by Megan Smith
That’s it! I can’t take this anymore.
Jackson, Chloe and Alex were sitting across from me at my parents’ huge square dining room table; Cooper, Jaylinn and Mason were to my right. Ms. McCormick was sitting by herself on my left. Everyone was digging in. I looked from one person to the next. No-one, not one single person, looked at me. Not even Hunter when he sat next to me.
I cleared my throat, I was getting answers. “What the hell’s going on? And don’t say ‘nothing’, I’m not stupid and I’m not a little girl anymore.”
No one moved. No one said a word. No one looked at me until Mom and Dad walked back in.
He took a deep breath, “Baby girl, we need to have a family meeting.”
What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On?
“Well, I can tell this family meeting’s going to be bad, not a damn one of you will look at me.” I snapped.
Hunter reached under that table and placed his hand on my thigh. Normally, that would calm my nerves but not this time. I didn’t have a clue as to what the hell was going on; all I knew was that everyone had been acting strange all day. Even Chloe, who never let anything get to her, wasn’t herself.
Mom grabbed Dad’s hand on top of the table; he looked over and gave her a smile and then he quickly glanced around to each of us before he started, “Well you know that I work in New York?” I nodded, “Well I don’t actually work for the New York Stock Exchange. I’m actually an FBI Agent.”
Huh? I’m confused. Was this a joke? Why would he lie about that?
“You may not understand baby girl, but I didn’t want you to know. I deal with some pretty dangerous people and I never wanted my career to touch you in any way. That’s why the boys were so protective of you for all these years, I instilled it in them.”
Wasn’t this some shit? My family had hidden this from me all these years. “So you’d rather lie to me than tell me the truth?” I was getting more pissed off by the minute.
“I did it for you MacKenzie. We did it for you. I never wanted anything to happen to you.” Dad explained, his eyes begging me to understand why he’d done what he had.
“You could have told me and still had them protect me, Dad. Everyone knows but me?” I looked around the table and still no one was looking at me, not even Hunter.
I grabbed Hunter’s hand and threw it off my thigh; he looked up at me then. “You knew?”
He didn’t have to answer; his eyes told me everything I needed to know. “This is great. I’m damn near twenty years old; I have a child for Christ’s sake. I can handle shit. I mean, my God, I was damn near killed a few weeks ago in a car accident. I handled that, I’m still handling it.” I was livid, “I was in danger when I left the house that day and no one was there to protect me.” Hunter flinched, “What was the point in lying to me?”
“CC…” Hunter spoke up.
“Don’t CC me anything. You knew about this and you didn’t tell me?” I was now turning my wrath on him. “You got pissed off that I didn’t tell you about Dominic visiting me that one time. I’ve told you everything from that day forward. You didn’t think you should have told me about this?”
I dropped his hand, I was disgusted. He’s so hypocritical.
“Sweetheart, in his defense he didn’t know ‘til just recently.” Mom expressed.
“I don’t give a shit, he should have told me. You all should have told me.” I was ready to leave, I needed fresh air. “Hell the secret isn’t even the end of the world. But I think I had the right to know a lot sooner than now.”
I looked over at Hunter, about ready to ask him to take me home, when I saw the look between him and Mason. Was something else still going on? I chose to believe that if there was, it would have come out now. I’m already pissed off; they might as well pile it on.
“Take me home.” I told Hunter, his head jerked towards me.
He shook his head, “No. You need to eat, and then I’ll take you home.”
If my ankle wasn’t still sore, I would’ve gotten my ass up from that chair and walked out. Hell, I thought about doing it anyway. “I can’t even finish now.”
Ryder started wailing from behind me. Shit, I’d forgotten he was in the room. Aside from Hunter, Ryder was the only one who could read my moods. When I was pissed off, he was pissed off, when I was sad, he was sad.
“Get him for me.” I spoke to anyone who would pick him up. Hunter’s mom was the closest; she hopped up and handed him over to me. Once he was snuggled up against me he calmed down. I rocked him for a few minutes and he fell back to sleep. No one talked. Everyone’s eyes were darting all around.
Dad reached for a fork and started eating, everyone else followed his lead and the conversation was over for now. I was pissed off and hurting. Your family is always supposed to love, protect and cherish each other. Right now I wasn’t feeling any of that.
When Hunter finished his dinner we packed up all of Ryder’s stuff and went home. I left without a word to anyone except Jaylinn and Hunter’s mom. I was sitting on the bed, holding Ryder while he was finishing his bottle before I laid him down to sleep, thinking about all the lies I was fed. Do I even really know my family? While I was thinking Dad was on a business trip he was really out fighting bad guys. There could have been a chance my dad never made it home, then what would have they told me?
I tried to burp him a few times before I laid him down, but he just wasn’t having it. Hunter came over and took him from me. He tried a few times himself to get Ryder to burp but he still wasn’t cooperating. Giving up, he rolled the bassinet closer to the bed and then laid him in it. Ryder was snug as a bug in his comfy and cozy little bed and would hopefully be out for a couple of hours.
Hunter stripped down to his boxers, placed his hat on the bed post and then climbed into bed next to me. “When did shit get so complicated?” I asked Hunter.
He pulled me so my back was flush against his chest, his hand resting on my hip. I felt him shake his head, “If you figure it out let me know.”
I wanted to be mad at Hunter for not telling me, but I knew I couldn’t be. In the car he had explained that he hadn’t known about my dad until Mason had told him at the hospital. That was pretty shitty timing on Mason’s part. He informed me that he’d told Mason that he wouldn’t keep it a secret from me, but with everything that was going on he just hadn’t wanted the extra stress put on me. In a way I did understand, the doctor wanted me stress free until I was in better health. As much as I wanted to blame Hunter, I knew that I couldn’t. He was looking out for me.
I let it slide just this one time.
It’d been three weeks since CC refused to talk to anyone but me and Hailey. She didn’t really have a choice but to talk to me. I mean I knew she was upset with me, but she understood that I hadn’t wanted to add any more stress. Hailey on the other hand never confessed to knowing about her dad. I think in a way CC knew that she was aware, but it was a family thing and, although Hailey is practically family, it wasn’t her right to say anything.
CC was scheduled for both doctors today, which sent me into a little bit of a panic. One appointment with her OB-GYN to have her final checkup and clearance for sex and another appointment with the Orthopedic doctor to have her casts removed. This meant that she’d have her freedom back and a bigger chance of running into Jason and Brittany without any of us around.
I hadn’t had a chance to talk to my mom about Jason and I really needed to do it soon. Maybe there’s a chance that I could figure out a way of getting them both to move, and never come back to bother us again. I’d gotten an extension on my leave from work for at least another two weeks which meant that I had two weeks to get my life back in order so I could concentrate when I returned.
Fucking Brittany, I still couldn’t believe she was my half-sister. I talked to Jaylinn a few times on the phone and every time I brought her up she’d cut me off and dismissed the conversation.
CC was upstairs feeding Ryder so that we could get out of here, while I wa
s in the kitchen fixing his bottles. This boy could eat; he was about to be two months old and already drinking eight ounces.
Now that CC was going to be free of her cast, I wanted some alone time with her, the only problem was, she wasn’t talking to anyone who could watch Ryder for us except my mom.
I figured it was worth a shot, so I picked up the phone and dialed, “Hello?” Mom said when she answered.
“Hey Ma. How you doing?”
She let out a long sigh, “I’m hanging in there. I miss you guys though, I wish there was a way to fix this mess.”
“Well I was going to ask if you could babysit Ryder for a little while. I want to take Kenz out for dinner and maybe a movie. She’s getting her cast off today.”
“Oh Hunter, that’s wonderful. And yes, of course I’ll watch him.”
“Great, thanks Ma. We’ll be over in a few hours.”
After I got the diaper bag packed, I went upstairs to collect the two of them. I heard CC talking and stopped for a second before I pushed the door open.
“Look how cute you look in your little outfit. Handsome just like your daddy.” Then I heard her kissing him.
I pushed the door open, “I want in on that action.”
Her cheeks flushed, “Then come get it.”
I did, I walked over and kissed her, hard. She reached up with one hand and grabbed the back of my neck kissing me even harder. Damn, I can’t wait for tonight.
She let her hand slowly slide down to my shoulder, and then my arm, when Ryder started cooing. We broke apart, laughing.
“He’s too cute.” CC said, running her hand over his head. He was getting big fast. His hands were like mittens, perfect for a baseball player or even a football player. For right now he had blue eyes, they were dark but they were blue. Strong little man too, already pulling his head up.
I looked down at my watch, “It’s time to get out of here, you ready?” I asked CC.
“Hell yeah! Just help me with my coat when you’re done putting Ryder in his seat.” She reached for the brush that was lying next to her and started brushing her hair. She’d tried talking me through braiding her hair once, but fuck that shit was complicated. I did give her help with a pony tail a time or two, it wasn’t perfect but it did the job. Now, when we went out, she used one of those band things that kept her hair out of her face.
Ryder was all buckled in; I ran him down to the bottom of the stairs and set him by the door. I went back upstairs, picked CC up and then walked us out to the car. She took the keys and started it up and got the heat turned on while I went in for Ryder. Finally we were on our way to get CC’s freedom back.
A few hours later, she was cast free, cleared to have sex and ecstatic. Ryder was at Mom’s, and we were pulling in to have dinner at the Italian restaurant that we both loved.
We were sat at a table for two in the back corner, perfect for us.
CC and I ordered our drinks; water for her a beer for me. I hadn’t seen her this happy in a long time. “I can’t believe they’re finally fucking off! My arm and foot look nasty, but they’re off.” Both were all flaky and really dry.
“I see.” I chuckled at her. “So what movie do you want to go and see?”
CC gave me the look, the one that said ‘You can’t be serious’, “You really want to go to the movies?”
I shook my head, “No, but you know.” I felt her foot slide up and down my ankle “I wasn’t sure if you were ready for all that.”
She was inching her leg up to just above my knee and then back down. I was watching her intently. If she didn’t stop this teasing we weren’t going to make it home.
She licked her lips, she had that gloss stuff on and they were extra shiny. I sat up in my chair a little more so I could lean over the table and kiss her, but her foot shot up between my legs. She smirked at me, “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m gonna kiss my fiancé. Why? You got a problem with that?” She wanted to play games and I was all for it.
“Actually,” She pointed her toes in the direction of my dick. “I do.”
I was a goner, I’m sure she knew this by now. How could she not? Her feet were pressing against it. She started moving her toes over my dick; I sucked in a quick breath. “What’s the matter, Hunter?”
Before I could show her what was wrong, the waitress walked over with our food. She placed it down in front of us, “Is there anything I can get you?”
I looked over at CC and she shook her head no, she still had her feet pressed against me. I didn’t trust my voice so I just shook my head and went to grab my beer off the table to take a swig.
“Babe, you have to move your feet.” I reached down under the table to adjust myself and relieve some of the pressure.
She stuck her bottom lip out, “Fine then.”
She went to go grab her fork but I caught her hand, “My patience is really thin right now. Unless you want me to haul your sexy ass into the bathroom, I suggest you play nice until dinner’s over.”
She blushed, which was doing nothing for my hard on. I let out a frustrated growl and pushed the desire down. Just a little while longer, I’ve waited these last six weeks, another hour wouldn’t kill me.
We finished our dinner in record time, paid the bill as soon as the waitress dropped it on the table and were in the car in less than an hour.
As soon as I shut my door CC was all over me, she twisted her arms behind my neck. She was climbing across the bench seat of my truck; then settled herself on my lap. Times like these I was glad I still had my truck; it was a lot roomier than her SUV.
Between kisses she said, “Take me home. I need you to make love to me.”
I snickered, “Baby, it’s a little hard to do that with you in my lap.”
She took a deep breath while resting forehead to forehead, “Ok, just a few more minutes, right?”
I was glad she was feeling just as caught up in the heat of things as I was, “Just a few minutes.”
She climbed off my lap, settled in her seat and buckled herself in. I started up the truck and made it home in ten minutes, when it should have taken twenty.
As soon as we pulled onto our street, I unbuckled my seatbelt and was grabbing for my purse. Dinner had been pure torture; I couldn’t even enjoy it because I was wound so tight. Hunter turned off the ignition and I was out of the truck in a flash, despite the slight pain shooting up my ankle, we met in front of the truck. He grabbed my hand and we walked to the front door, he unlocked it, and I attacked him. I dropped my purse right next to the door and jumped into his arms. He had no problem catching me.
“Damn baby.” He said as I landed in his arms. I couldn’t get close enough to him; I was pulling at his shirt while making love to his mouth. I pulled gently on the little bit of hair Hunter had on his head and that seemed to be his undoing. He slammed me up against the wall, my head thumped against it a little harder than the rest of my body, not painfully though. He pinned me against the wall with his hips while he reached behind his head and pulled his black T-shirt off.
I kissed the corner of his mouth, then his cheek. I slid my tongue down his neck; he squeezed my ass hard and moaned. I didn’t even realize we were moving until I felt the stairs against my back. Hunter pulled back and I let him go. He sat up but stayed between my legs, then pulled up my dress, bunching it up high on my thighs. He kissed the inside of each knee and my legs fell open even more, shaking from the anticipation of what was to come.
He was kissing higher and higher, his hands traveled up to my hips. My head fell back against the stairs; he was so close to where I wanted him. He gave my hips a squeeze, and then I felt his fingertips dip under the band of my thong and the next second I heard a tear. My head jerked up with surprise, desire pumping through me, and then he was on me, kissing my core. I moaned so loud I’m sure the neighbors thought I was a whore. He ran his tongue into my folds and then I felt a finger slip in me and that was all it took. I came so hard, harder than I ever have.<
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My body fell limp; Hunter picked me up and carried me to the bedroom. He stood me up; careful to make sure I wasn’t too weak. He reached down, grasped my dress and pulled it over my head, leaving me standing before him in just my black lace strapless bra.
Hunter took a step back and went to reach for his belt. I stopped his hand, reaching for the buckle myself, and he let me. Before I started to undo his belt he reached into his back pocket, grabbed his wallet and pulled a condom out. Once he did that I undid it, then his button and then ever so slowly unzipped him. I looked into his eyes while I reached into his boxer briefs; I started pulling them down slowly. Still watching me, he bent down a little and pushed his boxers and jeans down quickly and then stepped out of them.
Damn, he’s gorgeous, bronzed muscles flexing just from the slightest movements. I stood up and placed my hands on his shoulders and slightly turned us so that he was standing with the back of his knees against the bed. I pushed him back and he went with ease, then propped himself up on his elbows. Kneeling down between his legs, I ran my hands up his body as far as I could reach and then slowly back down. I moved as close as I could, Hunter’s eyes on me the whole time. I placed a kiss on his left hip, and then with my tongue I traced the words from his tattoo ‘No Regrets’. Hunter hissed, his body tensed, when I finished with the ‘S’, then he hauled me to the bed and rolled over so I was under him. He paused for a second to put a condom on and then thrust into me. I gasped at the feel of him; it was so tight, just like it was that first time we’d had sex, although this time it didn’t hurt. I lifted my legs, trying to climb higher; he grabbed under my ass and lifted me. He sunk in even deeper than he was; I clamped my legs tighter around him, never wanting him to pull out again.
He grunted from the contact between us. I reached my arms around his neck and pulled him close to me and kissed. His hips started moving, slowly at first, then more forcefully. We were both pouring our hearts and souls into this lovemaking. He was demanding with his touches and I was being submissive, I didn’t want it to stop.
