Addiction (The Hunted Series Book 2)

by Ivy Smoak

  "That's very romantic," my mom said.

  I smiled to myself. It was romantic. Everything James did was romantic. Even dragging me here to tell my parents about the situation. He did it because he cared about me. He wanted us to have a future together. And he didn't want our future to involve keeping secrets from my parents.

  James squeezed my hand and then pulled my chair back out for me. I felt so relieved. My parents seemed to understand. Love was love. All the messy details didn't really matter. And I felt so relieved, like a huge weight had been lifted off my chest. I sat back down and so did James.

  "And if things can't proceed as normal, what then?" my dad asked.

  "Honestly, I'm not sure what the backlash is going to be like," James said. "The blame for this lies on me, not Penny. It is my understanding that the University of New Castle will make that clear. If things don't go smoothly, she can always apply for different schools next semester."

  No. I didn't want to change schools. Everything was going to be okay. "Mom, Dad, it's going to be fine. I went to class this morning and it wasn't even that bad." I thought about Raymond Asher's harsh comments. If Tyler hadn't shown up to defend me, would everything have been fine? I shook away the thought. That was Comm. My other classes would be different.

  "Unfortunately we both need to get to work. Are you sure we can't get you to stay for dinner?" my mom asked.

  "No, we need to get back." I just wanted to be alone with James. This day couldn't be over soon enough.

  "Okay." My mom looked over at my dad.

  "Do you mind if we talk to Penny alone for a second?" my dad asked.

  "Of course." James stood up. "I'll be outside." He put his hand on my shoulder for a second and then walked out of the kitchen.

  When the front door closed, my parents still didn't say anything.

  "Mom, Dad, thank you for understanding. I know that you're probably disappointed in me. And I'm so sorry that..."

  My dad held up his hand to stop me from talking.

  I swallowed hard. I wished James was still sitting beside me.

  "We just want you to happy, Penny," my mom said.

  "I am happy. I've never been this happy."

  My parents looked at each other again.

  "Penny," my dad said. "If he has in any way pressured you into..."

  Oh my God. "No, Dad, it wasn't like that at all. He didn't pressure me. This situation is just as much my fault as it is his. If not more."

  "But if there's anything that you aren't ready for and he..."

  "Dad. Please stop." I didn't want to have this conversation with my parents. "He's always a complete gentleman." I winced at my own choice of words. It was almost like I had just confessed that James was a gentle lover. Please let this conversation be over.

  "I'm sorry. But when he mentioned sexual misconduct...I just wanted to make sure." My dad seemed to be just as uncomfortable as me.

  "When he mentioned it, he said it wasn't true. And it's not. We're exclusive. He's not dating anyone else. And everything we have done has been consensual." Consensual. I kept choosing grosser and grosser words to describe everything.

  "Okay." My dad sighed. "Well, we're glad you're not pregnant." He laughed uneasily.

  I knew he was trying to break the tension. "Yeah, you guys are too young to be grandparents."

  My mom smiled at me. "I really wish we didn't have to go back to work. I want to hear the whole story about how you two met." She stood up and quickly cleared the dishes. "Maybe the next time you two visit we can hear a little more about the good moments and a little less about the messy ones."

  Messy moments? Gross! "That sounds great."

  The three of us went outside. James was sitting on the front porch step petting Teddy.

  Whenever he did normal stuff it always looked funny to me. He was the sexiest man I had ever laid my eyes on. And my mind just instantly pictured him doing whatever he was doing in T.V. commercials. It was the sexiest ad for a pet commercial I had ever seen.

  "I see you two are getting along now," I said.

  "Yeah, I think he actually likes me." He turned around. When he saw my parents he quickly stood up.

  "I'm really sorry that you two can't stay. I hope you come visit us again soon. I promise that we're not usually this hostile." My mom leaned in and hugged him.

  James looked a little less uncomfortable than he had when she had hugged him earlier. "Thank you for being so understanding."

  My mom laughed. "Were we? I feel like we weren't. But I do understand. And I'm so glad that you make our daughter happy."

  My mom pulled away and gave me a quick hug. "Call me with those details."

  "I will."

  "James." My dad stuck out his hand.

  "Mr. Taylor." They quickly shook hands.

  "You can call me Peter." My dad nodded at him and walked over to me. He immediately embraced me in a hug. "Don't you ever think that you've disappointed us, Pen. We love you so much." He kissed the top of my head and released me from his hug.

  "Thanks, Dad." His words made me tear up slightly. It was such a relief to hear him say that. My biggest fear in life always seemed to be disappointing my parents. That was why I never took risks and always followed the rules. It was strange how quickly my outlook could change. I still never wanted to disappoint my parents. But James seemed to have taken over all my worries. I was more concerned about him now and making him happy. I'd do anything for him. I hoped he knew that.

  Chapter 25

  Wednesday

  As soon as my mom and dad drove off, I sighed and turned my head toward James. "That went well, right?" We were sitting in James' car. He hadn't started it yet. He was just sitting there, staring out the windshield.

  "In the end, yeah. Your dad...well, he surprised me."

  "I'm sorry about what he said. I've never seen him make snap judgments like that before. He's usually really nice. He didn't mean any of that. He was just upset."

  "At least he didn't try to punch me in the face." He smiled at me. "What did your parents say to you after I left?"

  I wanted to lighten the mood. "They grounded me."

  "Wait, what?" James lowered his eyebrows.

  "I'm just kidding. They can't ground me, I'm an adult." I was really glad that my parents hadn't tried to ground me. I'm pretty sure I would have just let them. I felt like a kid around my parents. I probably always would.

  "So if they didn't ground you, what did they say?"

  What is the best way to phrase this? "They just wanted to make sure you didn't sexually harass me or anything."

  "Oh God." He put his forehead down on the top of the steering wheel and stared laughing.

  I started laughing too.

  He sighed and lifted his head back up. "That must have been awkward."

  "Well, they didn't actually put it like that." I put my hand on his knee. "I think they phrased it by asking how rapey you were on a scale of one to Michael Jackson."

  "What?!"

  "Just kidding. They said something like pressuring me, or something."

  He put his hand on top of mine and ran his thumb across my knuckles. "I haven't have I? Pressured you?"

  "No. James, I love you. I want to be with you. I'm not sure what else I can do to make you believe me."

  He lifted up my hand and kissed my palm. "I do believe you. I'm sorry that I lost it in there. It almost felt like I was lecturing your father. I didn't mean to do that."

  "Well, you were a professor." I shrugged. "It kind of goes with the territory I think."

  "Yeah. I just feel like I kind of threw my money in his face. And that wasn't what I meant to do at all. I feel like a dick."

  "He certainly pushed enough of your buttons. James, I don't think my dad is mad at you. He seemed embarrassed about how he acted. Please don't over think this. We told them. It's over. Let's just be happy."

  "Just tell me where you want to go." He smiled at me and put his key into the ignition.

&n
bsp; "Actually, I think I just want to go home."

  "Home?" He raised his eyebrow.

  "Mhm."

  "Penny Taylor, are you referring to my apartment as home?" He looked so happy.

  "It's where I feel most comfortable. And of course, it's where you are. So, yes, I consider it home." I smiled at him.

  "You know, I'll take you wherever you want to go. Well, anywhere in the U.S. We really need to get you a passport."

  "All I want to do is snuggle up in your bed with you."

  "Okay. Home it is."

  ***

  When we pulled up to his apartment building, there were even more news vans parked outside. James seemed to immediately tense. People with microphones jumped out of the vans as his car turned into the parking garage. He sped up to the third floor of the parking garage and pulled his car into an empty spot.

  "Maybe we should've gone somewhere else," he said.

  "It's fine. They'll probably leave soon. Aren't celebrities always doing weird stuff? Kanye West and T-Swizzle will get into a knife fight or something and the paparazzi will move on. Especially if you don't give them anything good to talk about."

  He laughed and stepped out of the car. He opened up my door and grabbed my hand, escorting me to the elevator. "You do know that I'm not a celebrity, right?" He smiled at me.

  "Right. You're just a super sexy, eligible bachelor worth 2.8 billion dollars. You're not a celebrity at all."

  We stepped into the elevator.

  "Yeah, I'm not worth 2.8 billion dollars." He pressed the button for his floor.

  "Oh, right." Because of the divorce. His wife had gotten half his money. Hopefully he wasn't too upset about that. 1.4 billion dollars was still way too much money for one person to have.

  He looked down at me and smiled. "I'm worth way more than that." He slid his card into the reader and stepped into his apartment.

  "You have more than 2.8 billion dollars? That's insane, James. What on earth are you going to do with all that..." I stopped talking when I saw a huge box in the middle of his living room floor. It was at least four feet tall and six feet wide. It was wrapped in blue wrapping paper and there was a huge bow on top. There was a small box sitting on top of it, also in blue wrapping paper with a matching blue bow.

  "Oh." A smile broke over his face. "I almost forgot about that. Apparently I'm going to buy you gifts with it." He walked into his living room. But I just stood in his foyer.

  "James, you already got me a birthday gift. I don't need anything."

  "It's not for your birthday. Besides, it's kind of for both of us." He smiled at me.

  "But..."

  "Oh come on. You don't even know what it is yet. If you don't like it, I'll take it back. Just open it."

  I walked over to him. "I don't want you to spend your money on me. I just want to spend time with you." I stood on my tiptoes and ran my hands through his hair.

  "I know." He placed a soft kiss against my lips. He picked up the small present and tapped his hand on the large box. "Please just open it."

  He looked so excited. And the way he was looking at me made me excited too. I grabbed one of the folds in the wrapping paper and pulled it down. It was actually ridiculously fun to open a present this big. I pulled the paper as I walked from one side of the present to the other, and then pushed the paper out of the way.

  "Is this a T.V.?" I smiled at him. I guess I had made fun of him enough so that he decided to cave in and buy one.

  "Well, after this morning I wasn't really sure if you'd want to go to classes the next few days. So if we're camped out here, I thought you'd like to have a T.V. to watch. You seem to love T.V."

  I laughed. "That's incredibly sweet. But you know, I have a T.V. already. I can just bring it here. Melissa won't mind. She's always at Josh's anyway."

  "Yeah, but it's tiny."

  "There's nothing wrong with my T.V." I laughed.

  "I was going to hang it over there," he pointed to the wall across from his sofa. "And I measured and this T.V. is the perfect size for the distance between the couch and the wall. And since Rob is coming, I wanted something to watch the Giants games on. So..."

  "You're adorable. I'm definitely not going to make you take back that T.V. Clearly you want it."

  "But do you like it?"

  "Of course I like it. It's going to be like we're in a movie theater. Thank you."

  He laughed and smiled down at me. "And there's one more thing." He held out the small box. "Now, before you start protesting, it didn't even cost me anything. It's just something that I really want you to have. And after today, I think maybe now's the best time ever." He tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

  My heart started beating really fast. It was a really small box. Is that a ring sized box? No. He said it didn't cost anything. He just said a few hours ago that he wasn't ready to get married again.

  He lowered his eyebrows slightly. "Are you okay?"

  "What? Yeah."

  He grabbed my hand and put the box on my palm. "Open it, Penny."

  I took off the bow, slowly unwrapped the box, and lifted the lid. There were two plastic cards inside. My name was on each of them and there was a metallic stripe at the bottom, but nothing else. I looked up at him.

  "Welcome home."

  "Are these access cards to get into your apartment?"

  "Our apartment, yes."

  I ran my finger along my embossed name. He just gave me keys to his place. Our place. I liked how that sounded.

  "I find it incredibly hard to fall asleep when you're not beside me. I'd like you to move in. If that's what you want too."

  I looked up at him. We had talked about this before. Before our fight. A few weeks ago I thought I'd never even step foot in his apartment again. And now he was calling it ours and asking me to stay. This was a big step. And it was definitely a step I wanted to take.

  He wrapped his arms around me. "So what do you say?"

  "Yes. Absolutely yes." I hugged him, pressing the side of my cheek against his chest. His heart seemed to be beating as quickly as mine. I felt so safe in his arms. It finally felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

  Chapter 26

  Thursday

  "Close," James said. "The standard deviation of the difference should have come out to -0.625. Let's see." He sat down next to me on the sofa and scanned the math that I had done to solve the equation. "Okay, there. You forgot to transform the random variable into a z-score."

  "Oh. Oops. I knew to do that too." I still hated statistics, but it seemed a lot better when James was teaching it to me. Especially because whenever I got a question right, he kissed me. Maybe I had just needed a proper motivator. I grabbed the paper back from him. I quickly fixed the equation and handed it back to him. "How's this, Professor Hunter?"

  He laughed and looked down at the sheet of paper. "Much better." He leaned down and kissed me.

  His phone started buzzing again. It had been buzzing nonstop all morning.

  "Are you sure you don't want to answer that?" I asked. "Maybe it would be best to just get it over with."

  "Talking to them will make it worse. If I ignore them, they'll get bored and move onto the next thing." He stood up and walked back over to the T.V. mount he was screwing into the wall. It was fun watching him use tools. There was something very sexy about a man who could use a power drill.

  "But you don't even know who it is. You haven't listened to any of your messages. You could always answer and hang up."

  "Which means I refused to comment. Which looks bad."

  "Oh."

  "Besides, if it's someone I know, it'll ring."

  "Speaking of people we know...I was wondering if I could hang out with Melissa tonight?" We had gone to my dorm room this morning and grabbed a few things. But Melissa had been in class. I wanted to tell her in person that I was moving in with James. And even though I had been texting her, I knew she had questions about what was going on. Besides, I missed her
. We used to do everything together.

  He put down the screwdriver and looked back at me. "You know that you don't have to ask me permission."

  For some reason it kind of seemed like I did. He hadn't let me go to my classes today despite my nagging. I knew it was just because he was trying to protect me. "I know. I just wanted to make sure it was okay." I glanced toward the window. I was kind of nervous to leave the apartment. I didn't want to have to walk past the news reporters. I was worried they'd follow me until I talked to them. And I always said stupid stuff when I was nervous.

  "Well, how about you just invite her over here?"

  "Are you sure that's okay?"

  "Of course." He smiled and turned back to the T.V. mount.

  "Do you want my help with that?" I asked.

  "I'm pretty sure I can figure it out." He picked up the direction booklet off the floor and turned the page.

  It was hard to focus on my Stat practice questions. My eyes seemed to automatically gravitate to him. He was wearing a pair of faded blue jeans and a black v-neck t-shirt. I was just about to suggest we both take a break when his phone started ringing.

  James turned around and looked down at his phone. "It's just the front desk." He picked it up and slid his finger across the screen. "Hunter."

  Silence.

  "Regarding what?"

  Silence.

  James looked down at me. "Do you mind putting them on the phone for a second?" He put his free hand in his pocket, turned away from me, and walked toward the kitchen. "It was my understanding that she wouldn't be included in this."

  Silence.

  "We've already disclosed our relationship to Joe. If you have any other questions then I'd recommend discussing them with..."

  Silence.

  James removed his hand from his pocket and ran his fingers through his hair. "Fine. Please put Ben back on the phone."

  Silence.

  "Yes, go ahead and let them up. For future visitors please tell them I am out of town until further notice." James hung up the phone and tossed it onto the kitchen counter. He didn't turn around to look at me.