My chest tightened. I thought it was impossible to love this man any more than I already did, but there he goes saying things that have me literally melting in his hands. “Oh God, Hunter, I need you. Please.”
“I know, baby.” He leaned forward, his chest flush against my back, and he kissed the spot between my shoulder blades. “I got you.”
I felt the tip of his cock slide between my folds as he coated himself with my arousal, and he thrust forward, filling me with his entire length. He paused, giving me a moment to stretch around him, and then began moving again… slowly, purposefully, lovingly. Whenever Hunter and I made love, it was like a stellar collision, lighting up the heavens as we came together as one, and nothing but the hands of God himself could tear up apart. It was truly beautiful, and I never wanted it to end.
My climax was quickly building as he pumped steadily into me, and I could feel him grow harder each time he slid back in. Sweat dripped from his brow, splashing against my back, and he stealthily slipped his hand between my thighs to stroke my clit. A second wave of pleasure shot through me, and I was clenching the bed sheets in my hands as I came hard around him. He bent forward, digging his fingers into my hips as he spilled every last drop of his cum inside me, and he bellowed out my name so loud that I wouldn’t be surprised if the neighbors came pounding on the door.
Hunter collapsed against my back but managed to hold his weight up so that he wasn’t crushing me or the baby.
“That was…”
“Fuck…”
Yeah, I think we both summed that up perfectly.
I rolled onto my back beneath him, and he carefully pulled me up so that I was seated with my legs wrapped snug around his waist. He cradled my face, stroking his thumbs across my cheeks, and brought our lips together. “I love you so damn much.”
My lips curled against his, and I knew he felt it, too. “I love you so much more.”
“Not possible.” He grinned and kissed me again. “Because now I have two of you to love.”
I wrapped my arms around him, burying my face in the hollow of his neck so I could breathe in his delicious, woodsy scent… a scent that would forever make me think of home. It was an incredible feeling, knowing everything I ever wanted, everything I ever dreamed of, was sitting right in front of me; I prayed I’d never lose that feeling.
I lifted my head, smiling back at the man who had quickly become my whole world, and caught a flash of light coming from the corner of the room. It flickered softly at first, steadily becoming brighter as my eyes focused in on the source, but I found it strange that it moved in almost perfect tandem with my breaths. In… Out… In… Out… like the waves of the ocean lazily making their way up the beach and receding back out with the tide. I held my breath for just a beat to see if perhaps my eyes were playing tricks on me, but the subtle light streaming in through the window was just enough to illuminate the metallic blade slicing through the shadows.
Hunter drew in a sharp breath, my nails just about piercing through the skin at the base of his neck. “Damn, woman, am I going to have to get you declawed?” he winced, but there was a hint of laughter in his voice.
“Hunter…” I whispered, trying to keep my voice as low as possible. My heart was racing and my breathing became labored.
“Babe, I was only kidding. You know I love when you dig your nails into me. It’s hot as fuck. Just try to avoid drawing blood next time.”
“Hunter!” I whispered louder.
“What?”
“I think there’s someone in the room.”
Hunter’s eyes darkened, sweeping the room as he slid his boxer briefs on, and his gaze halted on the window next to the bed that had been left open a crack. He calmly reached toward the drawer next to his bed, the one I knew he kept his gun in, but never even had a chance to open it before a large body came lunging at him, knife in hand.
I screamed, pulling the sheet up over my naked body, and watched in horror as Hunter wrestled the intruder to the ground, fists flying back and forth between them. The man was clad in dark clothing, and a ski mask concealed his face, making it nearly impossible to identify him. But then my eyes locked on his, and what I saw made the acid rise in my throat, the burn igniting an image in my mind that I hadn’t remembered since the day of the accident. It was him.
Every muscle in my body instantly froze. Breathe, Maddie. Just breathe.
Those eyes. Those same hateful, venomous eyes that bore into me just seconds before slamming into Robbie’s car and sending me over the embankment were now staring back at me with just as much blood-thirsty malice, and I had this gut-wrenching feeling that he had come back to finish the job.
Feeling slowly seeped back into my body, my knees buckling as the gravity of the situation finally wrenched me back into the present. My fight or flight instincts kicked in, and I whipped open the nightstand drawer, pulled out Hunter’s gun, and flew off the bed with the sheet still wrapped around me. The knife that had fallen out of the intruder’s grasp was lying on the floor just inches away from them, and I quickly kicked it out of reach.
“Stop!” I shouted as I aimed the gun, trying to get a clear shot, but they went tumbling across the floor in a heap of tangled limbs and stifled grunts.
“Fuck! You’re going to kill him!” They continued to beat on each other until there was blood dripping down their faces, splattering against the floor in crimson puddles, and I couldn’t take it anymore. They really were going to kill each other!
“Dammit, Jeremy, I’m not fucking around!”
Hunter’s head whipped around, shooting me a questioning look, and Jeremy seized the opportunity to get one last punch in. Hunter fell against the floor with a loud thud, creating some distance between them, and I took a chance, drawing in a deep breath before I cocked the gun and pulled the trigger.
Click.
Click.
Bang!
The shot rang through my ears like a cannon, deafening me until I heard Jeremy wailing in pain.
“What the fuck! You shot me, you stupid bitch!”
I dropped the gun on the bed and slowly stepped away. I shot someone. Holy fucking shit I actually shot someone! “I told you I wasn’t fucking around, you piece of shit!”
“God, you didn’t have to shoot me in the ass!”
Hunter quickly got to his feet, wiping the blood from his face as he slipped the gun in the waistband of his boxer briefs. He crouched down beside Jeremy, pulling his ski mask off so he could get a good look at him, and yanked him up by his hair. “You talk to the mother of my child like that again, and I’ll add a bullet to the other cheek to even you out. Now, who the hell are you, and what the fuck are you doing in my apartment?”
“Hunter…” I reached for his arm to pull him away, but he yanked himself free from my grasp.
Jeremy let out a heinous laugh. “You act like it’s the first time I’ve been here.”
“What?” Hunter diverted his attention to me. “What is he talking about?”
I shook my head because I honestly had no idea. Jeremy had never been here to my knowledge. Although, now that I thought about it, I had seen his SUV outside of Hunter’s apartment before, just like I had outside of mine… and outside of work… and the doctor’s office… and…
Oh. My. God.
“Look, why don’t you cut the bullshit and give me some straight answers?” Hunter pulled the gun from his waistband and pressed it into Jeremy’s backside. “Unless you’d prefer we do this the hard way?”
“J-Jeremy?” My voice wavered and my hand flew over my throat. Suddenly everything was beginning to make sense, and a wave of revulsion came over me.
“You didn’t really think I was going to let him have you all to himself, did you?” Jeremy’s gaze fastened on to mine, and his eyes grew wide, his smile spreading like a Cheshire cat. “Ah, so the dumb blonde is finally putting two and two together.”
“It was you,” I said matter-of-factly and tightened the sheet around me. “H-ho
w long?”
“Maddie, baby, what is going on? How do you two know each other?” Hunter’s voice softened and he took my chin between his finger and thumb, blocking Jeremy from my line of sight.
God, I didn’t want it to come out like this, with Hunter and I half-naked and Jeremy lying there with a bullet in him. “We… used to hook up on occasion.” I bit the inside of my cheek, feeling dirty just admitting that. “It wasn’t anything serious, but it went on for quite some time.”
“Two years,” Jeremy chimed in. “Two fucking years, and then this pussy-whipped motherfucker comes waltzing in and takes my girl.”
“Your girl?!” Hunter was fuming, ready to go after him again, but I somehow managed to restrain him.
“Jeremy, I was never your girl!” Had he seriously lost his mind?
“That’s what you think, but I staked my claim on you long before any of those pricks came along. You were mine, Maddie. Always mine. But the second he came into the picture, you dropped me like a bad habit. No warning. No goodbye fuck. Nothing. So I had to take matters into my own hands to take back what was mine.”
“God, you are one sick, twisted fuck!” Hunter muttered under his breath, just as the sound of sirens slowly drifted through the apartment.
“You never answered my question, Jeremy. How. Long?”
He licked his lips and smiled. “Since the moment I branded you for what you truly are. Nothing but a dirty… fucking… slut.”
I recoiled as if he had slapped me, and Hunter shoved his gun deep in Jeremy’s wound, causing him to cry out in pain. It couldn’t have been him though. It was Tucker. The damage to my car, the brick through the window, the message left outside of Hunter’s apartment… that was all…
“But Tucker—”
“Was the perfect scapegoat, wasn’t he?” he smirked, still managing to be a cocky asshole even though I knew he was in a great deal of pain. “He was already under the line of fire, so naturally I knew you would place the blame on him. I was hoping lover boy here would see how much baggage came along with your slutty ass, but instead, he came riding in like some fucking knight to save the day every damn time. And then seeing you in his bed, him claiming your sweet pussy night after night when I should’ve been the one burying myself deep inside you… that was when I decided that if I couldn’t have you, no one could.”
“Y-you saw us together like that? You… oh my God! I can’t believe you! You fucking pervert!” This time I was the one barreling toward Jeremy, ready to claw his goddamn eyes out, but Hunter wrapped his arms around my waist, placing a hand protectively over my stomach as he tugged me back against his chest.
A few seconds later, we heard several pairs of footsteps come thundering up the stairs, and a heavy fist pounded relentlessly on the door. “Police! Open up!”
From that point on, everything was a blur…
The police interrogated us until we were blue in the face, but I couldn’t remember a single question they had asked, let alone any of the answers I gave. I just stared blankly, nodding in agreement with whatever Hunter had to say. While he kept it together, calm and collected, my mind was reeling, still trying to process the fact that every terrible thing that had happened to me over the last few months was all because of Jeremy; that he had gone so far out of his way to hurt me. To hurt us. For Christ’s sake, he nearly ended my life and the life of my unborn child! And then to go after Hunter the way he had tonight, all because he couldn’t have what was never his? What kind of perverse monster would do that?
I was so far gone in my thoughts that I never noticed Jeremy had been handcuffed and taken out on a stretcher, until my eyes trailed over to the pool of blood that was slowly seeping further into the carpet and saw that he was no longer lying beside it. Muffled voices continued to filter around me as medics cleaned and bandaged the gash on Hunter’s forehead, but my focus remained locked on the cool, red stain that had settled deep within the fibers, mocking me with bold conviction, because I was the one who had put it there. I was the one who pulled the trigger. Fuck me, I still couldn’t believe I actually shot Jeremy!
Out of all of the chaos surrounding me, only one word managed to break through my reverie: cameras. That sleazy motherfucker planted hidden cameras in our bedroom, aimed directly at our bed. Every private, intimate moment Hunter and I shared… he had seen it all. Just the thought of him watching us worship one another’s bodies as we made love in this very room… Oh God, I wanted to throw up.
Somehow I managed to keep my emotions in check until after the police left, and then I finally broke down in ugly, unrestrained sobs. Hunter held me close, gently stroking my hair and brushing his lips across my cheek as he let me cry. I cried for the months of frustration and living in fear. For being so blind to all of the obvious signs that should have been clear as fucking day. For believing there was any truth behind the lies Jeremy spewed out. It wasn’t a secret that I had a reputation around campus, one I was far from proud of, but not once did Hunter ever hold my past indiscretions against me. He accepted me for me, skeletons in the closet and all, and that alone made me want to be a better person.
For him.
For our little girl.
But most of all… for myself.
Hunter pressed his lips to my throat, the warmth of his breath rushing over me in calming waves. “Shhh, it’s okay. I got you, baby. Just breathe.” He gently cradled my face, peeling away the tear-stained strands of hair that were plastered against my cheeks, and I caught his soft, gray eyes gazing down at me just as they had the first time he held me in his arms… the night he forever changed my life.
I didn’t know it then, but that night all those months ago, I fell in love with Hunter Bryant.
It took nearly two whole months to finally catch my breath, and even then I felt like my world continued to crash down around me, burying me in the rubble of the aftermath. Knowing that Jeremy was out of the picture and we were all safe and sound should’ve put my mind at ease, but it didn’t mean that my problems stopped there. This was only the beginning.
Hunter checked us into a hotel, hoping the change of scenery would settle my nerves, but it only seemed to make things worse. Being in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar sounds at all hours of the night had my senses on high alert, and I spent one too many nights lying awake in bed with bloodshot eyes, wondering if Jeremy would slip out from the shadows and steal my family away from me. God, why couldn’t he just leave me alone? Even now, with him behind bars, he continued to torment me by instilling fear into every thought that crossed my mind. I was sick and tired of living like this, and the stress of carrying this burden day after day was beginning to take a heavy toll on me.
After everything that happened, I was so wound up that my blood pressure shot through the roof, and I had to be admitted to the hospital with severe hypertension. The doctors weren’t surprised when I explained all that I had gone through recently, but they were concerned nonetheless and didn’t want to take any chances. There was the possibility that it would eventually develop into preeclampsia, which was dangerous for both me and the baby. It ran the risk of having to deliver the baby prematurely or even worse… it could lead to stillbirth.
The second those words left my doctor’s mouth I was a complete mess, and Hunter was by my side consoling me. I could see fear piercing through the tears in his eyes, and it only made me want to fight that much more. We had gone through so much in just a few short months, and the thought of losing our precious baby girl when she had fought so hard to live was unimaginable. She wasn’t even here yet, but that little girl already held my whole heart in her tiny hands. If we lost her now, I had no doubt that she would take my heart along with her.
I was given labetalol intravenously to bring down my blood pressure, and the baby and I were monitored over the next twenty-four hours. At some point during the night, Hunter had fallen asleep beside me with his hand splayed over my stomach, and I loved that even in his dreams, he was protecting our baby girl… p
rotecting his family. The next morning, the doctor was pleased to see how well I responded to the medication, and after writing me a prescription for the drug in pill form, we were given the okay to be discharged from the hospital.
Coming home to the apartment was bittersweet. I was happy to be back where I belonged, with Hunter by my side, but there was no avoiding the ugly reminder of what Jeremy had done to us. The bloodstained carpet in our bedroom what the biggest slap in the face, and although Hunter offered to move somewhere else, somewhere I wouldn’t be constantly haunted by the man who almost stole the two most important people in my life away from me, I just couldn’t bear to leave our apartment. He had already put so much work into the nursery for our daughter. The moment I stepped into the room, I knew it belonged to our little girl and there was no way I was taking that away from her.
After tearing up the carpet and giving the hardwood floors a good scrub, it finally felt as though the last piece of this on-going nightmare had been eradicated for good. The icing on the cake, though, was when we were notified of the charges being pressed against Jeremy. It seemed he had a history of stalking women, all former hook ups that ended the “relationship” in much the same way I had, and with the addition of assault and attempted murder to the long list of accusations, our lawyer had no doubt that he would get the maximum sentence of twenty-five to life.
I couldn’t believe my ears. Twenty. Five. To. Life. There was still the chance that he’d get parole after serving a certain period of time behind bars, but I wasn’t going to concern myself with that until the time came to face him again. I had more important things to worry about at the moment… like trying to walk down the aisle at Liberty and Shayne’s wedding without toppling over and face-planting in the sand.
Unforeseen Heartbeat Page 29
