down to my knees in front of his weapon.

  Curling my hands around his hips to hold myself steady, my lips parted around the crimson helmet of his throbbing cock.

  Oh god, I missed this so much.

  All he could do was groan as I swallowed down a third of his erection, pulling back up to barely keep the tip in my mouth. His lazy gaze filtered downward, matching my lustful stare as I descended upon his cock again, taking half in this time, pulling back, pushing down, back, down, back, down…

  His fingers threaded into my hair, but instead of commandeering my rhythm, he merely held my locks brushed aside. Grateful that I could now focus on sucking his cock, I picked the speed up, letting my fingertips dig into his hips as I fucked him with my mouth, harder and faster now, desperate to please him once more.

  I needed this… I’d been dreaming about Hunter for eight long years…

  Hunter’s fingers suddenly clasped a fistful of my hair, as if taking me by the reins. With gritted teeth that only exposed his animalistic pleasure, he began to more forcefully pull me down his cock. I relaxed my jaw to accept more of him in, knowing that this was inevitable… but I had held back an ace.

  With a good twenty seconds of thrusting his cock into my mouth at his preferred speed, he realized that something was a little different… I wasn’t stopping him.

  “You… oh my God…” He murmured for the first time since we’d kissed.

  I pulled my lips off of his cock, coughing temporarily before accepting a deep gulp of air. I grinned seductively up at him… “I’ve gotten better with age…”

  “Well, ain’t that just the sweetest,” Hunter grinned hungrily, pulling my mouth back onto his cock and groaning with pleasure. He released his wild abandon now, forcing me to accept as much of his huge cock as I could…

  And since I could use my throat now, tha
t meant all of it. His grunts became a mixture of surprise and intense satisfaction.

  I steadied my hands around his hips as he continued to drill my mouth, releasing his grip every eighth or ninth thrust so I could restock on precious, life-giving oxygen.

  With a few more minutes of this, his grip released on my hair, and he pushed me off of his cock.

  If it had been anyone else, I would have been upset. I’d been so close to finishing him with my throat… but I knew Hunter, and I knew what he wanted.

  He wanted to share the pleasure.

  After quickly kicking off his boots and jeans, Hunter’s strong hand gripped my shoulder and coerced me up onto my feet. He guided me down a hallway and into a dark bedroom, tossing me down onto a bed.

  His bed.

  As I slumped down into his comforter, watching him kneel on the edge of the bed and come my way, that this had been everything that I’d wanted in the last eight years.

  His lips crashed down into mine, and I reached down to grasp the scepter of his passion. If I hadn’t already brought him to his knees, those few strokes would have done it. His satisfied groans against my lips told me everything that I needed to know.

  “Mmf,” he grunted, grasping a handful of my hair and pulling my eyes to match his. I was taken aback by his effortless dominance, and how I loved that simple, easy act of control.

  His kissing moved downward; his lips traced my collarbone, nipping down my skin around my bra. The biker peppered a trail of kisses down my abdomen until he reached the tantalizing edge of my panties.

  I was grateful that I’d at least matched my underwear today.

  Without a word spoken, Hunter tugged me up into a kneeling position, his lips on my neck. While I was distracted, I felt two little flicks of his wrist behind my back. All of a sudden, my bra’s clasps came undone beneath his touch.

  Pulling the velvety shield from my ample bosom and casting it aside, he coerced me down onto my back again. I allowed my head to nestle into his pillows as he descended upon my perky, erect nubs.

  A little charge of lightning pleasure sparked in my head as he took a nipple between his lips, wrapping his fingers around the breast to firmly squeeze it.